T2582 Shōbōgenzō The True Dharma-Eye Treasury, Volume IV

Chapter 90: Shizen-biku - The Bhikṣu in the Fourth Dhyāna

[Chapter Ninety]

Shizen-biku

The Bhikṣu in the Fourth Dhyāna

Translator's Note: Shi means four. Zen represents the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which means zazen or

"the state in zazen.

" Biku represents the Sanskrit word

bhikṣu, which means a Buddhist monk. Shizen-biku, or the bhikṣu who had attained the fourth state in zazen, refers to a monk who mistakenly thought that his own state was the state of the arhat, a Buddhist practitioner who has reached the fourth and ultimate stage of practice. When he was dying, an apparition appeared before him, something not usually seen by someone who has attained the fourth state in zazen, so he felt that Gautama Buddha had deceived him. And because of his mistaken idea, he fell into hell. Master Dōgen quotes this story as an example of the wrong approach to Buddhism. In addition, in this chapter he warns strongly against the serious mistake of believing that Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism all teach the same thing. [23] The fourteenth patriarch, the ancestral master Nāgārjuna, said: Among the Buddha's disciples there was one bhikṣuwho, on attaining the fourth dhyāna,became highly self-conceited1 and thought he had attained the fourth effect.

2 When he first attained the first dhyānahe

thought he had attained the state of a srotāpanna;3 when he attained the second dhyānahe thought it was the state of a sakṛdāgāmin;4 when he attained the third dhyānahe thought it was the state of an anāgāmin;5 and when he attained the fourth dhyāna,he thought it was arhathood. He thus became proud of himself and did not seek to progress further. When his life was about to end, he saw coming to him the form of a middle netherworld6 for [one who has] the fourth dhyāna,and there arose in him the false view. He thought,

"There is no nirvana. The

Buddha has deceived me.

" Because of [this] evil false view, he lost

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the middle netherworld for the fourth dhyānaand saw the form of a middle netherworld in Avīci-niraya. 7 When his life ended, he was at once born in Avīci-niraya.The bhikṣus asked the Buddha, "When the

life of [this] araṇya bhikṣu8 ended, where was he born?" The Buddha said,

"This person was born in Avīci-niraya. " The bhikṣus were greatly

surprised: Could sitting in zazen and keeping the precepts lead to that? The Buddha answered as before, and said, "Everything stemmed from

his conceit. When he attained the fourth dhyānahe thought he had attained the fourth effect. [Then] when he came to the end of his life and saw the form of a middle netherworld for the fourth dhyāna,there arose in him the false view. He thought, 'There is no nirvana. I am an

arhat; now, nonetheless, I am to be reborn. The Buddha has committed a deceit.

' He thereupon saw the form of a middle netherworld to Avīcinirayaand as soon as his life ended he was born in Avīci-niraya. " Then

the Buddha preached in verse, saying: Even with abundant knowledge, observance of precepts, and dhyāna,

He had yet to attain the Dharma by which excesses are ended. Although he possessed this virtue, This fact was hard for him to believe. That he fell into hell was because he slandered the Buddha. It was not connected with the fourth dhyāna. 9

[26] This bhikṣuis called "the bhikṣuin the fourth dhyāna, " and is also

called "the bhikṣuof no knowledge. " [The story] warns against mistaking attainment of the fourth dhyānafor the fourth effect, and it also warns against the false view that slanders the Buddha. All in the great order of human beings and gods have known [this story]: from the time when the Tathāgata was in the world until today, both in the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands, in order to warn against attaching to what is wrong as if it were right, [human beings and gods] say in derision, "That is like attaining the fourth dhyānaand thinking it is the fourth effect!" The wrongs of this bhikṣu,if I now briefly summarize them, are threefold. 10 First, although he is somebody of no knowledge who cannot distinguish between the fourth dhyānaand the fourth effect, he vainly departs from teachers and idly lives alone in the 264

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araṇya.Happily, this is the time when the Tathāgata is in the world. If [this bhikṣu] regularly visited the place of the Buddha, so that he were constantly meeting the Buddha and hearing the Dharma, the mistakes described here could never be. Instead, living alone in the araṇya,he does not visit the place of the Buddha and does not meet Buddha and hear the Dharma at last, which is why he is like this. Even if he fails to visit the place of the Buddha, he should go to the orders of the great arhats and receive their instruction. Vainly to live in solitude is a mistake born of self-conceit. Secondly, when he attains the first dhyānahe thinks it is the first effect, when he attains the second dhyānahe thinks it is the second effect, when he attains the third dhyānahe thinks it is the third effect, and when he attains the fourth dhyānahe thinks it is the fourth effect. This is his second mistake. The forms of the first, second, and third dhyānas, and the forms of the first, second, and third effects, are beyond comparison: how could we draw [a comparison]? This [mistake] derives from the fault of being without knowledge, a fault which [itself] derives from not serving a teacher and from ignorance. [28] Among the disciples of Upagupta11 there is a bhikṣuwho, with devout mind, has left his family life and got the fourth dhyāna,but he thinks it is the fourth effect. Upagupta, using expedient means, causes him to go to a distant place and makes a band of robbers materialize on the road thereto. He also materializes five hundred merchants. The robbers attack the merchants and there is a massacre. Seeing it, the bhikṣubecomes afraid. At once he thinks to himself, "I am not an arhat.

This must be the third effect.

" After the merchants are dead, there [only]

remains the daughter of a wealthy [merchant]. She says to the bhikṣu, "Solely I beg you, virtuous monk, take me with you!" The bhikṣu replies,

"The Buddha does not permit me to walk with a woman. " The

girl says,

"I will follow you from a distance, virtuous monk.

" The

bhikṣutakes pity on her; in sight of each other they walk on. The Venerable One then materializes a big river. The woman says, "Virtuous

monk, will you cross with me?" The bhikṣuis downstream, the woman upstream. The girl suddenly falls into the water and calls, "Virtuous

monk, save me!" Then the hands of the bhikṣureach to her and rescue her. He thinks about her smoothness and lust arises in his mind—at once he recognizes that he is not an anāgāmin.But feeling intense love 265

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for this woman, he leads her to a secluded place, wanting to have intercourse with her. On seeing that this is the master, he is greatly ashamed and stands with head bowed. The Venerable One says, "You considered

yourself to be an arhat. How could you want to do such a bad deed?" He led [the bhikṣu] into the sangha, made him confess, explained to him the pivot of the Dharma, and caused him to attain the state of arhat.

12

[31] This bhikṣuinitially makes the mistake of having views, but on witnessing the massacre he becomes afraid. At that time he thinks, "I am not an

arhat.

" Still, he is mistaken in thinking that he might be in the third effect. After that, because of thinking about the [woman's] smoothness, he causes lust to arise in his mind and knows that he is not an anāgāmin.He has no thought of slandering the Buddha, no thought of slandering the Dharma, and no thought of turning against the sacred teachings; he is not the same as the bhikṣuin the fourth dhyāna.This bhikṣupossesses the ability of one who has learned the sacred teachings, and so he knows himself that he is not an arhat and not an anāgāmin.People without knowledge today neither know what arhat is nor know what buddha is; therefore they do not know themselves that they are not arhats and not buddhas. That they just randomly think and say,

"I am buddha,

" may be a great mistake and a profound fault. Students first should learn what buddha is.

[32] A master of the past said,

"Therefore we know that those who

learn the sacred teachings know the proper order from the beginning; and transgressions, even if they occur, are easily resolved. "13

How true are the words of the master of the past! Even if they make the mistake of having views, people who have learned even a bit of the Buddha-Dharma will never be deceived by themselves and will never be deceived by others.

[33] I have heard; there was a person who thought that he had become a buddha, and when the sky did not clear as he expected, he thought it must be due to the hindrances of demons. [The sky] did clear, but after that he did not see King Brahmā requesting him to preach the Dharma. He knew that he was not a buddha; he thought that he must 266

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be an arhat. But then when others spoke ill of him his mind became temperamental, and he knew that he was not an arhat; so he thought he must be in the third effect. But then when he saw a woman and thought lewd thoughts he knew that he was not a sacred person. Here also, because [a person] honestly recognized the form of the teachings, he was [able to be] like this.

14

[34] Now, those who know the Buddha-Dharma sense their own wrongness like this and swiftly get rid of mistakes. Those who do not know idly remain for their whole lives in stupidity; and even if they receive life after life, still it will be so. This disciple of Upagupta, having attained the fourth dhyāna,thinks he is in the fourth effect, but thereafter he has the wisdom that "I am not an arhat.

