Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Entering unhindered understanding is a gate of realizing dharma; it acquires and completes the dharma eye. Entering all types of practice is a gate of realizing dharma; it acquires and completes the buddha eye.

  Accomplishing dharani is a gate of realizing dharma; it hears and maintains the dharma of all buddhas. Attaining unhindered understanding is a gate of realizing dharma; it causes all sentient beings to rejoice.

  Practicing patience is a gate of realizing dharma; it accords with the dharma of all buddhas. Attaining patience beyond birth is a gate of realizing dharma; it attains the prediction of enlightenment.

  The ground of unremitting practice is a gate of realizing dharma; it embodies the dharma of all past buddhas. Following and reaching the ground of wisdom are a gate of realizing dharma; it sprinkles wisdom water on the head and achieves all wisdom. The ground of sprinkling wisdom water on the head is a gate of realizing dharma; it brings forth birth, leaving the household, and unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.

  Thus, Bodhisattva Realization Protector finished expounding this dharma and said to all the devas, “Devas, these are the one hundred eight gates of realizing dharma, which I offer to you. Accept and maintain them. Always keep them in mind and do not forget them.

  [Dogen says:]

  These are the one hundred eight gates of realizing dharma. It is customary in the buddha world that when bodhisattvas who taught throughout their lives in Tushita Heaven are about to descend to the Jambudvipa Continent [where humans abide], they expound this teaching to devas.

  Bodhisattva Realization Protector is the name of Shakyamuni Buddha when he was a bodhisattva teaching throughout his life in the Fourth Heaven. When Li Fuma compiled the Tiansheng Extensive Record of the Lamp, he added “One Hundred Eight Gates of Realizing Dharma” to the title of the book.

  Not many of those who study know about this teaching. Those who are unaware of it are as many as straws, flax, bamboo, and reeds.

  I am showing this teaching to beginners and latecomers. Those who may ascend to the lion seat and become teachers of humans and devas should study this thoroughly. Those who do not teach throughout their lives in Tushita Heaven [before descending to the human realm] are not buddhas. Practitioners, do not be proud of yourselves. The bodhisattvas who teach throughout their lives do not have intermediary realms [before rebirth into the human realm].

  AFTERWORD

  THE COMPLETION OF the translation of Dogen’s great work, the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, is a milestone in Zen’s coming-of-age in the Western world. This work and Shasta Abbey’s recently completed translation of the text mark the absorption of Dogen’s lifework by Zen practitioners outside of Japan, and establishes the mind relic of Dogen’s written teaching in the English-speaking world.

  Shunryu Suzuki Roshi came to the United States in 1959. Kazuaki Tanahashi began his English translation of Dogen in 1964. It has taken this amount of time for Soto Zen to lay down its roots here in North America. While more than thirty teachers and practitioners from San Francisco Zen Center and beyond have collaborated on the translation, Kaz’s contribution stands out—combining the roles of coach, teacher, cheerleader, and wordsmith—and his flexibility and integrity shine through. Knowing when to give time for a word or phrase to become ripe, a good translator demonstrates a remarkable patience and skill set.

  The difficulty of translation cannot be underestimated. Kaz himself noticed that it wasn’t until he started to translate Dogen into English that he was able to complete his translation of Dogen from medieval into modern Japanese. Suzuki Roshi was a respected teacher in Japan, but when he spoke in English his teaching was outstanding. His creative expression in a different social linguistic context demonstrated the depth of his understanding. My own experience with translation is that I may understand something a little bit, but to express it in another language takes a deeper intimacy with the material. For many of us cotranslators this project has been a stretching and testing of our dharma limits.

  In closing, I would like to acknowledge the committed sangha whose sincere and daily practice of the buddha way has supplied the background and context of the teaching in this book. My hope is that its publication continues to inspire a new expression of the dharma for this age: May the dharma floursh in the ten directions!

