Uji (Being-Time)
Uji | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Literal meaning | exist/be/have time | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Vietnamese | hữu thời | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Hangul | 유시 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Hiragana | うじ | ||||||||||||||||||||
Katakana | ウジ | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The Japanese Buddhist word uji (
Terminology
[edit]Dōgen's writings can be notoriously difficult to understand and translate, frequently owing to his wordplay with Late Middle Japanese terms.[2] Dōgen's Zen neologism uji (
Dōgen etymologizes the two components of uji (
Interpretations of uji are plentiful. Dainin Katagiri says that Dōgen used the novel term being-time to illustrate that sentient "beings" and "time" were unseparated. Thus, being represents all beings existing together in the formless realm of timelessness, and time characterizes the existence of independent yet interconnected moments.[7] Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross say, u means "existence" and ji means "time," so uji means "existent time," or "existence-time." Since time is always related with existence and existence is always related with momentary time, the past and the future are not existent time—the point at which existence and time come together—the present moment is the only existent time.[8]
The Japanese keyword uji has more meanings than any single English rendering can encompass. Nevertheless, translation equivalents include:
- Existence/Time[9]
- Being-Time[10][11]
- Being Time[12]
- Time-Being[13]
- Just for the Time Being, Just for a While, For the Whole of Time is the Whole of Existence.[14]
- Existence-Time[15]
- Existential moment[16]
Shōbōgenzō fascicle
[edit]Dôgen wrote his Uji essay at the beginning of winter in 1240, while he was teaching at the Kōshōhōrin-ji, south of Kyoto. It is one of the major fascicles of Shôbôgenzô, and "one of the most difficult".[17] Dôgen's central theme in Uji Being-Time, and an underlying theme in other fascicles such as Busshō (
The present Shōbōgenzō fascicle (number 20 in the 75 fascicle version) commences with a poem (four two-line stanzas) in which every line begins with uji (
An old Buddha said:
For the time being, I stand astride the highest mountain peaks.
For the time being, I move on the deepest depths of the ocean floor.
For the time being, I'm three heads and eight arms [of an Asura fighting demon].
For the time being, I'm eight feet or sixteen feet [a Buddha-body while seated or standing].
For the time being, I'm a staff or a whisk.
For the time being, I'm a pillar or a lantern.
For the time being, I'm Mr. Chang or Mr. Li [any Tom, Dick, or Harry].
For the time being, I'm the great earth and heavens above..[18]
The translators note their choice of "for the time being" attempts to encompass Dōgen's wordplay with uji "being time" meaning arutoki "at a certain time; sometimes".
Compare these other English translations of the first stanza:[19]
Sometimes (uji) standing so high up on the mountain top;
Sometimes walking deep down on the bottom of the sea; [20]
For the time being stand on top of the highest peak.
For the time being proceed along the bottom of the deepest ocean.[21]
At a time of being, standing on the summit of the highest peak;
At a time of being, walking on the bottom of the deepest ocean.[22]
Standing atop a soaring mountain peak is for the time being
And plunging down to the floor of the Ocean's abyss is for the time being;[6]
Being-time stands on top of the highest peak;
Being-time goes to the bottom of the deepest ocean[23]
Sometimes standing on top of the highest peak,
Sometimes moving along the bottom of the deepest ocean.[8]
Dōgen's Uji commentary on the poem begins by explaining that, "The 'time being' means time, just as it is, is being, and being is all time.", which shows the "unusual significance" he gives to the word uji "being-time.".[18]
Interpretations
[edit]Many authors have researched and discussed Dōgen's theories of temporality. In English, there are two books[24] and numerous articles on uji (
Hee-Jin Kim analyzed Dōgen's conception of uji "existence/time" as the way of spiritual freedom, and found that his discourse can be better understood in terms of ascesis rather than vision of Buddha-nature; "vision is not discredited, but penetrated, empowered by ascesis".[25]
Steven Heine's 1983 article on the hermeneutics of temporality in the Shōbōgenzō, that is, Dōgen critically reinterpreting and restating, "even at the risk of grammatical distortion," previous views of Buddha-nature in order to reflect the multidimensional unity of uji "being-time". For example, paraphrasing the venerated Nirvana Sutra, "If you wish to know the Buddha-nature's meaning, you should watch temporal conditions. If the time arrives, the Buddha-nature will manifest itself," Dōgen reinterprets the phrase "if the time arrives" (jisetsu nyakushi
Heine's 1985 book contrasted the theories of time presented in Dōgen's 1231-1253 Shōbōgenzō and the German existentialist Martin Heidegger's 1927 classic Being and Time (Sein und Zeit). Despite the vast cultural and historical gaps between medieval Japan and modern Germany, there are philosophical parallels. The conventional conceptualization of time is removed from the genuine experience of what Heidegger calls ursprüngliche Zeit ("primordial time", that is, temporalizing temporality) and similar to what Dōgen calls uji no dōri (
Masao Abe's and Steven Heine's article analyzes the origins of Dōgen's interest in being-time when he was a young monk on Mount Hiei, the headquarters of the Tendai school of Buddhism. According to the 1753 Kenzeiki (
