A Zen Exercise
A Meditation on the Words of Eihei Dogen
Zen Master Dogen wrote:
Yesterday goes forth from this moment,
and today comes forth from this place.
With going the boundless sky goes,
with coming the entire earth comes.
This is everyday mind.*
Whatever is happening to you
in this moment
is the world.
Your eyes as they flit over these words —
backlit by the ubiquitous landscape
of a clean, white, demonic light —
are the world.
The poem and poetry, mine and yours,
articulated and processed,
the meaning of words, the
meaning of meaning
is the world.
Every thought passing by,
like the wispy running clouds
in a time-lapse movie of the sky,
is the world.
Distracting images, unconnected commentary,
the random rabbit-hole tempting you
away from your mental to-do list,
philosophy, psychology, etymology,
the weather report and
a fly buzzing nearby,
a child crying, your coffee
getting cold, all of these things
are the world.
Emotion and intellect, fear and
love and loathing and
courage and resignation,
ambition and action and the act
of negation, not to mention
meditation, plus ecstasy and
degradation
are the world.
The breath you are taking,
the stillness of your body,
the movement of past into potential
and the sensation of the
soft, icy brush of conditioned air on your flesh
is the world.
Now this boundless sky and entire earth are like unrecognized words,
a voice from the deep. Words are all-inclusive, mind is all-inclusive,
things are all-inclusive.
Even though you do not know it,
if you arouse the thought of enlightenment,
you will move forward on the way to enlightenment.
The moment is already here. Do not doubt it in the least.
Even if you should doubt it, this is nothing
but everyday mind.*
— New Orleans, August 2024
*from Shinjin Gakudō (Body-and-Mind Study of the Way), a lecture given at Kōshō Hōrin Monastery in 1242, and contained in Dogen’s original version of the Shōbōgenzō (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye). Excerpted from Moon in a Dewdrop, edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi (North Point Press — ©1985 by the San Francisco Zen Center)
