Hundreds of Zen Buddhist
scholars to mark founder’s birth
Buddhists from around the
world will gather on campus Oct. 23 and 24 to celebrate
the 800th anniversary of the birth of Dogen Zenji
(1200-1253), founder of the Soto School of Zen Buddhism
in Japan.
A symposium, "Dogen
Zen and Its Relevance for Our Time," will feature
lectures and discussions by leading Japanese and American
teachers and scholars of Zen Buddhist thought and
practice. The occasion also will mark the first time an
official celebration of the Dogen's birth will be
celebrated outside of Japan. Three hundred Zen teachers,
students and scholars are expected to attend.
The symposium is free and
open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Stanford
Center for Buddhist Studies and the Soto Zen School in
Japan.
Related
Information:
Lectures and discussions
will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday,
Oct. 23 and 24, in Kresge Auditorium. A press conference
will be held at noon Sunday in Kresge.
"The transmission of
Soto Zen to the West must be counted as one of the most
significant religious developments of the 20th
century," says Carl Bielefeldt, director of the
Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies. "One hundred
years ago Soto and its founder, Dogen, were virtually
unknown outside Japan. Now, at the century's end, there
are centers of Soto practice throughout Europe and
America, and the writings of Dogen have entered the
spiritual literature of the world."
Bielefeldt adds that
"the symposium may be seen as a celebration not only
of [Dogen's] birth, but of the rebirth of his Buddhist
tradition as an international religious resource."
Dogen was born into a
noble family of high standing, took the tonsure at the
age of 13 and first studied the doctrines of the Tendai
school. Overcome by doubts regarding the need for
cultivated practice and the significance of esoteric
rituals, he changed his affiliation to Zen and went to
China at the age of 24. There he continued his studies
and eventually became a successor to his teacher,
Ju-ching (1163-1228), after which he returned to Japan
and founded the Japanese Soto school.
Symposium speakers include
Bielefeldt; Griffith Foulk, professor of Asian religions
at Sarah Lawrence College; professors Tetsuo Otani and
Yasuaki Nara of Komazawa University in Tokyo; Zenkei
Blanche Hartman, abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center;
Shohaku Okumura, director of the Soto Zen Education
Center; Daido John Loori, abbot of Zen Mountain
Monastery, Mt. Tremper, New York; Sojun Mel Weitsman,
abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center; Hozan Alan Senauke,
director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship; and poet Gary
Snyder. Poet Michael McClure will read some new
Zen-inspired poems at the end of Saturday's sessions.
"Dogen Zenji lived in
an age of radical upheaval in both Japan and Europe,
which was heralded by the rising of philosophies and
cultures," says the Rev. Gengo Akiba, general
director of the Soto Zen Administrative Office of North
America. "It is interesting to note that both St.
Francis and Thomas Aquinas were Dogen Zenji's
contemporaries."
People throughout Europe
and North America now study Dogen Zenji's Buddhism and
scholars also are studying and discussing his teachings
from an academic perspective.
For more information about
the symposium visit the Stanford Center for Buddhist
Studies website at www.stanford.edu/group/scbs and click on "Dogen Zen
Symposium" on the home page. You also may call Mark
Gonnerman of the Religious Studies Department at
724-5180. SR
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