Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  71

  TATHAGATA’S ENTIRE BODY

  ONCE, ON VULTURE PEAK in Rajagraha, Shakyamuni Buddha said to Bhaishajyaraja Bodhisattva Mahasattva:

  Bhaishajyaraja, wherever a sutra is expounded, read, chanted, copied, or kept, a seven-treasure stupa, tall, wide, and solemn, is erected, but do not enshrine the Buddha’s relics in it. The reason is that a stupa embodies the Tathagata’s entire body. Make offerings of all sorts of flowers, incense, jewels, canopies, banners, music, and chanting verses to respect, revere, and admire the stupa. When people see this stupa, bow, and make offerings to it, they know that they are closer to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.

  In this way, a sutra is expounded, read, chanted, and copied. A sutra is reality. To build a seven-treasure stupa is to build reality. The stupa’s height and breadth are the scale of reality. A stupa embodies the Tathagata’s entire body means a stupa is the Tathagata’s entire body.

  Thus, expounding, reading, chanting, copying, and so on, are the Tathagata’s entire body. Make offerings of all sorts of flowers, incense, jewels, canopies, banners, music, and chanting verses to respect, revere, and admire the stupa. Or, offer heavenly flowers, heavenly incense, and heavenly canopies, and so on. These are all marks of reality. Or, offer excellent flowers, excellent incense, renowned robes, and renowned garments of the human realm. These are all marks of reality.

  A stupa is erected, but do not enshrine the Buddha’s relics in it: from this we know that a sutra is the relics of the Tathagata, the entire body of the Tathagata.

  There is no greater merit than seeing and hearing golden words uttered by the Buddha. Hurry up and accumulate effort and virtue. When you see people bow and make offerings to the stupa, know that they are closer to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. When you see the tower, sincerely bow and make offerings to it. Thus, all come closer to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. Closer to is not come close to or go close to. Unsurpassable, complete enlightenment is all closer to.

  Right now, when you see those who receive, chant, elucidate, and copy a sutra, you are seeing this stupa. Rejoice that all are close to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.

  This being so, a sutra is the Tathagata’s entire body. To bow to a sutra is to bow to the Tathagata’s entire body. To encounter a sutra is to encounter the Tathagata’s entire body.

  A sutra is the relics of the Tathagata. So, the relics of the Tathagata are a sutra. Even if you know that a sutra is the relics of the Tathagata, if you don’t know that the relics of the Tathagata are a sutra, it is not the buddha way.

  The reality of all things right now is a sutra. Human realms, deva realms, ocean, empty space, this land, and other lands are the reality of all things, a sutra, relics. Hold, chant, elucidate, and copy the relics and unfold enlightenment. This is to follow a sutra.

  There are relics of ancient buddhas, present buddhas, pratyeka-buddhas, wheel-turning kings, and lions [kings of dharma], and there are relics of wooden buddhas and painted buddhas. There are also relics of humans. Nowadays, among buddha ancestors in China, there are those who manifest relics while they are alive, and there are many who manifest relics after being cremated. Such relics are all sutras.

  Shakyamuni Buddha said to the assembly, “I practiced the bodhisattva path in my past life. The long life I have achieved by this has not been exhausted. My life span will be doubled in my future life.”

  The relics of eighty-four to [approximately twenty-five bushels] are no other than the Tathagata’s timeless life. How much is the life span of one who practiced the bodhisattva path in the past life beyond the boundary of the billion worlds? This is the Tathagata’s entire body, a sutra.

  Prajna Kuta Bodhisattva said [in the Lotus Sutra], “I see that Shakyamuni Buddha was engaged in difficult and painful practice through innumerable eons, piling up effort, accumulating virtue, and ceaselessly pursuing the bodhisattva path. When I observe the billion worlds, there is not even a poppy seed that is not a place where this bodhisattva gave up his life for the sake of other beings. Thus, he achieved the path of enlightenment.”

