Shobogenzo by Eihei Dogen, Terebess Asia Online (TAO)

1. Genjô kôan > a > b > c > d > e
2. Maka hannya haramitsu
3. Busshô
4. Shinjin gakudô
5. Sokushin zebutsu
6. Gyôbutsu iigi
7. Ikka myôju
8. Shin fukatoku
9. Kobutsushin
10. Daigo. Great Awakening
11. Zazen gi. Principles of Zazen > a > b
12. Zazen shin. Lancet of Zazen
13. Kaiin zanmai. Ocean Seal Samâdhi
14. Kuge
15. Kômyô
16. Gyôji
17. Inmo
18. Kannon
19. Kokyô
20. Uji > a > b > c > d
21. Juki
22. Zenki
23. Tsuki
24. Gabyô
25. Keisei sanshoku
26. Bukkôjô ji
27. Muchu setsumu
28. Raihai tokuzui
29. Sansui kyô. Mountains and Waters Sutra > a > b
30. Kankin
31. Shoaku makusa. Not Doing Evils
32. Den e
33. Dôtoku
34. Bukkyô
35. Jinzu. Spiritual Penetrations
36. Arakan
37. Shunju
38. Kattô
39. Shisho
40. Hakujushi
41. Sangai yuishin
42. Sesshin sesshô
43. Shoho jissô
44. Butsudô. The Way of the Buddha
45. Mitsugo
46. Mujô seppô
47. Bukkyô
48. Hosshô
49. Darani
50. Senmen
51. Menju
52. Busso
53. Baika
54. Senjô
55. Jippô
56. Kenbutsu
57. Henzan
58. Ganzei
59. Kajô
60. Sanjushichihon bodai bunpô
61. Ryugin
62. Soshi seirai i
63. Hotsu bodai shin
64. Udon ge
65. Nyorai zenshin
66. Sanmai ô zanmai
67. Ten hôrin
68. Dai shugyô
69. Jishô zanmai
70. Koku
71. Hou
72. Ango
73. Tashin tsu. Penetrating Others' Minds
74. Ô saku sendaba
75. Shukke

1. Shukke kudoku
2. Jukai
3. Kesa kudoku
4. Hotsu bodai shin
5. Kuyô shobutsu
6. Kie buppôsô bô
7. Jinshin inga
8. Sanji gô
9. Shiba
10. Shizen biku
11. Ippyakuhachi hômyô mon
12. Hachi dainin gaku

1. Bendô wa
2. Juundô shiki
3. Hokke ten hokke
4. Shin fukatoku
5. Bodaisatta shishôhô
6. Ji kuin mon
7. Yuibutsu yobutsu
8. Shôji > a > b
9. Butsudô

1a. GENJO KOAN
Actualizing the Fundamental Point
by Eihei Dogen
Translated by Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi
Revised at San Francisco Zen Center

As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, and birth and death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings.

As the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death.

The buddha way is, basically, leaping clear of the many of the one; thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and buddhas.

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas; those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings. Further, there are those who continue realizing beyond realization, who are in delusion throughout delusion.

When buddhas are truly buddhas they do not necessarily notice that they are buddhas. However, they are actualized buddhas, who go on actualizing buddhas.

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you grasp things directly. Unlike things and their reflections in the mirror, and unlike the moon and its reflection in the water, when one side is illumined the other side is dark.

To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.

When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. But dharma is already correctly transmitted; you are immediately your original self. When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self.

Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet, do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past. You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood, which fully includes past and future and is independent of past and future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash, which fully includes future and past. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, you do not return to birth after death.

This being so, it is an established way in buddha-dharma to deny that birth turns into death. Accordingly, birth is understood as no-birth. It is an unshakable teaching in Buddha's discourse that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is understood as no-death.

Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring.

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water.

Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky.

The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long of short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.

When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you think it is already sufficient. When dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing.

For example, when you sail out in a boat to the middle of an ocean where no land is in sight, and view the four directions, the ocean looks circular, and does not look any other way. But the ocean is neither round or square; its features are infinite in variety. It is like a palace. It is like a jewel. It only look circular as far as you can see at that time. All things are like this.

Though there are many features in the dusty world and the world beyond conditions, you see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach. In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety; whole worlds are there. It is so not only around you, but also directly beneath your feet, or in a drop of water.

A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements. When their activity is large their field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water it will die at once.

Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish.

It is possible to illustrate this with more analogies. Practice, enlightenment, and people are like this.

Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find you way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others'. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past and it is not merely arising now.

Accordingly, in the practice-enlightenment of the buddha way, meeting one thing is mastering it--doing one practice is practicing completely. Here is the place; here the way unfolds. The boundary of realization is not distinct, for the realization comes forth simultaneously with the mastery of buddha-dharma.

Do not suppose that what you realize becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge. Zen master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, "Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. When, then, do you fan yourself?"

"Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent," Baoche replied, "you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere."

"What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?" asked the monk again. The master just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply.

The actualization of the buddha-dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like this. If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent; because of that, the wind of the buddha's house brings for the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river.

Written in mid-autumn, the first year of Tempuku 1233, and given to my lay student Koshu Yo of Kyushu Island. {Revised in} the fourth year of Kencho {I252}.

1b. Genjokoan
The Actualization of Enlightenment
by Eihei Dogen
Written in mid-autumn, 1233
Translated by Kosen Nishiyama and John Stevens (1975).

When all things are the Buddha-dharma, there is enlightenment, illusion, practice, life, death, Buddhas, and sentient beings. When all things are seen not to have any substance, there is no illusion or enlightenment, no Buddhas or sentient beings, no birth, or destruction. Originally the Buddhist Way transcends itself and any idea of abundance or lack--still there is birth and destruction, illusion and enlightenment, sentient beings and Buddhas. Yet people hate to see flowers fall and do not like weeds to grow.

It is an illusion to try to carry out our practice and enlightenment through ourselves, but to have practice and enlightenment through phenomena, that is enlightenment. To have great enlightenment about illusion is to be a Buddha. To have great illusion about enlightenment is to be a sentient being. Further, some are continually enlightened beyond enlightenment but some add more and more illusion.

When Buddhas become Buddhas, it is not necessary for them to be aware they are Buddhas. However, they are still enlightened Buddhas and continually realize Buddha. Through body and mind we can comprehend the form and sound of things. They work together as one. However, if it not like the reflection of shadow in a mirror, or the moon reflected in the water. If you look at only one side, the other is dark.

To learn the Buddhist way is to learn about oneself. To learn about oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to perceive oneself as all things. To realize this is to cast off the body and mind of self and others. When you have reached this stage you will be detached even from enlightenment but will practice it continually without thinking about it.

When people seek the Dharma [outside themselves] they are immediately far removed from its true location. When the Dharma has been received through the right transmission, one's real self immediately appears.

If you are in a boat, and you only look at the riverbank, you will think that the riverbank is moving; but if you look at the boat, you will discover that the boat itself is actually moving. Similarly, if you try to understand the nature of phenomena only through your own confused perception you will mistakenly think that your nature is eternal. Furthermore, if you have the right practice and return to your origin then you will see that all things have no permanent self.

Once firewood is reduced to ashes, it cannot return to firewood; but we should not think of ashes as the potential stare of firewood or vice-versa. Ash is completely ash and firewood is firewood. They have their own past, future, and independent existence.

Similarly, when human beings die, they cannot return to life; but in Buddhist teaching we never say that life changes into death. This is an established teaching of the Buddhist Dharma. We call it "non-becoming." Likewise, death cannot change into life. This is another principle of Buddha's Law. This is called "non-destruction". Life and death have absolute existence, like the relationship of winter and spring. But do not think of winter changing into spring or spring to summer.

When human beings attain enlightenment, it is like the moon reflected in the water. The moon appears in the water but does not get wet nor is the water disturbed by the moon. Furthermore the light of the moon covers the earth and yet it can be contained in small pool of water, a tiny dewdrop, or even one minuscule drop of water.

Just as the moon does not trouble the water in any way, do not think enlightenment causes people difficulty. Do not consider enlightenment an obstacle in your life. The depths of the dewdrop cannot contain the heights of the moon and the sky.

When the True Law is not totally attained, both physically and mentally, there is a tendency to think that we posses the complete Law and our work is finished. If the Dharma is completely present, there is a realization of ones insufficiencies.

For example, if you take a boat to the middle of the ocean, beyond the sight of any mountains, and look in all four directions, the ocean appear round. However, the ocean is not round, and its virtue is limitless. It is like a palace and an adornment of precious jewels. But to us, the ocean seems to be one large circle of water.

So we see this can be said of all things. Depending on the viewpoint we see things in different ways. Correct perception depends upon the amount of ones study and practice. In order to understand various types of viewpoints we must study the numerous aspects and virtues of mountains and oceans, rather than just circles. We should know that it is not only so all around us but also within us--even in a single drop of water.

Fish in the ocean find the water endless and birds think the sky is without limits. However, neither fish nor birds have been separated from their element. When their need is great, their utilization is great, when their need is small, the utilization is small. They fully utilize every aspect to its utmost--freely, limitlessly. However, we should know that if birds are separated from their own element they will die. We should know hat water is life for fish and the sky is life for birds. In the sky, birds are life; and in the water, fish are life. Many more conclusions can be drawn like this. There is practice and enlightenment [like the above relationships of sky and birds, fish and water]. However, after the clarification of water and sky, we can see that if there are birds or fish, that try to enter the sky or water, they cannot find either a way or a place. If we understand this point, there is actualization of enlightenment in our daily life. If we attain this this Way, all our actions are the actualization of enlightenment. This Way, this place, is not great or small, self or others, neither past or present--it exists just as it is.

Like this, if we practice and realize the Buddhist way we can master and penetrate each dharma;and we can confront and master any one practice. There is a place where we can penetrate the Way and find the extent of knowable perceptions. This happens because our knowledge co-exists simultaneously with the ultimate fulfillment of the Buddhist Dharma.

After this fulfillment becomes the basis of our perception, do not think that our perception is necessarily understood by the intellect. Although enlightenment is actualized quickly, it is not always totally manifested [it is too profound an inexhaustible for our limited intellect].

One day, when Zen Master Hotestsu of Mt. Mayoku was fanning himself, a monk approached and asked, "The nature of wind never changes and blows everywhere so why are you using a fan."

The master replied, "Although you know the nature of wind never changes you do not know the meaning of blowing everywhere". The monk then said, "Well, what does it mean?" Hotetsu did not speak but only continue to fan himself. Finally the monk understood and bowed deeply before him.

The experience, the realization, and the living, right transmission of the Buddhist Dharma is like this. To say it is not necessary to use a fan because the ntarue of the wind never changes and there will be wind even without one means that he does not know the real meaning of "never changes" or the wind's nature. Just as the wind's nature never changes, the wind of Buddhism makes the earth golden and cause the rivers to flow with sweet, fermented milk.

This was written in mid-autumn, 1233, and given to the lay disciple Yo-ko-shu of Kyushu.

The term genjokoan seems to appear first in ninth-century China and is often used in Japanese Soto Zen to refer to present being as the topic of meditation or the issue of Zen. Gen means "manifestation" or "present," jo means "become." Genjo means actuality-being as is, at hand, or accomplished, as of an accomplished fact. Koan is a common Zen word which is often left untranslated, having to some extent become a naturalized English word. Ko means official, public, or open, as opposed to private or personal; an means a consideration, or a considered decision. A koan in standard literary Chinese means an official report or an issue under consideration. The term was adopted in Zen with much the same meanings, only transposed into the frame of reference of Zen tradition and experience.

Genjokoan is one of the most popular and oft-quoted essays in Shobogenzo. Written to a lay disciple, it contains a number of key points stated in a most concise fashion. The very first paragraph contains a complete outline of Zen, in a covert presentation of the so-called "five ranks" (go i) device of the original Chinese Soto Zen school. The scheme of the five ranks-relative within absolute, absolute within relative, coming from within the absolute, arriving in the relative, and simultaneous attainment in both relative and absolute-is not overtly used in Dogen's work, perhaps because of the confusion surrounding it, but its structures are to be found throughout Shobogenzo.

Following this summary introduction, the essay proceeds to the discussion of enlightenment. Dogen says the way to enlightenment is to forget the self. The self in this sense refers to an accumulation of habits, including the habit of attachment to this accumulation as a genuine personality. Dogen calls this forgetting "shedding body and mind," an expression which is said to have galvanized his awareness as a young man and which he repeatedly uses to describe Zen study. Commentators on Dogen's lectures describe it in these terms: "Each moment of time is thoughtless; things do not provoke a second thought," and "This is the time when the whole mind and body attains great freedom."

This, however, is not the whole issue. In one of his lectures Dogen says that "shedding body and mind" is the beginning of the effort, and in Genjokoan he affirms that there is continuing progress in buddhahood, going beyond the attainment of enlightenment: "There is ceasing the traces of enlightenment, which causes one to forever leave the traces of enlightenment which is cessation." In the Hokke scripture Buddha reveals to his liberated disciples that nirvana, cessation of afflictive habits, which had been expediently represented as the goal, is as it were a resting place on an infinite path.

In the essay The Business of Progress (or transcendence) of Buddha, also in Shobogenzo, Dogen wrote, "To go on informing the Buddha of today it is not only today is called the business of progress of Buddha." The celebrated Zen master Hakuin said, "Without cultivation and practice after enlightenment, many who have seen the essence miss the boat"; and Hakuin's assistant Torei said, "Lesser enlightenment turns out to be a hindrance to great enlightenment. If you give up lesser enlightenments and don't cling to them, great enlightenment will surely be realized." Dogen says that there are differences in depth and breadth of the realization of enlightenment, and speaks here of enlightenment as being enlightened by all things. This leads to the issue of perspective.

Dogen states that delusion is a matter of experiencing things with the burden of the self-the bundle of mental habits, ingrained views, which is identified with the self. This is a basic issue of all Buddhist thought. The condition of the self, with its set of conditioned perceptions and views, is implicitly taken as a kind of absolute or veritable point of reference, if one takes one's experience as conceived to be reality. In order to overcome hidden prejudice in the form of unquestioned views, Dogen says that introspection is necessary, to see that things have no absolute identity, that they are not necessarily or totally as one may view them.
But then Dogen goes on to point out the absoluteness, so to speak, of relative identity. Logically, if particular things exist, or are defined, relative to one another and therefore lack absolute identity, yet that absolute identitylessness still depends on their relative identity. The approach Dogen takes, however, is not that of deduction but of direct witness (genryo), which he refers to, in classic Zen terminology, as the realms of before and after being disconnected. Thus Dogen explains the traditional "characteristics of emptiness" called birthlessness and nonperishing in terms of the noncoexistence of before and after, or the nonconcurrence of a state with its own nonexistence. Dogen's emphasis here seems to be not on discursive understanding of this point of logic, but on presence of mind in the most thoroughgoing sense, direct experience of the present.

Dogen also speaks of enlightenment in terms of the universal being reflected in the individual; this "merging" of universe and individual does not, however, obliterate the individual or restrict the universal. This leads to the apparent paradox of life being at once finite and infinite. One life, or one sphere of experience, contains everything that is within its scope and nothing that is beyond its range. At every moment we reach, or are at, the full extent of our experience; and yet this never limits the potential of experience in itself. Each moment is complete, hence infinite, in itself, though it be finite as a point of comparison with past or future. In the Kegon philosophy, this interpenetration of the finite and the infinite is represented by the figure of "arriving in one step," each moment of awareness being the focal point of the whole nexus of existence. Again Dogen drives at the full experience of the present without conceptually delineating it.

Finally Dogen quotes a classic Zen story alluding to the necessity of practical application even though truth, or enlightenment, is inherent in everyone. A monk asks his teacher why he uses a fan if the nature of wind is eternal and omnipresent; the teacher replies that the student knows the nature of eternity but not the principle of omnipresence, and to illustrate this principle the teacher just fans himself. As one of the Kegon philosophers said, "If not for practice flowing from reality, there is no means to merge with reality."

When all things are Buddha-teachings, then there is delusion and enlightenment, there is cultivation of practice, there is birth, there is death, there are Buddhas, there are sentient beings. When myriad things are all not self, there is no delusion, no enlightenment, no Buddhas, no sentient beings, no birth, no death. Because the Buddha Way originally sprang forth from abundance and paucity, there is birth and death, delusion and enlightenment, sentient beings and Buddhas. Moreover, though this is so, flowers fall when we cling to them, and weeds only grow when we dislike them.

Acting on and witnessing myriad things with the burden of oneself is "delusion." Acting on and witnessing oneself in the advent of myriad things is enlightenment. Great enlightenment about delusion is Buddhas; great delusion about enlightenment is sentient beings. There are also those who attain enlightenment on top of enlightenment, and there are those who are further deluded in the midst of delusion. When the Buddhas are indeed the Buddhas, there is no need to be self-conscious of being Buddhas; nevertheless it is realizing buddhahoodBuddhas go on realizing.

In seeing forms with the whole body-mind, hearing sound with the whole body-mind, though one intimately understands, it isn't like reflecting images in a mirror, it's not like water and the moon-when you witness one side, one side is obscure.

Studying the Buddha Way is studying oneself. Studying oneself is forgetting oneself. Forgetting oneself is being enlightened by all things. Being enlightened by all things is causing the body-mind of oneself and the body-mind of others to be shed. There is ceasing the traces of enlightenment, which causes one to forever leave the traces of enlightenment which is cessation.
When people first seek the Teaching, they are far from the bounds of the Teaching. Once the Teaching is properly conveyed in oneself, already one is the original human being.

When someone rides in a boat, as he looks at the shore he has the illusion that the shore is moving. When he looks at the boat under him, he realizes the boat is moving. In the same way, when one takes things for granted with confused ideas of body-mind, one has the illusion that one's own mind and own nature are permanent; but if one pays close attention to one's own actions, the truth that things are not self will be clear.

