Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

by Zen Master Dogen

  Sizhuo said, “Those in the hall.”

  Dogen said, “If they are in the hall, how is it that they are everywhere in the countless worlds?”

  Sizhuo said, “They are just in the countless worlds.”

  Dogen said, “Your words are accompanying them.”

  After having such conversations with various masters, Dogen became proud of himself, thinking that he was matchless in Japan and China. So, he planned to return to Japan, when a monk called Laojin said, “The only person in Great Song China who has a dharma eye is Old Man Rujing. You would certainly get something from him.” However, more than a year passed before Dogen found the opportunity to study with Rujing.

  Then, Wuji Liaopai left the abbacy of Tiantong, and Rujing moved in as abbot. Dogen thought this was an auspicious karmic turning point unfolding from the past. Therefore, he went to ask Rujing questions, and his spearhead was immediately broken. Thus, Dogen became a student of Rujing’s. With the hope of studying more deeply, Dogen wrote to him:

  When I was young I aroused the aspiration for enlightenment and visited various monasteries in my country. I had some understanding of the principle of cause and effect; however I was not able to clarify the real source of buddha dharma. I was only seeing the outer forms, the marks and names. Later, I entered the chamber of Eisai, Zen Master Senko, and for the first time heard the teaching of the Linji School. Now I have accompanied Monk Myozen to Great Song and entered your dharma assembly. This is the fortunate result of my wholesome roots from the past.

  Great Compassionate Teacher, grant me permission to ask you about the way.

  Rujing wrote back: “Dogen, you can come informally to ask questions anytime, day or night, from now on. Do not worry about formality; we can be like father and son.”

  After that, Dogen entered Rujing’s inner chamber day and night and intimately received essential teachings.

  At one point, Rujing asked Dogen to be his attendant monk. Dogen declined, saying, “I am from a foreign country. If I am given the honor of being your attendant at this great monastery in this great nation, people in the monastic community may become jealous. I only wish to study with you day and night.”

  Rujing said, “You are very modest and what you say has a point.”

  In this way, Dogen received instructions from Rujing by continuing to ask questions.

  One day during the late evening zazen time, Rujing entered the hall and cautioned the assembly against dozing: “Practicing Zen is dropping away mind and body. It is not pivotal to offer incense, bow, chant buddhas’ names, make repentance, or read sutras. Just wholeheartedly sit so you will attain what you are pursuing.”

  Hearing this, Dogen immediately had great realization. This is the occasion that I mentioned earlier.

  After the first encounter with Rujing, Dogen endeavored to practice the way day and night ceaselessly, not veering off even for a moment and without lying down. Rujing often said to him, “Your practice is as pure as that of ancient buddhas. You will extensively spread the ancestral way. I have you with me just as Shakyamuni Buddha had Mahakashyapa.”

  Thus, in the first year of the Baoqing Era [1225], which corresponds to the first year of the Karoku Era, Rujing installed Dogen as the fifty-fifth ancestor.

  Entrusting dharma to Dogen, Rujing said, “Return to your country as soon as possible and widely spread the ancestral way. Retreat and live in a deep mountain and keep nourishing the sacred womb.”

  In addition to practicing with Rujing in this way, Dogen had opportunities to see documents of heritage of the Five Houses:

  First, when Dogen met Visiting Abbot Weiyi [at Mount Tiantong], a former abbot of the Guangfu Monastery, Weiyi said, “Ancient scrolls that are worth seeing are treasures of humankind. How many of them have you seen?”

  Dogen said, “I have not seen any.”

  Then Weiyi said, “I have a scroll of old writing. I will show it to you.” He brought it to Dogen. It was a document of heritage of the Fayan lineage that he had obtained from items left behind by an old master; so it was not what Weiyi himself had received. It was written in a certain format, but I won’t explain this now.

  At another time, Dogen was shown a document of heritage of the Yunmen lineage by elder Zongyue, who was filling the position of head monk at Mount Tiantong. Dogen asked Zongyue, “Reverend, there is some difference among the Five Schools in the arrangement of names on the documents of heritage. Why is that so? If it came directly from India, why is there such a difference?”

