Dōgen’s texts: Manifesting Religion and/as Philosophy? (Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, 35)

This book addresses the question of how to properly handle Dōgen’s texts, a core issue that became critical during the Meiji period in which the philosophical appropriation of Dōgen became apparent inside and outside of the monastery. In present day Dōgen studies, most scholarship is informed by a number of factions representing Dōgen. The chapters herein address: the Zennist (j. zenjōka) emphasising practice, the Genzōnians (j. genzōka) shifting the attention to the close reading of Dōgen’s texts, the laity movement opening up both the texts and the practice to people in modern society, and the Genzō researchers (j. genzō kenkyūka) searching for the authenticity and truth of Dōgen’s writings. The book aims to clarify the rightful place of Dōgen: in the monastery, in denominational studies, or in modern academic philosophy? It brings forth various viewpoints on Dōgen, and analyzes the relations of these viewpoints from the premodern to modern times. The collected volume appeals to students and researchers in the field while establishing hermeneutic standards of reading and proposing new, original, and critical interpretations of Dōgen’s texts. Chapter From Uji to Being-time (and Back): Translating Dōgen into Philosophy is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com. Forewords: Dōgen 2.0 7 Preface 11 Bibliography 13 Acknowledgements 14 Introduction: “Dōgen’s Texts: Religion and/as Philosophy?” 17 I. Thematic Foundation: Language in Philosophy 18 1. Language East and West 18 2. The Appropriation of Dōgen in Modern Japan 19 2.1 Dōgen as a Source of Philosophy 20 2.2 “De-linguification” of Zen? 21 3. Language in the Works of Dōgen 23 3.1 Dōgen and the Tradition 24 3.2 A Positive Attitude Towards Language 25 3.3 Dōgen’s Critique of the Speechless Zen Tradition 26 3.4 Dōgen’s Linguistic Articulation of Meditation 28 II. Book Outline: The Emergence of Dōgen as Philosopher 30 Part I: Texts 31 Part II: Practice 34 Part III: Time 38 References 40 Contents 42 About the Authors 44 Part I: Texts 48 Philosopher, Religious Thinker or Contemplative Practitioner? Making Sense of Dōgen Beyond Zen Modernism 49 1 Making Sense of Dōgen 50 2 Dōgen as a Philosopher 51 3 Arguments Against Dōgen as a Philosopher 54 4 Dōgen as a Way-Seeking Philosopher 56 5 Dōgen as a Religious Thinker 58 6 Decolonizing the Practice of Philosophy 59 7 Discussion 61 References 62 Going Out to Sea: Dōgen’s Ongoing Emphasis on the Creative Ambiguity of Horizons 65 1 The Question of Going Out to Sea 65 2 Reorienting a Stereotypical Debate 67 3 Unraveling the Debate by Revisiting Textual and Historical Contexts 71 4 Situating Traditional Commentaries 77 5 Nishiari and His Predecessors and Followers 79 6 Features of Creative Ambiguity 82 Bibliography 84 Primary Sources 84 Secondary Sources 84 Dōgen’s Texts Expounded by the Kyoto School – Religious Commentary or Philosophical Interpretation? 87 1 Intro: Dōgen as Philosopher? 88 2 Main Part: The Cohabitation of Interpretation and Commentary in the Philosophical Reading 89 2.1 Fighting the Assimilation of Zen as Philosophical Text 91 2.1.1 Critique of Tanabe’s Assimilation of Dōgen 92 2.2 Saving the Performative Text Layer of the Religious Text for Philosophy 94 2.2.1 The Example from the Appendix to The Unity of Opposites 95 2.2.2 The Structure of Allusion 96 Interpretation of the Quoted Passage 97 Relation to Illustration and Argumentation 98 3 Conclusion: The Impact of Nishida’s Dōgen on Philosophy 99 3.1 Looking Back: Dōgen’s Texts as a Model for Philosophy? 