FINISHED READING - The Roots Of Goodness by Eihei Dogen

 A commentary by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, Translated by Daitsu Tom Wright

Uchiyama's commentary is derived from a series of talks he gave on the final essay from Dogen's Shobogenzo,- Hachi Dainin Gaku. This was during the last years of Uchiyama's life, where he found greater depths and resonance in this text, the more he examined and spoke in public about it. He felt it included everything you needed to practice, each quality interconnected with the others. The Japanese title roughly translates as The Eight Qualities of a Great Person. Dogen's essay was itself an exposition upon the Buddha's final teaching. So there is an air of the final summing up of  lifetimes of Buddhist practice, from all its past and present lineage of wise contributors, that has now ended up as this book. The Eight Qualities are :-

1 - Having Few Desires
2 - Knowing When One Has Enough
3 - Appreciating Serenity & Quiet
4 - Make Diligent Effort
5 - Do Not Lose Sight Of The True Dharma
6 - Concentrate On Settling Into Dhyana ( Meditation)
7 - Practice Wisdom
8 - Do Not Engage In Useless Argument

In The Roots Of Goodness the first discussion is on who the Great Person is. Whilst most of us might like think of ourselves as an adult, we are quite frequently still compulsively driven by childish, petty minded thinking and immature emotional responses. Letting desire run rampant as a motivating force for our life and relationships, and hence feel frustrated or despairing about how unfulfilled our life feels.. A Great Person is not such an impulsively driven individual, having learned to master these eight qualities they have become a True Adult.  Why did they need to do this? Why, indeed, would we? It all depends on what we believe is the true purpose of our life. 

'Anyone who asks who or what they're living for is mistakenly searching for a most fundamental value outside of their self. That I am living means that I myself am living right now......When I was born, I was born along with my world. When I die, my entire world will die with me. I am living right now - this is the foundation of all values. So if we ask what we're living for - I am alive, living for me, I'm living right now; that's it. living fully right now is what is of absolute value.'

So having a life has its own absolute value in the present moment. Desires exist as a perpetual fantasy of the not yet fully arrived future. Despair is the shadow side of those desires when unfulfilled. So the first and primary guideline to practice, is learning How to have few desires. And running in tandem with that Knowing when you have enough. 

Our society is compulsively obsessed with making money and progressively getting wealthier, to the point that multi-billionaires do not even conceive that they might have enough, and continue to want more and more. Whilst the poor never have the luxury of feeling like they have enough. And in-between these two extreme polarities lies the complete spectrum of lack and dissatisfaction, from people who really do have nothing to worry about financially. Its no wonder Uchiyama's primary urging with regard to knowing when you have enough is first - Just stop your whining! 

Those first two guidelines - Have few desires - Know when you have enough - these are the central guidelines from which the remaining six find their context and all grow out from. All eight guidelines run counter to the prevailing values of our late capitalist society. They also could help us steer our lives much better through the gathering storm of temptations in modern life. 

'It's winter, very cold, and you're walking along in noisy shoes clip,  clop, clip clop. Oh, You look down and spot something; it looks like a wallet that someone has dropped, and it seems to be filled with money! You look around, and luckily, no one is watching. You bend over to pick it up, but it's frozen in the ice. You can't move it. You pause, and then this genius idea pops into your head. You open your kimono and let rip a fountain of warm pee, melting the ice. You really are a genius, but as you bend over to pick up the wallet, you wake up from what was just a dream, The wallet filled with money was just a phantom! But that beautiful fountain of pee was no dream; it was a reality. And the result stays around to haunt you - now, you've got to wash the futon and set it out to dry.'

Uchiyama's style is often so colourful but dry. He is very straightforward, but doesn't get too caught up in the metaphysical complexities that some concepts imply. He gives quite practical, often humourous, and very down to earth examples, to relate too. I have read and studied several of his books, and each of them is a joy to read and find myself repeatedly being re-inspired by. Uchiyama is often translated by Daitso Tom Wright, as was my first introduction to Dogen, their book How To Cook Your Life, on Dogen's Instructions to the Tenzo. Probably the single most influential Buddhist book on my approach to the spiritual life. A book I've returned too to study countless times. And still I find more in it with each re-reading. The combination of Dogen, Uchiyama and Daitso Tom Wright is in my book, an unbeatable one. The Roots Of Goodness is another book I will look forward to re-reading again, more than likely quite soon.

CARROT REVIEW - 7/8