If not aided by good conduct in the past, how else would we be
able to prostrate this body in admiration to the Buddha's robe which has
been directly and authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha?
able to prostrate this body in admiration to the Buddha's robe which has
been directly and authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha?
Shobogenzo
aya,
We are protected by the buddhas.
Each person who transcends family life
Is served by gods and humans.
Clearly, once we have shaved the head and put on the ka? aya, we are
protected by all the buddhas. Relying on this protection of the buddhas, [a
person] can roundly realize the virtues of the supreme state of bodhi. Celes-
tial throngs and human multitudes serve offerings to such a person.
135The World-honored One says to the bhik? u Wisdom-Brightness,136
�The Dharma robe has ten excellent merits: 1) It is able to cover the
body, to keep away shame, to fill us with humility and to [make us]
practice good ways. 137 2) It keeps away cold and heat, as well as mos-
quitoes, harmful creatures, and poisonous insects, [so that we can]
practice the truth in tranquility. 3) It manifests the form of a srama? a138
who has left family life, giving delight to those who behold it and keep-
ing away wrong states of mind. 4) The ka? aya is just the manifesta-
tion to human beings and gods of a precious ? ag; those who honor and
venerate it are able to be born in a Brahma heaven. 139 5) When we wear
the ka? aya, we feel that it is a precious ? ag; it is able to extinguish sins
and to produce all kinds of happiness and virtue. 6) A fundamental
rule in making the ka? aya is to dye it a secondary color,140 so that it
keeps us free from thoughts of the five desires,141 and does not give
rise to lust. 7) The ka? aya is the pure robe of the Buddha; for it erad-
icates af? ictions142 forever and makes them into a fertile field. 8) When
the ka? aya covers the body, it extinguishes the karma of sins and pro-
motes at every moment the practice of the ten kinds of good. 143 9) The
ka? aya is like a fertile field; for it is well able to nurture the bodhi-
sattva way. 10) The ka? aya is also like a suit of armor; for it makes
the poisoned arrows of af? iction unable to do harm. Wisdom-Bright-
ness! Remember, through these causes, when the buddhas of the three
times, and pratyekabuddhas and sravakas, and pure monks and nuns,
cover the body in the ka? aya, [these] three groups of sacred beings sit
as one on the precious platform of liberation, take up the sword of wis-
dom to destroy the demons of af? iction, and enter together into the
many spheres of nirvana which have one taste. � Then the World-hon-
ored One speaks again in verse:
Bhik? u Wisdom-Brightness, listen well!
The traditional Buddhist robe has ten excellent merits:
Secular clothes increase taintedness from desire,
The Tathagata's Dharma attire is not like that;
Dharma attire fends off social shame,
But fills us with the humility that produces a field of happiness.
It keeps away cold and heat, and poisonous insects;
Firming our will to the truth, it enables us to arrive at the
ultimate.
It manifests [the form] of a monk and keeps away greed;
It eradicates the five views144 and [promotes] right practice.
To look at and bow to the ka? aya's form of a precious banner,
And to venerate it, produces the happiness of King Brahma.
When a disciple of the Buddha wears the robe and feels like
a tower,
This produces happiness, extinguishes sins, and impresses
human beings and gods.
True srama? as, of modest appearance, showing respect,
Are not tainted in their actions by secular defilements.
The buddhas praise [the ka? aya] as a fertile field,
They call it supreme in giving benefit and joy to living beings.
The mystical power of the ka? aya is unthinkable,
It can cause us to practice deeds that plant the seeds of bodhi,145
It makes the sprouts of the truth grow like spring seedlings,
The wonderful effect of bodhi being like autumn fruit.
[The ka? aya] is a true suit of armor, as hard as a diamond;
The poisoned arrows of af? iction can do no harm.
I have now brie? y praised the ten excellent merits,
If I had successive kalpas to expound them widely, there would
be no end.
If a dragon wears a single strand [of the ka? aya],
It will escape [the fate of] becoming food for a garu? a. 146
If people retain this robe when crossing the ocean,
They need not fear trouble from dragonfish or demons.
When thunder roars, lightning strikes, and the sky is angry,
Someone who wears the ka? aya is fearless.
If one clothed in white147 is able personally to hold and retain
[the ka? aya],
All bad demons are unable to approach.
If [that person] is able to establish the will and seeks to leave
home,
Shunning the world and practicing the Buddha's truth,
All the demon palaces of the ten directions will quake and
tremble,
And that person will quickly experience the body of the
Dharma King. 148
[113] These ten excellent merits broadly include all the merits of the
Buddha's truth. We should explicitly learn in practice the merits present in
[these] long lines and [short] verses of praise, not just glancing over them
and quickly putting them aside, but studying them phrase by phrase over a
long period. These excellent merits are just the merits of the ka? aya itself:
they are not the effect of a practitioner's fierce [pursuit of] merit through
perpetual training. The Buddha says, �The mystical power of the ka? aya is
unthinkable�; it cannot be supposed at random by the common person or
sages and saints. In general, when we �quickly experience the body of the
Dharma King,� we are always wearing the ka? aya. There has never been
anyone, since ancient times, who experienced the body of the Dharma King
without wearing the ka? aya.
[114] The best and purest material for the robe is rags, whose merits are
universally evident in the sutras, precepts, and commentaries149 of the Great
Vehicle and Small Vehicle. We should inquire into [these merits] under those
who have studied them widely. At the same time, we should also be clear
about other materials for the robe. [These things] have been clarified and
authentically transmitted by the buddhas and the patriarchs. They are beyond
lesser beings.
[115] The Middle Agama Sutra150 says:
Furthermore, wise friends! 151 Suppose there is a man whose bodily
behavior is pure but whose behavior of mouth and mind is impure. If
wise people see [the impurity] and feel anger they must dispel it. Wise
friends! Suppose there is a man whose bodily behavior is impure but
whose behavior of mouth and mind is pure. If wise people see [the
impurity] and feel anger they must dispel it. How can they dispel it?
Wise friends! They should be like a forest bhik? u152 with rags, look-
ing among the rags for worn cloth to be thrown away, and for [cloth]
soiled by feces or urine, or by tears and spit, or stained by other impu-
rities. After inspecting [a rag, the bhik? u] picks it up with the left hand
and stretches it out with the right hand. 153 If there are any parts that are
not soiled by feces, urine, tears, spit, or other impurities, and which
are not in holes, [the bhik? u] tears them off and takes them. In the same
way, wise friends, if a man's bodily behavior is impure but the behav-
ior of mouth and mind is pure, do not think about his body's impure
behavior. Only be aware of his pure behavior of mouth and mind. If
wise people feel anger at what they see, they must dispel it like this.
[117] This is the method by which a forest bhik? u collects rags. There
are four sorts of rags and ten sorts of rags. When gathering those rags, we
first pick out the parts that have no holes. We should then also reject [the
parts] that cannot be washed clean, being too deeply soiled with long-accu-
mulated stains of feces and urine. We should select [those parts] that can be
washed clean.
[117] The ten sorts of rags: 1) Rags chewed by an ox, 2) rags gnawed
by rats, 3) rags scorched by fire, 4) rags [soiled by] menstruation, 5) rags
[soiled by] childbirth, 6) rags [offered at] a shrine, 7) rags [left at] a grave-
yard, 8) rags [offered in] petitional prayer, 9) rags [discarded by] a king's
officers,154 10) rags brought back from a funeral. 155 These ten sorts people
throw away; they are not used in human society. We pick them up and make
them into the pure material of the ka? aya. Rags have been praised and have
been used by the buddhas of the three times. Therefore these rags are val-
ued and defended by human beings, gods, dragons, and so on. We should
pick them up to make the ka? aya; they are the purest material and the ulti-
mate purity. Nowadays in Japan there are no such rags. Even if we search,
we cannot find any. It is regrettable that [this] is a minor nation in a remote
land. However, we can use pure material offered by a donor, and we can use
pure material donated by human beings and gods. Alternatively, we can make
the ka? aya from [cloth] bought at a market with earnings from a pure live-
lihood. Such rags and [cloth] obtained from a pure livelihood are not silk,
not cotton, and not gold, silver, pearls, patterned cloth, sheer silk, brocade,
embroidery, and so on; they are just rags. These rags are neither for a hum-
ble robe nor for a beautiful garment; they are just for the Buddha-Dharma.
