Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Daokai was then awakened. He bowed deeply and began to leave.

  Touzi said, “Wait, reverend.”

  Daokai did not turn around, and Touzi said, “Have you reached the ground of no-doubt?”

  Daokai covered his ears with his hands and left.

  From this, clearly understand that the thoughts and words of buddha ancestors are their everyday tea and rice. Ordinary coarse tea and plain rice are buddhas’ thoughts, ancestors’ phrases. Because buddha ancestors prepare tea and rice, tea and rice maintain buddha ancestors. Accordingly, they need no powers other than this tea and rice, and they have no need to use powers as buddha ancestors.

  Investigate and study the expression Does he depend upon Emperors Yu, Tang, Yao, or Shun? Leap over the summit of the question Besides this, are there any words or phrases for teaching? Try to see whether leaping is possible or not.

  Shitou, Great Master Wuji, at the Shitou Hut on Mount Nanyue, said:

  I have built a grass hut where no coins are kept.

  Having had rice, I am ready for a leisurely nap.

  Having had rice—words come, words go, words come and go, filled with buddha ancestors’ thoughts and phrases. Not yet having rice means not yet being satisfied. However, the point of having had rice and a leisurely nap is actualized before having rice, while having rice, and after having rice. To assume that the experience of having rice lies only after having had rice is the mere study of four or five sho [small amount] of rice.

  Rujing taught the assembly:

  I heard that a monk asked Baizhang, “What is an extraordinary thing?” Baizhang said, “Sitting alone on Daxiong Peak. The assembly cannot move the person. For now, let the person totally sit.” Today if someone were to ask me, “What is an extraordinary thing?” I would say, “Is anything extraordinary? How was it? The bowl of Jingci has moved; I’m eating rice in Tiantong.”

  In the domain of buddha ancestors there is always something extraordinary. This is sitting alone on Daxiong Peak. Being allowed to totally sit is itself an extraordinary thing. Even more extraordinary is The bowl of Jingci has moved; I’m eating rice in Tiantong.

  Each and every extraordinary activity is simply eating rice. Thus, sitting alone on Daxiong Peak is just eating rice. The monk’s bowl is used for having rice, and what is used for having rice is the monk’s bowl. It is the bowl of Jingci and it is having rice in Tiantong. Being satisfied is to know rice. Eating rice is to be satisfied. To know is to be satisfied with rice. To be satisfied is to continue eating.

  Now, what is the monk’s bowl? I say it is not wood and it is not black lacquer. Is it an immovable rock? Is it an iron person? It is bottomless. It has no nostrils. One mouthful swallows the open sky. The open sky is received with palms together.

  Rujing once taught the assembly at the buddha hall of the Ruiyan Jingtu Monastery of Tai Region:

  When hunger comes, have rice.

  When fatigue comes, sleep.

  Furnace and bellows, each covers the entire sky.

  When hunger comes is the vital activity of a person who has had rice. A person who has not had rice has not had hunger. Since this is so, a person who gets hungry every day is someone who has had rice. Understand this completely. When fatigue comes means that there is fatigue in the midst of fatigue; it springs forth completely from the summit of fatigue. Accordingly, the entire body is completely turned right now by the activity of the entire body.

  Sleep is to sleep using the buddha eye, dharma eye, wisdom eye, ancestor eye, and pillar-and-lantern eye.

  Rujing once accepted an invitation and moved to the Jingci Monastery of Linan Prefecture from the Ruiyan Monastery of Tai Region, ascended the seat, and said:

  Half a year, just having rice and sitting on Wan Peak.

  This sitting cuts through thousands of layers of misty clouds.

  One sudden clap of roaring thunder.

  Spring in the mystic village—apricot blossoms are red.