" If the bhikṣuof no knowledge, on coming to the

end of his life and being able to see the middle netherworld for the fourth dhyāna,had the recognition "I am not an arhat,

" then he could not be guilty

of slandering the Buddha. Still more, it has been a long time since he attained the fourth dhyāna;why has he failed to recognize, by reflecting upon himself, that he is not in the fourth effect? If he were aware already of not being in the fourth effect, how could he fail to correct himself? [Instead,] he vainly sticks to his wrong consideration, hopelessly sunk in a false view. Thirdly, when his life ends, he makes an enormous mistake, the wrongness of which is so grave that he has duly fallen into Avīci Hell. [Monk of no knowledge,] even if you have spent your whole life thinking that the fourth dhyānais the fourth effect, if you are able, when your life is ending, to see the middle netherworld for the fourth dhyāna,you should confess your lifelong mistake and consider that you were never in the fourth effect. How could you think, "The Buddha has deceived me; though nirvana does not exist, he has fabricated that nirvana exists"? This is a wrongness [born of] no knowledge. This sin, already, is to have slandered the Buddha. Because of this, the middle netherworld to Avīci appears to him and, when his life ends, he falls down into Avīci Hell. How could anyone, even a saint of the fourth effect, equal the Tathāgata? Śāriputra has long been a saint of the fourth effect. Collect [all] the wisdom that exists in a three-thousand-great-thousandfold world, see [the wisdom] of others—excluding the Tathāgata—as one division, and compare a sixteenth of Śāriputra's wisdom with the wisdom that remains in the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world: [that remaining wisdom] will not 267

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equal the one-sixteenth of Śāriputra's wisdom. Nevertheless, on hearing the Tathāgata preach Dharma that he has never preached before, Śāriputra does not think,

"This is different from the Buddha's preaching at former and latter times; [the Buddha] is deceiving me.

" He says in praise,

"Pāpīyas has nothing

like this.

"15 The Tathāgata delivers Wealth Increaser,

16 Śāriputra does not

deliver Wealth Increaser: the great difference between the fourth effect and the buddha-effect is like this. If the world in the ten directions were full of the likes of Śāriputra and the other disciples, and together they tried to fathom the Buddha's wisdom, it would be impossible.

17 Kongzi and Laozi18 have

never had such virtue. Who among students of the Buddha-Dharma could fail to fathom Confucius and Laozi? [But] no student of Kongzi and Laozi has ever fathomed the Buddha-Dharma. People today of the great kingdom of Song mostly uphold the principle of agreement between Kongzi and Laozi and the Buddha's truth. It is the gravest of wrong views, as later I shall expand. When the bhikṣuin the fourth dhyāna,seeing his own wrong view as true, considers that the Buddha has deceived him, he turns his back on the Buddha's truth forever. The enormity of his stupidness may be equal to that of the six [non-Buddhist] teachers.

19

[38] A master of the past said,

"Even when the Great Master was in

the world, there were people of wrong consideration and views. How much worse, after [the Tathāgata's] extinction, are those without a teacher who are unable to attain any dhyāna.

"20

The present "Great Master" means the World-honored Buddha. Truly, even those who left family life and received ordination when the World-honored One was in the world had difficulty, due to lack of knowledge, in avoiding the mistake of wrong consideration and the holding of views. How much less could we, in a remote and inferior time and place, in the fifth five hundredyear [period] after the Tathāgata's extinction, be without mistakes? Even one who established the fourth dhyānawas like this. How much less deserving of discussion are those who are not up to establishing the fourth dhyānaand who idly sink into greed for fame and love of gain, or those who crave official promotion or secular careers. In the great kingdom of Song today there are many ill-informed and foolish people. They say that the Buddha-Dharma and the methods of Kongzi and Laozi are in accord and not divergent. 268

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[39] In the Great Song era of Katai,

21 there was a monk Shōju22 who

edited and presented23 the record Futōroku24 in thirty volumes. He said, "Your subject has heard the words of Kozan Chien25 that, 'My truth is

like a three-legged cauldron, and the three teachings are like its legs. If one leg were missing, the cauldron would tip up. ' Your subject has

long since admired this person and contemplated his preaching, whereupon I have recognized that the essence of what Confucianism teaches is integrity, the essence of what the Dao teaches is detachment, and the essence of what Śākyamuni teaches is seeing the nature. 26 Integrity,

detachment, seeing the nature: different in name, same in substance. When we master the point at which they converge, there is nothing that does not concur exactly with this truth. . . . "27

[40] People like this of wrong consideration and views are very many; they are not only Chien and Shōju. The mistake of these people is more grave than that of one who has attained the fourth dhyānaand thinks it is the fourth effect. They are slandering the Buddha, slandering the Dharma, and slandering the Sangha. Already, they are negating salvation, negating the three times, and negating cause and effect. That "in a morass of looseness, they invite misfortune and calamity"28 is beyond doubt. They are equal to those who have thought that there are no "Three Treasures, Four [Noble] Truths, or four effects of a śramaṇa.

"29 The essence of the Buddha-Dharma is never seeing the nature. Where has any of the Seven Buddhas or the twenty-eight patriarchs of India said that the Buddha-Dharma is only "seeing the nature"? The Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra30 contains the words "seeing the nature, " but that

text is a fake text; it is not the writing of one to whom the Dharma treasury was transmitted, and it is not the words of Sōkei. It is a text upon which descendants of the Buddhist Patriarch absolutely never rely. Because Shōju and Chien never knew one corner of the Buddha-Dharma, they produced this wrong consideration about one cauldron with three legs. [42] A master of the past said,

"Even Laozi and Zhuangzi31 themselves

never recognized the subject of attachment and the object of attachment or the subject of detachment and the object of detachment of the Small Vehicle;32 much less actual attachment and actual detachment33 within the Great Vehicle. For this reason, they are not even slightly similar to 269

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the Buddha-Dharma. Yet the stupid people of the secular world are deluded by concepts and forms, and people of indiscriminate Zen stray from the true theory. They would like to equate the concepts of 'the merit of the Dao'34 and 'the amble,

'35 with the preaching of salvation

through the Buddha-Dharma; but how could that be possible?"36 Since olden times those deluded by concepts and forms and those who do not know the true theory have equated the Buddha-Dharma with Zhuangzi and Laozi. Of those who possess, with respect to the Buddha-Dharma, even slight esteem for the ancients, not one person since olden times has attached importance to Zhuangzi or Laozi.

[43] The Shōjōhōgyōkyō37 says,

"Bodhisattva Moon Light38 there they

call Gankai;39 Bodhisattva Light and Purity40 there they call Chūji;41 Bodhisattva Kāśyapa there they call Laozi. . . .

"42

Since olden times, quoting the preaching of this sutra, [people] have said that Kongzi, Laozi, and so on are bodhisattvas and so their preaching may be, at heart, equal to the Buddha's preaching, and they may be, moreover, the Buddha's emissaries, whose preaching might naturally be the Buddha's preaching. These opinions are all wrong.

"A master of the past said,

'Those who have

referred to the catalogues [of the sutras], all consider this sutra to be a fake. . . .

'"43 Relying now upon this preaching, [we can say that] the Buddha-Dharma and Kongzi and Laozi may be ever more widely divergent. [Kongzi and Laozi] are bodhisattvas already; they cannot compare with the buddha-effect. Furthermore, the virtue of "softening one's light and harmonizing one's traces"44 is the Dharma only of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times. It is not an ability of common people in [the world of] secular dust. How can a common person occupied in his business be free to harmonize traces? Kongzi has never had any saying about harmonizing traces. Still less do Kongzi and Laozi know causes in the past or explain effects in the present. They see as the aim the art of serving a lord and managing a household through the loyalty and filial piety of merely one age; they have no preaching at all about future ages. They may be, already, the descendants of nihilists. Those who, despising Zhuangzi and Laozi, have said,

"They know not even the Small Vehicle, much less the Great Vehicle,

" are the clear teachers of antiquity. Those who say that the three teachings are at one are [as] Chien and Shōju; they are the dimwitted common people of 270

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a later degenerate age. You [Chien and Shōju], what excellence do you have to disregard the preaching of the ancestral masters of antiquity and to claim at random that the Buddha-Dharma might be equal to Kongzi and Laozi? Your views are never fit for discussing the penetrable and the impenetrable in the Buddha-Dharma. Carrying your packs, you should go to learn under a clear teacher. Chien and Shōju! You have never known either the Great [Vehicle] or the Small Vehicle. You are more ignorant than [the monk] who, having attained the fourth dhyāna,thought it was the fourth effect. It is sad that where winds of decay are blowing there are many demons like this.