  DAIRYU MICHAEL WENGER

  Beginner’s Mind Temple,

  San Francisco Zen Center

  December 8, 2008

  APPENDIX 1

  Recommending Zazen to All People

  Dogen

  THE REAL WAY CIRCULATES everywhere; how could it require practice or enlightenment? The essential teaching is fully available; how could effort be necessary? Furthermore, the entire mirror is free of dust; why take steps to polish it? Nothing is separate from this very place; why journey away?

  And yet, if you miss the mark even by a strand of hair, you are as distant as heaven from earth. If the slightest discrimination occurs, you will be lost in confusion. You could be proud of your understanding and have abundant realization, or acquire outstanding wisdom and attain the way by clarifying the mind. Still, if you are wandering about in your head, you may miss the vital path of letting your body leap.

  You should observe the example of Buddha Shakyamuni of the Jeta Grove, who practiced sitting up straight for six years even though he was gifted with intrinsic wisdom. Still celebrated is the Master Bodhidharma of Shaolin Temple who sat facing the wall for nine years, although he had already received the mind seal. Ancient sages were like this; who nowadays does not need to practice as they did?

  Hence, you should stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop off and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.

  For zazen, a quiet room is appropriate. Drink and eat in moderation. Let go of all involvements and let myriad things rest. Do not think good or bad. Do not judge right or wrong. Stop conscious endeavor and analytic introspection. Do not try to become a buddha. How could being a buddha be limited to sitting or not sitting?

  In an appropriate place for sitting, set out a thick mat and put a round cushion on top of it. Sit in either the full- or half-lotus posture. For the full-lotus posture, first place the right foot on the left thigh, then the left foot on the right thigh. For the half-lotus posture, place the left foot on the right thigh. Loosen the robes and belts and arrange them in an orderly way. Then place the right hand palm up on the left foot, and the left hand on the right hand, with the tips of the thumbs lightly touching each other.

  Sit straight up without leaning to the right or left and without bending forward or backward. The ears should be in line with the shoulders and the nose in line with the navel. Rest the tongue against the roof of the mouth, with lips and teeth closed. Keep the eyes open and breathe gently through the nose.

  Having adjusted your body in this manner, take a breath and exhale fully, then sway your body to left and right. Now sit steadfastly and think not-thinking. How do you think not-thinking? Beyond thinking. This is the essential art of zazen.

  The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the dharma gate of enjoyment and ease. It is the practice-realization of complete enlightenment. Realize the fundamental point free from the binding of nets and baskets. Once you experience it, you are like a dragon swimming in the water or a tiger reposing in the mountains. Know that the true dharma emerges of itself, clearing away hindrances and distractions.

  When you stand up from sitting, move your body slowly and rise calmly, without haste. We understand from past precedents that going beyond ordinary and sacred, where sitting and standing are effortless and boundless, depends solely on the power of zazen.

  Furthermore, bringing forth the turning point by using a finger, a pole, a needle, or a mallet, or leading people to enlightenment with a whisk, a fist, a stick, or a shout, cannot be understood by discriminatory thinking. H
ow can it be understood by the use of supernatural powers? Zazen is an awesome presence outside form and color. How is it not the path preceding concept?

  Thus, do not be concerned with who is wise and who is stupid. Do not discriminate the sharp from the dull. To practice wholeheartedly is the true endeavor of the way. Practice-realization is not defiled with specialness; it is a matter for every day.

  Now, in this world and in other worlds, in India and China, buddha ancestors equally carry the buddha seal and teach to sit immersed in steadfastness. Although circumstances may vary in a thousand ways, wholeheartedly practice Zen, giving yourself fully to the way. Why give up the sitting platform of your own house and wander uselessly in the dust of a remote land? Once a wrong step is taken, you depart from the way.

  Having received a human life, do not waste the passing moments. Already upholding the buddha way, why would you indulge in the sparks from a flint? After all, form is like a dewdrop on the grass. Human life is like a flash of lightning, transient and illusory, gone in a moment.