To wear them is just to have received the authentic transmission of the skin,
? esh, bones, and marrow of the buddhas of the three times, and to have
received the authentic transmission of the right Dharma-eye treasury. We
should never ask human beings and gods about the merit of this [transmis-
sion]. We should learn it in practice from Buddhist patriarchs.
Shobogenzo Kesa-kudoku
[120] During my stay in Song China, when I was making effort on the long
platform, I saw that my neighbor at the end of every sitting156 would lift up
his ka? aya and place it on his head; then holding the hands together in ven-
eration, he would quietly recite a verse. The verse was:
Daisai-gedatsu-fuku (How great is the clothing of liberation,)
Muso-fukuden-e (Formless, field of happiness, robe! )
Hibu-nyorai-kyo (Devoutly wearing the Tathagata's teaching,)
Kodo-shoshujo (Widely I will save living beings. )
At that time, there arose in me a feeling I had never before experienced.
[My] body was overwhelmed with joy. The tears of gratitude secretly fell
and soaked my lapels. The reason was that when I had read the Agama sutras
previously, I had noticed sentences about humbly receiving the ka? aya on
the head, but I had not clarified the standards for this behavior. Seeing it
done now, before my very eyes, I was overjoyed. I thought to myself, �It is
a pity that when I was in my homeland there was no master to teach this,
and no good friend to recommend it. How could I not regret, how could I
not deplore, passing so much time in vain? Now that I am seeing and hear-
ing it, I can rejoice in past good conduct. If I had vainly stayed in my home
country, how could I have sat next to this treasure of a monk,157 who has
received the transmission of, and who wears, the Buddha's robe itself? � The
sadness and joy was not one-sided. A thousand myriad tears of gratitude ran
down. Then I secretly vowed: �One way or another, unworthy though I am,
I will become a rightful successor to the Buddha-Dharma. I will receive the
authentic transmission of the right Dharma and, out of compassion for liv-
ing beings in my homeland, I will cause them to see and to hear the robe and
the Dharma that have been authentically transmitted by the Buddhist patri-
archs. � The vow I made then has not been in vain now; many bodhisattvas,
in families and out of families,158 have received and retained the ka? aya. This
is something to rejoice in. People who have received and retained the ka? aya
should humbly receive it upon the head every day and night. The merit [of
this] may be especially excellent and supremely excellent. The seeing and
hearing of a phrase or a verse may be as in the story of �on trees and on
rocks,�159 and the seeing and hearing may not be limited to the length and
breadth of the nine states. 160 The merit of the authentic transmission of the
ka? aya is hardly encountered through the ten directions. To [encounter this
merit] even if only for one day or for one night may be the most excellent
and highest thing.
[123] In the tenth lunar month in the winter of the seventeenth year of
Kajo161 in great Song [China], two Korean162 monks came to the city of Kei -
genfu. 163 One was called Chigen and one was called Keiun. This pair were
always discussing the meaning of Buddhist sutras; at the same time they
were also men of letters. But they had no ka? aya and no patra, like secular
people. It was pitiful that though they had the external form of bhik? us they
did not have the Dharma of bhik? us. 164 This may have been because they
were from a minor nation in a remote land. When Japanese who have the
external form of bhik? us travel abroad, they are likely to be the same as Chi-
gen and such. Sakyamuni Buddha received [the ka? aya] upon his head for
twelve years, never setting it aside. 165 We are already his distant descendants,
and we should emulate this. To turn the forehead away from prostrations
idly done for fame and gain to gods, to spirits, to kings, and to retainers, and
to turn instead toward the humble reception upon the head of the Buddha's
robe, is joyful.
Preached to the assembly at Kannondori ko -
shohorinji, on the first day of winter,166 in
the first year of Ninji. 167
---
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B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 13
[Chapter Thirteen]
Den-e
The Transmission of the Robe
Translator's Note: Den means �transmission� and e means �robe,� so den-e
means �transmission of the robe. � The content of this chapter is very simi-
lar to that of the previous chapter, Kesa-kudoku. Furthermore, the date recorded
at the end of each chapter is the same. But whereas the note at the end of
Kesa-kudoku says �preached to the assembly at Kannon dori ko sho ho rinji,�
the note to this chapter says �written at Kannondorikoshohorinji. . . . � It thus
seems likely that Den-e is the draft of the lecture Master Dogen was to give
on October first, and Kesa-kudoku is the transcript of the lecture he gave on
that day.
[125] The authentic transmission into China of the robe and the Dharma,
which are authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha,1 was done only
by the Founding Patriarch of Shaolin [Temple]. The Founding Patriarch was
the twenty-eighth ancestral master after Sakyamuni Buddha. [The robe] had
passed from rightful successor to rightful successor through twenty-eight
generations in India, and it was personally and authentically transmitted
through six generations in China; altogether it was [transmitted through]
thirty-three generations in the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands. The
thirty-third patriarch, Zen Master Daikan, received the authentic transmis-
sion of this robe and Dharma on Obaizan in the middle of the night, and he
guarded and retained [the robe] until his death. 2 It is now still deposited at
Horinji on Sokeizan. Many generations of emperors in succession requested
that it be brought into the palace, where they served offerings to it; they
guarded [the robe] as a sacred object. The Tang dynasty emperors Chuso,
Shukuso, and Taiso frequently had [the robe] brought to court and served
offerings to it. Both when they requested it and when they sent it back, they
would dispatch an imperial emissary and issue an edict; this is the manner
in which they honored [the robe]. Emperor Taiso once returned the Buddha's
robe to Sokeizan with the following edict: �I now dispatch the great Gen-
eral Ryu Shukei, Pacifier of the Nation, to receive with courtesy and to deliver
[the robe]. I consider it to be a national treasure. Venerable priests, deposit
it in its original temple. Let it be solemnly guarded by monks who have inti-
mately received the fundamental teaching. Never let it fall into neglect. �
[127] Thus, the emperors of several generations each esteemed [the
robe] as an important national treasure. Truly, to retain this Buddha's robe
in one's country is a superlative great treasure, which surpasses even domin-
ion over the [worlds] as countless as the sands of the Ganges in a three-thou-
sand-great-thousandfold world. We should never compare it with Benka's
gem. 3 [A gem] may become the national seal of state, but how can it become
the rare jewel which transmits the Buddha's state? From the Tang dynasty4
onward, the monks and laymen5 who admired and bowed to [the ka? aya]
were all, without exception, people of great makings who believed in the
Dharma.
If not aided by good conduct in the past, how else would we be
able to prostrate this body in admiration to the Buddha's robe which has
been directly and authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha? Skin,
? esh, bones, and marrow that believe in and receive [the robe] should rejoice;
those that cannot believe in and receive [the robe] should feel regret�even
though the situation is of their own doing�that they are not the embryos of
buddhas. Even secular [teaching] says that to look at a person's behavior is
just to look at that person. To have admired and to have bowed now to the
Buddha's robe is just to be looking at the Buddha. We should erect hundreds,
thousands, and tens of thousands of stupas and serve offerings to this buddha
robe. In the heavens above and in the ocean's depths, whatever has mind
should value [the robe]. In the human world too, sacred wheel-turning kings6
and others who know what is true and know what is superior should value
[the robe]. It is pitiful that the people who became, in generation after gen-
eration, the rulers of the land never knew what an important treasure existed
in their own country. Deluded by the teachings of Daoists, many of them
abolished the Buddha-Dharma. At such times, instead of wearing the ka? aya,
they covered their round heads with [Daoist] caps. 7 The lectures [they lis-
tened to] were on how to extend one's lifespan and to prolong one's years.
