The Heart of Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō provides exhaustively annotated translations of the difficult core essays of Shōbōgenzō, the masterwork of Japanese Zen master Dōgen Kigen, the founder of Sōtō Zen. This book is centered around those essays that generations have regarded as containing the essence of Dōgen’s teaching. These translations, revised from those that first appeared in the 1970s, clarify and enrich the understanding of Dōgen’s religious thought and his basic ideas about Zen practice and doctrine. Dōgen’s uncommon intellectual gifts, combined with a profound religious attainment and an extraordinary ability to articulate it, make Shōbōgenzō unique even in the vast literature the Zen school has produced over the centuries, securing it a special place in the history of world religious literature.
Table of Content
Abbreviations
Translator’s Introduction
1. Fukanzazengi
(Universal Promotion of the Principles of Zazen)
2. Bendowa
(Negotiating the Way)
3. Ikka Myoju
(One Bright Pearl)
4. Genjokoan
(Manifesting Suchness)
5. Uji
(Being-Time)
6. Bussho
(Buddha-Nature)
7. Sammai-O-Zammai
(The King of Samadhis Samadhi)
8. Shoji
(Birth and Death)
9. Zazengi
(The Principles of Zazen)
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Norman Waddell is Professor in the Department of International Studies at Otani University in Kyoto, Japan.
Masao Abe is Professor Emeritus at Nara University of Japan, and has taught Buddhism and Japanese philosophy at Columbia University, University of Chicago, Princeton University, Claremont Graduate School, University of Hawaii, and Haverford College, among others. He is the author of
A Study of Dōgen: His Philosophy and Religion, also published by SUNY Press.