Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Assimilating with the indigenous Shintoism, Buddhism became an indispensable part of everyday life. Buddhist masters competed with one another to gain imperial patronage, offering a variety of magical prayers. Mount Hiei housed one of the strongest armies of monk-soldiers, who frequently engaged in battles, sometimes burning other monasteries. The Tendai armed forces were known for their frequent demonstrations in Kyoto and for forcing their demands upon the imperial government.

  According to Buddhist texts, the period of five hundred years after the time of Shakyamuni Buddha is the Age of True Dharma, which is followed by another five hundred years of the Age of Imitation Dharma. Then the Age of Declining Dharma emerges. Many Japanese Buddhists believed that this last period of no true practice or enlightenment started in 1052. People attributed calamities such as famines, epidemics, social disorder, and wars to the decline of dharma. The wish to attain rebirth in the Pure Land prevailed among those who felt that it was hopeless to attain enlightenment in the present world.

  The samurai families—the Taira Clan from the western part of the country and the Minamoto from the east—served as imperial guards and expanded their influence. First, Kiyomori Taira became a powerful military ruler, still serving the emperor. Then, Yoritomo Minamoto defeated the Taira armies in a series of battles and established the Shogun government in Kamakura. This was the beginning of the Kamakura Period. Later, the Hojo Family took over the Kamakura government and called its head “Regent.”

  Buddhism in this period may be characterized by the emergence of “single practice.” Honen and his noted disciple Shinran came into conflict with the Tendai establishment, which forced them into exile, but they succeeded in spreading the wholehearted practice of chanting homage to Amitabha Buddha. Dogen established the Zen practice of “just sitting.” Later, Nichiren spread the practice of chanting homage to the Lotus Sutra—Namu-Myoho-Renge-Kyo. This “single practice” of Buddhism, in all its variations, appealed to great numbers of farmers, warriors, and court nobles, eventually becoming the mainstream of faith in Japan.

  THE EARLY LIFE OF DOGEN

  The first biographical account of Dogen was written by Keizan Jokin, who was a dharma successor of Gikai, one of Dogen’s senior students. It appears as a chapter of Keizan’s book, Transmission of Light, completed forty-seven years after Dogen’s death. We have included it in appendix 2.

  Three other early biographies, all of which were written more than a century after Dogen’s death, are also important sources for reconstructing the first part of Dogen’s life. They are Biographies of the First Three Ancestors of the Eihei Monastery (Eihei-ji sanso gyogo-ki), author unknown, already in existence during the Oei Era (1394–1428); Biography of the First Ancestor, Zen Master, Priest Dogen (Shoso Dogen zenji osho gyoroku), author unknown, published in 1673; and Kenzei’s Biography of the Founder Dogen of Eihei (Eihei kaisan gyojo Kenzei-ki) by Kenzei (1415–1474).69

  According to the biography by Keizan, Dogen—whose given name is unknown (his name Eihei is taken from the name of his monastery)—was born in 1200 C.E. By Dogen’s own words, he was an adopted son of a “minister of the Minamoto family.” Keizan identifies Motofusa, Lord of the Pine Palace, as this mysterious person. It seems, however, that a later theory by Soto historians which attributes Michitomo Minatomo (1171–1227) as Dogen’s foster father is most convincing. Michitomo was a distinguished poet known as an editor of Shin Kokin Shu, a celebrated imperial anthology of waka (a traditional Japanese poem consisting of thirty-one syllables). Dogen presumably received a high tutorial education in Chinese literature and Japanese poetry. He says, “When I was young, I loved studying literature that was not directly connected to Buddhism.”70

