This essay, written by Dogen in 1231 soon after his return from China, is as accessible and readable today as it was eight centuries ago. It is a presentation of the basics of Dogen’s Zen. The original Japanese title is Bendōwa. Bendō is a two-character combination that literally means “exert-way”—the way of commitment, or committing yourself to the way. Wa means dialog (or story, or discussion); the essay is mostly structured as a question-and answer question.
Note that the word bendō also occurs upwards of a dozen times through the document. We need a translation which works well when Dogen uses it to refer to his particular path, and for this “way of commitment” seems to do the job.
Note also that in some texts the ben is written with an alternate character containing “katana/sword” as its middle radical, still pronounced ben. That character would mean to cut, or by extension to distinguish, so the meaning of the title becomes “talk on distinguishing the way.” However, that would not seem to match well the way bendōwa is used within the text. [Wa] uses this character and translates the title of the essay as “Negotiating the Way.”
The enlightened ones bring us a simple message about a precious truth:: the sublime, unique, natural technique for reaching ultimate awareness. Offered to each seeker in turn, its unadulterated essence is the self-fulfilling meditative state called samadhi.
The most immediate way to start enjoying this state is to sit, erect, in the form of meditation known as zazen. This practice is the only way to bring out the intrinsic truth overflowing in all of us, to validate that truth and thus make it our own. This is the uncountable truth that fills our hands when we release it, the unbounded truth that fills our mouths when we speak it. Here the masses insist on using every intellectual device, finding direction in none. Here the buddhas dwell in every direction, clinging to intellectual device in none.
Devoting yourself to this path I’m teaching will bring everything forth in enlightenment, leading to a place of absolute unity. But these will be mere fancy words of no concern to you when the time comes that you jump across and let go.
Hungry for the truth, I myself, after crisscrossing Japan visiting teachers, finally encountered Myozen, at Kenninji Temple, I began following him, and before I knew it nine springs and autumns had passed. It was during that period that I learned something of the “Rinzai” style of Zen. Lead disciple of Eisai, the founder, Myozen was unsurpassed as a teacher of the buddhadharma, head and shoulders above the other disciples.
Next I headed to the China of the Song Dynasty where I continued my search on both banks of the Zhejiang, learning the teachings of the five schools. At last, I attached myself to Zen master Nyojo of Mt. Tendo, and that was where I finally solved the riddle of existence. I came back to Japan at the beginning of the era they called Shaodìng, burdened with the responsibility of passing on to others what I had learned.
While waiting for the right time to begin preaching, however, I decided to spend my time wandering about like the wise men of old, floating like a cloud and drifting like a leaf. But then my thoughts turned to those who were unselfishly looking for the truth but, led astray by charlatans, might accidentally hide the right answers from themselves, become lost in empty self satisfaction, and sink into an extended state of confusion. How would they find the chance to foster the true seeds of prajna, real wisdom, and gain the way? With no fixed abode, they would have no way to know where to find me, which mountain my cloud was floating over or which river my leaf was drifting down. Distraught at this prospect, I resolved to gather and record the essential approaches used in the monasteries in China as I experienced them personally, as well as the profound essence of the truth that I received from the my teachers, so that those studying the way might know the true dharma of the buddhas. This would seem to be truly essential.
The historical Buddha, according to legend, gathered his disciples at a place called Vulture Peak in India, where he passed on his truth to Mahakashyapa. The truth was passed down faithfully from master to master, eventually to Bodhidharma, who took Buddhism to China, and there passed on the teachings to a great master known as Eka, That was the beginning of our religion’s spread throughout eastern Asia.
Six generations later, the simple message wended its way to renowned master Eno, This was when the true buddhadharma really began flourishing throughout China and it became clear that Buddhism was not about fancy words. Eno’s two outstanding disciples, Ejo and Gyoshi, both bore the Buddha’s imprint and taught widely. Their teachings spread and gave birth to five schools: Jogen, Igyo, Soto, Unmon, and Rinzai (although at present in China only the Rinzai school remains popular); five different schools, but still just one mark of the Buddha mind.
