In an evening talk, Dogen said,

An ancient sage remarked, “If I learned the Way in the morning, I wouldn’t mind dying in the evening.” Students of the Way should have this same attitude. During aeons of life-and-death, how many times have we been born and have we died in vain? If we do not save ourselves, when, by rare chance, we have been born in a human body and are able to encounter the buddha-dharma, when will we be able to save ourselves? Even though we might cherish our body and hold it dear, we cannot keep it forever. Abandoning our life which we must leave behind sooner or later, if only for a day or a few moments for the sake of the buddha-dharma, will surely be the cause of eternal happiness.

It is regrettable to spend our days and nights vainly thinking of our livelihood tomorrow without casting aside the world which should be cast aside, without practicing the Way which should be practiced. Just make up your mind to learn the Way and die today. If you don’t have the materials to keep you alive until tomorrow it doesn’t matter if you die of cold or hunger. First of all, arouse such resolution. In doing so you will be able to practice the Way without fail.

Without this sort of aspiration, you will be unable to attain the Way regardless of how many millions of years or thousand times of life-and-death you practice. If you ostensibly continue practicing the buddha-dharma but secretly worry about such things as clothing for winter or summer and livelihood for tomorrow or the next year, then despite the appearance of learning the Way opposed to the ordinary world (it is equally useless). There could be such a person, but as far as I know such an attitude cannot be in accordance with the teaching of the buddhas and patriarchs. (Shobogenzo Zuimonki, Book 2, Chapter 16, translated by Shohaku Okumura)

If you have trouble understanding that last paragraph, don't feel alone - I've read and re-read it at least a dozen times, and I don't understand it either. Clearly something is missing from that second sentence.

A couple weeks ago, I accidentally left my copy of Zuimonki up in Chattanooga. I'll pick it up again when I'm back up there next month, but in the meantime I've been using the on-line version of the text on the Sotoshu website for the Monday night readings. Perhaps the text is missing only on line and the book is more coherent, but up to now, the two texts have seem perfectly compatible.

But precisely because I had left my book in Chattanooga and couldn't fathom the on-line text, I went looking for the book version at the Zen Center library. I didn't find a copy, but I did take a look at a book I'd seen on the bookshelf before but never paid much attention to, titled "A Primer of Soto Zen." Looking at the book in the library, I realized that it was sub-titled "A Translation of Dogen's Shobogenzo Zuimonki by Reiho Masunaga."

Wondering if this tranlation provided more clarity on the text, I saw that Masunaga does indeed provides a much better translation of Chapter 2-16 as follows:

In a talk one evening Dogen said:

According to Confucius, one should: "In the morning hear the Way, in the evening die content." Students today should emulate this attitude. Over long eons we have on innumerable occasions gone through the process of being born and dying, yet rarely have we had the chance of obtaining a human body and becoming acquainted with Buddhism. If we do not save ourselves now, in what world can we expect to do so? It is impossible to retain this body no matter how we treasure it. Since in the end we all must die, if we dedicate our bodies to Buddhism for a day or even for a moment, we lay the basis for eternal peace.

It is a sorry thing to spend your days and nights in vain, thinking about things that might be, planning for tomorrow's livelihood, and hesitating to forsake what should be forsaken and to practice what should be practiced. At the outset, arouse such determination to hear the Way and follow the Buddha mind for just this one day, even if you should die. What if you starve or freeze to death because you have no means of livelihood tomorrow? If you do this, you will not err in practicing and gaining the Way.

Those who cannot rouse this determination, even though they seem to have escaped from the world to study the Way, worry about their clothing in summer and winter and about what means of livelihood they will have tomorrow or the next year. Those who approach Buddhism in this manner will not be able to understand it, even if they study for endless kalpas. There are indeed people like this, but this certainly does not represent the teachings of the Buddha and the Patriarchs that I know.

A much clearer translation. So as it turns out, it was a good thing that I left my book behind when I visited Chattanooga - otherwise, I would not have been motivated to seek out the Masunaga translation and understood the meaning of Dogen's teaching (who's to say what's good and what's bad?).

I've ordered a copy of Masunaga's book from Amazon for future study and readings.