The

Japanese Buddhist Buddhism has been practiced in Japan since about the 6th century CE. Japanese Buddhism () created many new Buddhist schools, and some schools are original to Japan and some are derived from Chinese Buddhist schools. Japanese Buddhism has had a ...

word ''uji'' (有時), usually translated into English as Being-Time, is a key metaphysical idea of the

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

founder

Dōgen Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 26 January 1200 – 22 September 1253), also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), or Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師), was a J ...

(1200-1253). His 1240 essay titled ''Uji'', which is included as a fascicle in the ''

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 ...

'' ("Treasury of the True Dharma Eye") collection, gives several explanations of ''uji'', beginning with, "The so-called "sometimes" (''uji'') means: time (''ji'') itself already is none other than being(s) (''u'') are all none other than time (''ji'').". Scholars have interpreted ''uji'' "being-time" for over seven centuries. Early interpretations traditionally employed

Buddhist terms and concepts Some Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term. Below are given a number of important Buddhist terms, short definitions, and the languages in which they appear. In this list, an ...

, such as

impermanence Impermanence, also known as the philosophical problem of change, is a philosophical concept addressed in a variety of religions and philosophies. In Eastern philosophy it is notable for its role in the Buddhist three marks of existence. It ...

(

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist '' Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Bud ...

anicca Impermanence, also known as the philosophical problem of change, is a philosophical concept addressed in a variety of religions and philosophies. In Eastern philosophy it is notable for its role in the Buddhist three marks of existence. It i ...

'',

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

''mujō'' 無常). Modern interpretations of ''uji'' are more diverse, for example, authors like

Steven Heine Steven Heine (born 1950), is a scholar in the field of Zen Buddhist history and thought, particularly the life and teachings of Zen Master Dōgen (1200–1253). He has also taught and published extensively on Japanese religion and society in wor ...

and Joan Stambaugh compare Dōgen's concepts of

temporality In philosophy, temporality refers to the idea of a linear progression of past, present, and future. The term is frequently used, however, in the context of critiques of commonly held ideas of linear time. In social sciences, temporality is studi ...

with the

existentialist Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centu ...

's 1927 ''

Being and Time ''Being and Time'' (german: Sein und Zeit) is the 1927 '' magnum opus'' of German philosopher Martin Heidegger and a key document of existentialism. ''Being and Time'' had a notable impact on subsequent philosophy, literary theory and many other ...

''.

Terminology

Dögen's writings can be notoriously difficult to understand and translate, frequently owing to his

wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, pho ...

with

Late Middle Japanese was a stage of the Japanese language following Early Middle Japanese and preceding Early Modern Japanese. It was a period of transition in which the language shed many of its archaic features and became closer to its modern form. The period ...

terms. Dōgen's Zen

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

''uji'' (有時, "existence-/being-time") is the uncommon '' Kanji#On'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading), on'yomi'' Sino-Japanese reading of the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

word ''yǒushí'' ( 有時, "sometimes; at times", ''

Wenlin Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese () is a software application designed by Tom Bishop, who is also president of the Wenlin Institute. It is based on his experience of the needs of learners of the Chinese language, predominantly Mandarin. It con ...

'' 2016), and plays with the more common ''

kun'yomi are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subseq ...

'' native Japanese pronunciation of these two

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subse ...

characters as ''arutoki'' (或る時, "once; on one occasion; at one point; n the pastonce; at one time; once upon a time". In the multifaceted

Japanese writing system The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana. Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalised Japanese w ...

, ''arutoki'' ("at one time; etc.") was archaically transcribed 有時 in ''

kanbun A is a form of Classical Chinese used in Japan from the Nara period to the mid-20th century. Much of Japanese literature was written in this style and it was the general writing style for official and intellectual works throughout the period. A ...

'' ("Chinese character writing"), and is now either written 或る時 with ''-ru'' る in ''

okurigana are kana suffixes following kanji stems in Japanese written words. They serve two purposes: to inflect adjectives and verbs, and to force a particular kanji to have a specific meaning and be read a certain way. For example, the plain verb f ...

'' indicating a

Group II A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

verb stem In linguistics, a word stem is a part of a word responsible for its lexical meaning. The term is used with slightly different meanings depending on the morphology of the language in question. In Athabaskan linguistics, for example, a verb stem ...

