The quote at the beginning, “If you can remain the same with food, all dharmas also remain the same; if all dharmas are the same, then also with food you will remain the same,” comes from the Vimalakīrti Sutra.50 Dōgen Zenji comments on this passage, “Just let dharma be the same as food, and let food be the same as dharma.” This sutra says that as practitioners of Mahāyāna Buddhism we should maintain the same attitude toward everything we encounter. We should not discriminate between things as valuable or worthless on the basis of conventions. We should not discriminate between good times and hard times, delusion and enlightenment, samsara and nirvana, or deluded human beings and buddhas. This is the basis of the Mahāyāna teaching of śūnyatā. We must go beyond discrimination and keep the same attitude toward all things because everything we encounter is the Buddha’s life. The Vimalakīrti Sutra says that as a practitioner of Mahāyāna Buddhism, we should have the same attitude toward all food and not discriminate between something expensive or delicious and something cheap or not so tasty on the basis of preferences or worldly values.
Subhūti, one of the ten greatest disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha, was doing takuhatsu, begging for food. Vimalakīrti offered him some delicious food, saying he could eat it if he didn’t discriminate between delicacies and the food of the poor. In his comment Dōgen Zenji twisted the meaning slightly. He said: “Just let dharma be the same as food, and let food be the same as dharma.” Dōgen Zenji says that dharma and food are the same. He doesn’t discriminate between good and bad food. He simply says that dharma and food are the same.
We have to be careful here about the meaning of the word dharma. It can be used to mean the Buddha’s teaching. A second meaning is the truth about which the Buddha taught, the reality of our life. A third meaning of dharma is all beings or things. The phrase often used to express this, “myriad dharmas,” means all beings, everything. In this usage, Dōgen is saying that food, as one of the “myriad dharmas,” reveals the reality of all beings, and therefore the food itself is the teaching (Dharma) of the Buddha. The Buddha awakened to and taught this reality, so his teaching is called Dharma. His teaching became a kind of law, principle, or basic standard of morality. In “The Dharma for Taking Meals,” “dharma” means an etiquette or standard of behavior that we should follow when we eat meals. In his commentary Dōgen is playing with words. He uses “dharma” not to designate a kind of ritual but as reality itself as well as the teachings about that reality. He says that our practice and the food we eat is dharma, reality, or truth itself. We should receive our food as we receive the Buddha’s teaching and reality itself.
He continues, “For this reason, if dharmas are the dharma-nature, then food also is the dharma-nature.” Dharma-nature is almost synonymous with buddha-nature. For human beings the term “buddhanature” is used. For other beings or inanimate objects, all of reality, the phrase “dharma-nature” is used. Our food is dharma-nature. Dharma-nature and food are really one, so “if the dharma is suchness [reality or truth], food also is suchness.” Suchness means the way all beings, all dharmas, are. So food is nothing but suchness itself. In the same way, “If the dharma is the single mind,” another name for Buddha mind, “food also is the single mind,” the One Mind, or Buddha mind. So we should receive food with the same attitude we receive the Buddha and his teachings. Dōgen says, “If the dharma is bodhi, food also is bodhi.” Bodhi means enlightenment or awakening to the reality of all beings. So dharma is awakening. We usually think of awakening as something subjective that happens inside a person, and dharma as the object of awakening. In the teachings of Mahāyāna Buddhism, there is no separation between subject and object, between the person who sees reality and the reality that is seen. When we separate the two, wisdom becomes delusion. Awakening, beings, and reality are one. The dharma is bodhi, awakening itself. Awakening is not some special psychological state or stage of development. When we are one with all beings we are awake. When we are mindful, right now, right here, our body and mind completely present in this moment and engaged with what we are doing, we are awake and enlightened. The dharma is bodhi, and food is also bodhi. Food and dharma are both dharma-nature, buddha-nature, and suchness.
Dōgen continues, “They [dharma and food] are named the same and their significance is the same, so it is said that they are the same. A sutra says, ‘Named the same and significance the same, each and every one is the same, consistent with nothing extra.’” This means that when we receive this body and mind and the things we encounter in our daily lives as self, we are connected with all beings in the whole universe. This whole universe is one reality. We should receive the rituals of meals and universe with the same attitude. Dōgen quotes Mazu (Baso), “If the dharma realm is established, everything is entirely dharma realm.” “Dharma realm” is a translation of dharmadhātu, this dharma universe. This whole universe is dharma universe; there is nothing extra. Everything is entirely the dharma world; nothing is outside it. He continues, “If suchness is established, everything is entirely suchness.” If we see this whole reality as suchness, everything is entirely suchness. There is nothing that is not suchness. Within delusion there is suchness as delusion. The fact that we are deluded is reality. When we see delusion as delusion, delusion is part of reality and there is nothing to be eliminated, nothing to be negated. We should accept everything as the Buddha’s life. Mazu continues, “If the principle is established, everything is entirely the principle,” and “If phenomena are established, all dharmas are entirely phenomena.” These two concepts, principle and phenomena, or ri and ji, are important in the “Merging of Difference and Unity,” the title of a text by Shitou discussed below. Ri means reality as a whole regardless of differences among individuals. A hand has five fingers. If we see it as one hand it is actually one thing. We cannot separate it into parts. But we can also see it as five fingers, each with a different shape, function, and name. So ri refers to the entire totality of a being, and so does ji. There is nothing that is half-and-half. Ri means all of this one hand, and so does ji, the five fingers. When we see this as one hand, there are no separate fingers. When we see it as five fingers, there is no single hand. This is the way we see reality. We call principles “absolute” and phenomena “relative.” The absolute and relative ways of seeing things are reality at work.
