Presented to the assembly at the residence of the former governor of Izumo Province, next to the Rokuharamitsu Temple, Kyoto, on the seventeenth day, the twelfth month, the third year of the Ninji Era [1242].
43
THE MOON
FULLY ACTUALIZING MOONS is not limited to “three three before” [moons on the first nine days of a lunar-calendar month] or “three three after” [moons on the last days of a month]. Moons fully actualized are not limited to “three three before” or “three three after.”
Since this is so, Shakyamuni Buddha said, “Buddha’s true dharma body as it is, is open sky. In response to things, forms appear. Thus is the moon in water.”
The thusness of Thus is the moon in water is the moon in water. It is water thusness, moon thusness, thusness within, within thusness. Thus does not mean “like something.” Thus means exactly.
Buddha’s true dharma body is the as it is of open sky. This open sky is the as it is of buddha’s true dharma body. Because it is buddha’s true dharma body, the entire earth, the entire universe, all phenomena, and all appearances are open sky. Hundreds of grasses and myriad forms—each appearing as it is—are nothing but buddha’s true dharma body, thusness of the moon in water.
The time when the moon appears is not necessarily night. Night is not necessarily dark. Do not be limited to the narrow views held by human beings. Even where there is no sun or moon, there is day and night. Sun and moon are not day and night; each is as it is.
The moon is not one moon or two moons, not thousands of moons or myriads of moons. Even if the moon itself holds the view of one moon or two moons, that is merely the moon’s view. It is not necessarily the words or understanding of the buddha way.
Even if you say, “There was a moon last night,” the moon you see tonight is not last night’s moon. Thoroughly study that tonight’s moon, from beginning to end, is tonight’s moon. Although there is a moon, it is neither new nor old, because a moon succeeds in a moon.
Panshan, Zen Master Baoji, said, “The mind moon is alone and full. Its light swallows myriad forms. Moonlight does not illuminate objects. Objects do not exist. Light and objects both disappear. What is this?”
What is said here is that buddha ancestors and buddha heirs always have the mind moon, because they make moon their mind. There is no mind that is not moon, and there is no moon that is not mind.
Alone and full means nothing lacking. Beyond two or three is called myriad forms. Myriad forms are moonlight, not merely forms. Accordingly, Its light swallows myriad forms. Myriad forms completely swallow moonlight. Here moonlight swallowing moonlight is called Its light swallows myriad forms. That is to say, the moon swallows the moon, the moonlight swallows the moon. Therefore, it is said, Moonlight does not illuminate objects. Objects do not exist.
Since this is so, at the moment of awakening others with a buddha body, a buddha body comes forth and expounds dharma; at the moment of awakening others with the boundless body, the boundless body manifests and expounds dharma. This is nothing but turning the dharma wheel within the moon. No matter whether the yin spirit or the yang spirit illuminates, no matter whether the moon is a fire jewel or a water jewel, a buddha body is immediately actualized.
This mind is the moon. This moon of itself is mind. This is penetrating and comprehending the mind of buddha ancestors and buddha heirs.
An ancient buddha said, “A single mind is all things. All things are a single mind.”
Thus, mind is all things, all things are mind. Since mind is the moon, the moon is the moon. Since mind, which is all things, is completely moon, the all-inclusive world is the all-inclusive moon; the entire body is the entire moon. Amid the “three three before and three three after” in the myriad years of this moment, what is not the moon?
Sun-Face Buddha, Moon-Face Buddha—our body, mind, and environs—are also within the moon. The coming and going of birth and death is also the moon. The entire world of the ten directions is the up and down, the left and right of the moon. Everyday activity at this moment is hundreds of grasses brilliant in the moon, the mind of ancestors brilliant in the moon.
Touzi, Great Master Ciji of Shu Region, was once asked by a monk, “When the moon is not yet full, what then?”
The master said, “Swallow three or four.”
The monk said, “After it is full, what then?”
The master said, “Spit out seven or eight.”