Of course as far back as the later Han period, there had also been plenty of holy writings available in China, but no clear idea which were worth studying and which not. It was Bodhidharma’s arrival in China that severed the creeping vines of confusion at their root, allowing a single, pure doctrine to spread. We can only pray that the same scenario unfolds here in Japan as well.
These patriarchs and buddhas who made the buddhadharma their own all held that there is just one true way to become enlightened: sitting upright in a deep meditative state. To the east and to the west, those attaining enlightenment have followed this approach, thanks to teachers who passed on the miraculous technique accurately to them in private.
The authentic tradition holds that this simple, straightforward message takes absolute precedence. From the time you meet a teacher and learn the teachings, neither bow, nor chant, nor read sutras, nor engage in rituals, nor burn incense; simply sit and leave behind distinctions of body and mind.
Sitting in samadhi, even briefly, the mark of the Buddha you imprint onto body, mouth, and mind extends throughout the earth, the skies filling with enlightenment. Thus the sages rejoice, and renew the splendor of the path to satori. Beings throughout earth, heaven, and hell are purified and cleansed, affirm their absolute liberation, and show their original visage. All things attest to and engage the Buddha’s true insight. Finally you transcend the realm of perception to become the king at the foot of the bodhi tree in seated meditation, instantly turning the incomparable wheel of being and unfolding the ultimate wisdom.
This enlightened world circles back to directly but imperceptibly sustain the people of zazen, that they might completely leave behind the body/mind distinction, disconnect from random, impure perceptions and thoughts, affirm and enter into the intrinsic truth of Buddhism, raise up the teachings at countless places of practice, share the chance for transcendence widely, and proclaim its law. As they do, soil and earth and grass and trees, fences and walls and tiles and pebbles throughout this world exude holiness. Blessed by the wind and water at the wellsprings of this outpouring, and graced by the incomparably subtle and inconceivable teaching, they soon arrive at enlightenment. Those taking up this water and fire endow themselves and everyone with whom they live and speak with endless virtue by spreading the teaching of original awakening, their efforts imbuing the entire universe, within and without, with inexhaustible, indestructible, inconceivable, and immeasurable truth.
But yet we don’t perceive these things while sitting—because in the stillness, stripped of artifice, we experience direct affirmation. If, as many believe, practice is one step and realization a second; this would imply that the two are perceived separately. Yet if perception is involved, it cannot be realization. A mental muddle cannot bring us to realization.
You will join your surroundings in stillness. As your mind and surroundings sit together in stillness, awakening flows in, affirmation flows out. As you approach the boundary of self-rapture, you embody boundless truth and the profound and subtle teaching. Not a particle is moved nor aspect of reality disturbed. Wherever nature is touched by this teaching, a great light emanates, forever illuminating the profundity and strangeness of its truth. Earthly objects hold forth on behalf of sages and fools, and in return the sages and fools raise their voices on behalf of the earthly objects.
Intrinsic to the world of realization of self and others is that we are fully endowed with an enlightened nature; we unfailingly carry ourselves according to enlightened law. So zazen—even that of a single person, sitting a single time—joins with all things in contemplation and calmly connects with all moments of time, thus embodying the eternal divine teaching throughout time and space. Each experience of zazen is identically practice, identically realization. Practice is not just sitting on your cushion. It is the echo of emptiness being struck, the strange, sonorous, silken subtones before and after the mallet meets the metal of the bell. And true practice, unjudged and unjudgeable, is intrinsic in your true face no matter who you are.
Not even the collective power and wisdom of gods as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore could begin to comprehend the virtue in the zazen of one man.
Q1. You’ve made the case for zazen being highly effective. But what if someone ignorantly inquired why you recommend it as the be-all and end-all, since there are many ways to approach the truth?
A1. I’d say it’s just the right way to approach it.
Q2. And why would seated meditation alone be the right approach?