Joan Stambaugh, the philosopher and translator of Martin Heidegger's writings including Being and Time,[29] wrote a book on Dōgen's understanding of temporality, Buddhist impermanence, and Buddha-nature. Rather than writing yet another comparative study, Stambaugh chose to produce a "dialogical" encounter between Eastern thinkers and Western philosophers, including Heraclitus, Boethius, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and particularly Heidegger.[30]
J. M. E. McTaggart's classic argument that time is unreal differentiated two basic aspects of temporality, the "A-series and B-series": the A-series orders all events as continual transformations in time's passage, things are said to exist in the "future", then become "present", and finally enter the "past"; while the B-Series orders time as a set of relative temporal relationships between "earlier than" and "later than". Dirck Vorenkamp demonstrated that Dōgen's writings contained elements of the "B-theory of time". The Shōbōgenzō describes time's passage without reference to a sentient subject, "You should learn that passage [kyōraku (
Trent Collier contrasts how Dōgen and Shinran (1173-1263), the founder of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Pure Land Buddhism, diversely understood the role of time in Buddhist enlightenment. These two leaders in Kamakura Buddhism believed in two different forms of spiritual practice with disparate temporal concepts; Dōgen advocated zazen or shikantaza ("just sitting") meditation and Shinran emphasized the recitation of the nembutsu ("repeating the name of Amida") alone. Dōgen's notion of uji unified time and being, and consequently things in the world do not exist in time, but are time".[32] According to the Uji fascicle, zazen falls outside the common understanding of time as past, present, and future. Dōgen declares that "When even just one person, at one time, sits in zazen, he becomes, imperceptively, one with each and all the myriad things, and permeates completely all time." Everything in reality is to be found in the absolute now of being-time.[33] For Shinran, the central Pure Land awakening or experience is shinjin ("faith; piety; devotion"), the unfolding of Amida's wisdom-compassion in the believer. Shinran teaches that ichinen (
Rein Raud wrote two articles concerning Dōgen's notion of uji, translated as "being-time".[36] and "existential moment",[16] respectively. Raud's first study compared uji with Nishida Kitarō's interpretation of basho (
His second study reinterprets Dōgen's concept of time as primarily referring to momentary rather than durational existence, and translates uji as "existential moment" in opposition to the usual understanding of time as measurable and divisible.[38] According to Raud, this interpretation enables "more lucid readings" of many key passages in the Shōbōgenzō, such as translating the term kyōraku (
Being-time has the virtue of seriatim passage; it passes from today to tomorrow, passes from today to yesterday, passes from yesterday to today, passes from today to today, passes from tomorrow to tomorrow. This is because passing seriatim is a virtue of time. Past time and present time do not overlap one another, or pile up in a row.[42]
The existential moment has the quality of shifting. It shifts from what we call "today" into "tomorrow," it shifts from "today" into "yesterday," and from "yesterday" into "today" in turn. It shifts from "today" into "today," it shifts from "tomorrow" into "tomorrow." This is because shifting is the quality of the momentary. The moments of the past and the present do not pile on each other nor do they line up side by side.[43]
Dainin Katagiri says Dōgen's uji Being-time means the complete oneness of time and space, "dynamically functioning from moment to moment as illumination that is alive in the individual self". When time, being, self, and illumination[broken anchor] come together and work dynamically in one's life, time and being are unified.[44] Furthermore, self is time. The "self arrays itself and forms the entire universe." One should perceive each particular thing in the universe as a moment of time. Neither things nor moments hinder one another.[45]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- "Dōgen's View of Time and Space". The Eastern Buddhist. 21 (2). Translated by Abe, Masao; Heine, Steven: 1–35. 1988.
- Cleary, Thomas (1986). Shōbōgenzō, Zen essays. University of Hawaii Press.
- Collier, Trent (2000). "Time and Self: Religious Awakening in Dōgen and Shinran". The Eastern Buddhist. 32 (1): 56–84.
- Heine, Steven (1983). "Temporality of Hermeneutics in Dōgen's "Shōbōgenzō". Philosophy East and West. 33 (2): 139–147. doi:10.2307/1399098. JSTOR 1399098.
- Heine, Steven (1985). Existential and Ontological Dimensions of Time in Heidegger and Dōgen. SUNY Press.
- Katagiri, Dainin (2007). Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time. Shambhala Publications.
- Myers, Bob (2008). First Dōgen Book, Selected essays from Dōgen Zenji's Shōbōgenzō (PDF). Terebess.
- Shōbōgenzō, The Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching, A Trainee's Translation of Great Master Dōgen's Spiritual Masterpiece. Translated by Nearman, Hubert. Shasta Abbey Press. 2007. Archived from the original on 2010-01-11.
- Kim, Hee-Jin (1978). "Existence/Time as the Way of Ascesis: An Analysis of the Basic Structure of Dōgen's Thought". The Eastern Buddhist. 11 (2): 43–73.
- Shōbōgenzō: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury (4 vols). Translated by Nishijima, Gudo; Cross, Chodo. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. 2008.