[46] A master of the past said,

"According to the words of Kongzi45

and Kitan46 and the writings of the three emperors and the five rulers, 47

a household is regulated through filial piety, a nation is regulated through loyalty, and the people benefit through assistance. But this is limited within one age; it does not extend into the past or the future. It never compares with the Buddha-Dharma's benefiting of the three times. How could [such a comparison] not be mistaken?"48

How true they are, the words of the past master. They have nicely arrived at the ultimate principle of the Buddha-Dharma, and they are clear with regard to the principles of secular society. The words of the three emperors and the five rulers can never equal the teachings of the sacred wheel[-turning] kings and should never be discussed alongside the preachings of King Brahmā or the god Śakra. The areas [Chinese emperors] govern, and the effects and results they attain, may be far inferior. [But] not even the wheel kings, King Brahmā, and the god Śakra equal a bhikṣuwho has left family life and received ordination. How much less could they equal the Tathāgata? The writings of Kongzi and Kitan, moreover, cannot equal the eighteen great scriptures of India,

49 and they do not bear comparison with the four books of the Vedas. 50

The Brahamanist teaching of the Western Heavens is never equal to the Buddha's teaching, nor even equal to the teachings of śrāvakas of the Small Vehicle. It is pitiful that in the minor and remote nation of China there is the false doctrine that the three teachings are at one.

[48] The fourteenth patriarch, Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna, said, "The great

arhats and pratyekabuddhas know eighty thousand great kalpas. The great bodhisattvas and [buddhas] know countless kalpas.

"51

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The likes of Kongzi and Laozi never know past and future within one generation. How could they have the power to know one past life or two past lives? How much less could they know one kalpa? How much less could they know a hundred kalpas or a thousand kalpas? How much less could they know eighty thousand great kalpas? And how much less could they know countless kalpas? Compared with the buddhas and bodhisattvas who illuminate and know these countless kalpas more clearly than one looking at the palm of a hand, the likes of Kongzi and Laozi do not even deserve to be called dim. Covering the ears, do not listen to the words that the three teachings are at one. It is the most wrong doctrine among wrong doctrines. [49] Zhuangzi said,

"Nobility and lowliness, suffering and joy, right and wrong, gain and loss: all these are just the natural state. "52

This view, already, is the descendant of non-Buddhists of the naturalistic view in the Western Kingdom.

53 Nobility and lowliness, suffering and joy,

right and wrong, gain and loss, are all the effect of good or bad conduct. Because [Zhuangzi] neither knows "fulfilling karma"54 and "pulling karma"55 nor understands the past and the future, he is ignorant of the present; how could he be equal to the Buddha-Dharma? Some say:

The buddha-tathāgatas widely substantiate the worlds of Dharma. Therefore Dharma worlds of atoms56 are all substantiated by the buddhas. That being so, both forms of [karmic] result, circumstances and the subject,

57 amount to the preaching of the Tathāgata, and therefore mountains, rivers, and the earth, sun, moon, and stars, the four illusions58 and the three poisons,

59 all are what the Tathāgata preached. To see the mountains and rivers is to see the Tathāgata. The three poisons and the four illusions are nothing other than the Buddha-Dharma. To see atoms is the same as seeing the world of Dharma, and every instant is the state of saṃbodhi.

60 This is called "the great liberation.

" This is called

"the directly transmitted and immediately accessible truth of the patriarchs. "

Fellows who speak like this are as [common as] rice, flax, bamboo, and reeds; the government and the people are full of them. It is not clear, however, whose descendants these fellows are, and they do not know the truth of the Buddhist patriarchs at all. While [mountains, rivers, and the earth] may be 272

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what the buddhas preach, it is not impossible for mountains, rivers, and the earth momentarily to be what the common person sees. [Those fellows] do not learn and do not hear the principle of what constitutes the preaching of buddhas. For them to say that seeing atoms is the same as seeing the world of Dharma is like subjects saying they are the same as a king. Moreover, why do they not say that seeing the world of Dharma is the same as seeing atoms? If the view of these fellows could be esteemed as the great truth of the Buddhist patriarchs, the buddhas need not have appeared in the world, the ancestral master need not have manifested himself, and living beings would not be able to attain the truth. Even if [those fellows] physically realize that "appearance is just nonappearance,

"61 [the truth] is beyond this

principle.

[52] Paramārtha Sanzō62 said,

"In China there are two blessings. The

first is that there are no rākṣasas.

63 The second is that there are no non-Buddhists. "64

These words were in fact imported by a non-Buddhist brahman from the Western Kingdom. Even if there is no one able to penetrate non-Buddhism, that does not mean there cannot be people who beget non-Buddhist views. Rākṣasas have never been seen, but that does not mean there are no descendants of non-Buddhists. The reason [China] is a minor nation in a remote land, and therefore not the same as India, the center, 65 is that although [the

Chinese] have learned the Buddha-Dharma a little, there is no one who has grasped the state of experience as [it was grasped] in India. [53] A master of the past said,

"Today there are many who have returned

to secular society.

66 Afraid of having to perform king's service,

67 they

enter into non-Buddhism but steal the principles of the Buddha-Dharma in order secretly to understand Laozi and Zhuangzi. They duly create confusion, deluding beginners about which is true and which is false, calling this the view that is able to unfold the Dharma of the Vedas. "68

Remember, those who cause confusion, not knowing which is true and which is false between the Buddha-Dharma and Laozi and Zhuangzi, and those who delude beginners, are just the present Chien and Shōju and their like. Not only is it the grossest stupidity: it is the utmost lack of esteem for 273

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the ancients. [This] is obvious and is evident. Among the monks of the Song dynasty in recent days, there had not been even one who knew that Kongzi and Laozi are inferior to the Buddha-Dharma. Although people who had become descendants of the Buddhist Patriarch,

69 like rice, flax, bamboo, and reeds,

filled the mountains and fields of the nine states, there was not one person or half a person upon whom it had dawned that, beyond Kongzi and Laozi, the Buddha-Dharma is outstanding in its excellence. Only my late master Tendō, the eternal buddha, clearly understood that the Buddha-Dharma and Kongzi and Laozi are not one. He instituted this teaching day and night. Though [others] were famous as teachers of sutras and commentaries or as lecturers, it had not dawned on any of them that the Buddha-Dharma far surpasses the areas of Kongzi and Laozi. For the last hundred years or so many lecturers have studied the conventions of people who practice [za]zen and learn the state of truth, hoping to steal their understanding. We can say that they are utterly mistaken. In the writings of Kongzi there is the "person of innate intelligence. "70 In the

Buddha's teaching there are no people of innate intelligence. 71 In the Buddha-Dharma there is explanation of the śarīras. 72 Kong zi and Laozi do not know

of the existence or nonexistence of the śarīras. Even if they intend to make [the three teachings] into one and mix them up, penetration or nonpenetration of a detailed explanation will be beyond them at last.

[56] [The] Rongo73 says,

"[Those] who know it from birth are the best.

Those who know through study are next. Those who learn it with difficulty are after that. Those who fail to learn even with difficulty, the people will see as the lowest.

"74

If [this says] there is inborn intelligence, it is guilty of negating causality. In the Buddha-Dharma there is no doctrine that negates causality. When the bhikṣuin the fourth dhyānacomes to the end of his life, he falls into the sin of slandering the Buddha momentarily. If [students] think that the Buddha-Dharma is equal to the teachings of Kongzi and Laozi, their sin, to slander the Buddha through a lifetime, must be grave indeed. Students should swiftly throw away the opinion that falsely considers the Buddha-Dharma and Kongzi and Laozi to be at one. Those who harbor this view and fail to discard it will eventually fall into an evil state. Students, you must clearly remember: Kongzi and Laozi neither know the Dharma in the three times nor know the truth of 274

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cause and effect. They do not know the peaceful establishment of one continent;75 how much less could they know the peaceful establishment of the four continents.

