Synopsis
How are the teachings of a thirteenth-century master relevant today? Twenty contemporary writers unpack Dogen's words and show how we can still find meaning in his teachings.
Engaging Dogen s Zenis a practice oriented study of Shushogi(a canonical distillation of Dogen's thought used as a primer in the Soto School of Zen)and Fukanzazengi(Dogen's essential text on the practice of just sitting, a text recited daily in the Soto School of Zen). Itis also a study of the entire self. Here, the principles of Soto Zen practice are unpacked and explained by leading contemporary Buddhists from the living tradition monks, priests, academics, and community teachers. Tackling Dogen s approach to key issues, such as the preeminenceof shikantaza, universal buddha nature, and what it means to be a Mahayana Buddhist, the contributors to the volume help Zen practitioners and any who are trying to deepen their lives to appreciate better the teachings of Soto Zen and make these teachings part of their lives. By revisiting what remains precious in Shushogi and Fukanzazengi, we let them breathe just as we learn to breathe in zazen. Wefind that Soto practice not only engages Dogen and Sakyamuni, but all of our sisters and brothers, and indeedthe great earth itself.
Includes essays fromKosho Itagaki, Taigen Dan Leighton, Tenshin Charles Fletcher, Shudo Brian Schroeder, Glen A. Mazis, David Loy, Drew Leder, Steven DeCaroli, Steve Bein, John Maraldo, Michael Schwartz, Tetsuzen Jason M. Wirth, Leah Kalmanson, Erin Jien McCarthy, Dainen David Putney, Steven Heine, Graham Parkes, Mark Unno, Shudo Brian Schroeder, andKanpu Bret W. Davis."
About the Author
Tetsuzen Jason M. Wirth is Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University, a Soto Zen priest, and founder and co-director of the Seattle University EcoSangha. His recent books include Commiserating with Devastated Things: Milan Kundera and the Entitlements of Thinking (Fordham 2015), Schelling s Practice of the Wild (SUNY 2015), The Conspiracy of Life: Meditations on Schelling and His Time (SUNY 2003), a translation of the third draft of The Ages of the World (SUNY 2000), the edited volume Schelling Now (Indiana 2004), and the co-edited volume (with Kanpu Bret W. Davis and Shudo Brian Schroeder) Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School (Indiana 2011). He is the associate editor and book review editor of the journal Comparative and Continental Philosophy. He is currently at work on a book titled Zen and Zarathustra. He lives in Seattle, WA.
Shudo Brian Schroeder is a priest in the Soto Zen lineage of Yashiki Chijo, abbot of Yokoji (Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan), and Professor of Philosophy and director of Religious Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He has published numerous books and articles on Continental philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, the history of philosophy, environmental philosophy, and philosophical theology. He is director of the Idunno Zen Buddhist Community at RIT, a founding member of CoZen, and an active member of the Rochester Zen Center. He is also co-director of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy and past co-director of the International Association for Enviromental Philosophy. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stony Brook University and a M.Div. from the Princeton Theological Seminary. He lives in Rochester, NY.
Kanpu Bret W. Davis is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland. His publications include several books and dozens of articles, written in English and in Japanese, on such topics as Heidegger, the Kyoto School, and Zen. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University and spent thirteen years studying and teaching in Japan, during which time he studied Buddhist thought at Otani University, completed the doctoral program (with thesis in progress) in Japanese philosophy at Kyoto University, and undertook formal practice of Rinzai Zen as a member of Chishokai, a group of lay practitioners at Shokokuji (one of the main Zen training monasteries in Kyoto), whose members have included Kyoto School philosophers Nishitani Keiji and Ueda Shizuteru. Since 2005 he has served as leader of The Heart of Zen Meditation Group at Loyola University Maryland. In 2010 he received formal recognition as a teacher (sensei) and head of a Zen center (docho) from Kobayashi Gentoku Roshi, abbot of Shokokuji. He lives in Baltimore, MD."
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