, or simply あるとき in ''

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" ori ...

''. Authors have described Dōgen's ''uji'' as an "intentional misreading" of ordinary language and a "deliberate misreading" of ''arutoki''. Dōgen etymologizes the two components of ''uji'' (有時) with usage examples from everyday Japanese. The first element ''u'' refers to "existence" or "being", and the second ''ji'' means "time; a time; times; the time when; at the time when; sometime; for a time". Several of Dōgen's earlier writings used the word ''arutoki'', for example, in a ''

kōan A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen. Etymology The Japanese term is the Sino-Ja ...

'' story, it repeatedly means "and then, one day" to signal that an important event is about to happen. Interpretations of ''uji'' are plentiful.

Dainin Katagiri Jikai , was a Sōtō Zen priest and teacher, and the founding abbot of Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he served from 1972 until his death from cancer in 1990. He is also the founder of Hokyoji Zen Practice Com ...

says that Dōgen used the novel term ''being-time'' to illustrate that sentient "beings" and "time" were unseparated. Thus, ''being'' represents all beings existing together in the formless realm of timelessness, and ''time'' characterizes the existence of independent yet interconnected moments. Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross say, ''u'' means "existence" and ''ji'' means "time," so ''uji'' means "existent time," or "existence-time." Since time is always related with existence and existence is always related with momentary time, the past and the future are not existent time—the point at which existence and time come together—the present moment is the only existent time. The Japanese keyword ''uji'' has more meanings than any single English rendering can encompass. Nevertheless, translation equivalents include: *Existence/Time *Being-Time *Being Time *Time-Being *Just for the Time Being, Just for a While, For the Whole of Time is the Whole of Existence. *Existence-Time *Existential moment

''Shōbōgenzō'' fascicle

Dôgen wrote his ''Uji'' essay at the beginning of winter in 1240, while he was teaching at the Kōshōhōrin-ji, south of Kyoto. It is one of the major fascicles of ''Shôbôgenzô'', and "one of the most difficult". Dôgen's central theme in ''Uji'' Being-Time, and an underlying theme in other fascicles such as Busshō (佛性, Buddha Nature), is the inseparability of time and existence in the everchanging present. The present ''Shōbōgenzō'' fascicle (number 20 in the 75 fascicle version) commences with a poem (four two-line stanzas) in which every line begins with ''uji'' (有時). The 1004 '' The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp'' collection of hagiographies for Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen monks attributes the first stanza to the Sōtō Zen

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

patriarch

Yaoshan Weiyan Yaoshan Weiyan (; Hànyǔ Pīnyīn: Yàoshān Wéiyǎn; ) was a Zen Buddhist monk who lived during the Tang dynasty. Biography As with most monks of the Tang Dynasty, there are conflicting lines of evidence concerning Yaoshan's life. The earliest ...

(745-827). An old Buddha said: For the time being, I stand astride the highest mountain peaks. For the time being, I move on the deepest depths of the ocean floor. For the time being, I'm three heads and eight arms

Asura Asuras (Sanskrit: असुर) are a class of beings in Indic religions. They are described as power-seeking clans related to the more benevolent Devas (also known as Suras) in Hinduism. In its Buddhist context, the word is sometimes translated ...

fighting demon]. For the time being, I'm eight feet or sixteen feet [a Dharmakāya, Buddha-body while seated or standing]. For the time being, I'm a staff or a whisk. For the time being, I'm a pillar or a lantern. For the time being, I'm Mr. Chang or Mr. Li ny Tom, Dick, or Harry For the time being, I'm the great earth and heavens above.. The translators note their choice of "for the time being" attempts to encompass Dōgen's wordplay with ''uji'' "being time" meaning ''arutoki'' "at a certain time; sometimes". Compare these other English translations of the first stanza: Sometimes (''uji'') standing so high up on the mountain top; Sometimes walking deep down on the bottom of the sea; For the time being stand on top of the highest peak. For the time being proceed along the bottom of the deepest ocean. At a time of being, standing on the summit of the highest peak; At a time of being, walking on the bottom of the deepest ocean. Standing atop a soaring mountain peak is for the time being And plunging down to the floor of the Ocean's abyss is for the time being; Being-time stands on top of the highest peak; Being-time goes to the bottom of the deepest ocean Sometimes standing on top of the highest peak, Sometimes moving along the bottom of the deepest ocean. Dōgen's ''Uji'' commentary on the poem begins by explaining that, "The 'time being' means time, just as it is, is being, and being is all time.", which shows the "unusual significance" he gives to the word ''uji'' "being-time.".

