Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Pull the bottom and corners of your undergarment, face the door, put your feet on both sides of the top of the barrel, squat, and defecate. Do not stain the sides. Do not soil the front and back [of the barrel top].

  Be silent the entire time. Do not converse through the wall or chant aloud. Do not spit in a disturbing manner. Do not groan. Do not write on the wall. Do not draw on the earthen floor with the toilet stick.

  After defecating, use the stick for wiping. Another way is to use paper. In this case, do not use paper that has been already used or has been written on.

  Be aware of whether the stick is clean or dirty. The stick is triangular [made of bamboo or wood], about eight sun long, and as thick as a thumb. Some sticks are lacquered, while others are not. Dirty sticks are put into the dirty stick container. Clean sticks are found on the table close to the edge of the wooden barrel.

  After the stick or paper is used, take up the bucket with the right hand, wet the left hand well, cup it, pour water into it, and first wash urine from yourself three times. Then wash off the excrement. Wash properly and make your body clean. During this process, do not tilt the bucket roughly, pour too much water, or quickly lose water by overfilling the cupped hand.

  After washing your body, put the bucket back in its position. Use the stick or paper to dry both areas of your body thoroughly. Then, pull and straighten up the bottom and corners of the underclothes with your right hand. When you carry the bucket with the right hand and leave the toilet, take off the cattail sandals and put on your straw sandals. Then, go to the washing area and return the bucket to its original position.

  Next, wash your hands. Pick up an ash ladle with the right hand, scoop up some ash, and place it on a tile. Add some drops of water to it with your right hand and wash the soiled [left] hand. You wash it by rubbing it on the tile, just like sharpening a rusty knife. Wash it with ash three times. Then, place dirt on the tile, add drops of water, and wash the hand three more times. After that, get some honey locust powder with the right hand, dip both hands into water in a small wooden bucket, and wash them well. Wash your hands thoroughly up to the wrist. Wash them with complete attention and sincerity. Thus, wash three times with ash, three times with dirt, and once with honey locust powder. In this way, washing seven times at each use of the toilet is the right amount. Finally, wash your hands in a large wooden bucket. At this time, don’t use herb or ash but rinse your hands with cold or warm water. After washing, put the used water into a small bucket. Get fresh water in the large bucket and rinse your hands again.

  The Avatamsaka Sutra says:

  Washing my hands with water,

  may all sentient beings

  attain excellent hands

  for maintaining buddha dharma.

  When you hold a dipper, always use the right hand. Do not make noise. Do not carelessly splatter water, sprinkle honey locust powder, or wet the wash area.

  Dry your hands with a towel for common use or with your own towel. Then, walk to the bamboo hanger where your outer robe is hanging, untie your strap, and hang it on the hanger. Put your palms together, untie the towel, and put on the outer robe.

  Then, hang the towel over the left elbow and perfume your hands. In the common area, there is a stick of aloeswood carved in the shape of a treasure jar. It is as thick as a thumb and four times as long as four fingerwidths. A string about one shaku [one foot] long is threaded through the holes on both ends of this aloeswood, which is hung on a bamboo hanger. If you rub this stick with both hands, they become fragrant.

  When you hang your strap on the bamboo hanger, do not put it on top of another; keep the straps from being entangled with each other.

  This procedure [for using the toilet] is to cleanse the buddha land, to beautify the buddha land. Follow this procedure thoroughly.

  Do not act hastily. Do not think of getting it over with and going back quickly. Quietly think of the teaching: “In the wash house, dharma is not expounded.” Do not make observations on the monks who are on their way to the toilet.

  For cleansing in the toilet room, cold water is suitable. It is said that hot water may cause stomach upset. For washing hands, it is all right to use warm water. The wash house is equipped with a kettle for this purpose.

  The Guidelines for Zen Monasteries says, “Even late at night, keep water heated and oil [for the lamp] burning. Make hot water available at all times so the monks are not interrupted.” In this way we know that both hot and cold water are used in the wash room.

  If the toilet gets dirty, shut the door and put up a “Dirty” sign. If the bucket is dropped by mistake, also shut the door and put up a “Wet” sign. Do not use the toilets when you see such signs. If you are entering a dirty or wet toilet and someone else signals to you by snapping their fingers, stay outside for a moment [to let the person clean the toilet].

  The Guidelines for Zen Monasteries says, “Those who fail to cleanse are not allowed to sit on the meditation platform, venerate the three treasures, and receive reverence from others.”

  The Sutra of the Three Thousand Guidelines for Pure Conduct says, “Those who do not cleanse themselves of urine or excrement are accountable for a dushkrita [light wrongdoing] conduct. They are not allowed to sit on the monks’ pure sitting cushions and venerate the three treasures. Even if they do so, there will be no benefit.”

  Thus, in the practice place of endeavor of the way, make this cleansing procedure a priority. How can you not venerate the three treasures? How can you not receive reverence from others? How can you not revere others?

