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Dogen's Turn Your Light Inward

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KOAN:

Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest. If you want to realize such, get to work on such right now.

—from Dogen’s Fukanzazengi

Text October 22, 2020

The Nature of Practice

John Tarrant

Koans
Dogen's Turn Your Light Inward, Don't Believe It, Linji's Nothing I Dislike (MK38a), Not Knowing Is Most Intimate (MK62)(BS20), Shitou's Turn Your Light Inwards, Step by Step in the Dark (MK72), The Whole World Is Medicine (BCR87)
Tags
2016 Summer retreat, 2016 Summer Sesshin, bodhisattva path, buddha nature, empathy, koan, light, Linji, moving in the dark, no rank, no-self, not knowing, practice, take the backward step, unlooked-for help
Category
Text

Practice. The notion of practice, as something you embody, and you walk through, and you are—rather than something you add, like something added to gasoline. There’s also a sense of moving in the dark, in some way that’s positive. So that in a practice, “not knowing” is on your side.

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