  Zongyue said, “Even if there is a vast difference, just understand that buddhas of Mount Yunmen are like this. For what reason is the venerable Shakyamuni revered? He is revered for his way of awakening. For what reason is great master Yunmen revered? He is revered for his way of awakening.”

  Upon hearing these words, Dogen had some understanding.

  Earlier, there had been a priest named Chuan, a descendant of Qingyuan, the Zen Master Fuyan of Longmen. This Chuan, a librarian, also had a document of heritage. At the beginning of the Jiading Era [1208–1224], when librarian Chuan was sick, senior monk Ryuzen, a Japanese man, took good care of him. Because Ryuzen worked hard, librarian Chuan, grateful for help during his illness, took out his document of heritage and let Ryuzen see it, saying, “This is a thing not commonly shown, but I will let you pay homage to it.”

  Some years after that, in the autumn of the sixteenth year of the Jiading Era [1223], when Dogen first came to Mount Tiantong, Ryuzen cordially requested that librarian Chuan show this document of heritage to Dogen. This was one transmitted in the Yangqi Line [of the Linji School]. Also, on the twenty-first day, the first month, the seventeenth year of the Jiading Era [1224], Dogen saw the document of heritage of priest Wuji Liaopai of the Tiantong Monastery. Wuji said, “Few people know about this, and now you do, elder. This is a fulfillment of your practice of the way.” Dogen was very pleased.

  Dogen visited Mount Tiantai and Mount Yadang later in the Baoqing Era [1225–1227] and got to the Wannian Monastery of Pingtian, on Mount Tiantai. The abbot there was priest Yuanzi of Fu Region. Upon first greeting him, Yuanzi talked about the teaching of the buddha ancestors. When he mentioned Yangshan’s dharma succession from Great Guishan, he said, “You haven’t seen the document of heritage here in my quarters, have you?”

  Dogen replied, “No, unfortunately I haven’t.”

  Abbot Yuanzi got up, took out the document of heritage, and, holding it up, said:

  Following the dharma admonition of buddha ancestors, I have not shown this even to a close disciple or an old attendant monk. But when I went to the city to see the governor and stayed there as I occasionally do, I had a dream. In this dream a distinguished priest who seemed to be Zen Master Fachang of Mount Damei appeared, holding up a branch of plum blossoms. He said, “If a true person comes who has disembarked from a boat, do not withhold these flowers.” And he gave me the plum blossoms. Still in the dream, I exclaimed, “Why shouldn’t I give him thirty blows before he leaves the boat?” Then, before five days had passed, you came to meet me, elder. Of course you have disembarked from a boat, and this document of heritage is written on brocade that has a design of plum blossoms. Since you must be the one Damei was referring to, in accordance with the dream I have taken this document out. Do you wish to inherit dharma from me? I will not withhold it if you do.

  Dogen could not help being moved. Although he could have requested to receive a document of heritage from him, Dogen only offered incense, bowed, and paid homage to him with deep respect. At that time there was present an incense attendant named Faning. He said that it was the first time he had ever seen the document of heritage.

  Dogen said to himself, “This event indeed could not have happened without the invisible help of buddha ancestors. As a foolish man from a remote country, by what fortune have I been able to see a document of heritage once again?” Tears wet his sleeves.

  Later, Dogen stayed at the entry hall of the Husheng Monastery, on Mount Dam
ei. At that time he had an auspicious dream that the ancestor Damei came to him and gave him a branch of plum blossoms in full bloom.

  Indeed, as Dogen opened his eye of the way as the ancient sages had done, he was able to view several ancient documents of heritage and was acknowledged by various masters.

  Having received Rujing’s seal of enlightenment, Dogen realized the great matter and received the teachings from generations of ancestors.

  At age twenty-eight, in the third year of the Baoqing Era in China—the first year of the Antei Era in Japan [1227]—Dogen returned to Japan. He temporarily got settled at the Kennin Monastery of his late teacher [Myozen] and practiced for some time.

