Can the "Senika heresy" be useful?
score:0
The idea that the Buddha is "unaffected by the vicissitudes of bodily existence" [Mystical Realist, Kim] seems to be the root mistake that Dogen is proselytizing against.
What may be key to interpreting it is that all post Madhyamaka Buddhists taught that form, which is what the body is, is mind. Dogen then could be emphasizing that rebirth, in this life and the next, and Buddhahood, makes for some new body by mental causation. Not, then, than mind perishes completely with this body.
I've done very little koan or Rinzai study, but would guess that our original enlightenment, as the body of the Buddha, is emphasized therein: because Soto, compared to "the true man without affairs", is less concerned with 'words' and 'discriminative thought', 'causation'.
Upvote:1
What Dōgen calls sennigedo is a view found in several schools of Buddhism, for example in the teachings of Tendai contemporary with Dōgen in Japan. But this is not what Matsuo Basho was expressing in "Mind itself is Buddha", the poem Dōgen used to argue the criticism you expressed in your quote. He quotes this poem in the story of Damei Fachang (Daibai Hojo) in both his Shobogenzo and Eiheikoroku. What he actually argues is:
“The mind that has been authentically transmitted is ‘one mind is all dharmas; all dharmas are one mind.’….. We clearly understand that the mind refers to the mountains, rivers, and the great earth; the sun, the moon and the stars. …. Therefore, ‘mind itself is buddha’ refers to all the buddhas who carry out arousing bodhi-mind, practice, awakening, and nirvana. Those who have not yet been carrying out arousing bodhi-mind, practice, awakening and nirvana are not ‘mind itself is buddha.'”
Stated differently, Dōgen argues that until you realize (in both senses of the English word simultaneously, not just intellectually) that "Mind is Buddha", you risk to conceptualize Buddha-nature as eternal & transcendent of causation and death. He is therefore not criticizing Basho, but the concept underlying the interpretation that all factors of experience (hō in Japanese, Dharmas in Sanskrit) are somehow not subject to causation (which implies they are timeless).
The best elaboration on this argument I know is in Heine's Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dogen Chapter "The Question of Time"
More post
- 📝 Fear of Samsara in Others
- 📝 Has lord Buddha ever told something like this?
- 📝 Do we believe psychic and supernatural powers of Buddha?
- 📝 How is enlightenment or mindfulness reflected in the functioning of the aggregates?
- 📝 Does the "nature" of a person move with her to the next life?
- 📝 I'm trying to find a specific sutta I think
- 📝 If we tell lies to save lives, will that be a sin?
- 📝 What is Inner and Outer Peace and how can I achieve them?
- 📝 The rootless, mirth-producing, mind-consciousness element
- 📝 Why Lord Buddha didn't stay alive till the end of this "Kalpa"
- 📝 What does MN 18's "delineate a delineation" phrase mean?
- 📝 Does the second precept only apply to theft?
- 📝 Shaking REM and movement
- 📝 Shouldn't we care only "What I think" instead of "What I + Others think"?
- 📝 Dealing with food craving
- 📝 Did Angulimala end kamma?
- 📝 How does the force of ones karma determine where the mind stream goes?
- 📝 Knowledge as a bad thing
- 📝 The story of Ji Gong 濟公
- 📝 What was the historical Buddha's ethnicity?
- 📝 Anapanasati practice: what’s the correct way to focus on breath?
- 📝 What are the arguments behind the relatively late dating of Khuddaka Nikaya and Abhidhamma Pitaka?
- 📝 Why is desire the root of suffering?
- 📝 Intense pins and needles
- 📝 Differently able people and their "Vinyana"
- 📝 Is there anything one can do to save the deceased from the consequences of their Kamma?
- 📝 Talking to dead loved ones
- 📝 Who am I? Who am I without past memory?
- 📝 Buddhism is not fatalism?
- 📝 Does Western Philosophy Have Conceptual Overlaps with Buddhism?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Can the Buddha ever be a woman?
- 📝 Where is the Buddha quoted as saying do not believe anything I say until you can prove it by yourself?
- 📝 How can I assess the quality of a local Buddhist group?
- 📝 Can one practice meditation to gain knowledge about the universe?
- 📝 Can the noble eightfold path be followed in its entirety by a lay follower?
- 📝 Enlightened Lies - Can lying be the correct action in certain situations?
- 📝 Can environmental degradation be used as a justification for the culling of an invasive alien species?
- 📝 What are the texts that contain words which can be attributed directly to the Buddha?
- 📝 Can Buddhism be viewed as a threat to the capitalist way of life?
- 📝 Can a person live by the Dhamma and have another religion as well?
- 📝 Which is the Buddhist holy book? Where can it be read?
- 📝 How can I build up to being able to get into the full lotus position?
- 📝 Can We Teach Animals the Dhamma?
- 📝 How can you see suffering in the breath?
- 📝 Can a arahant recognize the spiritual attainment of others?
- 📝 Can the Buddhism.SE site function as "the Sangha" for me?
- 📝 How can a lay person approach the learning process of Buddhism?
- 📝 Where can I find the Chinese Canon Agama in English translation?
- 📝 Can one alter the 6th precept to accommodate one's family or daily routines?
- 📝 Can lay people be involved in the weapons business?
- 📝 Can a lay person become an Arahant according to the Suttas?
- 📝 How can one define luxurious beds and seats in the eighth precept?
- 📝 What are the resources a Buddhist can use during very hard times?
- 📝 Is there anything one can do to save the deceased from the consequences of their Kamma?
- 📝 Can one follow Hinduism and Buddhism at the same time?
- 📝 Can Buddhists see into the future?
- 📝 Can I count my contribution to the open source as a dharma?
- 📝 Can bhavanga-consciousness be compared to the non-dual mind-state rigpa?
- 📝 Can a human being reside both in this world and Nirvana at the same time?
- 📝 How can the idea of reincarnation be true if all the information of who we are is already destroyed