Study Hall - Shobogenzo

Dogen has taken a bit of a back seat this past week, and it was nice to pick it up again this morning. Two segments I enjoyed: from 'Miracles', 'Jinzu', discussing Layman Pang's famous expression, translated here as "Miracles are nothing other than fetching water and carrying firewood", Dogen comments "Fetching water means drawing and carrying water. Sometimes you do it yourself, and sometimes you have others do it. Those who practice this are all miracle buddhas. Although miracles are noticed once in a while, miracles are miracles. It is not that things perish or are eliminated when they are unnoticed. Things are just as they are even when unnoticed. Even when people do not know that fetching water is a miracle, fetching water is undeniably a miracle". On a similar note, really, at the beginning of 'Great Enlightenment', 'Daigo', Dogen reminds us "The great way of the buddhas has been transmitted with intimate attention; the work of the ancestors has been unfolded evenly and broadly".