Because
practice
is just
experience, the experience is endless; and because experience is practice,
the practice has no beginning.
experience, the experience is endless; and because experience is practice,
the practice has no beginning.
Shobogenzo
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 1
[Chapter One]
Bendowa
A Talk about Pursuing the Truth
Translator's Note: Ben means �to make an effort� or �to pursue,� do means
�the truth,� and wa means �a talk� or �story. � Master Dogen usually used
the word bendo to indicate the practice of zazen, so Bendowa means a talk
about pursuing the truth, or a talk about the practice of zazen. This volume
was not included in the first edition of the Shobogenzo. It was found in Kyoto
in the Kanbun era (1661�1673), and added to the Shobogenzo when the
ninety-five�chapter edition was edited by Master Hangyo Kozen in the Gen-
roku era (1688�1704).
[11] When the buddha-tathagatas,1 each having received the one-to-one
transmission of the splendid Dharma, experience the supreme state of bodhi,2
they possess a subtle method that is supreme and without intention. The rea-
son this [method] is transmitted only from buddha to buddha, without devi-
ation, is that the samadhi of receiving and using the self 3 is its standard. For
enjoyment of this samadhi, the practice of [za]zen, in the erect sitting pos-
ture, has been established as the authentic gate. This Dharma4 is abundantly
present in each human being, but if we do not practice it, it does not man-
ifest itself, and if we do not experience it, it cannot be realized. When we
let go, it has already filled the hands; how could it be defined as one or
many? When we speak, it fills the mouth; it has no restriction in any direc-
tion. When buddhas are constantly dwelling in and maintaining this state,
they do not leave recognitions and perceptions in separate aspects [of real-
ity]; and when living beings are eternally functioning in this state, aspects
[of reality] do not appear to them in separate recognitions and perceptions. 5
The effort in pursuing the truth6 that I am now teaching makes the myriad
dharmas7 real in experience; it enacts the oneness of reality on the path of
liberation. 8 At that moment of clearing barriers and getting free, how could
this paragraph be relevant?
[14] After I established the will to pursue the Dharma, I visited [good]
counselors9 in every quarter of our land. I met Myozen10 of Kennin [Tem-
ple]. Nine seasons of frosts and of ? owers11 swiftly passed while I followed
him, learning a little of the customs of the Rinzai lineage. Only Myozen had
received the authentic transmission of the supreme Buddha-Dharma, as the
most excellent disciple of the founding master, Master Eisai12�the other
students could never compare with him. I then went to the great kingdom of
Song, visiting [good] counselors in the east and west of Chekiang13 and hear-
ing of the tradition through the gates of the five lineages. 14 At last I visited
Zen Master Nyojo15 of Daibyakuho Mountain,16 and there I was able to com-
plete the great task of a lifetime of practice. After that, at the beginning of
the great Song era of Shojo,17 I came home determined to spread the Dharma
and to save living beings�it was as if a heavy burden had been placed on
my shoulders. Nevertheless, in order to wait for an upsurge during which I
might discharge my sense of mission, I thought I would spend some time
wandering like a cloud, calling here and there like a water weed, in the style
of the ancient sages. Yet if there were any true practitioners who put the will
to the truth first, being naturally unconcerned with fame and profit, they
might be fruitlessly misled by false teachers and might needlessly throw a
veil over right understanding. They might idly become drunk with self-decep-
tion, and sink forever into the state of delusion. How would they be able to
promote the right seeds of praj�a,18 or have the opportunity to attain the
truth? If I were now absorbed in drifting like a cloud or a water weed, which
mountains and rivers ought they to visit? 19 Feeling that this would be a piti-
ful situation, I decided to compile a record of the customs and standards that
I experienced firsthand in the Zen monasteries of the great kingdom of Song,
together with a record of profound instruction from a [good] counselor which
I have received and maintained. I will leave this record to people who learn
in practice and are easy in the truth, so that they can know the right Dharma
of the Buddha's lineage. This may be a true mission.
[17] [The sutras] say: Great Master Sakyamuni at the order on Vulture
Peak20 transmitted the Dharma to Maha kasya pa. 21 [The Dharma] was authen-
tically transmitted from patriarch to patriarch and it reached Venerable Bodhi -
dharma. 22 The Venerable One himself went to China and transmitted the
Dharma to Great Master Eka. 23 This was the first transmission of the Buddha-
Dharma in the Eastern Lands. 24 Transmitted one-to-one in this manner, [the
Dharma] arrived naturally at Zen Master Daikan,25 the Sixth Patriarch. At that
time, as the real Buddha-Dharma spread through the Eastern [Land of] China,
it became clear that [the Dharma] is beyond literary expression. The Sixth
Patriarch had two excellent disciples, Ejo of Nangaku26 and Gyoshi of Seigen. 27
Both of them, having received and maintained the posture of Buddha,28 were
guiding teachers of human beings and gods alike. [The Dharma] ? owed and
spread in these two streams, and five lineages were established. These are the
so-called Hogen sect, Igyo sect, Soto sect, Unmon sect, and Rinzai sect. In
great Song [China] today the Rinzai sect alone holds sway throughout the
country. Although there are differences between the five traditions, the pos-
ture with the stamp of the Buddha's mind29 is only one. Even in the great
kingdom of Song, although from the Later Han dynasty30 onward philosophical
texts had been disseminated through the country, and had left some impres-
sion, no one could decide which were inferior and which were superior. After
the ancestral master came from the west, he directly cut to the source of the
confusion,31 and spread the unadulterated Buddha-Dharma. We should hope
that the same thing will happen in our country. [The sutras] say that the many
patriarchs and the many buddhas, who dwelled in and maintained the Buddha-
Dharma, all relied on the practice of sitting erect in the samadhi of receiving
and using the self,32 and esteemed [this practice] as the right way to disclose
the state of realization. Human beings who attained the truth in the Western
Heavens and Eastern Lands followed this style of practice. This [practice]
relies on the mystical and authentic transmission of the subtle method from
master to disciple, and the [disciple's] reception and maintenance of the true
essence of the teachings.
