Skip to content

Dharma Documentaries

Dharma. Culture. Ecology.

Menu
  • Dharma
  • Culture
  • Ecology
  • Archives
  • About
Menu

Dogen, the Zen Master

Posted on November 25, 2011January 25, 2021 by Dharma Documentaries
This is a dramatic reconstruction of the Life of the great Japanese monk Dogen who flourished in Japan in the 13th century.

Dogen-00

This is a dramatic reconstruction of the Life of the great Japanese monk Dogen who flourished in Japan in the 13th century and introduced Soto Zen Buddhism from China.

It appears from the film that Buddhism was in a very corrupt state in Japan in the 13th century, with drinking and whoring common in the Sangha.

To find out what the Buddha had really taught Dogen traveled to China, where he met the master Ju-ching, whose teaching was to have a life-long effect of the young monk:

the practice of Zen is to have the mind and the body fall away, this falling away is the path out of ignorance and vice

Almost upon meeting the master he received face-to-face transmission at the Tien-tung-shan temple and given the transmission of the Dharma.

Another big influence on him at that time was the Kitchen Master at the Ayu-wan-shan kuang-li Zen Temple, in whose honour the Kitchen Master Instructions were later written.

After returning to Japan in 1227, he wrote his first major work, which brought him some notoriety, and not a little persecution from the established sects.

Even though he moved some way from Kyoto to avoid persecution, the temple he founded there was eventually burned down and he was forced to retire to an even more remote location, at Eheiji in the Echizen mountains.

On his way he was joined by the monk who was to become his main Dharma heir, Ejo, and members of other sects who were looking for a more pure form of the teaching.

In the film there is a sub-story about a young girl called Orin whose life Dogen saves before he leaves for China, and meets again as a young woman, who has fallen in with a cripple, who forces her to prostitute herself for an income.

Later, in a remake of the Kisagotami story, she looses her child to illness, and begs Dogen to restore him for her. He tells her to fetch a bean from a house where no one ever died, but of course there is no such house.

Orin follows Dogen to Eheiji, and a young Kitchen Master falls in love with her, and disrobes. On his death-bed Dogen gives permission for her to ordain when he has passed away.

Later in the film Dogen is called to Kamakura to meet the Shogun who is tormented by the spirits of those he has killed on the battlefield, Dogen gives his Zen teaching: “Zazen is to see the water in the vast ocean,” and the Shogun offers to establish him in a monastery he will build for him in Kamakura, but Dogen refuses and returns to the mountins.

Not long afterwards we see him on his death-bed at the young age of 54, appointing his successors and giving his final teaching before passing away. At the funeral we see legions of monks attending, who are presumably meant to represent all his Dharma heirs over the centuries since that time.

The main outline of the story presented in the film seems to be fairly accurate, but some details, like Orin’s story appear to be added for dramatic effect, and I am unsure whether they really form a part of his life-story.

There is little effort made to really convey what his teaching was, but then this is dramatic biography, not a documentary as such, and we cannot really expect any more.

 

if the video does not appear on the page, please first try reloading the page, and if that doesn’t work, leave a comment so I can update the page (the comment is not published)

 

Dogen

 

Candles

 

Text

 

Horin

 

Funeral

 

Urchin

TAGS:
Dharma, Japan, Meditation, Monastics, Movie, Zen

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments do not appear straight away, but are moderated before publication

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Subscriptions

Follow our Facebook Page Follow our Tweets Subscribe to our Feed

Subscribe by Email

Email


Shortlink and QR

https://dharma-documentaries.net/b/1bG

Donations

This site has taken more than a dozen years and 1000s of hours to build, and has 800+ documentaries on it. If you would like to help, you can do so here. Even small amounts make a difference.

Copyright

If anyone has any copyright claims please contact me at dharmadocus@gmail.com and the posts and films will be immediately removed.

Top Ten Tags

Theravada
Mahayana
Vajrayana

India
Silk Road
China
Tibet

Arts
Lectures
Rights

Related Posts

  • Tōshōji Soto Zen Monastery
  • Why Has Bodhidharma Left for the East?
  • Zen, in Search of Enlightenment
  • Man on Cloud Mountain
  • The Land of the Disappearing Buddha - Japan
  • ZEN - A Fabian Enzinger Film
  • Discovering Oneself with a Bowl of Temple Food
  • Passage to Buddha (Hwaomkyung)
  • In the Footsteps of Wonhyo
  • Zen Buddhism - In Search of Self

Recent Posts

  • Tours of the Caves of Dunhuang
  • Angkor Wat, Ancient Hydraulic City
  • The Magical Mountain of Tibet
  • Lords of Water
  • Radioactive Waste, A Nuclear Nightmare
  • Beyond Boundaries, Buddhist Art of Gandhāra
  • The Story of Sudhana, Gallery, Level 4
  • The Story of Sudhana, Balustrade, Level 4
  • The Story of Sudhana, Balustrade, Level 3
  • The Story of Sudhana, Gallery 3, 45-88

Random Posts

  • Cowspiracy, the Sustainability Secret
  • Danino 6, India and its Interactions with the Eastern World
  • Chenrezig, Mandala of Compassion (Tibet in Glastonbury)
  • BBC Ganges 2: The River of Life
  • Seeds of Freedom
  • Longmen Grottoes (World Heritage China)
  • China Cultural Heritage: The Iron Paintings of Wuhu
  • Magical Show
  • Children’s Past Lives
  • Indiana Jones 12, The Treasures of China
© 2023 Dharma Documentaries | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme