T2582 Shōbōgenzō The True Dharma-Eye Treasury, Volume IV

Chapter 92: Shōji - Life and Death

[Chapter Ninety-two]

Shōji

Life and Death

Translator's Note: Shō means "life

"

and ji means

"death,

"

so shoji means

"life and death.

" Although the words

"life

"

and "death"

exist in all languages, Master Dōgen says that we are not able to understand intellectually what our life and death are. He says that their meaning is embedded in our real day-to-day life itself. In this chapter he explains life and death as the real momentary state at the present moment. In our daily life, life and death both exist in undivided wholeness. [93] Because in life and death there is buddha, there is no life and death. Again, we can say: Because in life and death there is no "buddha, " we are

not deluded in life and death. 1 [This] meaning was expressed by Kassan2 and Jōzan.

3 [These] are the words of the two Zen masters; they are the words of people who had got the truth, and so they were decidedly not laid down in vain. A person who wishes to get free from life and death should just illuminate this truth. If a person looks for buddha outside of life and death, that is like pointing a cart north and making for [the south country of] Etsu, or like facing south and hoping to see the North Star. It is to be amassing more and more causes of life and death, and to have utterly lost the way of liberation. When we understand that only life and death itself is nirvana, there is nothing to hate as life and death and nothing to aspire to as nirvana. Then, for the first time, the means exist to get free from life and death. To understand that we move from birth4 to death is a mistake. Birth is a state at one moment; it already has a past and will have a future. For this reason, it is said in the Buddha-Dharma that appearance is just nonappearance. 5 Extinction6 also is a state at one moment; it too has a past and a future. This is why it is said that disappearance is just non-disappearance. 7 In the time called "life, " there

is nothing besides life. In the time called "death, " there is nothing besides 299

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death. Thus, when life comes it is just life, and when death comes it is just death; do not say, confronting them, that you will serve them, 8 and do not

wish for them.

[95] This life and death is just the sacred life of buddha. If we hate it and want to get rid of it, that is just wanting to lose the sacred life of buddha. If we stick in it, if we attach to life and death, this also is to lose the sacred life of buddha. We confine ourselves to the condition of buddha. When we are without dislike and without longing, then for the first time we enter the mind of buddha. But do not consider it with mind and do not say it with words! When we just let go of our own body and our own mind and throw them into the house of buddha, they are set into action from the side of buddha; then when we continue to obey this, without exerting any force and without expending any mind, we get free from life and death and become buddha. Who would wish to linger in mind?

[97] There is a very easy way to become buddha. Not committing wrongs; being without attachment to life and death; showing deep compassion for all living beings, venerating those above and pitying those below; being free of the mind that dislikes the ten thousand things and free of the mind that desires them; the mind being without thought and without grief: this is called buddha. Look for nothing else.

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Notes

1 These are Master Dōgen's variations of expressions that appear in the Keitokudentōroku,chap. 7: Jōzan says to Kassan, "Because in life and death there is no buddha, then it is not life and death. " Kassan says,

"Because in life and death there is buddha, then we are not deluded by life and death. "

2 Master Kassan Zenne (805-881), a successor of Master Sensu Tokujō. At the suggestion of Master Dōgo Enchi, he visited Master Sensu and attained the truth under him (see Chapter Fourteen [Vol. I], Sansuigyō;Shinji-shōbōgenzō,pt. 1, no. 90). Later he lived and taught on Mount Kassan. His posthumous title was Great Master Denmyō. 3 Master Jōzan Shinei (dates unknown), a successor of Master Isan Reiyū. 4 Shōmeans "birth,

" "life,

" "arising,

" or "appearance.

"

5 Shō sunawachi fushō. Fushō, "nonappearance,

" expresses instantaneousness. See, for example, Chapter Three (Vol. I), Genjō-kōan. 6 Metsumeans "extinction, " "death,

" "cessation,

" or "disappearance.

" In general shōji

suggests "life and death, " whereas shōmetsusuggests "appearance and disappearance"; but metsualso means "death. "

7 Metsu sunawachi fumetsu. Fumetsu, "non-disappearance,

" also expresses instantaneousness—the moment of the present is independent, so it does not appear from the past and it does not disappear into the future. 8 "Serving life" or "being a slave to life, " means, for example, the attitude of a hypochondriac, or the excessively health-conscious. "Serving death" describes the attitude of a drug addict, or of someone who drives unreasonably fast. "Confronting" suggests separation.

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Chapter 93: Dōshin - The Will to the Truth

[Chapter Ninety-three]

Dōshin

The Will to the Truth

Translator's Note: Dōshin represents the Sanskrit bodhicitta. Dō, which means

"Way

"

or

"truth,

" is a translation of the Sanskrit word bodhi, and shin means

"

mind/consciousness

"

"

or

will.

" In this chapter, Master Dōgen

preaches the will to the truth, devotion to the Three Treasures, the making of buddha images, and practicing zazen. The teachings in this chapter are rather concrete and direct, and some Buddhist scholars suppose that this chapter may have been written and preached for laypeople. [99] In pursuing the Buddha's truth, we should see the will to the truth as foremost. People who know what the will to the truth is like are rare. We should inquire into it under people who know it clearly. Among people of the world there are people who are said to have the will to the truth but who really do not have the will to the truth. There are people who really have the will to the truth but are not known by [other] people. Thus, it is hard to know of its existence and nonexistence. For the most part, we do not believe and do not listen to the words of people who are stupid and bad. At the same time, we must not see our own mind as foremost. We should see as foremost the Law that the Buddha has preached. Constantly, night and day, we should obsess our minds with how the will to the truth should be; and we should hope and pray that somehow true bodhimight exist in this world. In a degenerate age there is almost no one with a genuine will to the truth. Nevertheless, applying the mind for a while to inconstancy, we should not forget the unreliability of the world and the precariousness of human life. We need not be conscious that "I am thinking about the unreliability of the world. " Deliberately attaching weight to the Dharma, we should think light of "my body" and "my life.

" For the sake of the Dharma we should begrudge neither body nor life.

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[101] Next, we should profoundly venerate the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We should desire to serve offerings to and venerate the Three Treasures, even through exchanging a life or exchanging the body.

1 Asleep and awake, we should consider the merit of the Three Treasures. Asleep and awake, we should chant the Three Treasures. Even between abandoning this life and being born in a next life—in which period there is said to be a "middle existence" whose life is seven days—even during that period, we should intend to chant the Three Treasures without ever lulling the voice. After seven days we [are said to] die in the middle existence, and then to receive another body in the middle existence, for seven days. At the longest [this body] lasts seven days. At this time we can see and hear anything without restriction, as if with the supernatural Eye.

2 At such a time, spurring

the mind, we should chant the Three Treasures; we should chant without pause, not forgetting to recite "

namu-kie-butsu, namu-kie-hō, namu-kie-sō.

"3

When, having passed out of the middle existence we are drawing close to a father and mother, we should steel ourselves and—even when, due to the presence of right wisdom, we are in the womb-store [world]4 that will commit us to the womb—we should chant the Three Treasures. We might not neglect to chant even while being born. We should profoundly desire that, through the six sense organs, we might serve offerings to, chant, and take refuge in the Three Treasures. Again, it may be that when this life ends [a person's] two eyes become dark at once. At that time, knowing already that it is the end of our life, we should strive to chant "

namu-kie-butsu.

