Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  I have been extremely fortunate to collaborate in translation with a number of outstanding Zen teachers and writers. I worked with one or two partners in translating each short essay. We examined original sentences word by word and came up with the best possible corresponding expressions in English. As associate editor of this work, Peter Levitt has gone over the entire text several times and made valuable suggestions. The strength and consistency of our translations owe much to him. Our intention is to offer a translation that is as accurate as possible, but also one that is inspiring and useful for practitioners of dharma in the Western world.

  Because Dogen’s writing is known for its difficulty, we provide various kinds of assistance to help readers “decode” the text:

  We present the essays in chronological order (as dated by Dogen) so that readers can trace the development of Dogen’s thinking and teaching. In the section “Texts in Relation to Dogen’s Life and Translation Credits” at the beginning of the first volume, we explain the background of each fascicle in relation to other fascicles.

  The Editor’s Introduction discusses Dogen’s characteristic expressions, with examples quoted in the introduction endnotes.

  In the main text, short explanations are enclosed in brackets.

  An extensive glossary at the end of the second volume provides more detailed explanations of terms and names, as well as linguistic details.

  The words of earlier teachers and other writers that Dogen comments upon are italicized.

  Treasury of the True Dharma Eye is the fourth Dogen book project sponsored by the San Francisco Zen Center, following Moon in a Dewdrop, Enlightenment Unfolds, and Beyond Thinking. I worked for San Francisco Zen Center from 1977 to 1984 as a scholar in residence. Since then the Zen Center has been supporting the Dogen translation projects. Before that, from 1960 to 1968 I worked with Shoichi Nakamura Roshi, my Zen teacher and cotranslator, to produce the first complete modern Japanese translation of Dogen’s Shobo Genzo. In 1965 Robert Aitken Roshi and I made the first translation of the text “Actualizing the Fundamental Point” included in this book. It has been a half-century journey of conversation with my venerated and beloved master Dogen. I have enjoyed every moment of studying his writing and translating it.

  I would like to thank Shunryu Suzuki Roshi for inviting me to speak about Dogen to his students at Soko Temple in 1964, before he founded San Francisco Zen Center. This became a seed for my longterm association with the Zen Center. My gratitude goes to Richard Baker Roshi and the successive abbots of the Zen Center and its officers for supporting the translation project while they were in charge. I am particularly grateful to Michael Wenger Roshi, who has overseen the project as director of publications at the Zen Center and wrote the afterword of this book.

  All my cotranslators have been delightful to work with and have taught me tremendously. Mel Weitsman Roshi has been my most frequent translating partner and the one I have worked with longest. Joan Halifax Roshi has invited me to give dharma talks during a number of sesshins and also to lead Dogen seminars.

  We benefit a great deal from traditional Soto scholars, including Menzan Zuiho and Bokusan Nishiari. Works by Dr. Doshu Okubo and Dr. Fumio Mastani have always been helpful.

  My appreciation goes to Dr. Carl Bielefeldt, Dr. Linda Hess, Dr. William Johnston, Shohaku Okumura Roshi, Christian H. B. Haskett, and Dr. Friederike Boissevain for their expert advice. Thanks to Zen Master Daegak Genthner, Shirley Graham, Roberta Werdinger, Luminous Owl Henkel, Jogen Salzberg, Junna Murakawa, Silvie Senauke, Mahiru Watanabe, Nathan Wenger, Wolfgang Wilnert, Ann Colburn, Karuna Tanahashi, and Ko Tanahashi for their help in a variety of ways. Our translation project owes much to a grant from the Dragon Mountain Temple.

  Norman Fischer Roshi was also the translation editor for Moon in a Dewdrop and the author of the introduction to Beyond Thinking. Susan Moon, who was translation editor of Enlightenment Unfolds, also has helped enliven descriptions of some of the Chinese masters in the glossary. Dan Welch was translation editor for Beyond Thinking. Dr. Taigen Dan Leighton, our scholarly editor, checked the glossary and updated our bibliography. Andrew Ferguson provided information on Chinese masters through his book China’s Zen Heritage and was kind enough to check all the Chinese transliteration as well as the sites on the maps.

  It is always wonderful to work with the staff of Shambhala Publications. I am extremely grateful to Peter Turner, Dave O’Neal, Hazel Bercholz, and Ben Gleason for taking on this large project. I thank Kendra Crossen for her excellent copyediting.

  KAZUAKI TANAHASHI

  Berkeley, California

  NOTES TO THE READER

  TRANSLITERATION AND PRONUNCIATION

  Spellings of Sanskrit words are simplified, and diacritical marks are omitted in the main text. Macrons (to indicate long vowels) and tilde for ñ in Sanskrit words are used only in the glossary.

  Chinese terms are spelled according to the pinyin system. In the following list, the right column gives approximate English pronunciations of unusual letters used in the pinyin system (in the left column):

  c

  ts

  q

  ch

  x

  sh

  zh

  j

  In Japanese words, macrons over long vowels appear for the most part only in the glossary. Macrons are also used in names of texts in the section titled “Texts in Relation to Dogen’s Life and Translation Credits.” The name Dogen is pronounced with hard g as in gate.