  In the practice places of buddha ancestors, there is always the awesome practice of this cleansing. Among those who practice in the practice places of buddha ancestors, there is always the awesome practice of this cleansing. Cleansing is not forced by the self, but is the conduct of awesome practice itself. Cleansing is the continuous procedure of all buddhas. Cleansing is the everyday activity of all ancestors. It is the buddha procedure not only of all buddhas in this realm, but of buddhas in the ten directions. It is the buddha procedure of the pure land and impure land.

  Those who hear little think that buddhas don’t have a procedure in the wash house or that the procedure for buddhas in the Saha World is different from that of buddhas in the pure land. This is not the study of the way.

  Know that the matter of being clean or dirty is like drips of blood for those who have left the household. Sometimes it is gentle, and other times it is severe. Thus, be aware that all buddhas use a wash house.

  Chapter 14 of the Compiled Precepts in Ten Sections for Chanting says:

  Novice Rahula stayed at the Buddha’s wash house and the Buddha noticed it. Stroking Rahula’s head with the right hand, the Buddha told him in a verse:

  You stay here not because of poverty,

  nor because of having lost wealth,

  but for the sake of seeking the way.

  A home leaver should thus bear hardship.

  As you see, there is a wash house in the practice place of the Buddha. The awesome practice inside the Buddha’s wash house is cleansing, which has been transmitted from ancestor to ancestor. That the buddha procedure is still being practiced is an auspicious joy for those who long for the ancient way. This is encountering what is rare to encounter.

  Above all, the Tathagata graciously expounded dharma to Rahula inside the wash house. The wash house is a place of assembly for the Buddha turning the dharma wheel. The procedure in this practice place has been authentically transmitted by buddha ancestors.

  Chapter 34 of the Great Sangha Precepts [Scripture] says: “The wash house should not be placed in the east or north side [of the monastery], but in the south or west side. A place for urination should be also like this.”

  Follow this format, this is a plan for monasteries in India—the buildings where the Tathagata is still present. Know that this format is not only the buddha procedure of a single buddha, but of the practice places—monasteries—of the Seven Original Buddhas. This was
not initiated [by Shakyamuni Buddha], but it has been the awesome practice of all buddhas.

  If you build a monastery and practice buddha dharma before clarifying this matter, there may be a number of mistakes, the awesome practice may not be complete, and buddha enlightenment may not be actualized. When you construct a practice place and found a monastery, follow the dharma procedure authentically transmitted by buddha ancestors. Since this dharma procedure is of authentic heirs and of authentic transmission, its merit has been accumulated.

  Without being authentically transmitted heirs of buddha ancestors, you have not yet known the body-mind of buddha dharma. Without knowing the body-mind of buddha dharma, you have not yet clarified the buddha work. That the buddha dharma of Shakyamuni Buddha has spread throughout the ten directions means that the body-mind of the Buddha is actualized. The very moment of the body-mind of the Buddha being actualized is just this.

  Presented to the assembly of the Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery, Uji County, Yamashiro Province, on the twenty-third day, the tenth month, the first year of the En’o Era [1239].

  8

  WASHING THE FACE

  THE LOTUS SUTRA says, “If you spread oil on your body after removing dirt, and wear fresh robes, you are clean inside and outside.”

  This dharma was expounded by the Tathagata at the lotus assembly when he taught those who were engaged in the four practices of enjoyment and ease. It is not equal to other teachings and not the same as accounts in other sutras.

  Thus, cleansing body and mind, spreading scented oil on the body after removing dirt, is a primary buddha dharma. To wear fresh clothes is a dharma of purification. By washing away dirt and spreading scented oil on the body, you are clean inside and outside. When you are clean inside and outside, your body, mind, and environs are all clean.

  But those who are ignorant and do not hear and practice buddha dharma say, “Although you can wash your skin, you have five main organs and six sub-organs in your body. If you don’t wash all your organs, you are not purified.” Those who make such a statement have not yet heard and known buddha dharma. They have not encountered an authentic teacher, a descendant of buddha ancestors.

  Now, study the true dharma of buddha ancestors, discarding the words of those with outrageously crooked views. The boundary of all phenomena cannot be determined, and the inside and outside of various elements are ungraspable. Thus, the inside and outside of body and mind are ungraspable. However, a bodhisattva of the final body washes the kashaya and cleanses the body and mind before sitting in the place of enlightenment and attaining the way. This is the awesome ritual of buddhas of the past, present, and future in the ten directions. A bodhisattva of the final body has the most venerable and supreme merit, wisdom, body, mind, and splendor, different from others in all aspects. Our way of washing and cleansing should be like that.

  A person’s body and mind change according to situations and time. A billion worlds can be sat through within a single sitting. Even so, at that very moment the body and mind cannot be measured by self or other. It is the power of buddha dharma. The scale of the body and mind is not five or six feet, because the five or six feet is not unchangeable.

  Where the body is neither bounded nor boundless, it is not limited to this world or that world, to the entire world or the immeasurable entire world. As in an old saying, “What is it here? Describe it roughly or in detail.”

  The scale of mind cannot be known by thinking and discernment, either. It cannot be known by beyond thinking and beyond discernment. The scale of body and mind is like this; so is the scale of cleansing. To take up this scale of cleansing, practicing and realizing it, is what buddhas and ancestors have cared for.