" Then the buddhas

of the ten directions will bestow their compassion. Even sins for which— due to the presence of contributing causes—we might go to an evil world, will be transformed, and we will be born in the heavens above; being born before the Buddha, we will worship the Buddha and hear the Dharma that the Buddha preaches. After darkness comes before our eyes, we should strive unflaggingly to recite the Three Devotions, not letting up even until the middle existence, and even until the next birth. In this manner, exhausting life after life in age after age, we should recite [the Three Devotions]. Even until we arrive at the buddha-effect of bodhi,we should not let up. This is the truth practiced by the buddhas and bodhisattvas. It is called "profoundly to realize the Dharma,

" and is called "the Buddha's truth being present in

the body.

" We should desire never to mix it with different ideas. 304

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[104] Again, within our lifetime we should endeavor to make a buddha [image]. Having made it, we should serve to it the three kinds of offerings. The three kinds are seats of straw, sugared drinks, and lights. We should serve these as offerings.

[104] Again, during this life we should produce [copies of] the Sutra of the Flower of Dharma.We should write them, should print them, and should retain them. Constantly we should receive them upon the head in reverence, make prostrations to them, and offer them flowers, incense, lights, food and drink, and clothing. Constantly keeping the head clean, we should humbly receive them upon the head.

[105] Again, constantly we should wear the kaṣāyaand sit in zazen. There are past examples of the kaṣāya[leading to] attaining the truth in a third life.

5 Already it is the attire of the buddhas of the three times: its merit is unfathomable. Zazen is not a method of the triple world:6 it is the method of the Buddhist patriarchs.

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Notes

1 In the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra,for example, a bodhisattva barters his body in order to be able to serve offerings to buddhas. See Chapter Eighty-seven, Kuyō-shobutsu. 2 Tengen,one of the six mystical powers. See Chapter Twenty-five (Vol. II), Jinzū. 3 Namu-kie-butsu,

"Namas! I take refuge in the Buddha"; namu-kie-hō, "Namas! I take

refuge in the Dharma"; namu-kie-sō,

"Namas! I take refuge in the Sangha.

" These

are the Three Devotions or Three Refuges. The Sanskrit namasis a reverential salutation. 4 Taizōstands for taizōkai,lit.,

"womb-store world" (from the Sanskrit garbhadhātu), a term used in esoteric Buddhism to describe a world produced by the Buddha's benevolence. It is the subject of one of the two major mandalas of esoteric Buddhism. 5 See, for example, the story of the prostitute who wore the kaṣāyaas a joke, in Chapter Twelve (Vol. I), Kesa-kudoku.

6 Sangai("triple word"), the worlds of desire, matter, and non-matter; the world of ordinary people.

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Chapter 94: Jukai - Receiving the Precepts

[Chapter Ninety-four]

Jukai

Receiving the Precepts

Translator's Note: Ju means

"to receive,

"

and kai means the Buddhist precepts. So jukai means "

receiving the precepts.

" The traditional way of entering

the Buddhist order is by receiving the Buddhist precepts. It is a ceremony marking one

'

s entry into Buddhist life—becoming a Buddhist. Master Dōgen put great value on receiving the precepts; in this chapter he explains what that value is, and gives an outline of the precept-receiving ceremony. [107] The Zen

'

enshingi1 says:

The buddhas of the three times all say that to leave family life is to realize the truth. The ancestral masters of successive generations who transmitted the buddha-mind-seal, were all śramaṇas. 2 Perhaps it was

by strictly observing the Vinaya that they were able to become universal models for the triple world. Therefore, in practicing [za]zen and inquiring into the truth, the precepts are foremost. If we do not depart from excess and guard against wrong, how is it possible to realize the state of buddha and to become a patriarch? The method of receiving the precepts: The three robes and pātramust be provided, together with new and clean clothes. If you have no new clothes, wash [old clothes] clean. Do not borrow the robes and pātraof another to go onto the platform and receive the precepts. Concentrate wholeheartedly and be careful not to go against circumstances. To assume the form of the Buddha, to come into possession of the Buddha's precepts, to get what the Buddha received and used: these are not small matters. How could they be treated lightly? If we were to borrow the robes and pātraof another, even if we mounted the platform and received the precepts, we would not get the precepts at all. Having failed to receive them, we 309

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would become people without precepts throughout a lifetime, fraternizing without reason in the lineage of emptiness, and consuming devout offerings in vain. Beginners in the truth have not yet memorized the Dharma precepts; it is masters, by not saying anything, who cause people to fall into this [wrongness]. Now herewith a stern exhortation has been spoken. It is keenly hoped that you will engrave it on your hearts. If you have already received the śrāvakaprecepts3 you should receive the bodhisattva precepts. This is the beginning of entering the Dharma.

[109] In the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands, wherever the transmission has passed between Buddhist patriarchs, at the beginning of entering the Dharma there is inevitably the receiving of the precepts. Without receiving the precepts we are never the disciples of the buddhas and never the descendants of the ancestral masters—because they have seen "departing from excess and guarding against wrong" as "practicing [za]zen and inquiring into the truth.

" The words "the precepts are foremost" already are the right Dharmaeye treasury itself. To "realize buddha and become a patriarch" inevitably is to receive and maintain the right Dharma-eye treasury; therefore, ancestral masters who receive the authentic transmission of the right Dharma-eye treasury inevitably receive and maintain the Buddhist precepts. There cannot be a Buddhist patriarch who does not receive and maintain the Buddhist precepts. Some receive and maintain them under the Tathāgata, which in every instance is to have received the lifeblood. The Buddhist precepts now authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha and from patriarch to patriarch were exactly transmitted only by the ancestral patriarch of Sūgaku4 and, transmitted five times in China, they reached the founding patriarch of Sōkei. 5

The authentic transmissions from Seigen, Nangaku, and so on6 have been conveyed to the present day, but there are unreliable old veterans and the like who do not know it at all. They are most pitiful. That "we should receive the bodhisattva precepts; this is the beginning of entering the Dharma" is just what practitioners should know. The observance in which "we should receive the bodhisattva precepts" is authentically transmitted, in every case, by those who have long learned in practice in the inner sanctum of the Buddhist patriarchs; it is not accomplished by negligent and lazy people. In 310

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that observance, in every case, we burn incense and perform prostrations before the patriarch master,

7 and ask "to receive the bodhisattva precepts. "

Once granted permission, we bathe and purify ourselves, and put on new and clean clothes. Or we may wash [existing] clothes, then scatter flowers, burn incense, perform prostrations and show reverence, and then put them on. Widely we perform prostrations to the statues and images, perform prostrations to the Three Treasures, and perform prostrations to venerable patriarchs; we get rid of miscellaneous hindrances; and [thus] we are able to make body and mind pure. Those observances have long been authentically transmitted in the inner sanctum of the Buddhist patriarchs. After that, at the practice place, the presiding ācāryaduly instructs the receiver to do prostrations, to kneel upright,

8 and, with palms together,

9 to speak these words:

[112] "I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha.

I take refuge in the Buddha, honored among two-legged ones. 10

I take refuge in the Dharma, honored as beyond desire. I take refuge in the Sangha, honored among communities. I have taken refuge in the Buddha, have taken refuge in the Dharma, have taken refuge in the Sangha.

" (repeated three times)

"The Tathāgata, the ultimate, supreme, right and balanced state of truth, is my great teacher, in whom I now take refuge. From this time forward, I shall not be devoted to wicked demons and non-Buddhists. It is due to [the Tathāgata's] compassion. It is due to his compassion. " (repeated three times)

[113] "Good sons!11 Now that you have discarded the false and devoted yourself to the true, the precepts already are surrounding you. You shall receive the Three Summarized Pure Precepts. "

"One: The precept of observance of rules. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it.

