Dear Friends As some of you may know I’m teaching a course on the poetic essays of Eihei Dogen. Why Dogen? If you’re not around Zen all the time, his name and work may not be familiar. He is known as the founder of Japanese Soto Zen, but also as Japan’s greatest philosopher-poet. His works are sometimes said to take a lifetime of Zen practice to understand fully. And yet, there is some way in which his writings offer themselves immediately in their vivid images.
oh gee Sal… this is my guy. or would have been in some other life. I sat for 6 years, but had no teacher - and that was unrewarding (though it helped save me). Is it possible to find good teachers who work online? Or is that not really possible?
Thank you for placing these beautiful passages here for us, Sal. I am struck by the similarity of some of these comparisons to Jesus' parables (the lilies in the field etc) and I'm sure if I knew other religions more intimately there would be other stories and fables and metaphors about the transcendent or things beyond immediate apprehension to find there too.
It has reminded me of how my initial desire to write came from the poetry of the Bible, although I am no longer a practising Christian.
The one that spoke to me here was the moon on the water but, like you, I could not express what it 'means', only that it resonates, and suggests meaning to me. It also echoed a favourite line from Yeats' poem The Stolen Child:- "In pools among the rushes/that scarce could bathe a star".
oh gee Sal… this is my guy. or would have been in some other life. I sat for 6 years, but had no teacher - and that was unrewarding (though it helped save me). Is it possible to find good teachers who work online? Or is that not really possible?
Thank you for placing these beautiful passages here for us, Sal. I am struck by the similarity of some of these comparisons to Jesus' parables (the lilies in the field etc) and I'm sure if I knew other religions more intimately there would be other stories and fables and metaphors about the transcendent or things beyond immediate apprehension to find there too.
It has reminded me of how my initial desire to write came from the poetry of the Bible, although I am no longer a practising Christian.
The one that spoke to me here was the moon on the water but, like you, I could not express what it 'means', only that it resonates, and suggests meaning to me. It also echoed a favourite line from Yeats' poem The Stolen Child:- "In pools among the rushes/that scarce could bathe a star".