Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Yunju said to the minister, If you don’t understand it, the World-Honored One had intimate language. If you understand it, Mahakashyapa did not conceal it.

  Aspire to investigate these words for many eons. Yunju’s words If you don’t understand it, are a world-honored one’s intimate language. Not understanding is not the same as going blank. Not understanding does not mean that you don’t know.

  By saying, If you don’t understand it, Yunju is encouraging practice without words. Investigate this. Then, Yunju said, If you understand it . . . He did not mean that the minister should rest on his understanding.

  Among the gates to the study of buddha dharma, there is a key to understanding buddha dharma and to going beyond understanding buddha dharma. Without meeting a true teacher, you wouldn’t even know there is a key. You might mistakenly think that what cannot be seen or heard is intimate language.

  Yunju did not mean that Mahakashyapa had not concealed it just because the minister understood it. Not concealing can happen with not understanding. Do not think that anyone can see and hear not-concealing. Not-concealing is already present. Investigate the very moment when nothing is concealed.

  Do not think that the realm you don’t know is intimate language. At the very moment when you go beyond understanding buddha dharma, there is intimate language. This is when the World-Honored One has intimate language. This is when the World-Honored One is present.

  However, those who have not heard the teachings of true masters, although they sit in the teaching seat, have not even dreamed of intimate language. They mistakenly say:

  The passage, The World-Honored One had intimate language means that he held up a flower and blinked to the assembly of innumerable beings on Vulture Peak. The reason for this is that the teaching by words is shallow and limited to forms, so the Buddha used no words, took up a flower and blinked. This was the very moment of presenting intimate language. But the assembly of innumerable beings did not understand. That is why this is secret language for the assembly of innumerable beings. Mahakashyapa did not conceal it means that he smiled when he saw the flower and the blinking, as if he had already known them; nothing was concealed from him. This is a true understanding, which has been transmitted from person to person.

  There are an enormous number of people who believe in such a theory. They comprise communities all over China. What a pity! The degeneration of the buddha way has resulted from this. Those who have clear eyes should turn these people around one by one.

  If the World-Honored One’s words were shallow, his holding up a flower and blinking would also be shallow. Those who say that the World-Honored One’s words are limited to forms are not students of buddha dharma. Although they know that words have form, they do not yet know that the World-Honored One does not have form. They are not yet free from ordinary ways of thinking. Buddha ancestors drop away all experience of body and mind. They use words to turn the dharma wheel. Hearing their words many people are benefited. Those who have trust in dharma and practice dharma are guided in the realm of buddha ancestors and in the realm of going beyond buddha ancestors.

  Didn’t the innumerable beings in the assembly understand the intimate language of holding up the flower and blinking? Understand that they stand shoulder to shoulder with Mahakashyapa, they are born simultaneously with the World-Honored One. The innumerable beings are none other than the innumerable beings. Arousing the aspiration for enlightenment at the very same moment, they take the same path and abide on the same earth.

  The innumerable beings see the Buddha and hear the dharma with wisdom that knows and with wisdom that goes beyond knowing. Seeing one buddha, they see as many buddhas as the sands of the Ganges. At the assembly of each buddha, there are millions and billions of beings. Understand that each buddha demonstrates the moment when holding up the flower and blinking emerge. What is seen is not obscure; what is heard is clear. This is mind eye, body eye, mind ear, and body ear.

  How do you understand Mahakashyapa’s breaking into a smile? Speak! Those with mistaken views call it secret language and regard his smile as not concealing the secrecy. That is stupidity piled upon stupidity.

  Upon seeing Mahakashyapa smile, the World-Honored One said, I have the treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvana. I entrust this to Mahakashyapa. Is this statement words or no words? If the World-Honored One avoided words and preferred holding up a flower, he would have held up the flower again and again. How could Mahakashyapa have understood him, and how could the assembly of beings have heard him? Do not pay attention to people’s mistaken explanations.

  The World-Honored One has intimate language, intimate practice, and intimate realization. But ignorant people think intimate means that which is known by the self and not by others. Those east and west, past and present, who think and speak this way are not following the buddha way. If what they think were true, those who do not study would have much intimacy, while those who study would have little intimacy. Would those who study extensively have no intimacy? What about those who have the celestial eye, celestial ear, dharma eye, dharma ear, buddha eye, or buddha ear? Would they have no intimate language or intimate heart?

  Intimate language, intimate heart, and intimate action in buddha dharma are not like that. When you encounter a person, you invariably hear intimate language and speak intimate language. When you know yourself, you know intimate action. Thus, buddha ancestors can thoroughly actualize this intimate heart and intimate language. Know that where there are buddha ancestors, intimate language and intimate action are immediately manifest. Intimate means close and inseparable. There is no gap. Intimacy embraces buddha ancestors. It embraces you. It embraces the self. It embraces action. It embraces generations. It embraces merit. It embraces intimacy.

  When intimate language encounters an intimate person, the buddha eye sees the unseen. Intimate action is not known by self or other, but the intimate self alone knows it. Each intimate other goes beyond understanding. Since intimacy surrounds you, it is fully intimate, half intimate.