" Asked three times, answered three times. "Two: The precept of observance of the moral Law. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it.

" Asked three times, answered three times. "Three: The precept of abundantly benefiting living beings. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it.

" Asked three times, answered three times. 307b

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"The preceding Three Summarized Pure Precepts each must not be violated. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep these precepts, or not?" Answer: "I can keep them. " Asked three

times, answered three times.

"These things thus you should keep.

" The

receiver performs three prostrations, and kneels up with palms together. [115] "Good sons! You already have received the Three Summarized Pure Precepts. You shall receive the Ten [Bodhisattva] Precepts. They are just the pure and great precepts of the buddhas and bodhisattvas. "

"One: Not to kill. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it. "

Asked three times, answered three times.

"Two: Not to steal. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it. "

Asked three times, answered three times.

"Three: Not to lust. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it. "

Asked three times, answered three times.

"Four: Not to lie. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it. " Asked

three times, answered three times.

"Five: Not to sell liquor. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it. "

Asked three times, answered three times.

"Six: Not to discuss the transgressions of other bodhisattvas, be they laypeople or those who have left family life. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it.

" Asked three times, answered three times.

"Seven: Not to praise yourself or to criticize others. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it.

" Asked three times, answered three times.

"Eight: Not to begrudge Dharma or material possessions. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it.

" Asked three times, answered three times.

"Nine: Not to become angry. From your present body until attainment 312

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of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it.

" Asked three times, answered three times. "Ten: Not to insult the Three Treasures. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep this precept, or not?" Answer: "I can keep it.

" Asked three times, answered three times. "The preceding Ten Precepts each must not be violated. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, can you keep these precepts, or not?" Answer: "I can keep them. " Asked three times and answered three times.

"These things thus you should keep. " The receiver performs three

prostrations.

[118] "The preceding Three Devotions, Three Summarized Pure Precepts, and Ten Serious Prohibitions are what the buddhas have received and kept. From your present body until attainment of the Buddha's body, these sixteen precepts thus you should keep.

" The receiver performs three prostrations. Then we do the Sanskrit [chant, which begins] "Shi-shi-kai. . . , "12 after which

we say:

"I take refuge in Buddha, take refuge in Dharma, take refuge in Sangha. "

Then the receiver leaves the practice place. [118] This observance of receiving the precepts has been authentically transmitted by Buddhist patriarchs without fail. The likes of Tanka Tennen13 and the śrāmaṇeraKō of Yakusan14 have similarly received and kept [these precepts]. There have been ancestral masters who did not receive the bhikṣu precepts15 but there has never been an ancestral master who failed to receive these bodhisattva precepts authentically transmitted by the Buddhist patriarchs. We receive and keep them without fail. Shōbōgenzō Jukai

Year not recorded.

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Notes

1 Zen

'

enshingi(Pure Criteria for Zen Monasteries) is a ten-fascicle text compiled by Master Chōrō Sōsaku in 1103. This quotation from the first fascicle also appears in Chapter Eighty-three, Shukke;Chapter Eighty-six, Shukke-kudoku. 2 The Sanskrit śramaṇameans one who makes effort, a striver, a Buddhist monk. 3 Suggests precepts taken by Hinayana Buddhists (of which there are two hundred and fifty precepts for monks and three hundred and forty-eight precepts for nuns), as opposed to the sixteen bodhisattva precepts enumerated in this chapter. 4 Master Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch in China. 5 Master Daikan Enō, the Sixth Patriarch in China. 6 Master Seigen Gyōshi and Master Nangaku Ejō were two of Master Daikan Enō's several successors. The lineages of masters of the Sōtō, Unmon, and Hōgen sects trace back to Master Seigen Gyōshi. The lineages of masters of the Igyō and Rinzai sects trace back to Master Nangaku Ejō.

7 Soshiis usually translated as "ancestral master, " and is often used to refer to Master

Bodhidharma. In this case it means a living master who is a patriarch. 8 Chōki,lit.,

straight line.

"extended kneeling": knees on the floor, thighs and torso extending in a 9 Gasshō:the palms held together, fingertips pointing upward at the level of the nostrils. 10 In the source text, taking refuge in the Buddha is recorded on a separate line, as a mark of reverence.

11 Zennanshi,short for zennanshi-zennyonin,

"good sons and good daughters.

" These

words are commonly spoken by the Buddha in Buddhist sutras. See, for example, LS 3.56.

12 The Chinese verse, originally a Sanskrit chant, can be found in the first volume of the Bussetsuchojitsumyōanmaikyō.The four lines of the poem are as follows: Shishi-kai-ji-ki-kun/Ji-ren-ka-fu-ja-shi/Shin-shinjin-cho-i-hi/Ki-shu-rin-bu-jo-son, "To

be in the world is [to be] as space;/As a lotus flower not touching water./The mind is pure and beyond the objective world./I strike my head in prostration to the one who is supremely venerable.

"

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13 14 15 Master Tanka Tennen (739-824). A disciple of Master Sekitō Kisen, he was famous for having burned a wooden buddha image to keep warm, and other unorthodox behavior. He also studied under Master Baso Dōitsu. Keitokudentōroku,chap. 14, records that he received the bodhisattva precepts but not the two hundred and fifty bhikṣuprecepts.

Kō was a disciple of Master Yakusan Igen. See Chapter Twenty-one (Vol. I), Kankin. After leaving Master Yakusan's order, he lived in a hut by a road and taught the travelers who passed by. He is also mentioned in the Keitokudentōroku,chap. 14, as someone who took the bodhisattva precepts but not the two hundred and fifty bhikṣu precepts.

Biku-kaimeans the two hundred and fifty precepts that evolved in India during the age of Hinayana Buddhism.

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Chapter 95: Hachi-dainingaku - The Eight Truths of a Great Human Being

[Chapter Ninety-five]

Hachi-dainingaku

The Eight Truths of a

Great Human Being

Translator's Note: Hachi means

"

eight.

" Dainin means

"

great human being,

"

that is, a buddha. And kaku, pronounced here as gaku, means "

an intuitive

reflection or truth.

" Gautama Buddha preached the eight truths of a great human just before he died, and they are recorded in the Yuikyōgyō (Sutra of Bequeathed Teachings); they were his last teachings. Master Dōgen preached this chapter when he felt his death was not far away, and in his case, too, it was his last teaching. This chapter thus forms the last chapter in the ninety-five-chapter edition of the Shōbōgenzō. [121] Buddhas are great human beings. [The Dharma] that great human beings realize1 is therefore called "the eight truths of a great human being.

" To realize this Dharma is the cause of nirvana. 2

It was the last preaching of our Original Master, Śākyamuni Buddha, on the night that he entered nirvana. 3

[122] 1) Small desire.

4 (Not widely to chase after those among objects of the five desires5 that are as yet ungained, is called "small desire. ")6

The Buddha said:

You bhikṣus should know that people of abundant desire abundantly seek gain, and so their suffering also is abundant. People of small desire, being free of seeking and free of desire, are free of this affliction. You should practice and learn small desire just for itself. Still more, small desire can give rise to all virtues: people of small desire never curry favor and bend in order to gain the minds of others. Further, they are not led by the sense organs. Those who practice small desire are level in mind; they are without worries and fears; when they come into 317

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contact with things they have latitude; and they are constantly free from dissatisfaction. Those who have small desire just have nirvana. This is called "small desire.

"7

[123] 2) To know satisfaction.

