No More Learning

[233] In general, a beginner's sentimental thinking cannot imagine the
Buddha's truth�[the beginner] fathoms but does not hit the target. Even
though we do not fathom [the truth] as beginners, we should not deny that
there is perfect realization in the ultimate state. [Still,] the inner depths61 of
the perfect state are beyond the beginner's shallow consciousness. [The
beginner] must just endeavor, through concrete conduct, to tread the path of
the ancient saints. At this time, in visiting teachers and seeking the truth,
there are mountains to climb and oceans to cross. While we are seeking a
guiding teacher, or hoping to find a [good] counselor, one comes down from
the heavens or springs out from the earth. 62 At the place where we meet him,
he makes sentient beings speak the truth and makes nonsentient beings63
speak the truth, and we listen with body and listen with mind. �Listening
with the ears� is everyday tea and meals, but �hearing the sound through the
eyes�64 is just the ambiguous,65 or the undecided,66 itself. In meeting Buddha,
we meet ourselves as buddha and others as buddha, and we meet great bud-
dhas and small buddhas. Do not be surprised by or afraid of a great buddha.
Do not doubt or worry about a small buddha. The great buddhas and small
buddhas referred to here are recognized, presently, as the form of the moun-
tains and the voices of the river valley. In this the wide and long tongue
exists, and eighty-four thousand verses exist; the manifestation is �far tran-
scendent,� and the insight is �unique and exceptional. �67 For this reason, sec-
ular [teachings] say �It gets higher and higher, and harder and harder. �68 And
a past buddha says, �It pervades69 the sky and pervades the meridians. � Spring
pines possess constant freshness, and an autumn chrysanthemum possesses
sublime beauty, but they are nothing other than the direct and concrete. 70
When good counselors arrive in this field of earth,71 they may be great mas-
ters to human beings and gods. Someone who randomly affects the forms
of teaching others, without arriving in this field of earth, is a great nuisance
to human beings and gods. How could [people] who do not know the spring
pines, and who do not see the autumn chrysanthemum, be worth the price
of their straw sandals? How could they cut out the roots?
[236] Furthermore, if the mind or the ? esh grow lazy or disbelieving,
we should wholeheartedly confess before the Buddha. When we do this, the
power of the virtue of confessing before the Buddha saves us and makes us
pure. This virtue can promote unhindered pure belief and fortitude. Once
pure belief reveals itself, both self and the external world are moved [into
action], and the benefit universally covers sentient and nonsentient beings.
The general intention [of the confession] is as follows:
I pray that although my many bad actions in the past have accumu-
lated one after another, and there are causes and conditions which are
obstructing the truth, the buddhas and the patriarchs who attained the
truth by following the Buddha's Way will show compassion for me,
that they will cause karmic accumulations to dissolve, and that they
will remove obstacles to learning the truth. May their virtue, and their
gates of Dharma, vastly fill and pervade the limitless Dharma world.
Let me share in their compassion. In the past, Buddhist patriarchs were
[the same as] us, and in the future we may become Buddhist patriarchs.
When we look up at Buddhist patriarchs, they are one Buddhist patri-
arch, and when we re? ect upon the establishment of the mind, it is one
establishment of the mind. When [the Buddhist patriarchs] radiate their
compassion in all directions,72 we can grasp favorable opportunities
and we fall upon favorable opportunities. Therefore, in the words of
Ryuge, �If we did not attain perfection in past lives, we should attain
perfection in the present. With this life we can deliver the body that is
the accumulation of past lives. The eternal buddhas, before they real-
ized the truth, were the same as people today. After realizing the truth,
people today will be eternal buddhas. �
Quietly, we should master this reasoning. This is direct experience of
realizing the state of buddha. When we confess like this, the mystical help
of the Buddhist patriarchs is invariably present. Disclosing the thoughts in
our mind and the form of our body, we should confess to the Buddha. The
power of confession causes the roots of wrongdoing to dissolve. This is right
training of one color;74 it is right belief in the mind and right belief in the
body. At the time of right training, the voices of the river valley and the form
of the river valley, the form of the mountains and the voices of the moun-
tains, all do not begrudge their eighty-four thousand verses. When the self
does not begrudge fame and gain and body and mind, the river valley and
the mountains, similarly, begrudge nothing. Even though the voices of the
river valley and the form of the mountains continue throughout the night to
produce, and not to produce, eighty-four thousand verses, if you have not
yet understood with all your effort that river valleys and mountains are demon-
strating themselves as river valleys and mountains, who could see and hear
you as the voices of the river valley and the form of the mountains?
Shobogenzo Keisei-sanshiki
Preached to the assembly at Kannondoriko-
shohorinji five days after the start of the
retreat in the second year of Eno. 75

