From Sogen:
Dogen Zenji wrote in Genjokoan, which we sometimes chant: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self; to study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things.” Or as that last line appears in our chant book: “To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas,” which is to say, to be verified or enlightened by everything.
Studying our self is an important practice in Zen. Really getting to know ourselves, really facing up to our habits, our thoughts, our assumptions, our emotions, our reactivities, our desires and fears, can be liberating. Rather than continuing to go through variations on the same habitual thoughts and feelings, it’s possible to come to recognize them as they are emerging, to say, “I know you,” and to let it go. This is a skillful means for our daily life, and an essential skill in our zazen practice, supporting the possibility of forgetting the self, of really opening up to the direct present experience, moment after moment, our life being verified by everything that arises, again and again.