8 (To take within limits from among

things already gained is called "to know satisfaction. ")

The Buddha said:

If you bhikṣus desire to get rid of all kinds of suffering, you should reflect on knowing satisfaction. The practice of knowing satisfaction is the very place of abundance, joy, and peace. People who know satisfaction, even when lying on the ground, are still comfortable and joyful. Those who do not know satisfaction, even when living in a heavenly palace, are still not suited. Those who do not know satisfaction, even if rich, are poor. People who know satisfaction, even if poor, are rich. Those who do not know satisfaction are constantly led by the five desires; they are pitied by those who know satisfaction. This is called "to know satisfaction.

"

[124] 3) To enjoy tranquility.

9 (Departing from all kinds of noise and living alone in an empty space is called "to enjoy tranquility. ")

The Buddha said:

If you bhikṣus wish to pursue tranquil and unintentional peace and joy, you should depart from noise and live alone in seclusion. People of quiet places are revered alike by the god Śakra and all the gods. For this reason you should abandon your own groups and other groups, live alone in an empty space, and think of dissolving the root of suffering. Those who take pleasure in groups suffer many troubles— like a flock of birds gathering on a great tree and then worrying that it will wither or break. [Those] fettered by and attached to the world are immersed in many kinds of suffering—like an old elephant drowning in mud, unable to get out by itself. This is called "distancing. "

[126] 4) To practice diligence.

10 (It is ceaselessly to endeavor to perform good works, and so it is called "devoted effort" —

"devotion" without adulteration and "effort" without regression. 11)

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The Buddha said:

If you bhikṣus practice diligence, nothing will be difficult. For this reason you should practice diligence—as a trickle of water that constantly flows is able to drill through rock. If the mind of a practitioner often tires and quits, that is like [a person] twirling a stick to start a fire and resting before it gets hot: although [the person] wishes to obtain fire, fire is unobtainable. This is called "diligence.

"

[127] 5) Not to lose mindfulness.

12 (It is also called "to keep right

mindfulness.

" To keep the Dharma and not to lose it is called "right mindfulness" and is also called "not to lose mindfulness. ")

The Buddha said:

For you bhikṣus who seek good counselors and seek their good auspices, there is nothing like not losing mindfulness. If people possess [the ability] not to lose mindfulness, the bandits of the afflictions are unable to invade them. For this reason, you constantly should regulate thoughts and keep them in their place in the mind. Those who lose mindfulness lose all virtues. If your power of mindfulness is solid and strong, even if you go among the bandits of the five desires you will not be harmed by them—it is like entering a battlefield clad in armor and having nothing to fear. This is called "not to lose mindfulness. "

[128] 6) To practice the balanced state of dhyāna.

13 (To abide in the

Dharma undisturbed is called "the balanced state of dhyāna. ")

The Buddha said:

If you bhikṣus regulate the mind, the mind will then exist in the balanced state. Because the mind exists in the balanced state you will be able to know the Dharma form of the arising and vanishing of the world. For this reason you constantly should be diligent in practicing all forms of balance. When a person gets the balanced state, the mind does not dissipate. It is like a household that values water attentively repairing a dike. Practitioners also are like that. For the sake of the water of wisdom, we attentively practice the balanced state of dhyānaand prevent [the water of wisdom] from leaking away. This is called "the balanced state. "

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[129] 7) To practice wisdom.

14 (To engender hearing, thinking, practice,

and experience is called "wisdom.

")

The Buddha said:

If you bhikṣus have wisdom, then you will be without greed and attachment. By constantly reflecting on and observing yourself, you will prevent [wisdom] from being lost. This is just to be able, within my Dharma, to attain liberation. If you are not so, already you are different from people of the truth15 and also different from those clothed in white;16 there is nothing to call you. Truly, wisdom is a sturdy ship in which to cross the ocean of aging, sickness, and death. Again, it is a great bright torch for the darkness of ignorance, it is good medicine for all sick people, and it is a sharp ax to fell the trees of anguish. For this reason, you should hear, consider, and practice wisdom and thereby develop yourself. If a human being possesses the light of wisdom, he or she is—although with eyes of flesh—a human being of clear vision. This is called "wisdom.

"

[130] 8) Not to engage in idle discussion.

17 (To experience, to go

beyond discrimination, is called "not to engage in idle discussion. " To perfectly

realize real form is just not to engage in idle discussion.) The Buddha said:

If you bhikṣus engage in all kinds of idle discussion your mind will be disturbed. Although you have left family life, still you will be unable to get free. For this reason, bhikṣus, you should immediately throw away disturbing idle discussion. If you wish to attain the joy of serenity18 you should just inhibit well the fault of idle discussion. This is called "not to engage in idle discussion.

"

[131] These are the eight truths of a great human being. Each is equipped with the eight, and so there may be sixty-four. When we extend them, they may be countless. If we abridge them, they are sixty-four. "They are the last

preaching of Great Master Śākyamuni; they are the instruction of the Great Vehicle; and they are the [Buddha's] supreme swan song, in the middle of the night of the fifteenth day of the second month. " After this, he does not

preach the Dharma again, and finally he passes into parinirvāṇa. 320

Chapter Ninety-five

[132] The Buddha said:

You bhikṣus constantly should endeavor, with undivided mind, to pursue the truth of liberation. All the dharmas of the world, moving and unmoving, without exception are perishing and unstable forms. Let yourselves stop for a while, and talk no more. Time must pass, and I am going to die. This is my last instruction.

Therefore, disciples of the Tathāgata unfailingly learn this [instruction]. Those who do not practice and learn it, and who do not know it, are not the Buddha's disciples. It is the Tathāgata's right Dharma-eye treasury and fine mind of nirvana. Nevertheless, today many do not know it and few have seen or heard it; it is due to the trickery of demons that they do not know. Again, those lacking in long-accumulated good roots neither hear nor see [this instruction]. During the bygone days of the right Dharma and the imitative Dharma, all disciples of the Buddha knew it. They practiced it and learned it in experience. Now there is not one or two among a thousand bhikṣus who knows the eight truths of a great human being. It is pitiful. There is nothing even to compare to the insidious degeneration of [these] decadent times. While the Tathāgata's right Dharma is now [still] permeating the great-thousandfold [world], while the immaculate Dharma has not yet disappeared, we should learn it without delay. Do not be slack or lazy. To meet the Buddha-Dharma, even in countless kalpas, is hard. To receive a human body also is hard. Even in receiving the human body, human bodies on the three continents19 are better. Human bodies on the southern continent are best of all—because they meet Buddha, hear the Dharma, leave family life, and attain the truth. People who died prior to the Tathāgata's parinirvāṇaneither heard nor learned these eight truths of a great human being. That now we are seeing and hearing them, and learning them, is due to long-accumulated good roots. In learning them now, in developing them life by life and arriving without fail at the supreme [truth of] bodhi,and in preaching them for living beings, may we become the same as Śākyamuni Buddha; may there be no differences.

Shōbōgenzō Hachi-dainingaku

Written at Eiheiji, on the sixth day of the first

lunar month in the fifth year of Kenchō.

20

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[133] Now, on the day before the end of the retreat in the seventh year of Kenchō,

21 I have had the clerk-monk22 Gien finish the copying; at the same time, I have checked it thoroughly against the original text. This was the last draft [written by] the late master, in his sickness. I remember him saying that he would rewrite all of the kana Shōbōgenzō23 and so on that he had completed before, and also include new drafts so as to be able to compile [the Shōbōgenzō] in altogether one hundred chapters. This chapter, which was a fresh draft,

24 was to be the twelfth. After this, the master's sickness grew more and more serious so that his work on original drafts and suchlike stopped. Therefore this draft is the last instruction of the late master. That we unfortunately never saw the one hundred chapters is most regrettable. People who love and miss the late master should unfailingly copy this chapter and preserve it. It is the final instruction of Śākyamuni, and it is the final bequeathed teaching of the late master. Ejō wrote this.