---


BDK English Tripitaka
Keyword

C/W Length Limit


Books
Tools

BDK English Tripitaka
A Biography of Sakyamuni
The Lotus Sutra (Second Revised Edition)
The Sutra of Queen Srimala of the Lion's Roar
The Larger Sutra on Amitayus
The Sutra on Contemplation of Amitayus
The Smaller Sutra on Amitayus
The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra
The Vimalakirti Sutra
The Ullambana Sutra
The Sutra of Forty-two Sections
The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment
The Vairocanabhisa? bodhi Sutra
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 1
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 2
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 3
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 4
Tannisho: Passages Deploring Deviations of Faith
Rennyo Shonin Ofumi: The Letters of Rennyo
The Sutra on the Profundity of Filial Love

Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 1 (? ? ? ? (1))

Chapter/Section: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 10
[Chapter Ten]
Shoaku-makusa
Not Doing Wrongs
Translator 's Note: Sho means �many� or �miscellaneous,� aku means
�wrong� or �bad,� maku means �not� or �don't,� and sa means �to do. �
So shoaku makusa means �not doing wrong. �1 These words are quoted from
a short poem called �The Seven Buddhas' Universal Precept�:2 �Don't do
wrong; do right; then our minds become pure naturally; this is the teaching
of the many buddhas . � This poem tells us how closely the teaching of
Buddhism is related to morals. In this chapter Master Dogen teaches us the
Buddhist theory of morality. Morality or ethics is, by its nature, a very prac-
tical problem. But most people are prone to forget the practical character of
morality, and usually only discuss it with words or as an abstract theory.
However, talking about morality is not the same as being moral. Morality is
just doing right or not doing wrong. Here Master Dogen explains real moral-
ity, quoting an interesting story about Master Choka Dorin and a famous
Chinese poet called Haku Kyoi.
[3] The eternal buddha says,
Not to commit wrongs,3
To practice the many kinds of right,4
Naturally purifies the mind;5
This is the teaching of the buddhas. 6
This [teaching], as the universal precept of the ancestral patriarchs, the
Seven Buddhas, has been authentically transmitted from former buddhas to
later buddhas, and later buddhas have received its transmission from for-
mer buddhas. It is not only of the Seven Buddhas: �It is the teaching of all
the buddhas. � We should consider this principle and master it in practice.
These words of Dharma of the Seven Buddhas always sound like words of
Dharma of the Seven Buddhas. What has been transmitted and been received
one-to-one is just clarification of the real situation7 at this concrete place.
This already �is the teaching of the buddhas�; it is the teaching, practice,
and experience of hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of buddhas.
[5] In regard to the �wrongs�8 that we are discussing now, among �right-
ness,� �wrongness,� and �indifference,� there is �wrongness. � Its essence9
is just nonappearance. 10 The essence of rightness, the essence of indiffer-
ence, and so on are also nonappearance, are [the state] without excess,11 and
are real form. At the same time,12 at each concrete place these three proper-
ties13 include innumerable kinds of dharmas. In �wrongs,� there are simi-
larities and differences between wrong in this world and wrong in other
worlds. There are similarities and differences between former times and lat-
ter times. There are similarities and differences between wrong in the heav-
ens above and wrong in the human world. How much greater is the differ-
ence between moral wrong, moral right, and moral indifference in Buddhism
and in the secular world. Right and wrong are time; time is not right or wrong.
Right and wrong are the Dharma; the Dharma is not right or wrong. [When]
the Dharma is in balance, wrong is in balance. 14 [When] the Dharma is in
balance, right is in balance. This being so, when we learn [the supreme state
of] anuttara samyaksa? bodhi, when we hear the teachings, do training, and
experience the fruit, it is profound, it is distant, and it is fine.
[6] We hear of this supreme state of bodhi �sometimes following [good]
counselors and sometimes following sutras. �15 At the beginning, the sound
of it is �Do not commit wrongs. � If it does not sound like �Do not commit
wrongs,� it is not the Buddha's right Dharma; it may be the teaching of
demons. Remember, [teaching] that sounds like �Do not commit wrongs�
is the Buddha's right Dharma. This [teaching] �Do not commit wrongs� was
not intentionally initiated, and then intentionally maintained in its present
form, by the common person: when we hear teaching that has [naturally]
become the preaching of bodhi, it sounds like this. What sounds like this is
speech which is the supreme state of bodhi in words. It is bodhi-speech
already, and so it speaks bodhi. 16 When it becomes the preaching of the
supreme state of bodhi, and when we are changed by hearing it, we hope
�not to commit wrongs,� we continue enacting �not to commit wrongs,� and
wrongs go on not being committed; in this situation the power of practice is
instantly realized. This realization is realized on the scale of the whole earth,
the whole world, the whole of time, and the whole of Dharma. And the scale
of this [realization] is the scale of �not committing. � For people of just this
reality, at the moment of just this reality17�even if they live at a place and
come and go at a place where they could commit wrongs, even if they face
circumstances in which they could commit wrongs, and even if they seem
to mix with friends who do commit wrongs�wrongs can never be com-
mitted at all. The power of not committing is realized, and so wrongs can-
not voice themselves as wrongs, and wrongs lack an established set of tools. 18
