Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Do not forget the joyful aspiration that arises when you first seek the way. When you arouse the aspiration for enlightenment, you do not seek dharma in order to be respected by others. You abandon fame and gain, and without veering off you aspire to attain the way. You do not look for respect or gifts from kings or ministers. Even though these may come to you, it should not be your primary intention to become entangled with humans and devas. But foolish people, even those with way-seeking mind, quickly forget their original aspiration and hope for offerings from humans and devas. Receiving such offerings, they rejoice that the merit of buddha dharma has arrived. When kings and ministers come to take refuge in the buddha, foolish teachers may feel rewarded. This is a hazard of practice. Remember to have compassion for them, but do not rejoice.

  Do you recall that the Buddha said these golden words? “Even now, at the time of the Tathagata, there are many who are antagonistic.” Thus, foolish people do not understand the wise; small-minded ones regard great sages as enemies.

  Also, the ancestors in India were sometimes overpowered by kings, those outside the way, or practitioners of the Two Lesser Vehicles. It was not that the ancestors lacked deep understanding or that those others excelled.

  When Bodhidharma came from India and stayed at Mount Song, neither the Emperor of Liang nor the Emperor of Wei understood him. At that time there were two critics, Scripture Master Bodhiruchi and Precept Master Guangtong. They were afraid they would lose their fame and gain to a true teacher, so they tried to block him. It was as if they were trying to cover the sun. They were worse than Devadatta, who lived at the time of the Buddha. What a pity! The fame and gain they were attached to would have been discarded like excrement by Bodhidharma. This behavior was the result of their lack of understanding buddha dharma. They were like dogs barking at a well-intentioned person.

  Do not resent such dogs, but vow to guide them with this blessing: “Dogs, arouse the aspiration for enlightenment.” An old sage said, “There are animals who have human faces.” On the other hand, there are demons who take refuge in the Buddha and make offerings to him.

  An earlier buddha said, “Do not get close to kings, princes, ministers, administrators, Brahmans, and laypeople.”

  Practitioners should remember this admonition so that, as their practice advances, the merit of their bodhisattva effort with beginner’s mind will accumulate.

  There are stories of Indra, who came down to test the aspiration of a practitioner, or of the demon Papiyas, who obstructed people’s practice. Such things happen when practitioners cannot free themselves from desire for fame and gain. But such things do not happen to those who have great compassion and whose vow to guide sentient beings is vast and mature.

  Through the merit of practice you may be given the gift of an entire nation, and this may appear to be a great achievement in the world. But do not be blinded; look deeply on such an occasion. Foolish people may rejoice, but they are like dogs licking a dry bone. Wise people and sages reject this just as worldly people are disgusted by excrement.

  In general, when you are a beginner you cannot fathom the buddha way. Your assumptions do not hit the mark. The fact that you cannot fathom the buddha way as a beginner does not mean that you lack ultimate understanding, but it does mean that you do not recognize the deepest point.

  Endeavor wholeheartedly to follow the path of earlier sages. You may have to climb mountains and cross oceans when you look for a teacher to inquire about the way. Look for a teacher and search for understanding with all-encompassing effort, as if you were coming down from heaven or emerging from the ground. When you encounter a true teacher, you invoke sentient beings as well as insentient beings. You hear with the body, you hear with the mind.

  To hear with the ear is an everyday matter, but to hear with the eye is not always so. When you see buddha, you see self-buddha, other-buddha, a large buddha, a small buddha. Do not be frightened by a large buddha. Do not be put off by a small buddha. Just see large and small buddhas as valley sounds and mountain colors, as a broad, long tongue, and as eighty-four thousand verses. This is liberation, this is outstanding seeing.

  There is a common saying that expresses this: “Totally superb, totally solid.” An earlier buddha said: “It covers heaven, it encompasses the earth.” This is the purity of a spring pine, the magnificence of an autumn chrysanthemum. Just this.

  When you reach this realm, you are a master of humans and devas. If you teach others before arriving in this realm, you will do great harm to them. Without knowing the spring pine or the autumn chrysanthemum, how can you nourish others and how can you cut through their roots of confusion?

  When you are lazy or doubtful, repent before the buddhas with a sincere mind. If you do so, the power of repentance will purify and help you. This power will nurture trust and effort free from hindrance. Once pure trust emerges, self and others are simultaneously turned. This benefit reaches both sentient and insentient beings.

  Repentance is: “Although my past unwholesome actions have accumulated, causing hindrance in the study of the way, may buddhas and ancestors release me from these actions and liberate me. May the merit of practicing dharma fill inexhaustible worlds of phenomena. May compassion be extended to me.”

  Before awakening, buddha ancestors were like you. Upon awakening, you will become buddha ancestors. When you look at buddha ancestors, you are a buddha ancestor. When you look at their aspiration for enlightenment, you have the aspiration. Working with compassion this way and that, you achieve facility and you let facility drop away.

  Thus, Longya said:

  If you did not attain enlightenment in the past, do so now.