  The teaching of buddha ancestors who transmit the Buddha’s life-long practice is entirely having rice and sitting on Wan Peak. To study and practice the inheritance of the Buddha’s ancestral wisdom is to bring forth the vital activity of having rice. Half a year, . . . sitting on Wan Peak is called having rice. You cannot tell how many layers of misty clouds this sitting cuts through. However sudden the roar of thunder may be, spring apricot blossoms are just red. Mystic village means red through and through right now. This is having rice. Wan Peak is the name of a peak that represents the Ruiyan Monastery.

  Rujing once taught the assembly at the buddha hall of the Ruiyan Monastery, Qingyuan Prefecture, Ming Region:

  Wondrous golden form

  wears a robe and eats rice.

  So I bow to you;

  go to sleep early and wake up late. Ha!

  Discuss the profound, expound the inconceivable—endless.

  I avoid the self-deception of holding up a flower.

  Immediately penetrate this. Wondrous golden form means wearing a robe and eating rice. Wearing a robe and eating rice is wondrous golden form. Do not wonder who is wearing a robe and eating rice. Do not say whose wondrous golden form it is.

  Speaking in this way is complete expression. This is the meaning of So I bow to you. Thus “I have already had rice. You have just bowed to the rice.” This is because “I completely avoid holding up a flower.”

  Changqing, Priest Da’an, Zen Master Yuanzhi, of the Changqing Monastery, Fu Region, ascended the seat and taught the assembly:

  I have been at Mount Gui for thirty years and have been eating Mount Gui’s rice and shitting Mount Gui’s shit. I have not studied Guishan’s Zen but just see a single water buffalo. When it wanders off the road and begins grazing, I yank it back. When it trespasses onto other people’s rice fields, I whip it. In this way, I have been taming it for a long time. Such an adorable one! It understands human speech and now has transformed into a white ox. All day long it walks round and round in front of us. Even if we try to drive it away, it does not leave.

  Clearly accept this teaching. Thirty years of pursuit in the assembly of buddha ancestors is eating rice. There are no other pursuits. If you actualize this endeavor of eating rice, invariably you will see the buffalo.

  Zhaozhou, Great Master Zhenji, asked a newly arrived monk, “Have you been here before?”

  The monk said, “Yes, I have been here.”

  Zhaozhou said, “Have some tea.”

  Later, he asked another monk, “Have you been here before?”

  The monk said, “No, I have not been here.”

  Zhaozhou said, “Have some tea.”

  The temple director then asked Zhaozhou, “Why do you say, ‘Have some tea’ to someone who has been here, and ‘Have some tea’ to someone who has not?”

  Zhaozhou said, “Director.”

  “Yes.”

  Zhaozhou said, “Have some tea.”

  Zhaozhou’s word here does not mean the top of the head, the nostrils, or Zhaozhou. Since here leaps off here, a monk said, I have been here, and another said, I have not been here. It means: What is now? Whatever is here, just say, “I have been here” or “I have not been here.”

  Regarding this, Rujing said:

  Who in the picture of a wineshop

  faces you and drinks Zhaozhou’s tea?

  Thus, the everyday activity of buddha ancestors is nothing but having tea and eating rice.

  Presented to the assembly at the foot of Yamashi Peak, Echizen Province, on the seventeenth day, the twelfth month, the first year of the Kangen Era [1243].

  65

  DRAGON SONG

  TOUZI, GREAT MASTER Ciji of Shu Region, was once asked by a monk, “Is there a dragon singing in a withered tree?”

  Touzi replied, “I say there is a lion roaring in a skull.”

  Discussions about a withered tree and dead ash [composure in stillness] are originally teachings outside the way. But the withered tree spoken of by those outside the way and that spoken of by budd
ha ancestors are far apart. Those outside the way talk about a withered tree, but they don’t authentically know it; how can they hear the dragon singing? They think that a withered tree is a dead tree which does not grow leaves in spring.