  NAMES

  For Japanese names of laypeople, we put the given name first, to conform with English usage; this order is reversed when the names are alphabetized in the glossary and bibliography. The order is not reversed for Buddhist names, such as Eihei Dogen and Chinese laypeople’s names. The abbots of Zen monasteries are often referred to by the name of the mountain, monastery, or region where they resided (as in the example of Eihei Dogen of the Eihei Monastery). Similarly, many monasteries are named after the mountains on which they were built.

  TIME, DATES, AND THE BUDDHA’S DATES

  Years in this book are dated according to the common era (C.E.) and before the common era (B.C.E.), but in referring to months we follow the lunar calendar traditionally used in East Asia. The first to third months correspond to spring, and the other seasons follow in three-month periods. The fifteenth day of each month is the day of the full moon. The lunar calendar occasionally adds an extra month in order to synchronize with the solar year. Even though approximately thirty days of the end of each lunar year run into the next solar year, to avoid confusion, we accord the entire lunar year to its corresponding solar year.

  In the traditional East Asian system, a day has twelve hours. The time from sunrise to sunset is divided into six hours. The nighttime is also made up of six hours. In accordance with the movement of the sunrise and sunset, the length of hours in daytime and nighttime change. The diagrams in appendix 8 illustrate the division of the day into portions, according to which monastic practices are performed in an orderly manner.

  Traditional East Asian understanding of Shakyamuni Buddha’s dates is different from that of contemporary scholars. See Buddha, Shākyamuni in the glossary for details.

  AGE

  People’s ages are reckoned according to the traditional East Asian approach, whereby a person is one year old at birth and gains a year on New Year’s Day of the East Asian lunar calendar, not on one’s birthday.

  UNITS OF MEASUREMENT

  Please see the glossary at the end of volume two for traditional Asian measuring units that appear in the text.

  EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

  MEDITATION AS A SELFLESS EXPERIENCE

  Meditation (zazen) can be restful and enjoyable, according to Dogen.1 Its state (samadhi) can be like an ocean that is serene and yet dynamic.2 Its field can be as vast as spring time, which encompasses all of its flowers, birds, and mountain colors.3 Being in spring, we hear the sound of a valley stream or become a plum blossom swirling in th
e wind.4

  Dogen’s poetic descriptions may seem contrary to our usual meditation experience. Often we are troubled with physical pain and sleepiness; our mind may be scattered, and our daily concerns continue to preoccupy us. We may feel that we have had a bad meditation. Dogen, however, seems to show no interest in these specific issues.5 He simply speaks of the magnificence of meditation and asserts that we can experience luminosity as soon as we start to meditate.6

  What we think we experience in meditation may be different from what we actually experience. What, then, do we experience? How do we recognize our deep experience and apply it to our daily lives? These are some of the questions Dogen addresses in the essays presented in this volume.

  If we were to summarize Dogen’s teaching in one word, it might be “nonseparation.”7 In meditation, the body experiences itself as not separate from the mind.8 The subject becomes not apart from the object.9

  While our thinking is often limited to the notion of “I,” which is occupied by “my” body, “my” mind, and “my” situation, Dogen teaches that we can become selfless in meditation. Then, we are no longer confined by our self-centered worldview and a dominating sense of possessions. Only when we become transparent and let all things speak for themselves can their voices be heard and their true forms appear.10

  As we calm down and move away from the usual mode of physical and mental activities, we often have a good idea or even, at times, an extraordinary insight during meditation. However, this is only a beginning stage. If we go further, we may experience a dissolving of the notion of the self. Dogen describes such an experience of his own at the climactic moment of his study as “dropping away body and mind.”11

  BEYOND SPACE AND TIME

  The distance from here to there is no longer concrete. A meditator walks on the top of a high mountain and swims deep in the ocean, not only becoming an awakened one but also identifying with a fighting spirit.12 A person who bows becomes one with the person who is bowed to.13

  Sizes become free of sizes. The depth of a dewdrop is the height of the moon.14 The entire world is found in a minute particle. Extremely large becomes extremely small, and vice versa.15 Here is another view of reality distinct from our usual way of seeing.

  It is not that duality stops existing or functioning; the small is still small and the large is still large. The body remains the body and the mind remains the mind. Without discerning the differences between things, we could not conduct even the simplest task of our daily lives. And yet, in meditation the distinctions seem to dissolve and lose their usual significance. Dogen calls this kind of nondualistic experience nirvana, which exists at each moment of meditation.16

  Dogen is perhaps the only Zen master in the ancient world who elucidated in detail the paradox of time. For him, time is not separate from existence: time is being.17

  Certainly, there is the passage of time marked by the movement of the sun or the clock that always manifests in one direction, from the past, to the present, to the future. On the other hand, in some cases we feel that time flies, and in other cases it moves slowly or almost stands still.