There is the Buddhist truth of taking up at one moment, and letting go at one
moment. 19 At just this moment, the truth is known that wrong does not vio-
late a person, and the truth is clarified that a person does not destroy wrong. 20
When we devote our whole mind to practice, and when we devote the whole
body to practice, there is eighty or ninety percent realization21 [of not com-
mitting wrongs] just before the moment, and there is the fact of not having
committed just behind the brain. 22 When you practice by garnering your own
body and mind, and when you practice by garnering the body and mind of
�anyone,�23 the power of practicing with the four elements and the five aggre-
gates is realized at once;24 but the four elements and five aggregates do not
taint25 the self. [All things,] even the four elements and five aggregates of
today, carry on being practiced; and the power which the four elements and
five aggregates have as practice in the present moment makes the four ele-
ments and five aggregates, as described above, into practice. 26 When we
cause even the mountains, rivers, and the earth, and the sun, moon, and stars,
to do practice, the mountains, rivers, and the earth, the sun, moon, and stars,
in their turn, make us practice. 27 [This is] not a onetime eye; it is vigorous
eyes at many times. 28 Because [those times] are moments in which the eye
is present as vigorous eyes, they make the buddhas and the patriarchs prac-
tice, make them listen to the teachings, and make them experience the fruit.
The buddhas and the patriarchs have never made the teachings, practice, and
experience tainted, and so the teachings, practice, and experience have never
hindered the buddhas and the patriarchs. 29 For this reason, when [teachings,
practice, and experience] compel the Buddhist patriarchs to practice, there
are no buddhas or patriarchs who ? ee, before the moment or after the moment,
in the past, present, or future.
[10] In walking, standing, sitting, and lying down through the twelve
hours,30 we should carefully consider the fact that when living beings are
becoming buddhas and becoming patriarchs, we are becoming Buddhist
patriarchs, even though this [becoming] does not hinder the [state of a]
Buddhist patriarch that has always belonged to us. In becoming a Buddhist
patriarch, we do not destroy the living being, do not detract from it, and do
not lose it; nevertheless, we have got rid of it. We cause right-and-wrong,
cause-and-effect, to practice; but this does not mean disturbing, or inten-
tionally producing, cause-and-effect. Cause-and-effect itself, at times, makes
us practice. The state in which the original features of this cause-and-effect
have already become conspicuous is �not committing,� it is [�the state] with-
out appearance,� it is [�the state] without constancy,� it is �not being unclear,�
and it is �not falling down��because it is the state in which [body and mind]
have fallen away. 31
[11] When we investigate them like this, wrongs are realized as having
become completely the same as �not committing. � Aided by this realization,
we can penetrate32 the �not committing� of wrongs, and we can realize it
decisively by sitting. 33 Just at this moment�when reality is realized as the
�not committing� of wrongs at the beginning, middle, and end�wrongs do
not arise from causes and conditions; they are nothing other than just �not
committing. �34 Wrongs do not vanish due to causes and conditions; they are
nothing other than just �not committing. � If wrongs are in balance, all dhar-
mas are in balance. Those who recognize that wrongs arise from causes and
conditions, but do not see that these causes and conditions and they them-
selves are [the reality of] �not committing,� are pitiful people. �The seeds
of buddhahood arise from conditions� and, this being so, �conditions arise
from the seeds of buddhahood. � It is not that wrongs do not exist; they are
nothing other than �not committing. � It is not that wrongs exist; they are noth-
ing other than not committing. Wrongs are not immaterial; they are �not com-
mitting. � Wrongs are not material; they are �not committing. � Wrongs are
not �not committing;� they are nothing other than �not committing. �35 [Sim-
ilarly,] for example, spring pines are neither nonexistence nor existence; they
are �not committing. �36 An autumn chrysanthemum is neither existence nor
nonexistence; it is �not committing. � The buddhas are neither existence nor
nonexistence; they are �not committing. � Such things as an outdoor pillar, a
stone lantern, a whisk, and a staff are neither existence nor nonexistence; they
are �not committing. � The self is neither existence nor nonexistence; it is
�not committing. � Learning in practice like this is the realized universe and
it is universal realization�we consider it from the standpoint of the subject
and we consider it from the standpoint of the object. When the state has
become like this already, even the regret that �I have committed what was
not to be committed� is also nothing other than energy arising from the effort
�not to commit. � But to purport, in that case, that if �not committing� is so
we might deliberately commit [wrongs], is like walking north and expect-
ing to arrive at [the southern country of] Etsu. [The relation between] �wrongs�
and �not committing� is not only �a well looking at a donkey�;37 it is the
well looking at the well, the donkey looking at the donkey, a human being
looking at a human being, and a mountain looking at a mountain. Because
there is �preaching of this principle of mutual accordance,� �wrongs� are
�not committing. �
The Buddha's true Dharma body38
Is just like space.
It manifests its form according to things,
Like the moon [re? ected] in water. 39
Because �not committing� is �accordance with things,� �not commit-
ting� has �manifest form. � �It is just like space�: it is the clapping of hands
to the left and the clapping of hands to the right. 40 �It is like the moon [re? ected]