Kindling becomes ash, and cannot become kindling again. However, we should not see the ash as after and the kindling as before. Know that kindling abides in the normative state of kindling, and though it has a before and after, the realms of before and after are disconnected. Ash, in the normative state of ash, has before and after. Just as that kindling, after having become ash, does not again become kindling, so after dying a person does not become alive again. This being the case, not saying that life becomes death is an established custom in Buddhism-therefore it is called unborn. That death does not become life is an established teaching of the Buddha; therefore we say imperishable. Life is an individual temporal state, death is an individual temporal state. It is like winter and spring-we don't think winter becomes spring, we don't say spring becomes summer.

People's attaining enlightenment is like the moon reflected in water. The moon does not get wet, the water isn't broken. Though it is a vast expansive light, it rests in a little bit of water-even the whole moon, the whole sky, rests in a dewdrop on the grass, rests in even a single droplet of water. That enlightenment does not shatter people is like the moon not piercing the water. People's not obstructing enlightenment is like the drop of dew not obstructing the moon in the sky. The depth is proportionate to the height. As for the length and brevity of time, examining the great and small bodies of water, you should discern the breadth and narrowness of the moon in the sky.

Before one has studied the Teaching fully in body and mind, one feels one is already sufficient in the Teaching. If the body and mind are replete with the Teaching, in one respect one senses insufficiency. For example, when one rides a boat out onto the ocean where there are no mountains and looks around, it only appears round, and one can see no other, different characteristics. However, this ocean is not round, nor is it square-the remaining qualities of the ocean are inexhaustible. It is like a palace, it is like ornaments, yet as far as our eyes can see, it only seems round. It is the same with all things-in the realms of matter, beyond conceptualization, they include many aspects, but we see and comprehend only what the power of our eye of contemplative study reaches. If we inquire into the "family ways" of myriad things, the qualities of seas and mountains, beyond seeming square or round, are endlessly numerous. We should realize there exist worlds everywhere. It's not only thus in out of the way places-know that even a single drop right before us is also thus.

As a fish travels through water, there is no bound to the water no matter how far it goes; as a bird flies through the sky, there's no bound to the sky no matter how far it flies. While this is so, the fish and birds have never been apart from the water and the sky-it's just that when the need is large the use is large, and when the requirement is small the use is small. In this way, though the bounds are unfailingly reached everywhere and tread upon in every single place, the bird would instantly die if it left the sky and the fish would instantly die if it left the water. Obviously, water is life; obviously the sky is life. There is bird being life. There is fish being life. There is life being bird, there is life being fish. There must be progress beyond this-there is cultivation and realization, the existence of the living one being like this. Under these circumstances, if there were birds or fish who attempted to traverse the waters or the sky after having found the limits of the water or sky, they wouldn't find a path in the water or the sky-they won't find any place. When one finds this place, this action accordingly manifests as the issue at hand; when one finds this path, this action accordingly manifests as the issue at hand. This path, this place, is not big or small, not self or other, not preexistent, not now appearing-therefore it exists in this way. In this way, if someone cultivates and realizes the Buddha Way, it is attaining a principle, mastering the principle; it is encountering a practice, cultivating the practice. In this there is a place where the path has been accomplished, hence the unknowability of the known boundary is born together and studies along with the thorough investigation of the Buddha Teaching of this knowing-therefore it is thus. Don't get the idea that the attainment necessarily becomes one's own knowledge and view, that it would be known by discursive knowledge. Though realizational comprehension already takes place, implicit being is not necessarily obvious-why necessarily is there obvious becoming?

Zen Master Hotetsu of Mt. Mayoku was using a fan. A monk asked him about this: "The nature of wind is eternal and all-pervasive -why then do you use a fan?" The master said, "You only know the nature of wind is eternal, but do not yet know the principle of its omnipresence." The monk asked, "What is the principle of its omnipresence?" The master just fanned. The monk bowed.

The experience of the Buddha Teaching, the living road of right transmission, is like this. To say that since (the nature of wind) is permanent one should not use a fan, and that one should feel the breeze even when not using a fan, is not knowing permanence and not knowing the nature of the wind either. Because the nature of wind is eternal, the wind of Buddhism causes the manifestation of the earth's being gold and by participation develops the long river into butter.

1d. Dogen Zenji's Genjo-koan Lecture
by Shohaku Okumura
Transcribed from the original article published in the November 1997 issue of Soto Zen Journal (Dharma Eye)

Genjo-koan is one of the most well-known chapters of Dogen Zenji's Shobogenzo. This is the best text to start to study Dogen's teachings. Genjo-koan is really important is one wants to understand the meaning of zazen practice and daily activities as bodhisattva practice. As a practitioner, intellectual understanding alone is not enough. That's why Dogen wrote many instructions about how to practice daily. In order to show how to sit Zazen he wrote Fukanzazengi, (Universal Recommendation of Zazen), in order to show how to eat in the Zendo he wrote Fushukuhanpo (Dharma for taking meals), and to show how to work in the kitchen he wrote Tenzo Kyokun (Instruction for the Tenzo or cook in a Monastery). There are many such very concrete instructions about how we have to behave, how we have to work, and what kind of attitude we should maintain toward our own lives. Not simply for practice in a monastery, but even for us modern people, his teachings are relevant. There are many concrete ways of practice he taught his students, and the basic philosophy is expressed in Shobogenzo. And Genjo-koan is the first chapter of Shobogenzo. The basic philosophy of our day to day lives as practice in bodhisattva way is very precisely and also concentratedly written in this short writing, Genjo-koan.

Today, I'd like to talk about what is the position of Genjo-koan within Dogen Zenji's writings and also on the meaning of the title "Genjo-koan."

Dogen Zenji was born in the year 1200 A.D. in Kyoto, Japan. Three years from now we'll have the 800 year anniversary of his birth. He was ordained as a Tendai monk when he was thirteen years old at Mount Hiei near Kyoto.

According to his biography, it was said he had a question about Mahayana teaching, particularly the Tendai teaching at his time. At the time the tendai-hongaku-homon (Tendai teaching of original enlightenment) doctrine was very popular and people often said, "All beings have buddha nature and so actually those beings are Buddhas; they are all enlightened from the very beginning." Dogen's question was then why Buddhas had to arouse way-seeking mind, study Buddha's teaching and practice before they became buddhas. Why would they have to practice if all beings are already enlightened, if they are already, by nature, Buddhas?

He visited many teachers at the time but no one gave him an answer that satisfied him. So Dogen left the Tendai School and started to practice Zen when he was seventeen years old at Kennin-ji with Eisai's disciple Myozen.

Later, Dogen and Myozen went to China together because Zen was something so new in Japan at that time; like Zen is in America today. So they wanted to go to China together and study authentic, traditional Chinese Zen. Dogen stayed in China for five years until he was 27. He practiced with Soto Zen master Nyojo, and received Dharma transmission from him.

He came back to Japan in the year 1227. Right after returning from China, he wrote Fukanzazengi (The Way of Zazen recommended universally) to show how to practice zazen and the essential meaning of zazen. He wrote Bendowa (Talk on the Wholehearted Practice of the Way) when he was thirty years old. In Bendowa he discussed the meaning of zazen further in the context of Buddhist teachings, and he made eighteen questions and answers.

In 1233 he founded his own monastery; Kosho-ji. In the same year he rewrote Fukanzazengi. During the first summer practice period, he wrote Maka Hannya Haramitsu (Maha Prajna Paramita). This short writing is Dogen's comment on the Heart Sutra. In the fall of the same year he wrote Genjo-koan. I think these two short writings expressed his own basic understanding about Buddhist teachings. For him the practice of Zazen is the practice of Prajna Paramita, and in Genjo-koan he expressed the same philosophy, in his own very poetic way. Dogen Zenji stayed at Koshoji for ten years and moved to Echizen to found Eiheiji in the year of 1243. He lived another ten years to establish his own monastery in the remote mountains. He produced many writings until the end of his life in 1253.

As it is said in the postscript of the text, Genjo-koan was compiled in the fourth year of Kencho, that was 1252. Some scholars have discussed what this word "compile" (shuroku in Japanese) means; some scholars think this was the time when Dogen Zenji put Genjo-koan as the first chapter of Shobogenzo. Shobogenzo has about ninety five chapters and there are several different versions; such as the 75-chapter version, a 12 chapter version, 60 chapter version, 28 chapter version, a 12 chapter version. Traditionally the seventy five chapter version was considered to be Dogen Zenji's original collection. Scholars thought that he wrote another twelve chapters after he compiled the 75 chapter version of Shobogenzo. In the Tokugawa period, Soto Scholars added several more chapters and published the ninety five chapter version of Shobogenzo (Honzanban version).

There is another school of scholars who think Dogen Zenji was not satisfied with what he wrote in the 75 chapter version and began the 12 chapter version as a fresh start to rewriting Shobogenzo in which he planed to include 100 chapters. Anyway, the first chapter of the 75 chapter version Shobogenzo is Genjo-koan. Although Genjokoan was written when he was very young, Dogen probably rewrote it in the year before his death.

The expression "Genjo-koan" is used many times particularly in the 75 chapter version Shobogenzo. Someone counted how many times Dogen used this expression and it is said he used "Genjo-koan" twenty five times in the various chapters, and in the case of "Genjo" alone, he used it more than 300 times in sixty three chapters. So this word, "Genjo" is a key word to understand Dogen Zenji's teachings in Shobogenzo.

Next I'd like to talk on what "Genjokoan" means. This is Genjokoan ( text gives the Chinese characters) in Chinese character; Kanji.

This is the Chinese character for Gen (gives character). Gen means to appear, and to be in the present moment. In Japanese, genzai (gives character) means "present moment," and another expression gendai (gives character) means "modern times." Basically, gen has these two meanings; to appear, to show up, something we couldn't see and now we can see it, so it means manifestation or actualization, something which was potential becomes actual; that is gen.

Jo (gives character) means "to become," "to complete," or "to accomplish." Genjo as a compound term means, as a verb, "to manifest" or "to actualize" (to appear and become). As a noun it implies the reality actually and presently happening. Ko (gives character) means to be public. The problem is an. (gives characters) Koan is a very famous word in Zen particularly in the Rinzai tradition. The practice of Rinzai Zen is called "koan practice." In the case of koan practice, koan implies recorded stories, or sayings of ancient Chinese masters. Those stories or sayings are expression of truth or reality.

Beginning in the Sung Dynasty China (11th - 13th century), koans were used as a method to educate students. Zen masters gave a koan as a question with which students had to work.

Japanese Rinzai masters, particularly Hakuin Zenji (18th century) developed a system of Koan practice. The Rinzai tradition of Koan practice was introduced to the Western world by D.T. Suzuki. In koan practice, a koan is an expression of the truth or reality, and also a question practitioners have to wrestle with. In the common usage, the kanji for koan is (gives characters).

The upper part (shows character) means "to place" or "to be peaceful". The lower part (shows character) means wood or tree. The original meaning of this kanji is a desk. A desk is a place where we think, read, and write. This "an" also means a paper or document on the desk.

There is another kanji used in koan, that is (gives character). In the case of this kanji (shows part of character), the left side part means "hand." The literal meaning of this kanji is to press, or to push with a hand or a finger. For example, in Japanese, massage is "an-ma." (shows character) So this "an" is to press to give massage for healing. This kanji also means "to make investigation" to put things in order when things are out of order.

These two Chinese characters can be used as alternatives to each other because they have the same pronunciation. We may interpret both (characters) as the same word. Actually, even in a dictionary of Zen words like Zengaku-dai-jiten, these two are considered to be one and the same word. So, it might not be appropriate to make distinctions between them.

The common understanding of the word koan (shows character) is public document that is on the desk of a government office. That means a law issued, in the case of ancient China, by the Emperor. Once a law was issued with the name of the Emperor, it was absolutely unchangeable and all people had to observe it. No one can question or complain about it. In Zen, people thought koans were like a government document to which laws or regulations are written. Koans express the unchanging truth or reality.

However, in the oldest commentary of Dogen Zenji's Shobogenzo made by his direct disciple Senne, the word "koan" is interpreted with the kanji (shows character). Senne was Dogen Zenji's disciple who was his attendant at one time and compiled volume one, nine and ten of the Eihei-koroku; the collection of Dogen Zenji's formal lectures. Senne founded Yokoji temple in Kyoto after Dogen Zenji's death, and with his own disciple Kyogo, made the oldest commentary of 75 chapter version of Shobogenzo. The commentary is commonly called the Okikigakisho or just Gosho. Since the Tokugawa period (17th Century), the Gosho has been considered to be the most authoritative commentary of Shobogenzo.

In the beginning of their commentaries on Genjo-koan, Senne and Kyogo interpreted the word "koan" based on this kanji (gives character): "Ko (character) means to be equal. An (character) means to keep one's lot. Hei-fu-hei (shows characters; equalize inequality) is ko (to be public). Keeping one's lot is an.

Ko (to be public) means to equalize inequality. When there are some unequal and unfair situations, the duty of a government officer is to equalize the unfair situation for all people.

An is to keep one's lot. Each person has different responsibility depending on their occupation in the society. Each profession such as Emperor, ministers, high-class officers, low-class officers, merchants, farmers, teachers, doctors, etc. has its own lot. each person has different personality, capability and occupation. Each of us is unique and cannot be replaceable with anyone else.

Ko is equality of everything and an refers to uniqueness or particularity of each and every thing.

Gosho says, "Koan refers to the Shobogenzo itself." Shobogenzo is the true-dharma-eye-treasury that has been transmitted from the Buddha through ancestors in each generation. Shobogenzo is another name of the true reality of all beings (shoho-jisso).

According to the Gosho, the word koan expresses the reality of our own lives. That is, we are the intersection of equality (universality, unity, oneness of all beings) and inequality (difference, uniqueness, particularity, individuality). Emptiness includes both unity and difference.

Everything in the world has differences; nothing is actually equal. Also, in society there are many kinds of discrimination, inequalities, unfair situations. to equalize such inequality is to be public. "Public" is the opposition of private. As a private person, each person is different. For example a person who has a public position has to think all people are equal. That's the meaning of "to be public." A public officer should think how we can all become equal.

"An" means each person should take care of his/her own responsibility. Ko and an are in opposition within this dynamic. Ko is to be public, we should think of all people as equal, and an means, as a private person each person has a different and unique personality and each person takes care of different things.

I often use the example of a hand: this is one hand and each hand has five fingers. When we think this is a collection of five fingers each finger is independent and has a different shape and function. The thumb has its own shape and function. A little finger has its own shape and its own function. We cannot exchange. Each finger has its own unique way of being. And yet, as one hand, all five fingers function together and there's no separation. This is really "one" hand. We can see this as only one hand and also as a collection of five fingers. Not only a hand but each one of us is the same. We have both sides of universality and individuality. And these are not two separate aspects. Each side is absolute. One hand is 100% five fingers. When we call this one hand, there are no five fingers. And when we call this five fingers, one hand is hidden. In Genjokoan, Dogen xZenji expresses this, "When one side is illuminated another side is dark." This whole universe is one universe, there's no separation within it. And yet, when we see it from another aspect, this universe is a collection of billions of different, unique and individual beings. Nothing can be the same; everything has its own position in particular time and space. Each and everything is completely independent. And yet, this whole world, whole universe and all time -- from beginningless beginning to endless end -- is just one. Dogen Zenji said in Bendowa, "Even if only one person sits for a short time, because this zazen is one with all existence and completely permeates all time, it performs everlasting buddha guidance within the inexhaustible dharma world in the past, present, and future." We cannot separate. It's really only one time and one space.

There are two ways of viewing this one reality. One is to see things as a whole, the other is to see things as independent. these two ways of seeing things are really important in understanding Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. In Mahayana Buddhist philosophy the two aspects of this one reality of our life is called "the two truths," one is absolute truth and another is conventional truth.

For example, in the Heart Sutra emptiness is considered to be absolute truth, there's no eyes, no ear, no hand, no nose, no tongue, no anything because this reality is just working as one; emptiness. Yet, from the other side, each has form, eyes are eyes, nose is nose, tongue is tongue; this person, Shohaku is Shohaku; I'm not you and you are not me. Even when you eat delicious food my stomach is not filled or vice versa. So we are completely different individual people. And yet, as a whole, we are living the same life; as living beings, we are interconnected completely together with all beings. This whole universe is just one thing, as five fingers are just one hand.

In Zen this reality is called sabetsu (distinction, inequality) and byodo (equality). Everything is different and independent on the one side, and everything is equal and interconnected on the other side. To see one reality from those two sides is the basic view of Mahayana Buddhism including Zen.
As a form, everything is different. Everything has different form and yet those forms are empty; empty means no discrimination and separation. And yet this emptiness is form. We see one reality as an intersection or merging of equality and uniqueness.

In Chinese Zen literature, such as the Sandokai (merging of difference and unity) composed by Zen master Sekito Kisen, it says these two sides are called difference and unity. this difference and unity should merge. In Sandokai, Sekito expresses this side of oneness or unity as dark, and the other side is light. When it's bright outside we can see things and different forms, different colors, different names and different functions; when it's completely dark all beings are there but we cannot distinguish them. As a whole, it's one darkness. These are two aspects of one reality.

This is the basic way we see reality in Buddhism and Zen. It's important to understand this point to understand any Zen literature or Buddhist philosophy.

In the case of Dogen, however, to see one reality from two sides is not enough. We should express both sides in one action. For example, in the Heart Sutra two sides are expressed as "form is emptiness and emptiness is form." But, Dogen Zenji said in Shobogenzo Makahannya-haramitsu, "Form is form. Emptiness is emptiness." When we say form is emptiness and emptiness is form, there is still separation of form and emptiness. If form is really emptiness and emptiness is really form, we can only say form is form and emptiness is emptiness. When we say form, emptiness is already there. And when we say emptiness, form is already there. If we understand this basic point we can understand the first three sentences (paragraphs) of Genjokoan.