  Honored practitioners of Zen, please do not grope for the elephant or try to grasp the true dragon. Strive to hit the mark by directly pointing. Revere the mind that goes beyond study and surpasses all doings. Experience the enlightenment of the buddhas, correctly inheriting the samadhi of the ancestors. Practice thusness continuously, and you will be thus. The treasury will open of itself for you to use as you wish.

  Written at the Kannondori Monastery on the fifteenth day, the midyear [seventh month], the first year of the Tempuku Era [1233].

  APPENDIX 2

  Dogen’s Life and Teaching

  Keizan Jokin

  PRIEST EIHEI DOGEN, THE fifty-first ancestor, practiced with priest Rujing of Tiantong. One day during the late evening zazen, Rujing said to the assembly, “Practicing Zen is dropping away body and mind.”

  Upon hearing this, Dogen suddenly had great realization. Immediately [after zazen], he went up to the abbot’s quarters and offered incense to Rujing, who said, “Why are you offering incense to me?”

  Dogen said, “I have dropped away body and mind.”

  Rujing said, “You have dropped away body and mind. Your body and mind have been dropped away.”

  Dogen said, “This is a temporary matter. Please don’t approve me easily.”

  Rujing said, “I am not approving you easily.”

  Dogen said, “What is not approving easily?”

  Rujing said, “Dropping away body and mind.”

  Dogen bowed deeply.

  Rujing said, “Dropping away has dropped away.”

  At that moment the attendant monk Guanping from Fu Region said, “This person from a foreign country has achieved what-it-is. Indeed, this is not a minor thing.”

  Rujing said, “How many blows of the fist have you received with this understanding? Dropping away serene composure is thunder and lightning.”

  Dogen’s family name was Minamoto. Dogen was the name he was given when he was ordained. Born in the second year of the Shoji Era [1200], he was a ninth-generation descendent of Emperor Murakami and an eighth-generation descendant of Prince Gochusho.

  After his birth, an astronomer saw him and said, “The double rings around his pupils show that he is a sacred child who is destined to be a great vessel. However, according to an old book, after a sacred child is born, his mother’s life is endangered. She will die when he is seven years old.” Hearing these words, Dogen’s mother was neither surprised nor frightened, but loved the child all the more. She died when Dogen was eight years old. People said, “Although there was one year’s discrepancy, the astronomer’s prediction was right.”

  Earlier than that, in the winter of his fourth year, Dogen read one hundred poems by Li Jiao while sitting on his grandmother’s lap. In the autumn of his seventh year he copied out a poem from the Shu Dynasty and presented it to his grandfather. Those who were learned regarded the child as extraordinary and called him a genius.

  Dogen was deeply saddened by the loss of his mother. Seeing the incense smoke during the funeral at the Takao Temple [in Kyoto], he realized the impermanence of birth and death, and aroused the aspiration for enlightenment.

  In the spring of his ninth year, Dogen read Vasubandhu’s Abhidharma Kosha Treatise. Mature practitioners said that Dogen was like Manjushri, a great vessel of Mahayana. At a young age he memorized ancient teachings and studied hard.

  There was a man called Lord of the Pine Palace who served as Regent of the nation, and his retired name was Zenjo Kaku (Dhyana Hall). He was the most respected courtier in the country and an exemplary figure for kings and ministers. He adopted Dogen as a child and transmitted to him the essentials of both family affairs and governing. When Dogen was thirteen years old, the lord wanted to hold a ceremony for him to assume manhood, and put him on the path to becoming a key retainer of the imperial court.

  However, Dogen quietly left the lord’s residence on Mount Kobata and went to the foot of Mount Hiei. He visited a monk called Ryokan, a senior member of the [Tendai School] community and a teacher of Exoteric and Esoteric Buddhism, who was a secular uncle of Dogen’s. Dogen entered his chamber and asked him for ordination. Much surprised, Ryokan asked, “You are about to reach manhood. If you leave the household, your father and foster father will be upset. What do you think about that?”

