Jack: Part of the scripture recitation for the weekly meditation at the priory is Dogen’s Rules for Meditation. Dogen is pretty obscure for me in general, so I’m not very surprised when I find that I don’t understand something he writes. One of his statements has always seemed particularly incongruous, though. He states, “Training is enlightenment.” I train, but if what I do is enlightenment, then I’m not sure enlightenment has much to offer. If it doesn’t get any better than this, then I’m not sure why I’m making an effort.

Mentor B. I too found that bit from Dogen confusing. And frankly, I don’t read much of his material anymore. It may all be entirely correct, but it is so inscrutable it mostly doesn’t help me. Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, or Richard Bachs’ Jonathan Livingston Seagull are somewhat inscrutable too, but they both touch a space that lights a fire of inspiration. Dogen doesn’t.

Yet, Dogen’s statement that “Training is enlightenment” makes a bit of sense to me. When I really started to grasp the basics of what the Buddha actually taught, it became obvious that the path Buddha taught was a path of training the mind rather than letting it ramble through life creating and destroying as it blindly sought something to satisfy it. To see that the task to be done is that of training the mind, and to undertake the task of training the mind in accordance with the dharma, is in fact a sort of fundamental enlightenment. It’s like a primitive human being discovering that he can grow crops by planting and tending them. When he plants crops, the fruit is not immediately available. Yet he learns with proper cultivation the fruit will come of its own accord. His discovery and undertaking of cultivation is the quantum leap forward in his ability to provide for himself. The fruit which eventually nourishes and satisfies the body is simply the result of that insight. I think Dogen is saying it’s misleading to think of the fruit of training as enlightenment. Rather the quantum leap of insight and convincement that training is the path and means is the key enlightenment itself.