A UNIVERSAL RECOMMENDATION FOR TRUE ZAZEN
By Eihei Dogen
In exhaustive pursuit, the root of the way is perfectly penetrating. Why should you
assume cultivation and verification? The supreme vehicle moves freely. Why should
you consume striving and skill? Much more, its entirety is far beyond the realm of
dust. Who would believe in the measures of sweeping? It never departs from right
where you are. Why should you require the steps of cultivation?
And yet, if there is even the slightest discrepancy, you become separated as far apart
as heaven and earth. If the slightest liking or dis-liking arises, the mind is lost in
confusion. Even though you may achieve the insightful power of glimpsing the
(Buddha’s) ground, taking pride in your understanding and enjoying enlightenment;
even though you may generate the aspiration of pressing onto heaven, attaining the
way and clarifying the mind; even though you may roam around the boundary of
this realm, reaching the point of putting your head in, still you largely lack the life-
path of liberation.
Moreover, the trace of six years’ upright sitting by the innately awakened
[Shakyamuni Buddha] at Jetavana must be observed. And the fame of nine years’
facing the wall by the transmitter of the mind-seal [Bodhidharma] at Shaolin
Temple must be heard. If the ancient sages were like this, why should you,
a person of today, not exert yourself?
Therefore, you must stop the comprehending conduct of investigating words and
chasing discourses. You must learn to step backward to turn your light around to
reflect on yourself. Mind and body will naturally fall away and your original face
will manifest itself. If you wish to attain suchness, devote yourself to suchness at
once.
Now, in entering into zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink in moderation.
Abandon all relations and put all concerns to rest, not thinking of good and bad,
not entertaining right and wrong. Still the driving of your heart, mind and
consciousness. Stop the measuring of memories, ideas and meditations. No design,
even of becoming a Buddha, should be harbored. How can it be concerned with
sitting or lying down?
The usual practice is to spread out a thick mat and place a cushion upon it. Then,
sit in the full or half cross-legged position. In the full cross-legged position, place
your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh. In the half
cross-legged position, simply press your right thigh with your left foot. Wear your
robes and sashes comfortably, but neatly and orderly. Next, rest your right hand
on your left foot, and place your left palm on your right palm [both upward] with
the thumb-tips supporting each other.
Now, sit upright, leaning neither to left nor right, neither forward nor backward.
You must align your ears over your shoulders and keep your nose in line with your
navel. Rest your tongue against the upper palate, lips and teeth closed. You must
always keep your eyes open. Breathe through your nose subtly and silently.
Maintaining the proper bodily alignment, exhale deeply once and rock to left and
right. Settle into the solid, steadfast seated samadhi. Fathom the unfathomed state.
How do you fathom the unfathomed state? Fathom-less! Such is the essential art
of zazen.
What is here called zazen is not learning mere meditation. It is the Dharma gate of
peace and comfort. It is the cultivation-verification of the ultimate awakening.
Here, the universal truth is realized, and nets and cages are totally absent. If you
realize this tenet completely, you are like a dragon obtaining water and a tiger
reclining in the mountain. You will surely know that the true Dharma will naturally
manifest itself, and dullness and distraction will drop off. When you rise from
sitting, move slowly, and rise calmly and carefully. Never act hastily and violently.
Observe and appreciate that transcending the ordinary and going beyond the holy,
passing away while sitting, and dying while standing all depend solely on this power.
The transforming ability of a finger, a staff, a needle, and a mallet, or the verifying
utilization of a whisk, a fist, a stick and a shout at a critical moment cannot readily
be realized by the discrimination of measuring thoughts. How can they be known
even by the cultivation and verification of supernatural faculties? These are the
dignified forms beyond sounds and colors. Are they not the rules before knowledge
and views? Therefore, you should not be concerned whether you are a person of lofty
intellect or lowly foolishness, nor discriminated as being a sharp person or a dull one.
If you strive single-mindedly, that itself is the realization of the way. Cultivation-
verification by nature does not defile. Going forward then is totally calm and
constant.
