Frodo: ‘It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill Gollum when he had the chance.’
Gandalf: ‘Pity? It’s a pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play in it, for good or evil, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.’
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
We live around plenty of detestable people all the time, the Gollums of the world: in our neighborhood, workplace, etc, or in society at large. Some of us even have parents like this too.
It’s hard to put up with these people. Of course, we want to have goodwill toward them, but they just keep doing things that are annoying, rude, selfish, or directly harmful.
So, I like how Dogen in the Shobogenzo (recompiled as the Shushogi), suggests a realistic approach. Sometimes you simply can’t be friends with detestable people, or you can’t be around difficult family relatives. You can at least pity them, not hate them, though. They may never change, and that’s a tragedy, but it’s also important to avoid harboring ill-will. Easier said than done. But like Gandalf says, even terrible people have their part to play. So, at the very least, keep your distance for your own sanity, but also wish them well, even a little.
Confession: I starting writing this post before this one, and also before I had huge fight with my dad (again), and we are once again not on speaking terms, so I feel like a hypocrit for writing this post. but I still believe in those ideals. Because they are there, we can reflect, learn and grow. Myself included.
SPOCK: “Change is the essential process of all existence.”
Star Trek, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” (s3:ep15), Stardate 5730.2
It is that time once again as we celebrate a new year. It’s an exciting time: plenty to celebrate and look forward to, but some very difficult times too:
Mark Twain: “I come from a time when men achieve power and wealth by standing on the backs of the poor, where prejudice and intolerance are commonplace and power is an end unto itself.”
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Time’s Arrow, part two” (s6:ep1), Stardate 46001.3
In my spare time, I have been avidly studying (re-studying) the Soto Zen text, the Shushogi. As I talked about before, this is streamlined collection of Dogen’s writings from the Shobogenzo, but with a focus on lay followers.
One of the themes repeated over and over is that time passes, and it only passes in one direction:
Time flies with more speed than an arrow; life moves on, more transient than dew. By what skillful means can you reinstate a day that has passed? To live one hundred years wastefully is to regret each day and month. Your body becomes filled with sorrow. Although you wander as the servant of the senses during the days and months of a hundred years — if you truly live one day, you not only live a life of a hundred years but save the hundred years of your future life…..true practice of the Law for one day is the seed of all the Buddha and their activities.
The Shushōgi, chapter five, fascicle thirty
A long life wasted in empty pursuits is nothing compared to a day spent in earnest practice. Even applying the Buddhist teachings a little bit, benefiting yourself and others, is still a great investment. Like exercise, a little bit goes a long way, and each day is an opportunity. Each one of us, just as we are now, is capable of doing something good and noble.
By the way, a quick blog update: I’ve been struggling in recent months to maintain a consistent schedule for posts (it was self-imposed anyway), so starting in 2026 I am going to try and be more flexible with posting. I am not sure how that will look, but you may see “bursts of inspiration” followed by some dry spells. We’ll see how things unfold. In the meantime, I’ve been adding more pages to the blog under the Buddhism section including the Letter on White Ashes, and the Shushogi above. Not the rest I intended,1 but something I enjoy doing. 🙂
Stay safe and happy 2026 to everyone!
1 I also played a lot of The One Ring RPG in my spare time, plus watching Star Trek: Enterprise for the first time ever. It is a terrific series, and I regret not watching it when it was on-air. So, I did have some downtime too. 😉
Another interesting quote from a 13th century Japanese Zen text, the Zuimonki (first described here), about the importance of not engaging in debates with others.
1-10) In a dharma talk, Dōgen said,
Even if you are speaking rationally and another person says something unreasonable, it is wrong to defeat him by arguing logically. On the other hand, it is not good to give up hastily saying that you are wrong, even though you think that your opinion is reasonable.
Neither defeats him, nor withdraw saying you are wrong. It is best to just leave the matter alone and stop arguing. If you act as if you have not heard and forget about the matter, he will forget too and will not get angry. This is a very important thing to bear in mind.
