Biringer Ted - Zen Cosmology: Dogens Contribution to the Search for a New Worldview

Zen Cosmology

Dogens Contribution to the Search for a New Worldview

By Ted Biringer

Zen Cosmology

Dogens Contribution to the Search for a New Worldview

Ted Biringer

2016 Ted Biringer

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without permission in writing from the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

ZazensatioN

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Zen Cosmology: Dogens Contribution to the Search for a New Worldview

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Biringer, Ted

Zen Cosmology: Dogens Contribution to the Search for a New Worldview/Ted Biringer

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN

1. Dogen, 1200-1253. 2. Zen/BuddhismDoctrines. 3. Zen/Buddhism Methodology

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Donna Rachelle Biringer God bless her!

Acknowledgements

My sincere thanks to Dr. Hee-Jin Kim for the several reviews and suggestions he provided during various stages of this project. Of even greater value to me than his expert criticism and guidance were his encouraging words. This work would not have been possible without him.

Special thanks to Alex Jonusas for providing continuous support and excellent guidance through every phase of this work from the very beginning.

Heartfelt thanks to my wife, Donna Biringer, for her ever inspiring encouragement and infinite patience.

Thanks also to author Steven Conifer for his expert advice and inspiring words.

And as always my gratitude to the community of friends and wise counselors without which any pursuit would be impossible: Nils, Jack, Een, Rusty, Rae, Jim, Rune, Bill, and Bills friends.

In fact, I would suggest, by following Friedrich Schleiermachers wise counsel, that it is our obligationwhether we are Zen practitioners or notto understand Dogens insights better than he did himself. From this perspective, his religio-philosophical groundwork not only offers a new direction in Zen praxis but also opens up new possibilities for creative dialogue between Zen and contemporary thought, especially regarding social ethics, to which modern Zen by and large has been sadly impervious.

Hee-Jin Kim

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Neglecting the Facts

Buddhism and Right Views

Buddhism and Wrong Views

Dualism in Cosmology and Zen

Obstacles on the Path to a Reliable Worldview

The Zen Perspective

Part 1 Outline of Zen Cosmology

Key Terms and Fundamental Propositions

Key Terms

Dharma and Dharmas

Dharma-Positions

Dori: The Reason, Rationality, and Rationale of Zen

Existence-Time

Genjokoan: Actualizing the Universe

Kensho and Kenbutsu

Nonduality

Normality

Fundamental Propositions

The Verifiability of Knowledge Concerning the Nature of Reality

Nonduality

The Nonduality of Enlightenment and Delusion

The Nature and Dynamics of Enlightenment and Delusion

The Doctrine and the Experiential Verification of Emptiness

Dharmas: The Fundamental Constituents of Reality

The Universal Normality of Dharmas

Dharmas: The Constituents of Existence and Experience

Consciousness is Dharmas

Zen Practice-Enlightenment

Language, Thinking, and Reason

The Zen of Words and Letters

Self is the root metaphor of Zen expression

Self-Expressions

The Normality of Buddhas and Ordinary Beings

Emptiness and the Reason (dori) of Total Exertion/Self-Obstruction

Self and Spirit

Iconoclasm

The Nobility of Suffering

Clarifications

Concerning Dharmas

Great Delusion and Great Enlightenment

Authentic Zen, Authentic Culture

The Normality of Dharmas

Two Modes of Self-Actualization (Soul-Making); Genjokoan

Part 2 Zen and Contemporary Thought

Science and Zen in Light of Dogen and Shobogenzo

Contemporary Cosmology and its Flaw

Epistemology

The Representative Nature of Dharmas in the Prevailing Cosmology

Irrational Rationality

The Nature of Subjectivity in Contemporary Cosmology

The Fundamental Flaw of the Representational Theory of Knowledge

Science and Contemporary Cosmology

Summary: Contemporary Cosmology is Fundamentally Flawed

Part 3 Zen Form, Zen Reason

The Appearance of Reality and the Reality of Appearance

Clear Seeing and Emptiness

Emptiness

The Sentient Nature of Reality

The Emptiness of the Self is the Emptiness of Other Than Self

This Sutra: Zen Expressions, Expressions of Zen

Zen Cosmology

Zen and Epistemology

The Mental Nature of Reality The Real Nature of Mentality

Existence is Experience

Objects of Consciousness

The Consciousness of Dharmas

Dharma Transmission

The Language of The Self

The Mythopoeic Nature of Zen Expression

Something That Can Be Metaphoric

Seeing is Fashioning

The Double-Edged Sword: Killing and Giving Life, Truth and Falsity

Continuous Actualization of Sole-Sitting The Keystone of Zen

Fashioning a Moon and Fashioning a Rice Cake

Consciousness, Speculation, and Actualization

Experience As It Is: Existence As It Is

Consciously Actualizing the Universe (genjokoan)

Nonthinking

This Goes Along With That

Zen Cosmology: Summary Expression

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Preface

Our world view is not simply the way we look at the world. It reaches inward to constitute our innermost being, and outward to constitute the world.

Richard Tarnas

Not many people have clearly understood that cosmology is a literary art form, not a religious or scientific one.

Northrop Frye

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Insofar as my aim is to present a cosmology , my task is to present an accurate and comprehensive vision of the true nature of reality. Insofar as my aim is to present a Zen cosmology, the medium of my expression must be the mythopoeic language of Zen; specifically, the metaphorical framework provided by the classic literature of Zen/Buddhism.

Because I consider Shobogenzo (True Dharma-Eye Treasury), the magnum opus of Zen Master Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), to be the clearest, most comprehensive presentation of Zen in the classic literature, it is my primary source. In my view Shobogenzo not only presents a unique culminating vision of Buddhist thought, it presents the most accurate, most accessible vision of reality available to the modern mind. More than a treasure trove for Zen students then, I am convinced Shobogenzo has much to offer in the way of humankinds urgent need for a new worldview.