  Liberate this body that is the culmination of many lifetimes.

  Before enlightenment, ancient buddhas were like us.

  When enlightened, we will be like those of old.

  This is the understanding of a realized buddha. We should reflect on it. This is the exact point of a realized buddha.

  With repentance you will certainly receive invisible help from buddha ancestors. Repent to the buddhas with mind and body. The power of repentance melts the roots of unwholesomeness. This is the single color of true practice, the true heart of trust, the true body of trust.

  When you have true practice, then valley sounds and colors, mountain colors and sounds, all reveal the eighty-four thousand verses. When you are free from fame, profit, body, and mind, the valleys and mountains are also free. Through the night the valley sounds and mountain colors do and do not actualize the eighty-four thousand verses. When your capacity to talk about valleys and mountains as valleys and mountains is not yet mature, who can see and hear you as valley sounds and mountain colors?

  On the fifth day of the practice period, the second year of the En’o Era [1240], this was presented to the assembly of the Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery.

  11

  REFRAIN FROM UNWHOLESOME ACTION

  ANCIENT BUDDHAS SAY:

  Refrain from unwholesome action.

  Do wholesome action.

  Purify your own mind.

  This is the teaching of all buddhas.

  This teaching has been authentically transmitted from earlier buddhas to later buddhas of the future as the Seven Original Buddhas’ general precepts in the ancestral school. Later buddhas received these precepts from earlier buddhas. This teaching is not limited to the Seven Original Buddhas; it is the teaching of all buddhas. Thoroughly investigate this point.

  This dharma way of the Seven Original Buddhas is always the dharma way of the Seven Original Buddhas. Transmitting and receiving these precepts is a mutual activity. This is the teaching of all buddhas—the teaching, practice, and enlightenment of hundreds, thousands, and myriads of buddhas.

  Unwholesome action is [the manifestation of] one of the three natures: the wholesome action nature, the unwholesome action nature, and the neutral nature. The unwholesome action nature is unborn, just as the wholesome action nature and neutral nature are unb
orn. These three natures are also nondefiled and are reality. However, these three natures are manifested in various ways.

  As for unwholesome action, unwholesome action in this world and unwholesome action in other worlds are sometimes the same and sometimes different. Unwholesome action in former times and unwholesome action in the present time are sometimes the same and sometimes different. Unwholesome action in the deva world and unwholesome action in the human world are sometimes the same and sometimes different. Furthermore, there is a great difference between the buddha way and the worldly realm in what is called unwholesome action, wholesome action, or neutral action. Wholesome action and unwholesome action are time, although time is neither wholesome action nor unwholesome action. Wholesome action and unwholesome action are dharma, although dharma is neither wholesome action nor unwholesome action. As dharma is all-inclusive, unwholesome action is all-inclusive. As dharma is all-inclusive, wholesome action is all-inclusive.

  When you listen, study, practice, and realize unsurpassable, complete enlightenment, it is deep, vast, and wondrous. You learn this unsurpassable enlightenment either by following a teacher or by following a sutra. First you understand it as refrain from unwholesome action. If you do not understand it as refrain from unwholesome action, it is not true buddha dharma, but the speech of demons. Know that to understand unsurpassable enlightenment as refrain from unwholesome action is the true buddha dharma.

  Refrain from unwholesome action. This is not what ordinary people first interpret it to mean, although it may sound like it when we hear enlightenment expounded as a teaching of enlightenment. We understand in this way because it is an expression of unsurpassable enlightenment. It is words of enlightenment, therefore it is spoken enlightenment. Moved by what is spoken and heard—unsurpassable enlightenment—you vow to refrain from unwholesome action and practice refraining from unwholesome action.

  When you refrain from unwholesome action, the power of practice is immediately actualized. This is actualized on the scale of the entire earth, the entire universe, all time, and all dharmas. This is the scale of refrain from.

  This very person at this very moment abides in the place, comes from it, and goes to it, where no unwholesome action is created. No unwholesome action is created, although the person appears to be faced with the conditions of creating unwholesome action or of associating with those who create unwholesome action.

  When the power of refrain from is actualized, unwholesome action does not manifest as unwholesome action. Unwholesome action has no fixed form. You can pick it up or let it go. At the moment we understand this, we know that unwholesome action does not overcome a person and a person does not destroy unwholesome action.

  When you arouse your entire mind and let it practice, and when you arouse your entire body and let it practice, eight or nine out of ten are accomplished before questioning, and refrain from unwholesome action is actualized after knowing. When you bring forth your body-mind and practice, and when you bring forth the body-mind and practice of others, the power of practice with the four elements and the five skandhas is immediately actualized. Without defiling the self of the four elements and the five skandhas, the four elements and the five skandhas of today are practiced. The power of the four elements and the five skandhas practiced at this moment actualizes the practice of the four elements and the five skandhas in the past.

  When you move mountains, rivers, and earth, as well as the sun, the moon, and stars to practice, they in return move you to practice. This is not the open eye of just one time, but the vital eye of all times. Because it is all the open eye, the vital eye of all times, you move all buddhas and all ancestors to practice, to listen to the teaching, and to realize the fruit.