Interpretations

Many authors have researched and discussed Dōgen's theories of temporality. In English, there are two books and numerous articles on ''uji'' (有時, "being-time; time-being; etc."). According to the traditional interpretation, ''uji'' "means time itself is being, and all being is time". Hee-Jin Kim analyzed Dōgen's conception of ''uji'' "existence/time" as the way of spiritual freedom, and found that his discourse can be better understood in terms of ascesis rather than vision of

Buddha-nature Buddha-nature refers to several related Mahayana Buddhist terms, including '' tathata'' ("suchness") but most notably ''tathāgatagarbha'' and ''buddhadhātu''. ''Tathāgatagarbha'' means "the womb" or "embryo" (''garbha'') of the "thus-go ...

; "vision is not discredited, but penetrated, empowered by ascesis".

's 1983 article on the

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of Biblical hermeneutics, biblical texts, wisdom literature, and Philosophy, philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles ...

of temporality in the ''Shōbōgenzō'', that is, Dōgen critically reinterpreting and restating, "even at the risk of grammatical distortion," previous views of Buddha-nature in order to reflect the multidimensional unity of ''uji'' "being-time". For example, paraphrasing the venerated ''

Nirvana Sutra ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

'', "If you wish to know the Buddha-nature's meaning, you should watch temporal conditions. If the time arrives, the Buddha-nature will manifest itself," Dōgen reinterprets the phrase "if the time arrives" (''jisetsu nyakushi'' 時節若至) to mean "the time already arrived" (''jisetsu kishi'' 時節既至) and comments, "There is no time right now that is not a time that has arrived,.. There is no Buddha-nature that is not Buddha-nature fully manifested right here-and-now.". Heine's 1985 book contrasted the theories of time presented in Dōgen's 1231-1253 ''Shōbōgenzō'' and the German

's 1927 classic ''

'' (''Sein und Zeit''). Despite the vast cultural and historical gaps between medieval Japan and modern Germany, there are philosophical parallels. The conventional conceptualization of time is removed from the genuine experience of what Heidegger calls ''ursprüngliche Zeit'' ("primordial time", that is, temporalizing temporality) and similar to what Dōgen calls ''uji no dōri'' (有時の道理, "truth of eingtime").

Masao Abe was a Japanese Buddhist philosopher and religious studies scholar who was emeritus professor at Nara University. He is best known for his work in comparative religion, developing a Buddhist-Christian interfaith dialogue which later also inc ...

's and Steven Heine's article analyzes the origins of Dōgen's interest in being-time when he was a young monk on

Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei ...

, the headquarters of the

Tendai school , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

of Buddhism. According to the 1753 ''Kenzeiki'' (建撕記) traditional biography of Dōgen, he became obsessed by doubts about the Tendai concepts of ''

hongaku Hongaku () is an East Asian Buddhist doctrine often translated as "inherent", "innate", "intrinsic" or "original" enlightenment and is the view that all sentient beings already are enlightened or awakened in some way. It is closely tied with the c ...

'' (本覚, "original awakening") that all human beings are enlightened by nature, and ''shikaku'' (始覺, "acquired awakening") that enlightenment can only be achieved through resolve and practice. "Both exoteric and esoteric Buddhism teach the original Dharma-nature and innate self-nature. If that were true, why have the Buddhas of past, present, and future awakened the resolve for and sought enlightenment through ascetic practices?". Dōgen's doubt eventually led him to travel to

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...

China to seek a resolution, which was dissolved through the enlightenment experience of ''shinjin-datsuraku'' (身心脱落, "casting off of body-mind") when he was a disciple of

Rujing Tiāntóng Rújìng (天童如淨; Japanese: Tendō Nyojō) (1163-1228) was a Caodong Buddhist monk living in Qìngdé Temple (慶徳寺; Japanese: Keitoku-ji) on Tiāntóng Mountain (天童山; Japanese: Tendouzan) in Yinzhou District, Ningbo. H ...