A2. Because it is precisely what the historical Buddha passed down to us as the wondrous approach to finding truth. This is the way all enlightened ones did find, are now finding, and will in the future find the truth. That is why zazen was passed down as the right approach. What's more, the Indian and Chinese patriarchs all attained the way through zazen. That is why I am now teaching this as the right approach for all.
Q3. Let’s say that your wondrous meditation technique has in fact been passed down correctly and was practiced by the ancient fathers, even though that seems far-fetched. But reading the sutras and chanting can also get you enlightened, right? How can just sitting by yourself doing nothing get you any closer to truth?
A3. Calling this “sitting by yourself doing nothing” is a major insult to our entire religion. You could hardly be more confused if you were in the middle of the ocean claiming there was no water. If you practiced zazen you could already be sitting in the carefree self-rapture of the buddhas. Wouldn’t that be far better? It’s heartbreaking that that you remain so blind and hypnotized.
Thought cannot penetrate the realm of the buddhas. Consciousness cannot approach it. How unlikely then that it could be known by the skeptical or the naïve! Only those of pure and great faith can enter it. Those who doubt will have difficulty receiving the teaching no matter how much they are taught. Even on Vulture Peak there were some of whom the Buddha said, “It may be best for them to depart.” So when faith arises in your mind then practice and study. If it does not then do not, bewailing the fact that after all this time truth has still not bestowed its blessings on you.
Do you really imagine that you understand what doing things like reciting sutras or chanting the name of Buddha is supposed to achieve? The notion that merely wagging your tongue or raising your voice could bring Buddha’s blessings is incoherent. Time will show clearly how far these practices are from Buddhism. The sutras serve only to document Buddha’s teachings about the practice that we need to follow in order to accomplish our goal. Do not strain your intellect in the vain hope that you might thereby be able to attain wisdom. You have no more chance finding the truth by flapping your gums blindly reciting ten million chants than you would trying to get south by driving north. It’s like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Reading sutras without understanding how to practice is like reading a prescription but forgetting to take the medicine—it accomplishes nothing. Neither do sounds issuing incessantly from your mouth, like toads croaking day and night in the spring rice paddies. If, like many others past and present, you find it especially difficult to discard these practices, it may be because you’re fixated on the material world. It’s heartbreaking.
Let me be clear about one thing. The great truth of the Buddha and his predecessors must be passed along from teacher to student, the teacher having attained the way and clarified his mind, the student realizing his nature and affirming his being. That is how this truth is revealed and maintained. It is not something that can be grasped by our brothers who base their study on the written word. Given that, cast aside your doubts; follow the teachings of a true teacher; devote yourselves to the way of zazen; and prove to yourself the power of the self-fulfilling samadhi of the buddhas.
Q4. Religions such as Tendai and Kegon, the ultimate expressions of Mahayana Buddhism, already exist in Japan. Not to mention Shingon, which Birushana transmitted directly to Kongosatta and has since been passed down undisturbed. What a sublime expression of buddhadharma it is, teaching that “Mind is Buddha, Mind Creates Buddha,” and that you can realize the true essence of the Five Buddhas in a single sitting, with no need for lengthy practice. What is so good about your type of practice that you recommend it to the exclusion of all these other teachings?
A4. The key point when talking about religions is not whether one religion is better or worse than another, some belief deeper or shallower than some other one, but rather whether the practice is genuine or not. For you, it may be plants and flowers and mountains and rivers that bring you closer to the way of the Buddha. Someone else may find the mark of the Buddha in earth, stones, sand, or pebbles. But all these natural phenomena can be swamped by magnificent words; the wheel of dharma can turn within a speck of dust. Saying “Mind is Buddha” is simply the moon reflecting in the water, just as “Sitting Becomes Buddha” is a reflection in a mirror. Do not be caught up in eloquent words. I’m recommending the practice here where you experience enlightenment directly, showing you the simple message of the sublime truth of our Buddha ancestors that you may become a traveler in the truth.
