Where is the evidence that Dogen's "Just Sitting" is related to Silent Illumination? Other than Dogen's claim? Given that Dogen was a fraud who lied about traveling to China, lied about studying with Rujing, and committed a variety of frauds against the Zen Lineage including plagiarism, Dogen's claim is more likely to be evidence of fraud than evidence of fact.
This essay argues that it was Hongzhi that started it:
The specific practice experience of shikantaza was first articulated in the Soto Zen lineage (Caodong in Chinese) by the Chinese master Hongzhi Zhengjue
but then admits that no, actually, that's not exactly true:
Hongzhi does not use the actual term, "just sitting," which Dogen quotes instead from his own Soto lineage teacher Tiantong Rujing.
Since we know that Dogen lied repeatedly about Rujing's teaching, and according to Bielefeldt probably couldn't understand a word of spoken Chinese, there is no substance to the link to Rujing. And what did Hongzhi say, exactly, in the apparently the only mention of silent illumination in all of Zen teaching?
Behold!
SILENT and serene, forgetting words, bright clarity appears before you.
When you reflect it you become vast, where you embody it you are spiritually uplifted. Spiritually solitary and shining, inner ILLUMINATION restores wonder,
Dew in the moonlight, a river of stars, snow-covered pines, clouds enveloping the peaks. In darkness it is most bright, while hidden all the more manifest.
The crane dreams in the wintery mists. The autumn waters flow far in the distance. Endless kalpas are totally empty, all things are completely the same.
When wonder exists in serenity, all achievement is forgotten in ILLUMINATION.
What is this wonder? Alertly seeing through confusion
Is the way of SILENT ILLUMINATION and the origin of subtle radiance.
Vision penetrating into subtle radiance is weaving gold on a jade loom.
Upright and inclined yield to each other; light and dark are interdependent.
Not depending on sense faculty and object, at the right time they interact.
Drink the medicine of good views. Beat the poison-smeared drum.
When they interact, killing and giving life are up to you.
Through the gate the self emerges and the branches bear fruit.
Only silence is the supreme speech, only ILLUMINATION the universal response.
Responding without falling into achievement, speaking without involving listeners.
The ten thousand forms majestically glisten and expound the dharma.
All objects certify it, every one in dialogue.
Dialoguing and certifying, they respond appropriately to each other;
But if ILLUMINATION neglects serenity then aggressiveness appears.
Certifying and dialoguing, they respond to to each other appropriately;
But if serenity neglects ILLUMINATION, murkiness leads to wasted dharma.
When SILENT ILLUMINATION is fulfilled, the lotus blossoms, the dreamer awakens,
A hundred streams flow into the ocean, a thousand ranges face the highest peak.
Like geese preferring milk, like bees gathering nectar,
When SILENT ILLUMINATION reaches the ultimate, I offer my teaching.
The teaching of SILENT ILLUMINATION penetrates from the highest down to the foundation. The body being [emptiness], the arms [certify],
From beginning to end the changing appearances and then thousand differences share one pattern.
Notes:
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It looks like it's really "wordless illumination". FYI.
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It also looks like "Wordless Illumination" really is just another way of saying "enlightenment", and certainly an enlightenment attained, rather than an enlightenment invoked through practice.
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Finally, you'll note that sitting isn't mentioned, posture isn't mentioned (except via poor translation regarding the arms), nor is anything attributed to Buddha or Bodhidharma in terms of practice.
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Wow. Looks really bad for Dogen. Again. That guy would lie about his own mother to his own mother.
Submitted December 06, 2017 at 09:32PM by ewk http://ift.tt/2Ae84bi
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