There were [emperors like this] both during the Tang dynasty and during the
Song dynasty. These fellows were rulers of the nation, but they must have
been more vulgar than the common people. They should have quietly re? ected
that the Buddha's robe had remained and was actually present in their own
country. They might even have considered that [their country] was the buddha
land of the robe. [The ka? aya] may surpass even [sacred] bones8 and so on.
Wheel-turning kings have bones, as do lions, human beings, pratyekabuddhas,
and the like. But wheel-turning kings do not have the ka? aya, lions do not
have the ka? aya, human beings do not have the ka? aya. Only buddhas have
the ka? aya. We should believe this profoundly. Stupid people today often
revere bones but fail to know the ka? aya. Few know that they should guard
and retain [their own ka? aya]. This situation has arisen because few people
have ever heard of the importance of the ka? aya, and [even these few] have
never heard of the authentic transmission of the Buddha-Dharma. When we
attentively think back to the time when Sakyamuni was in the world, it is lit-
tle more than two thousand years; many national treasures and sacred objects
have been transmitted to the present for longer than this. This Buddha-Dharma
and buddha robe are recent and new. The benefit of their propagation through
the �fields and villages,� even if there have been �fifty propagations,� is won-
derful. 9 The qualities of those things10 are obvious [but] this buddha robe
can never be the same as those things. Those things are not received in the
authentic transmission from rightful successors, but this [robe] has been
received in the authentic transmission from rightful successors. Remember,
we attain the truth when listening to a four-line verse, and we attain the state
of truth when listening to a single phrase. Why is it that a four-line verse and
a single phrase can have such mystical effect? Because they are the Buddha-
Dharma. Now, each robe and [all] nine kinds of robes11 have been received
in the authentic transmission from the Buddha-Dharma itself; [the robe]
could never be inferior to a four-line verse, and could never be less effec-
tive than a single phrase of Dharma. This is why, for more than two thou-
sand years, all followers of the Buddha�those with the makings of devo-
tional practice and of Dharma practice�have guarded and retained the ka? aya
and regarded it as their body and mind. Those who are ignorant of the right
Dharma of the buddhas do not worship the ka? aya.
[132] Now, such beings as Sakra-devanam-indra and the Dragon King
Anavatapta, though they are the celestial ruler of laymen and the king of
dragons, have guarded and retained the ka? aya. Yet people who shave the
head, people who call themselves disciples of the Buddha, do not know that
they should receive and retain the ka? aya. How much less could they know
its material, color, and measurements; how much less could they know the
method of wearing it; and how much less could they have seen the dignified
conventions for it, even in a dream?
[133] The ka? aya has been called since olden times �the clothing that
wards off suffering from heat� and �the clothing of liberation. � In conclu-
sion, its merit is beyond measure. Through the merit of the ka? aya, a dragon's
scales can be freed from the three kinds of burning pain. When the buddhas
realize the truth, they are always wearing this robe. Truly, although we were
born in a remote land in [the age of] the latter Dharma, if we have the oppor-
tunity to choose between what has been transmitted and what has not been
transmitted, we should believe in, receive, guard, and retain [the robe] whose
transmission is authentic and traditional. In what lineage have both the robe
and the Dharma of Sakyamuni himself been authentically transmitted, as in
our authentic tradition? They exist only in Buddhism. On meeting this robe
and Dharma, who could be lax in venerating them and serving offerings to
them? Even if, each day, we [have to] discard bodies and lives as countless
as the sands of the Ganges, we should serve offerings to them. Further, we
should vow to meet [the robe] and humbly to receive it upon the head in
every life in every age. We are the stupid people of a remote quarter, born
with a hundred thousand or so miles of mountains and oceans separating us
from the land of the Buddha's birth. Even so, if we hear this right Dharma,
if we receive and retain this ka? aya even for a single day or a single night,
and if we master even a single phrase or a single verse, that will not only be
the good fortune to have served offerings to one buddha or to two buddhas:
it will be the good fortune to have served offerings and paid homage to count-
less hundred thousand ko? is of buddhas. Even if [the servants] are ourselves,
we should respect them, we should love them, and we should value them.
[135] We should heartily repay the great benevolence of the ancestral
master in transmitting the Dharma. 12 Even animals repay kindness; how could
human beings fail to recognize kindness? If we failed to recognize kindness,
we would be inferior to animals, more stupid than animals. People other than
the ancestral masters who transmit the Buddha's right Dharma have never
known the merit of this buddha robe, even in a dream. How much less could
they clarify its material, color, and measurements? If we long to follow the
traces of the buddhas, we should just long for this [transmission]. Even after
a hundred thousand myriads of generations, the authentic reception of this
authentic transmission will [still] be just the Buddha-Dharma itself. The evi-
dence for this is clear. Even secular [teaching] says, �One does not wear cloth-
ing different from the clothing of the past king, and one does not follow laws
different from those of the past king. � Buddhism is also like that. We should
not wear what is different from the Dharma clothing of past buddhas. If [our
clothes] were different from the Dharma clothing of past buddhas, what could
we wear to practice Buddhism and to serve buddhas? Without wearing this
clothing, it might be difficult to enter the Buddha's order.
[136] Since the years of the Eihei period,13 during the reign of Emperor
Komei of the Later Han dynasty, monks arriving in the Eastern Lands from
the Western Heavens have followed on each other's heels without cease. We
often hear of monks going from China to India, but it is not said that they
ever met anyone who gave them the face-to-face transmission of the Buddha-
Dharma. They [have] only names and forms, learned in vain from teachers
of commentaries and scholars of the Tripi? aka. 14 They have not heard the
authentic tradition of the Buddha-Dharma. This is why they cannot even
report that we should receive the authentic transmission of the Buddha's
robe, why they never claim to have met a person who has received the authen-
tic transmission of the Buddha's robe, and why they never mention seeing
or hearing a person who has received the transmission of the robe. Clearly,
they have never entered beyond the threshold of the house of Buddha. That
these fellows recognize [the robe] solely as a garment, not knowing that it
is in the Buddha-Dharma [an object of] honor and worship, is truly pitiful.
Rightful successors to the transmission of the Buddha's Dharma treasury
also transmit and receive the Buddha's robe. The principle that the ances-
tral masters who receive the authentic transmission of the Dharma treasury
have never gone without seeing and hearing15 the Buddha's robe is widely
known among human beings and in the heavens above. This being so, the
material, color, and measurements of the Buddha's ka? aya have been authen-
tically transmitted and authentically seen and heard; the great merits of the
Buddha's ka? aya have been authentically transmitted; and the body, mind,
bones, and marrow of the Buddha's ka? aya have been authentically trans-
mitted, only in the customs of the traditional lineage. [This authentic trans-
mission] is not known in the various schools which follow the teaching of
the Agamas. 16 The [robes] that individuals have established independently,
according to the idea of the moment, are not traditional and not legitimate.
