Without further ado, I have set up a new blog on which to publish new translations of Shobogenzo, which I am starting to translate as "The Treasury of the Eye of True Sitting." That is not a literal translation. It a translation that reflects the understanding of nobody but me. Or, if I state my belief straight out, it reflects the understanding of just Master Dogen and me -- non-buddha alone, together with non-buddha.
The first chapter I have posted is, naturally, The Samadhi That is King of Samadhis.
The second chapter that I could not wait to post up is The Buddha-Ancestors. I could not wait to post this chapter up, because I could not wait to get away from the sickening stench of Patriarchal Buddhism, of which, over the past 25 years, I have had more than a gutfull. "Buddhist" and "Patriarch" are two words, I vow, that will never taint any of my translation work from now on.
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2 comments:
Hmmm... do I sense a transgression of Zen orthodoxy here? If so, I'm happy that you've decided to transgress away. I have always been skeptical of orthodoxy. And besides, as an old hand at translation myself--though from European texts--I agree with Fitzgerald: better a live sparrow than a stuffed eagle. Blessings...
Many thanks Peter.
I am not sure what Zen orthodoxy is -- probably we should ask some Venerable So and So or other -- but I do know that when I tried to identify myself with something called "the Right Dharma," by trying to translate "the Right Dharma" as punctiliously as possible from Japanese into English, that attitude was just a transgression of True Sitting.
Indeed, it was like believing that a dead eagle, if rightly stuffed by an orthodox taxidermist, might cause others to spread their wings and fly.
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