in water�: and the water restricted by the moon. 41 Such instances of �not com-
mitting� are the realization of reality which should never be doubted at all.
[14] �Practice the many kinds of right. �42 These many kinds of right are
[classed] within the three properties43 as �rightness. � Even though the many
kinds of right are included in �rightness,� there has never been any kind of
right that is realized beforehand and that then waits for someone to do it. 44
There is none among the many kinds of right that fails to appear at the very
moment of doing right. The myriad kinds of right have no set shape but they
converge on the place of doing right faster than iron to a magnet,45 and with
a force stronger than the vairambhaka winds. 46 It is utterly impossible for
the earth, mountains and rivers, the world, a nation, or even the force of accu-
mulated karma, to hinder [this] coming together of right. 47 At the same time,
the principle that recognitions differ from world to world,48 in regard to right,
is the same [as in regard to wrong]. What can be recognized [as right] is
called right, and so it is �like the manner in which the buddhas of the three
times preach the Dharma. � The similarity is that their preaching of Dharma
when they are in the world is just temporal. Because their lifetime and body
size also have continued to rely totally upon the moment, they �preach the
Dharma that is without distinction. �49 So it is like the situation that right as
a characteristic of devotional practice50 and right as a characteristic of Dharma
practice,51 which are far removed from each other, are not different things.
Or, for example, it is like the keeping of the precepts by a sravaka being the
violation of the precepts by a bodhisattva. The many kinds of right do not
arise from causes and conditions and they do not vanish due to causes and
conditions. The many kinds of right are real dharmas, but real dharmas are
not many kinds of right. Causes and conditions, arising and vanishing, and
the many kinds of right are similar in that if they are correct at the begin-
ning, they are correct at the end. The many kinds of right are �good doing�52
but they are neither of the doer nor known by the doer, and they are neither
of the other nor known by the other. As regards the knowing and the seeing
of the self and of the other, in knowing there is the self and there is the other,
and in seeing there is the self and there is the other, and thus individual vig-
orous eyes exist in the sun and in the moon. This state is �good doing� itself.
At just this moment of �good doing� the realized universe exists but it is not
�the creation of the universe,� and it is not �the eternal existence of the uni-
verse. � How much less could we call it �original practice�? 53 Doing right is
�good doing,� but it is not something that can be fathomed intellectually.
�Good doing� in the present is a vigorous eye, but it is beyond intellectual
consideration. [Vigorous eyes] are not realized for the purpose of consider-
ing the Dharma intellectually. Consideration by vigorous eyes is never the
same as consideration by other things. The many kinds of right are beyond
existence and nonexistence, matter and the immaterial, and so on; they are
just nothing other than �good doing. � Wherever they are realized and when-
ever they are realized, they are, without exception, �good doing. � This �good
doing� inevitably includes the realization of the many kinds of right. The
realization of �good doing� is the universe itself, but it is beyond arising and
vanishing, and it is beyond causes and conditions. Entering, staying, leav-
ing, and other [concrete examples of] �good doing� are also like this. At the
place where we are already performing, as �good doing,� a single right among
the many kinds of right, the entire Dharma, the whole body,54 the real land,
and so on are all enacted as �good doing. � The cause-and-effect of this right,
similarly, is the universe as the realization of �good doing. � It is not that
causes are before and effects are after. Rather, causes perfectly satisfy them-
selves and effects perfectly satisfy themselves; when causes are in balance
the Dharma is in balance and when effects are in balance the Dharma is in
balance. Awaited by causes, effects are felt, but it is not a matter of before
and after; for the truth is present that the [moment] before and the [moment]
after are balanced [as they are].
[19] The meaning of �Naturally purifies the mind� is as follows: What
is �natural� is �not to commit,� and what �purifies� is �not to commit. � �The
[concrete state�]55 is �natural,� and the �mind�56 is �natural. � �The [concrete
state�] is �not committing,� the �mind� is �not committing. � The �mind� is
�good doing,� what �purifies� is �good doing,� �the [concrete state�] is �good
doing,� and what is �natural� is �good doing. � Therefore it is said that �This
is the teaching of the buddhas. � Those who are called �buddhas� are, in some
cases, like Siva,57 [but] there are similarities and differences even among
Sivas, and at the same time not all Sivas are buddhas. [Buddhas] are, in some
cases, like wheel-turning kings,58 but not all sacred wheel-turning kings are
buddhas. We should consider facts like these and learn them in practice. If
we do not learn how buddhas should be, even if we seem to be fruitlessly
enduring hardship, we are only ordinary beings accepting suffering; we are
not practicing the Buddha's truth. �Not committing� and �good doing� are
�donkey business not having gone away and horse business coming in. �59
[20] Haku Kyoi60 of Tang China is a lay disciple of Zen Master Bukko
Nyoman,61 and a second-generation disciple of Zen Master Kozei Daijaku. 62
When he was the governor of Hangzhou63 district he practiced in the order
of Zen Master Choka Dorin. 64 In the story, Kyoi asks, �What is the great
intention of the Buddha-Dharma? �
Dorin says, �Not to commit wrongs. To practice the many kinds of