  From this I know that the billion worlds are a piece of his compassionate heart, a bit of his boundless realm, the Tathagata’s entire body. It is beyond whether he did or did not give up his life.

  Relics are neither before nor after the Buddha, nor do they stand shoulder to shoulder with the Buddha. Being engaged in difficult and rigorous practice through innumerable eons is the Buddha’s womb and abdomen activities, the Buddha’s skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. This is spoken of as ceaselessly. He makes further effort after attaining buddhahood. He goes further and further, giving guidance to the billion worlds. This is the activity of the Tathagata’s entire body.

  Presented to the assembly of the Yoshimine Temple, Yoshida County, Echizen Province, on the fifteenth day, the second month, the second year of the Kangen Era [1244].

  72

  KING OF SAMADHIS

  TO TRANSCEND THE world directly, to manifest the magnificence of the buddha ancestors’ house—this is sitting in the meditation posture. To leap over the heads of outsiders and demons, and become a true person inside the buddha ancestors’ room—this is sitting in the meditation posture. To sit in the meditation posture is to transcend the deepest and most intimate teaching of buddha ancestors. Thus, buddha ancestors practice this way without needing to do anything else.

  Know that the world of sitting practice is far different from other worlds. Clarify this for yourself, then activate the aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana of the buddha ancestors. Study the world at the very moment of sitting. Is it vertical or horizontal? At the very moment of sitting, what is sitting? Is it an acrobat’s graceful somersault or the rapid darting of a fish? Is it thinking or not thinking? Is it doing or not doing? Is it sitting within sitting? Is it sitting within body-mind? Is it sitting letting go of sitting within sitting, or letting go of sitting within body-mind? Investigate this in every possible way. Sit in the body’s meditation posture. Sit in the mind’s meditation posture. Sit in the meditation posture of letting go of body-mind.

  Rujing, my late master, Old Buddha, said, “Practicing Zen is letting go of body and mind. It can only be done by wholehearted sitting; incense offering, bowing, chanting Buddha’s name, repentance, and sutra reading are not pivotal.”

  Rujing is the only one in four or five hundred years who has plucked out the eye of the buddha ancestors, and sat down inside that eye. There are few in China who can stand shoulder to shoulder with him. Perhaps there are some who have understood that sitting is buddha dharma and buddha dharma is sitting. And perhaps there are some who have personally experienced that sitting is buddha dharma. But there is no one else who has personally experienced that sitting is sitting, and so there is no one else who upholds buddha dharma as buddha dharma.

  Thus, there is sitting with the mind, which is not the same as sitting with the body. There is sitting with the body, which is not the same as sitting with the mind. There is sitting letting go of body-mind, which is not the same as sitting letting go of body-mind. To experience this is to merge the practice and understanding of the buddha ancestors. Maintain this insight. Investigate this awareness.

  Shakyamuni Buddha said to the assembly, “When you sit in the meditation posture, you realize samadhi in body and mind, and give rise to an awesome virtue that people respect. Like the sun illuminating and refreshing the world, this sitting removes obscurities from the mind and lightens the body so that exhaustion is set aside. Enlightenment becomes as natural as a dragon curled up at rest. A demon is frightened even by a picture of someone sitting in the meditation posture; how much more so by a living person who realizes the way sitting motionless and at ease.”

  As the Buddha said, a demon is startled and frightened by even a picture of someone sitting in the meditation posture and even more frightened by a living person sitting that way. So we know that the merit of such sitting is immeasurable. This ordinary everyday
sitting is itself boundless joy.

  Shakyamuni Buddha continued speaking to the assembly: “Therefore, you should sit in the meditation posture.”

