Shodo Harada Roshi

Dogen Zenji wrote in the Shobogenzo about the most basic Koan of all:

To study the way is to study the self
To study the self is to forget the self
To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things
To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barrier between self and other.

In this way he taught the most basic Buddha Dharma. Learning the Buddha's way isn't about grasping grand concepts or mastering exotic philosophies. It's not about contemplating the beginning of the universe or changing careers and earning more money. Nor is it about being respected by others for following some noble truth. To really learn the Buddha's way is to meet and encounter the true you; there you will discover the true Buddha. When a deep place is realized directly, we know the source of the universe from our own experience. Each and every person's life energy and health are aligned in doing this.

Knowing our true self isn't about understanding the commonly held idea of a self. Our true self is not the modern idea of an ego and not some character or personality that can be mentally designed. Neither is it some legal entity or created persona.

When the Buddha said, "In all the heavens and in all of the earth there is only One," that was humans' basic truth spoken just as it is. A brand-new baby has no information or knowledge or life experience, but it still has the full light of the heavens and earth radiating through it. This radiance is the ultimate root of all human beings and their source. Instead of allowing that life energy to become hardened into an ego, we can be one with society and with the heavens and earth. Being at one with society and the heavens and earth is the truest base for us and our life energy.

This is why the Buddha said to look inside ourselves and take refuge there, rather than looking for refuge in anything outside. This is the self that is of the Dharma. The Buddha also said, "Who sees me sees the Dharma, and who sees the Dharma sees me." This self is the Dharma, exactly.

Ancients called this the Busshin or Bussho, Buddha Nature or Buddha Mind. It was also called the great-clear-bright-round­-perfect-mirror-mind, or was said to be mind as is. It was also referred to as the self that is embracing all things, and Rinzai Zenji called it the true person of no rank which comes and goes through the openings of this physical body. This is not something that can be known conceptually but is that which perceives through all of our senses and apertures.

Joshu used "mu" to refer to this true self which is not a name, nor a form, nor an ability. Hakuin Zenji called it the sound of one hand clapping.

Today modern philosophy calls it the absolute characterless self; to have awareness-experiencing-awareness is another way it is put. But there is no need for difficult words here. We need to let go of the ideas of form, of being male or female, old or young, rich or poor, good or bad. We have to let go of all of those expressions and of any idea of having or not having. We have to let go of any explanation and become life energy itself. This true self must at least once be realized clearly.

Our truest self is not something that has to be analysed, explained, and accounted for. It's nothing like that; it's completely separate from all of that. We have to awaken to our original true nature and clarify it. We have to let go of the modern idea of an ego and a legal entity of a self, of all our hardened concepts of who and what and how we are.

To study the way is to study the self
To study the self is to forget the self
To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things
To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barrier between self and other.

Humans in every situation have a difficult time letting go of that ego. If we don't, we can't realize that true self that the ancients talked about. We get caught on the outer layers of the kimono and can't see the true essence underneath.

To study the self is to forget the self

The ancients said that we must do this as we come and also as we go, all the time, never missing a beat. All of the Patriarchs struggled through this letting go of one's own thoughts and ideas about things to see the true energy and return to it. This is called the Great Death.

Many negating words such as void and empty are used to describe this. We don't want to hear about something that seems so negative; we want to live in a world of joy and positive ideas. But this Mu is not such a plain mu or energy. An infinite existence is inside this mu.

To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things
To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barrier between self and other.

This is to know the true self and go beyond any separation. Right there, a huge, wide­open state of mind is born, and from there we return to our regular awareness. This is where the flower blooms on the iron tree. But if we do not die totally first, we can't realize this flowering, just as people have a hard time realizing satori if they are not aware of their delusions first.

At the Niruzen River, after being on the mountain for six years doing ascetic training, the Buddha once again entered zazen and let go of everything. He entered the absolute state of mu, forgetting everything that is. We have to enter this state of mind, or we can't know the true meaning of Buddhism. But that deepest darkness is not yet the furthest point. We let go of everything and come and go from that deep, dark place. Then we know the ultimate state of mind from which the Buddha saw the morning star and said, "That's it! That's it! That's me!" Hakuin heard the morning bell ringing and was suddenly awakened. The samadhi of mu can also be broken through by hearing the wind--the mu becomes the wind, and we know that we ourselves have become that. Without an ego we realize the truest Self. That which is not our ego becomes the true Self, and then we can realize that everything is our true Self. Only once we have forgotten our manufactured self can we be confirmed by all of the ten thousand things.

Put simply, we swap an other for our self.

This is like a parent who always puts the needs of the child first. The parent gives everything for the child's cultivation, no matter how miserable or dirty or painful. Only by knowing this true self can we be truly educated. In a single flower or one moment's scenery we can realize this true self. It is our duty to manifest this and become it.

Poets finds this true self in the rain and wind and all growing things and write about it. Sales people find it in what they sell and through the people they encounter. Scientists find truth in what they research--when for the first time we find this true self we see how the whole universe works, and this is what it means to realize Buddha. To encounter that true self is to see everything become Buddha.

To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things
To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barrier between self and other.

This means that we know that the world is who we are and that we are all already in liberated harmony. This is our most basic koan, in which we are all confirmed by all others and we see that all of us are one great being, that it is all me.

People who are alive will always die, and what laughs will always cry, but all of it is mu. When we experience the truth directly, we are always laughing with this world and with this true emptiness. We then know mu completely.

If all day long we continue, whether we are coming or going, then the iron tree gives forth a flower. Born as a human in this world, we can encounter this awakening of our true mind. We will see how wonderful it is to be human and know that this is the greatest good fortune. To realize this directly is the greatest thing we can do.

This is not the good fortune of a single generation. For all those to come, we know this true joy and give birth to that true self. This is the truth of the Buddha Dharma.

The iron tree blossoms,
the whole wide world is spring.

 

Aitken Roshi. From an essay titled, The Body of the Buddha.

The body of the Buddha is my body and yours. "Yours" includes human and nonhuman, sentient and non-sentient-individually and collectively. "All beings by nature are Buddha," Hakuin Ekaku says in his "Song of Zazen," "... This very body is the Buddha."

There is nothing that is not the Buddha body. In the Mahayana tradition, it is said that the historical Buddha, Shākyamuni, resolved his questions about suffering in the world and exclaimed, "Wonderful, wonderful! Now I see that all beings have the wisdom and virtue of Buddha. They cannot testify to that fact because of their delusions and preoccupations."

With this statement we have definition. All beings are the Buddha, but they cannot say so. It is not that people would rather say that they are Christian or atheist or whatever—they cannot acknowledge what is called Buddhahood: the emptiness, oneness, and uniqueness of their perceptions and all they perceive. They cannot acknowledge that delusions and preoccupations create suffering, yet have no substance.

The two elements of Shākyamuni's statement, the nature of beings and their inability to formulate that nature, are the foundation of Buddhist experience, practice and philosophy. Experience is the realization, by each according to individual capacity, of the truth Shākyamuni expressed. Practice is the way of realization, and philosophy is its post hoc formulation. I begin with the philosophy:

The three elements of Buddhahood: emptiness, oneness, and uniqueness, are the so-called "Three Bodies of the Buddha," the Dharmakāya, the Sambhogakāya, and the Nirmānakāya. All beings have these three qualities, as do all communities of beings, even the largest community, the universe itself.

The Dharmakāya is the "Pure and Clear Law Body." "Law," the etymological meaning of "Dharma" in Sanskrit, refers to the nature of things, animate and inanimate.

In this context, the term refers to the infinite, fathomless void, charged with possibilities, that produces, infuses, and indeed is the "material" of all bodies. According to some Buddhists, one's body is only momentarily substantial. In the Zen view, and of the Mahayana School generally, it has no substance, even for a moment

Complementary to this emptiness, the Sambhogakāya is the body of fullness, or oneness, exemplified by the "Net of Indra" in Hua-yen philosophy. The whole universe is a vast, multi- dimensional net, with each point of the net a jewel that perfectly reflects and contains all other jewels. "Your body is not your body, but is a constituent of all bodies." The Sambhogakāya is known as the "Body of Bliss," a name that expresses the delight of freedom from the "small self" and oneness with all beings.

Finally, there is the aspect of uniqueness. The Nirmānakāya is exemplified by Shākyamuni Buddha in the archetypal pantheon of the Three Bodies (the other two Bodies have their Buddhas too). Shākyamuni is surely a prime example of uniqueness, but so am I. So is each "I." The earthworm and the nettle are individual; no other being will ever appear like this particular earthworm, this particular nettle.

Each of the Three Bodies is qualified and made possible by the other two. The potent void is the source and essence of being in its fullness and oneness. Uniqueness gives interpenetration its dynamism—without it, there would be no Chinese, distinguished from Norwegian, to be one with the Norwegian. And if in essence all things were not empty, then skins would be barriers, and unity would not be possible.

The Three Bodies of the Buddha are implicit in Shākyamuni's teaching, but it was his successors who formulated them, sometimes without being clear that work is necessary to realize them, and work is necessary to maintain and deepen that realization. Without practice philosophy is superstition. When he was very young, Dōgen Kigen looked at just one side of Shākyamuni's statement about all beings, and asked why he should train at all, since he was already intrinsically Buddha. This is like suggesting that one can harvest without first preparing the ground, and then planting and cultivating.

 

 

Fukan-Zazen-Gi

Generally speaking, when we research the Truth, the Truth are originally pervading through the Universe, and so how is it necessary for us to rely upon sometimes practice, or sometimes experience? Furthermore, the methods, which are useful to arrive at the fundamental principle, are existing everywhere, and so how is it necessary for us to be exhausted by the enormous efforts to get them?

Enormously much more, we, Buddhist monks, totally have got rid of the secular garbage or dust already, and so who is it be necessary for us to believe in the necessity of methods brushing off or wipe off them? Generally, we, Human Beings, are impossible to get rid of our adequate place, and so how is it necessary for us to utilize even a bit of part of our legs for that purpose?

However, if there were any kind of the slightest gap existing, the gap of the expanse will become much wider as if it were the width between the Heaven and the Earth, and so if there occurs any kind of difference, because of the difference we have to lose our mental and physical serenity completely.

Even though we are proud of our clear understandings, being full of clever decisions, getting further excellently different consideration, getting the Truth, clarifying the mind, encouraging the will excellently piercing the sky, and even though we are taking a walk to put our head into the area of considering Action, but actually speaking, we are totally losing for ourselves to put our body actually into the area of Real Action itself.  Furthermore, in the case of innate Genius at Jetavana Anathapindikarama, we can actually look at the historical remains, where Gautama Buddha himself authentically sat there for 6 years. And the historical person in Shao-Rin-Ssu, who has transmitted the Central Symbol of Buddhism into China, has been presenting his authorized dignity of facing the wall for 9 years even today. Even in the case of such ancient examples those Old Sacred Personalities have been already like this. How is it possible for us, the people today, to spend the time without practicing Zazen at all?

Therefore we should stop our efforts to looking for words and to understand verbal expressions at all. It is necessary for us to study our passive steps of turning light to ourselves for reflecting ourselves opposite. The consciousness of our body and mind might vanish in a few minutes, and our original face and eyes will manifest themselves naturally. And if we want to get anything ineffable at once, just practice something ineffable, that is, Zazen, at once!

Generally speaking, if we want to practice Zazen authentically, it might be better for us to use a quiet room, and what we drink and eat, might be better to be moderate. Many kinds of miscellaneous circumstances must be thrown away, and many kinds of business should be stopped so far totally. Don't consider Good and Bad! Don't worry about Right and Wrong! Stop the motion of Mind, Will, or Consciousness! Stop the consideration of Consciousness, Thoughts, or Reflection. Never, never, intend to become Buddha! And such a kind of efforts can never be limited only inside sitting, or lying.