When we study and practice according to Dogen Zenji's teachings, it's important not only to understand with our intellect those two aspects; actually we should aim at actualizing these two different sides within one action. That's a really important and yet difficult thing. for example, Dogen Zenji wrote Instructions for the tenzo (cook). As a person who is cooking, each action is a personal action. We have 100% responsibility in how we work and the result of our work. Each person must receive the result of one's own karma.

Yet this personal practice also has a function within the community. It's not only a personal action, we cannot say "This is my practice. I just do whatever I want to do." this is my personal practice and yet this is also part of the practice of the whole community. there is a certain way and a certain time food should be ready.l The food cooked by the tenzo nurtures all the people's practice.
The actual action in the kitchen is the person's own and yet this one person's action has influence on the whole community. As a person who lives with this body and mind we have to aim at how we can manifest or actualize those two aspects of our lives. One is "this is my own practice, no one can do my practice for me" and yet this practice is really not for me, but this practice or work, is for the whole community. We have to think how we can serve the whole community in the best way, and yet we should do it as our own personal action with our own responsibility. We are completely independent persons and yet we are 100% part of the community.l How can we actualize both sides within one action? That is the really basic point of our lives. Not only for human beings but particularly for human beings, because we think we are independent beings. Particularly in modern society we put emphasis on independence and individuality. However, when we only think of ourselves as independent persons without considering others, we cannot live together with others.

For example in traditional Japanese society, family or communities, as well as schools or companies, are more important than the individual persons. Countries are more important than the people. I think that is one extreme. That is called wholism. I think that it is really unhealthy. But if we only see our independence, and think "I can do whatever I want to do," we become really isolated and egoistic. These two are sicknesses caused by a misguided view of reality. We are actually living as independent, unique persons, and yet we are living as a part of the whole community. When we cling to only one aspect and put emphasis we become sick; either way, through wholism or through individualism. Actually both sides should be there. It is the most healthy way when we are living together and yet each person is independent. We have to live together, and in order to live together we have to, in a sense, put aside our uniqueness, otherwise we have to always fight against other people. I think the most important teaching of Buddha is to find the middle way. We need to avoid either extreme and practice the reality as a middle way. We have to create our own way because there's no certain fixed middle way. We have to see the whole situation and find the most healthy and joyful way of life for both each one of us and for the community as a whole. And we should do this with our own responsibility. I think this is the essential point of Buddha's and Dogen Zenji's teachings.

In the Genjo-koan, Dogen Zenji expresses individuality as " a drop of water," and universality is expressed as "moonlight," and he said that even in a small drop of water, the moonlight is reflected. This is the reality of our life. We are individual and yet universal. The vast, boundless moonlight is reflected in us like a drop of water. The point of our practice, according to Dogen's teaching in Genjo-koan, is how we can keep awakening to that reality of individuality and universality together. Through our practice, we try to actualize one reality which has two sides. We go to extremes when we cling to our thinking. Thinking comes out of our experience, that is our karma. Depending upon our past experiences, we have tendency to think that this side should be important, or the other side should be more important. And we lose sight of the reality as a whole.
In our practice of zazen and also our practice in our daily lives, we awake to reality as a whole. We are free from either side and find the middle path. Both sides should be really there. This is the most vivid and healthy way of life.

My understanding of the title "Genjo-koan" is genjo (reality actually and presently taking place) is koan (absolute truth and also a question from reality to us). And koan is nothing other than genjo (things actually happening in front of our eyes). We have to answer the question from reality through our each and every action as practice.

The Shobogenzo flow consists of ninety-five chapters. But when first put together it had only seventy-five chapters. Dogen revised these seventy-five chapters between 1248 and 1252. He finished this revision one-year before his death.

The first chapter in this collection is the Genjo-Koan It was written when Dogen was 34 years old (mid-autumn 1233) and given to Mitsuhide Yo, a layman in Kyushu.

In the Zen sect Koan means problem to be solved. The Zen master gives it to the trainee, and the trainee thinks about it during zazen. The Rinzai sect especially emphasizes the Koan, but the Soto sect does not put too much stress on it. The Soto sect lays stress on daily life; it believes that the Koan should be expressed in our daily activities.

GenjoKoan deals with the Koan expressed in daily life. First, Dogen here indicates the essence of religion from his standpoint. Secondly, he expresses his basic view that original enlightenment and superior training are self-identical. Thirdly, he makes it clear that the Koan is not a formal problem but a way of life. Here he ex presses the Soto view that thorough training should be integrated with zazen and daily life. GenjoKoan especially underlines these points. Though given to a layman, this essay is very difficult to understand. Anyone who understand it will be able to grasp the overall spirit of the Shobogenzo and the essence of Dogen' Zen.

When all things are Buddhism, delusion and enlightenment exist, training exists, life and death exist, Buddhas exist, all-beings exist. When all things belong to the not-self, there are delusion, no enlightenment, no all beings, no birth and decay. Because the Buddha's way transcends the relative and absolute, birth and decay exist, no delusion and enlightenment exist, all-beings and Buddhas exist. And despite this, flowers fall while we treasure their bloom; weeds flourish while we wish them dead. To train and enlighten all things from the self: is delusion; to train and enlighten- the self from all things is enlightenment. Those who enlighten their delusion are Buddhas; those deluded in enlightenment are all-beings. Again there are those who are enlightened: on enlightenment-and those deluded within delusion. When Buddhas are really Buddhas, we need not know our identity with the Buddhas. But we are enlightened Buddhas-and express the Buddha in daily life. When we see objects and hear voices with all our body and mind-and grasp them intimately-it is not a phenomenon like a mirror reflecting form or like a moon reflected on water. When we understand one side, the other side remains in darkness. To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be en lightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to be free from attachment to the body and mind of one's self and of others. It means wiping out even attachment to Satori. Wiping out attachment to Satori, we must enter actual society. When man first recognizes the true law, he unequivocally frees himself from the border of truth. He who awakens the true law in him self immediately becomes the original man. If in riding a boat you look toward the shore, you erroneously think that the shore is moving. But upon looking carefully at the ship, you see that it is the ship that is actually moving. Similarly, seeing all things through a misconception of your body and mind gives rise to the mistake that this mind and substance are eternal. If you live truly and return to the source, it is clear that all things have no substance. Burning logs become ashes - and cannot return again to logs. There fore you should not view ashes as after and logs as before. You must understand that a burning log - as a burning log - has before and after. But although it has past and future, it is cut off from past and future. Ashes as ashes have after and before. Just as ashes do not become logs again after becoming ashes, man does not live again after death. So not to say that life becomes death is a natural standpoint of Buddhism. So this is called no-life.

To say that death does not become life is the fixed sermon of the Buddha. So this is called no-death. Life is a position of time, and death is a position of time . . . just like winter and spring. You must not believe that winter becomes spring - nor can you say that spring becomes summer. When a man gains enlightenment, it is like the moon reflecting on water: the moon does not be-come wet, nor is the water ruffled. Even though the moon gives immense and far-reaching light, it is reflected in a puddle of water. The full moon and the entire sky are reflected in a dewdrop on the grass. Just as enlightenment does not hinder man, the moon does not hinder the water.

Just as man does not obstruct enlightenment, the dewdrop does not - obstruct the moon in the sky. The deeper the moonlight reflected in the water, the higher the moon itself. You must realize that how short or long a time the moon is reflected in the water testifies to how small or large the water is, and how narrow or full the moon.

When the true law is not fully absorbed by our body and mind, we think that it is sufficient. But if the right law is fully enfolded by our body and mind, we feel that something is missing. For example, when you take a boat to sea, where mountains are out of sight, and look around, you see only roundness; you cannot see anything else. But this great ocean is neither round nor square. Its other characteristics are countless. Some see it as a palace, other as an ornament. We only see it as round for the time being - within the field of our vision: this is the way we see all things. Though various things are contained in this world of enlightenment, we can see and understand only as far as the vision of a Zen trainee. To know the essence of all things, you should realize that in addition to appearance as a square or circle, there are many other characteristics of ocean and mountain and that there are many worlds. It is not a matter of environment: you - must understand that a drop contains the ocean and that the right law is directly beneath your feet.

When fish go through water, there is no end to the water no matter how far they go. When birds fly in the sky, there is no end to the sky no matter how far they fly. But neither fish nor birds have been separated from the water or sky - from the very beginning. It is only this: when a great need arises, a great use arises; when there is little need, there is little use. Therefore, they realize full function in each thing and free ability according to each place.

But if birds separate themselves from the sky they die; if fish separate themselves from water; they die. You must realize that fish live by water and birds by sky. And it can be said that the sky lives by birds and the water by fish, and those birds are life and fish are life. You probably will be able to find other variations of this idea among men, although there are training and enlightenment and long and short lives, all are modes of truth itself. But if after going through water, fish try to go farther, or if after going through the sky, birds try to go farther-they cannot find a way or a resting place in water or sky.

If you find this place, your conduct will be vitalized, and the way will be expressed naturally. If you find this way, your conduct is realized truth in daily life. This way and place cannot be grasped by relative conceptions like large and small, self and others - neither are they there from the beginning nor emerging now. They are there just as they ought to be. Because the way and place are like this if, in practicing Buddhism, you pick up one thing, you penetrate one thing; if you complete one practice, you penetrate one practice. When deeply expressing this place and way, we do not realize it clearly because this activity is simultaneous with and interfused with the study of Buddhism.

You must not think that upon gaining enlightenment you can always become aware of it as personal knowledge. Although we are already enlightened, what we intimate have is not necessarily expressed, and we cannot point it out definitely. Zen master Pao-ch'ih was fanning himself one summer day when a passing priest asked: "The nature of wind is stationary, and it is universally present. Why do you then use your fan, sir?" The Zen master replied: "Though you know the nature of wind is stationary, you do not know why it is universally present." The priest asked, "Why then is the wind universally present?" The master only fanned himself, and the priest saluted him. Enlightenment through true experience and the vital way of right transmission are like this. Those who deny the need for fanning because the nature of wind is stationary and be cause the wind is sensed without the use of a fan understand neither the eternal presence of the wind nor its nature. Because the nature of wind is eternally present, the wind of Buddhism turns the earth to gold and ripens the rivers to ghee.

2. Makahannyaharamitsu
Great Transcendent Wisdom
by Eihei Dogen
Translated by Thomas Cleary

The subject of this essay, mahaprajnaparamita in Sanskrit, is the general title and essential theme of one of the major groups of Buddhist scriptures, and is one of the most important issues in Buddhism. Sanskrit maha, meaning "great," conveys the notion of universality. Prajna, often translated as "wisdom," might be rendered as inteuse knowledge; it is commonly described as knowledge of the true nature of things, as being "empty" or lacking absolute, independent existence. Paramita means "reached the other shore" or "reached the ultimate," and connotes transcendence of mundane limitations, the "other shore" referring to liberation of the mind.

Thus "great transcendent wisdom;' as wc read it here, means transcendence by universal intense knowledge. The Treatise on Great Transcendent Wisdom, a classic work on this teaching, says, "All things are subject to causes and conditions, none are independent. . . . All are born from causes and conditions, and because of this they have no intrinsic nature of their own. Because of having no intrinsic nature, they are ultimately empty. Not clinging to them because they are ultimately empty is called transcendent wisdom."

From this it can be seen that knowledge of "emptiness" is knowledge of conditionality: emptiness, being the aabsence of independence or own being of conditional things, is not apart frcom the conditiomal. This includes all things, whether concrete or abstract, even the items of the Buddhist teachings. Hence transcendent wisdom is that whereby the world, including even the doctrines and means of Buddhism, is transcended, so that there is no clinging to anything. According to Buddhist philosophy, clinging is a prirne source of delusion, whether that clinging be to "profane" or "sacred" things. Therefore realization of the relativity, or nonabsoluteness, of all things is at the core of freedom and enlightenment as proposed by Mahayana Buddhism.

However, if it is because of relativity, or conditionality, that all things are "empty," it is equally true that by the very same conditionality they do exist dependently. The tendency to misinterpret "emptiness" nihilistically, whether by intellectual misunderstanding or by mistaking concentration states for insight, is well known and often mentioned in Buddhist texts, especially texts of the Zen schools, where, perhaps due in part to overemphasis on concentration, it seems to have been a not uncommon problem. A thorough reading of Dogen's Shobogenzo will reveal that correcting or preventing the tendency toward nihilistic interpretation of emptiness is a major concern of Dogen's teaching. In this essay, Dogen identifies phenomema themselves with transcendent wisdom, emphasizing that within so-called nothing or emptiness all things are found, including the facilities, or means, of the Buddhist teachings.

The image Dogen uses for the realization of wisdom is that of space. As Dogen says, "Learning wisdom is space, space is learning wisdom." As a common Zen metaphor for the open mind, space may be said to contain all things without being affected by them. The spacelike mind thus is to be distinguished from the mind which is, as it were, in space, the former being the nongrasping, nonrejecting openness traditionally preached by Zen, the latter being a concentration state, often practiced by those who seek tranquility and detachrnent alone. Dogen here presents the "middle way" in which the emptiness and existence of all things are simultaneously realized, the centerpoint, the balance, of Mahayana Buddhism.

Much of the essay consists of extracts from Buddhist scripture, and a number of technical terms are brought up. It is not imperative to know exactly what these terms refer to in order to understand the essence of the message, for they refer to Buddhist doctrines, practices, and descriptions as part of the totality of phenomena which all exist yet are empty, are empty yet exist. For the sake of conveniencc, definitions are provided in a glossary appended to the essay.

The time when the Independent Seer practices profound transcendent wisdom is the whole body's clear vision that the five clusters are all empty. The five clusters are physical form, scnsations, perceptions, conditionings, and consciousness. They are five layers of wisdom. Clear vision is wisdom.

In expounding and manifesting this fundamental message, we would say form is empty, emptiness is form, form is form, emptiness is empty. It is the hundred grasses, it is myriad forms.

Twelve layers of wisdom are the twelve sense-media. There is also eighteen-layer wisdom- eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, intellect, form, sound, smell, taste, touch, phenomena, as well as the consciousness of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and intellect. There is also four layered wisdom, wich is suffering, its accumulation, its extinction, and the path to its extinction. Also there is six-layered wisdom, which is charity, morality, forbearance, vigor, meditation, and wisdom. There is also one-layer wisdom, which is manifest in the immediate present, which is uncxcelled complete perfect enlightentnent. There are also three layers of wisdom, which are past, present, and future. There are also six layers of wisdom, which are earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness. Also, four-layered wisdom is constantly being carried out- it is walking, standing, sitting, and reclining.

In the assembly of Shakyamuni Buddha was a monk who thought to himself, "I should pay obeisance to most profound transcenclent wisdom. Though there is no corigination or extinction of phencnnena herein, yet there are available facilitics of bodies of precepts, meditation, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge and insight of liberntion. Also there are available facilities of the fruit of the stream-enterer, the fruit of the once-returner, the fruit of the norrreturner, and the fruit of the saint. Also, thcre are available facilities of self-enlightenment and enlightening beings. Also there is the available facility of unexcelled true enlightenrnent. Also there are the available facilities of the Buddha, Teaching, and Community. Alsn there are the available facilities of the turning of the wheel of the sublime teaching and liberating living beings." The Buddha, knowing what he was thinking, said to the monk, "It is so, it is so. Most profound transcendent wisdom is extremely subtle and hard to fathom."

As for the present monk's thinking to himself, where all phenomena are respected, wisdom which still has no origirration or extinction is paying obeisance. Precisely at the time of their obeisance, accordingly wisdom With available facilities has become manifest: that is what is referred to as precepts, meditation, wisdom, and so on, up to the liberation of living beings. This is called nothing. The facilities of nothing are available in this way. This is transcendent wisdom which is most profound, extremely subtle, and hard to fathom.

The king of gods asked the honorable Subhuti, "O Great Worthy, if great bodhisattvas want to learn most profound transcendent wisdom, how should they learn it?" Subhuti answered, "If great bodhisattvas want to learn most profound transcendent wisdom, they should learn it like space."

The king of gods also said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, if good men and women accept and hold this most profound transcendent wisdom you have explained, repeat it, reflect upon it in truth, and expound it to others, how should I offer protection?" Then Subhuti said to the king of gods, "Do you see that there is something to protect?" The king said, "No, I do not see that there is anything to protect." Subhuti said, "If good men and women live according to most profound transcendent wisdom as they are taught, that is protection. If good men and women abide in most profound transcendent wisdom as taught here, and never depart from it, no humans or nonhumans can find any way to harm them. If you want to protect the bodhisattvas who live in most profound transcendent wisdom as taught, this is no different from wanting to protect space."

We should know that receiving, holding, repeating, and reflecting reasonably are none other than protecting wisdom. Wanting to protect is receiving and holding and repeating and so on.

My late teacher said, "The whole body is like a mouth hung in space; without question of east, west, south, or north winds, it equally tells others of wisdom. Drop after drop freezes." This is the speaking of wisdom of the lineage of Buddhas and Zen adepts. It is whole body wisdom whole other wisdom, whole self wisdom, whole east west south north wisdom.

Shakyamuni Buddha said, "Shariputra, living beings should abide in this transcendent wisdom as Buddhas do. They shomld make offerings, pay obeisance, and contemplate transcendent wisdom just as they make offerings and pay obeisance to the Blessed Buddha. Why? Because transcendent wisdom is not different from the Blessed Buddha, the Blessed Buddha is not different from transcendent wisdom. Transcendent wisdom is Buddha, Buddha is transcendent wisdom. Why? It is because all those who realize thusness, worthies, truly enlightened ones, appear due to transcendent wisdom. It is because all great bodhisattvas, self-enlightened pcople, saints, nonreturners, once-returners, stream-enterers, and so on, appear due to transcendent wisdom. It is because all manner of virtuous action in the world, the four meditations, four formless concentranions, and five spiritual powers all appear due to transcendent wisdom."