When our Great Master Sakyamuni Tathagata passed on the right Dharma-
eye treasury and the supreme state of bodhi to Maha kasyapa, he transmitted
them together with the buddha robe. Between then and Zen Master Daikan
of Sokeizan, there were thirty-three generations, the transmission passing
from rightful successor to rightful successor. The intimate experience and
intimate transmission of [the robe's] material, color, and measurements have
long been handed down by the lineages, and their reception and retention
are evident in the present. That is to say, that which was received and retained
by each of the founding patriarchs of the five sects17 is the authentic tradi-
tion. Similarly evident are the wearing [of the robe], according to the meth-
ods of former buddhas, and the making [of the robe], according to the meth-
ods of former buddhas, which �buddhas alone, together with buddhas,�
through generations have transmitted and have experienced as the same
state�in some cases for over fifty generations and in some cases for over
forty generations�without confusion between any master and disciple. The
Buddha's instruction, as authentically transmitted from rightful successor to
rightful successor, is as follows:
Robe of nine stripes three long [segments], one
short [segment];18 or four
long, one short
Robe of eleven stripes three long, one short; or four
long, one short
Robe of thirteen stripes three long, one short; or four
long, one short
Robe of fifteen stripes three long, one short
Robe of seventeen stripes three long, one short
Robe of nineteen stripes three long, one short
Robe of twenty-one stripes four long, one short
Robe of twenty-three stripes four long, one short
Robe of twenty-five stripes four long, one short
Robe of two hundred and fifty stripes four long, one short
Robe of eighty-four thousand stripes19 eight long, one short
[140] This is an abbreviated list. There are many other kinds of ka? aya
besides these, all of which may be the sa? gha? i robe. Some receive and
retain [the ka? aya] as laypeople, and some receive and retain [the ka? aya]
as monks and nuns. To receive and to retain [the ka? aya] means to wear it,
not to keep it idly folded. Even if people shave off hair and beard, if they do
not receive and retain the ka? aya, if they hate the ka? aya or fear the ka? aya,
they are celestial demons20 and non-Buddhists. Zen Master Hyakujo Daichi21
says, �Those who have not accumulated good seeds in the past detest the
ka? aya and hate the ka? aya; they fear and hate the right Dharma. �
[142] The Buddha says , �If any living being, having entered my
Dharma, commits the grave sins or falls into wrong views, but in a
single moment of consciousness [this person] with reverent mind hon-
ors the sa? gha? i robe, the buddhas and I will give affirmation, with-
out fail, that this person will be able to become buddha in the three
vehicles. Gods or dragons or human beings or demons, if able to revere
the merit of even a small part of this person's ka? aya, will at once
attain the three vehicles and will neither regress nor stray. If ghosts
and living beings can obtain even four inches of the ka? aya, they will
eat and drink their fill. When living beings offend each other and are
about to fall into wrong views, if they remember the power of the
ka? aya, through the power of the ka? aya they will duly feel compas-
sion, and they will be able to return to the state of purity. If people on
a battlefield keep a small part of this ka? aya, venerating it and honor-
ing it, they will obtain salvation. �22
[143] Thus we have seen that the merits of the ka? aya are supreme and
unthinkable. When we believe in, receive, guard, and retain it, we will surely
get the state of affirmation, and get the state of not regressing. Not only Sakya-
muni Buddha but all the buddhas also have preached like this. Remember,
the substance and form of the buddhas themselves is just the ka? aya. This
is why the Buddha says, �Those who are going to fall into wrong ways hate
the sa? gha? i [robe]. � This being so, if hateful thoughts arise when we see
and hear of the ka? aya, we should feel sorry that our own body is going to
fall into wrong ways, and we should repent and confess. Furthermore, when
Sakyamuni Buddha first left the royal palace and was going to enter the
mountains, a tree god, the story goes, holds up a sa? gha? i robe and says to
Sakyamuni Buddha, �If you receive this robe upon your head, you will escape
the disturbances of demons. � Then Sakyamuni Buddha accepts this robe,
humbly receiving it upon his head, and for twelve years he does not set it
aside even for a moment. This is the teaching of the Agama sutras. Else-
where it is said that the ka? aya is a garment of good fortune, and that those
who wear it always reach exalted rank. In general, there has never been a
moment when this sa? gha? i robe was not manifesting itself before us in the
world. The manifestation before us of one moment is an eternal matter,23 and
eternal matters come at one moment. To obtain the ka? aya is to obtain the
Buddha's banner. For this reason, none of the buddha-tathagatas has ever
failed to receive and to retain the ka? aya. And no person who has received
and retained the ka? aya has failed to become buddha.
[145] The method of wearing the ka? aya: �To bare only the right shoul-
der� is the usual method. There is also a method of wearing [the ka? aya] so
that it covers both shoulders. When we wear both sides over the left arm and
shoulder, we wear the front edge on the outside and the back edge on the
inside. 24 This is one instance of Buddhist dignified behavior. This behavior
is neither seen and heard nor transmitted and received by the various groups
of sravakas: their scriptures on the teaching of the Agamas do not mention it
at all. In general, the dignified behavior of wearing the ka? aya in Buddhism
has been unfailingly received and retained by the ancestral masters who
received the transmission of the right Dharma and who are present before us
here and now. When receiving and retaining [the ka? aya], we should unfail-
ingly receive and retain it under such an ancestral master. The traditional
ka? aya of the Buddhist patriarchs has been authentically transmitted from
buddha to buddha without irregularity; it is the ka? aya of former buddhas and
of later buddhas, the ka? aya of ancient buddhas and of recent buddhas. When
they transform25 the state of truth, when they transform the state of buddha,
when they transform the past, when they transform the present, and when
they transform the future, they transmit the authentic tradition from the past
to the present, they transmit the authentic tradition from the present to the
future, they transmit the authentic tradition from the present to the past, they
transmit the authentic tradition from the past to the past, they transmit the
authentic tradition from the present to the present, they transmit the authen-
tic tradition from the future to the future, they transmit the authentic tradition
from the future to the present, and they transmit the authentic tradition from
the future to the past; and this is the authentic transmission of �buddhas alone,
together with buddhas. � For this reason, for several hundred years after the
ancestral master came from the west, from the great Tang to the great Song
[dynasties], many of those accomplished at lecturing on sutras were able to
see through their own behavior; and when people of philosophical schools,
of precepts, and so on entered the Buddha-Dharma, they threw away the
shabby old robes that had formerly been their ka? aya, and they authentically
received the traditional ka? aya of Buddhism. Their stories appear one after
another in Records of the Torch such as Den[toroku], Ko[toroku], Zoku[toroku],
Futoroku, and so on. 26 When they were liberated from the small view which
is limited thinking about philosophy and precepts and they revered the great
truth authentically transmitted by the Buddhist patriarchs, they all became
Buddhist patriarchs. People today also should learn from the ancestral mas-
ters of the past. If we would like to receive and to retain the ka? aya, we should
receive the authentic transmission of, and should believe in, the traditional
ka? aya. We should not receive and retain a fake ka? aya. The traditional ka? aya
means the ka? aya now authentically transmitted from Shaolin [Temple] and
Sokei [Mountain];27 its reception from the Tathagata in the transmission from
rightful successor to rightful successor has never been interrupted for even a
single generation. For this reason we have exactly received the practice of
the truth, and we have intimately obtained, in our own hands, the Buddha's
robe; and this is the reason [we should receive the authentic transmission].
The Buddha's [state of] truth is authentically transmitted in the Buddha's
[state of] truth; it is not left for lazy people to receive at leisure. A secular
proverb says, �Hearing a thousand times is not as good as seeing once, and
seeing a thousand times is not as good as experiencing once. � Re? ecting on
this, [we can say that] even if we see [the ka? aya] a thousand times and hear
of it ten thousand times, that is not as good as getting it once, and never as
good as to have received the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe. If
we can doubt those who have authentic traditions, we should doubt all the
more those who have never seen the authentic traditions even in a dream. To
receive the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe may be closer [in
experience] than to receive and to hear Buddhist sutras. Even a thousand expe-
riences and ten thousand attainments are not as good as one realization in
experience. A Buddhist patriarch is the realization of the same state of expe-
rience; we should never rank [a Buddhist patriarch] with common followers
of philosophy and precepts. In conclusion, with regard to the merits of the
ka?