 In general situations, we should spread a thick carpet on the floor, and on there we use a thick and round cushion for Zazen. Sometimes we practice a full lotus posture, and sometimes we practice a half lotus posture. In the case of the full lotus posture, first we put our right foot on our left thigh, and then we put our left foot on the right thigh (for example.) And in the case of a half lotus posture, we push over our right thigh with our left foot (for example.) We should put our clothes over the legs for making the situation of clothes orderly. Then we put our right hand on the left foot, and put our left hand on the right hand to put the tops of both thumbs together supporting with each other. Then regulate our posture into the authentic sitting, and don't incline our spine left or right. Don't slouch the spine forward, or lean backward. The line of ears must be parallel with the line of the shoulders horizontally, and the nose aligned with the navel. Hold the tongue against the palate, keep the lips and teeth closed, and keep the eyes open naturally.

Breathe softly through the nose, and after settled the physical posture already, make a deep breath once, sway the body left and right. Sit immovably in the mountain-still state, and think the concrete state of not thinking. How is it possible for us to think the concrete state of not thinking? It is just different from thinking. This is just the abbreviated technique of Zazen.

What is called Zazen, is different from learning Zazen, but it is just the Peaceful and Pleasant Gate into the Universe. It is the practice and experience to clarify the Truth. The Universal System has been realized already, but nets or cages for us have never arrived at us yet at all.

If we have arrived at what we intend to, the situations might be the same as if a Dragon has got the water, or a Tiger has got mountains as the guard behind. We should exactly notice that the True Dharma has manifested itself naturally, and both darkness and vagueness have been destroyed first.

When we stand up from sitting, move our body gradually first, and then stand up stably. Don't be hasty or violent. In the case of standing up still, first we should move our bodies slowly, and then stand up. We should never be hasty or violent. Reflecting Ancient Times, transcending the common sense, overcoming the Sacred, dying in Zazen, or passing away in standing still, all have been relying upon the power, which has been trained by the practice. Furthermore a turning point utilizing a finger, a pole, a needle, or a wooden block, and another usual experiences utilizing a hossu, a fist, a wooden stick, or a cry of 'Katsu!', are also the identified experiences, which are far beyond the decision by consideration, or judgement. How is it possible for any kind of mystical ability, practice, or experience, to be available to know? It might be some dignified form outside of voice or color. How is it possible for them not to be criteria before recognitions or perception?

Therefore, we should never select abilities between the clever or the stupid, discussing higher wisdom, or serious stupidity, or selecting a clever person or a sutupid person. If we sincerely consider problems, it must be just pursuing the Truth. Practice and experience should never naturally become tainted with each other, and what is aimed at, should be balanced and constant.

Generally, this world and the other land, or the western world and the eastern land, all are keeping Buddhist characteristics, and solely including the authodox behavior. Just we are diligent in practicing Zazen only, and we are just being caught inside the state without motion.

Even though our situations are so much different having so many differences, we should solely practice Zazen for pursuing the Truth. How is it possible for us throwing our own sitting seat for wandering in the foreign countries here and there without any criterion? If we make a mistake even only one in our step, we have to commit our mistake just at the present moment.

Fortunately we have got the excellently valuable human body already. Should never pass the valuable time without doing anything. We, human beings, have already got the very important faculty for Buddhist Morals. How is it possible for anyone to lose the so valuable Time in vain spending it for instantly fleeting joy? Not only like that, the physical substances are so fragile like a dew drop on grass leaves, and the flimsy life is very similar to a flash of lightning. They suddenly vanish completely, and they erase themselves at once.

I would like to ask to elegant people of studying Buddhism that because of having accustomed to models of dragons, don't be afraid of the Real Dragon itself. Relying upon the direct and simple efforts of practicing Zazen diligently, and revering the person of transcending theoretical learning and forgetting intention. We will have identified ourselves with the Ultimate Truth of many Buddhas, and receive directly the balanced Autonomic Nervous System of many Patriarches's Samadhi. If you will continue this Something Ineffable, the Warehouse of Treasures will open naturally, and it will become easily possible for us to receive and utilize them as we like.