76 They do not even know about the six heavens; how much less could they know the Dharma of the triple world of nine realms?77 They do not know a small thousandfold world and they are not able to know a middle thousandfold world; how could they see and how could they know the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world? Even in the solitary realm of China [Kongzi and Laozi] are only minor retainers who have not ascended to the rank of emperor; they cannot be compared with the Tathāgata, who is the king of the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world. In the Tathāgata's case, Brahmadeva, the god Śakra, and sacred wheel-turning kings, day and night are venerating him and standing guard over him and perpetually requesting him to preach the Dharma. Kongzi and Laozi are without such merit; they are only common people wandering in the mundane circuit. They have never known the truth of transcendence and salvation; how could they perfectly realize, in the manner of the Tathāgata, that "all dharmas are real form. "

If they have never perfectly realized [this] how could they be seen as equal to the World-honored One? Kongzi and Laozi are without inner virtue and without outer usefulness; they can never arrive at the level of the World-honored One. How could we disgorge the false doctrine that the three teachings are at one? Kongzi and Laozi cannot penetrate the existence of boundaries and the nonexistence of boundaries of the world. Not only do they fail to see and fail to know the wide and fail to see and fail to know the great; they [also] fail to see the smallest material forms and fail to know the length of a kṣāṇa.

78 The World-honored One clearly sees the smallest material forms and knows the length of a kṣāṇa;how could we liken him to Kongzi and Laozi? Kongzi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Huizi,

79 and suchlike are just common people. They could not reach the level of even a srotāpanna80 of the Small Vehicle; how much less could they reach the level of the second [effect] or the third [effect] or an arhat of the fourth [effect]? That students, however, out of ignorance, put them on a par with the buddhas, is "in the midst of delusion, deepening delusion. " Kongzi and Laozi are not only ignorant of the three times and ignorant of the many kalpas; they are not able to know one instant of mindfulness and not able to know one moment of the mind. They do not bear comparison even with the gods of the sun and the moon and they cannot 275

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equal the four great kings81 and the hosts of gods. Whether in the secular sphere or beyond the secular sphere, [seen] in comparison with the Worldhonored One, they are straying in delusion. [59] The Biographies82 say: "Ki was a great man of the Zhou [dynasty].

83 He was skilled in astrology and once saw a heavenly anomaly. Following it eastward, he met, as he had expected, Laozi, whom he asked to write a book of five thousand words. Ki wished to go forth84 so that he could follow Laozi.

85 Laozi said,

'If you are determined to

go forth, bring the heads of seven people including your father and mother, and then you will be able to go forth.

' Ki immediately did as

he had been told, whereupon the seven heads all turned into the heads of pigs.

" A master of the past said,

"In contrast, Confucianists who are

[versed in] secular scriptures and dutiful to their parents honor even [their parent's] wooden images. [But] when Laozi established his instruction, he made Ki kill his parents. In the lineage of the Tathāgata's teaching, great benevolence is the foundation. How could Laozi make a grave sin the starting point of his instruction?"86 [61] In the past there were wrong groups who compared Laozi with the World-honored One, and today there are stupid fellows who say that both Kongzi and Laozi compare with the World-honored One. How could we not pity them? Kongzi and Laozi cannot equal even the sacred wheel-turning kings who, through the ten kinds of good,

87 govern the secular world. How

could the three emperors and the five rulers be equal to the wheel-turning kings of the gold, silver, copper, and iron [wheels], who are furnished with the seven treasures and a thousand things and who either govern four continents or rule a three-thousandfold world? Kongzi and Laozi can never be compared with even these [three emperors and five rulers]. The buddhas and the patriarchs of the past, present, and future have each considered the starting point of instruction to be dutiful obedience to parents, teacher-monks, and the Three Treasures; and service of offerings to sick people and so on. They have never, since time immemorial, considered harming one's parents to be the starting point of instruction. So Laozi and the Buddha-Dharma are not one. To kill one's father and mother, in every case, is karma [felt] in the next life, in which falling into nirayais assured. For all Laozi's random discussion 276

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of "the void,

" those who harm their father and mother will not escape the arising of retribution.

[62] The Dentōrokusays: The Second Patriarch88 constantly lamented, saying,

"The teachings of Kongzi and Laozi are [only] the art of decorum and criteria for behavior, and the writings of Zhuangzi and the Yijing89 are imperfect in regard to exquisite truths. Recently I have heard that the great man Bodhidharma is residing at Shaolin. A consummate human being may not be far away. [Under him] I shall mold the profound state.

"90

People today should definitely believe that the authentic transmission into China of the Buddha-Dharma was solely due to the Second Patriarch's power of learning in practice. Though the First Patriarch had come from the west, without the Second Patriarch, the Buddha-Dharma would not have been transmitted. If the Second Patriarch had not transmitted the Buddha-Dharma, in the Eastern Lands today there would be no Buddha-Dharma. In general the Second Patriarch must not be grouped among others. [63] The Dentōrokusays: The monk Shinko91 was a man of broad accomplishments. For a long time he lived in Yiraku. 92 He was widely

read in many texts, and was well able to discuss profound truths. 93

The Second Patriarch's wide reading of many texts in former days may be far beyond the reading of [a few] volumes by people today. After he attained the Dharma and received the transmission of the robe, he had no words to the effect that,

"In former days when I thought the teachings of Kongzi and Laozi were [only] the art of decorum and criteria for behavior, that was a mistake. "

Remember, the Second Patriarch had clearly realized that Kongzi and Laozi are unable to equal the Buddha-Dharma. Why do his distant descendants today turn their backs on their ancestral father and say that [Kongzi and Laozi] and the Buddha-Dharma are at one? Just know that it is a false doctrine. Among distant descendants of the Second Patriarch, who could rely upon the explanations of Shōju and the like? If you want to be a descendant of the Second Patriarch, never say that the three teachings are at one. [65] When the Buddha was in the world, there was a non-Buddhist called Debating Power94 who thought that in debate there was no one 277

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who could equal his learning, his power being the greatest; for this reason, he was called Debating Power. At the request of five hundred Licchavīs,

95 he compiled five hundred salient enigmas and came to pester the World-honored One. Coming to the Buddha's place, he asked the Buddha,

"Is there one ultimate truth, or are there many ultimate truths?"

The Buddha said,

"There is only one ultimate truth. "

Debating Power said,

"We teachers each assert that we have the ultimate truth. Among non-Buddhists, we each consider ourself to be right and disparage the ways of others; we find in each other rightness and wrongness: therefore there are many truths. "

The World-honored One at that time had already converted Deer Head,

96 who had realized the effect of one beyond study. 97 He was

standing by the Buddha. The Buddha asked Debating Power, "Among

the many truths, whose is foremost?" Debating Power said,

"Deer Head is foremost.

"

The Buddha said,

"If he is foremost, why has he discarded his own truth,

98 become my disciple, and entered my state of truth?" Seeing this, Debating Power hung his head in shame. He took refuge and entered the truth. Then the Buddha preached a philosophic verse, saying:

Everyone claims the ultimate, Each attaching to themselves, Each seeing themselves as right and others as wrong: This is never the ultimate. Such people enter controversies, And strive to elucidate intellectual nirvana. Disputing with each other right and wrong, Winners and losers feel sadness or joy. The winners fall into the pit of conceit; The losers fall into a hell of gloom. Therefore, those who have wisdom Do not fall into these two ways. Debating Power, you should know: In the Dharma of my disciples 278

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There is neither nothingness nor substance. What are you after?

If you want to destroy my arguments, There is, at last, no basis for this. It is impossible to clarify total knowledge; By this [effort] you will only ruin yourself. 99

[67] Now the golden words of the World-honored One are like this. The stupid and dull living beings of the Eastern Lands must not indiscriminately turn their backs on the Buddha's teaching and say that there are truths equal to the Buddha's truth. That would just be slandering the Buddha and slandering the Dharma. [People] of the Western Heavens, from Deer Head and Debating Power to the brahman Long Nails,

100 the brahman Senika,

101 and so on: these

were people of wide learning, [such as] have never existed since ancient times in the Eastern Lands. Kongzi and Laozi could never equal them at all. All of them discarded their own truths and took refuge in the Buddha's truth. If we were now to compare the secular people Kongzi and Laozi with the Buddha-Dharma, even those who listened would be guilty of a sin. Furthermore, even arhats and pratyekabuddhas will all eventually become bodhisattvas: not one of them will finish in the Small Vehicle. [But] as for Kongzi and Laozi, who never entered the Buddha's truth, how could we say that they are equal to the buddhas? That would be an enormously wrong view. In conclusion, the fact that the World-honored Tathāgata far surpasses all is praised and known unanimously by the buddha-tathāgatas, the great bodhisattvas, Brahmadeva, and the god Śakra. The twenty-eight patriarchs of India all know it. In sum, all those who have the power of learning in practice know it. Living beings of the present degenerative age must not heed the mad utterance of the dimwits of the Song dynasty, that the three teachings are at one. It is the utmost ignorance.