We are protected by the buddhas.
Each person who transcends family life
Is served by gods and humans.
Clearly, once we have shaved the head and put on the ka? aya, we are
protected by all the buddhas. Relying on this protection of the buddhas, [a
person] can roundly realize the virtues of the supreme state of bodhi. Celes-
tial throngs and human multitudes serve offerings to such a person.
135The World-honored One says to the bhik? u Wisdom-Brightness,136
�The Dharma robe has ten excellent merits: 1) It is able to cover the
body, to keep away shame, to fill us with humility and to [make us]
practice good ways. 137 2) It keeps away cold and heat, as well as mos-
quitoes, harmful creatures, and poisonous insects, [so that we can]
practice the truth in tranquility. 3) It manifests the form of a srama? a138
who has left family life, giving delight to those who behold it and keep-
ing away wrong states of mind. 4) The ka? aya is just the manifesta-
tion to human beings and gods of a precious ? ag; those who honor and
venerate it are able to be born in a Brahma heaven. 139 5) When we wear
the ka? aya, we feel that it is a precious ? ag; it is able to extinguish sins
and to produce all kinds of happiness and virtue. 6) A fundamental
rule in making the ka? aya is to dye it a secondary color,140 so that it
keeps us free from thoughts of the five desires,141 and does not give
rise to lust. 7) The ka? aya is the pure robe of the Buddha; for it erad-
icates af? ictions142 forever and makes them into a fertile field. 8) When
the ka? aya covers the body, it extinguishes the karma of sins and pro-
motes at every moment the practice of the ten kinds of good. 143 9) The
ka? aya is like a fertile field; for it is well able to nurture the bodhi-
sattva way. 10) The ka? aya is also like a suit of armor; for it makes
the poisoned arrows of af? iction unable to do harm. Wisdom-Bright-
ness! Remember, through these causes, when the buddhas of the three
times, and pratyekabuddhas and sravakas, and pure monks and nuns,
cover the body in the ka? aya, [these] three groups of sacred beings sit
as one on the precious platform of liberation, take up the sword of wis-
dom to destroy the demons of af? iction, and enter together into the
many spheres of nirvana which have one taste. � Then the World-hon-
ored One speaks again in verse:
Bhik? u Wisdom-Brightness, listen well!
The traditional Buddhist robe has ten excellent merits:
Secular clothes increase taintedness from desire,
The Tathagata's Dharma attire is not like that;
Dharma attire fends off social shame,
But fills us with the humility that produces a field of happiness.
It keeps away cold and heat, and poisonous insects;
Firming our will to the truth, it enables us to arrive at the
ultimate.
It manifests [the form] of a monk and keeps away greed;
It eradicates the five views144 and [promotes] right practice.
To look at and bow to the ka? aya's form of a precious banner,
And to venerate it, produces the happiness of King Brahma.
When a disciple of the Buddha wears the robe and feels like
a tower,
This produces happiness, extinguishes sins, and impresses
human beings and gods.
True srama? as, of modest appearance, showing respect,
Are not tainted in their actions by secular defilements.
The buddhas praise [the ka? aya] as a fertile field,
They call it supreme in giving benefit and joy to living beings.
The mystical power of the ka? aya is unthinkable,
It can cause us to practice deeds that plant the seeds of bodhi,145
It makes the sprouts of the truth grow like spring seedlings,
The wonderful effect of bodhi being like autumn fruit.
[The ka? aya] is a true suit of armor, as hard as a diamond;
The poisoned arrows of af? iction can do no harm.
I have now brie? y praised the ten excellent merits,
If I had successive kalpas to expound them widely, there would
be no end.
If a dragon wears a single strand [of the ka? aya],
It will escape [the fate of] becoming food for a garu? a. 146
If people retain this robe when crossing the ocean,
They need not fear trouble from dragonfish or demons.
When thunder roars, lightning strikes, and the sky is angry,
Someone who wears the ka? aya is fearless.
If one clothed in white147 is able personally to hold and retain
[the ka? aya],
All bad demons are unable to approach.
If [that person] is able to establish the will and seeks to leave
home,
Shunning the world and practicing the Buddha's truth,
All the demon palaces of the ten directions will quake and
tremble,
And that person will quickly experience the body of the
Dharma King. 148
[113] These ten excellent merits broadly include all the merits of the
Buddha's truth. We should explicitly learn in practice the merits present in
[these] long lines and [short] verses of praise, not just glancing over them
and quickly putting them aside, but studying them phrase by phrase over a
long period. These excellent merits are just the merits of the ka? aya itself:
they are not the effect of a practitioner's fierce [pursuit of] merit through
perpetual training. The Buddha says, �The mystical power of the ka? aya is
unthinkable�; it cannot be supposed at random by the common person or
sages and saints. In general, when we �quickly experience the body of the
Dharma King,� we are always wearing the ka? aya. There has never been
anyone, since ancient times, who experienced the body of the Dharma King
without wearing the ka? aya.
[114] The best and purest material for the robe is rags, whose merits are
universally evident in the sutras, precepts, and commentaries149 of the Great
Vehicle and Small Vehicle. We should inquire into [these merits] under those
who have studied them widely. At the same time, we should also be clear
about other materials for the robe. [These things] have been clarified and
authentically transmitted by the buddhas and the patriarchs. They are beyond
lesser beings.
[115] The Middle Agama Sutra150 says:
Furthermore, wise friends! 151 Suppose there is a man whose bodily
behavior is pure but whose behavior of mouth and mind is impure. If
wise people see [the impurity] and feel anger they must dispel it. Wise
friends! Suppose there is a man whose bodily behavior is impure but
whose behavior of mouth and mind is pure. If wise people see [the
impurity] and feel anger they must dispel it. How can they dispel it?
Wise friends! They should be like a forest bhik? u152 with rags, look-
ing among the rags for worn cloth to be thrown away, and for [cloth]
soiled by feces or urine, or by tears and spit, or stained by other impu-
rities. After inspecting [a rag, the bhik? u] picks it up with the left hand
and stretches it out with the right hand. 153 If there are any parts that are
not soiled by feces, urine, tears, spit, or other impurities, and which
are not in holes, [the bhik? u] tears them off and takes them. In the same
way, wise friends, if a man's bodily behavior is impure but the behav-
ior of mouth and mind is pure, do not think about his body's impure
behavior. Only be aware of his pure behavior of mouth and mind. If
wise people feel anger at what they see, they must dispel it like this.
[117] This is the method by which a forest bhik? u collects rags. There
are four sorts of rags and ten sorts of rags. When gathering those rags, we
first pick out the parts that have no holes. We should then also reject [the
parts] that cannot be washed clean, being too deeply soiled with long-accu-
mulated stains of feces and urine. We should select [those parts] that can be
washed clean.
[117] The ten sorts of rags: 1) Rags chewed by an ox, 2) rags gnawed
by rats, 3) rags scorched by fire, 4) rags [soiled by] menstruation, 5) rags
[soiled by] childbirth, 6) rags [offered at] a shrine, 7) rags [left at] a grave-
yard, 8) rags [offered in] petitional prayer, 9) rags [discarded by] a king's
officers,154 10) rags brought back from a funeral. 155 These ten sorts people
throw away; they are not used in human society. We pick them up and make
them into the pure material of the ka? aya. Rags have been praised and have
been used by the buddhas of the three times. Therefore these rags are val-
ued and defended by human beings, gods, dragons, and so on. We should
pick them up to make the ka? aya; they are the purest material and the ulti-
mate purity. Nowadays in Japan there are no such rags. Even if we search,
we cannot find any. It is regrettable that [this] is a minor nation in a remote
land. However, we can use pure material offered by a donor, and we can use
pure material donated by human beings and gods. Alternatively, we can make
the ka? aya from [cloth] bought at a market with earnings from a pure live-
lihood. Such rags and [cloth] obtained from a pure livelihood are not silk,
not cotton, and not gold, silver, pearls, patterned cloth, sheer silk, brocade,
embroidery, and so on; they are just rags. These rags are neither for a hum-
ble robe nor for a beautiful garment; they are just for the Buddha-Dharma.