All the buddhas, whether in this world or in other quarters, in the western heaven
[India] or in the eastern earth [China], equally held the Buddha-seal and altogether
enjoyed the supreme style. They were fully devoted to this total sitting [shikantaza]
and were totally installed in this unmoved state. Even though there are a thousand
differences and a million nuances, they engaged devotedly in practicing zazen and
realizing the way.
Why should you forsake the seat of your own home and stray into the dusty realms of
other countries? If you make a single misstep, you will mistakenly pass it by while
directly facing it. You have ultimately obtained the functional essence of a human
body. Never let the light and shadow [day and night] pass in vain. You have
embraced and engaged in the essential function of the Buddha’s path. Who could
enjoy the spark of a flintstone aimlessly?
Furthermore, form and substance are like dew on a blade of grass, and fleeting life is
as a flash of lightning, instantly emptied and immediately lost. May respectable zen
practitioners constantly learn the right form, and never doubt the true dragon.
Urgently strive for the way that points directly to the right target, revere the
unfabricating and unconditioned person, fit into the awakening [bodhi] of the
buddhas, and rightly inherit the samadhi of the ancestors. Practice in such a way
constantly and you will never fail to realize suchness. The treasure house will open
by itself, and you will appreciate and use it at will.
Translator’s Introduction
1. The significance of this work
This is a very unique and distinct work for anyone to solve the most important
problems of the self, life and death, and the solution of suffering. This is the result
of the author’s actual unsurpassed awakening and unconditioned peace. This is not
just for imparting information, but to share the goals of the Awakened Way and the
concrete method to attain them for every single being and for all together. Zen has
been practiced for 25 centuries, but the concrete method and right way have not
been delineated, as they were practiced in the order, with genuine aspiration and
guidance.
It is now open to anyone to cultivate and verify, or practice and witness. The Buddha
(the Awakened One) said that to be born as a human being is rare, like a blind turtle
living at the bottom of ocean coming up to the surface once in a hundred years and
accidentally stick its head into a hole of an aimlessly floating log. He added that
meeting the Awakened Way is far more difficult. He said that the tears human beings
had shed amount to a great ocean.
All the suffering, tears, and blood come from the three poisons of delusion,
attachment and aversion. The Buddha taught the four noble truths of suffering, its
source, its cessation and the way to its cessation. The modern sciences revealed that
the universe evolved to the present form through fifteen billion years, and that
through four billion years of symbiotic evolution all living creatures came to their
present forms. Throughout this space and time we lived as genes, ultimately realizing
valuable human bodies and minds in order to live and die for the last chance as
individuals.
Modern sciences and Buddhism (Awakened Way) share basic methods of employing
direct observation and correct inference and the basic law of causality for our
grounded universal knowledge and actions. The law of interdependent origination
(pratītya-samutpāda) was attested to by the Buddha through zazen and became
the fundamental basis of Buddhist principle and practice. It can apply to all
phenomena, from the deepest direct mental realm to the real limit of the world.
(This can be construed as the grand unifying theory, which natural scientists now
try to determine.) This was done through deep meditation, direct observation and
analysis of the nature of the so-called mind, self, and the world, even before the
invention of microscopes and telescopes.
The crucial advice to anyone has been always: “Know thyself.” Tong-shan said, “Not
clarifying the matter underneath the robe is the greatest suffering.” Dogen said, “It is
the determined minds of the living beings to know themselves. Rare, however, are
those who see the true self. Only buddhas (awakened ones) know it.” Humans (homo
sapiens) want to know the universal truth of the essence, nature, function, and
functional essence of the true self and the real world. This present work is to
recommend the method of attaining them, especially the functional essence of
Buddhahood, the master key to open the total treasure house (universe), to
appreciate and use all the treasures in it at will.
This work is wrought so that all may concretely become buddhas (awakened ones)
and live the Awakened Way. Zazen was the functional essence by which the Buddha
attained nirvana (unconditioned peace) and anuttara-samyak-sam-bodhi
(unsurpassable right complete awakening), throughout his whole life, each and every
moment of every daily life, until his maha-pari-nirvāṇa (great complete nirvana).
All the buddhas and successors have been practicing it as the functional essence. It is
the real, pure, natural, and direct way to the univeral truth and peace (These are the
four hallmarks as mentioned above and in the following text.)