What is examined here is not yet full and after it is full. Both are the moon’s activity. Each of the three or four moons is a complete moon that is not yet full. Each of the seven or eight moons is a complete moon that is after it is full.
To swallow is three or four. At this moment, the moon that is not yet full is actualized. To spit out is seven or eight. At this moment, after it is full is actualized.
When the moon swallows the moon, that is three or four. In swallowing, the moon is brought forth. The moon is swallowing actualized. When the moon spits out the moon, that is seven or eight. In spitting out, the moon is brought forth. The moon is spitting out actualized.
Thus, there is total swallowing, total spitting out. The whole earth and the whole sky are spit out. The whole sky and the whole earth are swallowed. Swallow yourself and swallow others. Spit out yourself and spit out others.
Shakyamuni Buddha said to Vajragarbha Bodhisattva, “When you look at deep water and shift your eyes, the water sways. Your fixed eyes can turn fire around. When the clouds fly, the moon travels; when a boat goes, the shore moves. It is just like this.”
Thoroughly study and understand, When the clouds fly, the moon travels; when a boat goes, the shore moves. Do not study in haste. Do not follow ordinary thinking. But those who see and hear the Buddha’s discourse as the Buddha’s discourse are rare. If you study it as the Buddha’s discourse, the round, full enlightenment is not limited to body and mind, or to enlightenment and nirvana. Enlightenment and nirvana are not necessarily the round, full enlightenment, nor are they body and mind.
The Tathagata says, When the clouds fly, the moon travels, and when a boat goes, the shore moves. In this way the moon travels when the clouds move, and the shore moves when the boat goes. The meaning of these words is that clouds and moon travel at the same time; they walk together with no beginning or end, no before or after. The boat and the shore travel at the same time; they walk together without starting or stopping, without floating or turning.
When you study someone’s movement, the movement is not merely starting or stopping. The movement that starts or stops is not that person’s. Do not take up starting or stopping and regard it as the person’s movement. The clouds’ flying, the moon’s traveling, the boat’s going, and the shore’s moving are all like this. Do not foolishly be limited by a narrow view.
The clouds’ flying is not concerned with east, west, south, or north. The moon’s traveling has not ceased day or night from ancient times to the present. Do not forget this. The boat’s going and the shore’s moving are not bound by the past, present, or future, but actualize the past, present, and future. This being so, “full and not hungry just now” is possible.
Foolish people think that because clouds run we see the immovable moon as moving, and because a boat goes we see the immovable shore as moving. But if they are right, why did the Tathagata speak as he did? The meaning of buddha dharma cannot be measured by the narrow views of human or heavenly beings. Although it is immeasurable, buddha dharma is practiced in accordance with the listeners’ capacities. Who is unable to take up the boat or shore over and over? Who is unable to see through the clouds or moon immediately?
Know that the Tathagata’s words do not make a metaphor of clouds for dharma suchness, of the moon for dharma suchness, of the boat for dharma suchness, or of the shore for dharma suchness. Quietly examine and penetrate this. One step of the moon is the Tathagata’s round, full enlightenment. The Tathagata’s round, full enlightenment is the motion of the moon. The moon is beyond moving or not movin
g, beyond going forward or backward. The moon’s motion is not an analogy. It is the essence of alone and full.
Know that even though the moon passes quickly it is beyond beginning, middle, or end. Thus, there is the first-month moon and the second-month moon. The first and the second are both the moon. Right practice is the moon. Right offering is the moon. Snapping the sleeves and walking away is the moon.
Round and pointed are not concerned with the cycle of coming and going. The moon is beyond coming and going; it goes freely and grasps firmly coming and going, beyond coming and going. Manifesting wind and streams, the moons are as they are.
Written at the Kannondori Kosho Horin Monastery on the sixth day, the first month, the fourth year of the Ninji Era [1243]. Monk Dogen.
