Living by Vow

by Shohaku Okumura

  Bhagavat: One of the ten epithets of the Buddha, World-Honored One.

  Bodhgayā: One of the four sacred places of Buddhism, where Shakyamuni Buddha attained complete enlightenment.

  bodhi tree: The fig tree under which Shakyamuni Buddha attained complete enlightenment.

  bodhi-mind (Skt., bodhi-citta): awakened mind, the mind of enlightenment; Way-seeking mind.

  bodhisattva: In early Buddhism, Bodhisattva refers to Shakyamuni Buddha before he attained buddhahood. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has aroused bodhi-mind, taken the bodhisattva vows, and walks the bodhisattva path.

  bonnō: A Japanese word for the Sanskrit kleśa. Although usually translated as delusion, illusion, or passion, this word has much wider connotations, including worldly care, sensual desire, suffering, and pain.

  Brahma Net Sutra (Brahmajāla Sūtra; Jap., Bonmōkyō): A Mahāyāna Buddhist sutra that contains the ten major precepts and forty-eight minor precepts of bodhisattvas.

  Brahma: Brahma was originally one of the gods in Indian mythology. In Buddhism, Brahma is considered to be one of the guardian gods of Dharma.

  buddha-nature (Skt., buddhata): The same concept as tathāgatagarbha; tathāgata’s embryo or womb. The true, immutable, and eternal nature of all beings.

  Caodon school: Caodon (Jap., Sōtō) is one of the five schools of the Chinese Chan (Zen) tradition founded by Dongshan Liangjie and his disciple Caoshan Benji. This lineage was transmitted from China to Japan by Eihei Dōgen and continues today.

  causality: The principle of cause and result. The Buddha said that without cause, nothing exists. It can be expressed as “If this exists, that exists; if this comes into being, that comes into being; if this is not, that is not; if this ceases to be, that ceases to be.”

  Chanyuan Qinggui (Zen’en Shingi, Rules of Purity for the Chan Monastery): The earliest Chan (Zen) monastic code, compiled by Changlu Zongze in 1103.

  “Chiji Shingi” (Pure Standards for the Temple Administrators): One part of Dōgen’s Eihei Shingi. Chiji refers to the six monastic administrators: director (tsūsu), assistant director (kansu), treasurer (fūsu), supervisor of the monks’ conduct (inō), chief cook (tenzo), and work leader (shissui).

  consciousness (Skt., vijñāna): The fifth of the five aggregates (skandhas). When the six sense organs encounter their objects, six consciousnesses arise: eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness. In Yogācāra teaching, two deeper consciousnesses are added: manas vijñāna (ego-consciousness) and ālaya vijñāna (storehouse consciousness).

  dāna-pāramitā: One of the six pāramitās, it is the practice of giving or generosity. There are two kinds of dāna: offering Dharma and offering material things.

  Deer Park (Mṛgadāva): One of the four sacred places in Indian Buddhism. After attaining enlightenment Shakyamuni Buddha went to the Deer Park in Sārnāth, on the outskirts of Vārāṇasī, and taught the five monks. This is called the first turning the dharma wheel.

  dependent origination: see interdependent origination.

  Dhammapada: One of the oldest and most well-known Buddhist scriptures, included in the Khuddaka Nikāya.

  Dharma gate (Skt., dharma mukha): The teachings of the truth; the gate to the truth.

  Dharma/dharmas: A term with various meanings. Dharma, with a capital D, refers to the truth or reality to which the Buddha awoke and the teachings of the Buddha as expressions or explanations of this truth. With a lowercase d, and in the plural, dharma refers to phenomenal beings, norms of behavior and ethical rules, objects of thought, ideas, and reflections of things in the mind.

  dharma-nature (Skt., dharmatā; Jap., hosshō): The true nature of all beings; thusness or emptiness.

  dharmadhātu (dharma-realm): In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the notion of a true nature that permeates and encompasses all phenomena. As a space or realm, the realm of dharmas is the uncaused and immutable totality in which all phenomena arise, dwell, and perish.

  dharmakāya: One of the three bodies of a buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Dharmakāya is the true nature of the Buddha, which is identical with ultimate reality, the essence of the universe. The dharmakāya is the unity of the Buddha with all beings in the universe. At the same time it represents the dharma, the teaching expounded by the Buddha. The other two bodies are sambhogakāya (reward body) and nirmāṇakāya (transformation body).

