Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Although practicing wholesome action is do, it cannot be discerned. Although this do is a vital eye, it cannot be discerned. Do is not actualized for the sake of discernment. Discernment by the vital eye is not the same as discernment by something else.

  Wholesome action is neither existent nor nonexistent, neither form nor emptiness. It is just do. Actualizing at any place or actualizing at any moment is inevitably do. This do always actualizes all that is wholesome action. Although actualizing do is the fundamental point, it is neither arising nor ceasing, neither causes nor conditions. The entering, abiding, and departing of do is also like this. When one wholesome action among all wholesome actions is do, all things, the whole body, and the true ground altogether are moved to do.

  Both cause and effect of wholesome action actualize the fundamental point through do. Cause is not before and effect is not after. Cause is complete and effect is complete. Cause is all-inclusive just as dharma is all-inclusive. Effect is all-inclusive just as dharma is all-inclusive. Although effect is experienced, induced by cause, one is not before and the other is not after. We say that both before and after are all-inclusive.

  Purify your own mind. This means that you refrain from. Purify through refrain from. You that is your own. You that is mind. Your own that refrains from. Mind that refrains from. Mind that does. Purify through do. Your own do. You do. This is the teaching of all buddhas.

  Buddhas are like Shiva [creator of the world]. While the spirits of Shiva are sometimes the same and sometimes different, they are not necessarily buddhas. Buddhas are also like wheel-turning kings. However, not all the wheel-turning kings are necessarily buddhas. Investigate and study this point. Those who do not examine what buddhas are may appear to strive with great effort, but they are sentient beings who only suffer and are not practitioners of the buddha way. Refraining from [unwholesome action] and doing [wholesome action] are like “The donkey has not left, yet the horse has arrived.”

  Bai Zhuyi of the Tang Dynasty was the lay student of Ruman, Zen Master Fuguang, and a dharma descendant of Mazu, Zen Master Daji of Jiangxi.

  When he was governor of Hang province, he studied with Zen Master Daolin of Niaoke.

  One day Zhuyi said, “What is the essential meaning of buddha dharma?”

  Daolin said, “Refrain from unwholesome action, do wholesome action.”

  Zhuyi said, “If that is so, a three-year-old child could say it.”

  Daolin said, “A three-year-old child may say this, but even an eighty-year-old person cannot practice it.”

  Zhuyi bowed in gratitude and left.

  Zhuyi, a descendant of General Bai, was an extraordinary poet. He was regarded as a man of letters who had lived twenty-four lifetimes as a poet. He was sometimes called Manjushri or Maitreya. There was no place he was not known and no place his writing did not circulate.

  However, he was a beginner and a latecomer in the buddha way. It seems that he had never dreamed of the true meaning of refrain from unwholesome action and do wholesome action. He thought that Daolin presented this phrase in a merely intellectual way. Zhuyi had not heard and did not know that refrain from unwholesome action and do wholesome action are teachings of the buddha way, which are thousands and myriads of years old and apply to now and then. He responded in the way he did because he was not standing in the buddha dharma and did not understand the buddha dharma.

  Even if you caution against doing unwholesome action by intention, and encourage doing wholesome action by intention, you actualize refrain from. On the whole, in the buddha dharma, what you first hear from a teacher and what you finally achieve are the same. This is called genuine from head to tail. It is also called “inconceivable cause, inconceivable effect,” or “buddha cause, buddha effect.” Cause and effect in the buddha way is neither a heterogeneous maturing nor a homogenous stream. Since this is so, without buddha cause, buddha effect cannot be experienced. Because Daolin expressed this essential teaching, it was buddha dharma.

  Even if unwholesome action fills worlds upon worlds, and swallows up all things upon all things, refrain from is emancipation. Wholesome action is wholesome action in the beginning, middle, and end. It is the true essence, marks, substance, and activity of do, as it is. Because Zhuyi did not follow this track, he said, “Even a three-year-old can say this.” Lacking the capacity for true expression, he uttered these words.

  What a pity, Zhuyi! Why did you say this? Because you have not touched upon buddha wind [the buddha teaching]. Do you know about a three-year-old child? Do you understand the principle of a child’s inherent capacity? Those who understand know that a three-year-old child also understands all buddhas in the three worlds. How can those who cannot understand all buddhas in the three worlds understand a three-year-old child? Do not think that to face a person is to understand a person. Do not think that not to face a person is not to understand a person.

  Those who understand a speck of dust understand the entire world. Those who master one thing master myriad things. Those who do not master myriad things do not master one thing. Because those who study mastering see myriad things as well as one thing through penetration, those who study a speck of dust simultaneously study the entire world.

  It is extremely foolish to assume that a three-year-old child cannot express buddha dharma and that what a three-year-old child says is easy. The real issue here, to clarify birth and to clarify death, is the great matter of causes and effects in the buddha house.

