Dharma Talks · Teachings of Dogen

Life is Sailing – The Moment of the Boat

Life can be likened to a time when a person is sailing in a boat. On this boat, I am operating the sail, I have taken the rudder, I am pushing the pole; at the same time, the boat is carrying me, and there is no “I” beyond the boat. Through my sailing of the boat, this boat is being caused to be a boat—let us consider, and learn in practice, just this moment of the present. At this very moment, there is nothing other than the world of the boat: the sky, the water, the shore have all become the moment of the boat, which is utterly different from moments not on the boat. So life is what I am making it, and I am what life is making me. While I am sailing in the boat, my body and mind and circumstances and self are all essential parts of the boat; and the whole earth and the whole of space are all essential parts of the boat. What has been described like this is that life is the self, and the self is life.

Dogen Zenji – 1200-1253

Thank you to Roshi Jundo Cohen for his dharma talk on October 7. 2017

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15692-SIT-A-LONG-with-JUNDO-Sailing-Shikantaza

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