Dōgen Quotes

In general, when you are a beginner, you cannot fathom the buddha way. Your assumptions do not hit the mark. The fact that you cannot fathom the buddha way as a beginner means not that you lack ultimate understanding but that you do not recognize the deepest point.

At the time Dōgen Zenji was writing the Tenzo Kyōkun, he had already left Kennin-ji in Kyoto, and had set up his own monastery at Kōshō-ji in Fukakusa, just south of the city. At Kōshō-ji, Dōgen gained a reputation for being a strict teacher, and the number of disciples and followers increased rapidly. Hence, it was only natural that some sort of regulations be established to insure that everyone could practice with as few difficulties as possible. These regulations were born out of the situation as it developed.

In the great way of going beyond, no endeavor is complete without being one with myriad things. This is ocean mudra samadhi.

Be close to your teacher without long absences.

"Kind speech" means that when you see sentient beings, you arouse the heart of compassion and offer words of loving care. It is contrary to cruel or violent speech.

do not view mountains from the scale of human thought

Although you have your own capacity, you practice the way with the combined strength of the community.

No one should torment people or break their hearts.

Only those who have the great capacity of genuine trust can enter this realm [the realm of the buddhas]. Those who have no trust are unable to accept it, however much they hear it.

You should not be esteemed by others if you have no real inner virtue. People here in Japan esteem others on the basis of outward appearances, without knowing anything about real inner virtue; so students lacking the spirit of the Way are dragged down into bad habits and become subject to temptation.

To learn the way of the Buddha is to learn about oneself. To learn about oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to be enlightened by everything
in the world. To be enlightened by everything in the world is to let fall one's own body and mind.

which way the man should choose is not the issue here at all. Whichever way he goes he will have problems. The deeper problem is mistaking a “fact” in life for the “truth” of life, the former simply being an aspect of our psychological or emotional landscape by which we need not be pulled and tossed about, while the latter is that reality of life upon which we settle as “true adults”. “True adults” is an expression the Rōshi uses to mean bodhisattvas.

Focus your mind on one thing, absorb the old examples, study the actions of the masters- penetrate deeply into a single form of practice.

I was also told that the Eihei Daishingi (Regulations for Eiheiji Monastery), of which the Tenzo Kyōkun is the first chapter, was one of the easier works of Dōgen, since it deals with practical matters.

No matter how compelling or beautiful they may be, words appeal in the main to the linear, thinking mind that thinks in words.