Dogen, S, "Zazengi" (The Principles of Zazen)
For the self to carry itself forward and practice/verify the myriad things is delusion; for the myriad things to advance and practice/verify the self is enlightenment. Those who greatly enlighten delusion are buddhas; those who are greatly deluded about enlightenment are deluded beings. There are those who are further enlightened beyond enlightement; there are those who are further deluded amid delusion." (Dogen)
"Reflecting still further on this broad outline of delusion and enlightenment set out in his Shobogenzo, "Genjokoan" (1233), . . the relationship between delusion and enlightenment is such that one is not the simple negation or absence of the other, nor does one precede or succeed the other. Enlightenment must not descend to, or incarnate as, delusion. It is, in Dogen's favorite phrase, "ever intimate" (shinzo) with and transparent to delusion. This intimacy (mitsu; shimmitsu) suggests the nonduality of delusion and enlightenment that, inasmuch as it always intimates lively tensions between the two, and precisely for that reason, makes enlightenment "great enlightenment" and delusion "great delusion" (daimei).
Delusion and enlightenment differ from one another perspectivally, are never metaphysical opposites (such as good and evil, or the one and the many, as ordinarily understood), and are both temporal, coexistive, and coeternal as ongoing salvific processes. In this respect, I would call them "foci" rather than "antitheses" or "polarities." They are orientational and perspectival foci within the structure and dynamics of realization (genjo). As such, their boundaries, though provisional, always remain and are never erased. Yet they are "permeable," so to speak, instead of "incommensurable." In light of such an intimate, dynamic relationship, enlightenment consists not so much in replacing as in dealing with or "negotiating" delusion in the manner consistent with its principles. By the same token, delusion is not ordinary by any means; it is constantly illumined and clarified by enlightenment in the ongoing salvific process, ad infinitum."
—Hee-Jin Kim, Dogen on Meditation and Thinking (pp. 4-5)
Portrait of Dogen, 2023, acrylic on paper, 18" x 24"
Thinking/not-thinking/nonthinking, 2018, acrylic on clapboard, 18" x 24"
Mountain Walking, 2011, acrylic on paper, 22.5" x 30"
A Shattered Mirror, A Fallen Flower, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 38" x 56"
Someone Nonthinking, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 66" x 66"
Full Round Moon, 2020, acrylic on board, 22" x 28"
Blue Blaze, 2021, acrylic on paper, 22.5" x 30"
An Ancient Mirror, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 28" x 28"
without a need to speak of an "I", 2023, acrylic on canvas, 22" x 56"
Clarity [hexagram 30: li ], 2023, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"
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