Dogen's path of error

Let me first say that anyone is making a profound mistake who first reads and studies Dogen before they tackle the Pali canon and the Mahayana Sutras spending at least five years in study. Here is the example of a Dogen minion who probably went to a Soto Zen center wishing to learn the Buddhas teaching; who never tackled the real Buddhist canon.

The world is the very practice of Buddha. This means all beings and things are the Buddha-nature. Suffering and awakening are Buddha-nature, also. Birth and death are Buddha-nature. If we accept this, this is all we have to do. This is enlightenment. If we dont accept this we are still Buddhas, but small ones.

Dogens path of error begins with the assumption that the world (loka) is the Buddha-nature. From this he concludes that truth exists everywhere. In this regard, zazen or seated meditation is not a meansfar from it. It is a form of super regression. In zazen we just sit letting go of all of our acquisitions which have been superadded to this wonderful world. Then we understand that the world is the Buddha-nature.

However, there is a problem with this. First of all, this is not Buddhism. The world is not the Buddha-nature. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra says that All profane beings (S., prithagjana) have Buddha-nature. It is not saying that all profane beings are Buddhas or the world is Buddha essence. The world of profane beings or prithagjana is samsara. Its run by Mara the Evil One, the Buddhas bad boy who the Bodhisattva (the Buddha-to-be), while sitting under the Bodhi-tree, defeats in spiritual combat before he can become fully enlightened. Naturally, Dogen had little to say if anything about Mara. (We learn in the Mahavastu that Mara is really unskilled states of mind, a limited personality, and the spirit of malevolence.)

From the standpoint of a Buddha our world simply doesnt exist anymore thanheap-ness of a heap of beans possesses actua! l existe nce apart from the beans. The heap gives the illusion of something other than beans. In a way, we can say we are reifying illusions to the extent that they are fully materialized, this materialization being the world (loka).

Just sitting in zazen having let go of all our acquisitions isnt going to get us any closer to realizing our Buddha-nature than peeling an onion. This is the world of name and form (nmarpa)a grand illusion. To behold the living substance of reality is quite a different matter which Dogen missed. Unfortunately, Soto Zen is brainwashing people into believing that this world is the Buddha world.


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