Dosho Port has a thoughtful post up called "What is Enlightenment and What Does It Matter Anyway?" These are great questions. I'd love to tackle these questions, also, but at the moment I am struggling to answer any question more challenging than "Where are the cough drops?"
That said, there is one little snip of Dosho's post that I'd like to try to address --
"I regard Dogen's work, and Genjokoan particularly, as a source text for Soto training, not as authoritative or something to submit to but as a barrier to be met or better, as a friend in conversation. Source texts as such are companions for us on this endless journey."
With what mind do we read Buddhist texts and commentaries? Usually when we read to learn something we choose a text that we trust is authoritative. We expect the words to explain something to us or give us direction, and we accept that what it says is true.
However, I suspect most of us have had the experience of taking up a highly recommended sutra or commentary, only to find that it makes no sense. Try as we might, we cannot wrap our heads around the rhetoric. If we take the text to a teacher he or she may be able to clear it up a little, although not completely.
Yet, we are told this is a seminal text of our school. Generations of teachers have called this text is a font of wisdom. But to you, it's word salad. Or else, what is seems to be saying doesn't sound wise at all.
For example, the very first time I heard the Heart Sutra I found it a bit sinister. There I was chanting "No eye ear nose tongue body mind no color sound smell taste touch thing no realm of sight no realm of consciousness ..." and thinking, uh, that doesn't sound good.
But everyone else in the zendo was chanting heartily away. This enigmatic text obviously was very important. But what in the world did it mean?
You can choose to ignore the text, of course. After all, the Buddha taught in the Kalama Sutta that we're not to blindly accept the authority of any book. But this text came to you through the efforts of countless generations of dharma ancestors, who learned it, chanted it, copied it, translated it. Why?
I like the metaphor of barrier. This text represents something you're not seeing. Pay attention!
What you may find is that a text your teacher insists you read or chant eventually soaks deeply into you, and then it begins to reveal itself. Probably not all at once, but over time, this or that phrase will come up and suddenly become clearer. When this happens, the text has become your companion.
Or, you can analyze the thing to death and cobble together some cognitive approximation of what it means. But then, you would probably be wrong.
Along with the Heart Sutra, some of my long-time companions are Genjokoan -- possibly Dogen's best-known text -- the Diamond Sutra, and some of the classic koans. What are some of yours?
Oh, and regarding my old friend the Heart Sutra, I am happy to report that twenty-something years later I think I am starting to catch on to what it is saying. Maybe.
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