Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  In this way, some emperors in particular regarded the robe as a national treasure. Indeed, holding the buddha robe in their country is a greater fortune than presiding over the billion worlds. It cannot be compared to the Bian’s giant jewel, which became the national emblem from generation to generation but would not come close to the rare treasure transmitted from buddha to buddha.

  Since the time of the Great Tang Dynasty, those in black robes and white robes [home leavers and laypeople] who have bowed to this robe all have great capacity to have trust in the dharma. Without being helped by wholesome actions in the past, how can they personally bow to the buddha robe authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha? Those with skin, flesh, bones, and marrow [of the Buddha] should rejoice. Those who are unable to receive it with trust should deplore that they are not seeds of buddhas, although that is the result of their past actions.

  Even laypeople say that to see an action of a person is to see the person. Similarly, to bow to a buddha’s robe now is to see the buddha. You should construct hundreds and thousands of stupas and make offerings to the buddha robe. Those even in the deva realm and in the ocean who have hearts should revere the robe. Those in the human realm who know the sincerity and excellence of the wheel-turning kings should revere this robe.

  What a pity that some heads of state didn’t know that there was such a valuable treasure in their country [China]! Some of them, confused by the teaching of Daoist practitioners, abolished buddha dharma. They wore cloth headwear instead of putting on the kashaya, and spoke about attaining longevity. There were such heads of state in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Although they were emperors, they were lowlier than their subjects. Quietly observe this.

  Buddha robes are present in our country [Japan]. Ponder if this is a land of wearing a buddha robe.

  A buddha robe excels relics. Wheel-turning kings, lions, and humans have relics. Even pratyeka-buddhas have relics. But wheel-turning kings, lions, and humans do not necessarily have kashayas. Only buddhas have kashayas. So, deeply revere the kashaya.

  Many foolish people nowadays revere relics but don’t know about a kashaya. They rarely know that a kashaya should be maintained and protected. This is so because they have hardly heard about the value of a kashaya from their predecessors and have not yet learned about the authentic transmission of buddha dharma.

  If we ponder the time when Shakyamuni Buddha was alive, this was only two thousand and some years ago. Many national treasures and divine objects that have been transmitted until now are older than that. Buddha dharma and the buddha robe are recent and new. They have unfolded in fields and villages for merely fifty generations. Yet, their benefits are wondrous. Although those national treasures and divine objects still have merit, the buddha robe is beyond comparison. While those national treasures and divine objects have not been authentically transmitted from heir to heir, the buddha robe has been authentically transmitted from heir to heir.

  Know that one attains the way upon hearing the four-line verse or upon hearing one phrase. Why does the four-line verse or the one phrase have such miraculous power? Because they are both buddha dharma. Now, the supreme [excrement-cleaning] robe, [often in the form of] the nine-panel robe, has been authentically transmitted with buddha dharma. They should not be inferior to the four-line verse. They should not have less miraculous effect than the one phrase.

  This being so, for these two thousand and some years, all those who have trust in and practice dharma, who are student followers of the Buddha, have maintained and protected kashayas as their own bodies and minds. Those who are ignorant of the true dharma of all buddhas do not venerate kashayas. Although Indra and the Dragon King of Anavatapta Lake are both lay kings of deva worlds, they maintain and protect kashayas.

  But those who have shaved their heads and call themselves children of the Buddha don’t know that a kashaya is to be received and maintained. How should they know its shape, color, and measurements? Do they know how to put it on? Further, they have not even dreamed of the awesome manner of wearing it.

  From ancient times, a kashaya is known as a robe for removing fever or a robe of emancipation. Its merit is immeasurable. The three types of fever a dragon suffers from are removed with the merit of a kashaya. When buddhas attain the way, they always wear the kashaya.

  Even if you were born in this remote land and have encountered the decline of dharma, if you compare the difference between having and not having transmission [of a robe], you should receive with trust, maintain, and protect an authentically transmitted robe.

  In what other houses have both the robe and dharma of Shakyamuni Buddha been truly transmitted as in our house? They exist only in the buddha way. Encountering the robe and dharma, who can be lax on revering and dedicating to them? Dedicate yourself even if you need to give up lives as many as the sands of the Ganges for one day of revering the robe. Vow to encounter and revere it birth after birth, world after world.

  We were born beyond mountains and oceans more than one hundred thousand li away from the land where the Buddha was born. We are uncivilized and foolish. However, if you receive and maintain a kashaya even for a day and night, and study one phrase or one verse of it, you will have the merit of making an offering not only to one or two buddhas but also to countless, one hundred, thousand, billion buddhas. Even if this is done by you, revere, love, and appreciate your action.

  Thoroughly express your gratitude for the great kindness of the ancestors who have transmitted the robe and dharma. Even animals repay others’ kindness. How can a human not know others’ kindness? If you didn’t appreciate others’ kindness, you would be worse and more foolish than animals.