Therefore the Buddha, the Blessed One, is transcendent wisdom. Transcendent wisdom is all things. These "all things" are the characteristics of emptiness, unoriginated, imperishable, not defiled, not pure, not increasing, not decreasing. The rnanifestation of this transcendent wisdom is the manifestation of the Buddha. One should inquire into it, investigate it, honor and pay homage to it. This is attending and servring the Buddha, it is the Buddha of attendance and service.

Charity, morality, forbearance, vigor, meditation, wisdom: These are the so-called six perfections, or ways of transcendence, one of the basic formulations of Mahayana Buddhism.

Earth, water, fire, air, space, consciousness: These are the "six elements" of which the universe is composed, according to the Shingon school; these elements are said to be the cosmic Buddha. itself as well as the substance of all beings, and this is taken as a basic sense in which Buddha and sentient beings are one.

Enlightening beings: This refers to bodhisattvas, people dedicatted to enlightenment for all.

Five clusters: According to the Buddhist description, these are basic components, or classes of components, of the body-mind.

Stream-enterer, once-returner, nonreturner, saint: These arr forur stages of fruition of the way to nirvana- a stream-enterer is one who has begun to he disentangled from the world; a once-returner is one who comes back to the mundane once before attaining release; a nonreturner never comes back; a saint is one who has reached nirvana and is individually ernancipated.

Suffering, accumulation, extinction, path to extinction: These are the "four noble truths," or four main axioms, of pristine Buddhism- there is suffering, suffering has a cause, there is an end to suffering, and there is a way to end, suffering.

Twelve sense media: This refers to the sense faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) and their respectivc fields of data (form/color, sound, odor, flavor, tactile feelings, and phenomena).

A quiet place is most suitable for doing zazen. Place a thick mat on the floor. Do not allow drafts or mist to enter the room. Do not allow rain or dew to leak in. Protect the place where you sit; keep it in good condition. Ancient sages sat on the diamond seat or on a large rock. They all laid grass thickly and sat on it.

Keep the place where you sit well-lit. It should be dark neither during the day nor at night. It is essential that it be warm in winter and cool in summer. Let go of all relations, and set all affairs at rest. Being good is not-thinking; being evil is not-thinking. Zazen has nothing to do with the function of intellect, volition, or consciousness, nor with memory, imagination, or contemplation. Do not seek to become a buddha. Be free from the discrimination of sitting and lying down. Be moderate in drinking and eating. Do not squander your time. Be as eager to do zazen as you would be to extinguish a fire upon your head. The fifth patriarch on Mt. Obai practiced nothing but zazen. When you do zazen, wear a kesa, and use a zafu . The zafu should not extend completely under your legs, but should be placed just under your buttocks, so that your legs are on the zafu, and your spine is on the zafu . This is the way that the buddhas and patriarchs sit when they do zazen.

You may sit in either half-lotus or full-lotus. When you sit in full-lotus, put your right foot on your left thigh, and put your left foot on your right thigh. The line of your toes should be even with the outer line of your thighs. When you sit in half-lotus, just put your left foot on your right thigh. Keep your clothing loose, but neat. Put your right hand palm up on your left foot. And your left hand palm up on your right palm. The tips of your thumbs should be lightly touching. Position both your hands as above, and put them close to your body. The tips of your thumbs should be just in front of your navel.

Sit upright in the proper position. Lean neither to the left nor to the right, neither forward nor backward. Your ears should be in line with your shoulders; your nose in line with your navel. Place your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Breathe through your nose. Your lips and jaw should be closed. Keep your eyes open, but neither too widely nor too narrowly. Adjust your body and mind in this way; then exhale fully and take a breath.

Sit stably in samadhi. Think of not-thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Beyond-thinking. This is the way of doing zazen in accord with the dharma. Zazen is not learning ( step-by-step ) meditation. Rather zazen itself is the dharma-gate of great peace and joy (nirvana) . It is undefiled practice-enlightenment.

The essential point of the many Buddhas and Patriarchs is actualized by non-thinking and realized by non-opposition.

As it is actualized by non-thinking, this actualization is unconsciously and naturally intimate.

As it is realized by non-opposition, this accomplishment is an unconscious and natural certification.

As it is unconsciously and naturally intimate, this actualization never becomes impure.

As it is an unconscious and natural certification, this accomplishment is never straight nor oblique.

As this intimacy never becomes impure, this intimacy is datsu raku (failing off), never relying on anything.

As this certification is neither straight nor oblique, this certification is striving (that is, the practice of zazen) without purpose.

Clear is the water which penetrates to the bottom of the earth: when the fish swims, it is like the fish (zazen posture, mushotoku).

Wide is the sky which penetrates to the heavens ; when the bird flys, it is like the bird (the wisdom of hishiryo : the essential point).

14. Kuge
Flowers of Space
by Eihei Dogen
translated by Yasuda Joshu roshi
and Anzan Hoshin sensei
© 1999-2000 White Wind Zen Community

Learn through your practice the moment when the flower blooms, as well as its form and colour in the light. The flower's body is five petals, and the blooming of five petals is a flower. The standard of the single flower comes from [Bodhidharma's verse], "Originally I came to this land to transmit the Dharma and liberate deluded sentient beings." The form and colour in the light are learned through practice. "Fruit ripening by itself" is natural activity. "Natural activity" means causing causes and the affect of effects. This world has causes and it has effects. We cause the causes of this world and are affected by the effects that are the world. The "self" of "itself" is you, those four elements and five aggregates. The "true person without position" is used for this kind of "self" because it is not an "I" or a "someone". "Being so" means approving this. "Ripens by itself" is the moment of flowers opening and fruits ripening, the moment of transmitting the Dharma and liberating the deluded.

For example, the time and place of the opening and blooming of the blue lotus are in the midst of fire and at the time of flames. These sparks and flames are the place and time of the blue lotus opening and blooming. All sparks and flames are within the place and time of the place and time of the blue lotus opening and blooming. Know that in a single spark are hundreds of thousands of blue lotuses, blooming in the sky, blooming on the earth, blooming in the past, blooming in the present. Experiencing the actual time and place of this fire is the experience of the blue lotus. Do not drift by this time and place of the blue lotus flower.

An ancient said, "The blue lotus blooms within fire." To understand "within fire" you must know where this lotus blooms. Do not be attached to the viewpoints of humans or of shining beings or you will not understand this "fire within". If you doubt this, you might as well also doubt the existence of a lotus in the water, or a flower on the branch. If you want to doubt something, you should doubt the stability of an objective world. But you don't. Only the Ancestors realize that "when the flower blooms the world arises". A "flower blooms" is "three by three in front, three by three behind". To fill such numbers is the gathering together and raising up of numberless particles. When this truth comes to you, you can understand how spring and autumn come. It is not that there are flowers and fruit only in spring and autumn. Being-time is always flowering and fruiting. Flowers and fruit are each supported and maintained by their own moments and each moment is supported and maintained by flowers and fruit. The "hundred grasses" all have flowers and fruit, all trees have flowers and fruit. Trees of gold, silver, copper, iron, coral, crystal, and so on, all have flowers and fruit. Trees of earth, wind, water, fire, and space all have flowers and fruit. Human trees have flowers, human flowers have flowers, and withered trees have flowers. In all of this are the "flowers of space" spoken of by the Buddha. People of narrow knowledge and small insight do not know of the form and colour in the light of petals and flowers and so would only understand this to mean "non-existent flowers". Understand that speaking of "flowers of space" in the Way of Awake Awareness is not even known of let alone understood by those outside of the Way. Only the Buddhas and Ancestors realize the blossoming and falling of flowers in the sky, flowers on the ground, realize the blossoming and falling of the flowering of the world and so on; only they know that the flowers of the sky, the ground, the world are the sutras. This is the standard through which there is study of Awake Awareness. Since flowers in space are the vehicle in which the Buddhas and Ancestors travel, the worlds of the Buddhas and the Teachings are simply these flowers of space.

However, when the common dullard hears of the Thus Come One's words "clouded eyes see flowers in space" they imagine that these are the "clouded eyes" of usual people. They understand that diseased eyes can perceive nonexistent flowers in empty air. Through becoming attached to this perspective, they think it means that the three worlds, the six realms, Buddha-nature, and Buddhas have no existence but are seen as existent by the deluded. They think that by eliminating the delusions of clouded eyes we will not see flowers in space because space is originally without flowers. I am sorry, but these people do not know the time of, the beginning and ending of, the "flowers of space" that the Thus Come speaks of. What Buddhas speak of when they say "clouded eyes" or "flowers in space" is a truth that cannot be understood by usual people or those that are not within the Way. It is through practising this flower of space that Awakened Ones and the Thus Come receive the robe, the [Teaching] Seat, and [a Master's] Room, and fulfill the fruition of the truth. The standard of "raising a flower and blinking" is a manifestation of "flowers of space". The unbroken and authentic Transmission to right now of the Eye of Reality, unsurpassable radiant Knowing, is called "clouded eyes" and "flowers in space". Awakening, cessation, the Body of Reality, the inherent nature and so on are just two or three petals opened by this flower of space.

"It is like a person with clouded eyes
seeing flowers in empty air.
When the disease of cloudy eyes is cured,
the flowers in empty air vanish."

None of the scholars have clear understanding of what is being said. Since they do not realize space, they cannot understand "flowers in space". Since they do not understand "flowers in space", they do not understand "cloudy eyes", cannot see a person with such "clouded eyes", and cannot become a person of "cloudy eyes". Through meeting one with such "cloudy eyes", we can understand "flowers in space" and can see "flowers in space". Having seen "flowers in space", we then see "flowers in space vanish". The Narrow Path has the opinion that once "flowers in space" vanish, they cannot appear again. But if you cannot see "flowers in space", what can you see? If you think of "flowers of space" as something to be eliminated, then the great matter following from "flowers in space" and their seeding, ripening, and vanishing is never realized. The usual scholar of the day thinks of space as the place where the energy of the sun shines, or that where the sun and moon and stars hang is space; and so they think that the phrase "flowers in space" means that forms appear like clouds drifting in empty air or like flowers blown east to west, up and down, with the falling and rising gusts of wind. They do not realize that the four elements as the creating and created, all of the knowns of an "objective" world, primordial Awakeness, the original nature and so on are all called "flowers of space". And so further, they do not realize that the four elements which configure knowns are also created by knowns, they do not know that the "objective" world abides as a configuration of knowns but only know knowns as things of an "objective" world. They understand "flowers in space" to exist because of "clouded eyes" and do not understand that "clouded eyes" exist because of "flowers of space". Know that the "person with clouded eyes" spoken of by the Buddha is a person of primordial Awakening, a person of ineffable realization, a person of the Buddhas, a person of the three worlds, a person that moves beyond the Buddhas. Do not dully believe this "cloudiness" as delusion and look for true reality elsewhere. This is a small view. If "cloudiness" and "flowers" are delusions, then the attachment to this wrong view of delusion is deluded and that which is attached is deluded. With all of this delusion, nothing logical can be said. Nothing could be true, and so to establish "cloudiness" and "flowers" as delusion would be impossible.

Realization is "cloudiness" and the numberless aspects of realization are each part of an array of "clouds". Delusion is also "clouded" and the numberless aspects of delusion are also an array of "clouds". For now, let us say that "clouded eyes" are balanced and "flowers in space" are balanced; since "clouded eyes" are unborn then "flowers in space" are unborn; when all things are truly known as knowns16 then "cloudy flowers" are truly known. This cannot be said to be a matter of past, present, or future or of beginning, middle, and end because they are not blocked by coming and going. They cause coming and going to come and go. Coming within space and going within space, coming in "clouded eyes" and going in "clouded eyes", coming in "flowers" and going in "flowers". All other times and places are also like this.

The study of "flowers in space" can take many forms. There is the view of "cloudy eyes", the view of clear eyes; what is seen by the Buddha's eyes and what is seen by the eyes of the Ancestors; what is seen by eyes of the Way and what is seen by the blind. There is a view of three thousand years, a view of eight hundred years, a view of hundreds of eons, a view of numberless eons. Although all of these are seeing "flowers in space", there are many kinds of "space" and so there are many kinds of "flowers".

Know that space is a single grass. Space inevitably flowers just as the hundred grasses all flower. To express this, the Thus Come One said, "Space is originally without flowers." Although primordially there are no flowers, now there are flowers. This is how it is for peach and plum, apricot and willow. It is like saying, "Yesterday the apricot trees had no flowers, but now the apricots flower in spring." The arriving of the season is when the flowers bloom, in the blooming of flowers is the time when the flower arrives. The precise moment of this time of flowering is not arbitrary. Apricot and willow flowers always bloom on apricot and willow trees. Looking at the flowers you know that they are apricot or willow, and by looking at apricot and willow trees you can distinguish their flowers. Peach and plum flowers never bloom on apricot and willow trees. Apricot and willow flowers bloom on apricot and willow trees and peach and plum flowers always bloom on peach and plum trees. The blossoming of "flowers of space" is just like this too; they are not blooming on some other kind of plant or tree.

Seeing the colours of these "flowers in space," you can have a sense of the limitlessness of the fruits of space. Seeing the blossoming and falling of "flowers in space", you can learn the spring and autumn of "flowers of space". The spring of "flowers of space" is just like the spring of all flowers. Just as "flowers in space" are myriad, so are there myriad moments of spring. This is how the springs and autumns of all times are.

Understanding "flowers in space" as unreal but other flowers to be real is to be ignorant of the Buddha's Teachings. On hearing the Teaching that, "space is originally without flowers," thinking that "flowers in space" originally did not exist but that now they do is a small and narrow view. We should step forward and take a panoramic view. An ancient Ancestral Adept19 said, "Flowers have never appeared." To unfold this point, the truth is that flowers have never arisen, that flowers have never vanished, that flowers have never been flowers, that space has never been space. Don't be mired in fatuous views of existing or not-existing and thus confuse the time of flowering with a before and after. It is like the colours of flowers; colour is not limited to flowers and all seasons also have blues, yellows, reds and whites. Spring brings on flowers and flowers bring on spring.

The layman Zhangzhuo was a student of Shishuang. The verse he wrote expressing his realization goes like this:

This luminosity manifests "the Monks' Hall, the Buddha Hall, the Kitchen, the gates."22 The "worlds numberless as the sands of the Ganges" is manifested by luminosity and manifests luminosity.

It is not that there are not common people and sages, but that saying "common" and "sage" stains it.

Thoughts arise one by one and each are unborn. This non-arising is where the total body is manifest. This is why he says, "no single thought arises".

Although there are six senses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and consciousness, this is not just two times three; they should be "three in front, three behind". "Stirring" is like Mount Meru, like the earth, like the six senses and like "as soon as stirring". As "stirring" is like Mount Meru, so "not stirring" is also like Mount Meru. For example, it makes clouds and rain.

There has been disease up until now. Then there is the "disease" of the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors. Intellectualizing about disturbances and trying to remove them doubles disease. At the moment you try to "eliminate" there is "disturbance". They come together and yet are not together. "Disturbance" includes within itself its own "elimination".

To turn away from Suchness is wrong and aiming at Suchness is also wrong. Suchness approaches and turns away and each moment of aiming or turning is itself Suchness. Is there anyone who can know this "wrong" to be Suchness?

"Worldly circumstances" "go along" with "circumstances of the world" and "going along" is a "circumstance of the world" in its "going along". This is called being "without hindrance". As for being beyond "hindrance" and "without hindrance", we should study the "hindrance" of the eyes.

"Nirvana" is Complete and Utter Awakening. This is the place of the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors and of the disciples of Buddhas and Ancestors. "Birth and death are the true human body." Nirvana, and birth and death are all of these things but they are just "flowers in space". The roots and stalks, stems and leaves, flowers and fruit, colours and light of "flowers of space" are each the blossoming of "flowers of space". "Space flowers" give forth "space fruit" and drop "space seeds". Since the three worlds we now perceive are the "five petals opening" of "flowers of space", "the best is to see the three worlds with the three worlds". This is the "true form" of "all things". This is the "flower form" of "all things". All things and anything that can be imagined are "flowers of space" and "fruit of space". You should learn through practice that these are the same as apricot, willow, peach, and plum trees.

Zen Master Furong of Fuchou in Great Song upon his first encounter with Master Zhizhen of Guizhong-si asked, "What is Buddha?"

Guizhong said, "If there is a single cloud in the eye, flowers in the sky tumble in all directions."28

This saying of Guizhong, "When there is a single cloud in the eye, flowers of space tumble in all directions" expresses maintaining the Buddhas. Just remember that this "tumbling in all directions" of "clouded flowers" is what all Awakened Ones realize. And the flowers and fruit in the eye of space are what the Buddhas maintain. Through "clouds", the eyes are actualized. Flowers in space manifest the eyes and the eyes realize flowers in space. You could say, "If there are flowers of space in the eye, then a single cloud tumbles in all directions." On the other hand, "If the eyes are there in space, all clouds tumble in all directions. Thus, "cloudiness" is the "presentation of complete activity", "eyes" are the "presentation of complete activity", space is the "presentation of complete activity", and "flowers" are the "presentation of complete activity". "Tumbling in all directions" is the "thousand eyes" and "the whole body is eyes". Wherever and whenever there is an eye, there are always "flowers in space" and "flowers in eyes". "Flowers in eyes" are called "flowers in space". The expression of "flowers and eyes" should be open and clear.