(1162-1228). Joan Stambaugh, the philosopher and translator of

's writings including ''Being and Time'', wrote a book on Dōgen's understanding of temporality, Buddhist

, and Buddha-nature. Rather than writing yet another

comparative study Comparison or comparing is the act of evaluating two or more things by determining the relevant, comparable characteristics of each thing, and then determining which characteristics of each are similar to the other, which are different, and t ...

, Stambaugh chose to produce a " dialogical" encounter between Eastern thinkers and Western philosophers, including

Heraclitus Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. I ...

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, '' magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the t ...

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mat ...

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...

Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work '' The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the p ...

, Kierkegaard,

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ca ...

, and particularly Heidegger.

J. M. E. McTaggart John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart (3 September 1866 – 18 January 1925) was an English idealist metaphysician. For most of his life McTaggart was a fellow and lecturer in philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was an exponent of the phil ...

's classic argument that time is unreal differentiated two basic aspects of temporality, the " A-series and B-series": the A-series orders all events as continual transformations in time's passage, things are said to exist in the "future", then become "present", and finally enter the "past"; while the B-Series orders time as a set of relative temporal relationships between "earlier than" and "later than". Dirck Vorenkamp demonstrated that Dōgen's writings contained elements of the "

B-theory of time The B-theory of time, also called the "tenseless theory of time", is one of two positions regarding the temporal ordering of events in the philosophy of time. B-theorists argue that the flow of time is only a subjective illusion of human consciousn ...

". The ''Shōbōgenzō'' describes time's passage without reference to a sentient subject, "You should learn that passage 'kyōraku'' (経歴)occurs without anything external. For example, spring's passage is necessarily that which passes through spring." Trent Collier contrasts how Dōgen and

Shinran ''Popular Buddhism in Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture'' by Esben Andreasen, pp. 13, 14, 15, 17. University of Hawaii Press 1998, was a Japanese Buddhist monk, who was born in Hino (now a part of Fushimi, Kyoto) at the turbulent close of ...

(1173-1263), the founder of the

Jōdo Shinshū , also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan. History Shinran ...

sect of

Pure Land Buddhism Pure Land Buddhism (; ja, 浄土仏教, translit=Jōdo bukkyō; , also referred to as Amidism in English,) is a broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism focused on achieving rebirth in a Buddha's Buddha-field or Pure Land. It is one of the most widel ...

, diversely understood the role of time in Buddhist enlightenment. These two leaders in

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kama ...

Buddhism believed in two different forms of spiritual practice with disparate temporal concepts; Dōgen advocated ''

zazen ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technicall ...

'' or ''

shikantaza is Dogen's Japanese language, Japanese translation of the Chinese language, Chinese phrase ''zhǐguǎn dǎzuò'' (只管打坐 / 祇管打坐), "just sitting." The phrase was used by his teacher Rujing, a monk of the Caodong school of Zen Buddh ...

'' ("just sitting") meditation and Shinran emphasized the recitation of the ''

nembutsu Nianfo (, Japanese: , , vi, niệm Phật) is a term commonly seen in Pure Land Buddhism. In the context of Pure Land practice, it generally refers to the repetition of the name of Amitābha. It is a translation of Sanskrit '' '' (or, "recoll ...

'' ("repeating the name of Amida") alone. Dōgen's notion of ''uji'' unified time and being, and consequently things in the world do not exist ''in'' time, but ''are'' time". According to the ''Uji'' fascicle, ''zazen'' falls outside the common understanding of time as past, present, and future. Dōgen declares that "When even just one person, at one time, sits in ''zazen'', he becomes, imperceptively, one with each and all the myriad things, and permeates completely all time." Everything in reality is to be found in the absolute ''now'' of being-time. For Shinran, the central Pure Land awakening or experience is ''

shinjin In Shin Buddhism, Shinjin (信心) was originally the Japanese word for the Buddhist concept of citta-prasāda (clear or clarified heart-mind), but now carries a more popular related meaning of faith or entrusting. According to Ueda, "shinjin is ...

