Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Transporting hundreds of cartfuls of genuine gold

  and making offerings do not equal

  the offering of flowers and incense to a stupa

  with a single wholesome heart.

  A multitude of people assembled like clouds.

  The Buddha said to Shariputra, “I will expound dharma for these people.” Then he recited this verse:

  Hundreds of Jambudvipa Worlds filled with

  the offerings of genuine gold

  do not equal the offering of one dharma

  to be followed and practiced.

  In this assembly there were those who had attained the way. The Buddha said in a verse:

  Hundreds of Jambudvipa Worlds filled with

  offerings of genuine gold

  do not equal the offering of one dharma

  followed by the realization of truth.

  Then, the Brahman attained indestructible trust and made a meal offering to the Buddha and monks in front of the stupa.

  Hearing that the World-Honored One had a stupa built for Kashyapa Buddha, King Prasenajit brought seven hundred cartfuls of slate to the Buddha, bowed to the Buddha’s feet by putting his face to the ground, and said, “World-Honored One, I wish to make this stupa larger. May I do so?”

  “Yes.” Then the Buddha said to the king, “In the past, when Kashyapa Buddha entered pari-nirvana, there was a king called Gridra. He wanted to build a seven-treasure stupa. One of the courtiers said to the king,’ In the future there may be people who break laws and want to destroy the stupa. I suggest that we build the stupa with slate and cover it with gold and silver. Then, even if the gold and silver are taken away, the slate of the stupa will remain intact.’

  “The king followed the courtier’s advice and had the stupa built with slate covered with gold. It was one yojana high and half a yojana wide. The balcony railing was made of bronze. It took seven years, seven months, and seven days to complete it. Then he made offerings of incense and flowers to the Buddha and monks.”

  King Prasenajit said to the Buddha, “That king must have been very wealthy and had many rare treasures. What I am going to build may not be as good.” Then he built the stupa in seven months and seven days. After its completion he made offerings of incense and flowers to the Buddha and monks.

  The way to build a stupa is to have the ground story square with a railing around it. The two higher stories are round with the joints of the roof sticking out from the four sides. Banners and canopies stand above these stories. The wheel of space is added on top. If you say, “The World-Honored One spoke of himself as having become free from greed, hatred, and delusion, then why would he need such a stupa?” then this would break the precept [of not slandering the three treasures]. Such an offence is serious and prohibited according to the stupa principles.

  The stupa principles require selecting a suitable site when constructing a temple building. A stupa should be in the east or north of the temple compound but not in the south or west. The monks’ quarters should not be in the Buddha’s quarters [stupa], and the Buddha’s quarters should not be in the monks’ quarters. If the site of the stupa is close to a place for leaving corpses, build a fence so dogs don’t pollute the ground by scattering bones. The monks’ quarters should be built in the west or south of the temple. Water from the monks’ quarters should not flow to the Buddha’s quarters, but may flow from the Buddha’s quarters to the monks’ quarters. Therefore, the stupa should be built on higher ground. [At the site of the stupa] Do not wash clothes, wear sandals, cover the head or shoulders, or spit on the ground. If you say, “The World-Honored One spoke of himself as having become free from greed, hatred, and delusion, then why would he need such a stupa?” this would break the precept. The result of this action [insulting the Buddha or a stupa for him] is serious and prohibited according to the stupa principles.

  In regard to stupa altars, King Prasenajit went to see the Buddha, bowed to the Buddha’s feet by putting his face to the ground, and said, “World-Honored One, I have built a stupa for Kashyapa Buddha. May I make altars?”

  “Yes.” The Buddha said, “In the past when Kashyapa Buddha entered pari-nirvana, King Gridra built a stupa for the Buddha. He built altars with balconies that had railings on all four sides, and images of lions and various paintings above them. In those balconies there were places for flowers. Inside the altars, banners and canopies were hung. If you say, ‘The World-Honored One speaks of himself as having become free from greed, hatred, and delusion, but he gets himself decorated and receives bliss,’ this would break the precept. The result of this action is serious. These are called stupa altar principles.”

  Thus, we clearly know that to build a stupa for an ancient buddha and make offerings in veneration of enlightenment, the buddha fruit, are customs for buddhas. There are many precedents like this, but I am only presenting this for the time being.

  In buddha dharma the teaching of the Sarva Asti Vada School is outstanding. The Maha Sangha Precepts is the most basic teaching of the school. Monk Faxian went to India by clearing a way through wild lands. He climbed Vulture Peak and brought this teaching to China for the first time. The teaching transmitted from ancestor to ancestor corresponds to that of the Sarva Asti Vada School.

  The third type of offering is to the Buddha himself or to a chaitya for the present Buddha.