Translated by Gudo Nishijima  (November 1919 – January 2014)Recently I have met my necessity to translate "Fukan-Zazen-Gi, or The General Introduction of How to Pracice Zazen." "The Fukan-Zazen-Gi, or The General Introduction of How to Practice Zazen" was written by Master Dogen in 1227, but later it seems to be revised by Master Dogen himself, and so nowadays "Fukan-Zazen-Gi" is usually published in its revised one. Therefore in this case I also utilize the edition, which has been used as the authorized one for hundreds years continuously.

 

In Zen Buddhist practice, there are three ways to understand the precepts: from the literal point of view, from the so-called compassionate point of view, and from the so-called Buddha-nature point of view. For the first precept, for example, the literal point of view is: Don’t ever kill anything. The compassionate point of view is: Avoid killing whenever you can, keeping in mind the interconnection of all beings—your own interbeing. The Buddha-nature point of view is: There is no one killing, no killing and no one to be killed; the peace of infinite emptiness pervades the universe. You can’t have one of these points of view without the other two. But precepts are not commandments. The intention is to show a way of practice rather than to impose perfectionist ideals.

- Robert Aitken

Robert and Anne Aitken. Koko-An, Honolulu. Circa 1988

 

In Buddhism, there are several major bodhisattvas: Great Wisdom Manjusri, Great Compassion Avalokitesvara, Great Activity Samantabhadra, and Great Vow Kshitigarbha. The bodhisattvas are not historical people, but archetypical energies common to each and every one of us. As Zen ancestor Tenkei Denson Zenji would often say “Avalokitesvara is your name.” These are our names - we practice to awaken these energies and qualities within ourselves. We simply keep enlarging our capacity to embody these energies and unique characteristics of serving.

- Wendy Egyoku Nakao Roshi

 Shushôgi

(The Meaning of Practice and Verification)

by Eihei Dogen

Instrumentation: [X] large bowl-bell. [Y] small bowl-bell. [Z] nakkei: damping hand-bell with striker

I. General Introduction

[1.] The most important issue of all for Buddhists is the thorough clarification of the meaning of birth and death. If the buddha is within birth and death, there is no birth and death. Simply understand that birth and death are in themselves nirvana; there is no birth and death to be hated nor nirvana to be desired. Then, for the first time, we will be freed from birth and death. To master this problem is of supreme importance.

[2.] [X] It is difficult to be born as a human being; it is rare to encounter the buddha-dharma. Now, thanks to our good deeds in the past, not only have we been born as humans, we have also encountered the buddha-dharma. Within the realm of birth and death, this good birth is the best; let us not waste our precious human lives, irresponsibly abandoning them to the winds of impermanence.

[3.] Impermanence is unreliable; we know not on what roadside grasses the dew of our transient life will fall. Our bodies are not our own; our lives shift with the passing days and cannot be stopped for even an instant. Once rosy-cheeked youth has gone, we cannot find even its traces. Careful reflection shows that most things, once gone by, will never be encountered again. In the face of impermance, there is no help from kings, statesmen, relatives, servants, spouses, children, or wealth. We must enter the realm of death alone, accompanied only by our good and bad karma.

[4.] Avoid associating with deluded people in this world who are ignorant of the truth of causality and karmic retribution, who are heedless of past, present and future, and cannot distinguish good from evil. The principle of causality is obvious and impersonal; for inevitably those who do evil fall, and those who do good rise. If there were no causality, the buddhas would not have appeared in this world, nor would Bodhidharma have come from the west.

[5.] The karmic consequences of good and evil occur at three different times. The first is retribution experienced in our present life; the second is retribution experienced in the life following this one; and the third is retribution experienced in subsequent lives. In practicing the way of the buddhas and ancestors, from the start we should study and clarify the principle of karmic retribution in these three times. [X] Otherwise, we will often make mistakes and fall into false views. Not only will we fall into false views, we will fall into evil births and undergo long periods of suffering.