  Since all buddhas and ancestors have not allowed the teaching, practice, and enlightenment to be divided, the teaching, practice, and enlightenment have not hindered all buddhas and ancestors. For this reason, when you move buddhas and ancestors to practice, none of them are separated from before or after your realization, either in the past, present, or future. At the time when sentient beings become buddhas and ancestors, they become buddhas and ancestors without hindering the buddhas and ancestors who already exist. Ponder this point closely while walking, abiding, sitting, and lying down throughout the twelve hours of the day. It is not that a sentient being is destroyed, taken away, or lost by becoming a buddha ancestor, but a sentient being is dropped away.

  You allow the cause and effect of wholesome and unwholesome actions to practice. It is not that you put cause and effect into action or that you create cause and effect, but cause and effect at times allow you to practice.

  The original face of cause and effect is already clear. Because this is dropping away, it is refrain from, unborn, impermanent, not ignoring, and not dropping.

  When you study in this way, you realize that unwholesome action is none other than refrained from. Assisted by this realization, you see through, and by sitting you cut through refraining from unwholesome action.

  At the beginning, middle, and end, as refraining from unwholesome action is actualized, then unwholesome action does not arise through causes and conditions. It is just refrain from. Unwholesome action does not cease through causes and conditions. It is just refrain from. As unwholesome action is all-inclusive, all dharmas are all-inclusive.

  Those who only know that unwholesome action arises through causes and conditions and do not see that causes and conditions themselves are refrain from should be pitied. Because buddha seeds come forth through conditions, conditions come forth through buddha seeds.

  It is not that unwholesome action does not exist, but it is just refrain from. It is not that unwholesome action does exist, it is just refrain from. Unwholesome action is not emptiness, but it is just refrain from. Unwholesome action is not form, but it is just refrain from.

  Unwholesome action is not refrain from, it is just refrain from. For example, a spring pine is neither nonexistent nor existent. It is refrain from. Autumn chrysanthemum is neither nonexistent nor existent. It is refrain from. All buddhas are neither nonexistent nor existent. They are refrain from. Pillars, lanterns, whisk, and staff are neither existent nor nonexistent. They are refrain from. Self is neither existent nor nonexistent. It is refrain from.

  Studying in this way actualizes the fundamental point. The fundamental point is actualized. Investigate this through host [self] and investigate this through guest [other].

  Since this is so, regretting that you have created what should not be created is also inevitably the practice of refrain from. Nevertheless, intending to create unwholesome action just because you hear that unwholesome action is refrain from is just like walking north to try to get to the southern county of Yue.

  Refrain from and unwholesome action are not only “the well seeing the donkey,” but also the well seeing the well [inseparable from each other], the donkey seeing the donkey, the person seeing the person, the mountain seeing the mountain. Just as we speak in this way, unwholesome action is refrain from.

  It is said, “Buddha’s true dharma body is like the empty sky. It manifests forms responding to conditions just like the moon reflected in the water.” Because it is refrain from that responds to things, it is refrain from that manifests forms. It is just like emptiness that claps toward the left and toward the right [without hindrance], like the moon reflected in water. The moon is fully immersed in the water. In this way refrain from is actualized without doubt.

  Do wholesome action. This wholesome action is [manifestation of] one of the three natures. Although there are many varieties of wholesome action, there is no wholesome action that is already actualized and waiting for someone to practice it. At the very moment of doing wholesome action, there is no wholesome action that does not come forth.

  Although myriads of wholesome actions are formless, they arrive at the place where wholesome action is done faster than a magnet drawing iron. Its power is stronger than a vairambhaka storm. The great earth, mountains, ri
vers, the lands of the world, or the increasing effect of action cannot hinder the intentional encounter of wholesome action.

  However, there is a principle that views of wholesome action vary in the world. The views define what is wholesome action. It is just the same as all buddhas in the past, present, and future expounding dharma. Buddhas expounding dharma while they are in the world is just time. They expound nondiscriminating dharma according to their life spans and the dimensions of their bodies.

  This being so, wholesome action by a person who practices trust is far different from wholesome action by a person who practices dharma. Nevertheless, they are not two separate dharmas. It is like a shramana’s keeping the precepts and a bodhisattva’s breaking the precepts.

  Wholesome action does not arise due to causes and conditions, nor does it cease due to causes and conditions. Although wholesome action is all phenomena, all phenomena are not wholesome action. Causes and conditions, as well as wholesome actions, equally begin in completeness and end in completeness.

  Although wholesome action is do, it is not self, and not known by the self. It is not other, and not known by other. In knowing, there is self and other. In seeing, there is self and other. Thus, the vital eye of each is within the sun and within the moon.

  This is do. At the very moment of do, the fundamental point is actualized. Yet, it is not the beginning or the end of the fundamental point. It is not the eternal abiding of the fundamental point. Should this not be called do?