Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Yangshan’s words how can they help but fall into the secondary mean that the secondary is also enlightenment. The secondary is like saying “to become enlightened,” “to get enlightenment,” or “enlightenment has come.” It means that “becoming” and “coming” are enlightenment.

  It may look as if Yangshan was cautious about falling into the secondary and was denying a secondary enlightenment. But the secondary that becomes enlightenment is no other than the secondary that is true enlightenment. This being so, even the secondary, the hundredth, or the thousandth is enlightenment. It is not that the secondary is capped by the primary.

  Don’t say that yesterday’s self was the true self but today’s self is the secondary self. Don’t say that enlightenment just now was not there yesterday. It is not that enlightenment has begun this moment. Study in this way. Thus, great enlightenment is black, great enlightenment is white.

  Abiding at the Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery, I present this to the assembly on the twenty-eighth day, the first month, the third year of the Ninji Era [1242].

  Staying at the ancient Yoshimine Temple, I revise and present this to the assembly of humans and devas on the twenty-eighth day, the first month, the second year of the Kangen Era [1243].

  28

  THE POINT OF ZAZEN

  YAOSHAN, GREAT MASTER Hongdao, was sitting. A monk asked him, “In steadfast sitting, what do you think?”

  Yaoshan said, “Think not-thinking.”

  “How do you think not-thinking?”

  Yaoshan replied, “Beyond thinking.”

  Realizing these words of Yaoshan, you should investigate and receive the authentic transmission of steadfast sitting. This is the thorough study of steadfast sitting transmitted in the buddha way.

  Yaoshan is not the only one who spoke of thinking in steadfast sitting. His words, however, were extraordinary. Think not-thinking is the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of thinking and the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of not-thinking.

  The monk said, How do you think not-thinking? However ancient not-thinking is, still we are asked how to think it. Is there not-thinking in steadfast sitting? How can going beyond steadfast sitting not be understood? One who is not shallow and foolish can ask and think about steadfast sitting.

  Yaoshan said, Beyond thinking. The activity of beyond thinking is crystal clear. In order to think not-thinking, beyond thinking is always used. In beyond thinking, there is somebody that sustains you. Even if it is you who are sitting steadfastly, you not only are thinking but are upholding steadfast sitting. When sitting steadfastly, how can steadfast sitting think steadfast sitting? Thus, sitting steadfastly is not buddha thought, dharma thought, enlightenment thought, or realization thought.

  This teaching was directly transmitted person to person from Shakyamuni Buddha to Yaoshan through thirty-six generations of ancestors. That means if you go beyond thirty-six generations from Yaoshan, you go back to Shakyamuni Buddha. What was authentically transmitted thus was think not-thinking.

  However, careless students in recent times say, “The endeavor of zazen is completed when your heart is quiescent, as zazen is a place of calmness.” Such a view does not even reach that of students of the Lesser Vehicles, and is inferior to the teachings of human and deva vehicles. How can we call them students of buddha dharma? In present-day Song China, there are many practitioners who hold such views. The decline of the ancestral path is truly lamentable.

  There are also people who say, “Practicing zazen is essential for those who are beginners or those who have started studying recently, but it is not necessarily the activity of buddha ancestors. Activity in daily life is Zen, and sitting is Zen. In speaking and in silence, in motion and stillness, your body should be tranquil. Do not be concerned only with the practice of zazen.” Many of those who call themselves descendants of Linji hold such a view. They say so because they have not received the transmission of the right livelihood of buddha dharma.

  Who are beginners? Are there any who are not beginners? When do you leave the beginner’s mind? Know that in the definitive study of the buddha dharma, you engage in zazen and endeavor in the way. At the heart of the teaching is a practicing buddha who does not seek to become a buddha. As a practicing buddha does not become a buddha, the fundamental point is realized.

