April 28th, 1970
Tuesday, April 28th, 1970Shunryū Suzuki-rōshi
HOW TO HAVE SINCERE PRACTICE
Tuesday, April 28, 1970
San Francisco
Listen to this talk: Suzuki-roshi 70-04-28
Since Tatsugami-rōshi[1] came, you must have heard Dōgen-zenji’s name so many times. But Dōgen-zenji may not like to hear his name so many times [laughs]. But unfortunately he had a name like Dōgen, so [laughs] there is no other way to address him. So we call him Dōgen-zenji or Dōgen.
As you know, he didn’t like to say “Zen” even, or Zen—in China they called monks who sit in zazen, called [them] “Zen monks,” but he didn’t like to call “Zen” even. And he said if necessary you should call us “Buddha’s disciple.” Shamon, you know, he called himself Shamon Dōgen—”A Monk Dōgen.”
In China, there were many various schools like Rinzai, Sōtō, Ummon, Hōgen, Igyō. But Nyojō-zenji’s—Nyojō-zenji,[2] who was Dōgen’s teacher then, was not, according to Dōgen, [from] one of the five schools of Zen or seven[3] schools of Zen. His Zen is just to practice zazen, to realize—to actually realize by his body Buddha’s mind, Buddha’s spirit. That was his Zen. That was why Dōgen accepted him as his teacher.
Before he—Dōgen went to China, he studied Hiezan [Onjō-ji?]—Tendai—main temple of Tendai school. And after Tendai, he went to Eisei—Eisai-zenji[4]—Yoshin-ji [Kennin-ji?], and then he went to China because Eisai-zenji passed away when he was very young. So he went to China to continue his practice with good teacher.