Shōbōgenzō Shizen-biku

On a day during the summer retreat in the seventh year of Kenchō,

102 I finished the copying

from the master's first draft.

Ejō

279

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Notes

1 Zōjōmanrepresents the Sanskrit abhimāna,one of the seven categories of māna(arrogance). See Glossary of Sanskrit Terms. 2 Shika("fourth effect"), the state of an arhat. 3 A stream-enterer. See Volume I, Glossary of Sanskrit Terms. 4 A once-returner. (Ibid.)

5 A non-returner. (Ibid.)

6 Chū-inrepresents the Sanskrit antarā-bhava,the middle existence between death and regeneration, usually rendered into Chinese characters as chū-u, "middle existence.

"

See Volume I, Glossary of Sanskrit Terms. 7 Avīci, lit.,

"waveless,

" is the name of a particular hell. Nirayameans hell. 8 Araṇyameans forest, wilderness, or deserted place. The bhikṣulived alone in the wilderness without visiting reliable teachers. 9 Daichidoron,fascicle 17.

10 The first two mistakes are listed in this paragraph. The third mistake is described in paragraph 34.

11 The fourth patriarch in India. See Chapter Fifteen (Vol. I), Busso. 12 Fascicle 5, pt. 4 of the Makashikanhogyōdenguketsu,a commentary on Master Tendai Chigi's Makashikan.Master Tendai Chigi was founder of the Tendai sect. 13 Makashikanhogyōdenguketsu,fascicle 5, pt. 4. 14 Ibid.

15 Lotus Sutra, Hiyu ("A Parable"): "The World-honored One preaches the real truth./Pāpīyas has no such thing.

" See LS 1.142. See Volume III, Glossary of Sanskrit Terms (pāpīyas).

16 Fukuzō represents the meaning of the Sanskrit Śrīvaddhi, the name of a wealthy man said to be already one hundred years old when he resolved to become a monk. Śāriputra refused to let him, saying he was too old. Later, Śrīvaddhi asked the Buddha, and the Buddha allowed it. Śrīvaddhi is described in fascicle 4 of the Kengukyō,and also mentioned in Chapter Eighty-six, Shukke-kudoku. 281

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17 Alludes to Lotus Sutra,Hōben.See LS 1.72.

18 Kōrō stands for Kōshi, Kongzi, and Rōshi, Laozi. Kongzi (555-479 B.C.E.), that is, Confucius, is the founder of Confucianism. Laozi (also ca. sixth century B.C.E.) is regarded as the founder of Daoism.

19 Rokushistands for rokushi-gedō,the six non-Buddhist teachers: Pūraṇa-Kāśyapa (who denied the existence of good and evil), Maskari-Gośalīputra (a fatalist), Sañjaya-Vairāṭīputra (a skeptic), Ajita-Keśakambala (a materialist), Kakuda-Kātyāyana (who explained the universe by seven elemental factors), and Nirgrantha-Jñātiputra (the founder of Jainism).

20 Makashikanhogyōdenguketsu,fascicle 4, pt. 1.

21 1201-1205.

22 Master Raian Shōju. A successor of Master Getsudō Dōshō. He died in 1208 at the age of sixty-seven.

23 That is, presented to the emperor.

24 Kataifutōroku(Katai Era Record of the Universal Torch), completed 1201. Contains stories of both monks and laypeople.

25 Kozan Chien was a monk of the Tendai sect. He died in 1022 at the age of forty-seven. 26 Kenshō,

"seeing the nature" or "enlightenment": the concept kenshōis generally used by people who regard the experience of enlightenment as an aim outside of practice. 27 Quoted from the preface to the Kataifutōroku.

28 Alludes to a line in Master Yōka Genkaku's Shōdōka:"Emptiness run wild negates cause and effect; and in a morass of looseness, invites misfortune and calamity. " See

also Chapter Eighty-nine, Shinjin-inga.

29 Alludes to Master Nāgārjuna's words, quoted in Chapter Eighty-nine, Shinjin-inga: "When they deny the existence of cause and effect beyond the world, then there are no Three Treasures, Four [Noble] Truths, or four effects of a śramaṇa. "

30 The Rokusodaishihōbōdankyō(Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch' s Dharma Treasure) was said to have been compiled by Hōkai and other disciples of Master Daikan Enō, the Sixth Patriarch. There are several editions, including the Tonkō edition (Tonkō was a station on the Silk Road), the Kōshōji edition (Kōshōji is a temple in Kyoto), and the Korean edition.

31 Laozi is said to be the founder of Daoism, and Zhuangzi is said to be his student. The Chinese texts of Daoism are named after the authors to whom those texts are ascribed. So the name "Zhuangzi" represents both Daoist teaching and the name of the supposed teacher.

32 The Small Vehicle means intellectual Buddhism in which subject and object are separated. 282

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33 Nyaku-jaku nyaku-ha,literally,

"possibility of attachment, possibility of breaking [attachment].

" Nyakuexpresses possibility, but Master Dōgen used the character to represent actuality, or the fact of something already having happened. In Chapter Twenty-two (Vol. II), Busshō,paragraph 14, Master Dōgen identifies nyaku-shi, "if

it has arrived,

" and ki-shi,

"it has already arrived.

"

34 Dōtoku.There is a text ascribed to Laozi called the Rōshidōtokukyō(Scripture of the Merit of the Dao of Laozi).

35 Shōyō,lit., walk, amble, or stroll, expresses the fundamental ideal in the teaching of Zhuangzi: to walk amid nature in a state of perfect ease. 36 Makashikanhogyōdenguketsu,fascicle 3, pt. 4. 37 Shōjōhōgyōkyō,lit.,

"Sutra of Pure Dharma Conduct,

" is not contained in the Taishō

ShinshūDaizōkyō, the complete collection of Buddhist sutras. The sutra was likely a fake, written in China and titled as if it were written in India. 38 Gekkō (Moon Light) represents the meaning of the Sanskrit Candraprabha. The image of this bodhisattva, along with that of Nikkō-bosatsu, Bodhisattva Sun Light (from the Sanskrit Sūryaprabha), are usually arranged on either side of the image of Yakushinyorai, lit., "Medicine King Tathāgata,

" the buddha of healing (Sanskrit: Bhaiṣajyaguru or Bhaiṣa jya guru vaiḍūrya prabha-tathāgata). Statues of these three have been very popular in China and Japan from ancient times. 39 Gankai was said to be the most excellent of the ten great disciples of Kongzi. 40 Kōjō ("Light and Purity"); Sanskrit name not traced. 41 Chūji, another name of Confucius. 42 Makashikanhogyōdenguketsu,fascicle 6, pt. 3. 43 Ibid.

44 Wakō-ōjaku. Wakō,

"softening light,

" describes the practice of buddhas and bodhisattvas of concealing the brightness of their own state, so as not to bedazzle the living beings whom they wish to save. Ōjaku,

"harmonizing traces,

" describes the practice of

buddhas and bodhisattvas of flexibly showing different forms as befits living beings who must be saved (see, for example, LS 3.252). Applying the theory of wakō-ōjaku, people in China and Japan have argued that Confucianist and Daoist teachers, and Shintō gods, are manifestations of buddhas and bodhisattvas. 45 Kōkyu, another name of Confucius. Kyu was his first name. 46 Kitan means the ancient Chinese emperor Shūkō, who laid down guidelines for an effective political system.

47 Gotei("five rulers"). The legendary period of Chinese history (2852 B.C.E. to 2205 C.E.) is known as gotei-ki,

"age of the five rulers.

"

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48 There is a similar passage in the Makashikanhogyōdenguketsu,fascicle 10, pt. 2. 49 The scriptures of Brahmanism: the four Vedas, six commentaries, and a further eight commentaries.

50 The Sanskrit vedaliterally means "divine knowledge" (see Glossary of Sanskrit Terms). The Vedas, which are thought to have been compiled between ca. 2000 and ca. 500 B.C.E., consist of 1) the Ṛg-veda,the oldest collection of hymns; 2) the Sāmaveda, hymns (mainly from the Ṛg-veda) set to music for use in rituals; 3) the Yajurveda,spells used in rituals; and 4) the Atharva-veda,spells used in daily rites. 51 Daichidoron,chap. 5.