  The merit of a kashaya is not even dreamed of by those who are not ancestors and do not transmit the Buddha’s true dharma. How then can they clarify the shape, color, and measurements of a kashaya? Those who long for the traces of buddhas should long for their kashayas. If this authentic transmission is authentically transmitted, this is indeed buddha dharma even one hundred, one thousand, and myriad generations later. The proof of this realization is evident.

  Even a layperson [Lord Qing] said, “If it were not the late king’s robe, I would not wear it. If it were not the late king’s law, I would not follow it.” The buddha way is just like that. Other than the late buddha’s dharma robe, what would you wear in the practice of the buddha way and serving all buddhas? Those who do not wear this cannot enter the buddhas’ assembly.

  Since the tenth year of the Yongping Era [67 C.E.] of the Emperor Xiaoming of the Later Han Dynasty, monks and laypeople often went back and forth between India and China. But none of them said that they had met an ancestor in India who had authentic transmission from buddha ancestors. Thus, there was no lineage of face-to-face transmission from the Tathagata. These seekers only studied with masters of sutras and treatises and brought back only names and aspects of buddha dharma. They did not say they had met ancestors who had authentically inherited buddha dharma. They did not say there were ancestors who had transmitted the buddha kashaya. Therefore, those people did not enter deeply into the chamber of buddha dharma and clarify the meaning of the authentic transmission of the buddha ancestors.

  They only think that the kashaya is a robe and don’t know that it is valued in buddha dharma. It is a pity, indeed. A buddha robe is transmitted to and received by an authentic heir of the treasury of the true dharma eye. It is a commonly known fact among humans and devas that there are no ancestors authentically transmitting the dharma treasury who have not seen and heard of the buddha robe. Thus, the authentic transmission and learning of the shape, color, and measurements, and the great merit, as well as the body, mind, bones, and marrow of a buddha kashaya, lie only in the authentically transmitted work of the buddha house. This is not known in the teaching of various Agama schools. What has been independently created by practitioners nowadays is not authentic transmission by authentic heirs.

  The Tathagata Shakyamuni, our great teacher, entrusted t
he treasury of the true dharma eye, the unsurpassable enlightenment, to Mahakashyapa along with the kashaya. The robe was transmitted heir to heir for thirty-three generations to Huineng. The shape, color, and measurements have been intimately transmitted, freshly received, and maintained until now. This is an authentic transmission that each of the high ancestors of the Five Schools received and maintained. For forty or fifty generations, teacher and disciple without exception have sewn and worn the kashaya. This has been transmitted afresh from buddha to buddha in merged realization generation after generation.

  According to the authentically transmitted instruction of the Buddha, a kashaya can be made of:

  Nine panels, each panel consisting of three long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Nine panels, each panel consisting of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Eleven panels, each panel consisting of three long pieces and one short piece of cloth, or of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Thirteen panels, each panel consisting of three long pieces and one short piece of cloth, or of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Fifteen panels, each panel consisting of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Seventeen panels, each panel consisting of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Nineteen panels, each panel consisting of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Twenty-one panels, each panel consisting of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Twenty-three panels, each panel consisting of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Twenty-five panels, each panel consisting of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Two hundred fifty panels, each panel consisting of four long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  Eighty-four thousand panels, each panel consisting of eight long pieces and one short piece of cloth

  This is a summary. There are other types of kashayas. All these are outer robes. Both laypeople and monks receive and maintain them. To receive and maintain them means to wear them and not to keep them folded without use.

  Those who shave their heads and faces but hate and fear kashayas without receiving and maintaining them are demons or people outside the way.

  Baizhang, Zen Master Dazhi, said, “Those who lack wholesome seeds planted in the past avoid and dislike a kashaya. They fear and avoid true dharma.”

  The Buddha said:

  If a sentient being, after entering my dharma, commits a heavy crime or falls into crooked views, but reveres the outer robe with mindfulness, receiving and maintaining it, other buddhas and I will certainly give a prediction of enlightenment in the Three Vehicles to such a person, who will become a buddha. If a deva, a dragon, a human being, or a demon reveres the merit of even a small piece of kashaya, they will practice unremittingly in the Three Vehicles. If a spirit being or a sentient being acquires even a four-sun piece of a kashaya, the being will have sufficient food and drink. If sentient beings have a fight and are about to fall into a crooked view, but think of the power of a kashaya, they can arouse compassion and return to purity with the power of a kashaya. If someone in a battlefield carries a small piece of a kashaya and reveres it, the person will certainly attain emancipation.

  Thus, we know that the power of a kashaya is unsurpassable and wondrous. Where it is accepted and maintained with trust, there is always the receiving of a prediction of enlightenment and attaining of noremittance. Not only Shakyamuni Buddha but all other buddhas teach in this way. Know that the essence and form of all buddhas is the kashaya.

