Synopses & Reviews
Its easy to regard time as a commoditywe even speak of “saving” or “spending” it. We often regard it as an enemy, when we feel it slipping away before were ready for time to be up. The Zen view of time is radically different than that: time is not something separate from our life; rather, our life is time. Understand this, says Dainin Katagiri Roshi, and you can live fully and freely right where you are in each moment.
Katagiri bases his teaching on Being Time, a text by the most famous of all Zen masters, Eihei Dogen (1200–1253), to show that time is a creative, dynamic process that continuously produces the universe and everything in itand that to understand this is to discover a gateway to freedom from the dissatisfactions of everyday life. He guides us in contemplating impermanence, the present moment, and the ungraspable nature of past and future. He discusses time as part of our inner being, made manifest through constant change in ourselves and our surroundings. And these ideas are by no means metaphysical abstractions: they can be directly perceived by any of us through meditation.
To learn more about the author, Dainin Katagiri Roshi, visit www.mnzencenter.org.
Synopsis
An important figure in the transmission of Zen to America, Dainin Katagiri Roshi (1928- 1990) was assistant to the legendary Zen master Suzuki Roshi (author of Zen Mind, Beginner' s Mind) before founding the Minnesota Zen Center in Minneapolis. Katagiri Roshi was known for his direct, rousing, no-nonsense teaching style, urging his students along with statements like: You are Buddha, so learn to behave as a Buddha, and Don' t expect enlightenment-- just sit down In this new book, Katagiri presents Zen Master Dogen' s classical teachings on being and time (uji). Most Westerners consider time a commodity or resource, thinking of it as something they can save, spend, make, buy, use, or waste. In Zen, time is considered a creative force and a gateway to freedom. In Each Moment Is the Universe, Katagiri explains time as something internal and integrated with all of life. Time is understood as a dynamic process that continuously produces the universe. Although this may seem like a metaphysical abstraction, in Zen practice this can be perceived through direct experience.
Synopsis
It’s easy to regard time as a commodity—we even speak of “saving” or “spending” it. We often regard it as an enemy, when we feel it slipping away before we’re ready for time to be up. The Zen view of time is radically different than that: time is not something separate from our life; rather, our life
is time. Understand this, says Dainin Katagiri Roshi, and you can live fully and freely right where you are in each moment.
Katagiri bases his teaching on Being Time, a text by the most famous of all Zen masters, Eihei Dogen (1200–1253), to show that time is a creative, dynamic process that continuously produces the universe and everything in it—and that to understand this is to discover a gateway to freedom from the dissatisfactions of everyday life. He guides us in contemplating impermanence, the present moment, and the ungraspable nature of past and future. He discusses time as part of our inner being, made manifest through constant change in ourselves and our surroundings. And these ideas are by no means metaphysical abstractions: they can be directly perceived by any of us through meditation.
About the Author
Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1928, Dainin Katagiri was trained traditionally as a Zen teacher. He first came to the United States in 1963, to help with a Soto Zen Temple in Los Angeles. He later joined Shunryu Suzuki Roshi at the San Francisco Zen Center and taught there until Suzuki Roshi’s death in 1971. He was then invited to form a new Zen center in Minneapolis, which, in addition to a monastery in the countryside of Minnesota, he oversaw until his death in 1990. He left behind a legacy of recorded teachings and twelve Dharma heirs. Katagiri is the author of several books, including Returning to Silence and You Have to Say Something.