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Introduction
Rational Zen: The Mind of Dogen Zenji. Rational Zen consists of selections from both the Shobogenzo, Dogen's masterwork which you will read about more below, and the Eihei Koroku, or Universal Book of Eternal Peace which until now has been unavailable in English. The translator Thomas Cleary also provides explanations of the inner meanings of Dogen's writings and sayings—the first. Dōgen Zenji is revered in Japan as the founder of Sōtō Zen. He is ranked as one of the great religious philosophers. Born in 1200, he was responsible for bringing one of the main streams of Buddhist thought from China to Japan. The Sōtō Zen school he founded is.
Welcome to Dogen world!
What is Zen?
Prof. Masunaga Reiho answered: Zen is the practice that helps every human being to penetrate to his true self through cross leg sitting (Zazen), and to vitalize this self in daily life
This site is dedicated mainly to Dogen Zenji (1200-1253) teachings; To Prof. Masunaga Reiho (1901-1981) and his explanations and teachings of Dogen's Zen, and to his disciple Mr. Dan Waxman from Israel (born 1936).
Important Announcements
Skip over list of announcementsEvery time you enter, there will be a new Zen phrase! waiting just for you!
Dogen - Bendowa
Prof. Masunaga is Dharama heir and a member of the Soto Zen lineage in Japan that was established by Dogen Zenji. The site headlines are named after Two books: 'Zen in daily life' and 'The Soto approach to Zen', that Prof. Masunaga wrote (in English).
Danny Waxman is a layman disciple of Prof. Masunaga, and stayed in Japan for 13 years between the years 1958-1983, learning Zen and Martial Arts.
My name is Ofer. I am a Zen (and martial-art) disciple of Mr. Dan Waxman, and function as the builder and the editor of the site. I try to help my teacher Danny Waxman in his efforts to fulfill Prof. Masunaga Goals Which are:
- To teach Zazen as the direct way to penetrate True self and reach Satori (Enlightenment) within daily life.
- To enhance full functioning (Zenki) in daily life, vitalize our true self, combining creativity and practical humanism together as oneness.
- To help bring together the deep wisdom of the east and the achievements of science and culture of the west.
- To create a more compassionate humanistic society.
For achieving these goals, Prof. Masunaga welcomed Western students that wanted to learn and practice Zazen, lectured about Zen and wrote three books about Zen in English, aimed for the western readers.
The names of three of the most important books are:
- Zen in Daily life.
- Zen beyond Zen.
- Soto Approach to Zen.
All these books are out of print for many years. Prof. Masunaga translated the most important and deep chapters of the masterwork Shobogenzo, including Fukanzazengi, Bendowa, GenjoKoan, Uji, Shoji, Zenki, and more. These books were translated to Hebrew by Danny and Ofer. For more information please go to Announcements.
Dogen Zenji Quotes
We use this opportunity to bring portions of his books including his translations of the Shobogenzo in this site, for the benefits of all interested people. Our hope is that this act will open a possibility to re-publish these books, and make them once more available for the general public.
Prof. Masunaga wrote a very interesting and deep book concerning Dogen ideas about time (UJI). We also hope that it will be possible to translate this book and maybe other books of Prof. Masunaga, from Japanese to English and publish them.
We welcome everyone who wishes to Download (or use the print option) parts of this site - for personal use only! Any one who wish to make a public or commercial use of this texts and site or any part of it, must receive a written permission from the owners of the copyrights.
You are invited to contact us, and if you have questions concerning practicing Zen and/or Martial Arts, please ask, and Danny Waxman will try his best to answer them. Danny is a Zen teacher and the Senior Sensei of this site. As a Martial-Art teacher he holds 6dan from the Kodokan Judo Institute, and 15dan in Ninjutsu (Dr. Masakai Hatsumi), from Japan. There are times when Danny asks Ofer Cohen to answer on his behalf. Every answer will have our initials for sake of clearness.
Currently, Zen training (Zazen oriented sessions) are held Every week on Sunday's evening 7Pm-9Pm in Hod Hasharon. The next meetings are on June 20, June 27, July 4, 2010 and so on without fail.
Martial Arts training that include Zazen is held every Friday at 9.30Am-11.45Am in Ramat-Hen. For more details, please go to the Learn Zen in Israel Page.
Special thanks to all the people that are beyond the many sites of the Web, that offer freely and generously their knowledge, tools, and good advises that assisted me in building this site (Here is a partial list links to sites that give advice for site building).
The site was built for accessibility. So for example, people with different sight disabilities or motor disabilities can still make good use of the content of this site. As of now this site is complying with with the double-A classification of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 standard and with the Section 508 standard. In the future we will try to meet the triple-A classification of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 standard, which is the maximal classification for that standard. For more details please go to the Accessibility page.
Every month 1500 different people from all over the world enter this site. This site is on the air
since 1999 and since then over 200,000 people have visited this site.
Congratulations to Inbal Tepper for translating the book, Primer of Soto Zen, and for its publication by Magnes Press.
Special thanks to Itay that built the new version of this site. (From may 2010)
Please have a very good day!
Ofer. C
Dogen Zenji Enlightenment
This Zen site is active since 06/11/99
Dogen Zenji, 1200 -1253, was born in Japan and entered the priesthood at the age of twelve. He studied Tendai Buddhism on Mount Hiei but, finding the teaching there unsatisfying from the religious point of view, went to Kyoto where he studied Rinzai Zen under Myozen, a pupil of Eisai, founder of Rinzai Zen in Japan. He left for China, with Myozen, in 1223, again because he could find no real depth in the Rinzai teachings. He studied much in various temples in China, eventually receiving the Transmission from the Abbot of Tendozan, Tendo Nyojo Zenji, and returning to Japan in 1227. He stayed for a time at Kenninji, in Kyoto, but left there, since he felt that he was not yet competent to teach, in order to retire to a small temple; here he commenced his now famous writings. He became the first Abbot of Koshoji, in 1236, and was offered the opportunity to become the founder of Daibutsuji, later Eiheiji, by Hatano Yoshihige: he died in Kyoto. He is known in Japan either as Eihei Dogen Zenji or by his posthumous title of Koso Joyo Daishi.
Dogen Zenji brought with him from China both the Transmission and the teachings of the Soto Zen Church of Buddhism. This Church, which is the oldest of all the Zen Churches (both the Obaku and Rinzai Churches are derivatives), is perhaps the only Church of Mahayana Buddhism to retain some of the original Indian elements of Hinayana Buddhism. There is no doubt that Dogen’s way was, and still is, hard to follow, for he was a somewhat puritanical mystic, but there is equally no doubt that he inspired Japanese Buddhism with a new spirit. His major works are Shobogenzo, Eiheikoroku, Eihei-shingi, Gakudo-yojinsho and Kyojukaimon. The Kyojukaimon is essential if one would understand the moral training and the scope of Soto Zen teaching.
Reprinted with permission from Zen Is Eternal Life, by Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett. Shasta Abbey Press, 1999.
Dogen Zenji Uji
Dogen Zenji Quotes
For a more detailed account of Dogen’s life and importance in our tradition, go to this article from the Journal of the OBC.
Dogen Zenji Amazon
To get sense for Dogen Zenji’s teaching, we have included a work called the Shushogi, or, “What is Truly Meant by Training and Enlightenment”.