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Notes

1 Kakuchi.The first half of the compound, kaku,here means to feel, to be aware, to reflect, to realize, etc. In the chapter title, the same character, kaku, "truth,

" means

the object of buddhas' feeling, awareness, reflection, or realization. 2 The serene and peaceful state.

3 Nirvana here means parinirvāṇa,that is, complete extinction, death. 4 Shōyoku,from the Sanskrit alpecchuḥ.See Glossary of Sanskrit Terms. 5 The five desires of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin. They are also explained as desires for wealth, sensual contact, food, fame, and comfort. 6 The words in parentheses are in small Chinese characters in the source text, as if added to the original sutra by way of commentary. 7 Yuikyōgyō,lit.,

"Sutra of Bequeathed Teaching,

" short for Bussui hatsu nehan ryaku setsu kyōkai gyō.The original Sanskrit version of this sutra has been lost. 8 Chisoku,from the Sanskrit saṃtuṣṭaḥ.See Glossary of Sanskrit Terms. 9 Jakujō,

"tranquility,

" represents the Sanskrit śānta.See Glossary of Sanskrit Terms. 10 Gon-shōjin. Shōjin,from the Sanskrit vīrya,is also the fourth of the six pāramitās. See Volume I, Glossary of Sanskrit Terms. 11 The Chinese compound shōjin,

"diligence,

" is explained by the characters: shōmeans purified, refined, or devoted, and shinmeans to progress, push forward, or make effort.

12 Fumōnen. Nenrepresents the Sanskrit smṛti.See Volume I, Glossary of Sanskrit Terms.

13 Shu-zenjō. Zenjō,representing both the sound and the meaning of the Sanskrit dhyāna, is the fifth of the six pāramitās.

14 Shū-chie. Chierepresents the Sanskrit prajñā,the sixth of the six pāramitās. See Chapter Two (Vol. I), Maka-hannya-haramitsu;Volume I, Glossary of Sanskrit Terms. 15 Dōnin, monks and nuns.

16 Byaku-e,laymen and laywomen.

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Shōbōgenzō Volume IV

17 Keron,

"idle discussion,

" represents the Sanskrit prapañca,which means prolixity or wordiness. See Glossary of Sanskrit Terms. 18 Jakumetsu,

Sanskrit Terms.

"serenity,

" represents the Sanskrit nirvana. See Volume I, Glossary of 19 Sanshū,

"three continents,

" means three of the four continents: Jambudvīpa (the southern continent, the transient human world in which it is easiest to feel the winds of impermanence), Pūrvavideha (the eastern continent), and Aparagodāna (the western continent). The fourth continent, Uttarakuru (the northern continent), is an immortal realm inhabited by heavenly beings.

20 1253, the year of Master Dōgen's death. He is said to have died on August 28. 21 1255.

22 Shoki,the clerk assisting the head monk, one of the six assistant officers. 23 Kaji-shōbōgenzōmeans Master Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō,which he wrote using kana, the Japanese syllabary, as opposed to the Shinji-shōbōgenzō,which is in Chinese characters only.

24 "A fresh draft" suggests that Master Dōgen began the chapter afresh in the final years of his life. The twelve-chapter edition of the Shōbōgenzōnot only includes such fresh chapters, which are generally dated 1255, but also includes earlier chapters such as Kesa-kudoku(Chapter Twelve in the ninety-five-chapter edition, dated 1240). 324

Appendix I

Editions of the Shōbōgenzō

The original source text for this translation was the ninety-five-chapter edition of the Shōbōgenzōpublished by the Iwanami publishing house as an Iwanami Bunko edition. When Iwanami first published its ninety-five-chapter edition between 1935 and 1943, it also included, in a separate appendix, the following chapters: 1) Butsu-kōjō-no-jifrom the twenty-eight-chapter "Secret Shōbōgenzō, "

which had only recently been made public; 2) Ippyakuhachi-hōmyōmon,which is included in the twelve-chapter edition but not in the ninety-five-chapter edition; 3) Hensanand 4) Senmen,both from the sixty-chapter edition; and 5) Sanji-no-gōfrom the twelve-chapter edition. As the Butsu-kōjō-no-jichapter in the twenty-eight-chapter Secret Shōbōgenzōand the chapter of the same name (Chapter Twenty-Eight, Vol. II) in the ninety-five-chapter edition are very different, it has been translated here and included for reference as Appendix II. The Ippyakuhachi-hōmyōmonwas not included in the ninety-five-chapter edition, and so has also been translated here and included as Appendix III. However, the sixty-chapter edition versions of Hensan(Chapter Sixty-two, Vol. III) and Senmen (Chapter Fifty-six, Vol. III) and the twelve-chapter edition version of Sanji-nogō(Chapter Eighty-four) are sufficiently similar to the chapters of the same names in the ninety-five-chapter edition, and have therefore not been translated. The Ninety-five-chapter Edition

Also known as the Kōzen Edition, because it was edited by Master Hangyō Kōzen in about 1690.

The Seventy-five-chapter Edition

The Sixty-chapter Edition

325

Appendix I

The Secret Shōbōgenzō (twenty-eight-chapters in three parts) The Himitsu-shōbōgenzō(Secret Shōbōgenzō) is so called because it was kept stored in secret at Eiheiji. A book of the same name, with unrelated content, was also written by Master Keizan Jōkin, the third-generation descendant of Master Dōgen; he established Sōjiji. Part One

1. Butsu-kōjō-no-ji 2. Shōji

3. Shin-fukatoku(I) 4. Shin-fukatoku(II) 5. Shinjin-inga 6. Shohō-jissō 7. Butsudō

8. Raihai-tokuzui 9. Butsudō

10. Zanmai-ō-zanmai 11. Sanjūshichi-bon-bodai-bunpō Chapters Seven and Nine are both titled Butsudō("The Buddha's Truth"). One of them, however, corresponds to Chapter Ninety-three, Dōshin("The Will to the Truth") in the ninety-five-chapter edition. Part Two

1. Den-e

2. Bukkyō("The Buddha's Teaching") 3. Sansuigyō 4. Mitsugo

5. Tenbōrin 6. Jishō-zanmai 7. Dai-shugyō 8. Shisho

9. Hachi-dainingaku 10. Jukai

Part Three

1. Busso

2. Shizen-biku 326

Appendix I

3. Shukke

4. Bukkyō("Buddhist Sutras") 5. Menju

6. Sesshin-sesshō 7. Yui-butsu-yo-butsu The Twelve-chapter Edition 1. Shukke-kudoku 2. Jukai

3. Kesa-kudoku 4. Hotsu-bodaishin 5. Kuyō-shobutsu 6. Kie-bupposo-ho 7. Shinjin-inga 8. Sanji-no-gō 9. Shime

10. Shizen-biku 11. Ippyakuhachi-hōmyōmon 12. Hachi-dainingaku The Bonshin Edition Edited by Master Bonshin (eighty-four chapters). The Manzan Edition Edited by Master Manzan (eighty-nine chapters). 327

Appendix II

Butsu-kōjō-no-ji

The Matter of the

Ascendant State of Buddha

Translator's Note: The words butsu-kōjō-no-ji describe the fact that, even after realizing the truth, Buddhist masters continue their daily lives as they have always done; they do not attain some special state of "

enlightenment"

and

become different. Comparing this chapter, which appears in the twenty-eightchapter Secret Shōbōgenzō, and the chapter with the same name that appears as Chapter Twenty-eight (Vol. II) in the ninety-five-chapter edition, we find many differences. The chapter in the ninety-five-chapter edition is a collection of many stories relating to Buddhist masters in China, whereas this chapter contains a rather long philosophical explanation of butsu-kōjō-no-ji and one or two related stories. It is thus helpful to read this chapter from the twentyeight-chapter edition, which gives a more detailed explanation of butsu-kōjōno-ji, "the matter of the ascendant state of buddha,

" than the earlier chapter.

