Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  There is a debate whether the Shurangama Sutra, which is composed of ten scrolls, is apocryphal or not. The argument has lasted until now. Among the existing translations, the newest one from the Xinlong Era [705–707] is particularly suspect.

  However, Fayan, Fatai, and Rujing have all commented on this saying. Thus, these words have already been turned by the dharma wheel of buddha ancestors. The buddha ancestors are turning this dharma wheel. In this way, these words turn the buddha ancestors, and these words have already expounded the buddha ancestors. Because these words have been turned by buddha ancestors and have turned buddha ancestors, even if this sutra is spurious, it has become a genuine buddha sutra and ancestor sutra, an intimate and familiar dharma wheel. Even a tile or a pebble, a fallen leaf, an udumbara blossom, or even a brocade robe, when taken up and turned by buddha ancestors, is the buddha dharma wheel and the buddha treasury of the true dharma eye.

  Know that when sentient beings leap beyond and attain true awakening, they are buddha ancestors, disciples and teachers of buddha ancestors, and the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of buddha ancestors. They are no longer the siblings of any ordinary sentient beings, but the siblings of buddha ancestors.

  Likewise, even if the words in the ten-scroll Shurangama Sutra are inauthentic, the saying discussed above is an extraordinary buddha saying and ancestor saying that cannot be compared with usual words. However, even if these words go beyond, do not regard the entire text of the sutra as buddha words and ancestor words; do not regard the entire text as the eyeball of study.

  There are many reasons that this saying should not be compared with usual words. I will present some of the reasons. What is called turning the dharma wheel is the activity of buddha ancestors. There have been no buddha ancestors who do not turn the dharma wheel. How the dharma wheel is turned is by taking up sound and form and smashing sound and form, by leaping out of sound and form and turning the dharma wheel, by plucking out the eyeball and turning the dharma wheel, or by raising a fist and turning the dharma wheel. The dharma wheel also turns by itself when the nostrils are grabbed and empty space is grasped. Taking up the saying discussed above at this immediate moment is taking up the morning star, nostrils, peach blossoms, or empty space. This is no other than taking up buddha ancestors and taking up the dharma wheel. This is the essence of clearly turning the dharma wheel.

  Turning the dharma wheel is to practice without separating from the monastery for a whole lifetime, to ask for instructions, and to whole-heartedly engage the way on the sitting platform.

  Presented to the assembly of the Yoshimine Temple, Echizen Province, on the twenty-seventh day, the second month, the second year of the Kangen Era [1244].

  75

  SELF-REALIZATION SAMADHI

  WHAT HAS BEEN authentically transmitted by all buddhas, including the Seven Original Buddhas, is self-realization samadhi. It calls for following a teacher and following a sutra. This is the eyeball of buddha ancestors.

  One time, Huineng, Old Buddha Caoxi, asked a monk, “Do you depend upon practice and enlightenment?”

  The monk replied, “It’s not that there is no practice and no enlightenment. It’s just that it’s not possible to divide them.”

  This being so, know that the undividedness of practice and enlightenment is itself the buddha ancestors. It is the thunderstorm of the buddha ancestors’ samadhi.

  At the very moment of following a teacher, you encounter with half a face or half a body. Or, you encounter with the entire face or the entire body. At times you encounter half a self and half another. You realize a spirit’s hairy head and practice a demon’s horned face. At times you follow others while traveling in the midst of different beings. At other times you travel differently while being born with those who have the same kind of birth.

  In this way, you let go of yourself for the sake of dharma without knowing how many thousands of times you do so. You seek dharma for the sake of yourself without knowing in how many billions of eons you do so. This is the vital activity of following a teacher. This is the activity of practicing yourself and following yourself. In this way, at the time of blinking [by the Buddha], there is smiling [by Mahakashyapa]; at the occasion of bowing to receive the marrow [as Huike did], there is cutting off an arm.

