Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Hongren, who would later become the Fifth Chinese Ancestor, Zen Master Daman, was a man from Huangmei. His lay name was Zhou, after his mother’s family. Like Laozi [Lao-tzu], he was born without a father. From age seven, when he received transmission of dharma, until age seventy-four, he maintained the treasury of the true dharma eye of buddha ancestors. During this time he discreetly entrusted the robe of dharma to Laborer Huineng [the Sixth Ancestor]. Hongren’s was an incomparable continuous practice. Because he did not bring forth the robe of dharma for [his most learned student] Senior Monk Shenxiu but entrusted it to Laborer Huineng, the life of the true dharma has not been cut off.

  Rujing, my late master, Priest Tiantong, was from Yue. At age nineteen he abandoned scriptural studies and engaged in practice, and he did not turn around even at age seventy. When offered a purple robe with the title of master from the Emperor Ning in the Jiading Era [1208–1224], he sent a letter politely declining it. Monks in the ten directions respected him for his action and those, both near and far, who were knowledgeable rejoiced over it. The Emperor was extremely impressed and sent him an offering of tea. Those who heard of this admired it as something rare at the time. Rujing’s action is indeed a genuine continuous practice.

  I say this because loving fame is worse than breaking a precept. Breaking a precept is a transgression at a particular time. Loving fame is like an ailment of a lifetime. Do not foolishly hold on to fame, or do not ignorantly accept it. Not to accept fame is continuous practice. To abandon it is continuous practice.

  The titles of master for the first six ancestors were all given posthumously by emperors. These ancestors did not receive their titles out of love of fame. Likewise, you should give up love of fame within birth and death, and simply wish for the continuous practice of buddha ancestors. Do not be like devouring creatures. To greedily love the self, which is of slight significance, doesn’t take you above the level of creatures and beasts. To abandon fame and gain is rare for humans and devas, but all buddha ancestors have done so.

  Some say, “I seek fame and love gain for the benefit of sentient beings.” This is a greatly mistaken view held by heretics within the buddha dharma, as well as by a troop of demons who slander the true dharma. Does this view mean that the buddha ancestors who do not seek fame and gain are unable to benefit sentient beings? What a laugh! What a laugh! Not-seeking can benefit beings. How is it so? Those who, without understanding this, promote what is not beneficial as beneficial are a troop of demons. Sentient beings helped by such demons are bound for hell. Such demons should deplore that their lives are in darkness. Do not regard such ignorant ones as beneficent beings.

  Thus, declining the offer of a title of master has been an excellent custom since olden times. This is something that those of us in later generations should fully understand. To see Rujing in person was to meet that person.

  Leaving home at nineteen, looking for a teacher, Rujing engaged in the endeavor of the way, without retreating or turning around. Until the age of sixty-five he still had not become close to or even seen an emperor, nor become intimate with ministers or government officials. Not only did he not accept a purple robe, he did not wear any brocade throughout his life. He only wore a black kashaya and a combined robe for formal talks and for giving instruction in the abbot’s room.

  Instructing the monks, Rujing said:

  For the practice of Zen in pursuit of the way, maintaining the mind of the way is primary. It is deplorable that the ancestral way has declined in the last two hundred years. There have been few skin bags who have expressed a phrase of understanding.

  At the time when I hung my walking staff at Mount Jing, Fuzhao Deguang was abbot. He said in his dharma talk, “Studying buddha dharma, the path of Zen, you should not look for phrases by others. Each of you should have your own understanding.” Thus, he did not oversee the monks’ hall and did not guide the many monks who were studying there. Instead, he spent his time entertaining visiting dignitaries. Not understanding the working of buddha dharma, he was simply greedy for name and loved gain.

  If it were enough to merely have our own understanding of buddha dharma, why have there always been determined old gimlets who traveled around looking for teachers? Indeed, Deguang had not yet mastered Zen. Nowadays, the elders of monasteries in various places are just like Deguang with their lack of way-seeking mind. How can they hold buddha dharma in their hands? It is regrettable, indeed!

  Although Rujing said this to the assembly that included many of Deguang’s students, none of them were resentful.

  Rujing also said, “To practice Zen is to drop away body and mind. You can actualize it by just sitting, without relying on burning incense, bowing, chanting Buddha’s name, repentance, or reading sutras.”

  In Song China, there are a great many skin bags, not merely hundreds, who regard themselves as Zen practitioners, calling themselves descendants of the ancestral school. But those who encourage just sitting as just sitting are rarely heard of. Within the country of Four Seas and Five Lakes [China], Rujing was the only one. Elders all over admired him, even though he did not admire them. But there are also leaders of large temples who do not know of him. Although born in China, they are like a herd of beasts. They have not studied what they should have studied, while merely wasting the passage of time. What a pity! Those who do not know about Rujing mistakenly regard idle chatter and confused talk as the teaching style of buddha ancestors.

  Rujing sometimes said in his talk in the dharma hall:

  Since I was nineteen, I have visited monasteries all over but have not met teachers to guide humans. Since then, I have not spent even one day or night without covering a zazen cushion. Since I became abbot, I have not chatted with people from my hometown. This is because I feel urgent about the passing of time. I have always stayed in the building where I hung my walking stick, without going to visit other huts or dormitories of the monastery. How could I spend time enjoying the mountainside or admiring waterscapes?