[139] Great Master Gohon of Tōzan1 said,

"You should know that there is the

matter of the ascendant state of buddha. When you know of the matter of the ascendant state of buddha, you will truly possess the means to speak. "2 "The

means to speak" is the means to turn the wheel of Dharma. In truth, if we do not know the matter of the ascendant state of buddha, we idly stagnate without penetrating to and getting free of the state beyond buddha. If we do not penetrate it and get free, we do not transcend the worlds of demons. Once we find the Way that arrives at buddha, we leave the area of the common person immediately. The people who have mastered this Way are few. Still, just because we are unable to know it, we should not, so saying, leave it at that. If, with a true will, we learn 329

Appendix II

in practice under good counselors who have truly illuminated [the Way], we will be able to attain it without fail. For this reason, Tōzan teaches [us], "You

should know. . . .

" The gist of his idea is [as follows: Consider,] for example, having arrived at buddha. It is hard for buddha to be realized as the buddha we were expecting yesterday having become the buddha of today. To continue making buddha aware that the buddha of today has existed not only today3 is called "the matter of the ascendant state of buddha.

" From [the attainment] of this state

onward, even explanation, being speaking of the truth, is said to be being preached: although until the present it has inevitably not ceased to be preached as speaking, and although yesterday's was yesterday's, it exists as the speaking [of the truth]. Further, when we know [this matter] as the matter of the ascendant state of buddha and hear it as the matter of the ascendant state of buddha, the wheel of Dharma that we have attained uses us as speech, to preach the great and the small, and causes us, as the wheel of Dharma, to possess the means to speak—such is the matter of the ascendant state of buddha. [142] A buddha preached,

"The Buddha turning the Dharma wheel is

beyond material particles of sound4 and form.

" The approximate meaning is

that the Buddha-Dharma, in its teaching, practice, and experience, is originally not concerned with beginning or end.

5 Neither is it tainted by "now.

" That being

so, we should know the voice of buddha and should learn the words of buddha. That is, [we should know and learn that] there is nowhere the voice of buddha does not reach and there is no matter that it does not reach. Again, [buddha] is beyond the level of the common person, the two vehicles, non-Buddhists, and the like who are concerned with beginning and end. It realizes the truth within its voice and radiates light within its voice. To raise the voice in the moment before the body, and to hear the voice in the moment after the body, also are [virtues] belonging only to buddha. So there are [instances of] living-and-dying and going-and-coming getting through to the voice of buddha; and there are [instances of] wind, rain, water, and fire raising the voice of buddha. The kitchen hall and the temple gates widely proclaim the voice, and the monks' hall and the Buddha hall loudly redouble the voice. Not only that; all dharmas each let us hear a half of this voice of buddha, and none of the three worlds forgets a little bit of this voice of buddha: who need worry about it "either disappearing or appearing?"6 It is naturally without disorder and without mistakes. In general, when we hear the voice of buddha, we hear it through the ears and we hear it 330

Appendix II

through the eyes; none of the six sense organs, even in sleep or during wakefulness, fails to be able to hear the voice of buddha. Conversely, whether inside or outside the world of Dharma, whether in going-and-coming as every place or in every place as going-and-coming, there can never be any place where the voice of buddha does not exist. It exists at a place and it exists at a time. Further, there is a principle that the voice of buddha preaches the voice with the voice, and hears the voice with the voice. Again, when we consider the concrete situation of the words of buddha, there is no case of them being preached separately from the voice. Being preached by the whole of the voice, one word or two phrases can exist; and in no case is it impossible to hear, in one word or two phrases, the whole of the voice. At the place of this voice, nothing fails to be penetrated or fails to be mastered. No person, nor even any thing, should ever have a voice that seeks to avoid [the voice of buddha], saying, "I will not understand it, I will not be able to penetrate it. " The words of buddha are not preached

under such conditions, excited by thoughts. There is a voice that, while preached as a voice, is also thoughts. When it preaches a half or preaches the whole it is never unfamiliar and never obscure—not only are each of the hundred weeds clear; the will of the ancestral masters also is clear.

7 They never intend, from

the standpoint of [abstract] matters, to define the edges of [concrete] things. Neither have they sought to patch matters up through the medium of doing, and [this state] is just the voice of buddha and the words of buddha. In learning the state of truth, we should, as the practice thereof, without fail diligently practice zazen. This has been transmitted between buddhas without interruption from ancient times to the present. When we become buddha, we do not do so apart from this [practice]. Being transmitted by buddha, it is beyond human supposition. To endeavor to suppose it is not the traditional style in learning the truth. When practiced by us it is sometimes illuminated, but the peripheries of it that are supposed by us remain dark. Thus, there being no fathomable periphery, even if we think that through exerting ourselves to the limit we have fathomed it, we have not fathomed it; [our exertion] was only the restlessness of a frisky horse or a mischievous monkey. If, on the other hand, a true master bestows the teaching on us and leaves the traces of the Buddhist patriarchs, and if it is possible for training to be definitely realized, then it becomes apparent that day-to-day learning of the truth has not been in vain, and it becomes evident that action in the present has not been for nothing. At this time there is nothing 331

Appendix II

to conceal the body-and-mind. With the intention of connecting this state with thinking, [however,] it is still hard for us to penetrate. Still less can people who count grains of sand8 realize it, even in a dream. Only people who have experienced, in the mountain-still state, 9 the zazen that is different from thinking,

are able to grasp it.

[146] Briefly, there are two aspects to learning the Buddha's truth; namely, learning through the mind and learning through the body.

"Learning through

the body" describes, in sitting in zazen pursuing the truth, the presence of acting buddha who does not seek to become buddha. When the universe is realized, the body-buddha is, from the beginning, beyond "becoming buddha"; and because nets and cages have long been broken open, the sitting buddha does not obstruct at all the becoming buddha. When we learn through the body like this, we have the power eternally, for a thousand ages and ten thousand ages, to enter [the state of] buddha or to enter [the state of] demons. In forward steps and backward steps, we cause there to be light that fills ditches and fills valleys: who would not call this the features [we had] before [our] father and mother were born? [148] "Learning through the mind" describes clarification of how the mind is. Clarifying the mind does not mean clarifying the mind of the common person, non-Buddhists, the two vehicles, and the like; it means illumination of the buddha-mind. In ancient times, a monk asked National Master Echū, 10 "What

is the mind of eternal buddhas?" The National Master said, "Fences, walls, tiles,

and pebbles.

" Let us now listen to these words for a while, and let us quietly learn this mind. To resolve to learn the Buddha's truth, and to illuminate from the beginning the mind of eternal buddhas: this may be called "learning the truth through the mind.

