道元による自己の思索

Dogen is the founder of Japanese Sotoshu, a sort of Zen Buddhism. He is as excellent a religious thinker as ever lived not only in Japanese religious history but also in the world religious history. He has sought his original self by thinking of his self and also aimed to grow out of his awareness of the self, his ego. Here self is distinguished from ego. Contemporary people are lost in a maze named the ego, and suffer and struggle in this space. Dogen is a great master who teaches the way how to grow out of such a maze. \u27Shinjindatsuraku\u27 means growing out of both the mind and body in Japanese. This word means a religious state which is released from the attachment to the ego. Therefore this word is equal to \u27satori\u27 that means Buddhahood, a spiritual awakening. Those who experience \u27Shinjindatsuraku\u27 are involved by numerous Buddhas\u27 lives, their egoes are broken by these lives and they begin to be aware of their original selves which lead to the whole life, Buddhas\u27 lives. However Dogen\u27s thought is not only philosophy but contains religious faith. Because he was able to experience \u27Shinjindatsuraku\u27 as he had believed in both Sakyamuni\u27s Buddhahood and his numerous followers\u27, and so Dogen teaches that we must believe as him