The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (682 page)

Daishi in 1879.
Dogen is recognized as a towering figure in the development of Zen. His name is linked especially to the practice of zazen—indeed, his way is known as exactly that,
shikan taza
, zazen alone.
Dogen did not deny the importance of religious ritual or devotion to
Buddhas
and
bodhisattvas
—indeed, he said the opposite: without a proper sense of gratitude and reverence, it is impossible to develop the buddha-mind. The truth is that in religion, ritual, and ethics, provided these are rooted in zazen, one is always in the midst of realizing the one buddha-nature (
bussho
;
nyat
;
tath
gata-garbha
). This is most profoundly worked out in Dogen, who made a simple but all-important shift from the formula he inherited, and thereby solved ‘the Great Doubt’. Whereas it had been said that all things
have
the buddha-nature, he stated that all things
are
the buddha-nature. There is nothing to do but realize what you already are—and always have been. Dogen thus denied the reality of the experience of time, since there never can be a before or after in that which is without exception the same buddha-nature: being is time and time is being (
uji
). In all things and in all experiences, the buddha-nature can be realized, especially by not trying to realize it.

 
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(Gk., ‘opinion’). Originally a good or acceptable opinion of philosophers, it became also a decree of a public or political authority; in that latter sense it is found in both Septuagint and New Testament. In Christian history (attaining among
Roman Catholics
a formal definition at the First
Vatican Council
) it is a truth revealed by God and presented to the Church for belief, either through a
council
or a
pope
or the
episcopacy
.

 
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D
j
(room for d
)
:

see
D
;
ZEND
.