UJI / ETRE-TEMPS / BEING-TIME

 
IN the year 1200, Dogen was born in Fukakusa outside Kyoto in a region called Uji. In 1233, a few years after a journey to China, he returned to his birthplace and established Kosho Horin-ji, the first temple in Japan to be dedicated exclusively to the practice of Soto Zen Buddhism. It is here that he began to write a collection of essays for his disciples on the fundamental themes of his teaching. These works, such as, Zenki (Total Dynamism), Bussho (Buddha Nature), Sansuikyo- (Mountain and Water Sutra) and the present Uji (Being-time) written in 1240, were later compiled in the Shobogenzo- (Treasure Eye of the True Dharma.) In 1243, Dogen left for the remote province of Echizen where he established Eihei-ji. He eventually returned to Kyo-to where he passed away in 1253.

In Uji, Dogen presents his realization that being (existence) is synonymous with time. Regardless of how we describe being, or existence, it is none other than time. To understand being-time is to understand the ultimate reality. To understand ultimate reality is to understand the true Self. This is what Dogen experienced in his moment of insight, when he "cast off body and mind".