  Dogen lost his mother when he was eight (by the Japanese way of reckoning age). Possibly referring to this early misfortune, he himself says, “Realizing the impermanence of life, I began to arouse the way-seeking mind.”71 At thirteen, he visited monk Ryokan, who lived in a hut at the foot of Mount Hiei, northeast of Kyoto, and subsequently entered the monkhood himself. In the following year he was formally ordained by Koen, Head Priest of the Tendai School. Probably Koen was the one who named this novice Buppo Dogen, meaning “Buddha Dharma, Way Source.” Dogen left Mount Hiei after receiving basic training as a monk and studying the scriptures. Later he reflected: “After the aspiration for enlightenment arose, I began to search for dharma, visiting teachers at various places in our country.”72 We don’t know whom he visited, except Koin, who was abbot of the Onjo Monastery—a noted Tendai center of esoteric practices—and a dedicated follower of Honen, the main propagator of the Amitabha chanting practice. Dogen recalls: “The late Bishop Koin said, ‘The mind of the way is acquired after understanding that one thought embraces all existence in the billion worlds.’”73 Dogen summarizes the first four years of his pursuit: “I had some understanding of the principle of cause and effect; however, I was not able to clarify the real source of buddha, dharma, and sangha. I only saw the outer forms—the marks and names.”74

  Dogen continues: “Later I entered the chamber of Eisai, Zen Master Senko, and for the first time heard the teaching of the Linji School.”75 Myoan Eisai, who had visited China twice and received dharma transmission from Xuan Huaichang, was among the first to teach Zen in Japan. But because the Tendai establishment was oppressing new movements of Buddhism, he had to teach conventional esoteric practices along with Zen. It was around 1214 when Dogen visited Eisai at the Kennin Monastery in Kyoto, one of the three monasteries Eisai had founded. Eisai was seventy-four years old, and he died the following year.

  In 1217, Dogen became a disciple of Butsuju Myozen, Eisai’s successor as abbot of the Kennin Monastery. We can assume that Dogen was trained by Myozen in koan studies, which was the principal method of training in the Linji School. Koans are exemplary stories of ancient masters pointing to realization, which are investigated by the students under the personal guidance of their teacher, and may lead to direct experience of the nondual aspect of all things beyond intellect. In 1221, Dogen received a certificate of full accomplishment from Myozen.

  Myozen was respected in Kyoto and even gave the bodhisattva precepts to the former emperor Gotakakura, but he was aware of the need to deepen his studies. As China was the only place where he could study authentic Zen, he wanted to follow Eisai’s example of traveling to the Middle Kingdom. Dogen, a young but outstanding student at the Kennin Monastery, was allowed to accompany Myozen.

  Myozen’s party, including Dogen and two other disciples, left Japan from the Port of Hakata on Kyushu Island in the second month of 1223. Two months later, the boat arrived at the then main trading port of Ninbo (in present-day Zhejiang Province). Reflecting on this Dogen writes, “After a voyage of many miles during which I entrusted my phantom body to the billowing waves, I have finally arrived. . . .”76

  Dogen’s first encounter with Chinese Zen happened the following month when he was still on board, waiting for permission to enter a monastery. Myozen, who was acknowledged as Eisai’s dharma heir, had already left the boat and been admitted to the monastery. An old monk who was the head cook of a nearby monastery came on board to buy dried mushrooms. After some conversation, Dogen said, “Reverend Head Cook, why don’t you concentrate on zazen practice and on the study of the ancient masters’ words, rather than troubling yourself by holding the position of head cook and just working?” The old monk laughed and replied, “Good man from a foreign country, you do not yet understand practice or know the meaning of the words of ancient masters.” Dogen was surprised and ashamed.77

  China’s highest-ranking Zen monasteries were located in Zhejiang Province, where Dogen arrived. He entered one of them, the Jingde Monastery on Mount Tiantong, also known as Mount Taibai. Soon he noticed monks around him holding up their folded dharma robes, setting them on their heads, and chanting a verse silently with palms together: “How great! The robe of liberation . . .” Seeing this solemn ritual for the first time, he vowed to himself: “However un
suited I might be, I will become an authentic heir of the buddha dharma, receiving authentic transmission of the true dharma, and with compassion show the buddha ancestors’ authentically transmitted dharma robes to those in my land.”78

  The abbot of the Jingde Monastery was Wuji Liaopai, in the dharma lineage of Dahui Zonggao who had been the most influential advocate of koan studies in the Linji School. While studying in Liaopai’s community for a year and a half, Dogen familiarized himself with formal monastic practices. Then, he started visiting other monasteries in search of a true master.

