Understanding Dogen

Question 1

“To study the self is to forget the self”

Answer 1

Imagine you are playing a game with your friends. At first you might think, “Am I winning?” “Do I look silly?” “What do people think about me?”
You are thinking about yourself all the time.
But then the game becomes really fun. Suddenly you forget all those thoughts. You are just running, laughing and playing.
You are not thinking about yourself anymore. You are just in the game.
That is what Dogen means by forgetting the self.

When we stop focusing on the ego, the separation between self and world disappears, allowing reality to be experienced directly.

Question 2

“To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.”

Answer 2

Imagine you are looking at a big garden. You might think: “I am standing here looking at flowers.” So you feel like you are seperate from the garden. But imagine instead you are lying in the grass. You feel the wind, smell the flowers, hear the bees. You are not thinking: “I am observing the garden.” **You are just part of everything happening. That is awakening. **

Delusion happens when we think of ourselves as a separate subject observing objects. Awakening occurs when that separation disappears.

Question 3

Firewood and Ash

Answer 3

Imagine building a sandcastle on the beach. For a while, it is a sandcastle. Then the tide comes in. Now it is just wet sand. The sandcastle didn’t sectrelty stay inside the sand. The sandcastle existed fully when it was there. Then it was gone. Each moment was complete on its own.

Things do not move through time as one permanent substance. Each moment of existence is complete and temporary.

Question 4

“Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water”

Answer 4

Imagine looking at the moon in a lake. Now imagine looking at the moon in a puddle, a cup of water, a drop of water on a leaf. You see the whole moon in every reflection. But the moon did not break into pieces. It is still one moon. Each puddle just reflects it.

Enlightenment appears in every individual being, but it is not divided or owned by anyone

Question 5

“To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening”

Answer 5

distinction between delusion and awakening