  The embodiment of buddha is not becoming a buddha. When you break through the snares and cages [of words and concepts], a sitting buddha does not hinder becoming a buddha. Right now, you have the ability to enter the realm of buddha and enter the realms of demons throughout the ages. Going forward and going backward, you personally have the freedom of overflowing ditches, overflowing valleys.

  Mazu, Zen Master Daji of Jiangxi, studied with Nanyue, Zen Master Dahui. After intimately receiving Nanyue’s mind seal, Mazu was continuously engaged in zazen.

  One day Nanyue went up to him and said, “Virtuous one, what’s your intention in doing zazen?”

  Quietly ponder this question. Was Nanyue asking if Mazu had the intention of going beyond zazen, if he had an intention outside of zazen, or if he had no intention at all? Was Nanyue asking what kind of intention emerges while doing zazen? Investigate this thoroughly.

  Love a true dragon instead of loving a carved one. However, know that both carved and true dragons have the ability to produce clouds and rain. Do not treasure or belittle what is far away, but be intimate with it. Do not treasure or belittle what is near, but be intimate with it. Do not make light or a big deal of what you see with your eyes. Do not make light or a big deal of what you hear with your ears. Rather, illuminate your eyes and ears.

  Mazu said, “My intention is to become a buddha.”

  Clarify these words. What is the meaning of become a buddha? Does become a buddha mean being made buddha by another buddha, or buddha making oneself buddha? Is this the emergence of one or two buddhas? Is the intention to become buddha dropping off, or is dropping off the intention to become buddha? Does this mean that however many ways there are to become buddha, to be immersed in this intention to become a buddha is the intention to become buddha?

  Know that Mazu meant that zazen is inevitably the intention to become buddha, and that zazen is inevitably becoming buddha with intention. Intention is prior to becoming a buddha and after becoming a buddha. Intention is the very moment of becoming buddha.

  I ask you: How much of becoming buddha is being immersed in intention? This immersion is immersed in immersion. Immersion is always a direct expression of totally becoming buddha, every bit of completely intending to become buddha. Do not avoid even a bit of intention. If you avoid it, you lose your body and miss your life. When you lose your body and miss your life, this too is immersion in intention.

  Nanyue picked up a tile and started to polish it on a rock.

  Mazu said, “What are you doing?”

  Indeed, who does not see this as polishing a tile? Who can see this as polishing a tile? So Mazu asked, What are you doing?

  What are you doing? is no other than polishing a tile. Whether in this world or in another world, polishing a tile has never ceased. Do not regard your view as the only view. In any activity, there is always this question.

  Those who see buddha without knowing and understanding buddha see water without understanding water, and see mountains without knowing mountains. To hastily conclude that what’s happening in front of you is a dead end is not a study of buddha.

  Nanyue said, “I am polishing this tile to make a mirror.”

  Clarify these words. Polishing a tile to make a mirror has a deep meaning; it is not a false statement, but actualizes the fundamental point. Although a tile is a tile and a mirror is a mirror, there are many ways to investigate the meaning of polishing. An ancient bright mirror, a bright mirror, comes from polishing a tile. Without knowing that all mirrors come from polishing tiles, you will not see or hear the words, mouth, or breath of buddha ancestors.

  Mazu said, “How can you make a mirror by polishing a tile?”

/>   Indeed, by polishing a tile and doing nothing else, an iron-willed practitioner does not make a mirror. Even if making a mirror is not polishing a tile, a mirror is immediately there.

  Nanyue said, “How can you become a buddha by doing zazen?”

  Be clear that zazen is not working toward becoming a buddha. The teaching that becoming a buddha has nothing to do with zazen is evident.

  Mazu said, “Then, how so?”

  These words may seem to be asking one thing but in fact are asking another. It is like close friends meeting; each is intimate with the other. How so? addresses both zazen and becoming a buddha at the same time.

  Nanyue said, “When driving a cart, if it stops moving, do you whip the cart or the ox?”