52 Makashikan,fascicle 10, pt. 1. 53 Saikoku ("Western Kingdom"), a variation of Saiten, refer to India.

"Western Heavens"; both terms

54 Mangō,sometimes called beppō-go, "karma of distinct results,

" is a technical term

in Chinese Buddhism to describe karma that produces the individual differences between a man or a woman, the wise and the unwise, the rich and the poor, etc. 55 Ingōmeans karma that produces general results, such as birth as a human being. 56 Suggests the material realms of the Daoists. This section in quotemarks represents an attempt to identify the materialist or naturalistic view with the Buddha-Dharma. 57 E-shō-nihōmeans shōhōand ehō. Shōhō,lit., "true result,

" means the human subject

as the result of past karma. Ehō,lit., "dependence results,

" means the circumstances

upon which the subject's existence depends. Eshōis commonly used as an expression of object and subject.

58 Shi-tōis short for shi-tendō,literally, "four inversions.

" Tendōrepresents the Sanskrit

viparyāsa,which means overturning, inversion, perverseness, or delusion (see Glossary of Sanskrit Terms). The four illusions are 1) the illusion of permanence (nityaviparyāsa), 2) the illusion of pleasure (sukha-viparyāsa), 3) the illusion of purity (śuci-viparyāsa), and 4) the illusion of self (ātma-viparyāsa). 59 Sandoku("three posions"): greed, anger, and ignorance. 60 The inclusive state of truth. 61 Shō-soku-mushō,

"birth is non-birth,

" is a principle in the Sanron sect that suggests going beyond conventional thinking: what is conventionally called "birth" or "appearance" is, in reality, a momentary state in which there is no change. 62 Shintai-sanzō. Shintai, lit., "true philosophy,

" represents the meaning of the Sanskrit Paramārtha, the monk's name. Sanzō was a title for a scholar of the Tripiṭaka. Paramārtha (449-569), a native of western India, was invited to China by Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty in 546. He translated sixty-four sutras and other Buddhist texts into Chinese, including the Konkōmyōkyō(Golden Light Sutra). 284

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63 Rākṣasas are evil or malignant demons. 64 Makashikan,fascicle 10, pt. 1; Makashikanhogyōdenguketsu,fascicle 10, pt. 2. 65 Chū-indo,lit.,

"middle India,

" suggests India as the center of civilization. 60 Genzokudescribes a person giving up the life of a Buddhist monk and going back to secular life.

67 Ō-ekiwas a kind of labor in lieu of tax. In this age, the Chinese government supported Daoism, and burdened Buddhist monks by forcing them to perform such service. 68 Makashikan, fascicle 10, pt. 1. 69 Suggests people who have become descendants of Master Bodhidharma, by practicing zazen.

70 Shōchisha,

"those who know from birth.

" This term is also discussed in Chapter Twenty-six (Vol. II), Daigo.

71 72 Because knowing derives from effort. Śarīras are sacred relics or bones, especially of the Buddha. See, for example, Lotus Sutra(LS 2.154) and Chapter Seventy-one (Vol. III), Nyorai-zenshin. 73 Rongo(Discourses), by Confucius; the fundamental text of Confucianism. 74 Rongo,fascicle 8.

75 Isshū,

"one continent,

" means the southern continent of Jambudvīpa upon which human beings live.

76 Shishū,

"four continents,

" from the Sanskrit catvārodvīpāḥ,are Jambudvīpa (south), Pūrvavideha (east), Aparagodāna (west), and Uttarakuru (north). See Glossary of Sanskrit Terms.

77 Sangai-kūjihere represents the whole real world. The triple world comprises the worlds of desire, matter, and non-matter. It is said that the world of desire is one realm with hell at the bottom and the six heavens at the top. The worlds of matter and nonmatter have four realms each. 78 An instant. See Chapter Seventy (Vol. III), Hotsu-bodaishin,paragraph 201: "Only the Tathāgata clearly knows the length of this kṣāṇa. . . . "

79 Keishi was a scholar and orator who became a prime minister during the Wei dynasty (220-265).

80 A stream-enterer, the first of the four effects leading to arhathood. 81 The Four Quarter Kings (Sanskrit: catvāro mahā-rājikāḥ) who guard the four continents. 82 Retsuden(Biographies) refers to the biographical section of the Chinese book Shiki (History).

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83 The Zhou dynasty prevailed in China from ca. 1122 B.C.E. to ca. 222 B.C.E. 84 Ki wished to quit his position in Zhou society. 85 Laozi is here called by the name Tan. 86 Makashikanhogyōdenguketsu,fascicle 5, pt. 6. 87 Jūzen("ten kinds of good") are abstention from the ten evils: 1) killing, 2) stealing, 3) adultery, 4) lying, 5) duplicitous speech, 6) abusive speech, 7) idle chatter, 8) greed, 9) anger, 10) wrong views.

88 Master Taiso Eka, successor of Master Bodhidharma. See, for example, Chapter Thirty (Vol. II), Gyōji.

89 Eki,

"divination,

" stands for Ekikyō,lit.,

"Divination Scripture,

" that is, the Yijing.

This work was written during the Zhou dynasty, based on Daoist concepts of yinand yang.

90 Keitokudentōroku,chap. 3.

91 Master Taiso Eka. Shinko was his monk's name in his youth. 92 The district bordered by two rivers pronounced in Japanese as I and Raku. 93 Keitokudentōroku,chap. 3.

94 Ronriki ("Debating Power"). Sanskrit name not traced. 95 The Licchavis were an ethnic group that inhabited the republic of Vaiśālī. Its capital, also called Vaiśālī, was located at present-day Besarb, twenty-seven miles north of Patna.

96 Rokutō ("Deer Head"), from the Pāli Migasīsa. He was a brahman from Kośala, who formerly practiced magic techniques but later took refuge in the Buddha and became an arhat.

97 Mugakuka,

"the effect of one beyond study,

" is a synonym for the state of arhat. 98 Dō,lit.,

"Way" or "truth,

" represents the Sanskrit bodhi.In this context it suggests Deer Head's former way, outlook, or philosophy of life. 99 Makashikanhogyōdenguketsu,fascicle 10, pt. 2; Daichidoron,fascicle 18. 100 Chōso represents the Sanskrit Dīrghanakha, the name of a brahman who did not cut his nails, described in the Zōagongyō. 101 Senika was a brahman described in the Garland Sutra.See, for example, Chapter One (Vol. I), Bendōwa;Chapter Six (Vol. I), Soku-shin-ze-butsu. 102 1255. Master Dōgen had died two years previously. This is one of the twelve chapters Master Dōgen began or rewrote after deciding to make a one hundred-chapter edition of the Shōbōgenzō.The twelve chapters are: Chapter Twelve (Vol. I), Kesa-kudoku; 286

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Chapter Seventy (Vol. III), Hotsu-bodaishin;Chapter Eighty-four, Sanji-no-gō; Chapter Eighty-five, Shime;Chapter Eighty-six, Shukke-kudoku;Chapter Eightyseven, Kuyō-shobutsu;Chapter Eighty-eight, Kie-sanbō;Chapter Eighty-nine, Shinjin-inga; Chapter Ninety, Shizen-biku;Chapter Ninety-four, Jukai;Chapter Ninetyfive, Hachi-dainingaku;and Ippyakuhachi-hōmyōmon(Appendix III). 287

Chapter 91: Yui-butsu-yo-butsu - Buddhas Alone, Together with Buddhas

[Chapter Ninety-one] Yui-butsu-yo-butsu Buddhas Alone,

Together with Buddhas Translator's Note: Yui means "

only

"

"

or

solely,

" butsu means

"buddha

"

or

"buddhas,

"

and yo means

"

and"

or

"together with. " So yui-butsu-yobutsu means "buddhas alone, together with buddhas. " Yui-butsu-yo-butsu is a phrase from a well-known quotation from the Lotus Sutra. The full quotation is: "Buddhas alone, together with buddhas are directly able to perfectly realize that all dharmas are real form. " In this chapter, Master Dōgen explains what buddhas are. [71] The Buddha-Dharma cannot be known by people. For this reason, since ancient times, no common person has realized the Buddha-Dharma and no one in the two vehicles1 has mastered the Buddha-Dharma. Because it is realized only by buddhas, we say that "buddhas alone, together with buddhas, are directly able perfectly to realize it. "2 When we perfectly realize it, while still as we are, we would never have thought previously that realization would be like this. Even though we had imagined it, it is not a realization that is compatible with that imagining. Realization itself is nothing like we imagined. That being so, to imagine it beforehand is not useful. When we have attained realization,

3 we do not know what the reasons were for our being [now] in the state of realization. 4 Let us reflect on this. To have thought, prior to realization, that it will be like this or like that, was not useful for realization. That it was different from how we had supposed it to be, in all our miscellaneous prior thoughts, does not mean that our thinking, being very bad, had no power in it. Even the thinking of that time was realization itself, but because we were then directing it the wrong way round, we thought and said that it was powerless. Whenever we feel that [we are] useless, there is something that we should know; namely, that we have been afraid of becoming 289

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small.

