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| | Buddhist Channel | Dharma Dew | Gentleheartedness |
 | | Sedgwick, Maine (USA) -- When Dogen Gigen Zenji (1200-1253) returned after many years of Zen study in China he was asked, "What did you learn?" Dogen said he had brought back absolutely nothing at all from China except,"a little bit of gentle heartedness." What is the meaning of this? |
 | | Dogen Gigen Zenji is the founding patriarch of the Soto School of Zen, the largest schools of Zen today. |
 | | The gentle heartedness Dogen refers to in our opening verse is that aspect of mind apparent with the sloughing off of the rough, hard, resisting egotistic structure that comprises what we perceive of as "self." This mind-structure-stuff that serves to foster the delusion of individuality is the core of the matter for Zen Buddhists. |
| www.buddhistchannel.tv /index.php?id=6,1363,0,0,1,0 (577 words) |
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