- Raud, Rein (2004). "'Place' and 'Being-Time': Spatiotemporal Concepts in the Thought of Nishida Kitarō and Dōgen Kigen". Philosophy East and West. 54 (1): 29–51. doi:10.1353/pew.2003.0057. S2CID 144883959.
- Raud, Rein (2012). "The Existential Moment: Rereading Dōgen's Theory of Time" (PDF). Philosophy East and West. 62 (2): 153–173. doi:10.1353/pew.2012.0033. S2CID 51762866.
- Stambaugh, Joan (1990). Impermanence is Buddha-Nature: Dōgen's Understanding of Temporality. University of Hawaii Press.
- Vorenkamp, Dirck (1995). "B-Series Temporal Order in Dōgen's Theory of Time". Philosophy East and West. 45 (3): 387–408. doi:10.2307/1399395. JSTOR 1399395.
- Waddell, Norman (1979). "Being Time: Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō Uji". The Eastern Buddhist. 12 (1): 114–129.
- "Uji
有 時 (Being-Time)". The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō. Translated by Waddell, Norman; Abe, Masao. SUNY Press. 2001. pp. 47–58. - Watanabe, Toshirō (
渡邊 敏郎 ); et al., eds. (2003). Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary (新和 英 大 辞典 ) (5th ed.). Kenkyusha. - Kazuaki Tanahashi, ed. (1985). "The Time-Being, Uji". The Moon in a Dewdrop; writings of Zen Master Dōgen. Translated by Welch, Dan; Tanahashi, Kazuaki. North Point Press. pp. 76–83.
Footnotes
- ^ Heine 1985, p. 155.
- ^ Tanaka, Koji (2013), "Contradictions in Dōgen," Philosophy East and West 63.3: 322-334. p. 323.
- ^ Watanabe, Skrzypczak & Snowden 2003, p. 94.
- ^ Heine 1983, p. 141.
- ^ Raud 2004, p. 39.
- ^ a b Nearman 2007, p. 106.
- ^ Nearman 2007, p. 73.
- ^ a b Nishijima & Cross 2008, p. 143.
- ^ Kim 1978.
- ^ a b Waddell 1979.
- ^ Roberts, Shinshu (2018), Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō Uji, Wisdom Publications.
- ^ a b Cleary 1986.
- ^ a b c Welch & Tanahashi 1985.
- ^ Nearman 2007.
- ^ Nishijima & Cross 2008.
- ^ a b Raud 2012.
- ^ Waddell & Abe 2001, p. 47.
- ^ a b Waddell & Abe 2001, p. 48.
- ^ Adapting Lucut 2001.[full citation needed]
- ^ Tr. Heine 1985, p. 155.
- ^ Welch & Tanahashi 1985, p. 76.
- ^ Tr. Cleary 1986, p. 104.
- ^ Tr. Katagiri 2007, p. 85.
- ^ Heine 1985; Stambaugh 1990.
- ^ Kim 1978, p. 45.
- ^ Heine 1983, pp. 139–40.
- ^ Heine 1985, pp. 105–152.
- ^ Abe & Heine 1988, p. 2.
- ^ Stambaugh, Joan (1996), tr. of Martin Heidegger Being and Time, SUNY Press.
- ^ Stambaugh 1990, p. ix.
- ^ Vorenkamp 1995, p. 392.
- ^ Collier 2000, p. 59.
- ^ Collier 2000, p. 62.
- ^ Collier 2000, p. 57.
- ^ Collier 2000, p. 70.
- ^ Raud 2004.
- ^ Raud 2004, p. 46.
- ^ Raud 2012, p. 153.
- ^ Raud 2012, p. 167.
- ^ Myers 2008.
- ^ Myers 2008, p. 114.
- ^ Tr. Waddell 1979, p. 120.
- ^ Tr. Raud 2012, p. 165.
- ^ Katagiri 2007, p. 85.
- ^ Katagiri 2007, p. 93.
Further reading
[edit]- Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005), Zen Buddhism: A History. Volume 2: Japan, World Wisdom Books.
- Nelson, Andrew N. and John H. Haig (1997), The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary, C. E. Tuttle Co.
- Lecut, Frederic (2009), Master Dōgen's Uji, 8 translations.
- Nishijima, Gudo and Chodo Cross 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999), Master Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, 4 vols., Windbell Publications.
- Nishiyama Kōsen and John Stevens, trs., (1975, 1977, 1983, 1983), Shōbōgenzō (The Eye and Treasury of the True Law), 4 vols., Nakayama Shobō.
External links
[edit]- On 'Just for the Time Being, Just for a While, For the Whole of Time is the Whole of Existence' (Uji), Nearman (2007) translation.
- Uji: The Time-Being by Eihei Dōgen, Welch and Tanahashi (1985) translation.
- Eihei Dōgen's The Time-Being (Uji), Reiho Masunaga translation.
- Uji (Existence-Time), Seijun Ishii, Sotozen-Net.
- For the Time-Being: Buddhism, Dōgen, and Temporality, Anthony Ridenour.