Uji (Being-Time)
Uji | ||
---|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin yǒushí | | |
Wade–Giles | yu-shih | |
Hakka | ||
Romanization | yû-sṳ̀ | |
Yue: Cantonese | ||
Jyutping | jau5 si4 | |
Middle Chinese | ||
Middle Chinese | ɦɨuX d͡ʑɨ |
Transcriptions | |
---|---|
Revised Romanization | yusi |
McCune–Reischauer | yusi |
Transcriptions | |
---|---|
Revised Hepburn | uji |
The
Terminology
Dögen's writings can be notoriously difficult to understand and translate, frequently owing to his
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
Interpretations of uji are plentiful. Dainin Katagiri 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.[7] 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.[8]
The Japanese keyword uji has more meanings than any single English rendering can encompass. Nevertheless, translation equivalents include:
- Existence/Time[9]
- Being-Time[10][11]
- Being Time[12]
- Time-Being[13]
- Just for the Time Being, Just for a While, For the Whole of Time is the Whole of Existence.[14]
- Existence-Time[15]
- Existential moment[16]
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".[17] 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 patriarch Yaoshan Weiyan (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 [of an Asura fighting demon].
For the time being, I'm eight feet or sixteen feet [a 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 [any Tom, Dick, or Harry].
For the time being, I'm the great earth and heavens above..[18]
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:[19]
Sometimes (uji) standing so high up on the mountain top;
Sometimes walking deep down on the bottom of the sea; [20]
For the time being stand on top of the highest peak.
For the time being proceed along the bottom of the deepest ocean.[21]
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.[22]
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;[6]
Being-time stands on top of the highest peak;
Being-time goes to the bottom of the deepest ocean[23]
Sometimes standing on top of the highest peak,
Sometimes moving along the bottom of the deepest ocean.[8]
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.".[18]
Interpretations
Many authors have researched and discussed Dōgen's theories of temporality. In English, there are two books[24] 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".[13]
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; "vision is not discredited, but penetrated, empowered by ascesis".[25]
Heine's 1985 book contrasted the theories of time presented in Dōgen's 1231-1253 Shōbōgenzō and the German
Masao Abe'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, the headquarters of the Tendai school 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 (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?".[28] Dōgen's doubt eventually led him to travel to Song dynasty 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 (1162-1228).
Trent Collier contrasts how Dōgen and
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.[38] 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".[39] 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",[13] "stepflow",[40] "passing in a series of moments" (Nishijima and Cross), "passage",[12] "totalistic passage or process" (Heine), and "seriatim passage".[10] 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!'".[41] 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.[42]
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.[43]
Dainin Katagiri 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.[44] 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.[45]
See also
References
- "Dōgen's View of Time and Space". The Eastern Buddhist. 21 (2). Translated by Abe, Masao; Heine, Steven: 1–35. 1988.
- Cleary, Thomas (1986). Shōbōgenzō, Zen essays. University of Hawaii Press.
- Collier, Trent (2000). "Time and Self: Religious Awakening in Dōgen and Shinran". The Eastern Buddhist. 32 (1): 56–84.
- JSTOR 1399098.
- Heine, Steven (1985). Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dōgen. SUNY Press.
- Katagiri, Dainin (2007). Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time. Shambhala Publications.
- Myers, Bob (2008). First Dōgen Book, Selected essays from Dōgen Zenji's Shōbōgenzō (PDF). Terebess.
- Shōbōgenzō, The Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching, A Trainee's Translation of Great Master Dōgen's Spiritual Masterpiece. Translated by Nearman, Hubert. Shasta Abbey Press. 2007. Archived from the original on 2010-01-11.
- Kim, Hee-Jin (1978). "Existence/Time as the Way of Ascesis: An Analysis of the Basic Structure of Dōgen's Thought". The Eastern Buddhist. 11 (2): 43–73.
- Shōbōgenzō: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury (4 vols). Translated by Nishijima, Gudo; Cross, Chodo. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. 2008.
- S2CID 144883959.
- S2CID 51762866.
- Stambaugh, Joan (1990). Impermanence is Buddha-Nature: Dōgen's Understanding of Temporality. University of Hawaii Press.