[6.] [X] Understand that in this birth we have only one life, not two or three. How regrettable it is if, falling into false views, we are subject to the consequences of evil deeds. Because we think that it is not evil even as we do evil, [X] and falsely imagine that there will be no consequences of evil, there is no way for us to avoid those consequences.

[II. Repenting and Eliminating Bad Karma]

[7.] [X] The buddhas and ancestors, because of their limitless sympathy, have opened the vast gates of compassion in order to lead all beings to awakening. Among humans and devas, who would not enter? Although karmic retribution for evil acts must come in one of the three times, repentance lessens the effects, or eliminates the bad karma and brings about purification.

[8.] [X] Therefore, we should repent before buddha in all sincerity. The power of the merit that results from repenting in this way before the buddha saves and purifies us. This merit encourages the growth of unobstructed faith and effort. When faith appears it transforms both self and other, and its benefits extend to beings both sentient and insentient.

[9.] The gist of repentance is expressed as follows: “Although we have accumulated much bad karma in the past, producing causes and conditions that obstruct our practice of the way, may the buddhas and ancestors who have attained the way of the buddha take pity on us, liberate us from our karmic entanglements, and remove obstructions to our study of the way. May their merit fill up [X] and hold sway over the inexhaustible dharma realm, so that they share with us their compassion.” Buddhas and ancestors were once like us; in the future we shall be like them.

[10.] [X] “All my past and harmful karma, born from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow.” If we repent in this way, we will certainly receive the mysterious guidance of the buddhas and ancestors. [Y] Keeping this in mind and acting in the appropriate manner, [Y] we should openly confess before the buddha. The power of this confession will cut the roots of our bad karma.

[III. Receiving Precepts and Joining the Ranks]

[11.] [X] Next, we should pay profound respects to the three treasures of buddha, dharma, and sangha. We should vow to make offerings and pay respects to the three treasures even in future lives and bodies. This reverent veneration of buddha, dharma, and sangha is what the buddhas and ancestors in both India and China correctly transmitted.

[12.] [X] Beings of meager fortune and scant virtue are unable even to hear the name of the three treasures; how much less can they take refuge in them. Do not, being compelled by fear, vainly take refuge in mountain spirits or ghosts, or in the shrines of non-Buddhists. Those kinds of refuges do not liberate from sufferings. Quickly taking refuge in the three treasures of buddha, dharma, and sangha will not only bring release from suffering, it will lead to the realization of enlightenment.

[13.] In taking refuge in the three treasures, we should have pure faith. Whether during the Tathagata’s lifetime or after, we place our palms together in gassho, bow our heads, and recite: “We take refuge in buddha, we take refuge in dharma, we take refuge in sangha.” We take refuge in the buddha because he is the great teacher. We take refuge in the dharma because it is good medicine. We take refuge in the sangha because it is an excellent friend. It is only by taking refuge in the three treasures that we become disciples of the Buddha. Whatever precepts we receive, they are always taken after the three refuges. Therefore it is in dependence on the three refuges that we gain the precepts.

[14.] The merit of taking refuge in the buddha, dharma, and sangha is always fulfilled when there is a spiritual communication of supplication and response. When there is a spiritual communication of supplication and response, devas, humans, hell dwellers, hungry ghosts, and animals all take refuge. Those who have taken refuge, in life after life, time after time, existence after existence, place after place, will steadily advance, surely accumulate merit, and attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. We should realize that the merit of the threefold refuge is the most honored, the highest, the most profound, and inconceivable. The World-Honored One himself has already borne witness to this, and living beings should believe in it.

[15.] Next we should receive the three sets of pure precepts: the precepts of restraining behavior, the precepts of doing good, and the precepts of benefiting living beings. We should then accept the ten grave prohibitions. First, do not kill; second, do not steal; third, do not engage in improper sexual conduct; fourth, do not lie; fifth, do not deal in intoxicants; sixth, do not criticize others; seventh, do not praise self and slander others; eighth, do not be stingy with the dharma or property; ninth, do not give way to anger; and tenth, do not disparage the three treasures. The buddhas all receive and upheld these three refuges, three sets of pure precepts, and ten grave prohibitions.

