Week 26 · eastern

Dōgen Zenji

Dōgen Zenji traveled from Japan to China in the 13th century looking for the answer to a question that was driving him crazy...if we're all already enlightened (as Buddhism claims), then why do we need to practice? He came back with an answer so strange it's still rearranging people's assumptions 800 years later. Practice and enlightenment are the same thing. Sitting in meditation doesn't lead to awakening. Sitting is awakening, expressing itself through you right now.

“"To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things." That's Dōgen's most famous line. It sounds paradoxical. He'd say the paradox is the point...”