  In early 1225, Dogen went to meet Abbot Yuanzi of the Wannian Monastery at Mount Tiantai, who showed Dogen his document of dharma heritage and offered dharma transmission. Dogen had learned the significance of documents of heritage in the Chinese Buddhist tradition, as the proof of the completion of studies and succession of the dharma lineage. They were often kept strictly confidential, but Dogen had managed to see some and made careful studies of them. Moved by Yuanzi’s offer to transmit dharma to him, Dogen bowed and burned incense, but did not accept.

  The more closely he saw what was happening in monasteries in the heartland of Chinese Zen, the more he was disappointed. He comments in his journal: “Nowadays elders of different monasteries say that only direct experience without discrimination—to hear the unhearable and to see the unseeable—is the way of buddha ancestors. So they hold up a fist or a whisk, or they shout and beat people with sticks. This kind of teaching doesn’t do anything to awaken students. Furthermore, these teachers don’t allow students to inquire about the essentials of the Buddha’s guidance and they discourage practices that aim to bear fruit in a future birth. Are these teachers really teaching the way of buddha ancestors?”79

  Dogen also saw corruption in monastic practices. Even documents of dharma heritage that were supposed to be valued with utmost respect were given to those who were not qualified. Monks tended to seek credentials from famous masters who had given dharma heritage to retainers of the king. Some monks, when they grew old, bribed public officials in order to get a temple and hold the abbot’s seat.

  In 1225, Dogen heard that Rujing, who had been abbot of the Qingliang and Jingci monasteries, had just become abbot of the Jingde Monastery on Mount Tiantong, where Dogen had first stayed. Rujing was a monk from the Caodong School, in which “just sitting,” rather than koan studies, was emphasized. He was known as a strict and genuine teacher, not easily admitting monks into his community and often expelling those who did not train seriously. Dogen returned to Mount Tiantong. While he participated in the practice of the monastery as one of hundreds of monks, he wrote to Rujing, explaining why he had come from Japan and requesting the status of a student who could enter the abbot’s room for receiving personal guidance. This letter impressed Rujing, who must have heard from officers of the monastery that Dogen was a remarkable student. Rujing wrote back and granted his request, saying, “Yes, you can come informally to ask questions any time, day or night, from now on. Do not worry about formality; we can be like father and son.”80

  On the first day of the fifth month of 1225, Dogen entered the abbot’s room and met Rujing for the first time. On this occasion Rujing affirmed his recognition of Dogen and said, “The dharma gate of face-to-face transmission from buddha to buddha, ancestor to ancestor, is actualized now.”81

  This exhilarating time for Dogen was also a time of great loss. Myozen died from illness on the twenty-seventh day of the same month. He had been teacher to Dogen for eight years, as well as a traveling companion and fellow seeker.

  Expressing his doubt to Rujing about the current trend of Zen teachers who would emphasize “transmission outside scriptures” and discourage students from studying the Buddha’s teaching, Dogen asked for Rujing’s comment. Rujing said, “The great road of buddha ancestors is not concerned with inside or outside. . . . We have been followers of the Buddha for a long time. How can we hold views that are outside the way of the Buddha? To teach students the power of the present moment as the only moment is a skillful teaching of buddha ancestors. But this doesn’t mean that there is no future result from practice.”82 Thus, Rujing demonstrated that he was an ideal teacher for Dogen, who was seeking Zen that fully embodied the teaching of the Buddha described in scriptures.

  While receiving rigorous training from Rujing, Dogen asked him further questions in a respectful but challenging way, showing his sincerity as well as his brilliance. Rujing was confident of himself as an authentic carrier of the Zen tradition, and Dogen sought to experience the heart of his teaching. The culmination of his practice came one day in zazen when he heard Rujing speak in the monks’ hall. Reflecting on this experience, Dogen says, “Upon hearing Rujing’s words ‘dropping off,’ I attained the buddha way.”83 In the fall of 1227, after completing his study and receiving a document of heritage from Rujing, Dogen ended his four-year visit to China. He went back to Japan to teach people in his own country.