  Diamond Sutra (Skt., Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā Sūtra). Sutra of the Diamond-Cutter of Supreme Wisdom. One of the sutras in the group of Prajñāpāramitā Sutras. It shows that all the forms of phenomenal beings are not ultimate reality but rather illusions, projections of one’s own mind.

  duḥkha: Sanskrit word usually translated as “suffering.” It is the first of the four noble truths. Duḥkha not only signifies suffering in the sense of unpleasant sensations, it also refers to everything, both material and mental, that is conditioned, subject to arising and perishing, comprised of the five aggregates, and not in a state of liberation. Thus everything that is temporarily pleasant is suffering, since it is subject to change and must end. Duḥkha arises because of delusive desire and craving and can be transformed by the elimination of desire through practicing the eightfold noble path.

  eightfold noble path (Skt., aṣṭāṅgika-mārga): The fourth of the four noble truths; the path leading to cessation of suffering, comprising right view, right thinking, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

  Eihei Kōroku: Dōgen’s Extensive Record, a collection of Eihei Dōgen’s dharma hall discourses at Kōshōji, Daibutsuji, and Eiheiji, including dharma words and Chinese poems compiled by his disciples Ejō, Senne, and Gien.

  Eihei Shingi: The collection of Dōgen’s writings regarding monastic regulations: “Instructions for the Cook” (Tenzokyōkun), “The Model for Engaging the Way” (Bendōhō), “The Dharma for Taking Meals” (Fushukuhanpō), “Regulations for the Study Hall” (Shuryō Shingi), “The Dharma when Meeting Senior Instructors of Five Summer Practice Periods” (Taitaiko Gogejarihō), and “Pure Standards for the Temple Administrators” (Chiji Shingi).

  ejiki (Skt., durvarṇī-karaṇa): Muted color of the okesa, or square robe. In ancient India Buddhist monks picked up discarded pieces of cloth, washed and dyed them an ochre color, and sewed them into a robe.

  emptiness (Skt., śūnyatā): An expression used in Mahāyāna Buddhism, such as in the Prajñāpāramitā Sutra, for the nonexistence of the permanent self (anātman) and interdependent origination.

  Enmei-jukku-kannon-gyō: A very short sutra with only forty-two Chinese characters on Kanzeon Bosatsu (Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva) originating in China.

  fearlessness (Skt., abhayadāna; Jap., muise): Freedom from anxiety. One of the three kinds of offering (dāna). The other two are offering of material and offering of the Dharma.

  feeling or sensation (Skt., vedanā): The second of the five aggregates. When each of the six sense organs contacts its objects, we receive pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral sensations.

  form (Skt., rūpa): The first of the five aggregates: material elements. In the case of human beings, the body is rūpa, whereas the other four aggregates are functions of mind.

  formations (Skt., saṃskāra; Jap., gyō): The fourth of the five aggregates. Formations include all volitional impulses or intentions that precede an action.

  four benefactors (Jap., shion): There are different sets of the four benefactors in various texts. The most common set is (1) father and mother, (2) all living beings, (3) king of the country, and (4) the Three Treasures.

  four gross elements: The constituents of all living beings and things: the earth element, occurring in solid things such as bones; the water element, such as blood and other body liquids; the fire element, as in body heat; and the wind element, or movement.

  four noble truths (Skt., ārya-satya): The most basic teaching of Buddhism. The
noble truths are suffering (duḥkha), the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path that leads to the cessation of suffering.

  fukuden (Skt., puṇya-kṣetra): The field (rice paddy) which brings about the harvest of happiness or merit (puṇya). Puṇya refers to the karmic merit gained through good actions such as generosity and reciting sutras. Offerings to the Three Treasures, especially to the Buddha and monks, bring merit. Therefore the sangha of monks was considered to be a field of happiness.