  From the time before and after the Seven Original Buddhas to the time of Huineng, the Sixth Chinese Ancestor, teachers who saw through the self were not limited to one or two, and teachers who have seen through others are not limited to then or now.

  When you follow a sutra, you thoroughly experience your skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. When you drop away your skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, all of a sudden the emergence of the eye of [seeing] peach blossoms is encountered; the roaring sound of bamboo is heard in your ear consciousness.

  When you follow and study a sutra, it emerges. A sutra means the entire world of the ten directions—mountains, rivers, the earth, grass, trees, self, and others. It is having a meal, putting on a robe, and engaging in activities. When you study the way, following a sutra, thousands and myriads of sutras that have never existed emerge and become present.

  There are phrases that clearly affirm. There are verses that completely deny. By encountering these phrases and studying them with the entire body and mind, however long the eons you exhaust, and however long the eons you take up, there is always a place where you arrive with full mastery. By studying the letting go of body and mind, even if you pluck out the beginningless eon and fly beyond the beginningless eon, you will always achieve the experience of receiving and maintaining the sutra.

  At the present time there are less than half a myriad of scrolls of scriptures translated from Sanskrit into Chinese. There are the Three Vehicles, the Five Vehicles, the Nine Divisions, and the Twelve Divisions among these scriptures. These are sutras to follow and study. Even if you try to avoid and not follow them, it will not be possible. This being so, they become the eye, and “my marrow.” Their heads are right. Their tails are right.

  When you receive a sutra from someone and give it to someone else, it becomes the vital emergence of the eye, dropping away self and other. It is just the entrusting of “my marrow,” penetrating self and other. Because the eye, or “my marrow,” is not self and not other, buddha ancestors have authentically transmitted it since olden times and have entrusted it from right now to right now.

  There is a sutra of a walking stick, expounding vertically and horizontally, crushing emptiness and crushing existence. There is a sutra of a whisk, rinsing snow and rinsing frost. There is a sutra of zazen, in one assembly and two assemblies. There is a sutra of the kashaya in one scroll and ten wrappings. These have been protected and maintained by buddha ancestors. Following sutras in this way, you practice, realize, and attain the way. With a deva face, a human face, a sun face, or a moon face, you actualize the practice of following sutras.

  Thus, both following a teacher and following a sutra are following yourself. A sutra is no other than a sutra as yourself. A teacher is invariably a teacher as yourself. This being so, to visit teachers everywhere is to visit yourself everywhere. To take up one hundred grasses is to take up yourself. To take up myriad trees is to take up yourself. Study yourself that always endeavors thus. In this study, drop away, merge with, and realize yourself.

  Thus, in the great way of buddha ancestors, there are the essentials of self-realization and self-enlightenment. These cannot be authentically transmitted unless one is a direct successor of a buddha ancestor. The essentials transmitted from heir to heir cannot be authentically transmitted unless one is the bones and marrow of buddha ancestors. Because you study in this way, when this is transmitted to another, there is the entrusting of “You have attained my marrow,” “I have the treasury of the true dharma eye. I entrust it to Mahakashyapa.”

  To speak to another [in this way] does not necessarily divide self and other. Speaking to another is self speaking to self. It is self and self, hearing and speaking together. One ear speaks an
d one ear hears. One tongue speaks and one tongue hears. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind, root, consciousness, and objects are all like this. Furthermore, one body and one mind realize and practice. This is the ear itself hearing and speaking, the tongue itself hearing and speaking.

  Even if you spoke of the dharma of impermanence to others yesterday, you speak of the dharma of permanence to yourself today. Such a sun face [one aspect] continues, such a moon face [another aspect] continues. To speak of dharma and practice for others is to hear dharma, to clarify dharma, and to realize dharma, birth after birth. If you have a sincere heart in speaking of dharma to others in this birth, your attaining dharma is easy. Or, if you assist and support others hearing dharma, your study of dharma receives a wholesome effect. You receive the effect in your body and in your mind. On the other hand, if you obstruct others from hearing dharma, your hearing of dharma is obstructed.