To wear them is just to have received the authentic transmission of the skin,
? esh, bones, and marrow of the buddhas of the three times, and to have
received the authentic transmission of the right Dharma-eye treasury. We
should never ask human beings and gods about the merit of this [transmis-
sion]. We should learn it in practice from Buddhist patriarchs.
Shobogenzo Kesa-kudoku
[120] During my stay in Song China, when I was making effort on the long
platform, I saw that my neighbor at the end of every sitting156 would lift up
his ka? aya and place it on his head; then holding the hands together in ven-
eration, he would quietly recite a verse. The verse was:
Daisai-gedatsu-fuku (How great is the clothing of liberation,)
Muso-fukuden-e (Formless, field of happiness, robe! )
Hibu-nyorai-kyo (Devoutly wearing the Tathagata's teaching,)
Kodo-shoshujo (Widely I will save living beings. )
At that time, there arose in me a feeling I had never before experienced.
[My] body was overwhelmed with joy. The tears of gratitude secretly fell
and soaked my lapels. The reason was that when I had read the Agama sutras
previously, I had noticed sentences about humbly receiving the ka? aya on
the head, but I had not clarified the standards for this behavior. Seeing it
done now, before my very eyes, I was overjoyed. I thought to myself, �It is
a pity that when I was in my homeland there was no master to teach this,
and no good friend to recommend it. How could I not regret, how could I
not deplore, passing so much time in vain? Now that I am seeing and hear-
ing it, I can rejoice in past good conduct. If I had vainly stayed in my home
country, how could I have sat next to this treasure of a monk,157 who has
received the transmission of, and who wears, the Buddha's robe itself? � The
sadness and joy was not one-sided. A thousand myriad tears of gratitude ran
down. Then I secretly vowed: �One way or another, unworthy though I am,
I will become a rightful successor to the Buddha-Dharma. I will receive the
authentic transmission of the right Dharma and, out of compassion for liv-
ing beings in my homeland, I will cause them to see and to hear the robe and
the Dharma that have been authentically transmitted by the Buddhist patri-
archs. � The vow I made then has not been in vain now; many bodhisattvas,
in families and out of families,158 have received and retained the ka? aya. This
is something to rejoice in. People who have received and retained the ka? aya
should humbly receive it upon the head every day and night. The merit [of
this] may be especially excellent and supremely excellent. The seeing and
hearing of a phrase or a verse may be as in the story of �on trees and on
rocks,�159 and the seeing and hearing may not be limited to the length and
breadth of the nine states. 160 The merit of the authentic transmission of the
ka? aya is hardly encountered through the ten directions. To [encounter this
merit] even if only for one day or for one night may be the most excellent
and highest thing.
[123] In the tenth lunar month in the winter of the seventeenth year of
Kajo161 in great Song [China], two Korean162 monks came to the city of Kei -
genfu. 163 One was called Chigen and one was called Keiun. This pair were
always discussing the meaning of Buddhist sutras; at the same time they
were also men of letters. But they had no ka? aya and no patra, like secular
people. It was pitiful that though they had the external form of bhik? us they
did not have the Dharma of bhik? us. 164 This may have been because they
were from a minor nation in a remote land. When Japanese who have the
external form of bhik? us travel abroad, they are likely to be the same as Chi-
gen and such. Sakyamuni Buddha received [the ka? aya] upon his head for
twelve years, never setting it aside. 165 We are already his distant descendants,
and we should emulate this. To turn the forehead away from prostrations
idly done for fame and gain to gods, to spirits, to kings, and to retainers, and
to turn instead toward the humble reception upon the head of the Buddha's
robe, is joyful.
Preached to the assembly at Kannondori ko -
shohorinji, on the first day of winter,166 in
the first year of Ninji. 167
---
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B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 13
[Chapter Thirteen]
Den-e
The Transmission of the Robe
Translator's Note: Den means �transmission� and e means �robe,� so den-e
means �transmission of the robe. � The content of this chapter is very simi-
lar to that of the previous chapter, Kesa-kudoku. Furthermore, the date recorded
at the end of each chapter is the same. But whereas the note at the end of
Kesa-kudoku says �preached to the assembly at Kannon dori ko sho ho rinji,�
the note to this chapter says �written at Kannondorikoshohorinji. . . . � It thus
seems likely that Den-e is the draft of the lecture Master Dogen was to give
on October first, and Kesa-kudoku is the transcript of the lecture he gave on
that day.
[125] The authentic transmission into China of the robe and the Dharma,
which are authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha,1 was done only
by the Founding Patriarch of Shaolin [Temple]. The Founding Patriarch was
the twenty-eighth ancestral master after Sakyamuni Buddha. [The robe] had
passed from rightful successor to rightful successor through twenty-eight
generations in India, and it was personally and authentically transmitted
through six generations in China; altogether it was [transmitted through]
thirty-three generations in the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands. The
thirty-third patriarch, Zen Master Daikan, received the authentic transmis-
sion of this robe and Dharma on Obaizan in the middle of the night, and he
guarded and retained [the robe] until his death. 2 It is now still deposited at
Horinji on Sokeizan. Many generations of emperors in succession requested
that it be brought into the palace, where they served offerings to it; they
guarded [the robe] as a sacred object. The Tang dynasty emperors Chuso,
Shukuso, and Taiso frequently had [the robe] brought to court and served
offerings to it. Both when they requested it and when they sent it back, they
would dispatch an imperial emissary and issue an edict; this is the manner
in which they honored [the robe]. Emperor Taiso once returned the Buddha's
robe to Sokeizan with the following edict: �I now dispatch the great Gen-
eral Ryu Shukei, Pacifier of the Nation, to receive with courtesy and to deliver
[the robe]. I consider it to be a national treasure. Venerable priests, deposit
it in its original temple. Let it be solemnly guarded by monks who have inti-
mately received the fundamental teaching. Never let it fall into neglect. �
[127] Thus, the emperors of several generations each esteemed [the
robe] as an important national treasure. Truly, to retain this Buddha's robe
in one's country is a superlative great treasure, which surpasses even domin-
ion over the [worlds] as countless as the sands of the Ganges in a three-thou-
sand-great-thousandfold world. We should never compare it with Benka's
gem. 3 [A gem] may become the national seal of state, but how can it become
the rare jewel which transmits the Buddha's state? From the Tang dynasty4
onward, the monks and laymen5 who admired and bowed to [the ka? aya]
were all, without exception, people of great makings who believed in the
Dharma.
If not aided by good conduct in the past, how else would we be
able to prostrate this body in admiration to the Buddha's robe which has
been directly and authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha? Skin,
? esh, bones, and marrow that believe in and receive [the robe] should rejoice;
those that cannot believe in and receive [the robe] should feel regret�even
though the situation is of their own doing�that they are not the embryos of
buddhas. Even secular [teaching] says that to look at a person's behavior is
just to look at that person. To have admired and to have bowed now to the
Buddha's robe is just to be looking at the Buddha. We should erect hundreds,
thousands, and tens of thousands of stupas and serve offerings to this buddha
robe. In the heavens above and in the ocean's depths, whatever has mind
should value [the robe]. In the human world too, sacred wheel-turning kings6
and others who know what is true and know what is superior should value
[the robe]. It is pitiful that the people who became, in generation after gen-
eration, the rulers of the land never knew what an important treasure existed
in their own country. Deluded by the teachings of Daoists, many of them
abolished the Buddha-Dharma. At such times, instead of wearing the ka? aya,
they covered their round heads with [Daoist] caps. 7 The lectures [they lis-
tened to] were on how to extend one's lifespan and to prolong one's years.