I think there’s only so much one can do to convince others, and if you meet someone who’s already made up their mind, it’s very unlikely you can change it because one’s beliefs are part of their core identity.
Spock: “Humans do have an amazing capacity for believing what they choose and excluding that which is painful.”
Star Trek, “And The Children Shall Lead” (s3ep4), stardate 5029.5
At that point, any effort to convince them is a sunk cost, a waste of energy.
So, like Dogen says, better to just drop the subject and let it go.
I found a neat quote recently from an old Soto Zen text called the Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki (正法眼蔵隨聞記), or “The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: [A] Record of Things Heard”. We will call it the Zuimonki for short. Dōgen, who brought Soto Zen from China to Japan in the 13th century wrote a massive tome called the Shōbōgenzō, but his chief disciple Koun Ejō (孤雲懐奘, 1198–1280) also recorded the Zuimonki in the 13th. Ejo was actually a few years older than Dogen, yet outlived him by 20+ years or so. He would become the second abbot of Eiheiji temple, and its spiritual successor after Dogen’s passing.
The Zuimonki occupies a similar space as the Tannisho in the Jodo Shinshu tradition: a record of informal conversations between the founder and a trusted disciple. You can find a nice translation of it here on the Soto Zen homepage.1
Near the very end is the following conversation that I wanted to share (emphasis added):
[6-16]. Dōgen instructed,
All the buddhas and patriarchs were originally ordinary people.
While they were ordinary people, they certainly did bad deeds and had evil minds. Some of them were undoubtedly dull or even stupid. However, since they reformed their minds, followed their teachers, and practiced (the Way), they all became buddhas and patriarchs. People today should also be like this. Do not underestimate yourselves because you think you are dull or stupid.
If you do not arouse bodhi-mind in this present lifetime, when can you expect to be able to practice the Way? If you force yourselves to practice now, you will surely attain the Way.
There’s a lot to unpack in this quote, all of it good I think.
First, Dogen reiterates that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Buddhist tradition were all normal sentient beings at some point, with foibles, bad habits, etc. However, they resolved to change, and in time they became something much more. We saw this in the second chapter of the Shushogi as well, so we can definitely infer that Dogen sincerely believed that everyone could accomplish the Buddhist path if they only applied themselves.
I grew up in a broken home as a kid, with two younger sisters, and a chaotic family environment, and needlessly to say I did poorly in school. I remember year after year my teachers would tell my mom that if I just applied myself, I’d do really well. Finally, in the 10th grade, after reading a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring, I discovered that I really liked reading, and soon my grades improved enough that I could get into the local University and live the life I do now. So, I can attest that “believing in yourself, and applying yourself” really is true.
Second, Dogen is clearly not concerned about Dharma Decline, which was the milieu at the time in medieval Japanese Buddhism. Most sects in Japan had felt that because of the increasing chaos and declining Buddhist institutions, which roughly lined up with some aspects of Buddhist chronology,2 traditional Buddhist practice could no longer provide solutions to people’s suffering, hence alternative solutions arose. However, looking back from the 21st century, 8 centuries later, this may seem silly now. Yet, it was an intensely discussed subject at the time. Presumably, since Dogen had journeyed to China unlike other eminent monks at the time, he saw things from a different perspective and wasn’t convinced that the End Times were nigh.
Finally, Dogen is telling listeners not to lose faith in themselves. Self-doubt for anyone is crippling, but Dogen says even if you think you are slob, or an idiot, or whatever, don’t underestimate yourself.
From the original “Lego Movie”.
But if you’re unsure, start small, know your limits, but don’t give up either. Keep your eyes on the prize. 💪🏼
1 English resources on the Soto Zen website are actually quite good, and if you can read the Japanese pages, they are even better.
2 … using some pretty liberal interpretations of certain old Buddhist texts, and some calculations of the Buddha’s historical birth that no longer are accurate thanks to modern archaeology and research.
Gleanings in Buddha-Fields 
You must be logged in to post a comment.