  To speak dharma and to hear dharma birth after birth means to hear dharma lifetime after lifetime. Further, it is to hear in this world the dharma you have authentically received from the past. Because you are born in dharma and die in dharma, if you authentically receive dharma in the entire world of the ten directions, you hear it birth after birth and practice it body after body. Because you actualize dharma birth after birth, and make body after body into dharma, you bring forth a single particle, as well as the entire world of phenomena, and help them to realize dharma.

  This being so, if you hear a phrase from someone in a far-eastern region, speak it for another in a far-western region. Endeavor in hearing and speaking equally with a single self. Practice and realize an east self and a west self.

  Rejoice, hope for, and have the aspiration for bringing buddha ancestors’ dharma, the ancestral way, closer to your body and mind. Extend this practice from one hour to one day, then to one year and to one life-time. Make buddha ancestors’ dharma the essential spirit and play with it. This is to live your life meaningfully.

  So, do not think that you should not speak of dharma to others until you master it. If you wait until you master it, it will not be possible for countless eons. Even if you have mastered human buddhas, you need to master celestial buddhas. Even if you have mastered the heart of mountains, you need to master the heart of waters. Even if you have mastered the dharma of birth with causation, you need to master the dharma of birth beyond causation. Even if you have mastered the realm of buddha ancestors, you need to master going beyond buddha ancestors. Trying to speak to others after mastering all of these in one lifetime is not an endeavor of a person, and it is not the study.

  Studying the way of buddha ancestors is to raise the aspiration as high as heaven for speaking to others from the moment of studying one dharma and one procedure. Thus, you drop away [become free from] self and others. Further, studying yourself thoroughly is studying others thoroughly. Studying others thoroughly is studying yourself thoroughly.

  This practice of buddhas cannot be experienced with the body without receiving it from a teacher, even if you have knowledge by birth. Knowledge by birth does not know knowledge beyond birth, and beyond knowledge beyond birth. Even those who have knowledge by birth would not know the great way of buddha ancestors unless they study it.

  To experience yourself with the body and to experience others with the body is the great road of buddha ancestors. Just turn the study of your beginner’s mind and study simultaneously with others’ beginners’ minds. When self and others study together with the beginner’s mind, you arrive together at the ultimate realm. In this way, your own endeavor encourages the endeavor of others.

  However, hearing the words “self-realization” and “self-enlightenment,” foolish people think that this is receiving transmission without a teacher and that one only needs to study by oneself. This is a great mistake. Those who make a crooked interpretation of self-realization without receiving instructions from a teacher are the same as those outside the way in India who believed in spontaneous enlightenment. How can those who do not understand this be considered practitioners of the buddha way?

  Furthermore, those who hear the word “self-realization” and assume that this is the accumulation of the five skandhas are simply abiding in the practice of “self-control” in the Lesser Vehicles. There are many of those who do not understand the Great and Lesser Vehicles who call themselves descendants of buddha ancestors. Who with clear eyes would be fooled by them?

  In the Shaoxing Era [1131–1162] of Great Song China, there was someone called Zonggao, Zen Master Dahui, of Mount Jing. He was originally a student of scriptures and treatises. While wandering [in search of a master], he studied Yunmen’s commentaries on ancient words, and Xuedou’s commentaries and verses on ancient words, under Shaoli, a Zen master of Xuan Province. This was the beginning of his practice and study. He could not understand Yunmen’s style, and went to study with Dongshan Daowei, who did not allow him into his inner chamber. Daowei, a dharma child of Furong Daokai, cannot be viewed shoulder to shoulder with ordinary people who sit in lower positions. Although Zonggao studied with Daowei for a fair amount of time, he could not touch upon Daowei’s skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. Furthermore, he was not aware that there is an eye in the midst of the objects of the senses.