5 If realization appears through the force of thoughts prior to realization, it might be an unreliable realization. Because it does not rely upon [realization], and it has come far transcending the time prior to realization, realization is assisted solely by the force of realization itself. Delusion, remember, is something that does not exist. Realization, remember, is something that does not exist.

[74] When the supreme state of bodhiis a person, we call it "buddha. "

When buddha is in the supreme state of bodhi,we call it "the supreme state of bodhi.

" If we failed to recognize the feature of the moment of being in this truth, that might be stupid. That feature, namely, is untaintedness. Untaintedness does not mean forcibly endeavoring to be aimless and free of attachment and detachment; nor does it mean maintaining something other than one's aim. Actually, without being aimed at, or attached to, or detached from, untaintedness exists. [But,] for example, when we meet people, we fix in mind what their features are like, and [when we see] a flower or the moon, we think upon them an extra layer of light and color. Again, we should recognize that just as it is inescapable for spring to be simply the spirit of spring itself, and for autumn likewise to be the beauty and ugliness of autumn itself, even if we try to be other than ourselves, we are ourselves. We should reflect also that even if we want to make these sounds of spring and autumn into ourself, they are beyond us. Neither have they piled up upon us, nor are they thoughts just now existing in us. This means that we cannot see the four elements and the five aggregates of the present as ourself and we cannot trace them as someone else. Thus, the colors of the mind excited by a flower or the moon should not be seen as self at all, but we think of them as ourself. If we consider what is not ourself to be ourself, even that can be left as it is, but when we illuminate [the state in which] there is no possibility of either repellent colors or attractive ones being tainted, then action that naturally exists in the truth is the unconcealed original features. [76] A man of old6 said that the whole earth is our own Dharma body— but it must not be hindered by a "Dharma body.

" If it were hindered by a

"Dharma body,

" to move the body even slightly would be impossible. There should be a way of getting the body out. What is this way by which people get the body out? For those who fail to express this way of getting the body out, the life of the Dharma body ceases at once, and they are long sunk in 290

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the sea of suffering. If asked a question like this, what should we express, to let the Dharma body live and so as not to sink into the sea of suffering? At such a time we should express, "The whole earth is our own Dharma body.

" If this truth is present, the moment expressed as "The whole earth is our own Dharma body" is beyond expression. Moreover, when it is beyond expression we should promptly notice the possibility of not expressing it. There is an expression of an eternal buddha who did not express it: [namely,] in death there are instances of living;7 in living there are instances of being dead;8 there are the dead who will always be dead;9 and there are the living who are constantly alive. People do not forcibly cause it to be so: the Dharma is like this. Therefore, when [buddhas] turn the wheel of Dharma they have light and they have sound like this, and we should recognize that in their "manifesting the body to save the living"10 also, they are like this. This state is called "the wisdom of non-birth. "11 Their "manifesting the body to save the living" is their "saving the living to manifest the body. " When we behold

their "saving,

" we do not see a trace of "manifestation, " and when we watch

them "manifesting,

" they may be free of concern about "salvation. " We

should understand, should preach, and should experience that in this "saving" the Buddha-Dharma is perfectly realized. We hear and we preach that both "manifesting" and "the body" are as one with "saving. " Here also, [the unity

of] "manifesting the body to save the living" makes it so. When [buddhas] have substantiated this principle, from the morning of their attaining the truth to the evening of their nirvana, even if they have never preached a word, words of preaching have been let loose all around. [79] An eternal buddha said:12

The whole earth is the real human body, The whole earth is the gate of liberation, The whole earth is the one Eye of Vairocana, 13

The whole earth is our own Dharma body. 14

The point here is that "the real" is the real body. We should recognize that "the whole earth" is not our imagination; it is the body that is real. If someone asks,

"Why have I not noticed this so far?" we should say, "Give

me back my words that 'the whole earth is the real human body. '"15 Or we

might say,

"That 'the whole earth is the real human body, ' we know like

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this!" Next,

"the whole earth is the gate of liberation" describes there being nothing at all to tangle with or to embrace. The words "the whole earth" are familiar to time, to the years, to the mind, and to words: they are immediate, without any separation. We should call that which is limitless and boundless "the whole earth.

" If we seek to enter this "gate of liberation,

" or seek to

pass through it, that will be utterly impossible. Why is it so? We should reflect on the asking of the question. Even if we hope to visit a place that does not exist, that is not feasible. Next,

"the whole earth is the one Eye of

Vairocana": though buddha is one Eye, do not think that it must necessarily be like a person's eye. In people there are two eyes, 16 but when speaking of

[our] Eye,

17 we just say "the human eye";18 we do not speak of two or three. When those who learn the teaching, also speak of the Buddha's Eye, the Dharma Eye, the Supernatural Eye,

19 and so on, we are not studying eyes.

To have understood them as if they were eyes is called unreliable. Now we should just be informed that the Buddha's Eye is one, and in it the whole earth exists. There may be a thousand Eyes20 or ten thousand Eyes, but to begin with "the whole earth" is one among them. There is no error in saying that it is one among so many; at the same time, it is not mistaken to recognize that in the state of buddha there is only one Eye. Eyes may be of many kinds. There are instances of three being present, there are instances of a thousand Eyes being present, and there are instances of eighty-four thousand being present; so the ears should not be surprised to hear that the Eye is like this. Next, we must hear that "the whole earth is our own Dharma body. " To seek

to know ourself is the inevitable will of the living. But those with Eyes that see themselves are few: buddhas alone know this state. Others, non-Buddhists and the like, vainly consider only what does not exist to be their self. What buddhas call themselves is just the whole earth. In sum, in all instances, whether we know or do not know ourselves, there is no whole earth that is other than ourself. The matters of such times we should defer to people of yonder times.

21

[82] In ancient times a monk asked a venerable patriarch, 22 "When a

hundred thousand myriad circumstances converge all at once, what should I do?" The venerable patriarch said,

"Do not try to manage them.

"23 The

meaning is,

"Let what is coming come! In any event, do not stir!" This is immediate Buddha-Dharma: it is not about circumstances. These words 292

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should not be understood as an admonition; they should be understood as enlightenment in regard to reality. [Even] if we consider how to manage [circumstances], they are beyond being managed. [83] An ancient buddha said,

"Mountains, rivers, the earth, and human

beings, are born together. The buddhas of the three times and human beings have always practiced together.

" Thus, if we look at the mountains, rivers,

and earth while one human being is being born, we do not see this human being now appearing through isolated superimposition upon mountains, rivers, and earth that existed before [this human being] was born. Having said this, still the ancient words may not be devoid of further meaning. How should we understand them? Just because we have not understood them, we should not disregard them; we should resolve to understand them without fail. They are words that were actually preached, and so we should listen to them. Having listened to them, then we may be able to understand them. A way in which to understand them [is as follows]: Who is the person that has clarified, by investigating this birth24 from the side of this human being being born, just what is, from beginning to end, this thing called "birth"? We do not know the end or the beginning, but we have been born. Neither, indeed, do we know the limits of mountains, rivers, and the earth, but we see them here; and at this place, it is as if they are walking. 25 Do not complain that

mountains, rivers, and the earth are not comparable with birth. Illuminate mountains, rivers, and the earth as they have been described, as utterly the same as our being born.