“The Universal Recommendation for True Zazen” is to recommend this functional
essence for all in its true form. As in Dogen’s other works, the Zazengi (True Zazen)
and the Zazen-shin (Zazen Lancet), this work tells practitioners of zazen, the right
target and right way to it. True zazen is not mere sitting meditation (concentrating
on an object of meditation), but sitting and stilling all karmas (the old karma,
inherited action-results, and the new karma, present actions, of physical, verbal and
mental actions/functions).
This is experienced and expressed as “dropping off body and mind” in shikan-taza
(total or pure sitting) (freedom from body and mind). This state is carried forward in
action as the freedom of body and mind (free-dom is equal to the Sanskrit cognate
word, priya-dhāman, meaning beloved domain, familiar relation with and free use
of all. It is thus quite contrary to licentiousness as usually misconceived.). “The
slightest discrepancy” mentioned in the Fukanzazengi means “separation” (separated
being, pṛthag-jana), “discrimination” (discriminated, vi-kalpita), “defiled” (sa-
āsava) from the “holy” (Tathā-gata, Thus-being), “complete” (perfected,
parinispanna), undefiled, (an-āsava).
Because we are karma-dāyāda (karma-heir), karma-yantra (karma-machine), we
live self-centered, sinful lives (sin=separated), separated from holiness (wholesome
whole). Where there is “the self,” birth and death are inevitable. (Thus “sin is death”
and “death in sin.”). Identifying with “the self” is falling into karma-body from
dharma-body (dharma is form/norm, phenomena/law of phenomena, i.e.,
Interdependent Origination). It is falling into the conventional truth from the
ultimate truth. In actual life, we are already conditioned by karmas (“old karma” as
genes, inherited bodies, memories, etc. and “new karma” as experience and
education).
Zazen stills and unconditions them, retains this state and reconditions the actions
outside zazen. The sole way to solution or salvation from samsara (birth/death)
suffering is returning to “holiness.” “Re-ligion,” from the Latin re-ligare, re-union,
means “reunion with wholeness” (or “the Holy” as Rudolf Otto defines religion).
Religion, however, often returns to selfishness due to karmas, past habits. (cf.
“Carrying the self to cultivate all dharmas is delusion. All dharmas coming forth to
verify is awakening.” “The entire world in ten directions is a clear crystal ball.”)
In true zazen, all karmas (physical and mental fabrications, perceptions, conceptions
and emotions, the three poisons) are calmed and cleared. From this vantage point
(ultimate truth), the right target, the way to it, and the way out into daily living is
described in this work. That is why it is difficult to understand and easy to be misled
by the words (conventional truth). This functional essence can clarify the ultimate
truth, and operate within all daily actions and with all things and situations. (“In
raising the hand and taking the step”).
This functional essence is unknown and unused by the conventional, ordinary minds
and bodies. In actual life, we must cultivate and verify this constantly, to step
backward and to turn the light to reflect upon the original state of “perfectly
penetrated, pure and free, here and now.” (the four hallmarks). In ordinary states,
we remain in the conventional truth level. Only in shikan-taza we can enter into
the ultimate truth level beyond karmas. In shikan-taza, all karmas are stilled,
without conceptions and conjectures. “This is the essential art of zazen.”
The original word for the translated word “fathom-less” (without fathom-stick) is
hi-shi-ryo, literally, “non-thought-measure” or “without measuring thoughts.”
It is traditionally described as “neither investigation nor contemplation” (a-vittaka,
a-vicāra), but could go deeper, as this is the first stage in the four jhāna (chan, zen,
meditation) stages. It is more like “projections ceased” (prapañca-upaśama)
(neither birth nor death, neither one nor many, etc.) (cp. “the slightest
discrepancy”). It is the ultimate truth level. It is neither simple no-thoughts much
less absent-mindedness.
The two truths (conventional and ultimate) are very unique Buddhist realization and
revelation. Only by the ultimate truth (parama-artha, also meaning paramount
meaning, object, objective). the ultimate ground for the five blisses of the universal
truth, freedom, equality, love and peace are possible. That is why hi-shiryo in
shikan-taza is the functional essence, the crucial key.