right. �65
Kyoi says, �If it is so, even a child of three can express it! �
Dorin says, �A child of three can speak the truth, but an old man of
eighty cannot practice it. �
Thus informed, Kyoi makes at once a prostration of thanks, and then
leaves.
[21] Kyoi, though descended from Haku Shogun,66 is truly a wizard of
the verse who is rare through the ages. People call him one of the twenty-
four [great] men of letters. He bears the name of Ma�jusri, or bears the name
of Maitreya.
Nowhere do his poetical sentiments go unheard and no one
could fail to pay homage to his authority in the literary world. Nevertheless,
in Buddhism he is a beginner and a late learner. Moreover, it seems that he
has never seen the point of this �Not to commit wrongs. To practice the many
kinds of right,� even in a dream. Kyoi thinks that Dorin is only telling him
�Do not commit wrongs! Practice the many kinds of right! � through recog-
nition of the conscious aim. Thus, he neither knows nor hears the truth that
the time-honored67 [teaching] of the �not committing� of wrongs, the �good
doing� of rights, has been in Buddhism from the eternal past to the eternal
present. He has not set foot in the area of the Buddha-Dharma. He does not
have the power of the Buddha-Dharma. Therefore he speaks like this. Even
though we caution against the intentional commitment of wrongs, and even
though we encourage the deliberate practice of rights, this should be in the
reality of �not committing. � In general, the Buddha-Dharma is [always] the
same, whether it is being heard for the first time under a [good] counselor,
or whether it is being experienced in the state which is the ultimate effect.
This is called �correct in the beginning, correct at the end,� called �the won-
derful cause and the wonderful effect,� and called �the Buddhist cause and
the Buddhist effect. � Cause-and-effect in Buddhism is beyond discussion of
[theories] such as �different maturation� or �equal streams�;68 this being so,
without Buddhist causes, we cannot experience the Buddhist effect. Because
Dorin speaks this truth, he possesses the Buddha-Dharma. Even if wrong
upon wrong pervade the whole universe, and even if wrongs have swallowed
the whole Dharma again and again, there is still salvation and liberation in
�not committing. � Because the many kinds of right are �right at the begin-
ning, in the middle, and at the end,�69 �good doing� has realized �nature,
form, body, energy,� and so on �as they are. �70 Kyoi has never trodden in
these tracks at all, and so he says �Even a child of three could express it! �
He speaks like this without actually being able to express an expression of
the truth. How pitiful, Kyoi, you are. Just what are you saying? You have
never heard the customs of the Buddha, so do you or do you not know a
three-year-old child? Do you or do you not know the facts of a newborn
baby? Someone who knows a three-year-old child must also know the bud-
dhas of the three times. How could someone who has never known the bud-
dhas of the three times know a three-year-old child? Do not think that to
have met face-to-face is to have known. Do not think that without meeting
face-to-face one does not know. Someone who has come to know a single
particle knows the whole universe, and someone who has penetrated one
real dharma has penetrated the myriad dharmas. Someone who has not pen-
etrated the myriad dharmas has not penetrated one real dharma. When stu-
dents of penetration penetrate to the end, they see the myriad dharmas and
they see single real dharmas; therefore, people who are learning of a single
particle are inevitably learning of the whole universe. To think that a three-
year-old child cannot speak the Buddha-Dharma, and to think that what a
three-year-old child says must be easy, is very stupid. That is because the
clarification of life,71 and the clarification of death, are �the one great pur-
pose�72 of Buddhists. A master of the past73 says, �Just at the time of your
birth you had your share of the lion's roar. �74 �A share of the lion's roar�
means the virtue of the Tathagata to turn the Dharma wheel, or the turning
of the Dharma wheel itself. Another master of the past75 says, �Living-and-
dying, coming-and-going, are the real human body. � So to clarify the real
body and to have the virtue of the lion's roar may truly be the one great mat-
ter, which can never be easy. For this reason, the clarification of the motives
and actions of a three-year-old child are also the great purpose. Now there
are differences between the actions and motives of the buddhas of the three
times [and those of children]; this is why Kyoi, in his stupidity, has never
been able to hear a three-year-old child speaking the truth, and why, not even
suspecting that [a child's speaking of the truth] might exist, he talks as he
does. He does not hear Dorin's voice, which is more vivid than thunder, and
so he says, �Even a child of three could express it! � as if to say that [Mas-
ter Dorin himself] has not expressed the truth in his words. Thus [Kyoi] does
not hear the lion's roar of an infant, and he passes vainly by the Zen mas-
ter's turning of the Dharma wheel. The Zen master, unable to contain his
compassion, went on to say, �A child of three can speak the truth, but an old
man of eighty cannot practice it. � What he was saying is this:
A child of three has words which express the truth, and you should
investigate this thoroughly. Old men of eighty say, �I cannot practice
it,� and you should consider this carefully. I leave you to decide whether
an infant speaks the truth, but I do not leave the infant to decide. I leave
you to decide whether an old man can practice, but I do not leave the
old man to decide. 76
It is the fundamental principle to pursue, to preach, and to honor the
Buddha-Dharma like this.
Shobogenzo Shoaku-makusa
Preached to the assembly at Koshohorinji
on the evening of the moon77 in the [second]
year of Eno. 78