And a religious teacher centered in the truth is absolutely indispensable for the truth to be taught and learned. Academics with their nose buried in the sutras cannot shepherd our sangha; that would be the blind leading the blind. One of the bulwarks of our religion is that all those following the teachings handed down by the patriarchs respect the master who has attained the way and is aligned with the truth. He holds out his hand to everyone that they might open and illuminate their mind’s state, whether unbelievers who come seeking refuge, or students of other faiths who come questioning the truth. This is unheard of in other sects. Students of the Buddha, however, should simply study the buddhadharma.
Intrinsically, we are all completely and perfectly sane. We are enveloped and imbued by this sanity. But we fail to acknowledge this, instead hatching a hodgepodge of beliefs which we embrace and then chase as if they were real, diverting us from the quest for the truth. These beliefs embroider the entire sky with their flowery efflorescence. Otherwise, people would not have dreamt up the twelve-fold chain of causation or the twenty five realms of existence or the doctrines of three vehicles and five vehicles or Buddha’s existence or non-existence. Do not confuse learning these doctrines with real practice of the truth.
When you now release everything and sit single-mindedly in meditation, leaving behind confusion, clarity, emotion, and intellect, and leaving aside paths sacred or profane, instantly you find yourself enveloped by and imbued with sanity, cavorting freely outside of the framework, fulfilled in awareness. Those entrapped in the snare of words have nothing to compare with this.
Q5. Zen is already included in the Three Learnings, namely Precepts, Meditation, and Wisdom, since the “jō (meditation)” part of the Japanese term “kai-jō-e” is short for “zenjō.” And it’s already included in the Six Paramitas, since one of them is dhyana paramita, the perfection of meditation, where dhyana is the Sanskrit precursor of the Chinese term chan and the Japanese zen. All Buddhas-to-be, gifted or otherwise, learn both of these as beginners and practice them. So your “zazen” would seem to be just one of these. On what basis are you claiming it brings together the true dharma of the enlightened ones?
A5. This question may arise from confusion caused by the fact that the term “Zen School” has come to be applied to the supreme truth of the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, the great question of the enlightened ones.
The term “zen” arose in China; it was never used in India. During the great master Bodhidharma‘s nine years of wall-gazing at Shaolin Temple on Mt. Song, neither monks nor laypeople understood the Buddha’s true teaching as yet, so they simply referred to him as “that Indian monk who makes a religion of zazen.” The following generations of patriarchs all focused exclusively on zazen, as evidenced by the fact that common folk, unaware of the reality, dubbed them the “Zazen Church.” In today’s world people have come to drop the “za” and now simply use “Zen” to refer to the sect or religion. But the pronouncements of our forebears make it clear where the roots of this word lie, Zazen must not be considered in the same sense as the “zen” concentration or meditation in the Three Learnings or the Six Paramitas.
The legitimacy of the passing down of this law of the Buddha has never been in question. The heavenly hosts bear incontrovertible witness to the ceremony on Vulture Peak where Shakyamuni conveyed to Mahakashyapa the treasury of the true dharma vision, the wondrous mind of nirvana, the great truth. Those same multitudes of angels will hold and protect the buddhadharma into eternity, with effort unflagging.
Let me be perfectly clear. This is the way of buddhadharma in its entirety. It brooks no comparison.
Q6. Why should we meditate in a sitting posture?
A6. Ancient teachers probably practiced in different postures, I don’t know. If you need a reason for seated meditation, think of the reason as being that that is what is used in the Buddhist tradition. And that is reason enough. But another reason for you is that one patriarch described zazen approvingly as “approaching the truth in joyful repose,” and you can deduce for yourself that sitting is the posture that best fits that bill. I would also emphasize that this is the path of all buddhas that have preceded us, not just one or two.
Q7. This seated meditation may be something that people can devote themselves to in order to get an internal affirmation of the truth if they have not already achieved on. But what does it offer to those who have already attained understanding?