[20] In the authentic transmission of [our] religion, it is said that this
Buddha-Dharma,33 which has been authentically and directly transmitted
one-to-one, is supreme among the supreme. After the initial meeting with a
[good] counselor we never again need to burn incense, to do prostrations, to
recite Buddha's name, to practice confession, or to read sutras. Just sit and
get the state that is free of body and mind. If a human being, even for a sin-
gle moment, manifests the Buddha's posture in the three forms of conduct,34
while [that person] sits up straight in samadhi, the entire world of Dharma
assumes the Buddha's posture and the whole of space becomes the state of
realization. [The practice] thus increases the Dharma joy that is the original
state of the buddha-tathagatas, and renews the splendor of their realization
of the truth. Furthermore, throughout the Dharma worlds in ten directions,
ordinary beings of the three states and the six states35 all become clear and
pure in body and mind at once; they experience the state of great liberation,36
and their original features appear. Then all dharmas experience and under-
stand right realization and myriad things each put their Buddhist body into
practice; in an instant, they totally transcend the limits of experience and
understanding; they sit erect as kings of the bodhi tree;37 in one moment,
they turn the great Dharma wheel38 which is in the unequaled state of equi-
librium;39 and they expound the ultimate, unadorned, and profound state of
praj�a. These balanced and right states of realization also work the other
way,40 following paths of intimate and mystical cooperation, so that this per-
son who sits in zazen steadfastly gets free of body and mind, cuts away mis-
cellaneous impure views and thoughts [accumulated] from the past, and thus
experiences and understands the natural and pure Buddha-Dharma. Through-
out each of the infinitesimal, innumerable seats of truth of the buddha-tatha-
gatas, [the practitioner] promotes the Buddha's work and spreads its in? uence
far and wide over those who have the ascendant makings of a buddha, thus
vividly uplifting the ascendant real state of a buddha. At this time, every-
thing in the universe in ten directions�soil, earth, grass, and trees; fences,
walls, tiles, and pebbles�performs the Buddha's work. The people that
receive the benefit thus produced by wind and water are all mystically helped
by the fine and unthinkable in? uence of the Buddha, and they exhibit the
immediate state of realization. All beings who receive and utilize this water
and fire spread the in? uence of the Buddha in the original state of experi-
ence, so that those who live and talk with them, also, are all reciprocally
endowed with the limitless buddha-virtue. Expanding and promoting their
activity far and wide, they permeate the inside and the outside of the entire
universe with the limitless, unceasing, unthinkable, and incalculable Buddha-
Dharma. [The state] is not dimmed by the views of these individuals them-
selves, however, because the state in the quietness, without intentional activ-
ity, is direct experience. If we divide practice-and-experience into two stages,
as in the thoughts of common folk, each part can be perceived and under-
stood separately. [But] if perception and understanding are mixed in, that is
not the standard state of experience, because the standard state of experience
is beyond deluded emotion. Although, in the quietness, mind and external
world enter together into the state of experience and pass together out of the
state of realization, [those movements] are the state of receiving and using
the self. 41 Therefore, [movements of mind and the external world] neither
stir a single molecule nor disturb a single form, but they accomplish the vast
and great work of Buddha and the profound and fine in? uence of Buddha.
The grass, trees, soil, and earth reached by this guiding in? uence all radiate
great brightness, and their preaching of the deep and fine Dharma is with-
out end. Grass, trees, fences, and walls become able to preach for all souls,
[both] common people and saints; and conversely, all souls, [both] common
people and saints, preach for grass, trees, fences, and walls. The world of
self-consciousness, and [the world] of consciousness of external objects,
lack nothing�they are already furnished with the concrete form of real expe-
rience. The standard state of real experience, when activated, allows no idle
moment. Zazen, even if it is only one human being sitting for one moment,
thus enters into mystical cooperation with all dharmas, and completely pen-
etrates all times; and it therefore performs, within the limitless universe, the
eternal work of the Buddha's guiding in? uence in the past, future, and pres-
ent. For everyone it is completely the same practice and the same experi-
ence. The practice is not confined to the sitting itself; it strikes space and res-
onates, [like] ringing that continues before and after a bell. How could [the
practice] be limited to this place? All concrete things42 possess original prac-
tice as their original features; it is beyond comprehension. Remember, even
if the countless buddhas in ten directions, as numerous as the sands of the
Ganges, tried with all their power and all their buddha-wisdom to calculate
or comprehend the merit of one person's zazen, they could not even get close.
[26] Now we have heard how high and great is the merit of this zazen.
[But] some stupid person might doubtingly ask, �There are many gates to
the Buddha-Dharma. Why do you solely recommend sitting in zazen? �43
I say: Because it is the authentic gate to the Buddha-Dharma.
