Zen Master

Dogen was what is now called a "Zen master." The word usually translated as "Zen master" is zenji. And it does mean quite literally "Zen master." But in the tradition Dogen established, nobody is called zenji unless they're dead. It would be weird in Japan to call a living person zenji to her or his face. In fact, it is such a honorific that it could sound sarcastic and could more likely be taken as an insult than as a compliment. It could also sound as if you're saying the person's a;ready dead.

Nonetheless, the English translation of this term has unfortunately been adopted by quite a few Western Zen teachers to describe themselves. Nobody should ever describe themselves as a "Zen master" unless they're making a joke — which I have done in my own previous books and elsewhere. It's a ridiculous term. As the late Kobun Chino Roshi — a Zen master if there ever was one — said, "Nobody masters Zen!"

And yet I see people all the time in America and Europe confidently announcing themselves as Zen master this or that without the slightest hint of irony. They apparently have no idea how goofy that sounds.

---Brad Warner, in Don't Be a Jerk---