{"id":7893,"date":"2021-12-10T09:38:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T16:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=7893"},"modified":"2021-12-10T09:38:57","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T16:38:57","slug":"dogen-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/10\/dogen-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"Dogen – Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Worship
\nby Eihei Dogen<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Ivan M. Granger<\/font><\/p>\n

Beneath the snows
\nthe hidden world of winter grass.<\/p>\n

And in the field of white, a white heron
\nhides himself.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from This Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World<\/a>, Edited by Ivan M. Granger<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Birger Strahl<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

I woke up to light snow this morning in Colorado, snowflakes following meandering, individual paths down to settle on the ground, just beginning to cover it. I thought of this poem and commentary\u2026<\/p>\n

Looking out my window, I see a quiet winter morning, mist trickling in among the bare branches, yesterday\u2019s snow still new upon the ground. I think of this poem\u2026<\/p>\n

Reading this poem, we immediately ask what a white heron in snow has to do with worship, as suggested by the title.<\/p>\n

And in the field of white, a white heron
\nhides himself.<\/i><\/p>\n

Have you ever watched a heron fishing, wading at the edge of a lake? Its entire being is focused. Even when it moves it seems utterly still. Because of these qualities, the heron is a natural symbol for the meditator. <\/p>\n

We have a being of white \u2014 the heron, the meditator \u2014 disappearing into an environment of white \u2014 the snow-covered field. In fact, the heron is not passively disappearing, it is actively engaged in the process. He \u201chides himself\u201d in the snow. How does the heron hide? Through stillness. The heron settles into its own nature. It is already as white as the snowy world it inhabits. The heron just has to grow quiet, be itself, and it naturally disappears from sight.<\/p>\n

Snow represents the glowing world as perceived by the enlightened awareness. Everything, when draped in new-fallen snow, becomes one. Everything is the same \u201cwhite\u201d radiance. Everything comes to rest within this shared glow of being. The idea of separation is lost in that light. Beings and objects are suddenly seen as a fluid continuity within that \u201cfield of white.\u201d <\/p>\n

So this, according to Dogen, is what constitutes true worship: Through meditation and stillness we recognize our own incandescent nature in the midst of the bright field of being. As we settle into ourselves, we gently merge with the luminous reality that surrounds us.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Eihei Dogen<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nHaiku Enlightenment: New Expanded Edition<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Poetry of Zen: (Shambhala Library)<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Zen Poetry of Dogen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Soul is Here for its Own Joy: Sacred Poems from Many Cultures<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"Eihei<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nEihei Dogen<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Japan (1200 \u2013 1253) Timeline<\/a>
\nBuddhist<\/a> : Zen \/ Chan<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Eihei Dogen, sometimes respectfully referred to as Dogen Zenji, was a key figure in the development of Japanese Zen practice and the founder of the Soto Zen sect.<\/p>\n

Dogen was born in about 1200 in Kyoto, Japan. At the age of 17, he was formally ordained as a Buddhist monk. Considering the Japanese Buddhism of the time to be corrupt and influenced by secular power struggles, Dogen traveled to China to discover the heart of the Dharma by studying Ch\u2019an (Zen) Buddhism at several ancient monasteries.<\/p>\n

Much of the Ch\u2019an Buddhism he explored utilized koans and \u201cencounter dialogues\u201d to startle the consciousness into enlightenment, but Dogen was critical of this practice. Instead, he was drawn to the teachings of silent meditation. <\/p>\n

Dogen returned to Japan in 1236. He left the politicized environment of Kyoto and settled in the mountains and snow country of remote Echizen Province, where he established his own school of Zen, the Soto school. <\/p>\n

While he proved to be a talented writer and poet, the core of Dogen\u2019s teaching was to transcend the mind\u2019s addiction to language and form in order to become fully present and recognize one\u2019s inherent enlightenment.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Eihei Dogen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Worship by Eihei Dogen English version by Ivan M. Granger Beneath the snows the hidden world of winter grass. And in the field of white, a white heron hides himself. \u2014 from This Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World, Edited by Ivan M. Granger \/ Image by Birger Strahl \/ I woke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[40,117,390,2448,852,340,417,853,118],"class_list":["post-7893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-buddhist-poetry","tag-dogen","tag-dogen-zenji","tag-eihei-dogen","tag-heron","tag-meditation","tag-snow","tag-white","tag-zen-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7894,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7893\/revisions\/7894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}