Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra
by Taigen Dan Leighton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Taigen Dan LeightonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-11
ISBN: 019532093X
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra
Book Review: Informed, fascinating exploration of Dogen??s cosmology - A+++++
Summary: 5 Stars
An informed and fascinating exploration of the cosmology underlying Dogen's Zen.
Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra, by Taigen Dan Leighton, is a wonderful exploration of the worldview informing the teachings of the thirteenth century Zen master, Eihei Dogen.
Taigen Dan Leighton, a Soto Zen priest and Dharma heir, reveals how Dogen's teachings are thoroughly grounded in classic Mahayana Buddhist Sutras, primarily the Lotus Sutra, as well as the classic Zen records, including the great koan collections and their related literature.
Leighton makes clear that because Dogen, like all authentic Buddhist masters, was primarily concerned with the liberation of all beings, his teachings on practice-realization, or enlightened practice can only be appreciated in the context of the cosmology from which Dogen addressed his listeners/readers.
According to the classic teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, the universe itself is not apart from the myriad things. Anyone attempting to understand Dogen, or any Zen master, must be aware of cosmology from which they teach. For the authentic Zen master, each thing, time, and event is itself the full expression of reality, or Buddha nature. As the author explains, "Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, dynamic agent of awareness and healing."
Leighton begins his explication by furnishing the reader with an overview of the Mahayana teachings as expounded in the Lotus Sutra. He emphasizes the key passage of that sutra in which myriad Bodhisattvas suddenly emerge from under the ground (a scene he returns to repeatedly throughout his exploration). His discussion moves naturally into an examination of the vital dynamic of Buddhist hermeneutics from a variety of historical Buddhist contexts.
Next, Taigen Dan Leighton presents Dogen's own interpretation of the story from the Lotus Sutra (of the Bodhisattvas emerging from under the ground), by citing Dogen's various references (both direct and indirect) throughout his own massive corpus.
With all of this firmly under the reader's belt, Leighton proceeds to present his grand view of Dogen's cosmology, exposing some surprising implications of time, space, and existence. While using the Lotus Sutra as his primary pivot point, Leighton draws on his own extensive familiarity with Dogen's work as well as the classic literature of Buddhism and Zen. From Dogen's collection of 300 classic koans to the "ten times" doctrine of the Avatamsaka Sutra, Leighton uses language without being used by language to present a wonderful overview of the universe through the eye of Zen master Dogen.
Refusing to fall into the simplistic formulas or twisted dogmatism of many popular sectarians, Leighton transcends those presentations of Dogen as teaching a narrow, rigid practice of 'just sitting' as the be-all of Zen Buddhism. Seeing the nonduality of practice-and-enlightenment not in the myopic 'practice equals enlightenment', but in the continuous ongoing practice of enlightenment, and enlightenment of practice. Rather than dim assertions that 'sitting is itself enlightenment', the author sees Dogen's teaching as a, "complex vision... as multidimensional, dynamic and not separate from or independent of the actual existence, activity, and awareness of each particular being..."
Other areas where he bucks many popular "Soto" opinions includes koans:
* Koans - Leighton sees the role of koans in the same light as Mahayana sutras, "not didactic works presenting systematic doctrines, but rather?K texts aimed at inciting particular samadhi, or concentration, states and insights..."
* Goals - Rather than asserting that Dogen preached a Zen of "no goal", Leighton insists, "The purpose of Buddhism is liberation from the karmic cycle of suffering via awakening, and the goal of the Mahayana is the awakening of all beings."
* The role of texts - Noting that although many take a narrow view of the dictum of Zen being "outside words and letters", he illustrates how texts and verbal teachings are as important to authentic Zen as wholehearted practice, clearly showing Dogen's teaching that "expression is itself the Buddhadharma."
* Duality - Leighton points out that, contrary to some popular opinions, duality is important to authentic Zen practice-enlightenment, as is nonduality. For instance, "Dogen here profoundly reaffirms the reality of nonduality. Usually nonduality is considered opposed to duality... But... he is clearly talking about the nonduality of duality and nonduality, not about merely transcending the duality of form and emptiness. This deeper nonduality is not the opposite of duality, but the synthesis of duality and nonduality..."
* Sudden enlightenment - Discussing the important work of Jan Nattier, Leighton analyzes the story of the "Bodhisattvas emerging suddenly from under the ground" in the light of what Nattier characterizes as "leap philosophies," Leighton points out that "this story embodies the leap out of the realm systemized stages of accomplishment in practice, based on insight into the fundamental emptiness of all stages."
* Other views that seem to transcend many "modern orthodox" Soto sectarians include, Dogen's implementation and exhortation of a wide variety of practices (not just sitting meditation), the nondual aspect of "practice and ordinary activity", and the importance of textual study.
The Bottom Line:
Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra, by Taigen Dan Leighton, present an inside view of the cosmology, or "worldview" informing the writings of the thirteenth century Zen master, Eihei Dogen. In the process, this book manages to rise above the reductionism of sectarian stereotypes that are all too common among popular writers within the Soto orthodoxy, and restore Dogen's Zen to its proper place as one of the great expressions of Buddhism.
Summary of Visions of Awakening Space and Time: Dogen and the Lotus Sutra
As a religion concerned with universal liberation, Zen grew out of a Buddhist worldview very different from the currently prevalent scientific materialism. Indeed, says Taigen Dan Leighton, Zen cannot be fully understood outside of a worldview that sees reality itself as a vital, dynamic agent of awareness and healing. In this book, Leighton explicates that worldview through the writings of the Zen master Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), considered the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen tradition, which currently enjoys increasing popularity in the West.The Lotus Sutra, arguably the most important Buddhist scripture in East Asia, contains a famous story about bodhisattvas (enlightening beings) who emerge from under the earth to preserve and expound the Lotus teaching in the distant future. The story reveals that the Buddha only appears to pass away, but actually has been practicing, and will continue to do so, over an inconceivably long life span.
Leighton traces commentaries on the Lotus Sutra from a range of key East Asian Buddhist thinkers, including Daosheng, Zhiyi, Zhanran, Saigyo, Myoe, Nichiren, Hakuin, and Ryokan. But his main focus is Eihei Dogen, the 13th century Japanese Soto Zen founder who imported Zen from China, and whose profuse, provocative, and poetic writings are important to the modern expansion of Buddhism to the West.
Dogen's use of this sutra expresses the critical role of Mahayana vision and imagination as the context of Zen teaching, and his interpretations of this story furthermore reveal his dynamic worldview of the earth, space, and time themselves as vital agents of spiritual awakening.
Leighton argues that Dogen uses the images and metaphors in this story to express his own religious worldview, in which earth, space, and time are lively agents in the bodhisattva project. Broader awareness of Dogen's worldview and its implications, says Leighton, can illuminate the possibilities for contemporary approaches to primary Mahayana concepts and practices.
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