There were [emperors like this] both during the Tang dynasty and during the
Song dynasty. These fellows were rulers of the nation, but they must have
been more vulgar than the common people. They should have quietly re? ected
that the Buddha's robe had remained and was actually present in their own
country. They might even have considered that [their country] was the buddha
land of the robe. [The ka? aya] may surpass even [sacred] bones8 and so on.
Wheel-turning kings have bones, as do lions, human beings, pratyekabuddhas,
and the like. But wheel-turning kings do not have the ka? aya, lions do not
have the ka? aya, human beings do not have the ka? aya. Only buddhas have
the ka? aya. We should believe this profoundly. Stupid people today often
revere bones but fail to know the ka? aya. Few know that they should guard
and retain [their own ka? aya]. This situation has arisen because few people
have ever heard of the importance of the ka? aya, and [even these few] have
never heard of the authentic transmission of the Buddha-Dharma. When we
attentively think back to the time when Sakyamuni was in the world, it is lit-
tle more than two thousand years; many national treasures and sacred objects
have been transmitted to the present for longer than this. This Buddha-Dharma
and buddha robe are recent and new. The benefit of their propagation through
the �fields and villages,� even if there have been �fifty propagations,� is won-
derful. 9 The qualities of those things10 are obvious [but] this buddha robe
can never be the same as those things. Those things are not received in the
authentic transmission from rightful successors, but this [robe] has been
received in the authentic transmission from rightful successors. Remember,
we attain the truth when listening to a four-line verse, and we attain the state
of truth when listening to a single phrase. Why is it that a four-line verse and
a single phrase can have such mystical effect? Because they are the Buddha-
Dharma. Now, each robe and [all] nine kinds of robes11 have been received
in the authentic transmission from the Buddha-Dharma itself; [the robe]
could never be inferior to a four-line verse, and could never be less effec-
tive than a single phrase of Dharma. This is why, for more than two thou-
sand years, all followers of the Buddha�those with the makings of devo-
tional practice and of Dharma practice�have guarded and retained the ka? aya
and regarded it as their body and mind. Those who are ignorant of the right
Dharma of the buddhas do not worship the ka? aya.
[132] Now, such beings as Sakra-devanam-indra and the Dragon King
Anavatapta, though they are the celestial ruler of laymen and the king of
dragons, have guarded and retained the ka? aya. Yet people who shave the
head, people who call themselves disciples of the Buddha, do not know that
they should receive and retain the ka? aya. How much less could they know
its material, color, and measurements; how much less could they know the
method of wearing it; and how much less could they have seen the dignified
conventions for it, even in a dream?
[133] The ka? aya has been called since olden times �the clothing that
wards off suffering from heat� and �the clothing of liberation. � In conclu-
sion, its merit is beyond measure. Through the merit of the ka? aya, a dragon's
scales can be freed from the three kinds of burning pain. When the buddhas
realize the truth, they are always wearing this robe. Truly, although we were
born in a remote land in [the age of] the latter Dharma, if we have the oppor-
tunity to choose between what has been transmitted and what has not been
transmitted, we should believe in, receive, guard, and retain [the robe] whose
transmission is authentic and traditional. In what lineage have both the robe
and the Dharma of Sakyamuni himself been authentically transmitted, as in
our authentic tradition? They exist only in Buddhism. On meeting this robe
and Dharma, who could be lax in venerating them and serving offerings to
them? Even if, each day, we [have to] discard bodies and lives as countless
as the sands of the Ganges, we should serve offerings to them. Further, we
should vow to meet [the robe] and humbly to receive it upon the head in
every life in every age. We are the stupid people of a remote quarter, born
with a hundred thousand or so miles of mountains and oceans separating us
from the land of the Buddha's birth. Even so, if we hear this right Dharma,
if we receive and retain this ka? aya even for a single day or a single night,
and if we master even a single phrase or a single verse, that will not only be
the good fortune to have served offerings to one buddha or to two buddhas:
it will be the good fortune to have served offerings and paid homage to count-
less hundred thousand ko? is of buddhas. Even if [the servants] are ourselves,
we should respect them, we should love them, and we should value them.
[135] We should heartily repay the great benevolence of the ancestral
master in transmitting the Dharma. 12 Even animals repay kindness; how could
human beings fail to recognize kindness? If we failed to recognize kindness,
we would be inferior to animals, more stupid than animals. People other than
the ancestral masters who transmit the Buddha's right Dharma have never
known the merit of this buddha robe, even in a dream. How much less could
they clarify its material, color, and measurements? If we long to follow the
traces of the buddhas, we should just long for this [transmission]. Even after
a hundred thousand myriads of generations, the authentic reception of this
authentic transmission will [still] be just the Buddha-Dharma itself. The evi-
dence for this is clear. Even secular [teaching] says, �One does not wear cloth-
ing different from the clothing of the past king, and one does not follow laws
different from those of the past king. � Buddhism is also like that. We should
not wear what is different from the Dharma clothing of past buddhas. If [our
clothes] were different from the Dharma clothing of past buddhas, what could
we wear to practice Buddhism and to serve buddhas? Without wearing this
clothing, it might be difficult to enter the Buddha's order.
[136] Since the years of the Eihei period,13 during the reign of Emperor
Komei of the Later Han dynasty, monks arriving in the Eastern Lands from
the Western Heavens have followed on each other's heels without cease. We
often hear of monks going from China to India, but it is not said that they
ever met anyone who gave them the face-to-face transmission of the Buddha-
Dharma. They [have] only names and forms, learned in vain from teachers
of commentaries and scholars of the Tripi? aka. 14 They have not heard the
authentic tradition of the Buddha-Dharma. This is why they cannot even
report that we should receive the authentic transmission of the Buddha's
robe, why they never claim to have met a person who has received the authen-
tic transmission of the Buddha's robe, and why they never mention seeing
or hearing a person who has received the transmission of the robe. Clearly,
they have never entered beyond the threshold of the house of Buddha. That
these fellows recognize [the robe] solely as a garment, not knowing that it
is in the Buddha-Dharma [an object of] honor and worship, is truly pitiful.
Rightful successors to the transmission of the Buddha's Dharma treasury
also transmit and receive the Buddha's robe. The principle that the ances-
tral masters who receive the authentic transmission of the Dharma treasury
have never gone without seeing and hearing15 the Buddha's robe is widely
known among human beings and in the heavens above. This being so, the
material, color, and measurements of the Buddha's ka? aya have been authen-
tically transmitted and authentically seen and heard; the great merits of the
Buddha's ka? aya have been authentically transmitted; and the body, mind,
bones, and marrow of the Buddha's ka? aya have been authentically trans-
mitted, only in the customs of the traditional lineage. [This authentic trans-
mission] is not known in the various schools which follow the teaching of
the Agamas. 16 The [robes] that individuals have established independently,
according to the idea of the moment, are not traditional and not legitimate.