---


BDK English Tripitaka
Keyword

C/W Length Limit


Books
Tools

BDK English Tripitaka
A Biography of Sakyamuni
The Lotus Sutra (Second Revised Edition)
The Sutra of Queen Srimala of the Lion's Roar
The Larger Sutra on Amitayus
The Sutra on Contemplation of Amitayus
The Smaller Sutra on Amitayus
The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra
The Vimalakirti Sutra
The Ullambana Sutra
The Sutra of Forty-two Sections
The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment
The Vairocanabhisa? bodhi Sutra
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 1
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 2
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 3
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 4
Tannisho: Passages Deploring Deviations of Faith
Rennyo Shonin Ofumi: The Letters of Rennyo
The Sutra on the Profundity of Filial Love

Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 1 (? ? ? ? (1))

Chapter/Section: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 11
[Chapter Eleven]
Uji
Existence-time
Translator 's Note: U means �existence� and ji means �time,� so uji means
�existent time,� or �existence-time. � In this chapter Master Dogen teaches
us the meaning of time in Buddhism. As Master Dogen explains in other
chapters, Buddhism is realism. Therefore, the view of time in Buddhism is
always very realistic. Specifically, time is always related with existence and
existence is always related with momentary time. So in reality, the past and
the future are not existent time; the present moment is the only existent time�
the point at which existence and time come together. Also, time is always
related with action here and now. Action can only be realized in time, and
time can only be realized in action. Thus, the view of time in Buddhism reminds
us of existentialism in modern philosophy. It is very important to understand
the Buddhist view of time in order to grasp the true meaning of Buddhism.
[29] An eternal buddha1 says,
Sometimes2 standing on top of the highest peak,
Sometimes moving along the bottom of the deepest ocean.
Sometimes three heads and eight arms,3
Sometimes the sixteen-foot or eight-foot [golden body]. 4
Sometimes a staff or a whisk,5
Sometimes an outdoor pillar or a stone lantern. 6
Sometimes the third son of Chang or the fourth son of Li,
Sometimes the earth and space.
[30] In this word �sometimes,� time is already just existence, and all
existence is time. The sixteen-foot golden body is time itself. Because it is
time, it has the resplendent brightness of time. We should learn it as the
twelve hours7 of today. The three heads and eight arms are time itself. Because
they are time, they are completely the same as the twelve hours of today. We
can never measure how long and distant or how short and pressing twelve
hours is; at the same time, we call it �twelve hours. �8 The leaving and com-
ing of the directions and traces [of time] are clear, and so people do not doubt
it. They do not doubt it, but that does not mean they know it. The doubts
which living beings, by our nature, have about every thing and every fact
that we do not know, are not consistent; therefore our past history of doubt
does not always exactly match our doubt now. We can say for the present,
however, that doubt is nothing other than time. We put our self in order, and
see [the resulting state] as the whole universe. Each individual and each
object in this whole universe should be glimpsed as individual moments of
time. 9 Object does not hinder object in the same way that moment of time
does not hinder moment of time. For this reason, there are minds which are
made up in the same moment of time, and there are moments of time in which
the same mind is made up. Practice, and realization of the truth, are also like
this. 10 Putting the self in order, we see what it is. The truth that self is time
is like this. We should learn in practice that, because of this truth, the whole
earth includes myriad phenomena and hundreds of things, and each phe-
nomenon and each thing exists in the whole earth. Such toing-and-froing is
a first step [on the way] of practice. When we arrive in the field of the inef-
fable,11 there is just one [concrete] thing and one [concrete] phenomenon,
here and now, [beyond] understanding of phenomena and non-understand-
ing of phenomena, and [beyond] understanding of things and non-under-
standing of things. Because [real existence] is only this exact moment, all
moments of existence-time are the whole of time, and all existent things and
all existent phenomena are time. The whole of existence, the whole universe,
exists in individual moments of time. 12 Let us pause to re? ect whether or not
any of the whole of existence or any of the whole universe has leaked away
from the present moment of time. Yet in the time of the common person who
does not learn the Buddha-Dharma there are views and opinions: when he
hears the words �existence-time� he thinks, �Sometimes I became [an angry
demon with] three heads and eight arms, and sometimes I became the six-
teen-foot or eight-foot [golden body of Buddha]. For example, it was like
crossing a river or crossing a mountain. The mountain and the river may still
exist, but now that I have crossed them and am living in a jeweled palace
with crimson towers, the mountain and the river are [as distant] from me as
heaven is from the earth. � But true reasoning is not limited to this one line
[of thought]. That is to say, when I was climbing a mountain or crossing a
river, I was there in that time. There must have been time in me. And I actu-
