When Dogen founded Eiheiji, it's said a dragon spirit came regularly to hear the precepts and that Dogen always included the dragon in ceremonies. We shouldn't be too quick to treat this story metaphorically. There is a way in which things like that were experienced literally by those medieval monks in ways that we only encounter in dreams. And yet, we say we are Dogen's heirs. And we say we are passing along what he has done. As we embody the dharma, we must do so while fully occupying our time and place. And we must do so without feeling like a diminished version of some prior completeness. Each version is completely whole. Completely itself.