Quotation
Last reviewed:
“To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.”
Dōgen · Sōtō Zen · Medieval · 1233
What does it mean?
Look closely at yourself and the self you expected to find loosens. What is left is open to everything around you.
Did Dōgen really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Aitken and Tanahashi’s English, checked against the published text. Other translators (Waddell and Abe, Nishijima and Cross) differ in wording, not in sense.
Where it comes from
Shōbōgenzō, Genjōkōan, tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi (in Moon in a Dewdrop, ed. Tanahashi)
Approximate date: 1233.
How to use it
Pay full attention to washing up or a walk to the shops and notice how little ‘me’ is in the moment.
A mindset reading
Self-study is not self-obsession. It ends in less of the self, not more.
Understand the philosophy
The next lines say this forgetting leaves no trace of realisation behind. It is not a trophy to keep: ‘No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.’
- self
- mind
- knowledge
FAQ
What does it mean?
Look closely at yourself and the self you expected to find loosens. What is left is open to everything around you.
Did Dōgen really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Aitken and Tanahashi’s English, checked against the published text. Other translators (Waddell and Abe, Nishijima and Cross) differ in wording, not in sense.
Which work is it in?
Shōbōgenzō, Genjōkōan, tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi (in Moon in a Dewdrop, ed. Tanahashi) Approximate date: 1233.