" The selfish mind, though idly proud of knowledge and understanding, possesses only thinking and discrimination. Old One Śākyamuni said, "This Dharma cannot be understood by thinking and discrimination. "11 Clearly

we see that in ourselves there is no mind worth getting: in eternal buddhas there is the mind that we should learn. If we want to inquire into this mind, it is present in visible fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles; and if we want to experience this mind, it is present in the realization of fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles. Now, though these fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles are produced by human beings, at the same time they are words and deeds of Dharma. Who could hold sway over them? When we see them like this, it is evident that "fences, walls, tiles, 332

Appendix II

and pebbles" are beyond substance before our eyes, and that substance before our eyes is not "fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles.

" In sum, fences, walls, tiles,

and pebbles on this side12 are illuminating us as yonder objects; and we on this side are being illuminated by fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles as yonder objects. The fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles that exist like this as the mind of eternal buddhas are conspicuous in their brightness and in their merits, and so we can enumerate those [merits] that are numerable and we can remember those that are knowable. In knowing things and also in discerning matters, we should not learn from common people, the two vehicles, non-Buddhists, and the like; we should learn from the mind of eternal buddhas. All through the twelve hours, night and day, of daily functioning, we should be singlemindedly learning from eternal buddhas. Where the mind of eternal buddhas is teaching, we are able to hear the mind of eternal buddhas. Having been able to meet the mind of eternal buddhas, we should learn it thoroughly. We should not think, even in a dream, that it may be like the mind with which the common person is equipped. Stupid people, however, who trifle with the knowledge of the common person, and who mistakenly believe that the buddha-mind also may be like that, discuss the knowing of a knower and the known, and talk about illumination as "serene illumination" or "spiritual illumination.

" We should totally throw away such

false views. We should just learn the fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles that are the mind of eternal buddhas. It is not that we describe them thus because fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles are created from the mind of eternal buddhas and thus patterned after their creator: directly, without disturbing them, we call them "of eternal buddhas.

" We should learn that eternal buddhas, in every case, at the time of preaching the Dharma and doing training, at the time of nirvana, and at the time of realizing the truth, have made this mind into [their own] mind. Thus our Great Master Śākyamuni Buddha dwelled in and retained this as [his own] mind, and the ancestral master also maintained and relied upon this as [his own] mind. Is it equivalent to or not equivalent to fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles? We must look into this thoroughly. Wherever nature naturally possesses something familiar and direct, the mind of eternal buddhas is naturally preaching the mind of eternal buddhas—so we should get used to hearing that it is like this. When this mind is realized, it is unstoppable. Because it is unstoppable, both mastery of fundamentals and mastery of explanation are left utterly at the mercy of this mind, and there is no practice of the truth nor any way of moral 333

Appendix II

discipline that is not left entirely at the mercy of this mind. Eternal buddhas, in all their preaching and teaching, may be like this. With this as [our own] mind, we learn the truth.

[152] Again, Great Master Shinsai of Jōshū13 once asked Nansen, 14 "What is

the truth?"15 Nansen taught,

"The normal mind is the truth.

" In other words, the

everyday16 mind is the truth. To learn [the truth] as the normal mind may be extremely rare. It is to learn, both in regard to the body and in regard to the mind, that in time, they are normal. For instance there is not the slightest taintedness17 nor any design. In the state of body-mind, we neither describe yesterday as today, nor describe nor practice today as tomorrow, nor make the body into the mind, nor proceed from the mind to the body.

18 The state like this is called "the normal mind,

" but [people] are prone to misunderstand it to be a class of common miscellany. 19 While remaining in this [state of normal mind], we can intuit and affirm that the [miscellaneous] hundred weeds are normal. It is because this normal state of mind is the truth that the hundred weeds do not wither or rot. The Buddhist patriarchs, without being normal, could never have got free from the world, forgotten themselves, and practiced the truth—for practice of the truth naturally is normal. We too, having thrown away former worldly emotions, are readily practicing, and moving forward in, the tracks of the Buddhist patriarchs, but if we are inclined to think that because the normal mind is the truth we might not need to practice, we may be purporting to misunderstand normality. Practice and experience is not nonexistent, [but] there is none that is not normal. There being none that is not normal, there can be none that is tainted. In ancient times Old One Śākyamuni under the bodhitree, on seeing the bright star, at once realized the truth. The principle here is the principle that not a single thing is fetched. Previously the Buddha had experienced the bright star, but from this time on the bright star was experiencing the Buddha. What is the basis [for saying that] he was experienced by the bright star and that he experienced the bright star? Namely, "Practice and experience

is not nonexistent [but] it cannot be tainted. "20

[154] A [monk] named Chōkei21 asks Master Hofuku, 22 "They say that to

see form is to see the mind. But do you see the boat?" Hofuku says,

"I see it.

"

Chōkei says,

"Let us set aside the boat for the moment. Just what is the mind?"

Hofuku points a finger at the boat.

23

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So, even in our learning of the truth in the present age, we should know that discussion of the mind of the Buddhist patriarchs is like this. Having recognized that it is so, we are not drawn by non-Buddhists, the two vehicles, and the like. When buddha-tathāgatas are always playing in samādhi,we call this the Buddha's truth. In this state, there is abandonment of the body for the Dharma. In order to illuminate and study that boat, we need to know what the Buddha-Dharma is. "The Buddha-Dharma,

" namely, is the myriad dharmas, the hundred

weeds, all real dharmas, the triple world. No buddha has failed to perfectly realize this, and so there is nothing that is not perfectly realized as this by buddhas. That being so, when we inquire into life, there is none beyond real dharmas, and when we look for death, it is never separate from the myriad dharmas. Even to act in the interests of [life and death]24 also is this Dharma. For this reason, the principle of "abandoning the body for the Dharma" is clear. We have been abiding in and retaining this life and this death for a long time, [but] we have not received them from others; they do not depend on anyone else. As exhalation and inhalation at this concrete place, life is the body, and the body is the Dharma here and now. So the inevitable abandonment of life is, from the outset, for the Dharma. When we do not forget that death [also] is abandonment, we are experienced in the present by the Dharma; and even if we sought to abandon the body at a place beyond the Dharma, that could never be at all. As to the meaning of this "abandonment,

" it is always incurred by "the body,

" and just

at the time of "abandonment of the body for the Dharma,

" when we turn light

around and reflect, it is also "abandonment of the Dharma for the body. " In other

words, when the Dharma raises its own voice to proclaim itself, the expression "abandoning the Dharma for the body" is present; and when the body naturally raises its voice to announce itself, the expression "abandoning the body for the Dharma" is communicated: we should know that those to whom these buddhaactions, totally, have come, and those who have been learning them for long ages, are ourselves. Now and eternally, unable to regress or stray, we are put into practice by action in the present, and there is no instance in which action does not overflow from us. Since ancient times it has been said that a person who attains the truth entrusts life and death to the mind. Truly, it may be so; we should not doubt it. When this principle is apparent, we also know our own mind; and when we know our own mind,

"this principle" also is apparent. At

the same time, we also know what our own body is, and we also clarify and 335

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learn the dignified behavior that belongs to our body. In learning this we illuminate the way life is and the way death is. To illuminate this is not to have deviously thrown light upon what [otherwise] might not have been illuminated. We should understand that this kind of illumination takes place when we illuminate what is evident. To illuminate "this principle,

" we should first know how the mind is

and should learn how the mind is. To learn of its condition means, in other words, to know that "the myriad dharmas" are "the concrete mind, " and to understand

that "the triple world" is "the mind alone.

