Just So» Dogen Zenji http://www.mikaelaldridge.com Meditations on Enlightenment Wed, 16 May 2012 00:10:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Practice and enlightenment http://www.mikaelaldridge.com/zen/practice-and-enlightenment/ http://www.mikaelaldridge.com/zen/practice-and-enlightenment/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:29:54 +0000 mikael http://www.mikaelaldridge.com/?p=325 Dogen Zenji who lived betweeen 1200 and 1253,  founded the Soto school of Zen.  His basic tenet as far as I could tell was the unity of practise and enlightenment.  Suzuki Ryoshi who wrote the well known Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind was a soto practitioner.

I like just sitting.  I wrote post on Silent Illumination recently, which talks more to this I think, bry this from the back of Dogen’s Beyond Thinking

Spiritual practice is not some kind of striving to produce enlightenment, but an expression of the enlightenment already inherent in all things.

What a very packed sentence. Try these on for size:

  1. All beings are inherently enlightened, so when you practise, your expressing the enlightenment of all beings, not some individual enlightenment.
  2. Enlightenment is not dependent on striving, but on removing the sense of separation.
  3. To practise being aware of the enlightenment in others is the practise of enlightenment.
  4. Enlightenment is.
  5. If you are aware of the enlightenment inherent in all beings you come across in your daily life then you can help bring out that inherent enlightenment, that is the practise of enlightenment.

I’m sure there are more. Though I do like the sense of non-separation that comes through so loudly and clearly. Or is that just me ;-)

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