Abstract

Abstract:

Drawing on both Dōgen’s Sōtō Zen and the later works of John Dewey, I argue that Dōgen uses the expression “leaving home life” in the “Leaving Home Life” (Shukke 出家) fascicle of the Shōbōgenzō not in the sense that a person must leave home life and become a practicing monk; rather, by looking at Dewey’s understanding of aesthetic experience as the overcoming of the means/ends dualism, I argue that Dōgen’s “leaving home life” similarly expresses the overcoming of the means/ends, practice/enlightenment dualisms. Considering the differences between Dewey and Dōgen, “leaving home life” can then be considered a form of aesthetic experience in the sense that persons achieve a greater degree of interaction with the natural world by overcoming the means/ends dualism, yet in a way that is not structured teleologically.

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