Reading Dogen's Original Shobogenzo
I started reading the fascicle Uji with my good friend Charlie Bowman from Ohio State and immediately began noticing chiasms and/or ring structures, which certainly don't stand out in English translations. One might even be able to explain Dogen's nondualization of time and being as one such chiasm:
"いはゆる有時は、時すでにこれ有なり、有はみな時なり。"
Here we have something like [time (temporal adjective) = existence, existence (spacial adjective) time]. In such structures or patterns (seemingly) opposing features, themes, phenomena, are brought together in between binaries, which tend to end where they begin and seem to express a "two sides of the same coin" view of phenomena. I began to wonder about the imagestic or iconic quality of Dogen's script as sacred writ for adherents.
I like this one also (though its certainly not a central point in the fascicle)
長遠短促
長(long)＜ーー＞短(short)
遠(far)＜ーー＞促（near)
more to come....
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