  Then the Tathagata, the World-Honored One, taught his disciples how to sit and said to them:

  Some outsiders try to practice by standing on tiptoes, others by standing continuously, and still others by adopting the yoga posture of hooking their feet over their shoulders. These people develop unbalanced minds that flounder in an ocean of delusion because their postures are unnatural. Why do I teach my disciples to sit up straight in the meditation posture? Because it is easy to regulate the mind when the body is upright. If the body is straight, the mind is not dull. Instead, the mind is forthright, the intention is true, and mindfulness is present. If the mind scatters or the body leans, gather together your body-mind and resume the upright posture. If you want to manifest samadhi and enter it, you should gather together all distracted thought and scattered mind within this posture. Practice in this way and you will manifest and intimately enter the king of samadhis.

  Thus, we clearly know that sitting in the meditation posture is itself the king of samadhis. It is itself entering realization. All other samadhis serve the king of samadhis.

  Sitting in the meditation posture is a forthright body, a forthright mind, a forthright body-mind, a forthright buddha ancestor, a forthright practice-realization, a forthright top of the head, and a forthright life stream.

  When you sit in the meditation posture, the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of a human being are immediately vivid in the king of samadhis. The World-Honored One always sat in this meditation posture, and all his disciples authentically transmitted it. The World-Honored One taught humans and devas how to sit in this meditation posture. It is the mind seal authentically transmitted by the Seven Original Buddhas.

  Shakyamuni Buddha sat in this meditation posture under the bodhi tree for fifty small eons, sixty great eons, and innumerable unclassifiable eons. Perhaps he sat for three weeks, or maybe only for a few hours. In any case, the Buddha’s zazen is the turning of the wondrous wheel of dharma; his lifetime guidance is contained within it. Nothing is lacking. The yellow scrolls and red rolls of the sutras are all here. In this moment of sitting, buddha sees buddha and all beings attain buddhahood.

  Soon after Bodhidharma, the First Chinese Ancestor, arrived from India, he sat zazen facing the wall in the meditation posture for nine years at the Shaolin Temple, Shaoshi Peak of Mount Song. Since then the head and eyeball of his practice have prevailed all over China. Bodhidharma’s life stream is just this sitting in the meditation posture. Before he came from India, people in China had not truly known sitting in the meditation posture. But after he arrived, they came to know it. Thus, for one lifetime, for myriad lifetimes, from head to toe, without leaving the monastery and without concern for other activities, wholeheartedly sit in the meditation posture day and night—this is the king of samadhis.

  Presented to the assembly of the Yoshimine Temple on the fifteenth day, the second month, the second year of the Kangen Era [1244].

  73

  THIRTY-SEVEN WINGS OF ENLIGHTENMENT

  THE FUNDAMENTAL POINT set by ancient buddhas is the teaching, practice, and realization of the thirty-seven wings of enlightenment. Climbing and descending its classifications like twining vines is further twining vines [dynamic interaction] of the fundamental point. This is calling and actualizing buddhas, calling and actualizing ancestors.

  First, the four abodes of mindfulness are also called the four places of mindfulness. They are: visualizing the body as impure, visualizing perception as suffering, visualizing mind as impermanent, and visualizing that things are without a permanent and independent self.

  “Visualizing the body as impure” means that the single skin bag [body] visualizing the body is the entire world of the ten directions. Because it is a true body, it visualizes the body as impure, leaping along a vital path. Not leaping must be not visualizing, not having the body, not practicing, not speaking, not having visualized. Know that visualizing is actualized, leaping along is actualized.

  “Visualizing” is everyday walking, sweeping the ground, cleaning the meditation platform. You sweep the ground with the question: “Which month is it?” You sweep the ground and clean the meditation platform with the answer, “It is the second month.” Thus, you do so with the entire great earth.

  “Visualizing the body” is body visualizing. It is the body visualizing and not anything else visualizing. This very visualizing is outstanding. When body visualizing is actualized, mind visualizing does not search and is not actualized. This being so, body visualizing is diamond samadhi, shurangama [solid] samadhi. These are both visualizing the body as impure.

  Now, the meaning of seeing the morning star at dawn is called “visualizing the body as impure.” It is not discriminating pure from impure. Rather, [it is inevitable that] having the body is impure, manifesting the body is impure.