[16.] Those who receive the precepts verify the unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment verified by all the buddhas of the three times, the fruit of buddhahood, adamantine and indestructible. Is there any wise person who would not gladly seek this goal? The World-Honored One has clearly shown to all living beings that when they receive the buddha’s precepts, they join the ranks of the buddhas, the rank equal to the great awakening; truly they are the children of the buddhas.

[17.] [X] The buddhas always dwell in this, giving no thought to its various aspects; beings long function in this, the aspects never revealed in their various thoughts. [X] At this time, the land, grasses and trees, fences and walls, tiles and pebbles, all things in the dharma realm of the ten directions, perform the work of the buddhas. Therefore, the beings who enjoy the benefits of wind and water thus produced are all mysteriously aided by the wondrous and inconceivable transformative power of the buddha, and manifest a personal awakening. [X] This is the merit of non­intention, the merit of non­artifice. [Y] This is arousing the thought of enlightenment.

IV. Making the Vow to Benefit Beings

[18.] [X] To arouse the thought of enlightenment is to vow to save all beings before saving ourselves. Whether lay person or monk, whether a deva or a human, whether suffering or at ease, we should quickly form the intention of first saving others before saving ourselves.

[19.] [X] Though of humble appearance, one who has formed this intention is already the teacher of all living beings. Even a girl of seven is a teacher to the fourfold assembly, a compassionate father to living beings. Do not make an issue of male and female. This is a most wondrous principle of the way of the buddha.

[20.] After arousing the thought of enlightenment, even though we cycle through the six destinies and four modes of birth, the circumstances of this cycling themselves are all the practice of the vow of enlightenment. Therefore, although until now we may have vainly idled away our time, we should quickly make the vow before the present life has passed. Even if we have acquired a full measure of merit, sufficient to become a buddha, we turn it over, dedicating it to living beings that they may become buddhas and attain the way. There are some who practice for countless kalpas, saving living beings first without themselves becoming buddhas; they only save beings and benefit beings.

[21.] There are four kinds of wisdom that benefit living beings: giving, kind speech, beneficial deeds, and cooperation. These are the practices of the vow of the bodhisattva. “Giving” means not to covet. In principle, although nothing is truly one’s own, this does not prevent us from giving. Do not disdain even a small offering; its giving will surely bear fruit. Therefore, we should give even a line or a verse of the dharma, sowing good seeds for this life and other lives. We should give even a penny or a single blade of grass of resources, establishing good roots for this world and other worlds. The dharma is a resource, and resources are the dharma. Without coveting reward or thanks from others, we simply share our strength with them. Providing ferries and building bridges are also the perfection of giving. Earning a living and producing goods are fundamentally nothing other than giving.

[22.] “Kind speech” means, when meeting living beings, to think kindly of them and offer them affectionate words. To speak with a feeling of tenderness toward living beings, as if they were one’s own infant, is what is meant by kind speech. We should praise the virtuous and pity the virtueless. Kind speech is fundamental to mollifying one’s enemies and fostering harmony among one’s friends. Hearing kind speech to one’s face brightens one’s countenance and pleases one’s heart. Hearing kind speech indirectly leaves a deep impression. We should realize that kind speech has the power to move the heavens.

[23.] “Beneficial deeds” means to devise good ways of benefiting living beings, whether noble or humble. Those who encountered the trapped tortoise and the injured bird simply performed beneficial deeds for them, without seeking their reward or thanks. The foolish believe that their own interests will suffer if they put the benefits of others first. This is not the case. Beneficial deeds are one, universally benefiting self and others.

