Last poem Essay

Dogen was greatly surprised by the fact that devising a strong accent on the study of koan Chinese know did non teach their disciples Buddhist sutras, which made the core study in Buddhist monasteries in Japan (Tanahashi, 5). Dogens discontent with the style of didactics became even a reason of his refusal to take Dharma transmission from one of the masters. In 1225 Dogen decided to leave Rinzai school of Chan Buddhism and started his journey in order to chaffer Ru-jing, whose style of Zen direction differed from ones which disenchanted Dogen.Ru-jing was the thirteenth patriarch of Soto inception of Zen Buddhism. During that clipping he lived at Tiantong Mountain in Nongbo. Soto school, presented by Ru-jing made an accent on sitting meditation, or zazen. In ecumenic it used much softer methods than Rinzai School did. Studying Zen with Ru-jing Dogen has fin eithery reached heaven of mind and body. The legends state that he last reached liberation after audience the Masters oral communication Cast of body and mind (Tanahashi). These words became especially meaningful for Dogen and he later used them in some his writings.As he states in one of his works To study the behavior is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of sense are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever (Kim, 195). In 1227 Dogen received Dharma transmission from Ru-jing and finally admitted that he has reached the answer for the question of all his life.Dogen was greatly influenced by his teacher Ru-jing. All Dogens religious philosophy is marked by both major tendencies. The first peculiarity of all Dogens teaching is his bond certificate to Buddhism tradition and second one is a strong accent on individual search. These t endencies can be traced not only in Dogenss books but also in his lifestyle. Dogen did not reject traditional Buddhism. He only expected people to give critical evaluation of its doctrines and principles. Dogen criticized contestation among different schools of Zen because they were tiring Buddhism to pieces.He proclaimed identity of religion and believed it could have been piece in Soto Zen. He did not even want to apply the name Zen for his sect and did his best to follow his teachers lifestyle living without attachment to anything. In 1228, after stretchability enlightenment, Dogen returned to Japan. He came back to ti Kennin-ji, a monastery where he spent some(prenominal) years learning from Eisai and his successors. After coming back he wrote a detailed description of sitting mediation called Zazen. The manual was called Fukan Zazengi, which can be translated as Universally Recommended Instruction for Zazen. His teaching appealed to many people and he gathered a lot of ad herents around himself. After some time he had to leave Kennin-ji because of tension, which arouse inside the Tendai community. This tensions with caused by the desire of Buddhist leaders to suppress new forms of Buddhism, including Zen. Dogen left Kinnin-ji temple in 1230 and go to empty temple situated to the south from Kyoto in the place called Uji (Tanahashi , 40). Dogen founded wee temple in this place and soon this temple grew into Kosho-Hirniji Temple.The tension among Dogen and Tangai community did not stop, though. That is one of the reasons Dogen gladly reliable Hatano Yoshishiges marriage proposal to relocate to Echizen province, located far from Kyoto. After relocation Dogens disciples reinforced a new piazza for Zen practice and called it Daibutsuji Temple. Dogen later renamed this center to Eihei-ji. This temple remains one of the most popular Zen temples in modern Japan. Dogen spent all his further life living and teaching in this temple. Shogun regent Hojo Toki yori invited Dogen to come and teach him Zen in 1247.Dogen accepted this invitation and made a long journey to Kamakura in order to befitting Shogun and retuned to Eihei-ji the next year. In 1252 Dogen became seriously ill and after realizing that he was not going to recover he gave his robes to his favorite disciple Koun Ejo. This way Koun Ejo became archimandrite of Eihei-ji. After appointing Koun Ejo an abbot Dogen left for Kyoto looking for remedies from his illness. The remedy was not found and Dogen died in 1953. Soon before death he wrote his last poem.