August 24, 2026

The Ash Never Returns

Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet, do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past.

Dogen was a thirteenth century Japanese monk who founded the Soto school of Zen after years of study in China, and he wrote the Genjokoan as practical guidance for a lay student trying to understand everyday practice. In this passage he uses firewood and ash to show that each state of being is complete in itself, not a stop on the way to something else. Ash is not old firewood waiting to be judged; it is fully ash, just as firewood was fully firewood while it burned. This is how the Zen strand of Eastern wisdom approaches impermanence: not as loss to mourn, but as each moment arriving whole and then giving way cleanly to the next. Suffering enters when the mind insists that the last moment should explain or anchor this one, rather than letting this moment stand on its own.

A principle of Eastern Wisdom: Impermanence →