Dōgen Zenji continues, “Therefore, this ‘same’ is not the sameness of parity or equality, but the sameness of awakening to the true sameness.” “Awakening to the true sameness” is a translation of the phrase anuttarā-samyaksambodhi. A common Chinese translation of this phrase is shōtōgaku. Shō means “true,” “correct,” or “absolute”; tō means “sameness” or “equality”; and gaku is “awakening.” This “sameness” is a difficult concept. We cannot use the word “equality” here because Dōgen Zenji said, “Therefore this ‘same’ is not the sameness of parity or equality.” This is not a matter of comparing two things and finding them to be the same or equal, as in one hand and five fingers. This is one thing with two names. Food and dharma really are the same thing. This sameness, Dōgen says, is sameness within anuttarā-samyaksambodhi. Samyak means “sameness,” “equality,” or “identity.” This sameness is not a matter of comparison: good versus bad food, or like versus dislike. This sameness means that we should encounter each thing as an absolute reality, as a whole, as the Buddha. When I drink water, water is the Buddha. This means that this water is connected with all beings. Someone brings a glass of water for me. The water came from a river or lake, and before that from the sky. The water in the sky came from the ocean. Everything really is connected. This interpenetrating, connected reality is the Buddha, and we are part of it. There is no separation between myself and the water. The water becomes part of me when I drink it. This glass, this body and mind, and the water are all Buddha. When we see them as Buddha we are part of the whole universe. When we see them as separate entities, each of them and each of us is a small, individual thing or ego.
Dōgen Zenji goes on t
o say, “Awakening to the true sameness is the ultimate identity [of all the suchnesses] from beginning to end.” Awakening to the true sameness means accepting all beings as our own life, as the Buddha’s life. A quote from the Lotus Sutra helps explain the meaning of the following: “The suchness of the ultimate identity from beginning to end is the genuine form of all dharmas [the reality of all beings], which only a buddha together with a buddha can exhaustively penetrate.” In the second chapter of the Lotus Sutra the Buddha said, “Concerning the prime, rare, hard-to-understand dharmas, which the Buddha has perfected, only a Buddha and a Buddha can exhaust their reality, namely, the suchness of the dharmas.”51 “The suchness of the dharmas” in the Lotus Sutra and “the genuine form of all dharmas” in “Fushukuhanpō” are the same word. The reality of all beings can be understood or seen only by buddhas.
The sutra continues by listing the ten suchnesses: “The suchness of their marks (form), the suchness of their nature, the suchness of their substance (body), the suchness of their powers (energy), the suchness of their functions, the suchness of their causes, the suchness of their conditions, the suchness of their effects, the suchness of their retributions, and the absolute identity of their beginning and end.”52 “Ultimate identity from beginning to end” is another translation for the ending of this quote. In Japanese the phrase is nyoze honmatsu kukyō tō. Hon (beginning) and matsu (end) refer to the nine points of reality: form, nature, body, energy, function, cause, condition (secondary cause), effect, and retribution. Each being has its own unique form, nature, body, energy, and function. For example, this glass has a form, round and transparent. This being has a nature as a glass and as a body that is different from other glasses. The Japanese word translated here as “body” is sometimes translated as “substance” or “embodiment,” but “body” is better. Each being has its own power and energy. Even this glass has chemical, potential, kinetic, and nuclear energy. Essentially there is no difference between energy and being. “Being” is nothing other than various forms of energy in certain conditions. The function of this glass is to contain liquid. Each being has a different combination of these five characteristics: a different form, nature, body, energy, and function. Each being has a cause and a secondary cause as its conditions. “Secondary cause” refers to the way this glass was made. Someone works with materials to form glass into this shape. That person is a secondary cause. In addition to the person who makes the glass there is electricity, water, and raw materials. The person who makes the glass eats food, which is also a secondary cause of this glass. Everything is connected with everything else. Each being has causes, secondary causes, and effects. This being has effects because of its function. Because this glass functions to contain water, I can drink the water. That is an effect of this being we call a glass. The last of the nine points is “retribution.” This could also be translated as “secondary effect.” Because this glass can contain the water, it allows me to drink the water, and the water can become part of my body, which enables me to continue to talk. That’s a secondary effect. The first five suchnesses describe the unique characteristics of each being, each dharma; and the next four are the interconnections between beings throughout time and space. A secondary cause is the relationship between this being and its function and other beings within space at the present moment. Secondary effect is the connection with other beings in the future within time.
