daigo
Great Realization
Dai means great and go means realization, so daigo means great realization. Many Buddhist scholars, for example Dr. Daisetsu Suzuki, have translated go as “enlightenment.” But the meaning of the word “enlightenment” is ambiguous and the word has for many years been a stumbling block to the understanding of Buddhism. So it may be better to translate go as realization. The meaning of realization in Master Dogen’s theory is also difficult to understand. Anyway, it is clear that realization is not only intellectual understanding, but a more concrete realization of facts in reality. So we can say that realization in Master Dogen’s theory is realization in real life. We can study his thoughts on realization in this chapter.