When our Great Master Sakyamuni Tathagata passed on the right Dharma-
eye treasury and the supreme state of bodhi to Maha kasyapa, he transmitted
them together with the buddha robe. Between then and Zen Master Daikan
of Sokeizan, there were thirty-three generations, the transmission passing
from rightful successor to rightful successor. The intimate experience and
intimate transmission of [the robe's] material, color, and measurements have
long been handed down by the lineages, and their reception and retention
are evident in the present. That is to say, that which was received and retained
by each of the founding patriarchs of the five sects17 is the authentic tradi-
tion. Similarly evident are the wearing [of the robe], according to the meth-
ods of former buddhas, and the making [of the robe], according to the meth-
ods of former buddhas, which �buddhas alone, together with buddhas,�
through generations have transmitted and have experienced as the same
state�in some cases for over fifty generations and in some cases for over
forty generations�without confusion between any master and disciple. The
Buddha's instruction, as authentically transmitted from rightful successor to
rightful successor, is as follows:
Robe of nine stripes three long [segments], one
short [segment];18 or four
long, one short
Robe of eleven stripes three long, one short; or four
long, one short
Robe of thirteen stripes three long, one short; or four
long, one short
Robe of fifteen stripes three long, one short
Robe of seventeen stripes three long, one short
Robe of nineteen stripes three long, one short
Robe of twenty-one stripes four long, one short
Robe of twenty-three stripes four long, one short
Robe of twenty-five stripes four long, one short
Robe of two hundred and fifty stripes four long, one short
Robe of eighty-four thousand stripes19 eight long, one short
[140] This is an abbreviated list. There are many other kinds of ka? aya
besides these, all of which may be the sa? gha? i robe. Some receive and
retain [the ka? aya] as laypeople, and some receive and retain [the ka? aya]
as monks and nuns. To receive and to retain [the ka? aya] means to wear it,
not to keep it idly folded. Even if people shave off hair and beard, if they do
not receive and retain the ka? aya, if they hate the ka? aya or fear the ka? aya,
they are celestial demons20 and non-Buddhists. Zen Master Hyakujo Daichi21
says, �Those who have not accumulated good seeds in the past detest the
ka? aya and hate the ka? aya; they fear and hate the right Dharma. �
[142] The Buddha says , �If any living being, having entered my
Dharma, commits the grave sins or falls into wrong views, but in a
single moment of consciousness [this person] with reverent mind hon-
ors the sa? gha? i robe, the buddhas and I will give affirmation, with-
out fail, that this person will be able to become buddha in the three
vehicles. Gods or dragons or human beings or demons, if able to revere
the merit of even a small part of this person's ka? aya, will at once
attain the three vehicles and will neither regress nor stray. If ghosts
and living beings can obtain even four inches of the ka? aya, they will
eat and drink their fill. When living beings offend each other and are
about to fall into wrong views, if they remember the power of the
ka? aya, through the power of the ka? aya they will duly feel compas-
sion, and they will be able to return to the state of purity. If people on
a battlefield keep a small part of this ka? aya, venerating it and honor-
ing it, they will obtain salvation. �22
[143] Thus we have seen that the merits of the ka? aya are supreme and
unthinkable. When we believe in, receive, guard, and retain it, we will surely
get the state of affirmation, and get the state of not regressing. Not only Sakya-
muni Buddha but all the buddhas also have preached like this. Remember,
the substance and form of the buddhas themselves is just the ka? aya. This
is why the Buddha says, �Those who are going to fall into wrong ways hate
the sa? gha? i [robe]. � This being so, if hateful thoughts arise when we see
and hear of the ka? aya, we should feel sorry that our own body is going to
fall into wrong ways, and we should repent and confess. Furthermore, when
Sakyamuni Buddha first left the royal palace and was going to enter the
mountains, a tree god, the story goes, holds up a sa? gha? i robe and says to
Sakyamuni Buddha, �If you receive this robe upon your head, you will escape
the disturbances of demons. � Then Sakyamuni Buddha accepts this robe,
humbly receiving it upon his head, and for twelve years he does not set it
aside even for a moment. This is the teaching of the Agama sutras. Else-
where it is said that the ka? aya is a garment of good fortune, and that those
who wear it always reach exalted rank. In general, there has never been a
moment when this sa? gha? i robe was not manifesting itself before us in the
world. The manifestation before us of one moment is an eternal matter,23 and
eternal matters come at one moment. To obtain the ka? aya is to obtain the
Buddha's banner. For this reason, none of the buddha-tathagatas has ever
failed to receive and to retain the ka? aya. And no person who has received
and retained the ka? aya has failed to become buddha.
[145] The method of wearing the ka? aya: �To bare only the right shoul-
der� is the usual method. There is also a method of wearing [the ka? aya] so
that it covers both shoulders. When we wear both sides over the left arm and
shoulder, we wear the front edge on the outside and the back edge on the
inside. 24 This is one instance of Buddhist dignified behavior. This behavior
is neither seen and heard nor transmitted and received by the various groups
of sravakas: their scriptures on the teaching of the Agamas do not mention it
at all. In general, the dignified behavior of wearing the ka? aya in Buddhism
has been unfailingly received and retained by the ancestral masters who
received the transmission of the right Dharma and who are present before us
here and now. When receiving and retaining [the ka? aya], we should unfail-
ingly receive and retain it under such an ancestral master. The traditional
ka? aya of the Buddhist patriarchs has been authentically transmitted from
buddha to buddha without irregularity; it is the ka? aya of former buddhas and
of later buddhas, the ka? aya of ancient buddhas and of recent buddhas. When
they transform25 the state of truth, when they transform the state of buddha,
when they transform the past, when they transform the present, and when
they transform the future, they transmit the authentic tradition from the past
to the present, they transmit the authentic tradition from the present to the
future, they transmit the authentic tradition from the present to the past, they
transmit the authentic tradition from the past to the past, they transmit the
authentic tradition from the present to the present, they transmit the authen-
tic tradition from the future to the future, they transmit the authentic tradition
from the future to the present, and they transmit the authentic tradition from
the future to the past; and this is the authentic transmission of �buddhas alone,
together with buddhas. � For this reason, for several hundred years after the
ancestral master came from the west, from the great Tang to the great Song
[dynasties], many of those accomplished at lecturing on sutras were able to
see through their own behavior; and when people of philosophical schools,
of precepts, and so on entered the Buddha-Dharma, they threw away the
shabby old robes that had formerly been their ka? aya, and they authentically
received the traditional ka? aya of Buddhism. Their stories appear one after
another in Records of the Torch such as Den[toroku], Ko[toroku], Zoku[toroku],
Futoroku, and so on. 26 When they were liberated from the small view which
is limited thinking about philosophy and precepts and they revered the great
truth authentically transmitted by the Buddhist patriarchs, they all became
Buddhist patriarchs. People today also should learn from the ancestral mas-
ters of the past. If we would like to receive and to retain the ka? aya, we should
receive the authentic transmission of, and should believe in, the traditional
ka? aya. We should not receive and retain a fake ka? aya. The traditional ka? aya
means the ka? aya now authentically transmitted from Shaolin [Temple] and
Sokei [Mountain];27 its reception from the Tathagata in the transmission from
rightful successor to rightful successor has never been interrupted for even a
single generation. For this reason we have exactly received the practice of
the truth, and we have intimately obtained, in our own hands, the Buddha's
robe; and this is the reason [we should receive the authentic transmission].
The Buddha's [state of] truth is authentically transmitted in the Buddha's
[state of] truth; it is not left for lazy people to receive at leisure. A secular
proverb says, �Hearing a thousand times is not as good as seeing once, and
seeing a thousand times is not as good as experiencing once. � Re? ecting on
this, [we can say that] even if we see [the ka? aya] a thousand times and hear
of it ten thousand times, that is not as good as getting it once, and never as
good as to have received the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe. If
we can doubt those who have authentic traditions, we should doubt all the
more those who have never seen the authentic traditions even in a dream. To
receive the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe may be closer [in
experience] than to receive and to hear Buddhist sutras. Even a thousand expe-
riences and ten thousand attainments are not as good as one realization in
experience. A Buddhist patriarch is the realization of the same state of expe-
rience; we should never rank [a Buddhist patriarch] with common followers
of philosophy and precepts. In conclusion, with regard to the merits of the
ka?