  DOGEN AS A DHARMA TEACHER

  In the tenth month of 1227, soon after returning to the Kennin Monastery in Kyoto, Dogen wrote a record of bringing home the relics of Myozen, the former abbot.84 In the same year he wrote a short manifesto called “Recommending Zazen to All People,” in a brief but formal and elaborate Chinese style. This text, a translation of which is included in appendix 1, was his declaration of establishing a new form of Buddhist practice in Japan, based on his understanding of the traditional Zen teaching he had studied in Song-Dynasty China. Dogen was twenty-eight years old in the Japanese way of counting.

  The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye provides detailed information about the teaching life of Dogen, as he meticulously recorded the dates of creation in the colophons of most of its fascicles. Some other writings of his, including monastic guidelines, were dated. Dogen’s students recorded his frequently given formal talks, whose dates either were recorded or can be guessed. We present an outline of his life as a Zen master through textual evidence in the section headed “Texts in Relation to Dogen’s Life and Translation Credits.”

  The first part of Dogen’s teaching career was the wandering and preparation period, from age twenty-eight to thirty-four (1227–1233). Then he constructed and taught at a small monastery as abbot: the Kosho Horin Monastery period, from age thirty-four to forty-four (1233–1243). He continued to teach and write during the construction period of a full-scale monastery, from age forty-four to forty-six (1243–1245). Then he taught at the Daibutsu Monastery, later renamed the Eihei Monastery, from age forty-six to fifty-four (1245–1253).

  Dogen first intended to spread zazen widely to all people, but he gradually put more and more emphasis on training committed Zen students to the point of saying that attaining the way would only be possible for home leavers (ordained monks and nuns). He gave dharma transmission to a few students, including Ejo—his lifetime teaching assistant and editor, who succeeded him as abbot of Eihei Monastery.

  The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye is Dogen’s lifework, while the Extensive Record of Priest Eihei Dogen—edited by his students, Sen’e, Ejo, and Gien—is a huge collection of his texts including formal talks, monastic guidelines, Chinese-style and waka poems, as well as other writings.

  Although he rejected calling his community a Zen school or a Buddha Mind school, it was difficult for his dharma descendants to distinguish their group from other schools of Buddhism. Thus, Dogen became regarded as the founder of the Soto School—the Japanese form of the Caodong School, of which Rujing transmitted the lineage to Dogen.

  By the efforts of his dharma heirs and descendants, in particular by that of Keizan Jokin (1268–1325), who incorporated Dogen’s teaching into that of Esoteric Buddhist practice, the Soto School spread largely in the countryside as its main base. This was in contrast to the Rinzai School, which was supported by the shoguns of the Ashikaga Clan and the emperors during the Muromachi Period (1336–1573), and developed high Zen culture, centering in the city of Kyoto. The Soto School is currently the largest schoo
l of Buddhism in Japan.

  TRANSMISSION OF THE TEXTS AND LATER SCHOLARSHIP

  Originals and hand copies of Dogen’s writings were scattered in temples all over Japan. But thanks to traditional and contemporary scholarship, a critical edition that compares variants in all available versions of Dogen’s texts has been published and is available for study.85

  While Dogen’s dharma descendants increased, gaining popular support and building temples all over Japan, most of his writings were quickly forgotten. Not one substantial commentary was written on his essays between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.

  There was a movement in the Soto community after the seventeenth century, however, to restore the founder’s spirit. The movement included extensive studies of his writings, resulting in the publication of the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye by the Eihei Monastery, along with the emergence of commentaries on Dogen’s writings by several monk-scholars.

  Studies about Dogen remained in the domain of Soto sectarian scholarship until the 1920s, when Japanese scholars of Western philosophy started to realize the importance of Dogen’s thinking. That was when Tetsuro Watsuji’s Shamon Dogen (Monk Dogen) awakened interest in Dogen’s work among intellectuals.

  In the 1960s, Dogen began to be recognized as one of the greatest essayists in the history of Japanese literature. His writings were selected for various collections of classical literature. Since the 1960s, six translations of the entire Treasury of the True Dharma Eye have been published, making much of Dogen’s thought available to Japanese readers.

  As Zen meditation began to spread to the Western world in the 1950s, translations of some of Dogen’s writings started to appear in Western languages. Over fifty books of Dogen translation and studies have been published in English, which makes Dogen by far the most extensively studied East Asian Buddhist in the Western world. How his influence will extend is yet to be seen.