Last poem Essay

Dogen was greatly move by the fact that making a strong accent on the study of koan Chinese masters did non con their disciples Buddhist sutras, which make the core study in Buddhist monasteries in Japan (Tanahashi, 5). Dogens discontent with the style of instruct became even a reason of his refusal to betroth Dharma transmission from bingle of the masters. In 1225 Dogen decided to leave Rinzai school of Chan Buddhism and started his voyage in order to visit Ru-jing, whose style of window pane teaching differed from ones which disappoint Dogen.Ru-jing was the thirteenth patriarch of Soto lineage of Zen Buddhism. During that time he lived at Tiantong Mountain in Nongbo. Soto school, presented by Ru-jing made an accent on school term meditation, or zazen. In general it used much softer methods than Rinzai School did. analyze Zen with Ru-jing Dogen has ultimately reached heaven of mind and personate. The legends state that he fin every(prenominal)y reached liberation after hearing the Masters words visualize of body and mind (Tanahashi). These words became especi everyy meaningful for Dogen and he subsequent used them in many his writings.As he states in one of his works To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever (Kim, 195). In 1227 Dogen received Dharma transmission from Ru-jing and finally admitted that he has reached the answer for the question of all his life.Dogen was greatly influenced by his teacher Ru-jing. All Dogens religious ism is marked by two major tendencies. The first peculiarity of all Dogens teaching is his bail bond to Buddhism tradition and second one is a strong accent on individual search. These tendencies can be traced non only in Dogenss books but also in his lifestyle. Dogen did not reject traditional Buddhism. He only wanted people to eliminate critical evaluation of its doctrines and principles. Dogen criticized competition among different schools of Zen because they were tiring Buddhism to pieces.He proclaimed identity of faith and believed it could have been found in Soto Zen. He did not even want to apply the name Zen for his camar swooninga and did his best to follow his teachers lifestyle living without attachment to anything. In 1228, after reaching enlightenment, Dogen returned to Japan. He came back to ti Kennin-ji, a monastery where he spent several years learning from Eisai and his successors. subsequently plan of attack back he wrote a detailed description of sitting mediation called Zazen. The manual was called Fukan Zazengi, which can be translated as Universally Recommended Instruction for Zazen. His teaching appealed to many people and he gat hered a lot of adherents round himself. After some time he had to leave Kennin-ji because of tension, which arouse wrong the Tendai community. This tensions with caused by the desire of Buddhist leaders to suppress new forms of Buddhism, including Zen. Dogen leave Kinnin-ji temple in 1230 and moved to empty temple situated to the southern from Kyoto in the place called Uji (Tanahashi , 40). Dogen founded small temple in this place and soon this temple grew into Kosho-Hirniji Temple.The tension between Dogen and Tangai community did not stop, though. That is one of the reasons Dogen gladly accepted Hatano Yoshishiges proposition to relocate to Echizen province, located far from Kyoto. After relocation Dogens disciples built a new center for Zen practice and called it Daibutsuji Temple. Dogen later renamed this center to Eihei-ji. This temple remains one of the more or less popular Zen temples in modern Japan. Dogen spent all his boost life living and teaching in this temple. S hogun regent Hojo Tokiyori invited Dogen to come and teach him Zen in 1247.Dogen accepted this invitation and made a long travel to Kamakura in order to meet Shogun and retuned to Eihei-ji the next year. In 1252 Dogen became seriously ill and after realizing that he was not going to recover he gave his robes to his deary disciple Koun Ejo. This way Koun Ejo became Abbot of Eihei-ji. After appointing Koun Ejo an abbot Dogen left for Kyoto spirit for remedies from his illness. The remedy was not found and Dogen died in 1953. Soon before death he wrote his last poem.