Essay
Dogen’s Shobogenzo: Zen and Non-Duality
Meditation, Being-Time, and Buddha nature
What is spiritual practice? What is realization? Does the latter require the performance of the former? Are they any different from one another?
The 13th-century Zen Master Dogen’s philosophical insights, as presented in the Shobogenzo, can be seen as answering these questions.
Dogen does so through a synthesis of two major schools of Mahayana Buddhist thought: the Yogacara or “Mind-only” school, which emphasizes the fundamental role of consciousness in constituting reality, and the Tathagatagarbha tradition, which asserts that all sentient beings inherently possess Buddha nature.
While Dogen does not explicitly claim to reconcile these two perspectives, his unique and non-dual approach to the nature of reality, the self, and enlightenment can be understood as an effective integration of their core insights. The universal mind we are all expressions of is nothing other than Buddha nature.
Through his emphasis on the non-dual nature of practice and realization, his radical affirmation of the inherent Buddha nature of all beings, and his exploration of the dynamic, interpenetrating reality of “Being-time,” Dogen offers a perspective that transcends the apparent dichotomies…
