Gudo Wafu Nishijima

Infobox Buddhist biography
name = Gudo Wafu Nishijima


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birth_date = 1919
birth_place = Yokohama, Japan
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school = Soto
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title = Roshi
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successor = Brad Warner
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website = Gudo Wafu Nishijima (西嶋愚道和夫, "Nishijima Gudo Wafu") (born November 1919 in Yokohama) is a Japanese Zen Buddhist priest and teacher.

As a young man in the early 1940s, Nishijima became a student of the noted Zen teacher Kodo Sawaki. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Nishijima received a law degree from Tokyo University and began a career in finance. It was not until 1973, when he was in his mid-50s, that Nishijima was ordained as a Buddhist priest. His preceptor for this occasion was Rempo Niwa, a former head of the Soto Zen sect. Four years later, Niwa gave him shiho, formally accepting him as one of his successors. Nishijima continued his professional career until 1979.

During the 1960s, Nishijima began giving regular public lectures on Buddhism and Zen meditation. Since the 1980s, he has lectured in English and has had a number of foreign students, including American author Brad Warner and teacher Jundo Cohen. In 2007 Nishijima and a group of his students organized as the Dogen Sangha International.

Nishijima is the author of several books in Japanese and English. He has also been a notable translator of Buddhist texts: working with Chodo Cross, Nishijima compiled one of the three complete English versions of Dogen's 95-fascicle "Kana Shobogenzo", based on his 13-volume modern Japanese translation and commentary, and often considered as the most exact and faithful in existence; he also translated Dogen's "Shinji Shobogenzo". As of December, 2005, he is currently working on an English translation of Nagarjuna's "Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way" ("Mūlamadhyamakakārikā").

Three philosophies and one reality

While studying the "Shōbōgenzō", Nishijima developed a theory called "three philosophies and one reality", which presents his distinctive interpretation of the Four Noble Truths, as well as explaining the structure of Dogen's writing. According to Nishijima, Dōgen carefully constructed the "Shōbōgenzō" according to a fourfold structure, in which he described each issue from four different perspectives. The first perspective is "idealist", "abstract", "spiritual", and "subjective"; Nishijima says this is the correct interpretation of the First Noble Truth, (in mainstream Buddhism the first Noble truth is "dukkha"). The second perspective is "concrete", "materialistic", "scientific", and "objective" (in mainstream Buddhism the second Noble truth is "samudaya"). The third perspective is described as an integration of the first two, producing a "realistic" synthesis; (mainstream, "nirodha"). The fourth perspective is reality itself, which Nishijima argues cannot be contained in philosophy or stated in words, but which Dogen attempts to suggest through poetry and symbolism. In mainstream Buddhism, the fourth Truth is the Eightfold Path.ref|1__NOTOC__

English-language books

*"How to Practice Zazen" (1976), with Joe Langdon
*"To Meet the Real Dragon: Seeking the Truth in a World of Chaos" (1992), with Jeffrey Bailey
*"A Heart to Heart Chat on Buddhism with Old Master Gudo" (2004), with Jundo Cohen

References

*cite web|url=http://www.dogensangha.org/gwn.htm|title=Introducing Master Gudo Wafu Nishijima|publisher=Dogen Sangha|accessdate=2005-12-03
*cite web|author=Nishijima Gudo Wafu|year=1987|url=http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/DogenStudies/three_philosophies.pdf|title=Three Philosophies and One Reality|format=pdf|publisher=Windbell Publications, Tokyo|accessdate=2008-04-29

Further reading

* [http://www.thezensite.com/ZenBookReviews/shinji.htm Review of Nishijima's translation] of the "Shinji Shobogenzo"
* [http://homepage.mac.com/doubtboy/joshusdog.html Comments by Nishijima] on the koan "Joshu's dog", along with an excerpt from Dogen's "Kana Shobogenzo"
* [http://www.dogensangha.org/hon.html Japanese list of Nishijima's books]
* [http://gudoblog-e.blogspot.com/ Gudo Nishijima's blog]
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/dogensangha Gudo Nishijima's YouTube channel]