Jundo Cohen - Treeleaf Zendo · Teachings of Dogen

Life is like getting on a boat – Dogen Zenji

 “Not a single moment or thing stands apart from life. Nor is there a single event or mind that does not accompany life. Life is like getting on a boat. On this boat, we ourselves use the sail and control the rudder. Although we push with the pole, it is the boat that carries us. Without the boat we are not. By getting on a boat we make it a boat. This is the moment that you must study and understand. At just this moment there is nothing but the world of the boat. Heaven, water, and shore – all these fuse into the instant of the boat. This differs from a boat less instant. And so we make this life arise, and it vitalizes our own life. In ridding the boat, body, mind, and world all become instruments of the boat. The entire earth and sky become instruments of the boat. We as life and life as us are like this.”                                                                        – Shobogenzo-Zenki – Dogen Zenji

as quoted by Jundo Cohen Roshi

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