ally exist now, [so] time could not have departed. If time does not have the
form of leaving and coming, the time of climbing a mountain is the present
as existence-time. 13 If time does retain the form of leaving and coming, I
have this present moment of existence-time, which is just existence-time
itself. 14 How could that time of climbing the mountain and crossing the river
fail to swallow, and fail to vomit, this time [now] in the jeweled palace with
crimson towers? 15 The three heads and eight arms were time yesterday; the
sixteen-foot or eight-foot [golden body] is time today. Even so, this Buddhist
principle of yesterday and today is just about moments in which we go directly
into the mountains and look out across a thousand or ten thousand peaks; it
is not about what has passed. The three heads and eight arms pass instantly
as my existence-time; though they seem to be in the distance, they are
[moments of] the present. The sixteen-foot or eight-foot [golden body] also
passes instantly as my existence-time; though it seems to be yonder, it is
[moments of] the present. This being so, pine trees are time, and bamboos
are time. We should not understand only that time ? ies. We should not learn
that �? ying� is the only ability of time. If we just left time to ? y away, some
gaps in it might appear. Those who fail to experience and to hear the truth
of existence-time do so because they understand [time] only as having passed.
To grasp the pivot and express it: all that exists throughout the whole uni-
verse is lined up in a series and at the same time is individual moments of
time. 16 Because [time] is existence-time, it is my existence-time. 17 Existence-
time has the virtue of passing in a series of moments. 18 That is to say, from
today it passes through a series of moments to tomorrow; from today it passes
through a series of moments to yesterday; from yesterday it passes through
a series of moments to today; from today it passes through a series of moments
to today; and from tomorrow it passes through a series of moments to tomor-
row. Because passage through separate moments is a virtue of time, moments
of the past and present are neither piled up one on top of another nor lined
up in a row; and, for the same reason, Seigen19 is time, Obaku20 is time, and
Kozei21 and Sekito22 are time. 23 Because subject-and-object already is time,
practice-and-experience is moments of time. Going into the mud and going
into the water,24 similarly, are time. The view of the common person today,
and the causes and conditions of [that] view, are what the common person
experiences but are not the common person's reality. 25 It is just that reality,
for the present, has made a common person into its causes and conditions.
Because he understands this time and this existence to be other than reality
itself, he deems that �the sixteen-foot golden body is beyond me. � Attempts
to evade [the issue] by [thinking] �I am never the sixteen-foot golden body�
are also ? ashes of existence-time; they are glimpses of it by a person who has
yet to realize it in experience and to rely upon it. The [existence-time] that also
causes the horse and the sheep26 to be as they are arranged in the world today,
is a rising and falling which is something ineffable abiding in its place in the
Dharma. The rat is time, and the tiger is time; living beings are time, and bud-
dhas are time. This time experiences the whole universe using three heads and
eight arms, and experiences the whole universe using the sixteen-foot golden
body. To universally realize the whole universe by using the whole universe
is called �to perfectly realize. �27 Enactment of the sixteen-foot golden body28
by using the sixteen-foot golden body is realized as the establishment of the
mind, as training, as the state of bodhi, and as nirvana; that is, as existence
itself, and as time itself. It is nothing other than the perfect realization of the
whole of time as the whole of existence; there is nothing surplus at all. Because
something surplus is just something surplus, even a moment of half-perfectly-
realized existence-time is the perfect realization of half-existence-time. 29 Even
those phases in which we seem to be blundering heedlessly are also existence.
If we leave it utterly up to existence,30 even though [the moments] before and
after manifest heedless blundering, they abide in their place as existence-time.
Abiding in our place in the Dharma in the state of vigorous activity is just exis-
tence-time. We should not disturb it [by interpreting it] as �being without,�31
and we should not enforceably call it �existence. � In regard to time, we strive
to comprehend only how relentlessly it is passing; we do not understand it
intellectually as what is yet to come. Even though intellectual understanding
is time, no circumstances are ever in? uenced by it. [Human] skin bags recog-
nize [time] as leaving and coming; none has penetrated it as existence-time
abiding in its place: how much less could any experience time having passed
through the gate? 32 Even [among those who] are conscious of abiding in their
place, who can express the state of having already attained the ineffable? Even
[among those who] have been asserting for a long time that they are like this,
there is none who is not still groping for the manifestation before them of the
real features. If we leave [even bodhi and nirvana] as they are in the existence-
time of the common person, even bodhi and nirvana are�[though] merely a
form which leaves and comes�existence-time. 33
[38] In short, without any cessation of restrictions and hindrances,34
existence-time is realized. Celestial kings and celestial throngs, now appear-