  An old master said, “When you are born, you have the capacity to roar like a lion.” The capacity to roar like a lion is a virtue of the Tathagata turning the dharma wheel. It is turning the dharma wheel.

  Another old master said, “The coming and going of birth and death is the true human body.”

  In this way, to clarify the true human body and to have the virtue of roaring like a lion are indeed the great matter, and are not to be taken lightly. For this reason, to understand the words and practice of a three-year-old child is a great matter of causes and conditions. This is sometimes the same and sometimes not the same as the words and the practice of all buddhas in the three worlds.

  Because Zhuyi was ignorant and had never heard the expression of the three-year-old child, without even questioning it he responded as he did. He did not even hear Daolin’s voice of the way, which was louder than thunder. He wanted to point out that Daolin failed to hit the mark and said, “a three-year-old child could say it.” In this way he failed to hear the lion’s roar of the child and missed the turning dharma wheel of the Zen master.

  Daolin pitied him and responded further: Even if a three-year-old child can say this, even an eighty-year-old person cannot practice it. This means that the words of the three-year-old child hit the mark. Thoroughly study these words. Even an eighty-year-old person cannot practice it. Thoroughly investigate these words.

  The child’s expression is entrusted to you; it is not entrusted to the child. The old person’s practice of the unattainable is entrusted to you; it is not entrusted to the old person. To understand, speak, and live in this way is the point of the buddha dharma.

  Presented to the assembly of the Kosho Horin Monastery, Uji County, Yamashiro Province, on the harvest moon day [the fifteenth day], the eighth month, the second year of the En’o Era [1240].

  12

  THE TIME BEING

  AN ANCIENT BUDDHA [Yaoshan] said:

  For the time being, stand on top of the highest peak.

  For the time being, proceed along the bottom of the deepest ocean.

  For the time being, three heads and eight arms [of a fighting demon].

  For the time being, an eight- or sixteen-foot body [of the Buddha].

  For the time being, a staff or whisk.

  For the time being, a pillar or lantern.

  For the time being, the children of [common families] Zhang and Li.

  For the time being, the earth and sky.

  For the time being here means time itself is being, and all
being is time. A golden sixteen-foot body is time; because it is time, there is the radiant illumination of time. Study it as the twelve hours of the present. Three heads and eight arms is time; because it is time, it is not separate from the twelve hours of the present.

  Even though you do not measure the hours of the day as long or short, far or near, you still call it twelve hours. Because the signs of time’s coming and going are obvious, people do not doubt it. Although they do not doubt it, they do not understand it. Or, when sentient beings doubt what they do not understand, their doubt is not firmly fixed. Because of that, their past doubts do not necessarily coincide with the present doubt. Yet, doubt itself is nothing but time.

  The way the self arrays itself is the form of the entire world. See each thing in this entire world as a moment of time.

  Things do not hinder one another, just as moments do not hinder one another. The way-seeking mind arises in this moment. A way-seeking moment arises in this mind. It is the same with practice and with attaining the way.

  Thus, the self setting itself out in array sees itself. This is the understanding that the self is time.

  Know that in this way there are myriads of forms and hundreds of grasses [all things] throughout the entire earth, and yet each grass and each form itself is the entire earth. The study of this is the beginning of practice.

  When you are at this place, there is just one grass, there is just one form; there is understanding of form and beyond understanding of form; there is understanding of grass and beyond understanding of grass. Since there is nothing but just this moment, the time being is all the time there is. Grass being, form being, are both time.

  Each moment is all being, each moment is the entire world. Reflect now whether any being or any world is left out of the present moment.

  Yet, an ordinary person who does not understand buddha dharma may hear the words time being this way: “For a while I was three heads and eight arms. For a while I was an eight- or sixteen-foot body. This is like having crossed over rivers and climbed mountains. Even though the mountains and rivers still exist, I have already passed them and now reside in the jeweled palace and vermilion tower. Those mountains and rivers are as distant from me as heaven is from earth.”

  It is not that simple. At the time the mountains were climbed and the rivers were crossed, you were present. Time is not separate from you, and as you are present, time does not go away.

  As time is not marked by coming and going, the moment you climbed the mountains is the time being right now. If time keeps coming and going, you are the time being right now. This is the meaning of the time being.

  Does this time being not swallow up the moment when you climbed the mountains and the moment when you resided in the jeweled palace and vermilion tower? Does it not spit them out?

  Three heads and eight arms may be yesterday’s time. An eight- or sixteen-foot body may be today’s time. Yet, yesterday and today are both in the moment when you directly enter the mountains and see myriad peaks. Yesterday’s time and today’s time do not go away.

  Three heads and eight arms move forward as your time being. It looks as if they are far away, but they are here and now. The eight- or sixteen-foot body moves forward as your time being. It looks as if it is nearby, but it is exactly here. Thus, a pine tree is time, bamboo is time.

  Do not think that time merely flies away. Do not see flying away as the only function of time. If time merely flies away, you would be separated from time. The reason you do not clearly understand the time being is that you think of time only as passing.

