''Genjōkōan'' (現成公按), translated by Tanahashi as ''Actualizing the Fundamental Point'', is an influential essay written by

Dōgen was a Japanese people, Japanese Zen Buddhism, Buddhist Bhikkhu, monk, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. He is also known as Dōgen Kigen (), Eihei Dōgen (), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (), and Busshō Dent� ...

, the founder of

Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...

Sōtō school Sōtō Zen or is the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (the others being Rinzai school, Rinzai and Ōbaku). It is the Japanese line of the Chinese Caodong school, Cáodòng school, which was founded during the ...

in Japan. It is considered one of the most popular essays in ''

Shōbōgenzō is the title most commonly used to refer to the collection of works written in Japan by the 13th-century Buddhist monk and founder of the Sōtō Zen school, Eihei Dōgen. Several other works exist with the same title (see above), and it is som ...

''.

History and background

Genjōkōan was written for a lay practitioner named Koshu Yō in 1233.

Title

According to

Taigen Dan Leighton Taigen Dan Leighton (born 1950, grew up in Pittsburgh, PA) is a Sōtō priest and teacher, academic, and author. He is an authorized lineage holder and Zen teacher in the tradition of Shunryū Suzuki and is the founder and Guiding Teacher of Anc ...

"The word ''genjo'' means to fully or completely manifest, or to express or share. And in this context ''koan'' does not refer to these teaching stories, but to the heart of the matter." Shohaku Okumura says that ''Gen'' means "to appear", "to show up," or "to be in the present moment" while ''Jo'' means "to become," "to complete," or "to accomplish." The combined word ''genjō'' therefore means "to manifest," "to actualize," or "to appear and become."

Hakuun Yasutani was a Sōtō Zen priest and the founder of the Sanbo Kyodan, a lay Japanese Zen group. Through his students Philip Kapleau and Taizan Maezumi, Yasutani has been one of the principal forces in founding western (lay) Zen-practice. Biography ...

wrote: "... ncerning the word ''genjōkoan'', ''genjō'' is phenomena. It's the whole universe. It's all mental and physical phenomena.... ''Kōan'' is derived from the word ''official document'', and is meant to mean the unerring absolute authority of the Buddha-dharma. So then, ''genjōkōan'' means that the subjective realm and the objective realm, the self and all things in the universe, are nothing but the true Buddha-dharma itself."

Content

''Genjōkōan'' begins with an explanation of Zen and then goes on to elucidate delusion and realization, wholehearted practice, and the relationship of self to realization and environment.

Thomas Cleary Thomas Francis Cleary (24 April 1949 – 20 June 2021) was an American translator and author of more than 80 books related to Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Muslim classics, and of ''The Art of War'', a treatise on management, military stra ...

states that ''Genjōkōan'' begins with an outline of Zen using a presentation of the

Five Ranks The "Five Ranks" (; ) is a poem consisting of five stanzas describing the stages of realization in the practice of Zen Buddhism. It expresses the interplay of absolute and relative truth and the fundamental non-dualism of Buddhist teaching. O ...

claiming that Dogen used the device throughout his ''Shōbōgenzō''. Shohaku Okumura says that in ''Genjōkōan'' "Dogen created a metaphor to express the reality of individuality and universality."

References

External links

''Genjo Koan''
translated by

Robert Baker Aitken Robert Baker Dairyu Chotan Aitken Rōshi (June 19, 1917 – August 5, 2010) was a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He co-founded the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1959 with his wife, Anne Hopkins Aitken. Aitken received Dharma transmissi ...

and

Kazuaki Tanahashi is an accomplished Japanese calligrapher, Zen teacher, author and translator of Buddhist texts from Japanese and Chinese to English, most notably works by Dogen (he began his translation of '' Shobogenzo'' in his twenties). He first met Shu ...

for the

San Francisco Zen Center San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), is a network of affiliated Sōtō Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. ...

(Archived)
Actualizing the Fundamental Point (''Genjo-koan'')
(same translation as above but in HTML format)

by Shohaku Okumura * Robert Althouse
After Awakening. Faith, practice, and enlightenment in Zen master Dogen’s Genjokoan
TriCycle {{DEFAULTSORT:Bendowa Soto Zen Zen texts Kōan 1233 works

History and background

Title

Content

See also

References

Further reading

External links