'' ("faith; piety; devotion"), the unfolding of Amida's wisdom-compassion in the believer. Shinran teaches that ''ichinen'' (一念, "one thought-moment") of ''shinjin'' is "time at its ultimate limit," and in the subjective experience of the practitioner, Amida's Primal Vow in the past and the Pure Land of the future are realized simultaneously. There are two ways of interpreting this "ultimate limit". In the first sense, it is the ultimate limit of '' samsaric'' existence, deluded and foolish existence stretched to its end; and in the second, "ultimate limit" refers to the absolute brevity of the one thought-moment, "the briefest instant of time, a moment so brief that it cannot be further divided".

Rein Raud Rein Raud (born 21 December 1961) is an Estonian scholar and author. Early life He was born in 1961 in the family of Eno Raud and Aino Pervik, both children's authors. He is the eldest of three children. His younger brother Mihkel Raud is a ...

wrote two articles concerning Dōgen's notion of ''uji'', translated as "being-time". and "existential moment", respectively. Raud's first study compared ''uji'' with Nishida Kitarō's interpretation of ''basho'' ( 場所, "place, location") as "the locus of tension, where the contradictory self-identities are acted out and complementary opposites negate each other", and is thus "the 'place' where impermanence happens". Both these

Japanese philosophers Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspo ...

believed that in order to attain self-realization one must transcend the "ordinary" reality not by rising above it, and thereby separating oneself from it, but by "becoming" it, realizing oneself in it and the totality of the world, including "being-time". His second study reinterprets Dōgen's concept of time as primarily referring to momentary rather than durational existence, and translates ''uji'' as "existential moment" in opposition to the usual understanding of time as measurable and divisible. According to Raud, this interpretation enables "more lucid readings" of many key passages in the ''Shōbōgenzō'', such as translating the term ''kyōraku'' (経歴, "passage", etc.) as "shifting". In present day usage, this term is commonly read as Japanese ''keireki'' ( 経歴, "personal history; résumé; career") and Chinese ''jīnglì'' ( 經歷, "go through; undergo; experience"). Scholars have translated Dōgen's ''kyōraku'' as "continuity" (Masunaga), "flowing", "stepflow", "passing in a series of moments" (Nishijima and Cross), "passage", "totalistic passage or process" (Heine), and "seriatim passage". One translator says, "These attempts basically hit the mark, but fail to convey the freshness and originality of Dōgen's terminology, which is the verbal equivalent of him waving his arms wildly and screaming at the top of his lungs across the centuries to us: 'Look at my radical new idea about time!'". Compare these two renderings:

Being-time has the virtue of seriatim passage; it passes from today to tomorrow, passes from today to yesterday, passes from yesterday to today, passes from today to today, passes from tomorrow to tomorrow. This is because passing seriatim is a virtue of time. Past time and present time do not overlap one another, or pile up in a row.

The existential moment has the quality of shifting. It shifts from what we call "today" into "tomorrow," it shifts from "today" into "yesterday," and from "yesterday" into "today" in turn. It shifts from "today" into "today," it shifts from "tomorrow" into "tomorrow." This is because shifting is the quality of the momentary. The moments of the past and the present do not pile on each other nor do they line up side by side.Tr. .

says Dōgen's ''uji'' Being-time means the complete oneness of time and space, "dynamically functioning from moment to moment as illumination that is alive in the individual self". When time, being, self, and illumination come together and work dynamically in one's life, time and being are unified. Furthermore, self is time. The "self arrays itself and forms the entire universe." One should perceive each particular thing in the universe as a moment of time. Neither things nor moments hinder one another.

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Footnotes

External links

On 'Just for the Time Being, Just for a While, For the Whole of Time is the Whole of Existence' (Uji)
Nearman (2007) translation.

Welch and Tanahashi (1985) translation.

Reiho Masunaga translation.
''Uji'' (Existence-Time)
Seijun Ishii, Sotozen-Net.
For the Time-Being: Buddhism, Dōgen, and Temporality
Anthony Ridenour. {{Eihei Dōgen Concepts in metaphysics Philosophy of time Soto Zen Zen Buddhist philosophical concepts

Terminology

''Shōbōgenzō'' fascicle

Interpretations

See also

References

Further reading

External links