  In essence, all things in the entire world are linked with one another as moments. Because all moments are the time being, they are your time being.

  The time being has a characteristic of flowing. So-called today flows into tomorrow, today flows into yesterday, yesterday flows into today. And today flows into today, tomorrow flows into tomorrow.

  Because flowing is a characteristic of time, moments of past and present do not overlap or line up side by side. [Zen master] Qingyuan is time, Huangbo is time, Mazu is time, Shitou is time, because self and other are already time. Practice-enlightenment is time. Being splattered with mud and getting wet with water [to awaken others] is also time.

  Although the views of an ordinary person and the causes and conditions of those views are what the ordinary person sees, they are not necessarily the ordinary person’s reality. The reality merely manifests itself for the time being as an ordinary person. Because you think your time or your being is not reality, you believe that the sixteen-foot golden body is not you.

  However, your attempts to escape from being the sixteen-foot golden body are nothing but bits and pieces of the time being. Those who have not yet confirmed this should look into it deeply. The hours of Horse and Sheep, which are arrayed in the world now, are actualized by ascendings and descendings of the time being at each moment. The rat is time, the tiger is time, sentient beings are time, buddhas are time.

  At this moment, you enlighten the entire world with three heads and eight arms; you enlighten the entire world with the sixteen-foot golden body. To fully actualize the entire world with the entire world is called thorough practice.

  To fully actualize the golden body with the golden body—to arouse the way-seeking mind, practice, attain enlightenment, and enter nirvana—is nothing but being, nothing but time.

  Just actualize all time as all being; there is nothing extra. An “extra being” is thoroughly an extra being. Thus, the time being half-actualized is half of the time being completely actualized, and a moment that seems to be missed is also completely being. In the same way, even the moment before or after the moment that appears to be missed is also the time being complete in itself. Vigorously abiding in each moment is the time being. Do not mistakenly confuse it as nonbeing. Do not forcefully assert it as being.

  You may suppose that time is only passing away, and not understand that time never arrives. Although understanding itself is time, understanding does not depend on its own arrival.

  People only see time’s coming and going, and do not thoroughly understand that the time being abides in each moment. Then, when can they penetrate the barrier? Even if people recognized the time being in each moment, who could give expression to this recognition? Even if they could give expression to this recognition for a long time, who could stop looking for the realization of the original face? According to an ordinary person’s view of the time being, even enlightenment and nirvana as the time being would be merely aspects of coming and going.

  The time being is entirely actualized without being caught up in nets or cages. Deva kings and heavenly beings appearing right and left are the time being of your complete effort right now. The time being of all beings throughout the world in water and on land just actualizes your complete effort right now. All beings of all kinds in the visible and invisible realms are the time being actualized by your complete effort, flowing due to your complete effort.

  Closely examine this flowing; without your complete effort right now, nothing would be actualized, nothing would flow.

  Do not think flowing is like wind and rain moving from east to west. The entire world is not unchangeable, not immovable. It flows. Flowing is like spring. Spring with all its numerous aspects is called flowing. When spring flows, there is nothing outside of spring. Study this in detail.

  Spring always flows through spring. Although flowing itself is not spring, flowing occurs throughout spring. Thus, flowing is complete at just this moment of spring. Examine this thoroughly, coming and going.

  In your study of flowing, if you imagine the objective to be outside yourself and that you flow and move through hundreds and thousands of worlds, for hundreds, thousands, and myriad of eons, you have not devotedly studied the buddha way.

  Yaoshan, who would later become Great Master Hongdao, instructed by Shitou, Great Master Wuji, once went to study with Mazu, Zen Master Daji of Jiangxi.

  Yaoshan asked, “I a
m familiar with the teaching of the Three Vehicles and Twelve Divisions of scripture. But what is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from India?”

  Mazu replied:

  For the time being, have him raise his eyebrows and blink.

  For the time being, do not have him raise his eyebrows and blink.

  For the time being, to have him raise his eyebrows and blink is right.

  For the time being, to have him raise his eyebrows and blink is not right.

  Hearing these words, Yaoshan experienced great enlightenment and said to Mazu, “When I was studying with Shitou, it was like a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull.”

  What Mazu said is not the same as other people’s words. The eyebrows and eyes are mountains and oceans, because mountains and oceans are eyebrows and eyes. Have him raise his eyebrows is to see the mountains. Have him blink is to understand the oceans. The right answer belongs to him, and he is activated by your having him raise his eyebrows and blink. Not right does not mean not having him raise his eyebrows and blink. Not to have him raise his eyebrows and blink does not mean not right. These are all equally the time being.

  Mountains are time. Oceans are time. If they were not time, there would be no mountains or oceans. Do not think that mountains and oceans here and now are not time. If time is annihilated, mountains and oceans are annihilated. As time is not annihilated, mountains and oceans are not annihilated.