Each thing also has its own unique characteristics. In this sense, it is independent. This glass is different from all other glasses. All beings, including this body and mind, have unique characteristics, and yet we are interconnected. We live together with each other. All beings have two aspects: independence and connectedness. This is the same concept as seeing one hand or five fingers. The tenth suchness, “absolute identity of their beginning and end,” means that the other nine—from the first, form, up to the ninth, retribution—are one. Within this one being, all are included. The universal interconnection within Indra’s net is manifested in this one being, in each and every being. It’s really hard to comprehend this reality of our life, the way we live with both individuality (independence) and connection (interdependence) at the same time. I have to take responsibility for whatever I do because I am I, not you or another person. And yet my personal action influences the entire world.
Without this being, there are no other beings. This is called wondrous dharma or true dharma. We cannot grasp it with our concepts, and yet, as a reality, it’s right in front of us. It means: This is one, this is Shohaku Okumura; and yet, at the same time: This is not Shohaku Okumura, this is not an individual. When we use the principles of logic we avoid contradiction, and so we cannot see reality as a whole. We see only one side of reality, either the individuality of all beings or their identity. When we think about ourselves and the reality of our lives, we cannot see both aspects at once. Sometimes we see five fingers: I am not you, and you are not me. But at the same time, this is one hand and there is no separation. If we think logically, it’s contradictory. If we can set our logic aside, we can see reality as it is, five fingers and one hand at the same time. That’s the reality of the network of interdependent origination. And so, getting back to Dōgen’s text, we should accept food as a part of this reality. There is no separation between the person eating and the food eaten. Both are part of this wondrous dharma.
Dōgen Zenji continues, “Therefore, food is the dharma of all dharmas, which only a buddha together with a buddha can exhaustively penetrate.” The phrase “only a buddha together with a buddha” means that no human being can penetrate this dharma. By human beings Dōgen means individuals. When we see this total reality, we are Buddha. The words “I see” are not really adequate because they imply a separation between the person who sees and the reality which is seen. Because we are born, live, and die within the network, we can only see the network from inside. We cannot be an objective observer from the outside. “Accept” is a better word than “see.” We should accept this reality and make it manifest through our practice. When we accept food and dharma in this way, Dōgen Zenji says, “Just at such a time, there are the genuine marks, nature, substance, power, functions, causes, and conditions.” He lists seven of the ten suchnesses described in the Lotus Sutra. I think the other three—effects, retributions, and absolute identity—should be included. All of them are manifested within the one action of eating.
He concludes, “For this reason, dharma is itself food; food is itself dharma. This dharma is what is received and used by all buddhas in the past and future.” In this context “dharma” means reality itself. This reality is accepted and used by all buddhas in the past and future. He said, “This food is the fulfillment that is the joy of dharma and the delight of meditation.” This joy of dharma and delight of meditation is part of the verse we chant before informal meals. We say, “As we take food and drink, we vow with all beings to rejoice in zazen, being filled with delight in the dharma (Nyaku onjiki ji tōgan shujō, zennetsu ijiki, hōki jūman).” When we eat, we should be happy. This happiness is the enjoyment of dharma. We consider the taste of food to be the taste of dharma. When we receive or eat a meal, we shouldn’t grasp the taste. Usually when we eat, we encounter our food with our desires. These desires are the cause of delusion or samsara. The Buddha and Dōgen Zenji teach us to become free from the desires caused by objects. This is Dōgen’s teaching of shinjin datsuraku (dropping off body and mind). Our joy when we receive food is not the fulfillment of our desire. It is the joy of dharma and zazen. I think this is the most essential teaching about food and eating. When we can see this reality that Dōgen Zenji describes in “Fushukuhanpō,” not only eating but everything we do becomes our spiritual practice.
Ludwig Feuerbach, a nineteenth-century German philosopher, once said, “We are what we eat.” In fact, we are not only what we eat, but what we see, hear, think, and do. When we accept everything that we encounter as it is, and accept all things and beings as ourselves, that is jijuyū zammai—
samādhi that is self-receiving and self-employing. The most important thing taught by Dōgen Zenji is to accept this body and mind and everything we encounter as our life. Then the self and the entire dharma world become one seamless reality. We should accept and use everything we encounter as samādhi, not as a kind of business. Our life as a whole is samādhi. This means that each and every thing we do in our daily lives becomes a manifestation of our zazen.
Living by Vow Page 11