  Thus, the Buddha said, “Those who fall into unwholesome paths avoid a monk’s great robe.” So, if you feel like avoiding a kashaya upon hearing and seeing it, you should lament that you are about to fall into an unwholesome path. Repent for this.

  When Shakyamuni Buddha was about to leave his palace and enter the mountains for the first time, a tree god held up an outer robe and said, “If you wear this robe with reverence, you will be protected from harm by demons.” It is said that the Buddha revered it and wore it for twelve years without ceasing. This is a story told by scriptures, including the Agama Sutra.

  It is also said that a kashaya is an auspicious robe. Those who wear it invariably attain an excellent place. There has never been a time in the world when this robe has not emerged. Its emergence at any moment is a matter of timeless kalpas. A matter of timeless kalpas is its arrival at any moment. To attain a kashaya is to attain the emblem of the Buddha. This being so, among all buddha tathagatas there is no one who has not received and maintained it. There is no one who has received and maintained a kashaya and has not become a buddha.

  There are various ways to wear the kashaya. The most common way is to leave the right shoulder uncovered.

  There is also a way to cover both shoulders. In this case, you align both edges of the robe to your left shoulder and elbow, with the front edge in front and the back edge underneath it. At times the Buddha wore the kashaya in this way. This is not, however, seen or heard by shravakas or taught by scriptures, including the Agama Sutra.

  The method of wearing a kashaya in the buddha way has been invariably received and maintained by ancestors who have received the true dharma that is present. When receiving a kashaya, you should always receive it from such an ancestor. A kashaya transmitted by buddha ancestors is authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha without fail. It is a kashaya of earlier buddhas and later buddhas, old buddhas and new buddhas. It transforms the way and transforms buddhas. In authentically transforming the past, present, and future, a kashaya is transmitted from past to present, from present to future, from present to past, from past to past, from present to present, from future to future, from future to present, from future to past. It is authentic transmission only between buddha and buddha.

  This being so, for hundreds of years since Bodhidharma came to China, and from the Tang to Song Dynasties, a number of scholars experienced realization and those in the scriptural and precepts schools entered buddha dharma. They gave up their worn-out robes that had come from the old nests [teachings] and received kashayas authentically transmitted in the buddha way. Such incidents are recorded in books including the [Jingde Record of] Transmission of the Lamp, the Extensive Transmission of the Lamp, the Continuous Transmission of the Lamp, and the Universal Transmission of the Lamp. This marked a departure from the limited views of the scriptural and precepts schools to revering the great way that had been authentically transmitted by buddha ancestors. Such people all became buddha ancestors.

  Those who are in the present should also study with ancient ancestors. If you are to receive a kashaya, authentically receive an authentically transmitted kashaya. Receive it with trust. Do not receive a forged kashaya.

  Speaking of an authentically transmitted kashaya, the one authentically transmitted from Shaolin [Bodhidharma] through Caoxi [Huineng] has been passed on from heir to heir without missing even one generation. In this way, the work of the way has been exactly passed on, and the buddha robe has been intimately handed down. The buddha way is authentically transmitted to the buddha way. It does not depend on the hearsay of an idle person.

  There is a common saying: “One thousand hearings do not match one seeing. One thousand seeings do not match one attainment.” If we reflect on this, even one thousand seeings and ten thousand hearings cannot match one attainment, an authentic receiving of the buddha robe.

  Those who doubt authentic transmission have not dreamed of it, but authentic transmission of the buddha robe is more intimate than hearing about a buddha sutra. Even one thousand sutras and ten thousand attainments cannot match one realization. Buddha ancestors are the merging of realization. Do not follow the mediocre schools of scripture and precepts.

  The power of the robe in the ancestral gate [school] has actually been transmitted in its original form. It has been received and inherited up until now without a break. Those who authentically receive it are
all dharma-transmitted ancestors who have merged with realization. They excel bodhisattvas of the ten stages and three classes. See it, revere it, bow to it, and place it on your head.

  That you accept the teaching of authentic transmission of this buddha robe in your body and mind with trust is a sign of encountering the Buddha. Not to be able to receive this dharma is a life to be lamented. Deeply affirm that covering your body with this kashaya even once is an amulet of protection for ensuring enlightenment.

  It is said that if you dye your mind with one phrase or one verse of teaching, it will become timelessly radiant without lack. To dye your body and mind with a single dharma is just like this.

  Although the mind has no abode and is not possessed by the self, its power is concrete. Although the body has no abode, its power is concrete. A kashaya also neither comes nor goes. It is not possessed by the self or other; it abides where it is maintained and assists the one who maintains it. The power of what is attained by the kashaya must also be like this.

  Making a kashaya is not limited to the ordinary or sages. Its meaning cannot be thoroughly understood by bodhisattvas of the ten stages and three classes. Those who don’t have seeds of enlightenment planted in the past do not see, hear about, and know a kashaya even for one lifetime, two lifetimes, or innumerable lifetimes. How then can they receive and maintain it?