Shōbōgenzō

⚖The case for it

Most of it will slide past you on a first reading, and anyone who wants a book to close cleanly should look elsewhere. It rewards return visits, not finishing. Begin with Genjōkōan, where Dōgen writes that firewood becomes ash and the ash never turns back into firewood; the firewood holds its own place, the ash holds its own, before and after. Carry that around for a week and the story you tell about yourself moving through the years quietly loses its footing. Read a few pages. They keep working on you long after books you actually finished have gone quiet.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Ninety-five fascicles of deliberately fractured grammar: Dōgen torques Japanese syntax until it performs philosophy, and no English translation follows him all the way. Read straight through it is repetitious and often opaque; scholars still dispute what entire passages assert. This is a text you study with a teacher and a commentary for years, or skim and falsely believe you have met it.

— the honest librarian