Shōbōgenzō, he said.

Bless you, I replied, and passed him a tissue.

No, you idiot. That’s the book. I want to talk about Shōbōgenzō, The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.

It’s the time of year, I said. Here, have another tissue.

At this point, Litt smacked me over the head with a huge volume of Buddhist teaching, and at the same time, I heard the faint sound of a cymbal crash and the music from Benny Hill.

Back in reality, I went away and began reading the teachings of Zen Master Dögen as the great writer Toby Litt suggested I should.

I’m glad I did. They’re fascinating, and in this episode, I had the pleasure of quizing Toby (a writer I’ve long admired) about those very teachings.

Indeed, welcome to The Library of Lazy Thinking Podcast, with me, your host, Glenn Fisher.

As you may well know by now, in each episode, I'm joined by a guest from the world of books and culture to talk about a specific book they'd like to put in the library.

There's no plan and no agenda, just two people lazily thinking about literature.

If you enjoy the show and would like to help us (and get your hands on a coveted Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge), you can become a supporter of the library by upgrading your subscription.

But either way, please do like and share the show—it all helps.

In this episode, as I say, my very special guest is the writer Toby Litt, author of a great many excellent books, and most recently A Writer’s Diary, published by Galley Beggar Press. We discuss his pick for the library, the 13th-century writing of Zen Master Dögen, collected as Shōbōgenzō, or The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.

About Toby

Toby Litt is a writer, academic, and activist. He has published novels, short story collections, non-fiction, and poems. His most recent book is A Writer’s Diary (Galley Beggar, 2023), and his continuation of the diary is one of the most popular writing newsletters on Substack. His novel Patience was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. Toby is a Granta Best of Young British Novelist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His story ‘The Retreat’ won the Short Fiction/University of Essex Prize. He is a member of English Pen and editor of the Writers Rebel website. The recent Netflix 8-part series Dead Boy Detectives was based on Toby’s run on the comic of the same name. The ebook of this was the #1 bestselling Comic & Graphic Novel on Amazon. When he is not writing, Toby likes sitting doing nothing. Toby is Head of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton.

About Dögen

Dōgen (1200–1253) was a Japanese Zen master, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism. After studying in China, he emphasized shikantaza (“just sitting”) meditation. His masterpiece, Shōbōgenzō, explored enlightenment in everyday life, uniting profound insight with poetic expression, profoundly shaping Japanese Buddhist thought and practice.

Links to obscure (and not so obscure) things mentioned in this episode

* Order A Writer’s Diary by Toby Litt from my local independent bookshop in Sheffield here.

* Learn more about Zen Master Dogen in this YouTube video sharing four lessons from his teaching.

* Find Toby Litt on Instagram here.

* Find Glenn Fisher on Instagram here.

* Find The Library of Lazy Thinking on Instagram here.

About the Library

The Library of Lazy Thinking is a place to hang out and learn more about books. If you’d like to support the library and get access to everything here, you can become a paid member (and get an exclusive The Library of Lazy Thinking bookmark, sticker, and pin badge). All support goes back into the library, helping to organize live events, exclusive merchandise, and more podcasts.

About Glenn

Glenn Fisher is a writer—wait, Glenn Fisher is me. I’m the one writing this. Let’s drop the third-person act. My writing has been published in Lunate, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, 3am Magazine, Dogmatika, and Litro Magazine. I write about books and interview other writers and artists here in The Library of Lazy Thinking. I live in Sheffield and work as a freelance copywriter. I have had a best-selling non-fiction book published on the subject called The Art of the Click. It was published by Harriman House and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. It has been translated into Simplified Chinese and Korean. I also have a dog called Pablo. He is harder to translate. Indeed, most of my life revolves around trying to understand his often unreasonable demands. Meanwhile, I am currently working on my first novel, Still Nothing. Brave/bold agents: hit me up.

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