A7. At the risk of casting pearls before swine, I would advise you that thinking of meditation and realization as two separate things is just wrong. We teach that meditation and realization are identical. Because realization is practice, a beginner’s way of devotion is the entirety of intrinsic enlightenment. Why do we recommend not having any expectation of enlightenment in your approach to practice? Because meditation is already the intrinsic realization that points directly to your true self. Realization is practice, so it has no end; practice is realization, so it has no beginning. Shakyamuni and Mahakashyapa were both filled and enriched with practice within realization, and practice within realization also drove Bodhidharma and Eno. After embracing Buddha’s truth, it is like this for everyone.
Practice has never been separate from realization. With each slice of that unique practice which you gratefully learned one-on-one, of your beginner’s mind devoting itself to the way, comes a slice of intrinsic realization in its natural habitat. The patriarchs admonished us to maintain a robust practice in order to avoid defiling the realization from which it is inseparable. As your hands release ineffable practice, intrinsic realization will fill them; as intrinsic realization passes from your body, ineffable practice will course through it.
I saw for myself that temples everywhere in China have meditation halls accommodating five hundred, six hundred, a thousand or two thousand monks, encouraged to meditate day and night. When I asked the head monks about the true meaning of the buddhadharma, those pious men informed me that it lay in how meditation and realization are one.
That is why I call on not just those studying here, but all worthy seekers of truth, all who long for the reality within the buddhadharma, be they new or old, saint or sinner, to follow the path of the masters and devote themselves to the way of meditation as the sages before us have taught.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the old master who said “Practice and realization are never absent, so there’s no point in denigrating them.”
Or as another said, “Those who see the way practice it.” The implication is clear: you must practice within attainment of the way.
Q8. Past teachers of Buddhist doctrines in Japan all visited China during the dynasty and heard the true message there. Why did they bring back only the doctrinal teachings and not the framework you are speaking of?
A8. These ancient teachers of men did not bring back the dharma because the time had not yet arrived for them to do so.
Q9. Do you think those teachers of old grasped the dharma?
A9. If they had understood it, it would have spread.
Q10. It has been said:
“Bemoan not mortality; the path to escape it is at hand, and it is to realize the eternal nature of spirit. The body shall die just as surely as it is born, but not so the spirit. Realize that the immortal spirit exists within, and that therein lies thy essential nature, the body a mere temporary abode, ephemeral, dying here, reborn there. Mind endures unchanging, throughout past, present, and future. To understand this is to be liberated from mortality. Those who do so put an end to the living and dying of the past and, when they cast off their mortal form, enter the ocean of nature. As they do so verily they are endowed with the same sacred virtue as the angels. Those who have not yet learned this principle are damned to repeat their experience of mortality forever.”
This can only mean that what’s really important is to realize that we all have an immortal soul. What on earth is to be gained by wasting your time sitting on a cushion? Is this line of thinking in accord with the way of the buddhas and the patriarchs?
A10. Not in the least. It’s the heresy of Senika. The heresy claims that lurking in your body is a sort of ghostly intelligence, which can tell good from bad, right from wrong. The ability to feel pain and pleasure, suffering and delight is due to this ghostly intelligence. And what’s more, this ghost-like nature can slip out of a dying body and be reborn somewhere else. Just when you think it’s dying, it manages to get itself reborn somewhere else and thus hangs on through all eternity.
That’s what the heresy says.
Believing such nonsense and calling it buddhadharma is more foolish than grasping tiles and pebbles and imagining that they are golden jewels. It’s so stupid I’m at a loss for another analogy. Echu, the master who taught a Tang Dynasty emperor, strongly criticized this fallacy. How laughable—raising to the level of the Buddha’s subtle truth the belief that the soul endures and the body perishes. You are promoting the basic cause of the very mortality that you are trying to escape. It’s pitiful. Know that this is pure heresy, and pay it no heed.
