Some recent comments by Yamakoa on the post Enlightenment and Buddha-Dharma Manifest Simultaneously raise some interesting points on the role of concepts and the intellect.

Here, I thought I would post a couple of juicy tidbits from Dogen’s Shobogenzo. To get their full import, please read them in their full context when you can.

There are some who, still holding to early sterotypes of “Soto” vs “Rinzai” contrasts, believe that Dogen exclusively (or nearly so) taught “Sitting Meditation.” There are also many who misunderstand “Zen” as being non- (or even anti) rational. Fortunately, neither of these views are accurate. Concepts and intellectual pursuits have an essential part to play in the practice-enlightenment of the path of Zen. As Dogen points out, it is by “grasping” at “intellectual concepts” that eventually allows us to “cause the Gate of Skillful Means to open.”

By our grasping once or twice at an intellectual concept of what opening of whole universe is and then grasping at it for a third or fourth time as something real, we cause the Gate of Skillful Means to open. (Shobogenzo, Shoho Jisso, Hubert Nearman)

Indeed, some of Dogen’s harshest criticism is directed toward those that fail to make intellectual effort a priority.

It is so pitiful how he failed to understand what the Ancestors of the Buddha were saying to him in their talks and writings. He did not grasp that to study and train is to awaken to one’s True Self. He did not hear that to delve deeply into the writings of myriad generations is to come to realize what that Self truly is. Without proper study, there are errors like these and there is self-deception like his. Because this was the way ‘Meditation Master’ Soko was, in his assembly there was not a single disciple, or even half a one, who had a trustworthy nose ring, but there were many who were pretend monks. Failure to intuitively grasp what the Buddha Dharma is and failure to intellectually understand what the Buddha Dharma is are both just like this. Beyond any question, novice trainees here and now should explore the Matter in detail with their Master. Do not be negligent out of pride. (Shobogenzo, Jisho Zammai, Hubert Nearman)

 Why is Dogen so insistent on the need to “delve deeply” into the writings and successfuly achieve an “intellectual understanding” of the Buddha Dharma? Doesn’t Zen assert the futility “forming concepts” or “images” of things? Not at all. Concepts are not the problem, it is only when we foolishly take concepts for something other than concepts that we have difficulty.

The methods of Zen show us how to work with concepts in a way that can lead to liberation. For example:

Shakyamuni Buddha once said, “The appearance of each thought and thing is just as it is, and the nature of each thought and thing is likewise just as it is.”

Accordingly, flowers blooming and leaves falling are just True Nature as it is. Even so, foolish people fancy that within the realm of True Nature flowers do not bloom and leaves do not fall. Right now, without questioning anyone else, articulate your own doubts by forming a concept or image of them. Go over them thoroughly three times as if they were being expounded by someone else, and chances are that you will have already extricated yourself from them. It is not that these doubts are wicked thoughts, but they are simply thoughts arising at a time before you have clarified your doubts. When you are clarifying your doubts, do not think that you need to get rid of them. The blooming of flowers and the falling of leaves are, quite naturally, the blooming of flowers and the falling of leaves. The thinking which gives rise to the idea that there can be no blooming flowers or falling leaves within True Nature is True Nature Itself. True Nature manifests Itself when our thinking is freed from concepts or images, and is therefore in accord with the way that True Nature ‘thinks’. The totality of Its thinking resembles a contemplation on the True Nature of all things. (Shobogenzo, Hossho, Hubert Nearman)

Peace,

Ted