http://dogenandtheshobogenzo.blogspot.sg/2012/06/buddha-dharma-dream-in-dream.html
Friday,
June 01, 2012
Buddha-Dharma: A Dream in a
Dream <http://dogenandtheshobogenzo.blogspot.sg/2012/06/buddha-dharma-dream-in-dream.html>
On the True Nature of the
Self...
The final belief is to
believe in a fiction, which you know to be a fiction, there being nothing else.
The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it
willingly.
Wallace Stevens
The appearance of buddhas and
ancestors in the world, being prior to the emergence of any incipient sign, has
nothing to do with old, narrow opinions. This accounts for the virtues of
buddha-ancestors, as of going beyond the Buddha. Unconcerned with time, the
life-span [of buddha-ancestors] is neither prolonged nor momentary, as it is far
from the comprehension of ordinary minds.
The ever turning wheel of the
Dharma is also a principle prior to the emergence of any incipient sign; as
such, it is an eternal paragon with immeasurably great merit. [Buddha-ancestors]
expound this as a dream in a dream. Because they see verification within
verification, it is known as expounding a dream in a dream.
The place
where a dream is expounded in a dream is indeed the land and assembly of
buddha-ancestors. The buddha-land and buddha-assembly, the ancestral way and
ancestral seat, are all verification founded upon verification, hence all are
the expounding of a dream in a dream. Upon encountering their utterances and
discourses, do not think that these are not of the buddha-assembly; they are the
Buddha’s turning the wheel of the Dharma. Because this wheel of the Dharma turns
in all directions, the great oceans and Mt. Sumeru, the lands and buddhas are
all realized. Such is expounding a dream in a dream, which is prior to all
dreams.
The entire world, crystal-clear everywhere, is a dream; and a
dream is all grasses [things] clear and bright. To doubt the dream state is
itself to dream; all perplexity is a dream as well. At this very moment, [all
are] grasses of the “dream state,” grasses “in” [a dream], grasses“expounding”
[a dream], and so on. Even as we study this, the very roots and stalks, leaves
and branches, flowers and fruits, lights and hues [of our perception] are all a
great dream. Never mistake this, however, for a dreamy state.
Dogen,
Shobogenzo, Muchu-setsumu (Expounding a dream in a dream), Trans. Hee-Jin
Kim, Flowers of Emptiness, p.279-280
It’s a wonderful,
wonderful opera. Only it hurts.
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth (with Bill Moyers)
Dogen here relates nyo (“like”), to
ze (“this”), evoking the familiar Zen association nyoze (“like
this,” “thusness”). He goes on to draw the implication that “like this”
signifies not mere resemblance but the nondual identity of symbol and
symbolized. He thus rejects any dualistic notion of metaphor or simile
(hiyi), whereby an image points to, represents, or approximates something
other than itself. Rather, for Dogen, the symbol itself is the very
presence of total dynamism, i.e., it presents.
Hee-Jin Kim,
Flowers of Emptiness, note 8, p.251
If the new empirical
results are taken seriously, then people throughout our culture have to rethink
some of their most cherished beliefs about what science and philosophy are and
consider their values from a new perspective...
If conceptual metaphors
are real, then all literalist and objective views of meaning and knowledge are
false. We can no longer pretend to build an account of concepts and knowledge on
objective, literal foundations. This constitutes a profound challenge to many of
the traditional ways of thinking about what it means to be human, about how the
mind works, and about our nature as social and cultural creatures.
George
Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By,
p.273
Allegory and metaphor both start off saying one thing as
if it were another. But where allegorical method divides this double talk into
two constituents – latent and manifest – and requires translation of
manifest into latent, the metaphorical method keeps the two voices together,
here the dream as it tells itself, ambiguously evocative and concretely precise
at each and every instant. Metaphors are not subject to interpretive translation
without breaking up their peculiar unity... Since symbols and metaphors cannot
be translated, another method for understanding dreams is needed, a method in
which masks, disguises, and doubleness inherently belong, a method that is
itself metaphorical.
…if the dream is psychic nature per se,
unconditioned, spontaneous, primary, and this psychic nature can show a dramatic
structure, then the nature of the mind is poetic. To go to the root human
ontology, its truth, essence, and nature, one must move in the fictional mode
and use poetic tools.
James Hillman, Healing Fiction, pp35-36
[italics Hillman’s]
Peace,
Ted
Like always, Ted have interesting and well written postings.
My comments:
Dogen here relates nyo (“like”), to ze (“this”), evoking
the familiar Zen association nyoze (“like this,” “thusness”). He goes on
to draw the implication that “like this” signifies not mere resemblance but the
nondual identity of symbol and symbolized. He thus rejects any dualistic notion
of metaphor or simile (hiyi), whereby an image points to, represents, or
approximates something other than itself. Rather, for Dogen, the symbol itself
is the very presence of total dynamism, i.e., it
presents.
Hee-Jin Kim, Flowers of Emptiness, note 8,
p.251