"How wonderful! The Buddhas throughout the ten directions
are originally just the flowers in our eyes.
And if we want to know about these flowers in our eyes
they are originally the Buddhas throughout the ten directions.
If we want to know the Buddhas of the ten directions,
they are not flowers in our eyes.
If we want to know the flowers in our eyes,
they are not the Buddhas of the ten directions.
If you can understand this,
the Buddhas of the ten directions are to blame.
If you don't understand,
those with only hear-say knowledge do a little dance,
and those who make up their own enlightenment put on make up."

You should know that it is not that the Buddhas of the ten directions are not real but that they are originally "flowers in the eyes". The place where the Buddhas of the ten directions abide is "in the eyes". Any place other than "in the eyes" is not the abode of the Buddhas. "Flowers in the eyes" do not exist nor do not not-exist, are neither nothing nor a substance; they are themselves "the Buddhas of the ten directions". Now if you want to know only "the Buddhas of the ten directions", then they are not the "flowers in our eyes". And if you only want to know the "flowers in our eyes", then they are not "the Buddhas of the ten directions". This "wanting to know" and "are not" are manifestations of the wondrous, they are great wonders. The meaning of "sky flowers" and "earth flowers" spoken of by the Buddhas and Ancestors is "graceful play". Even those who teach only from the sutras or from their commentaries have the opportunity to hear of "flowers of space" but only Buddhas and Ancestors use this opportunity to experience the life-pulse of flowers of the earth. The sayings of the Awakened Ones and the Ancestors capture the life-pulse of flowers of the earth.

Zen Master Huiche of Shimen33 of Great Song was a great Master of that line. A monk asked, "What is the jewel in the mountain?" The point of this question is like asking, "What is Buddha?" It is like asking, "What is the truth?" The Master said, "Flowers of space unfold on the ground. Throughout the country, there is no way to buy."

This saying cannot be compared with other sayings. Usually, Teachers only talk about "flowers of space" as "flowers of emptiness" and only talk about arising in emptiness and going in emptiness. None have yet known "of space" let alone "of the ground". Only Shimen understood it. The meaning of "on the ground" is that the "beginning, middle, and end" are "on the ground". "Unfold" is to "release".37 Right now is the unfolding of the "whole earth", the releasing of the whole earth.

"Throughout the country, there is no way to buy." It is not that "throughout the country" there is no "buying". It is that "no way"38 cannot be bought.

"Flowers of space" unfold from the ground and the whole earth blooms from these flowers. Remember this: "flowers of space" means bringing both ground and space into bloom.

Presented to the assembly at Kannondori-Koshohorin-ji on May 10th, 1243. Recopied by Ejo on January 27th, 1244 at the head monk's quarters in Kippo-ji; copied again on August 28th, 1318 at the Guest Quarters of Eihei-ji.

In this essay Dogen presents his unique idea on Time. Although Dogen has touched on this subject elsewhere, he gives it the most detailed treatment in Uji. Dogen wrote Uji in the early winter of 1240 when he was 41 years old. At that time he was staying at Koshoji in the suburbs of Kyoto.

The Zen master (Yueh-shan) says: "Standing on the peak of a high mountain is uji. Diving to the bottom of the deep ocean is uji. The one with three heads and eight arms is uji. He who stands one jo and six or eight shaku is uji. The staff and hossu are uji. The pillar and lamp are uji. You and your neighbor are uji. The great earth and vast sky are uji." This uji means that time is existence and that all existence is time.

The golden body of one jo six shaku is time. Because it is time, there are the ornaments and lights of time. So we must study the 12 hours confronting us. It is time that draws out the body with three heads and eight arms. Because it is time, it interpenetrates with the present 12 hours. Though we have not yet measured the span of 12 hours, we call it 12 hours. Because time's transit leaves traces, man does not doubt it. Though he does not doubt, he does not understand. Because the ordinary man does not think from the deep ground, he of course doubts all things that he does not fully understand. For this reason, his future doubts never harmonize with his present doubts. And even doubt is nothing but a part of time.

There is no world without this doubting self, for this self is the world itself. We must look on everything in this world as time. Each thing stands in unimpeded relation just as each moment stands unimpeded. Therefore, (from the standpoint of time) the desire for enlightenment arises spontaneously; (from the standpoint of mind) time arises with the same mind. This applies also to training and enlightenment. Thus we see by entering within: the self is time itself.

Such being the truth, we must learn that there are many appearances and grasses throughout the earth and that each grass and each appearance are not apart from the entire earth. Holding this view is the point of departure for training. When we reach this sphere of our journey's end, there is one grass and one appearance. We sometimes meet the appearance and sometimes not; some times we meet the glass and sometimes not. (In this way training and enlightenment vary.) Be cause it is only time of this sort, uji is all time, and each grass and each appearance are time. In each moment there are all existences and all worlds. Try to think - Are any existences or worlds separated from time?

For ordinary people who do not know Buddhism, the following thought occurs when they hear the word "uji". At one time the Buddha was active with three heads and eight arms and at another time he was one jo and six or eight shaku. As he crossed rivers and mountains; the mountain and river - we have passed there and dwelt in this stately palace; they are individuated mountain-river and I and heaven and earth.

But time is not merely this. When climbing such mountains and crossing such rivers, I am present, and if I am, time is. Since I am here now, time cannot be separated from me. If time does not have the form of coming and going, the moment of climbing the mountain is the eternal now. If time takes the form of coming and going, I have the eternal now - this also is uji. Doesn't the time of climbing the mountain and crossing the river swallow the time of dwelling in the stately palace? Doesn't the time of dwelling in the stately palace throw up the time climbing the mountain and crossing the river? Three heads and eight arms are yesterday's one jo and six or eight shaku is today's time. But what we call yesterday and today are actually one time, just as when we go suddenly into the mountains and see myriad peaks at one glance. Time itself does now flow. Even (yesterday's) three heads and eight arms pass by as our uji: it looks like it is over there, but it is now. Even (today's) one jo and six or eight shaku passes by as our uji; it looks like it is over there, but it is now. So the pine tree is time; the bamboo is time. Do not think that time merely flies by. Do not learn that flying by is the only function of time. For if you recognize time as flying by, there is an interval (between going and coming). The truth of uji is not truly grasped because time is understood as only passing.

Ultimately all existences are linked and become time. Because, it is uji, it is my personal time. Uji has the trait of continuity. It goes from to- day to morrow, from today to yesterday, from yesterday to today, from today to today, and from tomorrow to tomorrow. Because continuity is a characteristic of time, time past and time present do not pile up. Because there is no lining up and congestion, Seigen (Ch'ing-yuan) is time; Obaku (Huang-po) is time; Kosei (Ma-tsu) is time; Sekito (Shih-t'ou) is time. Because the self and others are already time, training and enlightenment are time. Similarly entering mud and water (entering society) is time. He is said that the present views of ordinary people and the causal relation of their views are what ordinary people see. But this is really not the law of ordinary people. The Law merely puts ordinary people into temporary causal relations. Because we learn that this time and this existence are not the law, we think that the one-jo-six-shaku golden body is not ourselves. We try to escape the fact that we are the one-jo-six-shaku golden body. Even in this case we are a part of uji: those who are not yet enlightened are a part of uji.

The horse (12 o'clock) and sheep (one o'clock), lined up in order in the present world, are indicated by the fixation of time rising and falling. The mouse (6 o'clock) is time; the tiger (8 o'clock) is time. All beings are time; Buddhas are time. Then gods in the heavens enlighten the world with their three heads and eight arms; Buddhas enlighten the world with their one-jo and six-shaku golden body. To transcend the active and passive is called penetrating the world. Becoming the true Buddha is manifested in search, in training, in enlightenment, in Nirvana. This is existence-and time. There is only the thorough studying of all time as all existence; there is nothing else. Because delusions are delusions, half-studied uji is the study of half-uji. Even a mistakenly seen body is existence (and time). And if you leave it at mistake, embracing the before and after of expressions of mistake, you dwell in uji. Working freely in your own situation - this is uji. Do not hesitate, thinking it is nothing - nor go out of your way to consider it all. Most people think that time is only transitory. They do not understand that it dwells in its own situation. Their idea can be called time, but it is mistaken. Seeing time as transitory, they cannot penetrate to the fact the uji dwells iits own situation. How can such people find liberation! Even though recognizing that time dwells in its own situation, who can express such freedom? Even if you can express this attainment over a long period, you still are groping for your natural face. If you think of uji in the common way, even wisdom and enlightenment become only appearances in time coming and going.

Uji arises, free from desire. It materializes now here, now there. Even the king of heaven and his retainers are not separated from uji manifested. Other beings on land and in water also arise from uji. All things in darkness and light arise from uji. These manifestations become the time process. Not a single thing arises apart from uji. You must not think that continuity passes from east to west like a storm. All worlds are not immovable; nor are they stationary - this is continuity. It is like spring; in spring there are events, and these are called continuity. You must realize that there is nothing outside of continuity; for example, the continuity of spring always continues spring. You must understand in detail that although continuity is not spring, it is fulfilled at the time of this spring because it is the continuity of spring. Ordinary people think that continuity is beyond and that it passes east through many worlds and ones. This view shows lack of training.

Zen master Yakusan Kodo (Yueh-shan Hung-tae), on the advice of Zen master Wu-chi (Sekito-Shih-t'ou), visited Zen master Chiang-hsi Ta-chi (Ma-tsu Tao-i). He said: "I have studied nearly all the 12 teachings of the three vehicles. What is the meaning of the patriarch's coming from the West?" Chiang-hsi Ta-chi answered: "Some times I make the Buddha raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes I do not make him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes it is good to make him do these things. Sometimes it is not good to make him do these things. What do you think of this?" When he heard this, Yueh-shan was enlightened, and he said to Ta chi: "When I was at the Zen monastery of Shih t'ou, it was like a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull." What Ta-chi is trying to say is not the same as what the others are trying to say. Raising the eyebrows is the mountain and ocean. Because the mountain and ocean are raising the eyebrows - to do this act - you should truly see the form of the mountain. If you would grasp the meaning of the blinking, you should truly see the ocean. This and that are accustomed to each other; the active is introduced to the passive- and is one. Not-good is not always no-good. These are all uji. The mountain is time; the ocean is time. If they were not, there would be no mountain and no ocean. You cannot say that there is no time in the absolute present of the mountain and ocean. If time decays, the mountain and ocean will decay. If time does not decay, the mountain and ocean do not decay. Through this principle (the self-identity of time and things) eyes appear the plucked flower appears - this is time. If it is not, all this is not.

Zen master Kuei-hsing was a follower of the Rinzai school and a disciple of Shou-shan Hsing nien. To the assembled trainees he said: "Sometimes the will reaches there but words do not. Sometimes words reach there but the will does not. Sometimes both the will and words reach there. Sometimes neither the will nor words reach there." Both the will and words are uji; reaching and not reaching are both uji. Although when reaching there, it is incomplete, when not reaching there, it is already here. (Reaching there and time are different.) The will is the donkey, words the horse. The horse means words, the donkey will. Reaching is not coming; not reaching is not, not coming. Uji is like that. Reaching is hindered by reaching and not hindered by not reaching. Not reaching is hindered by not reaching and not hindered by reaching. As for will, through will, we penetrate will; as for words, through words, we penetrate words. As for hindrance, through hindrance, we penetrate hindrance; hindrance hinders hindrance - this is time. Hindrance is used by other things, but there is no hindrance that hinders other things. I meet people; people meet people; I meet myself; and departure meets departure. This would not be if they did not share time. Will is the time of the Koan in daily life; words are the time of the supreme key (to truth); reaching is the time of wholeness (total appearance); not reaching is the time of contact with this and of separation from this. You must understand this and experience it.

Although Zen masters up to now have said all this, I must repeat it. I must say: Will and words that half reach are uji; will and words that half do not reach are uji. This is the way we should study. Making him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is half uji; making him raise his eye brows and blink his eyes is full uji; not making him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is half uji; not making him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is full uji. To study this and experience it and not to study this and experience it are both the time of uji.

20b. Uji
The Time-Being by Eihei Dogen
From: 'The Moon in a Dewdrop; writings of Zen Master Dogen'
Translated by Dan Welch and Kazuaki Tanahashi

For the time being stand on top of the highest peak.
For the time being proceed along the bottom of the deepest ocean.
For the time being three heads and eight arms.
For the time being an eight- or sixteen-foot body.
For the time being a staff or whisk.
For the time being a pillar or lantern.
For the time being the sons of Zhang and Li.
For the time being the earth and sky.

"For the time being" here means time itself is being, and all being is
time. A golden sixteen-foot body is time; because it is time, there is the
radiant illumination of time. Study it as the twelve hours of the present.
"Three heads and eight arms" is time; because it is time, it is not separate
from the twelve hours of the present.

Even though you do not measure the hours of the day as long or short, far or
near, you still call it twelve hours. Because the signs of time's coming and
going are obvious, people do not doubt it. Although they do not doubt it,
they do not understand it. Or when sentient beings doubt what they do not
understand, their doubt is not firmly fixed. Because of that, their past
doubts do not necessarily coincide with the present doubt. Yet doubt itself
is nothing but time.

The way the self arrays itself is the form of the entire world. See each
thing in this entire world as a moment of time.
Things do not hinder one another, just as moments do not hinder one
another. The way-seeking mind arises in this moment. A way-seeking moment
arises in this mind. It is the same with practice and with attaining the way.
Thus the self setting itself out in array sees itself. This is the
understanding that the self is time.

Know that in this way there are myriads of forms and hundreds of grasses
throughout the entire earth, and yet each grass and each form itself is the
entire earth. The study of this is the beginning of practice.
When you are at this place, there is just one grass, there is just one
form; there is understanding of form and no-understanding of form; there is
understanding of grass and no-understanding of grass. Since there is nothing
but just this moment, the time-being is all the time there is. Grass-being,
form-being are both time.
Each moment is all being, is the entire world. Reflect now whether any
being or any world is left out of the present moment.

Yet an ordinary person who does not understand buddha-dharma may hear the
words the time-being this way:

For a while I was three heads and eight arms. For a while I was an eight-
or sixteen-foot body. This is like having crossed over rivers and climbed
mountains. Even though the mountains and rivers still exist, I have already
passed them and now reside in the jeweled palace and vermilion tower. Those
mountains and rivers are as distant from me as heaven is from earth.

It is not that simple. At the time the mountains were climbed and the
rivers crossed, you were present. Time is not separate from you, and as you
are present, time does not go away.
As time is not marked by coming and going, the moment you climbed the
mountains is the time-being right now. If time keeps coming and going, you
are the time-being right now. This is the meaning of the time-being.
Does this time-being not swallow up the moment when you climbed the
mountains and the moment when you resided in the jeweled palace and
vermilion tower? Does it not spit them out?

Three heads and eight arms may be yesterday's time. The eight- or
sixteen-foot body may be today's time. Yet yesterday and today are both in
the moment when you directly enter the mountains and see thousands and
myriads of peaks. Yesterday's time and today's time do not go away.
Three heads and eight arms move forward as your time-being. It looks as
if they are far away, but they are here and now. The eight- or sixteen-foot
body moves forward as your time-being. It looks as if it is nearby, but it
is exactly here. Thus, a pine tree is time, bamboo is time.

Do not think that time merely flies away. Do not see flying away as the only
function of time. If time merely flies away, you would be separated from
time. The reason you do not clearly understand the time-being is that you
think of time only as passing.
In essence, all things in the entire world are linked with one another
as moments. Because all moments are the time-being, they are your time-being.

The time-being has the quality of flowing. So-called today flows into
tomorrow, today flows into yesterday, yesterday flows into today. And today
flows into today, tomorrow flows into tomorrow.
Because flowing is a quality of time, moments of past and present do not
overlap or line up side by side. Qingyuan is time, Huangbo is time, Jiangxi
is time, Shitou is time, because self and other are already time.
Practice-enlightenment is time. Being splattered with mud and getting wet
with water is also time.

Although the views of an ordinary person and the causes and conditions of
those views are what the ordinary person sees, they are not necessarily the
ordinary person's truth. The truth merely manifests itself for the time
being as an ordinary person. Because you think your time or your being is
not truth, you believe that the sixteen-foot golden body is not you.
However, your attempts to escape from being the sixteen-foot golden body
are nothing but bits and pieces of the time-being. Those who have not yet
confirmed this should look into it deeply. The hours of Horse and Sheep,
which are arrayed in the world now, are actualized by ascendings and
descendings of the time-being at each moment. The rat is time, the tiger is
time, sentient beings are time, buddhas are time.

At this time you enlighten the entire world with three heads and eight arms,
you enlighten the entire world with the sixteen-foot golden body. To fully
actualize the entire world with the entire world is called thorough practice.
To fully actualize the golden body - to arouse the way-seeking mind,
practice, attain enlightenment, and enter nirvana - is nothing but being, is
nothing but time.

Just actualize all time as all being; there is nothing extra. A so-called
"extra being" is thoroughly an extra being. Thus, the time-being
half-actualized is half of the time-being completely actualized, and a
moment that seems to be missed is also completely being. In the same way,
even the moment before or after the moment that appears to be missed is also
complete-in-itself the time-being. Vigorously abiding in each moment is the
time-being. Do not mistakenly confuse it as nonbeing. Do not forcefully
assert it as being.

You may suppose that time is only passing away, and not understand that time
never arrives. Although understanding itself is time, understanding does not
depend on its own arrival.
People only see time's coming and going, and do not thoroughly
understand that the time-being abides in each moment. This being so, when
can they penetrate the barrier? Even if people recognized the time-being in
each moment, who could give expression to this recognition? Even if they
could give expression to this recognition for a long time, who could stop
looking for the realization of the original face?
According to ordinary people's view of the time-being, even
enlightenment and nirvana as the time-being would be merely aspects of
coming and going.