[26] [Someone] asks, �Why do you see it as the only authentic gate? �
I say: Great Master Sakyamuni exactly transmitted, as the authentic tra-
dition, this subtle method of grasping the state of truth, and the tathagatas
of the three times44 all attained the truth through zazen. Thus the fact that
[zazen] is the authentic gate has been transmitted and received. Furthermore,
the patriarchs of the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands all attained the
truth through zazen. Therefore I am now preaching [zazen] to human beings
and gods as the authentic gate.
[27] [Someone] asks, �That which relies upon receiving the authentic
transmission of the subtle method of the Tathagata, or upon following the
traces of the ancestral masters, is surely beyond the intellect of the common
person. Reading sutras and reciting the names of buddhas, however, may
naturally become the causes and conditions of enlightenment. But as for just
idly sitting without doing anything, how can that be the means of getting
enlightenment? �
I say: If you now think that the samadhi of the buddhas, the supreme
and great Dharma, is idle sitting without doing anything, you are a person
who insults the Great Vehicle. 45 [Such] delusion is so deep that it is like being
in the ocean and saying there is no water. [In zazen] we are already seated,
stably and thankfully, in the buddhas' samadhi of receiving and using the
self. Is this not the accomplishment of vast and great virtue? It is pitiful that
your eyes are not yet open and your mind remains in a drunken stupor. In
general, the state of the buddhas is unthinkable: intelligence cannot reach it.
How much less could disbelief or inferior wisdom know the state? Only peo-
ple of great makings and right belief can enter into it. For people of disbe-
lief, even if taught, it is difficult to receive the teaching�even on Vulture
Peak there were people [about whom the Buddha said,] �That they withdraw
also is fine. �46 As a general rule, when right belief emerges in our mind, we
should do training and learn in practice. Otherwise, we should rest for a while.
Regret the fact if you will, but from ancient times the Dharma has been dry.
Further, do you know for yourself any virtue that is gained from practices
such as reading sutras and reciting names of buddhas? It is very unreliable to
think that only to wag the tongue and to raise the voice has the virtue of the
Buddha's work. When we compare [such practices] with the Buddha-Dharma,
they fade further and further into the distance. Moreover, we open sutras to
clarify the criteria that the Buddha taught of instantaneous and gradual prac-
tice,47 and those who practice according to the teaching are invariably caused
to attain the state of real experience. This is completely different from aspir-
ing to the virtue of attainment of bodhi by vainly exhausting the intellect.
Trying to arrive at the Buddha's state of truth [only] through action of the
mouth, stupidly chanting thousands or tens of thousands of times, is like
hoping to reach [the south country of] Etsu by pointing a carriage toward
the north. Or it is like trying to put a square peg into a round hole. Reading
sentences while remaining ignorant of how to practice [is like] a student of
medicine forgetting how to compound medications. What use is that? Those
who chant endlessly are like frogs in a spring paddy field, croaking day and
night. In the end it is all useless. It is still more difficult for people who are
deeply disturbed by fame and gain to abandon these things. The mind that
craves gain is very deep, and so it must have been present in the ancient past.
How could it not be present in the world today? It is most pitiful. Just remem-
ber, when a practitioner directly follows a master who has attained the truth
and clarified the mind, and when the practitioner matches that mind and expe-
riences and understands it, and thus receives the authentic transmission of the
subtle Dharma of the Seven Buddhas,48 then the exact teaching appears clearly
and is received and maintained. This is beyond the comprehension of Dharma
teachers who study words. 49 So stop this doubting and delusion and, follow-
ing the teaching of a true master, attain in experience the buddhas' samadhi
of receiving and using the self, by sitting in zazen and pursuing the truth.
[32] [Someone] asks, �The Flower of Dharma50 and the teaching of the
Garland [Sutra],51 which have now been transmitted into this country, are
both ultimate expressions of the Great Vehicle. Moreover, in the case of the
Shingon sect,52 [the transmission] passed directly from Tathagata Vairocana
to Vajrasattva, and so [the transmission from] master to disciple is not at
random. Quoting the principles which it discusses, that �Mind here and now
is buddha� and �This mind becomes buddha,�53 [the Shingon sect] proclaims
that we realize the right realization of the five buddhas54 in one sitting, with-
out undergoing many kalpas55 of training. We can say that this is the ulti-
mate refinement of the Buddha's Dharma. What is so excellent then about
the practice which you now solely recommend, to the exclusion of these
other [practices]? �
I say: Remember, among Buddhists we do not argue about superiority and
inferiority of philosophies, or choose between shallowness and profundity in
the Dharma; we need only know whether the practice is genuine or artificial.
Some have entered into the stream of the Buddha's truth at the invitation of
grass, ? owers, mountains, and rivers. Some have received and maintained
the stamp of Buddha by grasping soil, stones, sand, and pebbles. Furthermore,
the vast and great word56 is even more abundant than the myriad phenomena.
And the turning of the great Dharma wheel is contained in every molecule.