  ‘Fushukuhanpō’ (The Dharma for Taking Meals): A section of Eihei Shingi, written by Eihei Dōgen. It describes the procedure of formal morning and noon meals at the monks’ hall.

  genzen sanbō: One of the three alternative ways to define the Three Treasures, in terms of the historical origins of Buddhism: Shakyamuni Buddha is the Buddha Treasure; the Buddha’s teachings are the Dharma Treasure; and the Buddha’s disciples and lay students are the Sangha Treasure. The other two definitions are the Absolute Three Treasures (ittai sanbo) and the Maintaining Three Treasures (jūji sanbō). See also Three Treasures.

  great ultimate (Chi., taiji; Jap., taikyoku): A Chinese cosmological term for the supreme, ultimate state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potentiality, contrasted with the wuji (without ultimate). The great ultimate is the source of the two opposing powers, yin and yang, that produce all things.

  hachidainingaku (eight points of awakening of great beings): The eight points to watch in practice appear in the Sutra of the Last Discourse of the Buddha (Butsu-yuikyōgyō). This is also the title of the final chapter of Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō, written in the year he died.

  head monk (shuso): The head monk of a practice period, who, as an exemplary monk, shares teaching responsibilities with the abbot and leads and encourages other monks’ practice. He is one of the six heads of the different monastic departments.

  hikkyo-kisho: The place to which we ultimately return. Dōgen says that we should take refuge in the Three Treasures because they are the place to which we finally return.

  Hongzhou school: Hongzhou (Jap., Kōshū) is the school of Chinese Zen founded by Mazu Daoyi. Hongzhou is the name of the province where many of his disciples lived.

  hṛdaya: A Sanskrit word translated into Chinese as xin (mind/heart). The original meaning is the heart as a part of the body. It also means “essence,” as in the title of the Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya Sutra.

  impermanence (Skt., anitya): One of the three marks of all beings. The other two are suffering (duḥkha) and no-self (anātman).

  Indra’s net: A metaphor used to illustrate the concepts of emptiness, interdependent origination, and interpenetration, found in the Avataṃsaka Sutra. The metaphor shows that all phenomenal beings are intimately connected. Indra’s net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels.

  interdependent origination (Skt., pratītya-samutpāda; Jap., engi): A cardinal Buddhist teaching about causality. Other translations are “dependent origination” and “dependent arising.”

  ittai sanbō: One of the three categorizations of the Three Treasures, the Absolute Three Treasures. Ittai literally means “one body.” The Buddha Treasure is the dharmakāya Buddha; the Dharma Treasure is the way all beings are; and the Sangha Treasure is the interconnection of all beings within the Indra’s net of the universe. See also Three Treasures.

  Jātaka: Part of the Khuddaka Nikāya, a collection of the stories regarding the Buddha’s previous lives. In these stories the Buddha is called a bodhisattva.

  ji: phenomenal, concrete things, as opposed to principles; the relative, as opposed to and the absolute. See also ri.

  jijuyū zammai: Self-receiving and self-employing samādhi. This term, used by Dōgen as a foundation for his teachings on zazen, points to the dropping off of conceptual boundaries such as “self,” “other,” “myriad beings,” and ‘practice” in zazen or any wholehearted practice.

  joyful mind: One of the three minds discussed in Dōgen’s “Tenzokyōkun.” The other two are the magnanimous mind and the nurturing mind.

  jūji sanbō: The Maintaining Three Treasures, one of the three categorizations of the Three Treasures. The Buddha symbolized by Buddha images is the Buddha Treasure; the printed Buddhist texts are the Dharma Treasure, and the sangha members in each Buddhist sangha is the Sangha Treasure. These have maintained Buddhist tradition since Shakyamuni Buddha’s death. See also Three Treasures.

  jukai ceremony: We become a Buddhist through this ceremony in which we receive the Buddhist precepts as the guideline of our lives.

  kalpa: An exceedingly long period of time. To express the length of a kalpa two similes are used. In the first, a kalpa is how long it would take to empty a ten-cubic-mile container of poppy seeds by removing a single seed once every one hundred years. In the second, if once every one hundred years a heavenly woman brushes a solid one-cubic-mile rock with her silk sleeve, a kalpa is the time it would take for the rock to wear away.

  Kapilavastu: The name of the city where Shakyamuni Buddha’s father Śuddhodana was king. The Buddha was born in the Lumbinī Park near the city. One of the four sacred places of Indian Buddhism.

  karma: A deed that is produced by the action of the mind, body, or speech, and which will produce an effect in the future.

  kaṣāya (Jap., kesa): The square robe for Buddhist monks. This word refers to the color of the robe, usually muted black, blue, or red. Monks were allowed to own three kinds of kaṣāya: saṃghātī, uttarāsaṃgha, and antarvāsa.

  kesa (okesa): Traditional monk’s robe sewn by hand and originally pieced together with discarded fabric. Okesa is a polite form of kesa.

  kitō: Praying to buddhas, bodhisattvas, or other guardian gods of Buddhism for some specific purpose. This was originally a practice in esoteric Buddhism, but later it was practiced in other Buddhist schools including Zen.