44
FLOWERS IN THE SKY
BODHIDHARMA, HIGH ANCESTOR, said, “One blossom opens five petals. Fruit forms naturally.”
Study the moment of the blossom’s blooming and of its light and color. The blossom consists of five petals. The blossoming of the five petals is one blossom. The true meaning of this blossom leads to [his words]: “I am originally in this land to transmit dharma and save deluded sentient beings.” This is a point of study of its light and color. It means: “The forming of the fruit is up to you.” This is the meaning of Fruit forms naturally.
Forms naturally means to practice causes and experience the effects. There are causes in the common world. There are effects in the common world. You practice causes and effects in the common world and experience causes and effects in the common world.
Naturally [self thusness] means of itself. Self is invariably you. It is four great elements and five skandhas. Because it is [as Linji said] “let it be a true person of no rank,” it is beyond self and other. This being so, what is indefinite is called self. Thusness is to accept what is as it is.
Forms naturally is the moment of the blossoming and forming of fruit. It is the moment to transmit dharma and save deluded sentient beings. It is like the time and place of the unfolding of an utpala [blue lotus] blossom that are the time and place of a blazing fire. Sparks of a gimlet and flames are all the place of unfolding and the time of aligning of an utpala blossom. Without being the time and place of an utpala blossom, not even a blink of fire is born, not even a blink of fire is activated.
Know that within a blink of fire, one hundred, one thousand utpala blossoms unfold on earth and in the sky. They unfold in the past and at present. To see and hear the present moment and present place of fire is to hear and see utpala blossoms. Without fail, see and hear the time and place of utpala blossoms.
An ancient master [Tong’an Changcha] said, “Utpala blossoms open inside fire.”
In this way, utpala blossoms definitely unfold in fire. If you want to know what is inside fire, it is the place where utpala blossoms unfold. You need to exclude human views and deva views, and learn what is inside fire. If you would doubt this, you would doubt lotus blossoms born in water, or you would doubt the variety of blossoms on branches and twigs. If you doubt this, you would also doubt the stable ground of material worlds. However, you don’t doubt these. Those who are not buddha ancestors do not know that the opening of blossoms raises the world.
The opening of blossoms is three three before, three three after [countless]. To fulfill these numbers, all phenomena are gathered and make the blossoms colorful. Let this understanding manifest and fathom spring and autumn. It is not only that spring and autumn have blossoms and fruit, but the time being always has blossoms and fruit.
Both blossoms and fruit maintain moments. All moments maintain blossoms and fruit. This being so, one hundred grasses all have blossoms and fruit. All trees have blossoms and fruit. Trees of gold, silver, copper, iron, coral, and crystal all have blossoms and fruit. Trees of earth, water, fire, air, space all have blossoms and fruit. Human trees have blossoms. Decayed trees have blossoms.
In the midst of these blossoms, the World-Honored One spoke of flowers in the open sky [illusory flowers]. But those who hear little and see little do not know what kind of color, light, leaves, and blossoms the flowers in the sky carry. They only hear the words flowers in the sky.
Know that there are teachings about flowers in the sky in the buddha way. People outside the way do not know the teachings about flowers in the sky. How can they understand them?
Only buddhas and ancestors know the opening and falling of flowers in the sky [sky blossoms] and earth blossoms, and the opening and falling of world blossoms. They alone know that flowers in the sky, earth blossoms, and world blossoms are sutras. This is a standard of studying buddhas.
Because what buddha ancestors ride on are flowers in the sky, the buddha world and all buddha dharmas are flowers in the sky. But mediocre and foolish people think that the obscured eyes in the Tathagata’s statement “What is seen by obscured eyes are flowers in the sky” means the confused eyes of sentient beings. Because their sick eyes are already confused, they think that flowers in the sky are seen in pure space. Being attached to this view, they mistakenly see that none of the three realms and the six paths, existent buddhas and nonexistent buddhas, exist. If such deluded seeing stops, they may stop seeing such flowers in the sky and think the Tathagata said that in original emptiness there are no flowers.