  Do not make your scheming self a priority. Do not make your calculating self real. By washing and cleansing, you thoroughly take up the scale of body and mind and purify them. Even the four great elements and five skandhas, and what is indestructible [in the body and mind], can be purified by cleansing.

  Do not merely think that rinsing with water makes things clean. How can water be originally pure or impure? Even if water is originally pure or impure, we do not say that water makes the places it reaches pure or impure. Only when you maintain the practice and realization of buddha ancestors, the buddha dharma of washing with water and cleansing with water, is water transmitted. By practicing and realizing in this way, you leap over purity, penetrate impurity, and drop away beyond purity and beyond impurity. In this way, the teaching of washing what is not yet defiled and washing what is greatly pure is maintained in the way of buddha ancestors alone. It is not known by those outside the way.

  If the statement by those who are ignorant were true, even if you grind the five organs and six sub-organs into powder, make them into emptiness, and wash them with the entire ocean, how could the body and mind be pure if you don’t wash inside the particles? How could you attain purity without washing inside the emptiness? But those who are ignorant don’t know the way to cleanse emptiness.

  You take up emptiness and wash emptiness, take up emptiness and wash body and mind. If you accept washing with trust in this way, you maintain the practice and realization of buddha ancestors.

  When you wash in the true dharma authentically transmitted by buddhas and ancestors, the inside and outside of body and mind, as well as the inside, the outside, and the in-between of the five organs, six sub-organs, body, mind, environs, the world of phenomena, and empty space are immediately cleansed. When you cleanse with incense and flowers, the past, present, future, causes and conditions, actions and effects are immediately purified.

  The Buddha said, “After three bathings and three scentings, your body and mind are cleansed.”

  Thus, the way to purify the body and purify the mind is always scenting yourself at each bath. You continue in this way, make three bathings and three scentings, bow to the Buddha, turn [chant] the sutra, do zazen, and do walking meditation. If you are going to go back to zazen after walking meditation, always wash your feet. Even when your feet are not dirty, it is customary for buddha ancestors to do so.

  In the three bathings and three scentings, one bathing means to take a bath. The entire body bathes. After that, you put on the robe as usual, burn fine incense, and scent inside the upper part of the robe, the kashaya, and the place of sitting. Then, take another bath and make another scenting. This is practiced three times. This is the way customary in the dharma. It is not that the six sense roots and the six dusts are renewed, but the power of cleansing is actualized. Do not doubt it. In buddha dharma, the virtue of purity is actualized even when the three poisons and four confusions have not been removed.

  When you wash yourself with aloeswood, do not break it into pieces or grind it into powder, but use a whole piece to rub your body. In buddha dharma there is a formal way of cleansing the body. Accordingly, cleanse the body, the mind, the feet, the face, the eyes, the mouth, the hands, the head, the eating bowls, and the kashaya, and wash away urine and excrement. This is an authentic way of all buddhas and ancestors in the past, present, and future.

  For making offerings to buddha, dharma, and sangha, use various sticks of incense. First, wash the hands, rinse the mouth, and put on clean robes. Pour pure water into a clean basin, wash and purify the incense, and then make offerings to the realm of buddha, dharma, and sangha. May we wash the sandalwood incense from Mount Malaya [in India] with the water of eight virtues from Anavatapta Lake and make offerings to the three treasures!

  The way of washing the face was transmitted from India and spread in China. Although it is described as a guideline in the precept scriptures, the transmission of the teaching by buddhas and ancestors [in the Zen tradition] is an authentic way. It has not only been practiced by buddhas and ancestors for hundreds of years, but it has also been widely practiced for billions of eons before and after. Washing the face is not merely removing filth; it is the life vein of buddha ancestors.

  According to the guideline, if someone doesn’t wash the f
ace, one who bows and one who is bowed to are both at fault. One who bows and one who is bowed to are originally empty, and originally dropped away [free]. Thus, always wash your face.

  The time for washing the face is either at the fifth night period or at dawn. When Rujing, my late master, was abbot of the Tiantong Monastery, he designated the last part of the third night period for washing the face.

  Wear a one- or two-piece robe, carry a hand towel, and go to the sink for washing the face. The hand towel is a regular-width cloth twelve shaku [feet] long. It should not be white. A white cloth is prohibited.

  The Sutra of Three Thousand Guidelines for Pure Conduct says:

  For using a hand towel, there are five guidelines: Dry yourself with the top and bottom ends of it; dry the hands with one end and the face with the other; don’t wipe the nose with it; rinse it as if you wipe off filth; don’t wipe the entire body with it. Also, take it with you when you bathe.

  Guard and maintain your towel in this way. Fold it in two and hang it over your left elbow. Dry the face with one half of it and the hands with the other half. Don’t wipe the nose means not to wipe inside the nose or wipe off the snivel. You should not wipe the armpits, back, stomach, navel, thighs, or legs with the hand towel.

  When it becomes filthy, wash it and dry it over a fire or in the sun. Do not use it for washing your body while bathing.