In his later years Dōgen often severely criticized the Senika heresy (sennigedo), which is the erroneous view that the mind abides while the form perishes. According to this view, there is a bright spiritual intelligence contained in our body that is the source of self-understanding. When the body dies, the spiritual intelligence alone does not perish but abides immutably. This view, Dōgen argues, when "hearing of the doctrine of this very mind (itself is buddha), takes it to mean that the discriminating knowledge of sentient beings is itself the buddha"

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "In his later years Dōgen often severely criticized the Senika heresy (sennigedo), which is the erroneous view that the mind abides while the form perishes. According to this view, there is a bright spiritual intelligence contained in our body that is the source of self-understanding. When the body dies, the spiritual intelligence alone does not perish but abides immutably. This view, Dōgen argues, when "hearing of the doctrine of this very mind (itself is buddha), takes it to mean that the discriminating knowledge of sentient beings is itself the buddha"" in the context of "Dōgen (c. 1230-50) as cited in Masao Abe, Steven Heine (1992) A Study of Dōgen: His Philosophy and Religion. p. 158
• The Senika heresy here mentioned is a Buddhist believe in eternalism of the self." to mean that wisdom is timeless.