  The withered tree spoken of by buddha ancestors is the understanding of the ocean drying up. The ocean drying up is the tree withering. The tree withering encounters spring. The immovability of the tree is its witheredness. The mountain trees, ocean trees, and sky trees right now are all withered trees. That which sprouts buds is a dragon singing in a withered tree. Those who embrace it one hundredfold, one thousand-fold, and one myriadfold are descendants of the withered tree.

  The form, essence, body, and power of this witheredness are a withered stake spoken of by a buddha ancestor [Sushan Guangren]. It is beyond a withered stake. There are mountain valley trees, and fields-of-village trees. The mountain valley trees are called pines and cypresses in the common world. The fields-of-village trees are called humans and devas in the common world. Those that depend on roots and spread leaves are called buddha ancestors. They all go back to the essence. This is to be studied. This is the tall dharma body of a withered tree and the short dharma body of a withered tree.

  Without a withered tree there wouldn’t be the dragon singing. Without a withered tree the dragon’s singing wouldn’t be smashed. “I have encountered spring many times, but the mind has not changed” [a line by Damei Fachang] is the dragon singing with complete witheredness. Although the dragon’s singing does not conform with gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu [do, re, mi, fa, so], gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu are the before and after, two or three elements of the dragon’s singing.

  In this way, the monk’s words, Is there a dragon singing in a withered tree? emerge for the first time as a question and a statement for immeasurable eons. As for Touzi’s response, I say there is a lion roaring in a skull—what could hinder it? It keeps bending self and pushing other without ceasing. The skull covers the entire field.

  Xiangyan, Great Master Xideng of Xiangyan Monastery, was once asked by a monk, “What is the way?”

  Xiangyan said, “A dragon is singing in a withered tree.”

  The monk said, “I don’t understand.”

  Xiangyan said, “An eyeball in the skull.”

  Later a monk asked Shishuang, “What is a dragon singing in a withered tree?”

  Shishuang said, “It still holds joy.”

  The monk asked, “What is the eyeball in the skull?”

  Shishuang said, “It still holds consciousness.”

  Later a monk asked Caoshan, “What is a dragon singing in a withered tree?”

  Caoshan said, “The blood vein does not get cut off.”

  The monk asked, “What is the eyeball in the skull?”

  Caoshan said, “It does not dry up.”

  The monk said, “I wonder if anyone has heard it?”

  Caoshan said, “In the entire world there is no one who has not heard it.”

  The monk said, “I wonder what kind of song the dragon sings?”

  Caoshan said, “No one knows what kind of song the dragon sings. All who hear it lose it.”

  The one who questions hearing and singing is not the one who sings the dragon’s tune. The dragon’s tune has its own melody. In a withered tree or in a skull are neither inside nor outside, neither self nor other. It is right now and a long time ago.

  It still holds joy is growing a horn on the head. It still holds consciousness, is the skin dropping away completely.

  Caoshan’s words The blood vein does not get cut off are not avoided, turning the body in the word vein. It does not dry up means that the ocean’s dryness never reaches to the bottom. Since the never-reaching is itself dryness, it is dryness beyond dryness.

  To ask if anyone has heard it is like asking if there is anyone who has not gotten it. In regard to Caoshan’s statement, In the entire world there is no one who has not heard it, ask further: “Never mind the fact that there is no one who has not heard it; where is the dragon’s song at the time when no one in the entire world has heard it? Say it quickly, quickly!”

  I wonder if anyone has heard it. Regarding this question, say: “The dragon song is howling and humming in muddy water, exhaling through the nostrils.”

  No one knows what kind of song the dragon sings is to have a dragon in the song. All who hear it lose it [become completely selfless] is something we should treasure.

  Now, the dragon songs of Xiangyan, Shishuang, and Caoshan come forth, forming clouds and forming water. They go beyond words, beyond saying eyeballs in the skull. This is thousands and myriad pieces of the dragon song. It still holds joy is the croaking of frogs. It still holds consciousness is the singing of earthworms. Thus, the blood vein does not get cut off, a gourd succeeds a gourd. As it does not dry up, a pillar conceives a child; a lantern faces a lantern.

