Kobutsushin
Kobutsushin or Kobusshin (
Eihei Dōgen. The book appears ninth in the 75 fascicle version of the Shōbōgenzō, and it is ordered 44th in the later chronological 95 fascicle "Honzan edition".[1] It was presented to his students in the fourth month of 1243 at Rokuharamitsu-ji, a temple in a neighborhood of eastern Kyoto populated primarily by military officials of the new Kamakura shogunate. This was the same location where he presented another book of the same collection called Zenki. Both were short works compared to others in the collection, and in both cases he was likely invited to present them at the behest of his main patron, Hatano Yoshishige, who lived nearby. Later in the same year, Dōgen suddenly abandoned his temple Kōshōhōrin-ji in Kyoto and began to establish Eihei-ji.[2]
The first half of the text stakes out a novel interpretation of the meaning of the term Kobutsu (古佛), literally meaning "Old Buddha". While typically the term had been used to refer to the
Seven Buddhas of Antiquity, Dōgen uses it to refer to all of those before him who have passed on the Zen tradition. More specifically, Dōgen denies the duality of the buddhas of the ancient past and the practitioners of the more recent past and present.[2] He then supports this usage by citing examples from Zen records of the past teachers Tiantong Rujing, Yuanwu Keqin, Sushan Guangren
,
and Xuefeng Yicun.[3]
The second half of the text focuses on the full term used as the title of the book, Kobutushin (古佛心), literally "Old Buddha Mind". He does so through the presentation of a famous saying from
Seven Buddhas of Antiquity.[2]
References
- ISBN 978-0-19-975447-2
- ^ a b c Bielefeldt, Carl (2003), Kobutsushin: Introduction, Sotoshu Shumucho
- ISBN 978-1-886439-37-5