2. The author of this work
The author of this text, Eihei Dogen, was born in Kyoto in 1200 C.E. His family was
of the noble class: his father, Koga Michichika, was a minister of the imperial court
and his mother was the daughter of the regent, Fujiwara Motofusa. (Some scholars
thinks differently.) While still a young child, Dogen lost both his parents – his father
died when he was just two years old, and five years later his mother died. It is not
difficult to imagine that the tragic events of his childhood gave him a powerful
experience of the impermanence of existence and led him to seek true awakening
and total peace.
Five years after his mother’s death, at the age of twelve, he renounced secular life.
The following year, in 1213, he took the tonsure and received ordination in the
bodhisattva precepts at Mount Hiei. At Mount Hiei Dogen first studied the Tendai
teaching, and met Myoan Eisai, who had brought the teachings of the Linji school
of Chan (Zen) to Japan. He continued his studies under Eisai’s disciple, Myozen
Ryonen, eventually receiving inka, the certificate of confirmation of spiritual
attainment conferred from Zen master to disciple.
In 1223, Dogen traveled to China, seeking the true Awakened Way. Two Years later,
in 1225, he met Rujing (1163-1228), and entered a course of intensive meditation
practice (shikan-taza) under his guidance. During the summer retreat of that year,
he realized the complete dropping off of body and mind during zazen, and received
formal confirmation in the Dharma from Rujing. He returned to Japan in 1227, with
“the grave thought of propagating the Dharma and saving sentient beings.” He
stayed first at the Kennin-ji in Kyoto, at that time the capital of Japan.
In 1233 he founded the Kannon-dori-in (Avalokitesvara Benefactory Hall)
at the site of the former Goku-raku-ji (Supreme Bliss Temple) in the Kyoto
suburb of Uji.
In 1243 Dogen left Kyoto and went to live deep in the mountains of Echizen Province
(now the Fukui Prefecture). He founded the Dai-butsu-ji (Great Buddha Temple),
renaming it Ei-hei-ji (Perpetual Peace Temple) two years later.
Dogen passed away in 1253. The results of his transformational work continue to this
day, through his spiritual legacy that has been maintained and transmitted by many
generations of Zen practitioners. Dogen is regarded by Japanese Buddhist
practitioners and historians as the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen School.
However, the full scope of his contribution to the Buddhist tradition has long been
underestimated. He was truly a great reformer of Japanese Buddhism and beyond.
Prior to Dogen’s birth, Buddhism in Japan had undergone both evolution and
involution. Scholasticism and ritualism dominated within the traditional Buddhist
institutions. During Dogen’s life-time, several new Buddhist movements evolved,
such as the Pure Land Jodo (Pure Land) and Nichiren sects, founded respectively by
Honen (1133-1212) and Nichiren (1222-1282). New sects struggled for ascendancy
and legitimacy within the existing state-supported Buddhist institutions, often
facing imperial sanction. Despite this tumultuous situation, Dogen advocated the
single Awakened Way, which went far beyond the narrow sectarian boundary of
the Soto School.
He stressed the significance of practice through maintaining awakening with the
body, and revealed the path of “pure sitting” (shikan-taza), which requires no other
goal or activity (mushotoku, non-attainment, isshiki-no-buppo, pure practice of the
Buddha Dharma). At the same time, Dogen upheld the idea of universal salvation on
the basis that “all beings are Buddha-nature itself.” (He reread and reinterpreted the
famous sentence, shitsu-u-bussho, “all beings have Buddha-nature”). He thus
embraced both the path of early Buddhist practice and the expansive ideals of the
Mahayana (Great Vehicle).
His way is the “learning with the body and mind,” “realizing the body and mind of
Buddha Dharma.” It is the undefiled, beginning-less verification and endless
cultivation with all dharmas; water, rice, grass, trees, rivers and mountains, the
great earth, etc.
(excerpt from Rosan Osamu Yoshida, A Universal Recommendation for True Zazen,
ZEN TEXTS, BDK English Tripitaka 73-III, 98-VIII, 98-IX, 104-I, published by
Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley, 2005)