  Clearly study this. Indeed, intimacy comes forth at the place where the person becomes [a buddha], at the moment when understanding takes place. Such a person is an authentic heir of buddha ancestors. Right now is the very moment when you are intimate with yourself, intimate with other. You are intimate with buddha ancestors, intimate with other beings. This being so, intimacy renews intimacy. Because the teaching of practice-enlightenment is the way of buddha ancestors, it is intimacy that penetrates buddha ancestors. Thus, intimacy penetrates intimacy.

  Xuedou, Old Master, said to his assembly:

  The World-Honored One has intimate language.

  Mahakashyapa does not conceal it.

  Night rain causes the blossoms to fall.

  The fragrant water reaches everywhere.

  Night rain causes the blossoms to fall and The fragrant water reaches everywhere, spoken here by Xuedou, are intimate. Study this and examine the eyeballs and nostrils of buddha ancestors. This is not somewhere Linji or Deshan can arrive. Open the nostrils within the eyeballs, and sharpen the nose tip within the ears. With the entire body and mind, study the realm where the ear, nose, and eye are neither old nor new. This is how blossoms and rain open up the world.

  The fragrant water reaches everywhere, spoken by Xuedou, conceals the body and reveals the form. This being so, in the daily practice of the buddha ancestors’ school, the passage The World-Honored One had intimate language, and Mahakashyapa does not conceal it, is studied and penetrated. Each of the Seven Original Buddhas has studied intimate language like this. Thus, Mahakashyapa and Shakyamuni Buddha have completely manifested intimate language.

  Presented to the assembly of the ancient Yoshimine Temple of Yoshida County, Echizen Province, on the twentieth day, the ninth month, the first year of the Kangen Era [1243].

  53

  BUDDHA SUTRAS

  IN THE BUDDHA sutras, there is teaching for bodhisattvas and there is teaching for buddhas. B
oth are instruments of the great way. The instruments accompany the master and the master uses the instruments.

  Because of this, buddhas and ancestors of India and China followed the teachers and followed the sutras; there has never been a gap between arousing the aspiration for enlightenment, practice, and the fruit thereof. Arousing the aspiration for enlightenment depends on sutras and teachers. Practice depends on sutras and teachers. The fruit of enlightenment is one and intimate with sutras and teachers.

  Before a movement [asking a question] and after the words are simultaneous study with sutras and teachers. Within a movement and inside the words are also simultaneous study with sutras and teachers.

  A teacher always penetrates the sutras. To penetrate means to make the sutras the land, the body, and the mind. A teacher makes the sutras a structure for guiding others. A teacher makes the sitting, lying down, and walking; father and mother; and descendants. Using the sutras as practice and understanding, a teacher fully masters the sutras. A teacher’s washing the face and having tea are the ancient sutras.

  The sutras give birth to a teacher. The sixty blows of Huangbo’s staff nourished his descendants. The three taps of the stick by [Fifth Ancestor Daman Hongren of] Huangmei caused the transmission of the robe and the entrustment of the dharma.

  Realizing the way upon seeing peach blossoms, hearing a stone striking bamboo, and seeing the morning star are nothing but sutras nourishing teachers. Sometimes there is a skin bag or a fist that attains the eye and attains a sutra. Sometimes there is a wooden dipper or a lacquer bucket that attains a sutra and attains the eye.

  The sutras are the entire world of the ten directions. There is no moment or place that is not sutras. The sutras are written in letters of the supreme principle and of the secular principles. The sutras are written in letters of heavenly beings, human beings, animals, fighting spirits, one hundred grasses, or ten thousand trees. This being so, what is long, short, square, and round, as well as what is blue, yellow, red, and white, arrayed densely in the entire world of the ten directions, are no other than letters of the sutras and the surface of the sutras. Regard them as the instruments of the great way, and as the sutras of the buddha house.

  These sutras spread throughout all time and circulate in all lands. These sutras open the gate of teaching for people without neglecting anyone on the entire earth. These sutras open the gate of teaching for the insentient, saving all beings on the entire earth. They teach all buddhas and bodhisattvas in all lands throughout the entire world. They open the gate of skillful means, and they open the gate of abiding in their conditions without abandoning one thing, or even half a thing, demonstrating reality.

  Thus, buddhas and bodhisattvas make no contrivance of their own by way of thought or no-thought. Each makes a great vow to attain the sutras.

  The moment when you determine to attain the sutras is not past or present, because past and present are the time when you already attain the sutras. What emerges in the face of the entire world of the ten directions is the attaining of the sutras.

  When you read, recite, and penetrate the sutras, buddha wisdom, spontaneous wisdom, or no-teacher wisdom are manifested prior to the mind and prior to the body. At this time there is nothing new or extra-ordinary that makes you wonder. That the sutras are held, read, and recited by you means that the sutras guide you. Their function before the words and outside the phrases, beneath the surface and above the knots, is nothing but scattering blossoms and penetrating blossoms.

