Late in 2019 I began re-reading through my four volume copy of Dogen's Shobogenzo. The last time I did this was twenty years ago and it took me four years to complete. My experience then was of constantly being thrust up against my ignorance, non-comprehension, the impenetrable cliff of being spiritually baffled and yet strangely thrilled, often simultaneously. Six months into my re-reading I reached the chapter Uji, usually translated as 'being-time' or 'existence time' and I've been erratically, and given the nature of the text, slowly working my way through the three modern commentaries on it that I have.
Uji is challenging to understand, I don't quite get or connect with quite a lot of it still. Yet what I do grasp of it has come to mean a hell of lot to me. The dense allusive phrases, rich metaphors, stories, koans, all embellished with colourful imagery reference ideas that do not easily unpack themselves even to experienced Zen Buddhists. You do need an experienced reliable teacher or their commentary to guide you through it. It is clear to me that Uji contains the central idea informing Dogen's whole approach to spiritual and everyday life, so it warranted close examination. I've published a simplified summary of what I think I've understood in an article that preceded this post.
Dogen's use of the unified terms 'practice-realisation and 'being-time' are pretty much unique to him. Like' buddha-nature' their identifiable antecedents in Buddhist texts are hard to locate beyond the late flowerings of the Mahayana itself. If there has ever been such a thing as a pure orthodox view in Buddhism, then Dogen was taking a knowing detour from it. However, the idea of 'being-time' does support and form interesting new correlations with the Buddha's fundamental teachings of conditioned co-production and contemplation of impermanence. You could say he was simply opening up a new window upon an familiar landscape that needed refreshing..Three Commentaries on Uji
I've read Each Moment Is The Universe twice now. It is an intelligent compilation of edited talks given by Katagiri over a number of years which relate to or explore themes derived from Uji. As such it is a bit scatter gun in its logical sequence, lacking the directed flow of exposition that a purposely written book would have. Katagiri comes across as a gifted teacher, with a very personable accessible style of presentation that avoids becoming too tangled in the texts more abstruse philosophical consequences. His focus is on how the idea of 'being~time' itself affects our everyday practice and daily life. I did gain a basic grasp of' being-time' through reading this book and in my opinion it is the best introductory commentary on Uji currently available. *****
The Kosho Uchiyama, I think has likewise been edited down from a series of talks. But they do have a sense of a coherent sequence running through them. Uchiyama, like Katagiri, avoids using specifically Buddhist jargon and tries to express even a complex text such as Uji in as straightforward a language as possible. Had I not read the Katagiri first, I'm sure I would have found his commentary as revelatory. For me, it reinforced through restatement what I'd first understood through reading the Katagiri. Both Uchiyama and Katagiri are great spiritual communicators and the depth of their practice shines through in the plain, matter of fact and frequently humorous way they present their thoughts and reflections. ****
Shinshu Roberts - Pub Wisdom - 2018
Shinshu Roberts takes a logical, thorough going approach, with a line by line, paragraph by paragraph dissection and exploration of the themes in Uji's text. This means the commentary itself can quickly become extremely heavy going. There was something absent for me in its depth and illumination that I can't quite put my finger on. The use of the subtitle A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji, I found to be not sufficiently born out by the commentary itself. It's not very practical. It has a dry, academic tone, with few cogent examples drawn from experience how the whole notion of 'being-time' might imaginatively play out in our day to day life and practice. I doggedly stuck with it to the bitter end, but with a diminishing sense of active engagement. ***
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