This being so, the words �Mind here and now is buddha� are only the moon
in water,57 and the idea �Just to sit is to become buddha� is also a re? ection
in a mirror. We should not be caught by the skillfulness of the words. Now,
in recommending the practice in which bodhi is directly experienced, I hope
to demonstrate the subtle truth that the Buddhist patriarchs have transmitted
one-to-one, and thus to make you into people of the real state of truth. More-
over, for transmission of the Buddha-Dharma, we must always take as a
teacher a person who has experienced the [Buddha's] state. It is never enough
to take as our guiding teacher a scholar who counts words; that would be like
the blind leading the blind. In this, the lineage of the authentic transmission
of the Buddhist patriarchs, we all revere wise masters who have attained the
truth and experienced the state, and we cause them to dwell in and to main-
tain the Buddha-Dharma. This is why, when Shintoists of [the lineages of]
yin and yang58 come to devote themselves, and when arhats who have expe-
rienced the fruit59 come to ask for Dharma, we give each of them, without
fail, the means of clarifying the mental state. This is something that has never
been heard in other lineages. Disciples of the Buddha should just learn the
Buddha-Dharma. Furthermore, we should remember that from the beginning
we have never lacked the supreme state of bodhi, and we will receive it and
use it forever. At the same time, because we cannot perceive it directly,60 we
are prone to beget random intellectual ideas, and because we chase after these
as if they were real things, we vainly pass by the great state of truth. From
these intellectual ideas emerge all sorts of ? owers in space:61 we think about
the twelvefold cycle62 and the twenty-five spheres of existence; and ideas of
the three vehicles and the five vehicles63 or of having buddha[-nature] and
not having buddha[-nature] are endless. We should not think that the learn-
ing of these intellectual ideas is the right path of Buddhist practice. When we
solely sit in zazen, on the other hand, relying now on exactly the same posture
as the Buddha, and letting go of the myriad things, then we go beyond the
areas of delusion, realization, emotion, and consideration, and we are not con-
cerned with the ways of the common and the sacred. At once we are roaming
outside the [intellectual] frame, receiving and using the great state of bodhi.
How could those caught in the trap of words compare [with this]?
[37] [Someone] asks, �Among the three kinds of training64 there is train-
ing in the balanced state, and among the six paramitas65 there is the dhyana
paramita, both of which all bodhisattvas learn from the outset and all bodhi-
sattvas practice, regardless of whether they are clever or stupid. The zazen
[that you are discussing] now is surely [only] one of these. Why do you say
that the Tathagata's right Dharma is concentrated in this [practice of zazen]? �
I say: The question arises because this right Dharma-eye treasury, the
supreme and great method, which is the one great matter66 of the Tathagata,
has been called the �Zen sect. � Remember that this title �Zen sect� was estab-
lished in China and the east; it is not heard in India. When Great Master
Bodhi dharma first stayed at Shaolin Temple in the Songshan Mountains,67
and faced the wall for nine years, monks and laymen were still ignorant of
the Buddha's right Dharma, so they called [Master Bodhidharma] a brah-
man who made a religion of zazen. Thereafter, the patriarchs of successive
generations all constantly devoted themselves to zazen. Stupid secular peo-
ple who saw this, not knowing the reality, talked at random of a zazen sect.
Nowadays, dropping the word �za,� they talk of just the Zen sect. 68 This
interpretation is clear from records of the patriarchs. 69 [Zazen] should not be
discussed as the balanced state of dhyana in the six paramitas and the three
kinds of training. That this Buddha-Dharma is the legitimate intention of the
one-to-one transmission has never been concealed through the ages. In the
order on Vulture Peak in ancient times, when the Tathagata gave the Dharma
to Venerable Mahakasyapa, transmitting the right Dharma-eye treasury and
the fine mind of nirvana, the supreme and great method, only to him, the cer-
emony was witnessed directly by beings among the celestial throng which
are present in the world above, so it must never be doubted. It is a universal
rule that those celestial beings will guard and maintain the Buddha-Dharma
eternally; their efforts have never faded. Just remember that this [transmis-
sion of zazen] is the whole truth of the Buddha's Dharma; nothing can be
compared with it.
[40] [Someone] asks, �Why, in discussing entry into the state of expe-
rience, do Buddhists recommend us to practice the balanced state of dhyana
solely by sitting, which is [only] one of the four forms of conduct? �70
I say: It is difficult to calculate all the ways that buddhas have succes-
sively practiced since ancient times to enter the state of real experience. If
we want to find a reason, we should remember that what Buddhists practice
is reason in itself. We should not look for [a reason] besides this. But an
ancestral master has praised [sitting] by saying, �Sitting in zazen is the peace-
ful and joyful gate of Dharma. �71 So in conclusion the reason may be that,
of the four forms of conduct, [sitting is the most] peaceful and joyful. Fur-
thermore, [sitting] is not the way practiced by one or two buddhas; all the
buddhas and all the patriarchs possess this way.