  These sutras are called dharma. There are eighty-four thousand streams of expounding dharma. In these sutras, there are letters such as “All buddhas attain authentic enlightenment,” “All buddhas who abide in the world,” and “All buddhas enter pari-nirvana.” “Thus come” and “thus go” are both letters in the sutras, dharma letters within dharma.

  Holding up a flower and blinking, and breaking into a smile, are ancient sutras authentically transmitted from the Seven Original Buddhas. Snow up to the waist and [Huike] cutting off an arm, or bowing formally and attaining the marrow, are ancient sutras transmitted from master to disciple. [Hongren] Transmitting dharma and finally entrusting the robe [to Huineng] is to arrive at the moment of entrusting the entire scroll of extensive letters. [Hongren] Tapping the mortar three times and [Huineng] sifting the rice three times is to cause the sutra to extend its hands, and to cause the sutra to directly transmit the sutra.

  Not only that, but, “What has thus come?” is one thousand sutras for teaching all buddhas, ten thousand sutras for teaching all bodhisattvas.” Speaking about it won’t hit the mark” expounds the eighty thousand skandhas and the Twelve Divisions [of sutras]. Furthermore, a fist, a heel, a staff, or a whisk, is itself an old sutra, a new sutra, an existent sutra, an empty sutra. Endeavor of the way in the practicing community, and the practice of sitting zazen, is unquestionably a buddha sutra from beginning to end and from end to beginning. In this way, you inscribe sutras on bodhi leaves, and you inscribe sutras on the surface of the void.

  In fact, one motion and two stillnesses of buddhas and ancestors in grasping firmly and letting go are the opening and closing of the sutras. As you study what is limitless as the measure of limits, you receive sutras and extend sutras from nostrils, from toe tips. You receive and extend sutras before your parents were born, and before the time of the King of the Empty Eon.

  You receive sutras and expound sutras by means of mountains, rivers, and earth, or by means of the sun, the moon, and stars. Likewise, you hold sutras and transmit sutras with the self before the Empty Eon, or with body and mind before the original face. You actualize such sutras by cracking open particles. You bring forth such sutras by cracking open the world of phenomena.

  Venerable Prajnatara, the Twenty-seventh Ancestor, said, “While exhaling I do not follow conditions, and while inhaling I do not abide in the world of skandhas. I turn [read] the sutras in this way, not one or two sutras but hundreds, thousands, millions, and billions.”

  Listen to these words of the ancestor and study that sutras are turned at the place of exhaling and inhaling. To know the place of turning sutras is to know the place of the existence of sutras. As turning is being turned, and turning the sutras is sutras turning, knowing all is seeing all.

  Rujing, my late master, would say, “In our place, burning incense, bowing, chanting the Buddha’s name, repentance, and reading sutras are not essential. Just sit, endeavor in the way, and drop away body and mind.”

  There are few who clarify the meaning of these words. How is it so? If you call reading sutras reading sutras, you get divided. If you don’t call reading sutras reading sutras, you are against it. You cannot get it with words. You cannot get it without words. Say it quickly. Say it quickly.

  Study this point. Because of this essential meaning, a teacher of old said, “Reading sutras carries the eye of reading sutras.” Know that without sutras in the past and present, such a statement as this would not be possible. Study that there is reading sutras while dropping away and there is reading sutras for beyond use.

  This being so, one or half a person who studies [dharma] unfailingly receives and maintains buddha sutras in order to be a buddha child; do not wastefully study the crooked views outside the way. As the treasury of the true dharma eye actualized right now is no other than buddha sutras, all buddha sutras are the treasury of the true dharma eye. They are neither the same nor different, neither the self nor other.

  Know that as there are many aspects within the treasury of the true dharma eye, you cannot fully clarify it. Yet, the treasury of the true dharma eye is expounded. There is no way you cannot have trust in it. Buddha sutras are like this. There are a number of them, but what you receive with trust is your one verse or your one phrase. Do not try to understand eighty thousand verses or phrases.

  Thus, even if you don’t have the mastery of buddha sutras, do not mistakenly say that buddha sutras are not buddha dharma. If you see through with a true eye what you regard as the bones an
d marrow of buddha ancestors, they may be merely later studies depending on letters. It may be the same as receiving and maintaining one verse or one phrase, or it may not be as close as receiving and maintaining one verse or one phrase. Do not slander the Buddha’s true dharma with your shallow understanding.

  There are no voices or forms that are more beneficial than buddha sutras. Voices and forms delude you, and yet you tend to seek them and be greedy for them. On the other hand, buddha sutras do not delude you. Do not slander them with a lack of trust in them.

  Nevertheless, all types of coarse, stinky skin bags have said for a couple of hundred years, “Don’t keep the phrases of ancestral teachers in mind. Furthermore, don’t take a long look at or use the teachings of sutras. Instead, just keep your body and mind like a decayed tree or dead ash. Be like a broken wooden dipper or a barrel with no bottom.”

  Those who speak in this way are a band of those outside the way, of heavenly demons. They take up theories that should not be taken up. Because of such people, the buddha ancestors’ dharma has vainly become a dharma of crazy confusion. What a pity! How sad!