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things as if he has heard about them. He has seen them. He is talking about things that may be happening. Some people hear the master and some people don't hear.
TIME FLIES FASTER THAN AN ARROW; LIFE IS MORE TRANSIENT THAN A DEWDROP. SOME MAY HAVE THE MASTER, BUT REGRET THAT THEY CANNOT HEAR HIS TEACHINGS. SOME WISH TO LISTEN TO HIS TEACHINGS, BUT REGRET THAT THEY CANNOT SEE THE MASTER HIMSELF.
Unfortunately, Dogen is still not a master. I have just finished a series on Dogen. Those were the statements when he must have become a master. But these statements, without any doubt, show that he has taken notes but has no authority of his own. A master speaks with authority, the authority that comes out of his own experience.
ON ANOTHER OCCASION, DOGEN SAID:
MY OWN MASTER NEVER EASILY PERMITTED NEW MONKS TO STAY IN HIS TEMPLE.
Now it is impossible for a master to do such an unkind act. Everybody has to begin someday. Everybody is new... even those who are old disciples started one day as new disciples. Now, not to permit the new monks to stay in the temple is sheer unkindness, and that is not a sign of a master. Perhaps Dogen has stayed with a teacher.
And when he rejected people, USUALLY SAYING, "THOSE, WHO, LACKING IN THE BODHI-MIND, BEHAVE THEMSELVES MERELY FROM FORCE OF HABIT MUST NOT STAY HERE." HAVING TURNED THEM OUT, HE SAID, "THEY ARE LACKING IN THE BODHI-SEEKING MIND. WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO? SUCH FELLOWS ONLY DISTURB OTHERS."
Not only was Dogen not a master at the time these words were written, his master also was not a master.
The very miracle of the master is to transform the disciple. I cannot conceive that a master will reject anyone. The very foundation of Zen is that everybody is a buddha, whether he knows it or not. The function of the master is very easy: just to help the person to remember his self-nature. There is nowhere one has to go, no discipline has to be enforced, no self-torture... just a silent searching within oneself. And the master creates the atmosphere.
You see the miracle every day. The new person comes and as he joins in this energy field he becomes as old as you are. His
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