  The fourth type of offering is the making of extensive offerings to the invisible Buddha or to a chaitya for the Buddha. It is said: There are offerings to the Buddha himself or to a chaitya for the present Buddha, and there are offerings to the invisible Buddha or to a chaitya for the invisible Buddha. By making offerings to the Buddha himself or to a chaitya for the present Buddha, you attain great merit. By making offerings to what is invisible, you attain extremely great merit, because the field of offerings is very extensive. If you combine making offerings to the visible and invisible, you attain the greatest merit.

  The fifth type of offering is an offering made by yourself to the Buddha or to a chaitya for the Buddha.

  The sixth type of offering is an offering you have others make to the Buddha or to a chaitya for the Buddha. If others have materials, you have them make an offering without negligence. It is said, “Offerings made by the self and others are done together.” If you make offerings by yourself, you attain great merit. If you have others make offerings, you attain extremely great merit. If you combine making offerings by yourself and others, you attain the greatest merit.

  The seventh type of offering is making an offering of materials to the Buddha or to a chaitya for the Buddha. It is said, “There are three kinds of materials: things for livelihood such as clothes and food, things for veneration such as incense and flowers, and things for decoration, including all other things, to create a magnificent sacred space.”

  The eighth type of offering is excellent offerings. There are three kinds: general offerings; appropriate offerings in accordance with pure trust in the weightiness of the Buddha’s virtue; and offerings of the dedicated heart—the merit of one’s practice—in seeking the buddha heart.

  The ninth type of offering is unstained offerings. There are two kinds: an unstained heart free from all faults, and unstained materials free from all faults.

  The tenth type of offering is making an offering of the ultimate way. Here, the offering follows its effect. The effect of being a buddha is being at the ultimate place. The practice of making offerings brings you to this place. This being so, it is called making offerings of the ultimate way. It is also called making offerings of dharma or making offerings of practice. There are three kinds: offerings of materials regarded as offerings of the ultimate way; offerings of delight [at others’ wholesome actions] regarded as offerings of the ultimate way; and offerings of practice regarded as offerings of the ultimate way.

  These are the ten types of offerings to the Buddha. Offerings made to the dharma and to the sangha are similar. It is said, “Making offerings to the dharma is making them to the princ
iple, teaching and practice expounded by the Buddha, as well as to the scriptures. Making offerings to the sangha is making them to all sacred members of the Three Vehicles, the chaitya, images, and shrines, as well as to ordinary monks.”

  There are six types of hearts that make offerings: an unsurpassable heart in the field of benefaction, which is the most excellent of those aroused in the field of benefaction; an unsurpassable heart of gratitude, where all wholesome enjoyment is aroused by the three treasures; a heart that arouses the most excellent heart of all sentient beings; a heart rare to encounter like an udumbara blossom; a heart rare in the billion worlds; and a heart that embodies the principles that are depended on in the world and beyond the world.

  If you make even small offerings to the three treasures with these six types of heart, you attain immeasurable, boundless merit. How much more so if you make many offerings?

  These offerings should always be made with a sincere heart. This is what buddhas have practiced. Since examples of this practice are widely shown in sutras and teachings on the precepts, this practice has been authentically transmitted by buddha ancestors.

  The days and months of assisting your master and engaging in labor are the time of making offerings. Guidelines for enshrining buddha images and relics, venerating and bowing, as well as building stupas and chaityas, have been authentically transmitted in the house of buddha ancestors alone, and not by those who are not descendants of buddha ancestors.

  If the guidelines are not authentically transmitted, there will be discrepancies. If there are discrepancies, offerings will not be genuine. If the offerings are not genuine, there is no merit. Make sure to authentically receive the correct way of making offerings.

  Zen Master Lingdao spent years attending to the tomb of Huineng at Caoxi. Worker Lu [Huineng] pounded rice ceaselessly for the assembly of monks day and night. These were both appropriate ways of making offerings. These examples are a few out of many that are impossible to list.

  [Edited by Ejo during] The summer practice period, the seventh year of the Kencho Era [1265].

  89

  TAKING REFUGE IN BUDDHA, DHARMA, AND SANGHA

  THE FIRST OF one hundred twenty questions in the Guidelines for Zen Monasteries says, “Do you revere buddha, dharma, and sangha, or not?”

  Thus, it is clear that what the buddhas and ancestors in India and China have authentically transmitted is reverence to buddha, dharma, and sangha. Without taking refuge, there is no reverence. Without reverence, there is no taking refuge.

  The act of taking refuge in buddha, dharma, and sangha is achieved through mutual affinity and interaction. Whether you are in a deva realm, a human realm, hell, a demon realm, or an animal realm, when you have mutual affinity and interaction with buddha, dharma, and sangha, you invariably take refuge in them.

  Taking refuge in the three treasures, you nurture yourself wherever you are, birth after birth, world after world. You accumulate merit, assemble virtue, and attain unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. Even if you are misled by unwholesome friends, obstructed by demons, cut off from your wholesome roots, and become an icchantika, in the end you will regain your wholesome roots and increase merit. The power of taking refuge in the three treasures will never decay.

