Wimbledon Zen

'Dazed and Confused: Trying to make sense of Dogen's philosophy if you're not as smart as Taigen Dan Leighton' In this final part, Alan offers a framework for understanding Dogen's teachings, with the Zen Master's main philosophies spelt out, and a path for further readings. Dogen Zenji (1200-1253) is one of the most important teachers in the history of Zen Buddhism. Dogen's philosophy has been incredibly influential on generations of Zen practitioners, including many important modern day teachers, such as Shunryu Suzuki, Dainin Katagiri, Shohaku Okumura, Taigen Dan Leighton and Brad Warner. Dogen's writings are famous for turning words on their head to try and find a way to explain Buddhist realisation, an experience that is simply impossible to describe using conventional language. This feature of his work, however, makes Dogen incredibly challenging to read. We can tell that profound truths are being explained but are often left totally baffled by the crazy, topsy-turvy way that Dogen writes about Zen.