[24.] [X] “Cooperation” means not to differentiate; to make no distinction between self and others. It is, for example, like the human Tathagata who was the same as other human beings. There is a way of understanding such that we [X] identify others with ourselves and then identify ourselves with others. At such times self and other are without boundaries. The ocean does not reject any water; this is cooperation. It is because of this that water collects and becomes an ocean.

[25.] In sum, we should calmly reflect on the fact that the practice of the vow of arousing the thought of enlightenment has such principles; we should not be too hasty here. [Y] In working to save others, [Y] we should venerate and respect the merit that allows all living beings to receive guidance.

V. Practicing Buddhism and Repaying Blessings

[26.] [X] Arousing the thought of enlightenment is mainly something that human beings in this world should do. Should we not rejoice that we have had the opportunity to be born in this land of the Buddha Shakyamuni and to have encountered him?

[27.] We should calmly consider that if this was a time when the true dharma had not yet spread in the world, we would not be able to encounter it, even if we vowed to sacrifice our very lives for it. We who have at present encountered the true dharma should make such a vow. Do we not know that the Buddha said, “When you meet a teacher who expounds supreme enlightenment, do not consider his family background, do not regard his appearance, do not dislike his faults, and do not think about his conduct. Simply, out of respect for wisdom, bow to him three times daily, honor him, and do not cause him any grief.”

[28.] That we are now able to see the Buddha and hear the dharma is due to the blessings that have come to us through the practice of every one of the buddhas and ancestors. If the buddhas and ancestors had not directly transmitted the dharma, how could it have reached us today? We should be grateful for the blessings of even a single phrase; we should be grateful for the blessings of even a single dharma. How much more should we be grateful for the great blessings of the treasury of the eye of the true dharma, the supreme great dharma. The injured bird did not forget its blessings, but showed its thanks with the rings of three ministries. The trapped tortoise did not forget its blessings, but showed its thanks with the seal of Yubu. If even animals repay their blessings, how could humans ignore them?

[29.] Our expression of gratitude should not consist in any other practices; the true path of such expression lies solely in our daily practice of Buddhism. This means that we practice without neglecting our lives day to day and without being absorbed in ourselves.

[30.] Time flies faster than an arrow, and life is more transient than the dew. With what skillful means or devices can we retrieve even a single day that has passed. A hundred years lived to no purpose are days and months to be regretted. It is to be but a pitiful bag of bones. Even if we live in abandon, as slaves to the senses for the days and months of a hundred years, if we take up practice for a single day therein, it is not only the practice of this life of a hundred years, but also salvation in the hundred years of another life. The life of this day is a life that should be esteemed, a bag of bones that should be honored. We should love and respect our bodies and minds, which undertake this practice. Depending on our practice, the practice of the buddhas is manifested, and the [X] great way of the buddhas penetrates everywhere. Therefore, the practice of a single day is the seed of the buddhas, the practice of the buddhas.

[31.] These buddhas are the Buddha Shakyamuni. The Buddha Shakyamuni is “mind itself is buddha.” When buddhas of the past, present, and future together fulfill buddhahood, they always become the Buddha Shakyamuni. This is “mind itself is buddha.” We should carefully investigate who is meant when we say [Y] “mind itself is buddha.” [Y] This is how we repay the blessings of the Buddha.

-Translated by Soto Zen Text Project

 

 

DAI-O KOKUSHI:

There is a reality even prior to heaven and earth;
Indeed, it has no form, much less a name;
Eyes fail to see it; It has no voice for ears to detect;
To call it Mind or Buddha violates its nature,
For it then becomes like a visionary flower in the air;
It is not Mind, nor Buddha;
Absolutely quiet, and yet illuminating in a mysterious way,
It allows itself to be perceived only by the clear-eyed.
It is Dharma truly beyond form and sound;
It is Tao having nothing to do with words.
Wishing to entice the blind,
The Buddha has playfully let words escape his golden mouth;
Heaven and earth are ever since filled with entangling briars.
O my good worthy friends gathered here,
If you desire to listen to the thunderous voice of the Dharma,
Exhaust your words, empty your thoughts,
For then you may come to recognize this One Essence.