Let me add that to see past this heresy you need to know that we teach that in the buddhadharma body and mind are intrinsically unified, nature and aspect are indivisible—an unshakable principle known throughout China and India. If a religion teaches things are permanent then everything is permanent, making it impossible to separate body and mind. If a religion teaches things are evanescent then everything is evanescent, making it impossible to separate nature and aspect. In either case, it cannot possibly be true that the body perishes while the spirit lives on. Let it also sink in that mortality is nirvana. Nirvana has never been discussed outside the context of mortality. Think about it: that mind of yours which is trying to arrive at a supposed Buddhistic wisdom but shuns mortality, hoping instead that the enduring soul is separate from the body, is itself an understanding and perceiving mind which is itself subject to mortality, thus violating the premise of eternality. Who can deny this?
Look closely, and you’ll see that true religions have always taught that body and soul are unified. So why on earth should the soul take off and detach itself from the body and survive when the body dies? That would imply that body and soul are unified sometimes but not other times, turning all these religions into big lies. Those who think the idea is to eliminate mortality are guilty of hating Buddhism. We must tread carefully here.
You should know the Buddhist school of thought called Universal Aspect of the Nature of Mind, which states that, throughout the entire dharma realm in all its vastness, it is impossible to separate nature and aspect or distinguish life and death. Nothing, not even awareness and nirvana, is outside the nature of mind. Each and every thing and phenomenon shares this mind, nothing excluded, nothing unrelated. There are many such schools of thought in Buddhism, but all of them hold that mind is uniformly singular. Buddhist teachings are known for their insistence on saying that distinctions of mind do not exist.
To nevertheless try to distinguish body and mind, or separate life from nirvana, is impossible. We are born children of the Buddha, and must not lend our ears to the jumbled mumblings of the non-Buddhist philosophers.
Q11. If I pursue this meditation practice do I also have to obey the precepts?
A11. Following the precepts and leading a good life is indeed basic to our religious traditions, but even those who have not yet learned the precepts, or who have broken them, may still benefit from meditation.
Q12. Is there any reason I can’t combine this meditation practice with my current faith?
A12. Every single one of the masters that I met during my trip to China and asked about the essentials told me that of all the patriarchs, past and present, East and West, who bore the true mark of the buddha, they had never heard of one who combined practices as you propose. Attaining a singular wisdom requires taking a singular approach.
Q13. Do I have to enter a monastic live to follow your practice? Can normal people do it too?
A13. The patriarchs teach that there are no distinctions of gender or status as to who can grasp the buddhadharma.
Q14. But monks can leave behind all the cares of daily life and devote themselves completely to the zazen path of devotion. How can those pursuing the affairs of the material world dedicate themselves to practice and fulfill the natural Buddha way?
A14. The patriarchs have in their great benevolence opened to us the vast gate of compassion, that each and every living being might achieve realization. Absolutely anyone may enter. This has been amply proven both in the past and the present. For example, emperors and statesmen, however preoccupied, have nevertheless devoted themselves to the way of zazen and penetrated the great path of the patriarchs. So it simply depends on your commitment, not on whether or not you have left the world behind to become a monk. Anyone possessed of a keen ability to discern excellence will be drawn to believe. Imagining that your daily activities could interfere with the buddhadharma, you’re really saying you think that the Buddha’s law doesn’t exist within the world, but that’s backwards. It’s the world’s law that doesn’t exist within the Buddha.
Recently in China there was a Minister of State named Hyo, a high-ranking official experienced in the way of the patriarchs. He wrote the following poem to express himself:
When duties permit, I delight in zazen,
Rarely lying down even to sleep.
Although a minister,
My fame as a long-time practitioner crosses the four seas.
This man was constantly occupied with his official duties, but nevertheless able to attain the way thanks to his deep commitment. Apply such lessons from others to yourself. Apply such lessons from the past to the present.
Recently in Song Dynasty China, the Emperor, his ministers, aristocrats and commoners, men and women are all focused on the way of the ancestors. Warriors and scholars alike are committed to joining in and studying the way. Many of those so committed will undoubtedly illuminate the ground of their mind. From this you can see yourself that daily affairs do not interfere with the buddhadharma.
When true buddhadharma spreads throughout a nation, the buddhas and angels vigilantly protect it, and the reign of the emperor proceeds in peace. With this peace of the holy, the buddhadharma then gains in strength.