  Kuśinagara: Place where Shakyamuni Buddha entered nirvana. One of the four sacred places in Indian Buddhism.

  kuyō: A Japanese word for making an offering to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, or to deceased persons through actions of body, speech, and mind.

  Kyōjukaimon: Eihei Dōgen’s comments on the sixteen precepts recorded by his dharma heir, Koun Ejō. This short text is the basis of the teaching on morality in Sōtō Zen tradition.

  kyōzō (Skt., Sūtra Piṭaka): One of the three divisions of the Buddhist scriptures, a collection of the Buddha’s discourses. The other two are the Abhidharma Piṭaka (psychological compilations of his teachings) and the Vinaya Piṭaka, the collection of the Buddha’s admonitions regarding monk’s misdeeds. Later in China and Japan kyōzō came to refer to the building in which Buddhist scriptures are stored.

  lotus posture: Cross-legged posture used in sitting meditation. Originally in esoteric Buddhism this term referred to the Hindu yoga posture known as padmāsana. In Zen Buddhism the terms kekkafuza (full lotus) and hankafuza (half lotus) have been used.

  Lotus Sutra (Skt., Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra; Jap., Myōhō-rengekyō): One of the most important sutras in Mahāyāna Buddhism, especially popular in China and Japan. The Tientai (Tendai) and Nichiren schools are based on its teachings. Since Dōgen was originally ordained and trained in the Tendai tradition before starting to practice Zen, he valued the Lotus Sutra as the king of all sutras.

  Lumbinī Park: One of the four sacred places in Indian Buddhism. Shakyamuni Buddha was born in this park near Kapilavastu, the capital of the Shākya clan.

  Magadha: North Indian kingdom at the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. Rājagriha was the capital of the kingdom where the first Buddhist monastery, Veluvana (Bamboo Grove) Vihāra, was founded. The king of Magadha, Bimbisāra, and his son Ajātasatru supported Shakyamuni and his sangha.

  magnanimous mind: One of the three mental attitudes all Zen practitioners need to maintain, mentioned in Dōgen’s “Instructions to the Cook” (Tenzokyōkun). The other two attitudes are nurturing mind and joyful mind. A mag
nanimous mind is like a mountain or ocean, immovable and without discrimination.

  mahāsattva: Literally, “great being”; a term for bodhisattvas.

  Mahāyāna Buddhism: Literally means “great vehicle.” Mahāyāna is one of the two main branches of Buddhism that originated in India, the other being Theravāda. In the Mahāyāna tradition one aims to attain buddhahood together with all living beings.

  mantra: A syllable or series of syllables that is believed to have special power and to manifest cosmic forces and aspects of the buddhas. Sometimes a mantra is the name of a buddha. Continuous repetition of mantras, also called dhāranīs, is a meditation practice in many Buddhist schools, particularly in esoteric Buddhism. In the Zen tradition the use of mantras shows the influence of esoteric Chinese Buddhism.

  mārga: The Buddhist path, specifically the fourth of the four noble truths: the eightfold noble path that leads to the cessation of suffering.

  “Merging of Difference and Unity”: A translation of the title of the poem “Sandōkai,” composed by Shitou Xiqian.

  Middle Way (Skt., madhyama-pratipad): A term for the practice of the eightfold noble path taught by Shakyamuni Buddha, who said that the two extremes, self-indulgence and self-mortification, should be avoided. Later in the Mahāyāna, Nāgārjuna described the Middle Way as refraining from choosing between opposing positions in relation to the existence or nonexistence of all things. Therefore his school was called Mādhyamika.

  mind-ground: A translation of the Japanese word shinchi, synonymous with expressions such as mind-nature and mind-source. Mind here refers to a mind of absolute suchness. This mind is like a ground from which all different plants, grasses, grains, trees, and so forth arise and grow.

  Mount Hiei: The mountain east of Kyoto and the site of the main monastery of the Japanese Tendai school, Enryakuji. Eihei Dōgen became a monk at this monastery.

  mui (Skt., asaṃskṛta): “Unconditioned” or “unproduced.” Things that are beyond conditioned existence, beyond arising, dwelling, changing, and perishing. In the original teaching, only nirvana was regarded as unconditioned. The Sarvāstivāda school had three kinds of unconditioned space and two kinds of dissolution (nirodha).