The time-being is entirely actualized without being caught up in nets or
cages. Deva kings and heavenly beings appearing right and left are the
time-being of your complete effort right now. The time-being of all beings
throughout the world in water and on land is just the actualization of your
complete effort right now. All beings of all kinds in the visible and
invisible realms are the time-being actualized by your complete effort,
flowing due to your complete effort.
Closely examine this flowing; without your complete effort right now,
nothing would be actualized, nothing would flow.

Do not think flowing is like wind and rain moving from east to west. The
entire world is not unchangeable, is not immovable. It flows.
Flowing is like spring. Spring with all its numerous aspects is called
flowing. When spring flows there is nothing outside of spring. Study this in
detail.
Spring invariably flows through spring. Although flowing itself is not
spring, flowing occurs throughout spring. Thus, flowing is completed at just
this moment of spring. Examine this thoroughly, coming and going.
In your study of flowing, if you imagine the objective to be outside
yourself and that you flow and move through hundreds and thousands of
worlds, for hundreds, thousands, and myriads of eons, you have not devotedly
studied the buddha way.

Great Master Hongdao of Mt. Yao [Yaoshan], instructed by Shitou, Great
Master Wuji, once went to study with Zen Master Daji of Jiangxi.

Yaoshan asked, "I am familiar with the teaching of the Three Vehicles
and twelve divisions. But what is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the
west?"
Zen Master Daji replied:

For the time being have him raise his eyebrows and wink.
For the time being do not have him raise his eyebrows and wink.
For the time being to have him raise his eyebrows and wink is right.
For the time being to have him raise his eyebrows and wink is not right.

Hearing these words, Yaoshan experienced great enlightenment and said to
Daji, "When I was studying with Shitou, it was like a mosquito trying to
bite an iron bull."
What Daji said is not the same as other people's words. The "eyebrows"
and "eyes" are mountains and oceans, because mountains and oceans are
eyebrows and eyes. To "have him raise the eyebrows" is to see the mountains.
To "have him wink" is to understand the oceans. The "right" answer belongs
to him, and he is activated by your having him raise the eyebrows and wink.
"Not right" does not mean not having him raise the eyebrows and wink. Not to
have him raise the eyebrows and wink does not mean not right. These are all
equally the time-being.
Mountains are time. Oceans are time. If they were not time, there would
be no mountains or oceans. Do not think that mountains and oceans here and
now are not time. If time is annihilated, mountains and oceans are
annihilated. As time is not annihilated, mountains and oceans are not
annihilated.
This being so, the morning star appears, the Tathagata appears, the eye
appears, and raising a flower appears. Each is time. If it were not time, it
could not be thus.

Zen master Guixing of She Prefecture is the heir of Shoushan, a dharma
descendant of Linji. One day he taught the assembly:

For the time being mind arrives, but words do not.
For the time being words arrive, but mind does not.
For the time being both mind and words arrive.
For the time being neither mind nor words arrive.

Both mind and words are the time-being. Both arriving and not-arriving
are the time-being. When the moment of arriving has not appeared, the moment
of not-arriving is here. Mind is a donkey, words are a horse.
Having-already-arrived is words and not-having-left is mind. Arriving is not
"coming," not-arriving is not "not yet."

The time-being is like this. Arriving is overwhelmed by arriving, but not by
not-arriving. Not-arriving is overwhelmed by not-arriving, but not by
arriving. Mind overwhelms mind and sees mind, words overwhelm words and see
words. Overwhelming overwhelms overwhelming and sees overwhelming.
Overwhelming is nothing but overwhelming. This is time.
As overwhelming is caused by you, there is no overwhelming that is
separate from you. Thus you go out and meet someone. Someone meets someone.
You meet yourself. Going out meets going out. If these are not the
actualization of time, they cannot be thus.

Mind is the moment of actualizing the fundamental point; words are the
moment of going beyond, unlocking the barrier. Arriving is the moment of
casting off the body; not-arriving is the moment of being one with just
this, while being free from just this. In this way you must endeavor to
actualize the time-being.

The old masters have thus uttered these words, but is there nothing further
to say?

Mind and words arriving "part-way" are the time-being.
Mind and words not arriving "part-way" are the time-being.

To have him raise the eyebrows and wink is "half" the time-being
To have him raise the eyebrows and wink is the time-being "missed."
Not to have him raise the eyebrows and wink is "half" the time-being.
Not to have him raise the eyebrows and wink is the time-being "missed."

Thus, to study thoroughly, coming and going, and to study thoroughly,
arriving and not-arriving, is the time-being of this moment.

On the first day of winter, first year of Ninji [1240], this was written at
Kosho Horin Monastery.

Dogen, qui vécut pendant la première moitié du XIII^e siècle, est le fondateur de l'école soto du zen au Japon, et par voie de conséquece le maillon qui nous rattache au chan (zen chinois). Il est l'auteur du Shobogenzo, dont provient le chapitre Uji. Deux versants éditeur publie une traduction de ce texte, dont nous reproduisons ici quelques passages. Pour se procurer l'intégralité de l'ouvrage, nous contacter par.

La réputation de Dogen est désormais établie en Occident : c'est le plus grand "penseur" qu'ait produit le Japon ; et son oeuvre exerce une fascination suffisante pour susciter une abondance de traductions vers les langues européennes. Uji notamment, qui passe pour le chapitre le plus "philosophique" de cet exposé magistral de la pensée zen qu'est le Shobogenzo, a donné lieu à de nombreuses traductions tant en français qu'en anglais. Pourquoi, dans ces conditions, en proposer une nouvelle ?

Et bien tout d'abord parce que la densité prodigieuse de l'écriture de Dogen fait de son discours une véritable polyphonie dont aucune lecture ne peut épuiser les résonances. Chaque traducteur, selon l'inclination qui est la sienne, retient plus particulièrement tel ou tel accent - philosophique, littéraire, spéculatif, métaphysique, virtuose, religieux ... - qu'il entend ou croit entendre. La profusion des traductions n'est donc que le reflet de la richesse et de la subtilité de l'oeuvre. Et tant qu'aucune ne se sera imposée comme définitive, il est bon que le lecteur ait accès à tout l'éventail des interprétations, dont la prolifération même constitue un prolongement de l'aventure intellectuelle de Dogen.

[...] La voie que Dogen ramène de Chine repose essentiellement sur la pratique de zazen, qui en est la source et l'aboutissement. Dogen destine son enseignement à ceux qui, comme lui, pratiquent l'assise silencieuse et c'est pourquoi, sans la référence continuelle à l'expérience intime de cette pratique, le Shobogenzo reste un texte obscur et contradictoire. En vérité, plus que de l'érudition ou de l'aptitude à l'exégèse, la bonne compréhension de Dogen nous semble tributaire d'une affinité fondée sur la pratique de zazen. Bref, l'approche la plus sûre en matière d'interprétation du Shobogenzo est à notre avis celle qui repose sur l'intuition générée par une longue fréquentation du zazen enseigné par Dogen et ceux de ses successeurs qui ont résolument marché sur ses traces.

Dogen n'est donc ni un philosophe ni un métaphysicien. En fait nous dirions même qu'il serait vain de chercher à extraire de sa pensée une quelconque doctrine. Bien sûr, Uji - le temps - est un sujet si philosophique et si métaphysique en soi que la réflexion de Dogen touche inévitablement à ces domaines de la pensée¹, mais cet aspect ne vient que par surcroît, de façon incidente, et ne constitue nullement l'essentiel de son propos. Fondamentalement, Dogen boit à deux sources, zazen et la transmission (le kesa) - autrement dit l'expérience intime de la condition originelle et l'enseignement oral transmis "de coeur à coeur" depuis les origines. La pensée de Dogen part de zazen et revient à zazen ; le Shobogenzo est là-dessus très explicite, par exemple dans le chapitre Zazenshin (Précis de zazen), où l'on peut lire : "les enfants et les petits-enfants des patriarches du Bouddha doivent sans défaillance pratiquer zazen comme la chose la plus importante. Tel est le sceau authentique reçu et transmis de la personne à la personne."

Qu'il cite Gensha - "L'univers entier est une perle brillante" - ou qu'il dise "le temps est toujours existence et toute existence est temps", Dogen n'est pas en train de spéculer, ou de formuler une théorie pour alimenter un débat ; il enseigne une expérience vitale. Tous les concepts qu'il emploie dans Uji - inmo (l'ainsité), juhoi (l'ordre normal des choses), genjo (l'actualisation), jinriki (l'engagement total)...- sont des références directes à la pratique de zazen. Le discours de Dogen est l'expression d'une intuition qui jaillit de la conscience hishiryo² et s'adresse à la conscience hishiryo. Ainsi, des passages comme cet extrait de Uji - "La présence n'est pas venue et la non-présence n'est pas absence de venue. Ainsi est l'être-temps. La présence est entravée par la présence, pas par l'absence. L'absence est entravée par l'absence, pas par la présence. L'esprit entrave l'esprit et donc il rencontre l'esprit. Les mots entravent les mots et donc ils rencontrent les mots. L'entrave entrave l'entrave et donc elle rencontre l'entrave. L'entrave entrave l'entrave. Ainsi est le temps. Les phénomènes peuvent se servir de l'entrave, mais il n'y a jamais eu d'entrave qui entrave les phénomènes." - nous semblent très difficiles à comprendre si on les aborde sous un angle purement analytique. Mais quand on les rapproche de l'"observation inconsciente" telle qu'elle est pratiquée pendant zazen, on constate en effet que seul "l'esprit qui s'attache" crée des entraves et que, "lorsque l'esprit ne s'arrête sur rien", l'instant se renouvelle dans une fluidité naturelle où ni l'illusion ni l'éveil ne font obstacle. La conscience hishiryo se meut en toute liberté aussi bien dans la dimension horizontale (l'espace, les phénomènes) que dans la dimension verticale (le temps). Cette compréhension est le retour à la seule forme d'écoute où la parole de Dogen a du sens, dans la mesure où elle est reçue comme un enseignement de l'expérience vécue et transmise de la voie. Et c'est à partir du moment où l'on perd de vue l'esprit vivant pour faire de cet enseignement un système de pensée, voire une idéologie, qu'apparaissent les erreurs et les polémiques.

Citant Eno, Dogen écrit dans le chapitre Bussho (La nature de Bouddha) du Shobogenzo : "L'impermanence en soi est nature de Bouddha. Ce qui est permanent, c'est l'esprit de discrimination qui juge de toutes choses en bien ou en mal." Le seul principe est la mobilité, à l'opposé de toute conception figée de la vérité. La cohérence du Shobogenzo - comme d'ailleurs celle du zen tout entier - appartient, répétons-le, à hishiryo, l'esprit qui ne repose sur rien. La pensée de Dogen est toujours en mouvement, elle est comme l'oiseau de mer qui joue avec le vent, s'appuyant sur les mots pour produire non pas un dogme mais une instabilité propice à l'éveil.

La démarche n'est pas linéaire mais sphérique. Elle procède d'une implosion de la pensée, qui, cessant d'alimenter le processus mental que nous plaquons en permanence sur la réalité, s'ouvre à l'"ainsité" (inmo) et avance "de plénitude en plénitude".

Toute l'oeuvre de Dogen, nous semble-t-il, est une longue élaboration du koan qui l'a lancé sur la pratique de la voie : "Si la nature de Bouddha est inhérente à tous les êtres, pourquoi devons-nous nous astreindre à la dure pratique de zazen ?" Auprès de maître Nyojo, "corps et esprit rejetés", il a eu l'intuition de l'unité ultime de tous les contradictoires - objectif et subjectif, illusion et satori, impermanence et immutabilité -, de la perfection de l'ordre universel, et du fait que cette perfection n'existe que par "notre engagement total en ce moment même ." C'est sur ce thème qu'il a improvisé tout au long de sa vie.

[...] Le lecteur de Dogen (et son traducteur) ont [parfois] tendance à perdre le fil conducteur. Se trouvant alors "comme des moustiques sur un taureau de fer" , ils cherchent des interprétations lointaines et ne font qu'obscurcir l'obscurité. Nous avons cherché à éviter ce piège et tenté de donner un texte clair et lisible, en employant une langue aussi simple que possible et dénuée d'exotisme. En vis-à-vis de notre traduction, nous avons placé un commentaire qui va lui aussi dans ce sens : miser sur la lisibilité en replaçant la pensée de Dogen dans la perspective dont elle est issue - l'expérience intime de zazen - et en y greffant le moins possible de spéculations étrangères à l'auteur. Bien entendu, nous sommes tout à fait conscient des limites de cette entreprise, et du fait que notre lecture, inévitablement partielle, est loin d'épuiser le sens du message.

1. On remarquera à cet égard que les deux aspects du temps qu'on rattache traditionnellement à la conception d'Aristote, où le temps est la mesure du mouvement, et à celle de Plotin, où il est le reflet de l'éternité, se retrouvent chez Dogen, où ils constituent les deux pôles complémentaires du constat sur lequel repose Uji : "le temps est toujours existence et toute existence est temps". L'être est inséparable de sa manifestation dans le temps et le temps n'existe qu'en tant que l'être est sa source. D'un côté l'éternel présent, de l'autre le devenir, tantôt l'un, tantôt le multiple, mais on ne peut les séparer.

2. Le terme hishiryo, qui apparaît fréquemment chez Dogen, et notamment dans le Fukanzazengi (Recommandations pour la pratique de zazen) et le chapitre Zazenshin (Précis de zazen) du Shobogenzo, a été employé pour la première fois par Sosan (mort en 606) dans le Shinjinmei (Poème de la foi en l'esprit, dont le cinquante-huitième verset dit : "En ce qui concerne hishiryo il est très difficile de faire des considérations"). Le mot se retrouve dans un mondo (dialogue) mettant en scène Yakusan (750-834) : un jour que Yakusan était assis en zazen, un moine s'approcha et lui demanda : "Maître, comment pensez-vous quand vous êtes assis?" "Je pense sans penser", répondit Yakusan. "Et comment pense-t-on sans penser?" "Hishiryo"... Maître Deshimaru traduisait l'expression par "l'au-delà de la pensée, penser du tréfonds de la non-pensée".

Le haut et le bas, l'ascension et le déclin, que nous divisons aujourd'hui en catégories comme l'heure du cheval3 ou l'heure du mouton, sont en fait la réalité meme de l'ordre normal des choses (juhoi). L'heure du rat est temps, l'heure du tigre est temps, les etres vivants sont temps et les Bouddha sont temps. A ce moment précis, la forme de l'ashura devient l'univers entier, le corps d'or du Bouddha devient l'univers entier. L'univers entier étant l'entiereté de l'univers, il y a ce qu'on appelle plénitude (kyujin). Le corps d'or du Bouddha debout étant du Bouddha debout le corps d'or, il y a actualisation de l'esprit d'éveil, de la pratique, de la sagesse et de l'extinction4.

C'est l'etre meme, c'est le temps meme. La totalité du temps étant plénitude de la totalité de l'etre, rien n'est en trop. Parce que ce qui est en trop est simplement en trop, un etre-temps d'une demi-plénitude est la plénitude d'un demi-etre-temps. Meme les choses qui ressemblent a des erreurs sont etre. De plus, de ce point de vue, quand bien meme l'erreur s'actualise dans l'avant ou dans l'apres, elle a sa place dans l'etre-temps. Toutes les choses a leur place dans l'ordre normal des choses (juhoi) sont etre-temps. Il ne faut ni s'attacher au non-etre ni vouloir a toute force affirmer l'etre.

3. Dans le calendrier luni-solaire sino-japonais, les douze heures du jour (qui durent en fait deux heures chacune) portent des noms correspondant aux douze animaux du zodiaque chinois : rat, boeuf, tigre, lievre, dragon, serpent, cheval, bélier, singe, coq, chien, sanglier. Les heures, les mois et les années s'integrent dans un cycle de soixante ans qui est censé se répéter indéfiniment.

4 Hosshin: l'esprit d'éveil, la résolution de percer le mystere de l'univers; shugyo: la pratique, pratique de la voie essentiellement fondée sur zazen; bodai: la sagesse parfaite, la connaissance intime de la vraie nature du Soi et de toute chose; nehan: le nirvana, l'extinction des illusions, la délivrance.

L'esprit humain établit des catégories, il classe tout selon un ordre chronologique et hiérarchique. Mais dans chacune des catégories ou il range la réalité se trouve en fait la totalité de l'etre-temps. Apres avoir exposé les deux aspects du temps - succession d'instants et éternel présent -, apres avoir établi que tous les etres et tous les phénomenes ont leur identité propre mais procedent de l'etre-temps et que la pratique de la voie consiste a passer librement d'un pôle a l'autre, sans créer de séparation, Dogen a introduit la notion de renouvellement, de perpétuation (kyoryaku) et posé que le Bouddha et le Dharma n'existent qu'en nous-memes. Ici, deux nouveaux principes font leur apparition, juhoi (l'ordre normal des choses) et kyujin (la plénitude). Au-dela de la vérité "théorique", Dogen, a travers l'expression "a ce moment précis", fait directement référence a l'expérience de zazen, a l'équilibre parfait qui s'instaure lorsque "le corps et l'esprit sont rejetés", autrement dit a "l'intimité avec soi-meme" dont parlait maître Deshimaru, désignée ici comme la plénitude réalisée lorsque "l'univers entier est l'entiereté de l'univers". Alors, d'instant en instant, se boucle la boucle éternelle de la voie - esprit d'éveil, pratique, sagesse et extinction.