And when Shakyamuni was alive, criminals and heretics found the way. In the congregations of the ancient fathers, satori opened to hunters and woodcutters. So there is no reason this is impossible for anyone. All that is necessary is to seek the guidance of a true teacher.
Q15. Frankly, our society today is in its final days. I doubt that your meditation practice can really help us reach perfection when things are in such a mess.
A15. It is the doctrinaires, who specialize in naming and classifying things, who have invented concepts such as “final days.” Actual Mahayana teachings divide time into no such phases. They simply say that anyone who practices will find the way. In fact, whether you are at the beginning or the end of your journey, the simple message of the truth is just to gather the same rare family treasures and fill yourself with them. The person practicing knows himself whether or not he is enlightened—in the same way that a person drinking water can himself tell whether it is tepid or cool.
Q16. It has been said:
“In Buddhism, nothing is required except to fully grasp the principle of ‘Mind is Buddha’; no sutras need pass your lips, no trappings of Buddhism adorn your body. Knowing that buddhadharma is intrinsically within you—this completes the circle of attaining the way. Nothing remains to be sought from others.”
Why, then, must we go to all the trouble of following the zazen path of devotion?
A16. This statement lacks all rhyme and reason. If what you said were even remotely true, then anyone with mental function could obtain knowledge simply by being taught this idea.
You need to let go of other people’s beliefs and your own in order to study Buddhism. If you could attain the way just by understanding “Mind is Buddha” then the great religious leaders would not have bothered to give us their teachings.
Let me illustrate this with an excellent example from an old master.
Long ago, there was a director monk named Gensoku in the congregation of Zen Master Hogen. who asked him, “Gensoku, when was it again that you came to this temple?”
Gensoku replied, “Three years have passed since I arrived.”
The Zen Master said, “You’re fairly new here then. Why haven’t you ever asked me about Buddhism?”
Gensoku replied, “I cannot lie to you, Master. Actually while I was studying with Zen Master Seiho, I already reached the state of joyful repose in Buddhism.”
The Zen Master asked, “And through what words was it that you were able to obtain that entrance?”
Gensoku answered, “I asked Seiho, ‘What is the nature of the self of this student?’ And he replied, ‘Filii Vulcani veniunt ignem petentes. (The children of Vulcan come seeking fire.)’”
Hogen responded, “Fine-sounding words. But perhaps you didn’t really understand them.”
Gensoku said, “But Vulcan is the Roman god of fire. I understood that searching for fire with fire was similar to searching for the self with the self.”
The Zen Master replied, “Now I see that you in fact don’t get it. If that was all there was to Buddhism then there is no way it would have been passed all the way down to us today.”
Devastated, Gensoku stomped out of the meeting. But halfway back to his quarters he thought, “The Zen Master is famed as a top teachers, and the spiritual leader of 500 souls. There must be something to his criticism.” He returned to the Zen Master, apologizing for his rudeness, and asked him, “What is the nature of the self of this student?”
The Zen Master replied, “Filii Vulcani veniunt ignem petentes.”
Upon hearing this, Gensoku had an immense satori experience.
It’s clear, then, that you cannot claim to have understood buddhadharma by virtue of superficially comprehending a formula like “Self is Buddha.” If it were, our Zen Master above would have given neither the guidance nor the admonition that he did. From the first time you meet your teacher, just learn the rules of practice and single-mindedly follow the zazen path of devotion, avoiding letting fragments of knowledge and half-baked concepts stick in your mind. Then Buddhism’s wonderful technique will not be in vain.
Q17. We hear stories from ancient India or China where people realized the way on hearing the sound of bamboo being struck, or cleared the mind on seeing the colors of a flower, and Shakyamuni affirmed the way upon seeing the morning star, while the venerable Ananda attained clarity in truth when told to take down the banner pole; during the period of the five Zen schools following the sixth patriarch Eno, for many a single word or half a phrase was enough to illuminate the foundation of the mind, yet not all of these people had been practicing the zazen way of devotion, had they?