  Study in this way: When a demon becomes a buddha, you take up a demon and turn the demon into a buddha. When a buddha becomes a buddha, you take up a buddha, paint a buddha, and turn the buddha into a buddha. When a person becomes a buddha, you take up a person, prepare the person, and turn the person into a buddha. Study thoroughly that at the place of taking up, the path unfolds right where you are.

  This is like washing the robe. The water is defiled by the robe and the robe is soaked by the water. While you wash with water and with some more water, you use the water. This is washing the robe. If you don’t see cleanness at the first or second washing, you keep washing. After the water goes, you get some more water. Even when the robe is clean, you keep on washing. You use the water of all beings, which is suitable for washing the robe. When the water is soiled, you know there are fish.

  You wash the robe together with the robes of various beings. Endeavoring in this way, the fundamental point of washing the robe is actualized. Thus, you understand purity. It means that dipping the robe in water is not necessarily the original intention; to defile the water with the robe is not necessarily the original intention. However, washing the robe with defiled water is the original intention of washing the robe.

  Furthermore, there is a way to wash the robe with fire, air, earth, water, and space. There is a way to wash earth, water, fire, air, and space with earth, water, fire, air, and space.

  The meaning of visualizing the body as impure is also like this. Thus, to cover the body, to cover visualizing, to cover impurity, is no other than the kashaya wrapped around the body born from the mother. If the kashaya were not wrapped around the body born from the mother, buddha ancestors would not have used it. How can this understanding be limited to Shanavasin [whose lay clothes turned into a buddha robe]? Keep this principle in mind and study thoroughly.

  “Visualizing perception as suffering” means suffering is perception. Perception is not perception of self, other, existence, or nonexistence. It is perception of the living body, suffering [bitterness] of the living body.

  “Visualizing perception as suffering” means seeing that the living body turns from a sweet melon into a bitter gourd. Thus, skin, flesh, bones, and marrow are bitter. Those with mind and those without mind are both bitter. To realize this is a part of the practice-realization of miracles—the miracle of leaping out of the calyx [of a sweet melon] and leaping out of the roots [of a bitter gourd].

  “It is said that sentient beings are suffering. Furthermore, suffering is sentient beings.” [Words spoken by Jingqing Daofu.] Sentient beings are not self, not other. This statement—Furthermore, suffering is sentient beings—cannot fool others.

  Although a sweet melon is sweet all the way to the calyx, and a bitter gourd is bitter all the way to the root, bitterness [suffering] cannot be easily grasped. So, ask yourself: what is suffering?

  In regard to “visualizing mind as impermanent,” Huineng, Old Buddha of Caoxi, said, “Impermanence is no other than buddha nature.”

  In this way, al
l types of impermanence understood by various beings are buddha nature.

  Yongjia, Great Master Zhenjiao, said, “All phenomena are impermanent and everything is empty. This is the great, complete enlightenment of the Tathagata.”

  In this way, “visualizing mind as impermanent” is no other than the great, complete enlightenment of the Tathagata—the Tathagata of the great, complete enlightenment. Even if the mind tries not to visualize this, as mind changes with all things, where there is mind, there is visualization. Arriving at unsurpassable, complete enlightenment, actualizing unsurpassable, complete enlightenment, is impermanence, visualizing mind.

  Mind, which is not necessarily permanent, is free of the four basic modes of discernment and beyond the one hundred types of negation. This being so, walls, tiles, and pebbles, large and small stones, are mind. They are impermanence. This is visualizing.

  “Visualizing that things are without a permanent and independent self” is “A tall person has a tall dharma body, a short person has a short dharma body.”

  As the self is activities actualized, it is not a permanent and independent self. A dog has no buddha nature; a dog has buddha nature. No beings have buddha nature; no buddha nature has beings. No buddhas have beings; no buddhas have buddhas. No buddha nature has buddha nature. No beings have beings.

  Thus, study “no beings have things” as visualizing that things are without a permanent and independent self. Know that the entire body leaps out of twining vines [entanglement] of the self.