  Dogen said, “Before my mother died, she asked me to leave the household and study the way. This is also what I want to do instead of being mixed with secular dust. In order to repay the kindness of my mother, grandmother, and nursing mother, I want to become a monk.”

  Ryokan was moved to tears, agreed to give Dogen instructions, and allowed him to stay at the Senko Temple of the Shuryogon Monastery in Yokawa [at Mount Hiei]. On the ninth day, the fourth month, the first year of the Kempo Era [1213], Dogen bowed formally to Bishop Koen, the head monk of the Tendai School, and got his head shaved. On the following day, Dogen received the bodhisattva precepts at the Precept Platform Temple of Mount Hiei and became a monk. From that time on, he studied the shamatha [quieting the mind] and vipashyana [insight] practices of the school, as well as esoteric teachings from India. At age eighteen he began to read through the entire Buddhist canon.

  Soon after that, Dogen asked Bishop Koin of the Mii Monastery, a famed dharma teacher and also a secular uncle of his, about an essential teaching of the Tendai School, the reason why Buddhas of the three times practice even though they are already enlightened.

  Koin said, “What you are asking now is the most advanced question of our school. This theme has been passed on orally from generation to generation by great masters Dengyo [Saicho] and Jikaku [Ennin]. I cannot fully elucidate it, but I hear that Bodhidharma transmitted the buddha seal from India to China; his teaching prevails all over China now and it is called the Zen School. If you want to have a definite answer to your question, you should enter the chamber of Bishop Eisai of the Kennin Monastery [in Kyoto] and ask him. You should also go to China in search of the way.”

  Thus, at age eighteen, on the twenty-fifth day, the eighth month, the fifth year of the Kampo Era [1217], Dogen joined the assembly of Priest Myozen, Bishop Eisai’s successor at the Kennin Monastery. Earlier, when Bishop Eisai had been teaching, he had allowed students to wear a priest’s robe only after three years of study. However, when Dogen joined, Myozen allowed Dogen to wear a priest’s robe in the ninth month, and then he allowed Dogen to wear a great robe in the eleventh month, regarding him a vessel of dharma.

  Myozen was the only dharma heir of Eisai, receiving the transmission of the three teachings—Exoteric, Esoteric, and Buddha Heart (Zen) teachings. According to a record in the Kennin Monastery, Eisai said, “I entrust the treasury of dharma to Myozen alone. Those who want to inquire of my dharma should see Myozen.”

  Dogen entered Myozen’s inner chamber and received the bodhi-sattva precepts again, as well as the robe and eating bowl. Earlier, Dogen had mastered the Esoteric rites for one hundred thirty-four deities and the tr
ansmission of the fire ceremonies [of the Tani Sect of Esoteric Buddhism]. He had also studied the precepts as well as shamatha and vipashyana. Now he heard the teaching of the Rinzai School for the first time and received an authentic transmission of Exoteric, Esoteric, and Buddha Mind teachings. Thus, Dogen became the sole successor of Myozen.

  Seven years later, at age twenty-four, on the twenty-second day, the second month, the second year of the Teio Era [1223], Dogen bade farewell to Eisai’s tomb at the Kennin Monastery. He went to China and hung his traveling stick at the Tiantong Monastery. It was the sixteenth year of the Jiading Era [1223] of the Song Dynasty.

  In China, while visiting various monasteries, he met Priest Ruyan of Mount Jing, who said, “When did you arrive?”

  Dogen said, “In the fourth month of last year.”

  Ruyan said, “Did you come with others?”

  Dogen said, “No, I didn’t come with others. How is it to come?”

  Ruyan said, “You have already come with others.”

  Dogen said, “How is it to have come with others?”

  Ruyan clapped his hands and said, “There is someone who talks a lot.”

  Dogen said, “If there is not someone who talks a lot, how is it?”

  Ruyan said, “Sit down and have some tea.”

  Later, Dogen visited Xiaocuiyan in Tai Region, met Priest Sizhuo, and asked, “What are buddhas?”