Parce qu'a chaque instant, l'etre-temps se renouvelle dans toute sa plénitude, rien n'est en trop . Si toutefois l'homme s'écarte de cette perfection originelle et que quelque chose en trop apparaît, ce quelque chose en trop n'altere pas la vraie nature de l'etre-temps, et l'etre-temps d'une perfection incomplete n'est rien d'autre que la perfection d'un etre-temps incomplet. L'apparente incomplétude de la réalité est en fait plénitude d'une réalité qui n'est pas perçue, ou actualisée, dans son intégralité. L'erreur est etre, et quand bien meme nous allons de chute en rechute, quand bien meme la pratique juste se perd dans l'errance, cette discontinuité, cette alternance, participent en fait de la totalité de l'etre-temps. Rien, pas meme l'erreur, n'échappe a la plénitude de l'etre-temps. L'erreur ne saurait exclure l'impeccabilité fondamentale de l'etre. C'est pourquoi l'homme de la voie ne s'attache ni a la pureté ni a la souillure [...].

20d. Uji
del maestro zen Dogen
Traducción espanola por Francisco José Ramos

A veces de pie en la cima de la más alta cúspide,
A veces moviéndose en el fondo del más profundo océano,
A veces tres cabezas y ocho brazos,
A veces los diez y seis pies o los ocho pies del cuerpo dorado,
A veces un básculo, o un matamoscas,
A veces un pilar, o una linterna de piedra,
A veces el tercer hijo de Chang o el cuarto de Lee,
A veces la Tierra y el Espacio.
"A veces" (uji) significa el tiempo es existencia y la existencia es tiempo. Un cuerpo dorado de diez y seis pies es tiempo; y porque es tiempo, posee el brillo resplandeciente del tiempo. Debemos de entender esto como las doce horas del día, simplemente. Las tres cabezas y los diez y ochos brazos son el tiempo mismo. Y porque son el tiempo son inseparables de las doce horas del día.
Aunque no calculemos las doce horas del día como cortas o como largas, próximas o lejanas, de todos modos las llamamos las doce horas del día. Porque el ir y venir del tiempo son obvios, nadie duda de ello. Nadie duda pero esto no significa que entienden. Nuestras dudas como seres sintientes, acerca de esto o de aquello, no son nunca las mismas. Por lo tanto, el tiempo pasado de nuestras dudas no siempre coincide con lo que dudamos ahora. Aún así, las dudas no son más que tiempo.
La manera en que uno mismo se forma es la forma del universo entero. Cada cosa en el mundo es un "momento del tiempo" (ji-ji: tiempo-tiempo). Las cosas no se obstruyen entre sí, los momentos del tiempo nunca son un obstáculo el uno para el otro. Hay mentes hechas en el mismo momento del tiempo y hay momentos del tiempo en los que la misma mente se hace. Lo mismo sucede con la práctica y la realización. Es así como uno mismo formándose a sí mismo se ve a sí mismo. He ahí el entendimiento de que uno mismo no es más que tiempo.
Hay que entender que de esta manera hay innumerables formas y cientos de hierbas através de la Tierra entera; y que, sin embargo, cada forma y cada hierba es la Tierra entera. Esto hay que entenderlo, pero en la práctica, desde la práctica. Cuando se está en el ámbito concreto de eso (inmo), sólo hay hierba y forma, sólo hay entendimiento de la forma y "no entendimiento de la forma", entendimiento de la hierba y "no entendimiento de la hierba". Y puesto que no hay nada más que justo este momento (shoti imuro ji), ser-tiempo es el tiempo del universo entero. Ser-tiempo y ser-forma no son más que tiempo. La totalidad de la existencia, la totalidad del universo existen en cada momento del tiempo. Nada se aparta ni se queda fuera del universo en este preciso momento. Observad y meditad profundamente en eso.
Aún así, una persona que no entiende el Buddha-dharma y oye hablar de la expresión "ser-tiempo", piensa para sí de esta manera: A veces llego a ser un demonio furioso de tres cabezas y ocho brazos; y otras llego a ser los diez y seis pies u ocho pies del cuerpo dorado del Buddha. Es como habiendo cruzado los ríos y subido las montanas: aunque las montanas y los ríos existen todavía yo pienso que los he dejado atrás, y que ahora resido en el "preciado palacio" y en la "torre de bermellón". Y me digo que aquellos ríos y aquellas montanas están tan lejos de mí como el cielo de la tierra. Pero resulta que las cosas no son tan simples. En el tiempo en el que las montanas fueron escaladas y los ríos atravesados vosotros estábais presentes. El tiempo no está separado de vosotros. Y así como ahora existe, el tiempo jamás se aleja; así como el tiempo no está marcado por el ir y venir, el momento en el que ascendistéis a las montanas es el ahora mismo (nikon) de lo que el tiempo es. ?Acaso este ser-tiempo no se engulló el momento de ascender la montana y el momento en el que residistéis en el preciado palacio y la torre de bermellón? ?Acaso este ser-tiempo no devolvió, al modo de un vómito, este mismo ahora del ser-tiempo?
Tres cabezas y ocho codos son el tiempo de ayer. Diez y seis u ocho pies son el tiempo de hoy.
De todas maneras, la verdad de ayer y hoy se manifiesta, simplemente, en el momento en el que entrando a las montanas, yo veo en torno a mí los miles y miles de picos de las montanas.
Y es así como lo que pasa nunca pasa. Por tanto, seis cabezas y ocho codos son también mi ser-tiempo en un mismo momento. Aunque parezcan lejanos, ellos son el ahora mismo. Diez y seis u ocho pies son también mi ser-tiempo en un mismo movimiento. Aunque parezcan muy, muy lejanos, ellos son el ahora mismo. Del mismo modo, el pino es también tiempo, el bambú es también tiempo.
No debes pensar que el tiempo meramente vuela y se escapa. No debes pensar que el vuelo del tiempo es la única función del tiempo. Si el tiempo, sin más, volara entonces no habría más que intervalos entre "ayer" y "hoy", y tu estarías separado del tiempo. La razón por la cual no comprendéis el sendero del tiempo es porque consideráis que el tiempo no hace más que pasar.
En suma, los seres de todos los universos, aún siguiéndose los unos a los otros, en realidad no son más que momentos de un mismo tiempo. Y puesto que todos los momentos son ser-tiempo, tu eres ser-tiempo.
Ser-tiempo tiene el don de la regeneración: hoy regenera el manana, hoy regenera el ayer, hoy regenera hoy, manana regenera manana. Porque la regeneración es el don del tiempo, no puede haber acumulación de los tiempos antiguos y de los tiempos presentes. Seigen es tiempo también. Obaku también es tiempo, Kozein y Sekito también son tiempo.
Puesto que unos y otros son siempre tiempo, la práctica y el despertar son simultáneamente tiempo. Enlodarse y entrar en el agua son igualmente tiempo. A pesar de que las maneras de ver de la gente común, así como las causas de estas maneras, son lo que son, en el momento en que ven, esto no es el dharma de la gente común. Es sólo el dharma de la gente común lo que condiciona a la gente común [a ver de esa manera].
Como la gente común piensa que este mismo ser y este mismo tiempo están fuera del dharma, ellos creen que el cuerpo dorado del Buddha de diez y seis pies no son ellos mismos. Esta ceguera de cuando dicen que no son el cuerpo dorado de diez y seis pies del Buddha es, de hecho, también un fragmento de ser-tiempo. Los que todavía no habéis entendido esto, !abrid los ojos! !Abridlos! !Despertad!
El caballo y la oveja, en orden de sucesión en el mundo son ahora lo que son, en su condición de dharma que aparece y desaparece. La rata también es tiempo. El tigre también es tiempo. La vida también es tiempo. El Buddha también es tiempo.
Justo en este momento, tres cabezas y ocho codos despiertan el universo entero. El cuerpo dorado de diez y seis pies despiertan el universo entero.
Cuando el universo es el universo entero, entonces lo impecable se actualiza y se hace evidente. Cuando el cuerpo dorado de diez y seis pies es el cuerpo dorado de diez y seis pies, entonces la motivación~la práctica~la sabiduría~el nirvana se nos revela. Esto es el ser. Esto es el tiempo. El tiempo entero es el tiempo completo. A parte de esto, no se podrá encontrar otro dharma, otra manifestación, otro fenómeno.
Puesto que todo dharma de más está de más, aún el ser-tiempo de una semi-impecabilidad es semi-impecablemente ser-tiempo. Aún lo que aparece como mitad impecable es, de hecho, tiempo completo. Aún más: desde un punto de vista primordial, aunque la mitad se revele tarde o temprano, no se trata de otra cosa que del momento oportuno (juhoi) de ser-tiempo. Todo dharma se encuentra en su propia condición, repleto de vida, repleto de energía.
No os dejéis perturbar por la nada. No pretendéis hacer de esta nada un ser.
Si creéis que el tiempo no hace más que pasar, entonces todavía no entendéis que el tiempo nunca llega ni nunca se aparta. Y aunque entender es tiempo, que entendáis el tiempo o no, nada tiene que ver con el tiempo. No viendo del tiempo más que su ir y venir, la bestia no puede tener la experiencia del ser-tiempo de los dharmas en un momento justo (juhoi), y menos aún traspasar la barrera.
?Pero quién, luego de haber entendido lo propio y lo justo de cada momento [de los dharmas], podría hablar de eso (inmo) de cada momento? Y aún si alguien ha entendido, y después de mucho tiempo, pudiera hablar de eso, seguiría buscando como si buscara su rostro original en medio de la oscuridad.
Si os atenéis a lo que la gente común piensa del ser-tiempo, entonces el despertar~nirvana no sería más que el ir y venir de ser-tiempo. Absolutamente ninguna trampa, ni redes algunas, pueden impedir la aparición (senjo) de ser-tiempo.
Apareciendo ya sea a la derecha, apareciendo ya sea a la izquierda, los reinos celestes y los seres celestes son la combustión total (jinriki). Pero además, como si esto fuera poco, todo ser-tiempo vivo entre las aguas y sobre la tierra, aparece en virtud de mi combustión total en justo este momento.
Las especies y las criaturas diversas que son ser-tiempo en los reinos de yin y de yang aparecen todos gracias a mi combustión total, a la regeneración de esa misma combustión. Hablando de regeneración no creáis que se trata de cualquier cosa que, como el viento y la lluvia, pasa del este al oeste. El universo no está ni en movimiento ni en reposo, ni progresando ni en regreso. El universo es pura regeneración.
La regeneración es como la primavera. La primavera tiene muchas caras. A esto se le llama regeneración. Hay que entender que la regeneración se regenera sin ningún soporte externo. Por ejemplo, la regeneración de la primavera invariablemente regenera la primavera. Aunque la regeneración en cuanto tal no sea necesariamente la primavera, puesto que se trata aquí de la regeneración de la primavera, la regeneración de la primavera alcanza ahora el despertar justo en la primavera. Estudiad esto con todo detenimiento.
Hablando de regeneración, si pensáis que las condiciones de regeneración existen fuera de nosotros mismos, que el "yo" de la regeneración por sí mismo le da la cara al Este, atravesando los cientos de miles de mundos y los cientos de miles de kalpas, esto significa que no os dedicáis lo suficiente a la práctica del Buddha-Dharma.
Un día, siguiendo el consejo de Musai Daishi, Yakusan Kodo Daishi visitó a Kozei Daijaku Zenji y dijo:
"Los tres vehículos y las doce divisiones de la ensenanza yo las entiendo. Ahora bien, ?qué significa la expresión 'Bodhidharma viniendo del Oeste'?"
Daijaku Zenji respondió así:
"A veces yo le hago levantar las cejas y le hago hacer un guino.
Ser-tiempo.
A veces, yo no le hago levantar las cejas ni le hago hacer un guino.
Ser-tiempo.
A veces, hacer-le levantar las cejas y hacer-le hacer un guino está bien.
Ser-tiempo.
A veces, hacer-le levantar las cejas y hacer-le un guino está mal.
Ser-tiempo."
Escuchando esto, Yakusan cayó en cuenta y despertó. Y le dijo a Daijuku:
"Cuando estaba con Sekito, yo era como un mosquito montando un toro de hierro."
Daijaku se expresa de una manera poco común. Cejas y ojos son océanos y montanas porque las montanas y los océanos son ojos y cejas. La ensenanza de "hacer-le levantar las cejas" es ver las montanas. La ensenanza de "Hacer-le hacer un guino" es fundar un océano. Lo correcto le es familiar. El está cubierto por la ensenanza. Lo incorrecto no está sin ensenanza ni sin él. Sin ensenanza y sin él no es algo incorrecto. Todo esto es igualmente ser-tiempo.
La montana es también tiempo. El océano es también tiempo. Si no fueran tiempo no habría ni montanas ni océanos.
Entendimiento y palabras son, lo uno y lo otro, ser-tiempo. Hay y no hay son, lo uno y lo otro, ser-tiempo.
Aunque penséis que el tiempo de haber no ha llegado todavía, debéis saber que el tiempo de no haber está ya ahí. El entendimiento es el asno, las palabras son el caballo: haced del caballo las palabras y del asno el entendimiento. El haber no llega, el no haber no está por venir. Así es el ser-tiempo.
El haber obstruye el haber, pero no obstruye el no haber. El no haber obstruye el no haber, pero no obstruye el haber. El entendimiento no es más que entendimiento, así que no veáis más que entendimiento. Las palabras no son más que palabras, así que no veáis más que palabras. Obstaculizar no es más que obstaculizar, no veáis entonces más que obstaculizar. El obstaculizar obstruye el obstaculizar. Eso es ser-tiempo.
Aunque el obstaculizar sea utilizado por los otros fenómenos [dharmas], no hay un obstáculo que obstaculize a los otros fenómenos [dharmas].
Yo lo encuentro.
El se encuentra.
Yo me reencuentro.
El reencontrar encuentra el reencuentro.
Sin el tiempo, eso no podría ser de ninguna manera.
Es más, el entendimiento es el momento de actualizar el asunto fundamental. Las palabras son el momento de traspasar la barrera. Existe el tiempo de abandonar el cuerpo; no hay el tiempo de ser uno ni de separarse de uno.
Es así como debéis practicar y aceptaros. Es así como debéis ser-tiempo. Los antiguos maestros ya han dicho eso. ?Acaso hay algo más que entender?
Pues sí. Por lo que digo:
Hay casi-entendimiento, y casi-palabras. Eso es ser-tiempo.
No hay ni siquiera un casi-entendimiento ni unas casi-palabras. Eso es ser-tiempo. Vuestra práctica y vuestro cuestionamiento deben de hacerse de esa manera.
"Ensenar-le a levantar las cejas y a hacer un guino: casi ser-tiempo.
Ensenar-le a levantar las cejas y a hacer un guino: falso ser-tiempo.
No ensenar-le a levantar las cejas ni a hacer un guino: casi ser-tiempo.
No ensenar-le a levantar las cejas ni a hacer un guino: ser-tiempo dos veces falso."
Que eso sea yendo, que eso sea viniendo, que eso sea haber, que eso sea no haber: debéis entender que, de todas las maneras, el tiempo es ser-tiempo.

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Este traducción se ha hecho en consulta con la siguientes ediciones de las obras del maestro Dogen: Moon in a Dewdrop (Kazuaki Tanahashi: North Point Press, San Francisco 1985), Shobogenzo, Libro I (Gudo Nishijima & Chodo Cross: Windbell Publications, Tokyo 1994) y Shobogenzo Uji, edición limitada de 50 ejemplares en francés, inglés y acompanada de la escritura original en ideogramas sino-japoneses (Eido Shimano Roshi & Charles Vacher: Paris, Editorial "encre marine" 1997). Que sepamos ésta es la primera traducción al espanol de Uji, opúsculo 11 del total de 95 que completan la edición del Shobogenzo (Tesoro del verdadero ojo del dharma), según la ordenación cronológica hecha entre 1688 y 1703 por el maestro Hangyo Kozen. Esta versión se ha querido hacer sin notas al calce y sin comentarios, de tal manera que el lector o la lectora puedan concentrarse directamente en el texto. Sólo hay que tener en cuenta que para Dogen la escritura es parte de la práctica meditativa y que, por lo tanto, las palabras, el lenguaje o la escritura no son ni un estorbo ni tampoco meros instrumentos para la experiencia de la iluminación.

This essay is strongly reminiscent of the central teaching of the philosophy of the Kegon school: interdependent origination, and its corollaries dealing with the interpenetration of existence and emptiness, unity and multiplicity.

The word zenki consists of two elements: zen means "whole" or total or complete; ki has many meanings, those relevant to this case including "works" in the sense of machinery, potential, impetus, pivot or vital point, and the flux of nature. Ki therefore refers to phenomena in respect to their dynamic aspect, and to the dynamic or vital point itself which underlies, and is revealed by, the active coexistence of phenomena. In Kegon terms, ki includes both senses of phenomena and principle, phenomena being interdependent things, the principle being that of interdependence itself. Zen refers to the inclusiveness and pervasiveness of ki in both senses. We translate zenki as "the whole works" to convey by the colloquial sense of this expression the notion of inclusion of the totality of existence, and by the standard sense the notion of the total dynamic underlying the manifestations of existence.

In the Zen classic Blue Cliff Record, the sixty-first case says, "If a single atom is set up, the nation flourishes; if a single atom is not set up, the nation perishes." This essay of Dogen's may be said to center around a restatement of this theme: "In life the whole works is manifest; in death the whole works is manifest," or, to render the same passage another way, "Life is the manifestation of the whole works; death too is the manifestation of the whole works."

In terms of the existence-emptiness equation, from the point of view of existence (represented by the terms "set up" and "life") all that is exists, while from the point of view of emptiness ("not set up," "death") all is empty. The concurrence of existence and emptiness is not as separate entities, but as different aspects or perspectives on the same totality. To borrow Kegon terms again, life as the manifestation of the whole works illustrates ki as phenomena, while death as the manifestation of the whole works illustrates ki as noumenon.

