Facts Behind the Confusion over Dogenism and Soto Zen

I had this conversation again today and I was astonished at the level of confusion... so here we go again.

1. Dogen wrote FukanZazenGi, plagiarizing it from a meditation manual.
2. This meditation manual was inserted into another book, but Bielefeldt argues it was clearly written by a different author.
3. The author of the meditation manual was unknown. The author of the book the manual was inserted into has no known dialogues.
   
4. Dogen's most significant claim in FukanZazenGi is of "practice-enlightenment"; a gate that is passed through during practice. This is closer to prayer than meditation.
5. Dogen claims in FukanZazenGi that the technique was passed down from Buddha through Bodhidharma. There is no evidence to support this claim, and the counter-evidence of plagiarism and Dogen's unique "practice-enlightenment" teaching prove the Buddha/Bodhidharma connection to be a lie.

This is high school book report stuff from Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation. I haven't encountered any dispute with this evidence anywhere. Nobody has ever argued that Bielefeldt isn't saying this.

Based on this evidence, it is clear that FukanZazenGi is not a Soto Zen text. Dogen wasn't altering a Soto Zen teaching, Dogen didn't get FukanZazenGi from Rujing. There is no historical or doctrinal reason to connect FukanZazenGi and Soto Zen.

I have speculated, based on private conversations with scholars, that Dogen's timeline suggests the actual basis of FukanZazenGi: Tiantai Buddhism.
* Dogen's biography is 3 years as a Tiantai monk (where he likely encountered the meditation manual he would later plagiarize)​ * Dogen's two year trip to China where he supposed met many people including Rujing, for which there are no Chinese records, and Dogen's own records show evidence of lying about times and places. * Dogen returns to Japan and studies under a Linji/Rinzai teacher of unknown qualifications for eight years, and then produces Dogenbogenzo, a book that features both plagarization and is rumored to feature anti-historical alterations.

Again, there is no connection Dogen and Soto Zen anywhere in FukanZazenGi, nor after writing.

These are all statements of fact subject to testing by historians... they cannot be dismissed by faith-based claims.

Submitted April 16, 2021 at 10:00AM by ewk https://ift.tt/2QaJMIm