  He visited near and far and examined thirteen properties his supporters offered as places for retreat, but none of them satisfied him. When he was thirty-four years old, he moved to the side of the Gokuraku Temple in Fukakusa, Uji County, near Kyoto. His teaching style gradually became known, and monks gathered and formed a community of over fifty. After staying there for ten years, Dogen moved to Echizen Province.

  He went deep into the mountains in the region of Shihi, where he cleared away thorn bushes, built a thatched-roof hall, hauling dirt and stones, and upheld the ancestral way. This is the present-day Eihei Monastery.

  Earlier, when Dogen resided at the Kosho Monastery, divine spirits received the precepts and joined every repentance ceremony. At the Eihei Monastery, a dragon god came and asked to receive the eight pure precepts and have them chanted in dedication to him daily. So, Dogen wrote the eight pure precepts and chanted them to the dragon god every day. This is still practiced at the Eihei Monastery without fail.

  Now, Dogen raised true dharma for the first time in the seven hundred years since buddha dharma came to Japan. In the past, buddha images were brought to Japan from the [Korean] kingdom of Shila in the thirteenth year of Emperor Kimmei’s reign [551], one thousand five hundred years after the pari-nirvana of the Buddha. In the following year, two scrolls of buddha images were enshrined. Then, the miraculous power of buddha dharma began to reveal itself. Eleven years later, in the third year of Emperor Yomei’s reign, Prince Shotoku was born holding the Buddha’s relics in his hand. After he lectured on the scriptures, including the Lotus Sutra and Shrimala Devi Sutra, the teachings of names and forms spread all over Japan.

  At the request of former empress Tachibana, a successor of National Teacher Qi’an came to Nara, but only a monument remains. As he has no more dharma descendants, his teaching has not been transmitted in Japan. Later, Kakua Katsudo became an authentic heir of Zen Master Fuyan Qingyuan and brought his teaching from China to Japan, but his teaching did not flourish. Also, Bishop Eisai succeeded Donglin Huaichang and intended to spread the teaching as the eighth-generation master of the Huanglong lineage [of the Linji School]. He wrote a text called “Raising Zen to Protect the Nation” and presented it to the emperor. But he was opposed by Buddhists in Nara and Kyoto, and could not keep his teaching purely Zen. Instead, he taught three types of ways: Exoteric, Esoteric, and Buddha Mind practices

  Dogen mastered the Linji style of Zen as a direct dharma descendant of Eisai, and yet he also studied with Rujing, realized his life’s quest, returned home, and widely spread the true dharma. This is indeed good fortune for the nation and brings happiness to the people. Just as Bodhidharma, the Twenty-eighth Indian Ancestor, entered China and became the First Chinese Ancestor, so Dogen became the Fifty-first Chinese Ancestor and the First Ancestor in Japan. Thus, Dogen is revered as the Founding Ancestor of our gate.

  Although China was full of authentic teachers, if Dogen had not met a true master and penetrated his study, how could we have unfolded and clarified his treasury of the true dharma eye?

  In this age of decline and in the last era of dharma, the buddha dharma has been degraded and true masters are rarely encountered in China. Although Wuji Liaopai and Ruyan Zheweng were the abbots of famed monasteries, there was something they had not reached. Dogen thought there was nobody who could teach him, and he wanted to return to Japan. Then, Rujing, who maintained the authentic vein of ancestors as the twelfth-generation heir of Dongshan, but had not revealed his mystery to others, intimately transmitted to Dogen the entire ancestral teaching, withholding nothing. This is unique and extraordinary.

  Further, for me to be a [third-generation] dharma heir of Dogen is as fortunate as it was for Dogen to encounter the Third and Fourth Ancestors of China. The essential teaching has not fallen away. Although the teaching has journeyed through three countries, what has been transmitted has not changed at all. What you need to penetrate is no other than this: you need to clarify your mind.

  Dogen first attained the way with Rujing’s words of encouragement: “To practice Zen is to drop away body and mind.” Thus, in practicing Zen, abandon your body and become free from your mind. Without being liberated from body and mind, what you practice is not the way.

  You might think that the body is skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. If you examine closely, not even a particle of them belongs to you.