[41] [Someone] asks, �In regard to this practice of zazen, a person who
has not yet experienced and understood the Buddha-Dharma may be able to
acquire that experience by pursuing the truth in zazen. [But] what can a per-
son who has already clarified the Buddha's right Dharma expect to gain from
zazen? �
I say: We do not tell our dreams before a fool, and it is difficult to put
oars into the hands of a mountaineer; nevertheless I must bestow the teach-
ing. The thought that practice and experience are not one thing is just the
idea of non-Buddhists. In the Buddha-Dharma practice and experience are
completely the same. [Practice] now is also practice in the state of experi-
ence; therefore, a beginner's pursuit of the truth is just the whole body of
the original state of experience. This is why [the Buddhist patriarchs] teach,
in the practical cautions they have handed down to us, not to expect any
experience outside of practice. And the reason may be that [practice itself]
is the directly accessible original state of experience. Because practice is just
experience, the experience is endless; and because experience is practice,
the practice has no beginning. This is how both Tathagata Sakyamuni and
Venerable Patriarch Mahakasyapa were received and used by the practice
that exists in the state of experience. Great Master Bodhi dharma and the
Founding Patriarch Daikan72 were similarly pulled and driven by the prac-
tice that exists in the state of experience. The examples of all those who
dwelled in and maintained the Buddha-Dharma are like this. The practice
that is never separate from experience exists already: having fortunately
received the one-to-one transmission of a share of the subtle practice, we
who are beginners in pursuing the truth directly possess, in the state with-
out intention, a share of original experience. Remember, in order to prevent
us from tainting the experience that is never separate from practice, the
Buddhist patriarchs have repeatedly taught us not to be lax in practice. When
we forget the subtle practice, original experience has filled our hands; when
the body leaves original experience behind, the subtle practice is operating
throughout the body.
Because practice is just
experience, the experience is endless; and because experience is practice,
the practice has no beginning. This is how both Tathagata Sakyamuni and
Venerable Patriarch Mahakasyapa were received and used by the practice
that exists in the state of experience. Great Master Bodhi dharma and the
Founding Patriarch Daikan72 were similarly pulled and driven by the prac-
tice that exists in the state of experience. The examples of all those who
dwelled in and maintained the Buddha-Dharma are like this. The practice
that is never separate from experience exists already: having fortunately
received the one-to-one transmission of a share of the subtle practice, we
who are beginners in pursuing the truth directly possess, in the state with-
out intention, a share of original experience. Remember, in order to prevent
us from tainting the experience that is never separate from practice, the
Buddhist patriarchs have repeatedly taught us not to be lax in practice. When
we forget the subtle practice, original experience has filled our hands; when
the body leaves original experience behind, the subtle practice is operating
throughout the body. Moreover, as I saw with my own eyes in great Song
China, the Zen monasteries of many districts had all built zazen halls accom-
modating five or six hundred, or even one or two thousand monks, who were
encouraged to sit in zazen day and night. The leader of one such order73 was
a true master who had received the Buddha's mind-seal. When I asked him
the great intent of the Buddha-Dharma, I was able to hear the principle that
practice and experience are never two stages. Therefore, in accordance with
the teaching of the Buddhist patriarchs, and following the way of a true mas-
ter, he encouraged [everyone] to pursue the truth in zazen; [he encouraged]
not only the practitioners in his order but [all] noble friends who sought the
Dharma, [all] people who hoped to find true reality in the Buddha-Dharma,
without choosing between beginners and late learners, without distinction
between common people and sacred people. Have you not heard the words
of the ancestral master74 who said, �It is not that there is no practice-and-
experience, but it cannot be tainted. � Another [master] said, �Someone who
sees the way practices the way. �75 Remember that even in the state of attain-
ment of the truth, we should practice.
[44] [Someone] asks, �The masters who spread the teachings through
our country in previous ages had all entered Tang China and received the
transmission of Dharma. Why, at that time, did they neglect this principle,
and transmit only philosophical teaching? �
I say: The reason that past teachers of human beings did not transmit
this method was that the time had not come.
[45] [Someone] asks, �Did those masters of former ages understand this
method? �
I say: If they had understood it, they would have made it known to all.
[45] [Someone] asks, �It has been said that we should not regret our life
and death,76 for there is a very quick way to get free of life and death. That
is, to know the truth that the mental essence is eternal. In other words, this
physical body, having been born, necessarily moves toward death; but this
mental essence never dies at all. Once we have been able to recognize that
the mental essence which is unmoved by birth and decay77 exists in our own
body, we see this as the original essence. Therefore the body is just a tem-
porary form; it dies here and is born there, never remaining constant. [But]
the mind is eternal; it is unchangeable in the past, future, or present. To know
this is called �to have become free of life and death. ' Those who know this
principle stop the past [cycle of] life and death forever and, when this body
passes, they enter the spirit world. When they present themselves in the spirit
world,78 they gain wondrous virtues like those of the buddha-tathagatas. Even
if we know [this principle] now, [our body] is still the body that has been
shaped by deluded behavior in past ages, and so we are not the same as the
saints. Those who do not know this principle will forever turn in the cycle of
life and death. Therefore we should just hasten to understand the principle
that the mental essence is eternal. Even if we passed our whole life in idle sit-
ting, what could we expect to gain? The doctrine I have expressed like this
is truly in accord with the truth of the buddhas and the patriarchs, is it not? �
I say: The view expressed now is absolutely not the Buddha's Dharma;
it is the view of the non-Buddhist Senika. 79 According to that non-Buddhist
view, there is one spiritual intelligence existing within our body. When this
intelligence meets conditions, it can discriminate between pleasant and
