shinjin-gakudo
Learing the Truth with Body and Mind
Shinjin means “body and mind,” and gakudo means “learning the truth,” so shinjin-gakudo means “Learning the Truth with Body and Mind.” Generally speaking, people usually think that they can arrive at the truth through intellectual reasoning. In Buddhism, however, it is taught that the truth can be attained not by the intellect alone, but through action. Therefore learning the truth in Buddhism includes both physical pursuit of the truth and mental pursuit of the truth. This is why Master Dogen called the Buddhist pursuit of the truth “learning the truth with body and mind.” In this chapter he explained learning the truth with body and learning the truth with mind, and at the same time, he explained that the two ways of pursuing the truth are always combined in the oneness of action. So we can say that the division of learning the truth into two ways is only a method of explaining the Buddhist pursuit of the truth through action.