100 3.2 Looking Ahead to Nishitani and Ueda 101 3.2.1 Altering the Philosophical Discourse 102 3.2.2 Altering the Practice of Philosophy 103 Appendix 105 References 107 Sources 107 Secondary Works 107 Dōgen’s Interpretive Charity: The Hermeneutical Significance of “Genjōkōan” 109 1 The Interpretive Temperament of Zen 111 2 Interpretive Charity 113 3 The Meaning of “Dharma Position” 115 4 “Dharma Position” as Interpretive Charity 117 5 Concluding Remarks 120 References 121 Traces of the Brush: Examination of Dōgen’s Thought Through His Language 123 1 Treasuries of the True Dharma Eye 126 2 Dōgen’s Intention Behind Words and Letters 128 3 Nondependence Outside Scriptures 131 4 True Form Without Form 133 5 In an Attempt to Unravel the Clew 136 6 Conclusion 150 Bibliography 153 Primary Sources 153 Secondary Sources 153 Part II: Practice 155 Dōgen and the Buddhist Way 156 1 The Buddha’s Way 156 2 Traditional Buddhism and the New Trend 157 3 The Innovative Teaching of Dōgen 158 3.1 The Universality of his Message 159 3.2 The Need to Dedicate Oneself to the Buddhist Way with Commitment and Dedication 160 Further Readings 168 Bibliography 169 Do Not Lose the Rice: Dōgen Through the Eyes of Contemporary Western Zen Women 170 1 Introduction 170 2 The Philosopher and the Cook 172 3 Dōgen and Domestic Life: The Tenzo Kyōkun 175 4 Dōgen and Gender Egalitarianism: The Raihai Tokuzui 178 5 Dōgen: The Women’s Zen Buddhist Theorist? 182 6 Theory and Practice 183 7 Conclusion 186 Bibliography 186 Philosophy, Not-Philosophy, Non-Philosophy: Dōgen’s Religio-Philosophical Zen 189 1 Zazen-Only: On and Off the Cushion 191 2 Dual, Not-Dual: Non-Dual 193 3 Jumping off of and Expressing Both Sides of Duality 197 4 Weighing Emptiness: The Deconstructive and Reconstructive Functions of Emptiness 200 5 Thinking, Not-Thinking: Non-Thinking 204 6 Conclusions: Dōgen as Philosopher, Dōgen’s Religio-Philosophical Zen 207 Bibliography 207 Flowers of Dim-Sightedness: Dōgen’s Mystical ‘Negative Ocularcentrism’ 209 1 Ocularcentrism in Mahāyāna Buddhism 211 1.1 From Hinayana to Mahāyāna: from Aural- to Ocular-Centrism 212 1.2 Traces of Positivism in Mahāyāna: Language and Vision 213 2 Vision and Light in Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō 214 2.1 Dōgen’s Negative Ocularcentrism: Vision “Cast off” 215 2.1.1 Darkness and Dim-Sightedness 215 2.1.2 Vision Ontologized: Empty Seeing 217 2.1.3 Expanding Ocularcentrism: Synaesthesia and Visual Ontology 217 3 Hee-Jin Kim: Dōgen’s “Activity” and “Expression” 220 3.1 From Language to Vision: Reflexivity 221 3.2 Impossible to Act (gyōfutokutei), Impossible to Express (setsufutokutei) 223 3.3 “Radiant Light” and Reflexive Visual Obstructions 225 4 Visual “Hermeneutics of Intrusion” 227 5 Conclusion: Mysticism as Impossible Expression 229 Bibliography 232 Dōgen as Philosopher, Metaphysician, and Metaethicist 233 1 Introduction: Dōgen’s Place in the Buddhist Philosophical Tradition 233 2 The Metaphysics of Buddha-Nature 236 3 Dogen’s Metaethical Innovation 242 4 Dōgen’s Challenge to Philosophy, and Philosophy’s Challenge to Dōgen 244 Bibliography 246 Part III: Time 249 From Uji to Being-Time (and Back): Translating Dōgen into Philosophy 250 1 Dōgen and Philosophy: A Case for Cautious Appropriation 250 2 Translating Dōgen into Philosophy: Semantic Shifts in Prominent Examples 253 3 Transposition: The Problem of Equivalence 262 4 Conclusion 265 References 265 Thinking the Now: Binary and Holistic Concepts in Dōgen’s Philosophy of Time 268 1 Concepts in Dōgen’s Text 268 2 Two Attitudes Towards Reality 270 3 Dōgen’s Time-Theoretical Vocabulary 276 4 Conclusion 284 References 285 On Flowing While Being: The (Mereo)Logical Structure of Dōgen’s Conception of Time 286 1 Introduction 286 2 The Paradox of Time in Dōgen 287 3 Two Contemporary Attempts to Solve the Paradoxes 293 4 The Origin of the Paradoxes 296 5 A Mereological Solution 302 6 Conclusions 307 Bibliography 308 A Philosophical Endeavour: The Practice of Time in Dōgen and Marcus Aurelius 311 1 Introduction 311 2 Philosophy: A Technical Conception 312 3 A Paradigmatic Example: Meditation on Impermanence and Change 319 3.1 The Practice of Time 319 3.2 The Time of Practice 324 4 Conclusion 328 References 329 Appendix: Two Types of Language in Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō 331 Language and the Two Truths 332 A Concept and Theory of Language Based on “Dōtoku” 340 Ramifications of the Conceptualisation of “Dōtoku” 346 The Linguistic Critique of Tradition 355 A Metaperspective on “Dōtoku” 366 Translation 371 References 375 Index 376