The Roots of Goodness

About The Roots of Goodness

Zen master Kōshō Uchiyama illuminates the eight qualities of a great person as enumerated by the Buddha and the seminal thirteenth-century Zen master Eihei Dōgen.

As his life drew to a close, the seminal thirteenth-century Zen master Eihei Dōgen chose to make his final teaching a commentary on the Buddha’s own final teaching, which was on the eight qualities of a great person. In Dōgen’s phrasing, those qualities are

• having few desires,
• knowing one has enough,
• appreciating serenity,
• making diligent effort,
• not losing sight of the true dharma,
• concentrating on settling in meditative absorption,
• practicing wisdom, and
• not engaging in useless argument.