  I have been doing zazen not only in the monks’ hall and other communal places, but also alone in quiet towers and screened-in places. I always carry a cushion so I can sit at the foot of a rock. My hope has been to thoroughly penetrate the diamond seat. Sometimes my buttocks get raw, but still I sit harder.

  I am now sixty-five. Although my bones are aged and my head is dull, I don’t yet understand zazen. But, because I care about my fellow practitioners in the ten directions, I live in this monastery and transmit the way to the assembly, beginning with dawn instruction. I do this because I wonder, where is the buddha dharma among the elders of other places?

  He spoke in this way on a teaching seat. Also, Rujing would not accept gifts from monks who arrived from other places.

  Superintendent Zhao, a grandson of Emperor Ning, who was a commanding military officer and agricultural administrator of Ming Region, invited Rujing to the capital to give a dharma talk. At that time Zhao presented ten thousand silver coins to him. Rujing thanked him and said, “I have come to give a customary lecture on the treasury of the true dharma eye, wondrous heart of nirvana. I am dedicating the merit to the well-being of your late father. But I will not accept the silver coins. Monks have no need of these things. I greatly appreciate your kindness, but as usual I must decline your offer.”

  Zhao said, “Master, as a relative of His Imperial Majesty, I am respected everywhere and I have wealth. On this memorial day of my late father I would like to give him support in another world. Why can’t you accept my offering? I feel greatly fortunate to have you here today. With your great compassion and great kindness, please accept my humble gift.”

  Rujing said, “Your Excellency, your request cannot be refused. But I have a question. When I expounded dharma, did you understand it?”

  Zhao said, “I was simply delighted to hear it.”

  Rujing said, “You are brilliantly illuminating my words. I am honored. I just wish for the happiness of your late father, who was invoked today. Please explain
to me what I said in my discourse. If you can, I will accept the silver. If you cannot, then please keep it for yourself.”

  Zhao said, “When I think about it, your composure and movement were excellent.”

  Rujing said, “That’s what I did. How about what you heard?”

  Zhao hesitated.

  Rujing said, “Your late father’s happiness is already fulfilled. Your gift should be left to his decision.” Thus he bade farewell.

  Zhao said, “I regret that you did not accept my offering. But I rejoice in seeing you.” So saying, Zhao saw Rujing off.

  Monks and laity on both sides of the Zhe River [Zhejiang Province] admired Rujing. This was recorded in the journal of Attendant Monk Ping, who said, “An old master like this is hard to meet. Where else could we possibly find someone so accomplished?”

  Who in any direction would decline the offering of ten thousand blocks of silver? A teacher of old said, “Gold, silver, and jewels should be regarded as excrement. Even if you see them as gold and silver, it is customary for monks not to accept them.” Rujing followed this teaching; others did not. He would often say, “In the past three hundred years there have been few teachers like myself. Therefore, it is imperative that you practice diligently with me in the endeavor of the way.”

  In his assembly there was someone called Daosheng from Mian Region in Shu, who was a Daoist. A party of five practitioners including him made a vow: “We will master the great way of buddha ancestors in our lifetime. We will not go back to our hometowns until we do.”

  Rujing was delighted with their vow and allowed them to join walking and sitting meditation with the assembly. In the order of seating, he placed them right after the nuns [presumably a low-status position]. It was rare for Daoists to practice in a Zen monastery like this.

  Also, a monk called Shanru from Fu Region made a vow: “I will not take a step toward my home in the south, but will single-mindedly study the great way of buddha ancestors.” I personally witnessed many students like this in Rujing’s assembly. There are few like them in the assemblies of other masters. The continuous practice at Rujing’s assembly was outstanding amongst monks of Great Song China. Those who do not aspire to practice as they did should be sorrowful. Even when we meet the buddha dharma, we don’t necessarily respond to it. How much less fortunate is our body and mind if we don’t meet the buddha dharma at all!

  Think quietly. Life does not last long. To realize even a few lines of the buddha ancestors’ words is to realize the buddha ancestors. How is this so? Since buddha ancestors are body and mind as one, one phrase or two are the buddha ancestors’ warm body-mind. Their body-mind comes forth and realizes your body-mind. At the very moment of realization, this realization comes forth and realizes your body-mind. This life realizes the life of many lifetimes. By becoming a buddha and becoming an ancestor, you go beyond buddha and go beyond ancestor.

  Accounts of continuous practice are like this. Do not run around after fame and gain in the realm of sound and form. Not to run around is the continuous practice that has been transmitted person to person by buddha ancestors. Mature hermits, beginning hermits, one person, or half a person, I ask you to throw away myriad matters and conditions, and to continuously practice the continuous practice of buddha ancestors.

  Written at the Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery, on the fifth day, the fourth month, the third year of the Ninji Era [1243].