unpleasant and discriminate between right and wrong, and it can know pain
and irritation and know suffering and pleasure�all [these] are abilities of
the spiritual intelligence. When this body dies, however, the spirit casts off
the skin and is reborn on the other side; so even though it seems to die here
it lives on there. Therefore we call it immortal and eternal. The view of that
non-Buddhist is like this. But if we learn this view as the Buddha's Dharma,
we are even more foolish than the person who grasps a tile or a pebble think-
ing it to be a golden treasure; the delusion would be too shameful for com-
parison. National Master Echu80 of great Tang China strongly cautioned
against [such thinking]. If we equate the present wrong view that �mind is
eternal but forms perish� with the splendid Dharma of the buddhas, think-
ing that we have escaped life and death when we are promoting the original
cause of life and death, are we not being stupid? That would be most piti-
ful. Knowing that this [wrong view] is just the wrong view of non-Buddhists,
we should not touch it with our ears. Nevertheless, I cannot help wanting to
save you from this wrong view and it is only compassionate [for me] now
[to try]. So remember, in the Buddha-Dharma, because the body and mind
are originally one reality, the saying that essence and form are not two has
been understood equally in the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands, and
we should never dare to go against it. Further, in the lineages that discuss
eternal existence, the myriad dharmas are all eternal existence: body and
mind are not divided. 81 And in the lineages that discuss extinction, all dhar-
mas are extinction: essence and form are not divided. 82 How could we say,
on the contrary, that the body is mortal but the mind is eternal? Does that
not violate right reason? Furthermore, we should realize that living-and-
dying is just nirvana;83 [Buddhists] have never discussed nirvana outside of
living-and-dying. Moreover, even if we wrongly imagine the understanding
that �mind becomes eternal by getting free of the body� to be the same as
the buddha-wisdom that is free of life and death, the mind that is conscious
of this understanding still appears and disappears momentarily, and so it is
not eternal at all. Then isn't [this understanding] unreliable? We should taste
and re? ect. The principle that body and mind are one reality is being con-
stantly spoken by the Buddha-Dharma. So how could it be, on the contrary,
that while this body appears and disappears, the mind independently leaves
the body and does not appear or disappear? If there is a time when [body
and mind] are one reality, and another time when they are not one reality,
then it might naturally follow that the Buddha's preaching has been false.
Further, if we think that life and death are something to get rid of, we will
commit the sin of hating the Buddha-Dharma. How could we not guard
against this? Remember, the lineage of the Dharma which [asserts that] �in
the Buddha-Dharma the essential state of mind universally includes all forms,�
describes the whole great world of Dharma inclusively, without dividing
essence and form, and without discussing appearance and disappearance.
There is no [state]�not even bodhi or nirvana�that is different from the
essential state of mind. All dharmas, myriad phenomena and accumulated
things, are totally just the one mind, without exclusion or disunion. All these
various lineages of the Dharma assert that [myriad things and phenomena]
are the even and balanced undivided mind, other than which there is noth-
ing; and this is just how Buddhists have understood the essence of mind.
That being so, how could we divide this one reality into body and mind, or
into life-and-death and nirvana? We are already the Buddha's disciples. Let
us not touch with our ears those noises from the tongues of madmen who
speak non-Buddhist views.
[51] [Someone] asks, �Must a person who is devoted to this zazen always
adhere spotlessly to the precepts? �
I say: Keeping the precepts, and pure conduct,84 are the standard of the
Zen lineages and the usual habit of Buddhist patriarchs. [But] those who
have not yet received the precepts, or who have broken the precepts, are not
without their share [of the benefit of zazen].
[51] [Someone] asks, �Is there nothing to prevent a person who prac-
tices this zazen from also performing mantra and quiet-re? ection practices? �85
I say: When I was in China, I heard the true essence of the teachings
from a true master; he said that he had never heard that any of the patriarchs
who received the authentic transmission of the Buddha-seal ever performed
such practices additionally, in the Western Heavens or in the Eastern Lands,
in the past or in the present. Certainly, unless we devote ourselves to one
thing, we will not attain complete wisdom.
[52] [Someone] asks, �Should this practice also be undertaken by lay-
men and laywomen, or is it performed only by people who have left home? �
I say: An ancestral master has been heard to say that, with respect to
understanding of the Buddha-Dharma, we must not choose between men
and women, high or low.
[52] [Someone] asks, �People who leave home get free of all involve-
ments at once, so they have no hindrances in practicing zazen and pursuing
the truth. How can a busy layperson devotedly do training and be at one with
the unintentional state of Buddhist truth? �
I say: In general, the Buddhist Patriarch,86 overfilled with pity, left open
a wide and great gate of compassion so that all living beings could experi-
ence and enter [the state of truth]; what human being or god could not want
to enter? Thus, when we study the past and the present, there are many confir-
mations of such [experience and entry]. For instance, Taiso87 and Junso88
were, as emperors, very busy with affairs of state [but] they pursued the truth
by sitting in zazen and realized the Buddhist Patriarch's great truth. Both Min-
ister Ri (Ch. Li) and Minister Bo (Ch. Fang), serving as [the emperor's] lieu-
tenants, were the arms and legs of the whole nation [but] they pursued the
truth by sitting in zazen and experienced and entered the Buddhist Patriarch's
truth. This [practice-and-experience] rests only upon whether or not the will
is present; it does not relate to whether the body stays at home or leaves
home. Moreover, any person who profoundly discerns the superiority or infe-
riority of things will naturally have belief. Still more, those who think that
worldly affairs hinder the Buddha-Dharma only know that there is no Buddha-
Dharma in the world; they do not know that there are no worldly dharmas
in the state of Buddha. Recently in great Song [China] there was [a man]
called Minister Hyo (Ch. Feng), a high-ranking official who was accom-
plished in the Patriarch's truth. In his later years he made a poem in which
he expressed himself as follows:
When official business allows, I like to sit in zazen.
