This is a book with a lot of moving parts. The most essential is Part One, “The Eight Qualities of a Great Person.” It is only nine pages long. This is the classic text from the thirteenth-century Zen master Dogen, the foundation upon which the other 280 pages are built. It is in fact the last thing that he wrote.
These are the summary eight qualities:
1) Having few desires.
2) Knowing one has enough.
3) Appreciating serenity/quietude.
4) Making diligent effort.
5) Not losing sight of true dharma.
6) Concentrating on settling in dhyana.
7) Practicing wisdom.
8) Not engaging in useless argument.
Part Two — the rest of the book — is “commentary” on these qualities. The commentary includes explanations of philosophy, language, historical context, the impact of Confucianism on Zen, differences between Buddhism in Japan (where Dogen lived) and in China, and reflections on Japanese culture and how these qualities are understood there today.
The commentary goes to great efforts to be relevant to readers now. Kosho Uchiyama, who writes it, was born in Tokyo and spent his life in twentieth-century Japanese Zen monasteries writing and teaching. He often writes about his fellow Japanese in ways that an American writer might criticize fellow Americans. (If you’re not Japanese, you might think, why is he being so hard on them?)
The chapter on “Appreciating Serenity/Quietude” frequently does this, to apply the teaching to the needs of people today. For example, he writes: “Japanese think they must act like everyone else.” And “Another aspect I have noticed recently about Japanese people is that basically they think that being liked must surely be a good thing. They just assume there can’t be anything wrong with being liked by everyone.” He goes on to point out how this wanting to be liked hinders learning to practice the third quality of a great person. The reader would do well to replace “Japanese” with their own citizenship. Then they’ll realize that “Appreciating Serenity/Quietude” is — for every person living — not about getting back to nature or meditating (although it can be about those things). It is about not allowing themselves to get in their own way. That’s the greatest lesson of this book.