  In meditation, according to Dogen, time is multidirectional: Yesterday flows into today, and today flows into yesterday; today flows into tomorrow, and tomorrow flows into today. Today also flows into today.18Time flies, yet it does not fly away.19 This moment, which is inclusive of all times, is timeless.20

  Further, time is not apart from the one who experiences it: time is the self.21 Time flows in “I,” and “I” makes the time flow. It is selfless “I” that makes time full and complete.22

  BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH

  Time is also life. In the same manner, time is death. Like other Zen teachers, Dogen repeatedly poses an urgent existential question: realizing the brevity of our life, we need to clarify the essential meaning of life and death.23

  Life and death are often called “birth and death” in Buddhism, based on the understanding that we are born and die innumerable times moment by moment.24 Meditation is a way to become familiar with life and death. If we realize that we keep on being born and dying all the time, we become intimate with death as well as life. Thus, we may be better prepared for the moment of our departure from this world than we would be otherwise; and this, in turn, reduces our fear of dying.

  For Dogen, each moment of our life can be a complete and all-inclusive experience of life.25 The life of “I” is not separable from the life of the whole—the life of all beings.26 In the same way, death is a complete and all-inclusive experience.27

  When we fully live life and fully die death, life is not exclusive of death; death is not exclusive of life. Then life and death are no longer plural but singular as life-and-death or birth-and-death.

  It is a dilemma of life: We all die, and yet, avoiding death is no solution. When we thoroughly face death, death becomes “beyond death.”28 Dogen tells us that this is the meaning of “life-and-death” for an awakened person.

  ENLIGHTENMENT AND BEYOND

  The Zen way of going beyond the barrier of dualism is to meditate in full concentration. This is called “just sitting.”29

  Dogen’s invaluable contribution to clarifying the deep meaning of meditation is his introduction of the concept called the “circle of the way.” It means that each moment of our meditation encompasses all four elements of meditation: aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana.30

  “Aspiration” is determination in pursuit of enlightenment. “Practice” is the effort required for actualizing enlightenment. “Enlightenment” is the awakening of truth, the dharma. “Nirvana,” in his case, is the state of profound serenity, in which dualistic thoughts and desires are at rest.31

  Dogen says that even a moment of meditation by a beginning meditator fully actualizes the unsurpassable realization, whether that is noticed or not.32 In this way, enlightenment, often regarded as the goal, is itself the path. The path is no other than the goal.33

  The word “enlightenment,” a translation of the Sanskrit word bodhi (literally, “awakening”), has layers of meaning:

  1. According to Mahayana sutras, Shakyamuni Buddha said, “I have attained the way simultaneously with all sentient beings on the great earth.”34 That is to say that all sentient and insentient beings are illuminated by the Buddha’s original enlightenment and thus carries buddha nature—the potential for or the characteristics of enlightenment.35 In other words, in the Buddha’s eye, all are equally enlightened and none are separate from the Buddha.36 However, this does not mean, from the ordinary, dualistic perspective, that all beings become wise and free of delusion.37

  2. In Dogen’s explanation of the “circle of the way,” all those who practice meditation are fully enlightened. Enlightenment is not separate from practice; enlightenment at each moment is no other than the unsurpassable enlightenment.38 This aspect may be called the unity of practice-enlightenment or practice-realization.39 Dogen emphasizes practice that is inseparable from enlightenment as the essential practice of the way of awakened ones—the buddha way. The awareness of enlightenment, however, may not necessarily be recognized by everyone all the time, as it is an experience deeper than one grasped by intellect alone.

  3. When we practice meditation, we often don’t notice that we are already enlightened, and thus we look for enlightenment somewhere other than in practice. Dogen calls this tendency of separation “great delusion.”40 This pursuit, however, provides us with the potential for “great enlightenment,” which is a merging of the unconscious practice-enlightenment and conscious understanding.

  This enlightenment can happen unexpectedly and dramatically as a body-and-mind experience of the nonseparation of all things, rather than as a theoretical understanding. Such spiritual breakthroughs, sometimes called “seeing through human nature” (kensho in Japanese), may bring forth exuberance. Dogen quotes many such stories of “sudden realization” by ancient Chinese Zen practitioners as cases of study (koans).41

  However, Dogen
discourages his students from striving for breakthroughs, cautioning that this pursuit is based on the notion of a separation between practice and enlightenment.42 This kind of realization or “attaining the way” takes time and usually follows a series of failed attempts. In regard to this, Dogen says, “. . . even if you are closely engaged in rigorous practices, you may not hit one mark out of one hundred activities. But by following a teacher or a sutra, you may finally hit a mark. This hitting a mark is due to the missing of one hundred marks in the past; it is the maturing of missing one hundred marks in the past.”43

  An awakened person, a buddha, is someone who actualizes enlightenment. If enlightenment is nothing separate from practice, it is clear that all those who practice meditation as recommended in Buddhism are buddhas. And those who have experienced and reached deep understanding of the nonseparation of all things are regarded as ones who have attained the way.

  However, for Dogen, attaining the way is not the final goal. He encourages practitioners of the buddha way to go beyond buddhas and leave no trace of enlightenment.44 That is to say, we are not supposed to remain in the realm of nonduality.