  To take refuge in the three treasures, whether at the time of the Tathagata or after the Tathagata’s pari-nirvana, fill yourself with pure trust, put your hands together, bow, and recite in this way:

  I, so-and-so, from this body through the attainment of a buddha body, take refuge in Buddha, take refuge in Dharma, and take refuge in Sangha.

  I take refuge in Buddha, the most revered of those with two feet.

  I take refuge in Dharma, the most revered way to become free from delusion.

  I take refuge in Sangha, the most revered assembly.

  I have taken refuge in Buddha,

  I have taken refuge in Dharma,

  I have taken refuge in Sangha.

  Initiate this vow aspiring for enlightenment, the fruit of buddhahood. Even though your body-mind is born and dies moment by moment, your dharma body surely grows and attains enlightenment.

  “Taking refuge in” means returning and relying upon. “Returning” is like children returning to their parents. “Relying upon” is like citizens relying on the king. This phrase implies that you are liberated by doing so.

  You take refuge in buddha because he is a great master. You take refuge in dharma because it is good medicine. You take refuge in sangha because it is an excellent friend.

  [A Chinese commentary called the Meaning of the Mahayana says:]

  “Why do you return exclusively to these three treasures?

  “The reason why these three are the ultimate place of return is that they help sentient beings to become free from birth and death, and realize great enlightenment.”

  These three treasures have wondrous power.

  Buddha is a word from India. It is translated as “awakened one” in China. It means one who has unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.

  Dharma is a word [in Sanskrit] from India. It is also called dhamma [in Pali]. There are a variety of Indian sounds for it. In China it is translated as “law.” Although everything that is wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral is also dharma, the dharma in which we take refuge is the dharma that is the law.

  Sangha is also a word from India. It is translated as “harmonious assembly” in China.

  These three treasures have been venerated in this way.

  The three treasures that have been maintained are:

  The buddha treasure, such as buddha images and stupas; the dharma treasure transmitted as scripture on red or yellow scrolls; and the sangha treasure of precepts, including shaving the head, wearing a dyed robe, and following the precepts and dharma procedures.

  The three treasures that function as teaching are: the buddha treasure of Shakyamuni Buddha, the World-Honored One; the dharma treasure transmitted as the turning of the dharma wheel, the spreading of sacred teaching; and the sangha treasure of the Five Monks [who listened to the Buddha’s first discourse], including Ajnatakaundinya.

  The three treasures that are the essence of reality are: the buddha treasure of the five types of dharma body; the dharma treasure of nirvana that is beyond change; and the sangha treasure of the merit of learning what is beyond learning.

  The three treasures as one treasure are: the buddha treasure of fully realizing reality; the dharma treasure of being pure and free of defilement; and the sangha treasure of living in accord with reality, being harmonious, and being free from stagnation.

  You take refuge in these three treasures. Those unfortunate ones who lack virtue do not even hear the name of the three treasures; how can they take refuge in them?

  The Lotus Sutra says, “These beings, because of their unwholesome conditions, cannot hear the name of the three treasures, even for uncountable kalpas.”

  The Lotus Sutra describes the great causes and conditions of buddha tathagatas. The Lotus Sutra is the king, the great master of the sutras expounded by Shakyamuni Buddha. All other sutras and dharmas are its subjects and relations.

  The words in the Lotus Sutra are genuine. Other sutras that include skillful means are not necessarily the essential teachings of the Buddha. To rely on the words in other sutras in order to criticize the Lotus Sutra is upside down. Without the influence of the Lotus Sutra, there can be no other sutras. Other sutras assemble to take refuge in the Lotus Sutra. This sutra speaks of those who cannot hear the name of the three treasures. Thus, know that the merit of the three treasures is unequalled.

  The World-Honored One said:

  Many of you are fearful of suffering and take refuge in mountains, in gardens, in forests, under trees, or in shrines. This refuge is neither excellent nor valuable. You cannot be liberated from suffering by taking refuge in them.

  On the other hand, if you take refuge in buddha, and if you take refuge in dharma and sangha, you can always abide in the four noble truths
. With this wisdom, you always observe and understand suffering and the arising of suffering, you know how to go beyond suffering forever. You know the eightfold path. This refuge is the most excellent and most valuable of all. You will certainly become free from all suffering by taking this refuge.

  The World-Honored One clearly taught all sentient beings not to take refuge in mountain deities, demon spirits, and so on, or in shrines of those outside the way, with their fear of suffering. It is not possible to be liberated from various sufferings by taking refuge in those. People follow the crooked teachings of those outside the way, and follow the ways of cows, deer, demons, those who practice not speaking, those who practice not hearing, dogs, chickens, peacocks, or those who put ash on their bodies, grow long hair, sacrifice sheep on the seasonal rites after chanting mantras, worship the fire for four months, or bow to the wind for seven days. They dedicate numerous flowers to devas and pray for attaining what they desire. There is no reason why these practices would cause liberation. Thus, people suffer in vain without receiving whole-some results. This is not recommended by those who are wise.