These problems become apparent when applying Ludwig Wittgenstein’s and Hilary Putnam’s views on the nature of, and the relationship between, mind, language and reality. To show this we will look at potential problems with a number of dualisms seemingly at the heart of (Mahāyāna) Buddhism. How should we view the relationship between language and Buddhist enlightenment? Must language be transcended? Is enlightenment experience necessarily ineffable? The purpose of this paper is to argue that language and enlightenment are intimately entwined.

Thus, the first part of this paper will focus extensively on Dōgen’s views of emptiness and the way in which his Zen is not a matter of lingering in emptiness, but, as Bokusan comments, “There is a point in which you jump off both form and emptiness, and do not abide there.” This “jumping off” is enacted, at least in part, through compassionate activity, or so I will argue. In answer to the central question above, I will argue that the Middle Way of Dōgen’s Zen is the expression of the two sides of reality, form and emptiness, through the single activity of embodied compassion. Compassion, along with prajna or “wisdom beyond wisdom,” is one of the dual aspects of the heart of the bodhisattva ideal in Mahayana Buddhism-in Dōgen’s Zen. One of the most central is zazen (seated meditation), but the other, upon which we will focus, is compassion. The central question this paper attempts to answer is: What is the role of emotion in the experience of one practicing Dōgen’s Zen Buddhism? As the question concerns experience we already come upon one of the main contentions of this paper, namely, that contrary to much of what has been written in the 20th century about Zen, both in Japan, and in the West, Dōgen’s Zen is not primarily concerned with cultivating the experience of enlightenment, but rather the enactment of enlightenment through bodily activities.

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