- Vorenkamp, Dirck (1995). "B-Series Temporal Order in Dōgen's Theory of Time". Philosophy East and West. 45 (3): 387–408. JSTOR 1399395.
- Waddell, Norman (1979). "Being Time: Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō Uji". The Eastern Buddhist. 12 (1): 114–129.
- "Uji 有時 (Being-Time)". The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō. Translated by Waddell, Norman; Abe, Masao. SUNY Press. 2001. pp. 47–58.
- Watanabe, Toshirō (渡邊敏郎); et al., eds. (2003). Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary (新和英大辞典) (5th ed.). Kenkyusha.
- Kazuaki Tanahashi, ed. (1985). "The Time-Being, Uji". The Moon in a Dewdrop; writings of Zen Master Dōgen. Translated by Welch, Dan; Tanahashi, Kazuaki. North Point Press. pp. 76–83.
Footnotes
- ^ Heine 1985, p. 155.
- ^ Tanaka, Koji (2013), "Contradictions in Dōgen," Philosophy East and West 63.3: 322-334. p. 323.
- ^ Watanabe, Skrzypczak & Snowden 2003, p. 94.
- ^ Heine 1983, p. 141.
- ^ Raud 2004, p. 39.
- ^ a b Nearman 2007, p. 106.
- ^ Nearman 2007, p. 73.
- ^ a b Nishijima & Cross 2008, p. 143.
- ^ Kim 1978.
- ^ a b Waddell 1979.
- ^ Roberts, Shinshu (2018), Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō Uji, Wisdom Publications.
- ^ a b Cleary 1986.
- ^ a b c Welch & Tanahashi 1985.
- ^ Nearman 2007.
- ^ Nishijima & Cross 2008.
- ^ a b Raud 2012.
- ^ Waddell & Abe 2001, p. 47.
- ^ a b Waddell & Abe 2001, p. 48.
- ^ Adapting Lucut 2001.[full citation needed]
- ^ Tr. Heine 1985, p. 155.
- ^ Welch & Tanahashi 1985, p. 76.
- ^ Tr. Cleary 1986, p. 104.
- ^ Tr. Katagiri 2007, p. 85.
- ^ Heine 1985; Stambaugh 1990.
- ^ Kim 1978, p. 45.
- ^ Heine 1983, pp. 139–40.
- ^ Heine 1985, pp. 105–152.
- ^ Abe & Heine 1988, p. 2.
- ^ Stambaugh, Joan (1996), tr. of Martin Heidegger Being and Time, SUNY Press.
- ^ Stambaugh 1990, p. ix.
- ^ Vorenkamp 1995, p. 392.
- ^ Collier 2000, p. 59.
- ^ Collier 2000, p. 62.
- ^ Collier 2000, p. 57.
- ^ Collier 2000, p. 70.
- ^ Raud 2004.
- ^ Raud 2004, p. 46.
- ^ Raud 2012, p. 153.
- ^ Raud 2012, p. 167.
- ^ Myers 2008.
- ^ Myers 2008, p. 114.
- ^ Tr. Waddell 1979, p. 120.
- ^ Tr. Raud 2012, p. 165.
- ^ Katagiri 2007, p. 85.
- ^ Katagiri 2007, p. 93.
Further reading
- Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan, World Wisdom Books.
- Nelson, Andrew N. and John H. Haig (1997), The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary, C. E. Tuttle Co.
- Lecut, Frederic (2009), Master Dōgen's Uji, 8 translations.
- Nishijima, Gudo and Chodo Cross 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999), Master Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, 4 vols., Windbell Publications.
- Nishiyama Kōsen and John Stevens, trs., (1975, 1977, 1983, 1983), Shōbōgenzō (The Eye and Treasury of the True Law), 4 vols., Nakayama Shobō.
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.
- Uji: The Time-Being by Eihei Dōgen, Welch and Tanahashi (1985) translation.
- Eihei Dōgen's The Time-Being (Uji), Reiho Masunaga translation.
- Uji (Existence-Time), Seijun Ishii, Sotozen-Net.
- For the Time-Being: Buddhism, Dōgen, and Temporality, Anthony Ridenour.