"25 Even what is called "knowing"

and what is called "understanding" are the myriad dharmas and are the triple world, and are their having been like this. Thereafter we must exactly investigate what life is entrusted to, and what death is entrusted to. As we continue investigating, an evident truth is present; it is, namely, the vigorous activity of the mind alone. It has not been produced by anything else; it is the real state of the mind alone itself—it has not been marshaled by objects. Thus, the real state of life and death is just the mind alone having been entrusted to itself. The reason, if asked, is that there is no mind alone that is not the myriad dharmas, and no myriad dharmas that are not the mind alone. Even if we purport to banish this life and death to a place beyond the mind alone, it will still be impossible for us to be hated by the mind alone. Truly, the two vehicles do not know, and non-Buddhists have no means [to comprehend], that to rely on the myriad dharmas is to rely on the mind alone; how much less could the common person realize it, even in a dream? Therefore, the matter of knowing our own body and the matter of knowing our own mind we should learn under the mind alone and we should learn under the myriad dharmas; and we should not do so in haste; we should do so in detail. This is called "the condition of entrusting life and death to the mind.

" To think of it as idle reliance on the mind of the common person is wrong. Even in the Buddha's vocal teaching we do not hear of entrusting life and death to the mind of the common person. At the same time, we should clearly know that our own mind also is not entrusted [to us] by life and death, and that we are beyond the common person.

[160] In the house of the Buddha there is Bodhisattva Regarder of the Sounds of the World.

26 Few people have not seen her27 but very few people

know her. We need not use coins to buy her elegant manner of being, and when we look into her faces, which is right and which is wrong? In order to speak she 336

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turns [our] body around and mounts the zazen platform; in order to listen she takes [our] hand and stands on the ground. At places not hindered by even a single dharma,her compassionate eyes illuminate us. Her response and our being responded to28 are a donkey looking at a well, and are the well looking at the donkey.

29 There may be no human being who clearly understands this state; "it keenly avoids verbal expression.

"30 If we express it with words, horns

will appear on the head. It is simply illumination of the mind in seeing forms, and realization of the truth in hearing sounds. The mind described as "the mind to be illuminated" may be the mind of Buddha. The truth to be illuminated may be the truth of Buddha. In the truth of Buddha and in the house of Buddha, we just illuminate the mind by seeing forms and realize the truth by hearing sounds; there is nothing else at all. A state that is like this, being already in the Buddha's truth, should preach,

"To those who must be saved through this body, I will

manifest at once this body and preach the Dharma.

"31 Truly, there is no preaching

of Dharma without manifestation of the body, and there can be no salvation that is not the preaching of Dharma. A man of old said,

"It is a long time since I sold

you this paddy field. The four border ridges, however, sometimes you leave unrecognized. Though I have always given the field unreservedly, I have not yet given the tree that has been in its center. From now on I will not begrudge the tree either.

"32 Studying this in experience, we should not forget that it has been a long time since this paddy field was given to us. Its ridges are kept level, and its four borders are evident. When we play in it, everywhere it produces good omens and produces happiness. Truly, we must conclude that a field like this has been with us all along.

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Notes

1 Master Tōzan Ryōkai (807-869), successor of Master Ungan Donjō. Great Master Gohon is his posthumous title.

2 Shinji-shōbōgenzō,pt. 1, no. 12. 3 "The buddha of today has existed not only today" suggests that a person's normal life even before he or she realized the truth was the life of a buddha. 4 Shō, koemeans voice or sound. There follows a consideration of hotoke no koe,the voice of buddha.

5 That is, they take place in the here and now. 6 Nyaku-tai-nyaku-shutsu.Alludes to the Lotus Sutra, Nyorai-juryō(LS 3.18): "The Tathāgata knows and sees the form of the triple world as it really is, without life and death, or disappearance or appearance. . . . "

7 Alludes to the traditional saying mei-mei taru hyaku-sō-tō; mei-mei taru soshi-no-i, "Clear-clear are the hundred weeds; clear-clear is the will of the ancestral masters, "

quoted for example by Layman Hōun in the Shinji-shōbōgenzō, pt. 1, no. 88. 8 People who only read sutras.

9 Gotsu-gotsu toshite,a phrase that also appears in the Fukanzazengi.The character gotsu,repeated for emphasis, literally means "high and level, " "lofty,

" or "motionless.

"

The word originally suggests a table mountain, and hence something imposing and balanced.

10 Master Nan'yō Echū (d. 775), successor of Master Daikan Enō. See Chapter Fortyfour (Vol. III), Kobusshin. 11 Lotus Sutra, Hōben.LS 1.88-90. Also quoted in the Fukanzazengi. 12 Shahen,

"this side,

" suggests the subject.

13 Master Jōshū Jūshin (778-897), successor of Master Nansen Fugan. Great Master Shinsai is his posthumous title.

14 Master Nansen Fugan (748-834), successor of Master Baso Dōitsu. 15 Shinji-shōbōgenzō,pt. 1, no. 19. 339

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16 Master Dōgen explained the Chinese characters byōjōor heijō, "normal,

" with the

Japanese phonetic word yonotsune,which means usual, ordinary, common, or everyday. 17 Zenna,

"taintedness,

" means separation of means and end, which stops us from being fully in the present moment. 18 Because in reality there is no past or future and no separation of body and mind. 19 Hyakusō,lit.,

7.

"hundreds of weeds,

" symbolize miscellaneous trivial things. See note 20 Master Nangaku Ejo's words to Master Daikan Enō. See, for example, Chapter Seven (Vol. I), Senjō;Chapter Twenty-nine (Vol. II), Inmo;Chapter Sixty-two (Vol. III), Hensan;Shinji-shōbōgenzō,pt. 2, no. 1. 21 Master Chōkei Eryō (854-932). A successor of Master Seppō Gison. His posthumous title was Great Master Chōkaku. 22 Master Hofuku Jūten (d. 928). Also a successor of Master Seppō Gison. There are many stories of conversations between him and Master Chōkei, his elder brother in Master Seppō's order.

23 Shinji-shōbōgenzō,pt. 2, no. 92. 24 To act in the interests of life means, for example, to take care of one's own health. To act in the interests of death means, for example, to exert oneself in the pursuit of some end.

25 Yuishin,

"mind only" or "mind alone, " appears in the phrase sangai-yuishin, "the

triple world is only the mind. " See Chapter Forty-seven (Vol. III), Sangai-yuishin. 26 Kanzeon ("Regarder of the Sounds of the World") represents the Sanskrit Avalo kiteśvara. See Chapter Thirty-three (Vol. II), Kannon;chap. 25 of the Lotus Sutra, Kanzeon-bosatsu-fumon.

27 Images of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, sometimes in female form and sometimes in male form, are commonly seen in China and Japan; e.g., in temple statues and artwork. 28 Ō to ōze raru koto,

"the response and being responded to, " alludes to the belief,

described in chap. 25 of the Lotus Sutra,that the bodhisattva will respond to the cries of those in distress. See LS 3.242. 29 Alludes to the Shinji-shōbōgenzō,pt. 2, no. 25: Master Sōzan asks Ācārya Toku, "It is

said that the Buddha's true Dharma body is just like space, and it manifests its form according to things, like the moon [reflected] in water. How do you preach this principle of mutual accordance?" Toku says, "It is like a donkey looking into a well. " The master

says,

"Your words are extremely nice words, but they only express eighty or ninety percent.

" Toku says,

"What would the master say?" Master Sōzan says, "It is like the

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well looking at the donkey. " The story discusses the meaning of the character ō, ō[jiru], "accord with" or "in response to, " which suggests the mutual relation between subject and object.

30 The words of Master Dōgo Enchi. See Shinji-shōbōgenzō,pt. 1, no. 57. 31 LS 3.252.

32 The source of this quotation, which Master Dōgen rendered into Japanese, has not been traced.

341