A17. You must realize that now or in the past, all those who seeing colors found mental clarity, or hearing sounds realized the truth, were exactly those who did not doubt, debate, or deconstruct the way of devotion and were at one with themselves in the moment.
Q18. People from India and China are sincere by nature. Living in the center of civilization as they do, they are more receptive to Buddhism when it is taught. In Japan, people have always lacked virtue and wisdom, making it difficult for the seeds of truth to grow. It is deplorable that we are such barbarians. Our monks don’t measure up even to the laypeople in India and China. Our world is obtuse and small-minded. We spend all our time trying to make ourselves look good and adore superficiality. I doubt if even zazen can help people like this grasp the buddhadharma.
A18. You’re right. The people in our country are twisted, and still lack virtue and wisdom. Teach them the honest truth and they manage to turn its heavenly nectar into poison. They are quick to go running after fame and fortune, and slow to dissolve their confusion and attachments. However, worldly knowledge is not the vessel in which we make the voyage to entering and affirming the Buddha’s truth. When the Buddha was alive, someone attained the fourth stage by being struck by a ball; while someone else illuminated the great way when she put on a monk’s robe as a joke, even though both were hardly better than animals. True belief was what helped them leave confusion behind. There was the lay woman who experienced satori when she offered a meal to a senile old priest that just sat there saying nothing; this was not based on knowledge, not based on learning, not relying on words, not relying on stories, just sustained by true faith.
Shakyamuni’s teachings have now been spreading throughout the world for around two thousand years. The many lands they have reached include some where virtue and wisdom do not prevail and some where the people are not necessarily sages. But the miraculous great power of good intrinsic to the true law of the enlightened ones will allow it to spread in each land when the right time arrives. People of true faith and diligent practice will find the way, regardless of their level of intelligence. Do not think that our people should not encounter Buddhism because they are stupid or our country is short on virtue and wisdom. The seeds of true wisdom are abundant in all of us. It’s just that we rarely acknowledge that they are and have not yet taken them up and made them our own.
Perhaps this question-and-answer approach, with me asking the questions and then turning around and answering them, has proven somewhat confusing. Have I been creating flowers in the flowerless sky? But it is sad for those possessing the will to know the real meaning of the path of devotion that it has still not been brought into our country. That is why I decided to answer the wishes of aspiring practitioners by gathering the things I saw and heard in a foreign land, and recording the truths of the clear-eyed masters. Other rules of practice and regulations need to be written down as well, but that deserves more time than I have now.
Although our country lies east of the Dragon Ocean, far beyond the clouds and mist, its people were indeed blessed by Buddhism being brought from West to East around the time of the Emperors Kimmei and Yomei. But the corruptive focus on names, appearances, and rituals has relegated practice to a position of unimportance. Choose instead, now, to don a torn robe and eat from a patched bowl for the rest of your life, build a straw hut by the mossy crags and white cliffs, and practice sitting upright, whereupon going beyond Buddha will be immediately revealed and the great task of your life of study instantly accomplished. This is exactly the teaching of the dragon’s tusk and the legacy of the chicken’s foot. The rules of zazen which you should follow can be found in Fukanzazengi, which I compiled several years ago.
Normally we would await the emperor’s edict to spread Buddhism throughout our country, but it is the edict that the Buddha left on Vulture’s Peak that should be graciously received by emperors, ministers, nobles, and generals of one hundred billion lands, who have not forgotten how in their past lives they protected and maintained Buddhism. Everywhere the teachings spread becomes Buddha-land. So spreading the word of Buddhism does not necessarily require choosing the right place or waiting for the right circumstances. Why don’t we just start today?
Thus I gather these thoughts and leave them for distinguished seekers after truth as well as those who wander, like drifting clouds or floating weeds, in search of the Way.
From First Dogen Book: Selected Essays from Dogen Zenji’s Shobogenzo,
translated by Bob Myers. This is the translation only; the annotated edition is
available as a book.
© Bob Myers