  In regard to driving a cart, what is moving and what is stopping? Does it mean that water flowing is the cart moving or water not flowing is the cart moving? You can also say that flowing is water not moving. There is a time when water’s moving is not-flowing. Thus, when you investigate the cart not moving, there is stopping and not stopping; it depends on time. The word stopping does not merely mean not moving.

  In regards to Nanyue’s words Do you whip the cart or the ox? is it that you sometimes hit the cart and sometimes hit the ox? Is hitting the cart the same or not the same as hitting the ox? In the secular world, there is no custom of hitting the cart. Although there is no custom of common people hitting the cart, in the buddha way there is the practice of hitting the cart; this is the eye of study. Even if you realize the practice of hitting the cart, it is not the same as hitting the ox. Study this thoroughly.

  Although hitting the ox is commonly practiced, you should investigate hitting the ox in the buddha way. Is it hitting a living buffalo, an iron ox, or a clay ox? Is it hitting with a whip, with the entire world, or with the whole mind? Is it hitting the marrow, hitting with the fist? How about fist hitting fist, and ox hitting ox?

  Mazu was silent.

  Do not ignore this silence. This is hurling a tile to attract a jewel, turning the head and turning the face. This silence cannot be taken away.

  Nanyue then instructed: “If you practice sitting Zen, you practice sitting buddha.”

  Investigate this statement and understand the pivotal point of the ancestral school. Those who miss the essential meaning of the practice of sitting Zen may say that it is the practice of sitting buddha. But how can those who are not authentic descendants be sure that the practice of sitting Zen is the practice of sitting buddha? Know that the zazen of beginner’s mind is the beginning of zazen. The beginning of zazen is the beginning of sitting buddha.

  Nanyue continued: “If you practice sitting Zen, [you will know that] Zen is not about sitting or lying down.”

  What Nanyue meant is that zazen is zazen, and it is not limited to sitting or lying down. This teaching has been transmitted person to person; thus boundless sitting and lying down are the self [beyond self]. When you reflect on your life activities, are they intimate with zazen or remote from it? Is there enlightenment in zazen, or is there delusion? Is there one whose wisdom penetrates zazen?

  Nanyue said further: “In the practice of sitting buddha, the buddha has no fixed form.”

  Nanyue spoke the words in this way. The reason why sitting buddha is neither singular nor plural is that sitting buddha is adorned with no fixed form. To speak of no fixed form is to speak of buddha’s form. As buddha has no fixed form, there is no escape from sitting buddha. Adorned with buddha’s no-fixed form, the practice of zazen is itself sitting buddha. In the dharma beyond condition, who can discriminate buddha from not-buddha? Falling away before discrimination, sitting buddha is sitting buddha.

  Nanyue said, “If you sit buddha, you kill [go beyond] buddha.”

  When you study sitting buddha further in this way, it has an aspect of kill buddha. At the very moment of sitting buddha there is killing buddha. If you want to find the extraordinary luminosity of killing buddha, always sit buddha. Kill may be an ordinary word that people commonly use, but its meaning here is totally different. Study how it is that sitting buddha is killing buddha. Investigate the fact that the buddha is itself killing buddha. Study killing and not killing a true person.

  Nanyue said, “If you are identified with [confined by] the sitting form, you have not reached the heart of the matter.”

  Identified with the sitting form, spoken of here, is to defile and abandon the sitting form. The reason is that when one is sitting buddha, it is impossible not to be identified with the sitting form. However clear the sitting form is, the heart of the matter cannot be reached, because it is impossible not to be one with the sitting form. To penetrate this is called “letting go of body and mind.”

  Those who have not practiced sitting do not reach the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is sitting time, sitting person, sitting buddha, and the practice of sitting buddha.

  The sitting of mere sitting and mere lying down is not sitting buddha. Although usual sitting looks like sitting buddha or buddha sitting, it is not so. A person becomes buddha, becoming a buddha person. However, all people do not become buddhas. Buddhas are not all people, because buddhas are not limited to people. An ordinary person is not necessarily buddha, buddha is not necessarily an ordinary person. Sitting buddha is like this.

