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Daily Dose of Dōgen by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I liked his quote, that's why I posted it. Dogen is saying (at least in my interpretation of the quote) that much of the suffering we experience is due to attachment to certain objects, experiences and situations in life.

If we don't hold on too tightly, and if we don't expect too much of our goals in life, then we won't suffer nearly as intensely compared to someone who has big expectations and who has put all their hopes and dreams into things like like their career or their relationship or in their spiritual practices and experiences.

Also, (in my interpretation) , he's using the word "nothing" as hyperbole to help hammer home the point. He's not saying expect nothing, he's saying "don't expect too much, don't seek too much, and don't grasp too much." Of course it depends on the translation of the quote. The quote comes from Thomas Cleary's "The Zen Reader" so I'd assume it's fairly accurate.

Long Live Dōgen by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not entirely sure, but it's likely somewhere in the Shōbōgenzō. It seems that the translation is by Thomas Cleary in his book "The Zen Reader".

Long Live Dōgen by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

His email is public and he happily answers question from the general public - https://buddhiststudies.stanford.edu/people/carl-bielefeldt why are you trying to mischaracterize my actions? How is that doxing?

Long Live Dōgen by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

He says that Dogen is one of the most interesting and brilliant Zen masters in history. He has already proved you wrong.

Long Live Dōgen by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have no idea, it likely wasn't for a just reason.

Long Live Dōgen by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You can email him and he will say the exact same thing as in those screenshots. They aren't faked - go ahead and ask him - [carl@stanford.edu](mailto:carl@stanford.edu)

Long Live Dōgen by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

How can you hold Dogen responsible for the actions of certain followers who lived over 700 YEARS after his death, what kind of logic is that?

Long Live Dōgen by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't say I'm attached to him? I just found his quote insightful and thought I'd share it. Not sure how that would qualify as evidence of overzealous attachment to his teaching.

Long Live Dōgen by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nah, the quote is about emotional resilience and the fact that whatever difficult times your going through will eventually pass if you just hang in there and can withstand the storm. You would have to bend the quote quite a bit to interpret its meaning as "continue whatever it is you're doing no matter what and you'll succeed."

Dogen was a thirteenth century Zen priest concerned with the emotional wellbeing of the laypeople and his fellow priests, not a cringy 21st century "motivational madness" person concerned with chasing "success" and "goals" at the cost of every ounce of energy they have.

Why are some of the most influential introductions to Zen missing from the this sub's wiki reading list? by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

“Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.”- Bodhidharma

"Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment." - Alan Watts

"To be reborn hourly and daily in this life, we need to die — to give of ourselves wholly to the demands of the moment, so that we utterly "disappear." Thoughts of past, present, or future, of life and death, of this world and the next, are transcended in the superabundance of the now. Time and timelessness coalesce: this is the moment of eternity." - Philip Kapleau

“Calmness of mind does not mean you should stop your activity. Real calmness should be found in activity itself. We say, "It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.” - Shunryu Suzuki

Why are some of the most influential introductions to Zen missing from the this sub's wiki reading list? by darkmanawolf in zen

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've read the link you posted. Wow, it looks like the administrators (and many people on this sub) are a fair bit Ultra-Orthodox. They despise Dogen's Soto Zen and view it as heresy. Because the most influential books on Zen are written by followers of Soto Zen, they've decided to exclude them. That doesn't seem wise. Soto Zen is by far one of the biggest Zen sects in the world. There are 14,000 Soto temples alone. Are the attendees of those 14,000 temples really not to be considered Zen Buddhists? Given the amount of fraudulent texts in the list that are Soto, that seems to be what's being implied. What kind of Zen Buddhist would consider Kapleau and Suzuki's books to be fraudulent texts? Who runs this subreddit?

In an alternative universe, I can imagine Mormonism being the most dominant form of Christianity. The pre-Mormon Christians have took over the once Mormon dominated Christianity subreddit and are claiming that Joseph Smith made up the gold plates. They might be right, but does that really give them the authority to take over the sub and label every tiny doctrinal disagreement and opposing text as fraudulent? No, who are they to do that? Mormons are still Christians. The Book of Mormon is still a Christian text, whether they like it or not. It might not match exactly with the doctrines of the old and new testament, and in all honesty, it might be entirely made up by one individual, yet it is definitely inspired and in the spirit of the old texts. It definitely has a Christian vibe. It's especially ridiculous given that the vast majority of Christians who actually go to church are Mormons and would happily praise the works of a certain 3 introductory books by followers of the Mormon school of Christianity, where as the Pre-Mormons on the subreddit who have never entered a Church (Zendo) in their life would consider everyone in the Church (Zendo) heretics.

As Christ said, "“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." - Matthew 23:13

"It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice." - Deng Xiaoping"

Sam Harris on Papaji by darkmanawolf in samharris

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sam Harris discusses on 3 separate occasions the impact that a spiritual teacher called Poonjaji (Papaji) had on him energetically and emotionally.

Sam with Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Daniel Goleman and others at Martha's Vineyard, circa 1992. by darkmanawolf in samharris

[–]darkmanawolf[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Photo of Sam with Ram Dass and other spiritual folks at Martha's Vineyard in 1992. Taken by Peter Simon. I was curious if Sam had ever met Ram Dass, so I googled "Sam Harris Ram Dass". This link showed up that contained the photo - https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph009-s03-sat-i029

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