Reviews for Dogen's Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku

The average rating for Dogen's Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-11-02 00:00:00 Jason Malphus Biographical notes There's a film on him (The life of Zen master Dogen) with an opening scene: a boy [Dogen] and a mother; they talk; she tells him "there's not much time left"…[she knows she'll die soon]…"you'll reach paradise if you place your faith in Buddha". He replied: "don't say such a sad thing". Mother talked about the "paradise,… here and now"; he will acknowledge: "you're right, you must create paradise here on earth". It is said that during the mother's funeral he felt the sense of "impermanence", as the incense was burning. Born in Kyoto, of an aristocratic milieu, in 1200, he would attend the Tendai school; he entered his spiritual life at the age of 7. But Dogen will leave for China in 1223, to start his own quest of a master…and the practice; a way to "escape all suffering". After 4 years of study in China he returned to Japan, to the Kenninji monastery, where he'd been from the ages 14 to 17. It took 25 years writing "volumes"; he was the founder of the SOTO* branch of Zen Buddhism. It seems that Dogen came with a very critical spirit… and he'd been pressured** (in Japan). Between 1233-1243 he taught Zazen… but went to live alone in Fukakusa. He was a "mountain monk". He had the "love of the mountains" like his Buddha ancestors. From China he came "empty handed", but with the mastery of the Chinese Chan, Koan (means "public case") literature. By 1253 he sought medical help; he died in Kyoto that year. Original in his teachings were the ideas that "women and laypeople were open to awakening", though he's charged with saying (in a late essay) that "full enlightenment" in "only for monks". Some say that he was an opponent to "Koans introspection"; some others say it's not true. *The other branch is Renzai; includes less ritual; people meditate facing each other. ** harassed?

Review # 2 was written on 2007-11-18 00:00:00 Norbert Saerberg Over 700 hundred pages of compiled talks, sayings, and writings from the Thirteenth Century master Dogen (founder of the Soto school of Zen).