  In this way Nanyue was a profound teacher and Mazu was a thorough student. Mazu realized sitting buddha as becoming buddha, and Nanyue taught becoming buddha as sitting buddha. At Nanyue’s assembly there was this kind of investigation, and at Yaoshan’s assembly there was that dialogue. Know that what buddhas and ancestors have regarded as the pivotal point is sitting buddha. Those who are buddha ancestors employ this pivotal point. Those who aren’t have never dreamed of it.

  Transmission of buddha dharma in the west and east [India and China] is no other than transmission of sitting buddha. This is the pivotal point. Where buddha dharma is not transmitted, zazen is not transmitted. What has been passed on person to person is the essential teaching of zazen alone. Those who have not intimately received this teaching are not buddha ancestors.

  Without clarifying this single matter, you cannot clarify myriad matters and practices. Without clarifying them, you cannot be regarded as one who has attained the way with clear eye and cannot join buddha ancestors of the past and present. Thus, buddha ancestors unfailingly receive and transmit zazen person to person.

  To be illuminated by buddha ancestors is to endeavor in the thorough practice of zazen. Those who are ignorant mistakenly think that buddha light is like sunlight, moonlight, or the glowing of a jewel. But sunlight, moonlight, or the glowing of a jewel is merely a physical manifestation in the transmigration through the six paths, and cannot be compared to buddha light. Buddha light is to receive and listen to one phrase of teaching, to maintain and guard one dharma, and to transmit zazen person to person. Without being illuminated by such light, accepting and maintaining zazen is not possible.

  Since ancient times few have understood zazen as it is. Even the heads of high-ranking monasteries in China nowadays do not know and study the meaning of zazen. There are only a few who clearly understand it. Monasteries have schedules for zazen; the abbots and resident monks keep the practice of zazen as essential and encourage students to practice zazen. But few of them seem to understand the meaning of what they are doing.

  Some masters have written texts titled “Essentials of Zazen.” A few others have written “Rules for Zazen,” and a few more have written “The Point of Zazen.” Among these texts, none of those titled “Essentials of Zazen” are worthwhile. No version of “Rules for Zazen” clarifies the practice. They were written by those who did not know zazen, as they had not received the transmission of zazen person to person. “The Point of Zazen” included in the Jingde Record of Transmission of the Lamp and “Essentials of Zazen” included in the Jiatai Record of the Universal Lamp are also like this.

  What a pity! They visited and abided in monasteries of the ten directions and practice
d all their lives, but they did not make a thorough effort even for one sitting. Sitting had not immersed in them and endeavor had not encountered them. It is not that zazen avoided them, but that they were carelessly intoxicated. They did not aspire to a genuine effort.

  Their texts merely aim to return to the source and origin, trying to cease thinking and to be still. That does not even come up to taking the steps of visualization, purification, nurturing, and attainment, or the view of the bodhisattvas of the last ten stages approaching buddha’s enlightenment. How could they have received and transmitted the buddha ancestors’ zazen? The Song Dynasty compilers of Zen texts included these writings by mistake. Those who study now should not pay attention to such writings.

  “The Point of Zazen,” written by Zhengjiao, Zen Master Hongzhi of the Tiantong Jingde Monastery, Mount Taibai, Qingyuan Prefecture, China, is a work of a buddha ancestor. It is a true point of zazen, with penetrating words. It is the only light that illuminates the inside and outside of the world of phenomena. It is buddha ancestor among buddha ancestors of past and present. Earlier buddhas and later buddhas have been led to zazen by this teaching. Present buddhas and past buddhas are actualized by this “Point of Zazen.” The text is as follows:

  The hub of buddhas’ activity,

  the turning of the ancestors’ hub,

  is known free of forms,

  illuminated beyond conditions.

  As it is known free of forms,

  the knowledge is subtle.

  As it is illuminated beyond conditions,