What a pity! They do not know from beginning to end the moment of flowers in the sky spoken by the Tathagata. The meanings of “obscured eyes” and “flowers in the sky” have not been grasped by ordinary people and those outside the way.
Buddha tathagatas practice these flowers in the sky and attain the robe, the way of sitting, and entering the room. They attain the way and the fruit of buddhahood.
Taking up a flower and blinking are both the fundamental point actualized by obscured eyes and flowers in the sky. That the treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvana, has been authentically transmitted without cutting off is called obscured eyes and flowers in the sky. Enlightenment, nirvana, dharma body, self nature, and so on are two or three petals of the five petals of flowers unfolding in the sky.
Shakyamuni Buddha said, “Someone who has obscured eyes sees flowers in the sky. When this disease is removed, flowers in the sky disappear.”
There have been no scholars who clarify this teaching. Because they don’t know the sky, they don’t know the flowers in the sky. Because they don’t know flowers in the sky, they don’t know, see, encounter, and become a person with obscured eyes.
Encounter a person with obscured eyes, and know and see the flowers in the sky. After seeing the flowers in the sky, also see that the flowers disappear in the sky. To think that the flowers in the sky stop existing once they disappear is a view in the Lesser Vehicle.
When the flowers in the sky are invisible, in what way do they exist? Mediocre scholars today only see that the flowers in the sky should be discarded. They don’t know the great matter after the flowers in the sky, or the seeding, blooming, and falling of the flowers in the sky. These scholars merely regard where the atmosphere is as the sky, and where the sun, the moon, and stars hang as the sky. So, they assume that the so-called flowers in the sky change colors, float in the air like clouds, move toward east and west, up and down, blown by the wind. To regard the four great elements that create and are created, all things in the material world, the original enlightenment, and basic nature as flowers in the sky is ignorant. Such scholars don’t know that there are the four great elements and the others due to all things. They don’t know that the material worlds rest in their conditions due to all things. They only think that all things exist due to material worlds.
They only think that flowers in the sky exist due to obscured eyes. And they do not realize that flowers in the sky cause obscured eyes.
Know that a person with obscured eyes in the buddha way is a person of the original enlightenment, of wondrous enlightenment, of all buddhas, of the three realms, of buddha going beyond buddha. Do not misunderstand that obscuring is illusion. Do not think
that there is reality other than that. Such a point is a lesser view. If obscurity and flowers [in the sky] are illusion, a view such as to create and be created is also illusion. If everything is illusion, truth cannot be established. If there is no truth to be established, the point that obscurity and flowers [in the sky] are illusion cannot be established.
When enlightenment is obscurity, all things around enlightenment are things that adorn obscurity. When delusion is obscurity, all things around delusion are things that adorn obscurity.
Say for the time being that as obscurity and the eyes are equal, the sky and flowers are equal. As obscurity and the eyes are beyond birth, the sky and flowers are beyond birth. As all things are reality, obscurity and flowers are reality.
Do not discuss the past, present, and future. As flowers in the sky are not conditioned by beginning, middle, and end, and as they are not obstructed by birth and death, flowers in the sky cause birth and death to be birth and death.
Flowers in the sky are born in the sky and perish in the sky. They are born in obscurity and perish in obscurity. They are born in flowers and perish in flowers. Further, flowers in the sky are like this in other places and times.
In studying flowers in the sky, there should be a number of ways. There are views by obscured eyes, by clear eyes, by buddha eyes, and by ancestor eyes. There are views by way-seeking eyes, by blind eyes, by three thousand years, by eight hundred years, by one hundred eons, by innumerable eons. As all of these see flowers in the sky, the sky looks different, flowers appear varied.
Know that the sky is just one blade of grass. In this sky, flowers always bloom. It is like flowers blooming on one hundred blades of grass. In order to express this teaching, the Tathagata says that in the sky there are originally no flowers.
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye Page 59