ing to the right and appearing to the left, are the existence-time in which we
are now exerting ourselves. Elsewhere, beings of existence-time of land and
sea are [also] realized through our own exertion now. The many kinds of
being and the many individual beings which [live] as existence-time in dark-
ness and in brightness, are all the realization of our own effort, and the
momentary continuance of our effort. We should learn in practice that with-
out the momentary continuance of our own effort in the present, not a sin-
gle dharma nor a single thing could ever be realized or could ever continue
from one moment to the next. 35 We should never learn that passage from one
moment to the next is like the movement east and west of the wind and rain.
The whole universe is neither beyond moving and changing nor beyond pro-
gressing and regressing; it is passage from one moment to the next. An exam-
ple of the momentary passing of time is spring. Spring has innumerable dif-
ferent aspects, which we call �a passage of time. �36 We should learn in practice
that the momentary passing of time continues without there being any exter-
nal thing. The momentary passing of spring, for example, inevitably passes,
moment by moment, through spring itself. 37 It is not that �the momentary
passing of time� is spring; rather, because spring is the momentary passing
of time, passing time has already realized the truth in the here and now of
springtime. 38 We should study [this] in detail, returning to it and leaving it
again and again. If we think, in discussing the momentary passing of time,
that circumstances are [only] individual things on the outside, while some-
thing which can pass from moment to moment moves east through hundreds
of thousands of worlds and through hundreds of thousands of kalpas, then
we are not devoting ourselves solely to Buddhist learning in practice. 39
[40] Great Master Yakusan Kodo,40 the story goes, at the suggestion of
Great Master Musai,41 visits Zen Master Kozei Daijaku. 42 He asks, �I have
more or less clarified the import of the three vehicles and the twelve divisions
of the teaching. 43 But just what is the ancestral master's intention in coming
from the west? �44
Thus questioned, Zen Master Daijaku says, �Sometimes45 I make him46
lift an eyebrow or wink an eye, and sometimes I do not make him lift an eye-
brow or wink an eye; sometimes to make him lift an eyebrow or wink an eye
is right, and sometimes to make him lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is not right. �
Hearing this, Yakusan realizes a great realization and says to Daijaku,
�In Sekito's order I have been like a mosquito that climbed onto an iron ox. �
[42] What Daijaku says is not the same as [what] others [can say]. [His]
�eyebrows� and �eyes� may be the mountains and the seas, because the moun-
tains and the seas are [his] �eyebrows� and �eyes. � In his �making himself
lift [an eyebrow],� he may be looking at the mountains; and in his �making
himself wink,� he may be presiding over the seas. �Being right� has become
familiar to �him,� and �he� has been led by �the teaching. �47 Neither is �not
being right� the same as �not making himself [act],� nor is �not making him-
self [act]� the same as �not being right. �48 All these [situations] are �exis-
tence-time. � The mountains are time, and the seas are time. Without time, the
mountains and the seas could not exist: we should not deny that time exists
in the mountains and the seas here and now. If time decays, the mountains
and the seas decay. If time is not subject to decay, the mountains and the seas
are not subject to decay. In accordance with this truth the bright star appears,
the Tathagata appears, the eye appears, and picking up a ? ower appears,49
and this is just time. Without time, it would not be like this.
[44] Zen Master Kisho50 of the Shoken region is a Dharma descendant
of Rinzai, and the rightful successor of Shuzan. 51 On one occasion he preaches
to the assembly:
Sometimes52 the will is present but the words are absent,
Sometimes the words are present but the will is absent,
Sometimes the will and the words are both present,
Sometimes the will and the words are both absent. 53
[44] The will and the words are both existence-time. Presence and absence
are both existence-time. The moment of presence has not finished, but the
moment of absence has come�the will is the donkey and the words are the
horse;54 horses have been made into words and donkeys have been made into
will. 55 Presence is not related to having come, and absence is not related to not
having come. 56 Existence-time is like this. Presence is restricted by presence
itself; it is not restricted by absence. 57 Absence is restricted by absence itself;
it is not restricted by presence. The will hinders the will and meets the will. 58
Words hinder words and meet words. Restriction hinders restriction and meets
restriction. Restriction restricts restriction. This is time. Restriction is utilized
by objective dharmas, but restriction that restricts objective dharmas has never
occurred. 59 I meet with a human being, a human being meets with a human
being, I meet with myself, and manifestation meets with manifestation. With-
out time, these [facts] could not be like this. Furthermore, �the will� is the time
of the realized universe,60 �the words� are the time of the pivot that is the ascen-
dant state,61 �presence� is the time of laying bare the substance,62 and �absence�
is the time of �sticking to this and parting from this. �63 We should draw dis-
tinctions, and should enact existence-time,64 like this.