[85] Again,

"the buddhas of the three times" have already through their practice accomplished the truth and perfected realization. How, then, are we to understand that this state of buddha is the same as us? To begin with, we should understand the action of buddha. The action of buddha takes place in unison with the whole earth and takes place together with all living beings. If it does not include all, it is never the action of buddha. Therefore, from the establishment of the mind until the attainment of realization, both realization and practice are inevitably done together with the whole earth and together with all living beings. Some doubts may arise in regard to this: when we seek to clarify that which seems to be mixed into ideas that are unknowable, such [doubting] voices are heard; but we should not wonder whether [the state of oneness] is the situation of [other] people. This is a teaching to 293

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be understood, and so we should recognize that when we establish, and practice, the mind of the buddhas of the three times, the principle is inevitably present that we do not let our own body and mind leak away. To have doubts about this is actually to disparage the buddhas of the three times. If we quietly reflect on ourselves, the truth exists in the fact that our own body and mind has been practicing in the same manner as the buddhas of the three times, and the truth is evident also that we have established the mind. If we reflect upon and illuminate the moment before and the moment behind this body and mind, the human being under investigation is not I and is not [another] person; in which case, as what stagnant object can we see it, and thereby consider it to be separated from the three times? All such thoughts do not belong to us. When the truth is being practiced by the original mind of the buddhas of the three times, how is it possible for anything at all to hinder that moment? The truth, in short, should be called "beyond knowing and not knowing.

"

[87] An ancient person said:26

Even the crashing down [of illusions] is nothing different; Fluency27 is beyond discussion.

Mountains, rivers, and the earth,

Are just the total revelation of the Dharma King's body. People today also should learn in accordance with the saying of [this] person of ancient times. [Mountains, rivers, and the earth] already are the body of a king of Dharma. Therefore there existed a king of Dharma who understood that even the crashing down was nothing different. This idea is like the mountains being on the earth, and like the earth bearing the mountains. When we understand, the time when we did not understand does not return to impede understanding. At the same time, there is no case of understanding being able to destroy past non-understanding. Still, both in understanding and in non-understanding, there is the mind of spring and the voice of autumn. The reason we have not understood even them is that, although [spring and autumn] have been preaching at the top of their voices, those voices have not entered our ears—our ears have been idly wandering inside the voices. Understanding will take place when, with the voice already having entered the ears, samādhibecomes evident. We should not think, 294

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though, that this understanding is small whereas the non-understanding was great. We should remember that because we are beyond matters we have conceived privately,

"the Dharma King" is like this. As to the meaning of

"the body of the Dharma King,

" the Eye is like the body and the mind may

be equal to the body. It may be that both the mind and the body, without the slightest separation, are "totally revealed.

" We understand that in the brightness of light and in the preaching of Dharma, there exists, as described above, the body of the Dharma King.

[89] There is a saying from ancient times that none other than fish knows the mind of fish, and none other than birds can follow the traces of birds. Few people have been able to know this principle. Those who have interpreted only that human beings do not know the mind of fish and that human beings do not know the mind of birds, have misconstrued [the saying]. The way to understand it is [as follows]: Fish together with fish always know each other's mind. They are never ignorant [of each other] as human beings are. When they are going to swim upstream through the Dragon's Gate, 28 this is known

to all, and together they make their mind one. The mind to get through the nine [rapids] of Zhekiang,

29 also, is communicated in common. [But] none

other than fish know this [mind]. Again, when birds are flying through the sky, walking creatures never imagine even in a dream the knowing of these tracks or the seeing and the following of these traces; [walking creatures] do not know that such [traces] exist, and so there is no example of [walking creatures] imagining [such traces]. Birds, however, can see in many ways that hundreds or thousands of small birds have flocked together and flown away, or that these are the traces of big birds that have gone south or flown north in so many lines. [To birds, those traces] are more evident than wheel tracks in a lane, or a horse's hoofprints visible in the grass. Birds see the traces of birds. This principle also applies to buddhas. They suppose how many ages buddhas have spent in practice, and they know small buddhas and great buddhas, even among those who have gone uncounted. These are things that, when we are not buddha we never know at all. There might be someone who asks,

"Why can I not know it?" Because it is with the Eye of Buddha that those traces can be seen; and those who are not buddha are not equipped with the Eye of Buddha. Buddhas are counted among those that count things; without knowing, [however,] they are totally able to trace the 295

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tracks of the paths of buddhas. If, with [our own] eyes we can see these traces, we may be in the presence of buddhas and we may be able to compare their footprints. In the comparing, buddhas' traces are known, the length and depth of buddhas' traces are known, and, through consideration of buddhas' traces, the illumination of our own traces is realized. To realize these traces may be called the Buddha-Dharma.

Shōbōgenzō Yui-butsu-yo-butsu

This was copied under the southern eaves of the guest quarters of Eiheiji on Kichijōzan, in Shibi Manor in the Yoshida district of Esshū, 30

at the end of the last month in spring in the eleventh year of Kōan.

31

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Notes

1 The vehicles of the śrāvakaand the pratyekabuddha. 2 Lotus Sutra,Hōben.See LS 1.68. 3 Satori nuruis here used, in the present perfect, as an intransitive verb, literally, "to

have been enlightened, to have understood. " Used as a transitive verb, it means "to realize.

" In general, the term "enlightenment" has been avoided because of its idealistic connotations. The noun satori,similarly, has been translated as "realization" in preference to "enlightenment. " See Chapter Twenty-six (Vol. II), Daigo. 4 Or "When we have been enlightened, we do not know what the reasons were for our being enlightened.

"

5 Because we are worried about becoming small we try to become better, instead of realizing ourselves in the present. 6 Master Chōsha Keishin; see the following paragraph. 7 For example, a person on a battlefield establishes the will to the truth. 8 For example, a person wastes time regretting something that has already happened. 9 People laid to rest in cemeteries, etc. 10 Genshin-doshō.See LS 3.252.

11 Mushō no chiken. Mushō,

"nonappearance" or "non-birth,

" expresses reality, which is

both instantaneousness (in the moment there is no appearance) and eternal (reality has no birth or beginning). Mushōis also used as a synonym for nirvana. Chiken, "knowledge" or "knowing,

" is used many times in the Lotus Sutrato represent prajñā,or the Buddha's wisdom. See, for example, LS 1.68; LS 1.88-90. 12 Master Chōsha Keishin (d. 868), a successor of Master Nansen Fugan. 13 Vairocana is the Sun Buddha, a symbol of universal light. 14 A slightly different version of Master Chōsha's words is quoted in the Engozenji goroku,chap. 6. 15 A person who can only understand the words intellectually does not deserve to have the words.

16 Memeans ordinary eyes.

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17 Manakois the Japanese pronunciation of gen,which means not only eyes but also Eye, view, experience, etc.

—as in Shōbōgenzō,right Dharma-eye treasury. 18 Ningen.Here genmeans not only the concrete eye but also the function of seeing. 19 Tengenrefers to tengenzū,the power of supernatural vision, one of the six mystical powers. See Chapter Twenty-five (Vol. II), Jinzū. 20 Sengenalludes to the thousand eyes of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. See Chapter Thirty-three (Vol. II), Kannon.

21 We should rely on traditional expressions of the truth. 22 Master Chinshū Hōju (dates unknown), a successor of Master Hōju Enshō, who was the successor of Master Rinzai Gigen. Another of Master Chinshū's conversations is quoted in Shinji-shōbōgenzō,pt. 1, no. 40. 23 Ta[o] kan[suru koto] naka[re], or "Do not care about them. " Keitokudentōroku,

chap. 12.

24 Shōmeans both "birth" and "life. "

25 Master Fuyō Dōkai said,

Fourteen (Vol. I), Sansuigyō.

"The blue mountains are constantly walking. " See Chapter

26 Master Kōkyō Shōju, quoted in the Sekimonrinkanroku(Sekimon '

s Forest Record),

vol. 1.

27 Jū-ō,lit.,

"vertical and horizontal,

" describes the fluency of a buddha's preaching of Dharma. The same words appear in the opening paragraph of Chapter One (Vol. I), Bendōwa:"When we speak [of Dharma], it fills the mouth: it has no restriction vertically or horizontally. "

28 Dragon's Gate is the name of a set of rapids on the Yellow River. It is said that a carp that gets through the Dragon's Gate becomes a dragon. 29 Kyū-setsu. Kyū,

"nine,

" means many. Setsumeans Sekkō, which is both the name of a province (Zhekiang) and of a fast-flowing river in which there are many rapids. 30 Corresponds to modern-day Fukui prefecture. 31 1288, thirty-five years after Master Dōgen's death. The date on which Master Dōgen completed the chapter is not recorded. 298