The merits of
this buddha robe and this Buddha-Dharma were never clarified or known by
anyone other than the ancestral master who transmitted the Buddha's right
Dharma.
this buddha robe and this Buddha-Dharma were never clarified or known by
anyone other than the ancestral master who transmitted the Buddha's right
Dharma.
Shobogenzo
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. Though venerable patri-
archs hitherto have each spoken as they have, how could there be nothing fur-
ther to say? I would like to say:
The half-presence of will and words is existence-time,
The half-absence of will and words is existence-time.
There should be study in experience like this.
Making oneself65 lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is half existence-time,
Making oneself lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is mixed-up
existence-time,
Not making oneself lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is half
existence-time,
Not making oneself lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is mixed-up
existence-time.
When we experience coming and experience leaving, and when we expe-
rience presence and experience absence, like this, that time is existence-time.
Shobogenzo Uji
Written at Koshohorinji on the first day of
winter in the first year of Ninji. 66
Copied during the summer retreat in the
[first] year of Kangen67�Ejo.
---
BDK English Tripitaka
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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? 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 12
[Chapter Twelve]
Kesa-kudoku
The Merit of the Ka? aya
Translator 's Note: Kesa represents the Sanskrit word ka? aya, or Buddhist
robe, and kudoku means �virtue� or �merit. � So kesa-kudoku means the
merit of the ka? aya. Being a realistic religion, Buddhism reveres our real
life. In other words, Buddhism esteems our real conduct in daily life; wear-
ing clothes and eating meals are very important parts of Buddhist life. In
particular, the ka? aya and patra, or Buddhist bowl, are the main symbols of
Buddhist life. In this chapter Master Dogen explains and praises the merit
of the ka? aya.
[49] The authentic transmission into China of the robe and the Dharma, which
are authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha and from patriarch to
patriarch, was done only by the Founding Patriarch of Sugaku Peak. 1 The
Founding Patriarch was the twenty-eighth patriarch after Sakyamuni Buddha,
the transmission having passed twenty-eight times in India from rightful suc-
cessor to rightful successor. The twenty-eighth patriarch went to China in
person and became the First Patriarch [there]. The transmission then passed
through five Chinese [masters] and reached Sokei,2 the thirty-third patriarch,
whom we call �the Sixth Patriarch. � Zen Master Daikan, the thirty-third patri-
arch, received the authentic transmission of this robe and Dharma on Obaizan3
in the middle of the night, after which he guarded and retained [the robe]
throughout his life. It is still deposited at Horinji on Sokeizan. Many suc-
cessive generations of emperors devoutly asked for [the robe] to be brought
to the imperial court, where they served offerings and made prostrations to
it, guarding it as a sacred object. The Tang dynasty4 emperors Chuso (Ch.
Zhongzong), Shukuso (Ch. Suzong), and Taiso5 (Ch. Daizong) frequently
had [the robe] brought to the court and served offerings to it. When they
requested it and when they sent it back, they would conscientiously dispatch
an imperial emissary and issue an edict. Emperor Taiso once returned the
buddha robe to Sokeizan with the following edict: �I now dispatch the great
General Ryu Shukei,6 Pacifier of the Nation, to receive with courtesy7 and
to deliver [the robe]. I consider it to be a national treasure. Venerable priests,8
deposit it according to the Dharma in its original temple. Let it be solemnly
guarded only by monks who have intimately received the fundamental teach-
ing. Never let it fall into neglect. � Truly, better than ruling a three-thousand-
great-thousandfold realm of worlds as countless as the sands of the Ganges,9
to see and to hear and to serve offerings to the Buddha's robe as the king of
a small country where the Buddha's robe is present, may be the best life
among [all] good lives [lived] in life-and-death. Where, in a three-thou-
sandfold world which has been reached by the Buddha's in? uence, could
the ka? aya not exist? At the same time, the one who passed on the authen-
tic transmission of the Buddha's ka? aya, having received the face-to-face
transmission from rightful successor to rightful successor, is only the ances-
tral patriarch of Sugaku Peak. The Buddha's ka? aya was not handed down
through side lineages. 10 The transmission to Bodhisattva Bhadrapala, a col-
lateral descendant of the twenty-seventh patriarch,11 duly arrived at Dharma
teacher Jo,12 but there was no authentic transmission of the Buddha's ka? aya.
