Dogen · Theology
Dōgen’s radical rereading of a line from the Nirvāṇa Sūtra: not that beings <em>have</em> Buddha-nature as a hidden possession, but that all beings, all existence itself, <em>are</em> Buddha-nature - and that impermanence, not some eternal essence, is exactly what Buddha-nature is.
You learned that Dōgen reread the Nirvāṇa Sūtra’s ‘all sentient beings have Buddha-nature’ as ‘whole-being is Buddha-nature’ ( shitsuu = whole-being), rejecting Buddha-nature as a permanent inner self, and made the shocking claim that ‘impermanence itself is Buddha-nature.’ Ex…
Leads to Baruch Spinoza.
Begin this lesson →epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.