Be moderate in eating and drinking. Mindful of the passing of time, engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire.
DogenRead
If you cannot find the truth within yourself, where else do you expect to find it?
Interpretation
The quote suggests that self-reflection is essential for discovering one's personal truth.
Dogen emphasizes the importance of introspection in the search for truth. He implies that external sources of truth are insufficient if one has not sought and understood their own beliefs, values, and understanding of the world. True knowledge and insight come from within, and without this internal exploration, any search for truth is likely to be shallow or misguided.
In practice
In a personal development workshop, when discussing the journey of self-discovery.
Be moderate in eating and drinking. Mindful of the passing of time, engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire.
In the assemblies of the enlightened ones there have been many cases of mastering the Way bringing forth the heart of plants and trees; this is what awakening the mind for enlightenment is like. The fifth patriarch of Zen was once a pine-planting wayfarer; Rinzai worked on planting cedars and pines on Mount Obaku. . . . Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment.
To start from the self and try to understand all things is delusion. To let the self be awakened by all things is enlightenment.
A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.
Do not travel to other dusty lands, forsaking your own sitting place; if you cannot find the truth where you are now, you will never find it.
Do no harmful actions, do not become attached to the cycle of death and rebirth, show kindness, respect the old and have compassion for the young, do not have a heart that rejects or a heart that covets and have no worry or sadness in your heart. This is what is called enlightenment. Do not seek it elsewhere.
Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it's true.
Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
That we must all die, we always knew, I wish I had sooner remembred it.
Pay attention to the hungry, both in this country and around the world. Pay attention to the poor. Pay attention to our responsibilities for world peace. We are our brother's keeper.
Except for fools and madmen, everyone knows that nuclear war would he an unprecedented human catastrophe.
'Memory.' 'Race.' 'Murder.' That's what they say about me. I am an elegiac poet. I have some historical questions, and I'm grappling with ways to make sense of history; why it still haunts us in our most intimate relationships with each other, but also in our political decisions.
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