I have seldom slept with my side touching a bed.
Though I have now become prime minister,
My fame as a veteran practitioner has spread across the four seas.
This was somebody with no time free from official duties but, because
his will to the Buddha's truth was deep, he was able to attain the truth. We
should re? ect on ourselves [in comparison] with him, and we should re? ect
on the present [in comparison] with those days. In the great kingdom of Song,
the present generation of kings and ministers, officials and commoners, men
and women, all apply their mind to the Patriarch's truth, without exception.
Both the military and literary classes are resolved to practice [za]zen and to
learn the truth. Those who resolve it will, in many cases, undoubtedly clar-
ify the mental state. Thus, it can naturally be inferred that worldly affairs do
not hinder the Buddha-Dharma. When the real Buddha-Dharma spreads
throughout a nation the buddhas and the gods guard [that nation] ceaselessly,
so the reign is peaceful. When the imperial reign is peaceful, the Buddha-
Dharma comes into its own. Furthermore, when Sakyamuni was in the world,
[even] people of heavy sins and wrong views were able to get the truth, and
in the orders of the ancestral masters, [even] hunters and old woodcutters
entered the state of realization, to say nothing of other people. We need only
study the teaching and the state of truth of a true teacher.
[56] [Someone] asks, �Even in the present corrupt world in this latter
age,89 is it still possible to realize the state of real experience when we per-
form this practice? �
I say: Philosophers have occupied themselves with such concepts and
forms, but in the real teaching of the Great Vehicle, without discriminating
between �right,� �imitative,� and �latter� Dharma, we say that all those who
practice attain the state of truth. Furthermore, in this directly transmitted right
Dharma, both in entering the Dharma and getting the body out, we receive
and use the treasure of ourselves. Those who are practicing can naturally
know whether they have got the state of real experience or not, just as peo-
ple who are using water can tell by themselves whether it is cold or warm.
[57] [Someone] asks, �It is said that in the Buddha-Dharma once we
have clearly understood the principle that mind here and now is buddha,
even if our mouth does not recite the sutras and our body does not practice
the Buddha Way, we are not lacking in the Buddha-Dharma at all. Just to
know that the Buddha-Dharma originally resides in each of us is the whole
of the attainment of the truth. There is no need to seek anything else from
other people. How much less need we bother about pursuing the truth in
zazen? �
I say: These words are extremely unreliable. If it is as you say, how
could any intelligent person fail to understand this principle once it had been
explained to them? Remember, we learn the Buddha-Dharma just when we
give up views of subject and object. If knowing that �we ourselves are just
buddha� could be called the attainment of the truth, Sakyamuni would not
have bothered to teach the moral way in the past. I would like now to prove
this through the subtle criteria of the ancient patriarchs:
Long ago, there was a monk called Prior Sokko90 in the order of Zen
Mas ter Hogen. 91 Zen Master Hogen asks him, �Prior Sokko, how long have
you been in my order? �
Sokko says, �I have served in the master's order for three years already. �
The Zen master says, �You are a recent member of the order. Why do
you never ask me about the Buddha-Dharma? �
Sokko says, �I must not deceive you, master. Before, when I was in the
order of Zen Master Seiho, I realized the state of peace and joy in the Buddha-
Dharma. �
The Zen master says, �Relying upon what words were you able to enter? �
Sokko says, �I once asked Seiho: Just what is the student that is I? 92
Seiho said: The children of fire93 come looking for fire. �
Hogen says, �Nice words. But I am afraid that you may not have under-
stood. �
Sokko says, �The children of fire belong to fire. [So] I understood that
their being fire yet looking for fire represented my being myself yet looking
for myself. �
The Zen master says, �I have become sure that you did not understand.
If the Buddha-Dharma were like that, it could never have been transmitted
until today. �
At this Sokko became embarrassed and distressed, and he stood up [to
leave]. [But] on the road he thought, �The Zen master is [respected] through-
out the country [as] a good counselor, and he is a great guiding master to
five hundred people. There must surely have been some merit in his criti-
cism of my wrongness. �
[Sokko] goes back to the Zen master to confess and to prostrate himself
in apology. Then he asks, �Just what is the student that is I? �
The Zen master says , �The children of fire come looking for fire. �
Under the in? uence of these words, Sokko grandly realized the Buddha-
Dharma.
Clearly, the Buddha-Dharma is never known with the intellectual under-
standing that �we ourselves are just buddha. � If the intellectual understand-
ing that �we ourselves are just buddha� were the Buddha-Dharma, the Zen
master could not have guided [Sokko] by using the former words, and he
would not have admonished [Sokko] as he did. Solely and directly, from our
first meeting with a good counselor, we should ask the standards of practice,
and we should singlemindedly pursue the truth by sitting in zazen, without
allowing a single recognition or half an understanding to remain in our minds.
Then the subtle method of the Buddha-Dharma will not be [practiced] in
vain.
[61] [Someone] asks, �When we hear of India and China in the past and
present, there are those who realized the state of truth on hearing the voice
of a bamboo, or who clarified the mind on seeing the colors of the ? owers. 94
Furthermore, the Great Teacher Sakyamuni experienced the truth when he
saw the bright star, Venerable Ananda95 realized the Dharma when a tem-
ple ? agpole fell, and not only that: among the five lineages following from
the Sixth Patriarch96 many people have clarified the mental state under the
in? uence of a single word or half a line of verse. Had they all, without excep-
tion, pursued the truth by sitting in zazen? �
I say: We should know that these people of the past and present who
clarified the mind on seeing forms and who realized the truth on hearing
sounds, were all without intellectual doubt in pursuing the truth, and just in
the moment of the present there was no second person.
