Abstract

The Buddhist monk Dōgen (1200-1253), a major religious figure of his time, was also considered as one of the first philosophers in Japan. The way to a philosophical reading of Dōgen’s texts was paved by Meiji intellectuals. Other voices raised however the question of whether this is a proper approach to Dōgen’s texts. Was Dōgen really engaged in a philosophical endeavour or was he rather oriented by an extraphilosophical scope? In order to tackle this question, I propose to consider Dōgen’s case as pertaining to a larger issue present in Buddhist Studies: the problem of a tenacious refusal to qualify as “philosophical” a certain literature of the Buddhist canon. Nevertheless, several attempts were made to parallel Buddhist texts and philosophical texts from the Hellenistic period, notably those of the Stoic school. My argument is consistent with this kind of comparative approach and will probe a paradigmatic example of spiritual training – that I call practice of time – focused on the idea of impermanence (mujō 無常) and change (μεταβολή) such it appears in some of Dōgen’s writings and in the Meditations of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180). This comparative asceticism will show how similarities in their practice of time allow to consider their respective endeavours as philosophical.