  You see two types of mind. One is discriminatory mind. You might think this discernment is the mind. The other is serene and immovable consciousness, clear and vast. You might think this is the mind, without knowing that you are not free from the root of consciousness. Ancient teachers call it a clear, vast, and immovable place. However, you should not remain in this place or regard it as mind.

  When you start to examine, you see three types of mind. Discriminating mind likes and dislikes. It judges right and wrong. Feeling knows hot and cold, pain and itch. Awareness does not divide right and wrong, nor does it feel pain or itch. It is like wood, stone, or a wall. This awareness experiences serenity, with no eyes and ears. When you speak with this awareness, you are like a wooden person or an iron person. Although you have eyes, you don’t see. Although you have ears, you don’t hear. In this awareness, speech and thought don’t prevail. This awareness is deeper than feelings of hot and cold, pain and itching. Our discriminating mind [as opposed to awareness] operates right here. But do not regard this discriminating mind as the original mind.

  Do not think that studying the way is limited to body and mind. To study the way is to drop away discrimination, feeling, and awareness. Beyond them there is something mysteriously radiant, timeless, and firm. Investigate thoroughly, and make sure to experience it. If you clarify this awareness, body and mind cannot take over and the selves of all things do not get hold of you. Thus, it is said that body and mind drop away.

  If you look from this place, even if you look around with one thousand eyes, there is not a particle of skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, and there is nothing separated as discernment, feeling, or awareness. Then, how do you know hot and cold, or feel pain and itching? How do you judge right and wrong, or likes and dislikes? Thus, it is said that even if you look, there is not one thing.

  When Dogen reached this precise point, he said, “I have dropped away body and mind.” Rujing said in approval, “You have dropped away your body and mind. Your body and mind have been dropped away.” Then he said, “Dropping away has dropped away.”

  Get to this field and be like a basket with no bottom or a bowl with a hole drilled in the center. What pours out does not cease, and what goes in does not fill. When you get there, you drop away the bottom of the barrel.

  However, if you think that you are enlightened by even a hairbreadth or that you have attained something, it is not the way. It is merely the activity of a fooling spirit.

  All of you, fully realize this point and practice thoroughly. Understand that you have a body that has no skin, flesh, bones, or marrow. Even if you try to become free from this body, it is not possible. Even if you try to throw away this body, it is not possible. Thus, this place is described as the place where all things are exhausted and there is emptiness that cannot be grasped.

  If you fully clarify this, you will have no doubt about what is spoken by the old priest of the world as well as buddhas of the pas
t, present, and future. How is this? Listen!

  Bright and clear, no inside and outside.

  Have you dropped away body and mind?

  APPENDIX 3

  Dogen’s Editions of the Book

  AFTER WRITING “LEAVING THE Household” in 1246 C.E., Dogen edited and restructured all available fascicles of the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. With Ejo’s help, he organized them into two groups—the older and newer versions, as Ejo’s colophon to “Eight Awakenings of Great Beings” suggests. The former is the seventy-five-fascicle version and the latter the twelve-fascicle version. The “newer version,” however, includes texts that were written in earlier times, such as “Power of the Robe.” Dogen himself added the number of each fascicle to its beginning and ending titles, samples of which are seen in Dogen’s extant handwritten manuscripts, such as the “Mountains and Waters Sutra” and “Document of Heritage.” In the last seven years of his life, 1246–1253, Dogen seems to have spent much of his time in an effort to enhance the integrity of the writings contained in these two versions.

  APPENDIX 4

  Lineage of Chinese Zen Ancestors

  APPENDIX 5

  Maps Related to the Text

  APPENDIX 6

  Eihei-ji Presumed Original Layout

  EIHEI-JI: PRESUMED ORIGINAL LAYOUT. The ground plan of the Eihei Monastery at Dogen’s time no longer exists. The original buildings were burned in 1473. The presumed layout presented here is based on the 1752 map of the reconstructed buildings. It has been modified in accordance with Dogen’s accounts in “Practice Period,” which imply the approximate location of other buildings: east side, south of the kitchen—infirmary; west side, south of the monks’ hall (from north)—the offices of the ino and the head monk, monks’ private quarters.