[62] [Someone] asks, �In India and China, the people are originally
unaffected and straight. Being at the center of the civilized world makes
them so. As a result, when they are taught the Buddha-Dharma they under-
stand and enter very quickly. In our country, from ancient times the people
have had little benevolence and wisdom, and it is difficult for us to accu-
mulate the seeds of rightness. Being the savages and barbarians97 [of the
southeast] makes us so. How could we not regret it? Furthermore, people
who have left home in this country are inferior even to the laypeople of the
great nations; our whole society is stupid, and our minds are narrow and
small. We are deeply attached to the results of intentional effort, and we like
superficial quality. Can people like this expect to experience the Buddha-
Dharma straight away, even if they sit in zazen? �
I say: As you say, the people of our country are not yet universally benev-
olent and wise, and some people are indeed crooked. Even if we preach right
and straight Dharma to them, they will turn nectar into poison. They easily
tend toward fame and gain, and it is hard for them to dissolve their delusions
and attachments. On the other hand, to experience and enter the Buddha-
Dharma, one need not always use the worldly wisdom of human beings and
gods as a vessel for transcendence of the world. 98 When the Buddha was in
[the] world, [an old monk] experienced the fourth effect [when hit] by a
ball,99 and [a prostitute] clarified the great state of truth after putting on a
ka? aya;100 both were dull people, stupid and silly creatures. But aided by
right belief, they had the means to escape their delusion. Another case was
the devout woman preparing a midday meal who disclosed the state of real-
ization when she saw a stupid old bhik? u101 sitting in quietness. This did not
derive from her wisdom, did not derive from writings, did not depend on
words, and did not depend on talk; she was aided only by her right belief.
Furthermore, Sakyamuni's teachings have been spreading through the three-
thousand-world only for around two thousand or so years. Countries are of
many kinds; not all are nations of benevolence and wisdom. How could all
people, moreover, possess only intelligence and wisdom, keenness [of ear]
and clarity [of eye]? But the right Dharma of the Tathagata is originally fur-
nished with unthinkably great virtue and power, and so when the time comes
it will spread through those countries. When people just practice with right
belief, the clever and the stupid alike will attain the truth. Just because our
country is not a nation of benevolence or wisdom and the people are dull-
witted, do not think that it is impossible for us to grasp the Buddha-Dharma.
Still more, all human beings have the right seeds of praj�a in abundance. It
may simply be that few of us have experienced the state directly, and so we
are immature in receiving and using it.
[65] The above questions and answers have come and gone, and the alter-
nation between audience and speaker has been untidy. How many times have
I caused ? owers to exist in ? owerless space? 102 On the other hand, the fun-
damental principle of pursuing the truth by sitting in zazen has never been
transmitted to this country; anyone who hoped to know it would have been
disappointed. This is why I intend to gather together the few experiences I
had abroad, and to record the secrets of an enlightened teacher,103 so that they
may be heard by any practitioner who desires to hear them. In addition, there
are standards and conventions for monasteries and temples but there is not
enough time to teach them now, and they must not be [taught] in haste.
[66] In general, it was very fortunate for the people of our country that,
even though we are situated east of the Dragon Sea and are far separated by
clouds and mist, from around the reigns of Kinmei104 and Yomei,105 the Buddha-
Dharma of the west spread to us in the east. However, confusion has multi-
plied over concepts and forms, and facts and circumstances, disturbing the
situation of practice. Now, because we make do with tattered robes and mended
bowls, tying thatch so that we can sit and train by the blue cliffs and white
rocks, the matter of the ascendant state of buddha becomes apparent at once,
and we swiftly master the great matter of a lifetime of practice. This is just
the decree of Ryuge [Mountain],106 and the legacy of Kukku? apada [Moun-
tain]. 107 The forms and standards for sitting in zazen may be practiced fol-
lowing the Fukanzazengi which I compiled in the Karoku era. 108
[68] Now, in spreading the Buddha's teaching throughout a nation, on
the one hand, we should wait for the king's decree, but on the other hand,
when we recall the bequest of Vulture Peak, the kings, nobles, ministers, and
generals now manifested in hundred myriad ko? is of realms all have grate-
fully accepted the Buddha's decree and, not forgetting the original aim of
earlier lives to guard and maintain the Buddha's teaching, they have been
born. [Within] the frontiers of the spread of that teaching, what place could
not be a buddha land? Therefore, when we want to disseminate the truth of
the Buddhist patriarchs, it is not always necessary to select a [particular]
place or to wait for [favorable] circumstances. Shall we just consider today
to be the starting point? So I have put this together and I will leave it for wise
masters who aspire to the Buddha-Dharma and for the true stream of prac-
titioners who wish, like wandering clouds or transient water weeds, to explore
the state of truth.
Mid-autumn day, [in the third year of] Kanki. 109
Written by the srama? a110 Dogen, who entered
Song [China] and received the transmission of
the Dharma.
Shobogenzo Bendowa
---
BDK English Tripitaka
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Books
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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?