  32

  OCEAN MUDRA SAMADHI

  BUDDHAS AND ANCESTORS continuously maintain ocean mudra [form] samadhi. While swimming in this samadhi, they expound, realize, and practice. Traveling through water includes journeying along the ocean bottom. This is called “coursing along the bottom of the deepest ocean.”

  This ocean differs from the sea of birth and death where buddhas vow to guide beings drifting in birth and death to the shore of liberation. Each buddha ancestor breaks through the bamboo node [intellectual thinking] and passes the barrier individually; this is done only through the power of the ocean mudra samadhi.

  The Buddha said:

  Elements come together and form this body. At the time of appearing, elements appear. At the time of disappearing, elements disappear. When elements appear, I do not say “I” appear. When elements disappear, I do not say “I” disappear. Past moments and future moments do not arise sequentially. Past elements and future elements do not arise in alignment. This is the meaning of ocean mudra samadhi.

  Closely investigate these words by the Buddha. Attaining the way and entering realization do not necessarily require extensive learning or explanation. Anyone can attain the way through a simple verse of four lines. Even scholars with extensive knowledge can enter realization through a one-line verse. But these words by the Buddha are not about searching for original enlightenment or gaining initial enlightenment. Although buddhas and ancestors manifest original or initial enlightenment, original or initial enlightenment is not buddha ancestors.

  At the very moment of ocean mudra samadhi, elements come together and the Buddha’s words elements come together are manifested. This is the moment of form this body.

  This body is a coming together of elements. It is not merely a coming together; it is elements coming together. A body formed in this way is described as this body.

  The Buddha said, At the time of appearing, elements appear. This appearing does not leave any mark of appearing; therefore, appearing does not enter one’s perception or knowledge. Thus, the Buddha said, I do not say “I” appear. It is not that there is someone else who perceives or thinks that the person appears; it is just that you see beyond, and you drop away your initial understanding.

  As the time [of ocean mudra samadhi] is not other than appearing, appearing is the arrival of time. What is it that appears? Appearing appears. Because appearing is time, appearing does not fail to fully manifest skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. As appearing is a coming together, appearing is this body, appearing is “I” appear, appearing is all elements coming together. What appears is not merely sound and form. All elements appear as “I” appear and as I do not say “I” appear.

  Not say is not “not expressing,” because expressing is not saying. The time of appearing [in ocean mudra samadhi] is when elements appear, which is not the same as the twelve hours of the day [ordinary time]. All elements are the time of appearing, not the time when the three realms appear.

  An ancient buddha said, “Fire appears all of a sudden.”

  Fire here means elements appear together but are not sequential.

  An ancient buddha said, “What about the moment when appearing and disappearing continue endlessly?”

  Appearing and disappearing continue endlessly while self appears and disappears. Reflect on the words continue endlessly and let them continue endlessly. Allow the moments of appearing and disappearing to continue and discontinue as the life stream of buddha ancestors.

  The moment when appearing and disappearing continue endlessly is “What appears and disappears?” This means “With this body I awaken beings,” “Now I manifest this body,” “I expound dharma,” “Past mind is unattainable,” “You have attained my marrow,” “You have attained my bones.” This is “What appears and disappears?”

  [The Buddha said,] When elements disappear, I do not say “I” disappear. The moment when I do not say “I” disappear is the moment when elements disappear. What disappears are elements disappearing. Although disappearing, they are elements. Because they are elements, they are not affected by delusion. Because they are not affected by delusion, they are not divided. This undividedness is all buddhas and ancestors. In the words [spoken by Huineng], “You are like this,” what is not you? All past moments and all future moments are you. When he said, “I am like this,” what is not I? Past moments and future moments are all I.

  Disappearing has been magnificently expressed as countless hands and eyes [of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva]. It is unsurpassable nirvana. It is called death. It is called freedom from attachment. It
is called the abiding place.

  Hands and eyes are expressions of disappearing. Not saying I at the moment of appearing and not saying I at the moment of disappearing appear together, but do not disappear at the same time. There are past elements that disappear and future elements that disappear. There are elements that are moments in the past and elements that are moments in the future. Being is past and future elements. Being is past and future moments. Things that are not sequential are being. Things that are not aligned are being.

  Talking about things that are not sequential and not aligned explains eight or nine out of ten. To regard the four great elements and five skandhas as the hands and eyes of disappearing is to take them up and pursue understanding. To see four great elements and five skandhas as the path of disappearing is going beyond, encountering reality. The entire body is hands and eyes, not lacking anything. The full range of the body is hands and eyes, not lacking anything. Disappearing is the activity of buddha ancestors.

  While the Buddha says not sequential and not aligned, nevertheless appearing arises in the beginning, middle, and end. This may be seen as officially not allowing a needle, but unofficially permitting carriages and horses to pass.

  In the beginning, middle, and end, disappearing is neither sequential nor aligned. Although elements appear all of a sudden where past elements disappeared, it is not that disappearing turns into appearing, but that elements appear. Because elements appear completely, they are neither sequential nor aligned. It does not mean that disappearings succeed disappearings or are aligned with disappearings. Disappearing is complete disappearing in the beginning, middle, and end. Disappearing meets disappearing, with nothing taken away; the entire mind knows there is disappearing.