Read one line of Genjōkōan and stay with it
Take a single sentence of Dōgen’s Genjōkōan and read it slowly, without moving to the next line until something in it has been noticed.
Why it works
Genjōkōan is written in short sentences that each hold a whole view of practice, delusion and awakening, so a slow reading can test them against experience line by line. The Sōtōshū’s English edition prints the Japanese beside the translation and adds notes to each sentence, which lets a reader see where the translation is contested. Slow reading is a way of letting the text work on attention rather than only on understanding. Its effect is not measured here.
How to do it
- Read one sentence of the Sōtōshū’s English Genjōkōan aloud, then once more in silence.
- Read the footnote to that sentence, and note where the translation leaves a word open.
- Sit quietly for a few breaths and ask whether the sentence describes anything you did today.
- Move on only when you have noticed something; the next line can wait until the next day.
Evidence
The text and its notes are the Sōtōshū’s English edition of Genjōkōan. The slow-reading method is the tradition’s pedagogy for Dōgen’s writings, and it has not been tested as a practice. (anecdotal)
This practice is drawn from one source, the Sōtōshū’s English PDF. Reading Dōgen without a teacher can produce confident but mistaken readings. The notes in the Sōtōshū edition help; a Sōtō sangha or teacher helps more.
Sources
Common mistake
Racing through the text to reach its conclusion, or treating each sentence as a riddle to solve. The reading is meant to be tested against your own experience, not finished.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Shushō Ittō: Dōgen on Practice and Realization as One
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Notice when you sit, study or work in order to arrive somewhere, and let the activity itself be the practice you are doing now.
- Study the self as it appears during an ordinary task
While doing something routine, notice the image of yourself you are trying to keep up, and let it loosen rather than defend it.
- Let an ordinary thing verify you
Rest attention on one everyday object until it, rather than you, seems to be doing the noticing for a few breaths.
- Hold one present moment as the whole of time
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- Cook one meal with the three minds of Tenzo Kyōkun
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Related concepts
- Shikantaza: Just Sitting
Dogen’s objectless meditation — how to sit, what to expect, and honest evidence
- Zen Buddhism: Its History, the Rinzai and Sōtō Schools, and How to Begin
The branch as a whole: where Zen came from, how its schools differ, and the practices of a Zen community
- Zen Practice (Zazen and Beyond)
Zazen, shikantaza, koans, and beginner’s mind — mechanisms and honest evidence
- Beginner's Mind (Shoshin), Made Practical
Shoshin — the Zen practice of not-knowing as a daily discipline
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