Dōgen Quotes

As overwhelming is caused by you, there is no overwhelming that is separate from you. Thus you go out and meet someone. Someone meets someone. You meet yourself. Going out meets going out.

Magnanimous Mind61 is like a mountain, stable and impartial. Exemplifying the ocean, it is tolerant and views everything from the broadest perspective. Having a Magnanimous Mind means being without prejudice and refusing to take sides.

Even when you give a particle of dust, you should rejoice in your own act because you authentically transmit the merit of all buddhas and begin to practice an act of a bodhisattva.

Do not get carried away by the sounds of spring, nor become heavy-hearted upon seeing the colors of fall.62 View the changes of the seasons as a whole, and weigh the relativeness of light and heavy from a broad perspective. It is then that you should write, understand,

"[Question:] Should zazen be practiced by laymen and lay-women, or should it be practiced by home leavers alone?

[Dogen's answer:] The ancestors say, "In understanding buddha dharma, men and women, noble and common people are not distinguished.

"Kind mind" is parental mind. Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the three treasures. Even poor or suffering people raise their children with deep love. Their hearts cannot be understood by others. This can be known only when you become a father or a mother. They do not care whether they themselves are poor or rich; their only concern is that their children will grow up. They pay no attention to whether they themselves are cold or hot but cover their children to protect them from the cold or shield them from the hot sun. This is extreme kindness. Only those who have aroused this mind can know it, and only those who practice this mind can understand it. Therefore, you should look after water and grain with compassionate care, as though tending your own children.

Know that to give to yourself is a part of giving.

In birth there is nothing but birth, and in death there is nothing but death. Accordingly, when birth comes, face and actualize birth, and when death comes, face and actualize death. Do not avoid them or desire them.

Loving fame is worse than breaking a precept. Breaking a precept is a transgression at a particular time. Loving fame is like an ailment of a lifetime.

春は花
夏ほととぎす
秋は月
冬雪さえて
すずしかりけり

jijuyū-zammai, or zazen,

"Beneficial action" is to benefit all classes of sentient beings skillfully, that is, to care about their distant and near future and to help them by using skillful means. In ancient times, someone helped a caged tortoise; another took care of a sick sparrow. They did not expect a reward; they were moved to do so only for the sake of beneficial action.

Foolish people think that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost, but this is not so. Beneficial action is an act of oneness, benefiting self and others together.

"The Tathagata, the World-Honored One, taught his disciples how to sit and said to them, "If you want to manifest samadhi and enter it, you should gather together all distracted thought and scattered mind within this posture. Practice in this way and you will manifest and intimately enter the king of samadhis."

Thus we clearly know that sitting in the meditation posture is itself the king of samadhis. It is itself entering realization."

Quoi qu'il en soit, les fleurs tombent malgré notre attachement et les mauvaises herbes poussent malgré notre aversion

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