Zen between two languages : the case of Dôgen (1200-1253)

It is indisputable that Dôgen's work, and especially the Shôbôgenzô 正法眼蔵, or Receptacle of the Eye of the Correct Law, which was the subject of this seventh year's lecture, constituted one of the high points of our investigation; the reason for this should be obvious: it would be hard to find in Japanese literature, religious or otherwise - or even in literature in general before certain ^{twentieth-century} novels - a work in which language itself is both the means and the subject of a genuine meditative practice. Shôbôgenzô presents itself first and foremost as a singular linguistic enigma; it is in itself, one might say, a " case " of meditation, a kôan, or kosoku. The diversity of translations that have been attempted in Western languages shows the extent to which the meaning still eludes us. Not the literal meaning, nor the innumerable allusions and textual quotations that abound. The work of several generations of industrious researchers has given us, and will continue to give us, precious clues that can only refine our understanding of his textual approach, but the enigma remains, an enigma so great that one of Japan's leading scholars of Chinese Buddhism once said that Dôgen delivered his sermons in a state of inebriation. It was, of course, a joke, but one that reflects the perplexity of those who immerse themselves in reading the Shôbôgenzô.