The Heart of Dogen's Shobogenzo

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Brilliant in Equal Measure
Review: Eihei Dogen Zenji (1200-1253), founder of the Soto Zen school, is one of the greatest prose stylists and thinkers in the history of Buddhism. His best works are penetrating and beautiful, vivdly and directly evoking the realized state of a Zen meditation master. His main legacy of writings is contained in the many-volume Shobogenzo, or Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. Shobogenzo is a collection 90 fascicles of short writings spanning his teaching career.

This new collection of Dogen's writing contains eight key fascicles from Dogen's Shobogenzo, superbly translated by Norman Waddell and Masao Abe. These translations were gathered for publication after being issued independently in the scholarly journal The Eastern Buddhist. These translations have long been praised by Dogen scholars for their clarity, accuracy, and erudition.

This is a very important collection for the Dogen enthusiast, whether scholar, practitioner, or interested reader. It brings together translations of several of the most important fascicles, including Genjokoan (Manifesting Suchness), Bendowa (Negotiating the Way), Uji (Being-Time), and Bussho (Buddha Nature). They are masterfully translated by two scholars who have spent many years studying and clarifying their grasp of Dogen Zenji's thought.

This book is particularly important for its footnotes, which are invaluable for the student who has found Dogen to be inpenetrable or incomprehensible. The footnotes provide an unobtrusive but crucial commentary, explaining the wealth of subtle allusions and references that abound in Dogen's writings. These stock images would have been recognized immediately by the monks Dogen spent his life with, but for us they can be (mis)taken as enigmatic and meaningless. Waddell and Abe roundly dispell this misapprehension and convey a Dogen who had something important to say, and who used every means he had at his disposal to say it. In brief, he points to the non-dual nature of all things that resides beyond the breaking point of words and ideas.

There are several published translations of part or all of Dogen's Shobogenzo available. Because of the great difficulty in translating Dogen into English, it is worthwhile to own several translations. The four-volume Nishijima and Cross translation of the entire work is serviceable and consistent, but rather wooden in style. Kaz Tanahashi has translated many important fascicles beautifully in Moon in a Dewdrop and Enlightenment Unfolds.