  Presented to the assembly on the foot of Yamashi Peak on the twenty-fifth day, the twelfth month, the first year of the Kangen Era [1243].

  66

  SPRING AND AUTUMN

  DONGSHAN, GREAT MASTER Wuben, was once asked by a monk, “When cold or heat comes, how can we avoid it?”

  Dongshan said, “Why don’t you go where there is no cold or heat?”

  The monk said, “What do you mean by ‘where there is no cold or heat’?”

  Dongshan said, “When it is cold, cold finishes the monk. When it is hot, heat demolishes the monk.”

  This story has often been examined in the past. Many of you should also pursue it now. Buddha ancestors have never failed to master this matter, and those who have mastered it are buddha ancestors. Buddha ancestors in India and China, both past and present, often made this issue the face and eye of their realization. To bring forth this face and eye is the fundamental point of buddha ancestors.

  This being so, examine in detail the monk’s question When cold or heat comes, how can we avoid it? This is to study the very moment when cold comes or the moment when heat comes. This cold or heat—complete cold or complete heat—is itself cold or heat. Accordingly, when either comes, it comes from the summit of cold or the summit of heat, and manifests from the eyeball of cold itself or heat itself. This summit is where there is no cold or heat. This eyeball is where there is no cold or heat.

  Dongshan’s words When it is cold, cold finishes the monk. When it is hot, heat demolishes the monk show how it is when the moment arrives. Even if there is the expression When it is cold, cold finishes, it is not necessary that when it is hot, heat demolishes the expression. Cold penetrates the root of cold, heat penetrates the root of heat. Even if you try millions of times to avoid cold or heat, it is like trying to put a tail where the head is. Cold is the vital eyeball of the ancestral school. Heat is the warm skin and flesh of my late master.

  Jingyin Kumu, is an heir of Furong. His priest name is Facheng. He said:

  Many of you examine this dialogue and say, “This monk’s question already falls into differentiation. Dongshan’s answer brings the matter to oneness. The monk understood the meaning of Dongshan’s words and entered oneness. Dongshan then entered differentiation.”

  To analyze in such a way is to denigrate the ancient sage and lower yourself. Can’t you understand these words? When I hear your interpretations, the meaning is decorated and seems beautiful, but if your interpretations accumulate over time, they become a disease. If you, advanced wanderers, want to master this matter, you should understand the treasury of the true dharma eye of this ancient ancestor Dongshan. Other buddha ancestors’ words are just the play of hot water in a bowl. Now, let me ask you: in the end, what is the place of no cold or heat? Do you understand?

  In the jade pavilion, a kingfisher builds a nest.

  In the gold palace, ducks are enclosed.

  Kumu is a descendant of Dongshan and a distinguished person in the ancestral seat. Here he warns many of those who pay homage to Dongshan, High Ancestor, Great Master, in the caved house of differentiation and oneness. If buddha d
harma had been transmitted merely through the investigation of differentiation and oneness, how could it have reached this day?

  Peasants or stray cats who have never understood the inner chamber of Dongshan, and who have not passed the threshold of the buddha dharma, mistakenly say that Dongshan guided students with his theory of Five Ranks of differentiation and oneness. This is a confused view. Do not pay attention to it, but just study thoroughly that the ancient ancestor has the treasury of the true dharma eye.

  Hongzhi, Zen Master of Mount Tiantong, Qingyuan Prefecture, is an heir of Danxia. (His priest name is Zhenjiao.) He said:

  When you take up this dialogue, it is like you and me playing a game of go. If you do not respond to my move, I’ll swallow you up. Only when you penetrate this, will you understand the meaning of Dongshan’s words. I, Tiantong, cannot help adding this note:

  I see no cold or heat whatsoever.

  The great ocean has just dried up.

  Let me tell you, a giant tortoise is lying in front of you.