This month I am re-reading Kuzuaki Tanahashi’s Moon in a Dewdrop, an exploration of the teachings of Ehei Dogen-zengi. Primarily a moderately-deep dive into Dogen’s life, training travels to China, and his extensive writings. Shobogenzo, Dogen’s opus is touched upon in singular and comparative ways to the teachings of Shakayumni Buddha and those teachings of Master Rujing at the emerging Chaodong school in China.
I will focus on the Dogen teaching of Emancipation/Realization (p.18 Moon). Recall Dogen’s ask of his teachers why, if one already has Buddha Nature (Lotus Sutra), does one have to practice? Dogen came to believe that while we have Buddha Nature it is through certain practices that it is actualized. Hence understanding of this point is not enlightenment rather it is through practice (Shikantasia) that one becomes emancipated from the very idea of duality. Dogen uses the Japanese word for non-attachment- Todatsu which means “fish slipping out of the net, ‘as letting’ go or dropping away” (p.19 Moon). This is another way of saying…”a fish swims like a fish.”
When we practice we are dropping away, not-thinking one or the other (body or mind’ thus- non-thinking.) Realization is birth, birth is nothing but realization. This is offered in Dogen’s “Genjokoan.”
So, we will discuss this “practice” as the embodiment of the Buddha Way as to how this Todatsu unfolds in everyday life and how everyday life becomes practice, to Dogen. Enlightenment is not something you get but something you practice.
Reflecting on Fukan Zazengi, Okamura quotes or echoes Uchiyama Roshi:
“Practice until you reach the limit of thinking. Then you become free from thinking.”
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Join us Tuesday August 5, 2025, as we will look at “Todatsu” as a moment in the unfolding of time-being inviting us to drop self-centered striving…
108 Bows,
Sangaku