The passage from the Blue Cliff Record alludes to the Kegon doctrine that phenomena do not exist individually but interdependently, that the manifold depends on the unit and the unit on the manifold. A refinement of this principle in Kegon philosophy is called the mystery of principal and satellites: this means that every element in a conditional nexus can be looked upon as the hub, or "principal," whereupon all the other elements become the cooperative conditions, or "satellites"-hence all elements are at once "principal" and "satellite" to all other elements. It is the mutuality, the complementarity, of the elements which makes them functionally what they are. Dogen presents this idea by likening life to riding in a boat-one is naught without the boat, yet it is one's riding in it that makes it in effect a "boat." Furthermore, "the boat is the world-even the sky, the water, and the shore are circumstances of the boat. . . . The whole earth and all of space are workings of the boat."

The distinction of existence and emptiness, the noncontradiction and mutual interpenetration of existence and emptiness, and thereby the transcendence of existence and emptiness-these are traditional steps of Mahayana Buddhist dialectic. In this essay they are presented by Dogen in his subtle, almost covert way, evidently to induce the reader to search out these insights by personal contemplation. The ultimate vision of totality, in which the whole and the individuals foster one another-the crown of Kegon Buddhist metaphysics-is one of the fundamental themes of Dogen's philosophical writings, to be met with time and again in various guises. In this essay it is conveyed in a most succinct manner, worthy of representing Zen Buddhist philosophy.

The Great Path of the Buddhas, in its consummation, is passage to freedom, is actualization. That passage to freedom, in one sense, is that life passes through life to freedom, and death too passes through death to freedom. Therefore, there is leaving life and death, there is entering life and death; both are the Great Path of consummation. There is abandoning life and death, there is crossing over life and death; both are the Great Path of consummation.

Actualization is life, life is actualization. When that actualization is taking place, it is without exception the complete actualization of life, it is the complete actualization of death. This pivotal working can cause life and cause death. At the precise moment of the actualization of this working, it is not necessarily great, not necessarily small, not all-pervasive, not limited, not extensive, not brief.

The present life is in this working, this working is in the present life. Life is not coming, not going, not present, not becoming. Nevertheless, life is the manifestation of the whole works, death is the manifestation of the whole works. Know that among the infinite things in oneself, there is life and there is death. One should calmly think: is this present life, along with the myriad things concomitant with life, together with life or not? There is nothing at all, not so much as one time or one phenomenon, that is not together with life. Even be it a single thing, a single mind, none is not together with life.

Life is like when one rides in a boat: though in this boat one works the sail, the rudder, and the pole, the boat carries one, and one is naught without the boat. Riding in the boat, one even causes the boat to be a boat. One should meditate on this precise point. At this very moment, the boat is the world-even the sky, the water, and the shore all have become circumstances of the boat, unlike circumstances which are not the boat. For this reason life is our causing to live; it is life's causing us to be ourselves. When riding in a boat, the mind and body, object and subject, are all workings of the boat; the whole earth and all of space are both workings of the boat. We that are life, life that is we, are the same way.

Zen Master Engo Kokugon said, "In life the whole works appears; in death the whole works appears." One should thoroughly investigate and understand this saying. What thorough investigation means is that the principle of in life the whole works appears has nothing to do with beginning and end; though it is the whole earth and all space, not only does it not block the appearance of the whole works in life, it doesn't block the appearance of the whole works in death either. When the whole works appears in death, though it is the whole earth and all space, not only does it not block the appearance of the whole works in death, it doesn't block the appearance of the whole works in life either. For this reason, life doesn't obstruct death, death doesn't obstruct life. The whole earth and all space are in life and in death too. However, it is not fulfilling the potential of one whole earth and one whole space in life and fulfilling their potential in death too. Though they are not one, they are not different; though they are not different, they are not identical; though they are not identical, they are not multiple. Therefore, in life there are myriad phenomena of the appearance of the whole works, and in death too there are myriad phenomena of the appearance of the whole works. There is also the manifestation of the whole works in what is neither life nor death.

In the manifestation of the whole works there is life and there is death. Therefore, the whole works of life and death must be like a man bending and straightening his arm. Herein there are so many spiritual powers and lights which are manifest. At the moment of manifestation, because it is completely activated by manifestation, one sees and understands that there is no manifestation before manifestation. However, prior to this manifestation is previous manifestation of the whole works. Although there is previous manifestation of the whole works, it is does not block the present manifestation of the whole works. For this reason, such a vision and understanding vigorously appears.

24. Gabyo
Painted Rice Cakes
by Eihei Dogen
translated by Yasuda Joshu roshi
and Anzan Hoshin sensei
© 1999-2000 White Wind Zen Community

When all the Awakened Ones are realized through Awake Awareness, all things are Awake Awareness. Yet, and thus, there are particular things and minds. Although from the point of view of Awareness itself there are no things or minds, they are each the expression of Awake Awareness. Thus there is nothing that can obstruct Awakening. This is the clear and direct teaching of all the Ancestors.

Still, don't just try to practice by thinking yourself into the idea that everything is Awake Awareness. There is a saying, "If you penetrate one thing, you penetrate all things." Penetrating something is not a matter of opposing or removing how something appears in its unique character. And don't try to cook up some state of non-opposition because this is just another form of grasping. When your experience occurs just as it is, then you can use each thing, as it appears, to reveal what it actually is. This is how to "penetrate one thing" and through this "penetrate all things."

An old Buddha3 said, "Painted rice cakes do not satisfy hunger." From all directions, monks dressed in clouds and mist, those who are opening to Openness and renunciate disciples4 come to study this saying and all understand it according to their various capacities and strengths, some with faces like demons, some with heavenly bliss. Some are fat and some are thin. Throughout the past and right now, the Ancestors have taught this but people reduce it to mumbling in their forest hermitages. So, some people say that it means that studying the Discourses and Commentaries has nothing to do with opening to primordial Knowing and that they are "painted cakes that do not satisfy hunger". Others say that the Narrow Path and Vast Path5 teachings are separate from the path of complete and utter Awakening, that they are "paintings of rice cakes and cannot satisfy hunger."

This is a serious mistake. To think that the teachings of the Discourses are something other than the Way is itself incomplete and those who think in this way cannot transmit the complete Path but are just making a career out of selling the words of the Ancestors. "Painted rice cakes do not satisfy hunger" says the same thing as "Wrong action does not arise," "There is only the arising of benefit," "What is it that comes Thus?" or "At all times, each being expresses its totality." You can really only understand these statements through practising them.

Only a few have heard that "painted rice cakes do not satisfy hunger" and none have really understood what it meant. I've asked several of these skin bags about it and everybody was quite certain about it without even bothering to look into it. They were like someone overhearing a conversation that they were not involved in. You should understand that this "painted rice cake" is the face that you were born with and the Original Face you had before your parents were even born. A rice cake, although made of rice, is neither born nor unborn, neither exists nor does not. As a rice cake, it is the moment displaying itself as impermanence; and yet what it is as such never moves. It cannot be understood if it is only understood as something that comes and goes.

In painting a rice cake you use the same materials as you would to paint a landscape. You can use blue pigment to paint mountains and rivers and powdered rice to paint a rice cake. The work of composition is the same. This being so, sesame cakes, vegetable cakes, milk cakes and so on are all this "painted rice cake." There is no difference between paintings, rice cakes, or any thing6 at all and you should understand that these rice cakes in front of you that you are about to eat are all "painted rice cakes." If you are looking for these "painted rice cakes" anywhere else you still don't know how to eat a rice cake. Sometimes they appear as rice cakes, sometimes not. However, they completely transcend any coming or going, old or new and it is in this7 that the realm of "painted rice cakes" reveals itself.

"Hunger" which is "not satisfied" means that, although we are not bound to the conditions of contingent existence, somehow we do not know that we are encountering "painted rice cakes" and so, even though we eat these "painted cakes" we are still "hungry." "Hunger" means that we have distanced ourselves from "painted cakes" but there is no need to try to satisfy this "hunger" because there is really nothing lacking. This "hunger" is what presents itself as all of the changing manifestations of confused experience. But "painted rice cakes" display themselves as this whole bodymind; blue, yellow, red, and white; long, short; round, and square.

When you paint a landscape you might use blue paint. The pigment of the blue comes from many ingredients such as ground minerals8 and the four treasures of brush, ink, inkstone, and paper. "Painted cakes" are also painted through the interaction of many elements. You paint a human being with the five aggregates and four elements. To paint an Awakened One you need not only gold pigments and minerals because to paint the auspicious signs of such a one you need a "blade of grass" and eons of dedication and practice. This is how one Awakened One is painted; all Awakened Ones are such paintings and all paintings of Awakened Ones are Awake. You must see these painted Awakened Ones and "painted cakes" with the whole body. Which is the black stone tortoise and which is this iron staff? Which is form and which is mind? Follow through and look into this closely. Practice like this and you will know how to paint birth and death, coming and going, and how to paint Primordial Awareness. All worlds and spaces are just such paintings.

An old Buddha wrote this verse on a painting of Shakyamuni Awakening in the midst of a landscape:

"In this Awakening, layers of snow over green hills.
On scroll after scroll, the world is revealed."

This verse speaks of Great Awakening and of how to exert the practice of the Way. In painting a single scroll of green mountains and white snow, Great Awakening is revealed. All movements and conditions are painted like this, and all our present activities are nothing other than such paintings. The ten energies and three powers of an Awakened One, her five strengths and all of practice are such paintings. If a painting is not real, nothing is real. If the numberless experiences which present themselves as the world are not real then the Way of Reality is not real. If the Way of Reality is real then a "painted rice cake" is real as well.

Once a monk asked Great Master Yunmen "What is it that transcends the Awakened Ones and Ancestors?" Yunmen said, "A sesame cake." You should just shut up and take a clear look into this. That something like a sesame cake should appear in this kind of discussion shows that this Ancestor was able to express something which goes beyond the Awakened Ones and Ancestors. People of iron who have not heard this yet, already understand it. This question and answer manifests not just one sesame cake; it must be worth at least two or three. This saying transcends the Awakened Ones and Ancestors and cuts right through the realms of clarity and confusion.

My late master Rujing said, "Tall bamboos and banana plants can both be painted on a single piece of paper." This expression is not about tall or short but points to both as paintings. A tall bamboo is tall. It grows through the interactions between stasis and expansion and the bamboo's seasons of growth also influence the movements of stasis and expansion. It is difficult to understand the permutations of stasis and expansion even with Awakened eyes because they cannot be measured apart from things and even things are just measurements of the interaction between stasis and growth at particular points within the process. It is not a matter of taking up a view from outside the Path, one according to the Narrow Path or the Vast Path. Stasis and expansiveness grow as tall as bamboo and all bamboo throughout all directions are all Awake Awareness as bamboo.

Do you understand the sky and ground18 as the root, trunk, branches and leaves of "tall bamboo?" All worlds and oceans grow and live through bamboo. The master's staff is bamboo as is the waking stick that cuts through time.

Earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, knowing, and knowledge are the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit of banana trees. The blowing of the autumn wind through its leaves cuts through "autumn wind" and brings it to life. Not a speck of dust marks this stainlessness. The eye is not a muscle or a bone that needs to be flexed to see and paint and glue do not stick to apparent forms in their liberation. Don't even bother to think of liberation as taking a short or a long time. Earth, air, water, fire, and wind can all be used through this energy. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter become the dynamic activity of your own life and mind, will, consciousness, and wisdom are all the "great death" which is liberation. All these tall bamboo and short banana plants are paintings and he who Awakens through the sound of bamboo20 is also a painting as are those who drag themselves around in practice like snakes and those who realize like dragons.

Still, there is definitely a difference between those who Wake Up and those who do not.

"That stalk is long like that,
this stalk is short like this.
This stalk is long like this,
that stalk is short like that."

But all are paintings and long and short scrolls are all in the picture. Just because one painting is long does not mean that another cannot be short. You should really get the point of this.

The entire universe with all of its events is only a painted picture. People and all beings arise there and Awakened Ones and Ancestors Wake Up and become what they are through it. So, if there is no "painted rice cake" there is no way to "satisfy hunger." Without this painting of "hunger" how can you meet the True Person? If there is no painting of "satisfaction" how can there be the energy of Awakening? Without "painted rice cakes" how could you ever "satisfy hunger," "satisfy non-hunger," "not satisfy hunger," and "not satisfy non-hunger?" You should practice this whole world as a "painted rice cake."

Practice the meaning of this through the bodymind and you will intimately understand23 the energy of that which moves and that which is moved. If this energy is not manifested, your practice of the Way is still unmanifested. Manifesting this energy is itself how to paint Awakening.

(Presented at Kannondori-in, Koshohorin-ji on November 5, 1242, and transcribed by Ejo in the guest quarters of Kosho-ji on November 7, 1242.)

Although written by a Japanese monk in the year 1240, the "Raihai Tokuzui" (Attaining the Marrow Through Reverence), is considered one of the most insightful and essential teachings on the subject of women's equality in Zen Buddhism. Excerpts from this essay by Zen Master Dogen are presented here (based on the translation from Hee-Jin Kim's "Flowers of Emptiness," Lewiston NY: E. Mellen Press, 1985; and Yuho Yokoi's translation of the 75-fascicle version of the "Shobogenzo," Tokyo: Sankibo Buddhist Book-store, 1986.)

Most difficult for the person engaged in training
for supreme, perfect enlightenment
is to find a guide.
It is irrelevant whether a guide
has male or female characteristics,
and the like;
what counts is that the guide be
a being of virtue, of thusness.

One need not be of the past or of the present;
even the spirit of a wild fox may be a qualified mentor.
Such is the way of the attainment of the marrow:
a mentor guides and assists
without obscuring cause and effect,
and may well be you, me or another...

"When you meet a mentor
who expounds supreme enlightenment,
you should notice neither its lineage nor its appearance;
neither should you detest its faults
or concern yourself with its conduct.
Because you treasure wisdom alone,
you should feed it daily
hundreds of thousands of taels in gold.
Pay homage to it
by offering heavenly meals
and sprinkling celestial flowers...

Ever since I first aroused my mind,
I have applied myself to training in this manner
and have now attained supreme, perfect enlightenment."

"Where did you come from?"
Chih-hsien replied: "From the open road."
Mo-shan asked: "Then why did you not cover it?"

The master later asked Mo-shan:
"What kind of mountain is Mo-shan [Mt. Mo]?"
Mo-shan replied: "Its summit is not visible."

The master asked:
"Who is the person in this mountain?"
Mo-shan replied: "It has nothing to do
with male or female features or the like."

The master asked: "Why do you not change yourself ?"
Mo-shan answered: "Since I am not the spirit of a wild fox,
how can I change?"

The master bowed in reverence.
Eventually he aroused his mind,
and worked as the monk in charge of the vegetable garden
for three years.

Later when he became abbot of a monastery,
Chih-hsien instructed the assembly saying:
"I attained a half ladle of dharma-water
at the venerable father Lin-shi's place
and another half at the venerable mother Mo-shan's.
The two together making a full ladle,
I drank it up and have been thoroughly full ever since."

Once Gyozan was looking for a suitable candidate
for the monastery's administrative chief.
He asked the senior experienced monks
to recommend a good person.
Many opinions were offered and finally Gyozan said,

"The nun Myoshin from the Wai river district is a woman,
but she has a superior spirit
and is the best qualified person for administrative chief."

All agreed and Myoshin was appointed to the position.
At that time
there were many excellent disciples under Gyozan
but no one was dissatisfied with the decision.

Although her position was not the most important one
she did her best and loved others as herself.

Once she was working in the administrative quarters
and seventeen monks from the Shoku district
came to see her master.

They wanted to climb the mountain right away
but it was too late
and they had to spend the night
at the administrative quarters.

At night they began to discuss the famous story
of the sixth buddha-ancestor and the wind and flag.*(see below)
All of the seventeen monks gave their respective opinions
but all were off the mark.

*[Story of the WIND & THE FLAG
also discussed in Dogen's IMMO fascicle:
"Before the thirty-third buddha-ancestor Ta-chien (Hui-neng)
became a full-fledged monk,
he was staying at the Fa-shih Temple of Kuang-chou,
when two monks crossed words with each other.
One of them said, 'A banner is fluttering.'
The other said, 'No, the wind is blowing.'
There seemed to be no end to their discussion.
Then Ta-chien (Hui-neng) said,
'Neither of them is moving.
Your minds are moving.'
On hearing this, they agreed with him."]

Myoshin overheard the discussion and said,
"It's a pity that the seventeen donkeys have worn out
so many pairs of straw sandals on pilgrimages
and still cannot even dream about the Buddhist dharma."

A little later Myoshin's attendant told them
what his master thought about their discussion,
but none of them were dissatisfied,
or resentful about it.
On the contrary, they were ashamed
at their lack of attainment of the Way.

They straightened up their robes,
offered incense,
made prostrations
and sought her instruction.

She said, "Please come closer."
But before they could come closer she shouted,
"The wind is not moving,
the flag is not moving,
the mind is not moving!"

When they heard that
all of them reflected on their own hearts,
then bowed to her in gratitude and became her disciples.
Soon after that they returned to Seishu
without even visiting Gyozan.

Truly Myoshin's level is not surpassed
by the three sages and ten saints
and her actions
are those of one who transmits the right stream
of the Buddhas and Buddha ancestors.

1. Shukke kudoku 2. Jukai 3. Kesa kudoku 4. Hotsu bodai shin 5. Kuyô shobutsu 6. Kie buppôsô bô 7. Jinshin inga 8. Sanji gô 9. Shiba 10. Shizen biku 11. Ippyakuhachi hômyô mon 12. Hachi dainin gaku

1. Shukke kudoku
2. Jukai
3. Kesa kudoku
4. Hotsu bodai shin
5. Kuyô shobutsu
6. Kie buppôsô bô
7. Jinshin inga
8. Sanji gô
9. Shiba
10. Shizen biku
11. Ippyakuhachi hômyô mon
12. Hachi dainin gaku