  One day, Zonggao heard about the practice of burning incense on one’s elbow [to show determination] upon receiving a document of heritage. He kept asking Daowei to transmit a document of heritage to him. But Daowei would not do so. He said, “If you want to receive transmission of dharma, you should endeavor wholeheartedly and not be hasty. Buddha ancestors have not received and transmitted dharma groundlessly. It is not that I spare transmission, but that you do not yet have the eye.”

  Zonggao said, “The true eye one originally has is self-realization, self-enlightenment. How is it possible to transmit dharma groundlessly?”

  Daowei just smiled and was silent.

  Later, Zonggao studied with Zhantang Wenzhun [of Mount Baofeng]. One day Zhantang asked him, “How come one of your nostrils is missing today?”

  Zonggao said, “It is studying at Mount Baofeng.”

  Zhantang said, “A coarse Zen student.”

  Later, when Zonggao was reading a sutra, Zhantang asked, “What sutra are you reading?”

  Zonggao said, “The Diamond Sutra.”

  Zhantang said, “Dharma is equal with nothing high and nothing low. How come Mount Yunju is high and Mount Baofeng is low?”

  Zonggao said, “Dharma is equal with nothing high and nothing low.”

  Zhantang said, “You have become a lecturer.”

  Another day, seeing the images of the Ten Kings [of Hell] being decorated, Zhantang asked senior monk Zonggao, “What is the family name of these officials?”

  Zonggao said, “Liang.”

  Zhantang rubbed his head and said, “My family name is also Liang. How come I am not wearing a headdress?”

  Zonggao said, “You are not wearing a headdress, but your nostrils look like theirs.”

  Zhantang said, “A coarse Zen student.”

  Another day, Zhantang said to Zonggao, “Senior Monk Gao, you have understood Zen in my place all at once. When I ask you to speak, you speak. When I ask you to practice, you practice. When I ask you to make a commentary, make a verse commentary, give an unscheduled talk, give a talk to the assembly, or ask questions, you can do any of those things. But there is one thing missing. Do you know what it is?”

  Zonggao asked, “What is missing?”

  Zhantang said, “You don’t understand this one point. Indeed, this is the point you don’t understand: When I am at the abbot’s quarters and speak to you, there is Zen. But as soon as you step out of the abbot’s quarters, it disappears. When you are clearly thinking, there is Zen. But when you are asleep, it disappears. If so, how can you grab hold of birth and death?”

  Zonggao said, “That is exactly what I am questioning.”

  Some years later, Zhantang showed a sign of illness.

  Zonggao said, “
After your death, whose help should I get to complete my clarifying the great matter?”

  Zhantang said, “There is someone called Qinbazi [Keqin of Ba Region]. I haven’t met him. But if you meet him, you will certainly complete your study. After meeting him, do not wander around anymore. You will certainly bring out the fruition of your study.”

  When we examine these stories, we see that Zhantang did not yet approve Zonggao. Although Zonggao often tried to open up for one phrase of enlightenment, he was lacking a single experience. He could not take hold of or drop away from this single experience. Earlier, Daowei did not give Zonggao a document of heritage and encouraged him to try harder. Daowei’s observation of his student was clear and trustworthy.

  Indeed, Zonggao did not thoroughly study, drop away, and crush the point of doubt. He did not have a great doubt. He was not immersed in doubt. His request for transmitting a document of heritage groundlessly was a coarse action—an extreme example of having no aspiration for the way, not following the authentic procedure. It was a lack of deep consideration. He was not a vessel of the way and was completely ignorant of the study. He tried to invade the inner chamber of buddha ancestors with the intention of grabbing fame and loving benefit. How pitiful that he did not understand the phrases of buddha ancestors!

  Because Zonggao did not understand that learning from the ancients is self-realization, and he did not hear and study that to examine myriad generations is self-enlightenment, he made such a mistake and had such self-delusion. Thus, among students of Zonggao, there is not one or even half a person who is truly worth grabbing by the nose. Many of them are expedient teachers. They do not understand buddha ancestors’ dharma and do not go beyond understanding buddha ancestors’ dharma in this way. Monks nowadays should study this in detail without neglect.