Like many other good books, I'm puzzled why this is currently out of print. Kodera's work makes fascinating reading for anyone curious about Dogen's background in Sung China. A sterling translation of Dogen's Hokyo-Ki, supported by careful annotations and historical background material, this work formed the basis for Kodera's Ph.D. thesis at Columbia. Happily,it has the merit of being informative without ever being stuffy - not always the case with academic studies offered to the general market.

Rather more than what the title suggests, Kodera's work actually begins with an analysis of Dogen's background in the Buddhist centres of his native Japan, culminating in his search for the 'authentic teacher'in the temples of Sung China. The background of Ch'an or Zen in Sung China also comes in for assessment, and in fact, the translation of the Hokyo-Ki per se (a relatively short document), comprises a mere twenty-four pages, followed by copious annotations, an extensive glossary, bibliography - with the original kanji text. Minus Kodera's careful annotations, much about this text would remain obscure and the author's work helps to put it in proper context.

In this age of jet travel, we tend to forget the perils facing Buddhist monks who ventured across the sea in flimsy wooden boats - if needs be, vowing to 'bury their bones' in far-off lands - or risk being lost at sea, in order to acquire experience of the Dharma - and transmit it to their fellow men. Such, also, was Dogen's journey. Needless to say, the high point of Dogen's trip and mission, was his encounter with Master Tendo Nyojo (Tien Tung Ju Ching) on Mount T'ien-Tung. Depicted in highly moving terms, it was, of course, the defining moment in Dogen's career. Curiously, it seems that the crucial idiom - 'shinjin datsuraku' 'casting off mind and body' was in fact Dogen's homophonous reconstruction of his Chinese master's words, meaning to 'drop dust from the mind.' Be that as it may, this was the decisive encounter - for Dogen. Still, Dogen's earlier encounter with the Chinese 'Tenzo' or cook-monk, while still aboard the boat, was also crucial in its own way, the discovery that drying mushrooms for the community of monks, was no less Dharma-work, something re-stated by Dogen, when stressing the need for Zen-ki or 'total exertion' with the practice.

My only reservation about this text, concerns Dogen's rather jaundiced view of Rinzai Zen, in the person of Ta-hui Tsung Kao. Kodera acknowledges the infidelities in Dogen's account (i.e. the claim that Ta-hui advocated a 'dissolution of consciousness') but left it at that. Oddly, Hee Jin Kim (cf. Dogen; Mystical Realist) also raised the issue, only to drop it, leaving it unresolved. Prof. Yanagida Seizan - usually reliable, also ducked the issue (virtually in 'denial' over it) - attributing it to 'early senility.' Here, we must understand Dogen as a man of flesh and blood, rather than a flawless 'patriarch.' There is great beauty in Dogen's spiritual writings and poetry.We might also learn to understand him as a person, with his own hopes and fears. Hokyo-ki is part of that.

I was lucky enough to run across this book in a used bookstore, having only read brief synopses of Dogen's life in other Zen books. I had not even realized such a biographical document in Dogen's own hand existed! So many touching details of the master/student spiritual relationship are revealed here; both stories that are timeless in their humanity, as well as stories that reveal the unique character of the Zen culture of 13th century China. Though, the famous story of 'body-mind drop-off' is not recounted by Dogen himself, as I was surprised to learn, other revealing anecdotes are - such as Dogen involuntarily weeping whenever he sees his teacher, and the teacher himself commenting on the auspiciousness of that sign. It is a true love story, in a way.