Again, Great Master [Doshin], the Fourth Patriarch in China,13 delivered Zen
Master Hoyu14 of Gozusan but did not pass on the authentic transmission of
the Buddha's ka? aya. So even without the transmission from rightful suc-
cessors, the Tathagata's right Dharma�whose merit is never empty�con-
fers its wide and great benefit all through thousands of ages and myriads of
ages. [At the same time] those who have received the transmission from
rightful successors are not to be compared with those who lack the trans-
mission. Therefore, when human beings and gods receive and retain the
ka? aya, they should receive the authentic transmission transmitted between
Buddhist patriarchs. In India and in China, in the ages of the right Dharma
and the imitative Dharma,15 even laypeople received and retained the ka? aya.
In this distant and remote land in the present degenerate age, those who shave
their beard and hair and call themselves the Buddha's disciples do not receive
and retain the ka? aya. They have never believed, known, or clarified that
they should receive and retain [the ka? aya]; it is lamentable. How much less
do they know of the [ka? aya's] material, color, and measurements. How
much less do they know how to wear it.
[54] The ka? aya has been called, since ancient time, �the clothing of
liberation. � It can liberate16 us from all hindrances such as karmic hindrances,
hindrances of af? iction, and hindrances of retribution. If a dragon gets a sin-
gle strand [of the ka? aya], it escapes the three kinds of heat. 17 If a bull touches
[a ka? aya] with one of its horns, its sins will naturally be extinguished. When
buddhas realize the truth they are always wearing the ka? aya. Remember,
[to wear the ka? aya] is the noblest and highest virtue. Truly, we have been
born in a remote land in [the age of] the latter Dharma, and we must regret
this. But at the same time, how should we measure the joy of meeting the
robe and the Dharma that have been transmitted from buddha to buddha,
from rightful successor to rightful successor? Which [other] lineage has
authentically transmitted both the robe and the Dharma of Sakyamuni in the
manner of our authentic transmission? Having met them, who could fail to
venerate them and to serve offerings to them? Even if, each day, we [have
to] discard bodies and lives as countless as the sands of the Ganges, we should
serve offerings to them. Indeed we should vow to meet them, humbly to
receive them upon the head,18 to serve offerings to them, and to venerate
them in every life in every age. Between us and the country of the Buddha's
birth, there are more than a hundred thousand miles of mountains and oceans,
and it is too far for us to travel; nevertheless, promoted by past good con-
duct, we have not been shut out by the mountains and oceans, and we have
not been spurned as the dullards of a remote [land]. Having met this right
Dharma, we should persistently practice it day and night. Having received
and retained this ka? aya, we should perpetually receive it upon the head in
humility and preserve it. How could this only be to have practiced merit
under one buddha or two buddhas? It may be to have practiced all kinds of
merit under buddhas equal to the sands of the Ganges. Even if [the people
who receive and retain the ka? aya] are ourselves, we should venerate them,
and we should rejoice. We should heartily repay the profound benevolence
of the ancestral master in transmitting the Dharma. Even animals repay kind-
ness; so how could human beings fail to recognize kindness? If we failed to
recognize kindness, we might be more stupid than animals.
The merits of
this buddha robe and this Buddha-Dharma were never clarified or known by
anyone other than the ancestral master who transmitted the Buddha's right
Dharma. If we want to follow gladly the traces of the buddhas, we should
just be glad about this [transmission]. Even after hundred thousand myriads
of generations, we should esteem this authentic transmission as the authen-
tic transmission. This [transmission] may be the Buddha-Dharma itself; the
proof in due course will become evident. We should not liken [the trans-
mission] to the dilution of milk with water. It is like a crown prince suc-
ceeding to the throne. When we want to use milk, if there is no milk other
than this diluted milk [described above], although it is diluted milk we should
use it. Even when we do not dilute it with water, we must not use oil, we
must not use lacquer, and we must not use wine. This authentic transmis-
sion may also be like that. Even a mediocre follower of an ordinary master,
providing the authentic transmission is present, may be in a good situation
to use milk. [But] more to the point, the authentic transmission from buddha
to buddha and from patriarch to patriarch is like the succession of a crown
prince. Even secular [teaching] says, �One does not wear clothing different
from the official uniform of the previous reign. �19 How could disciples of
the Buddha wear [robes] different from the Buddha's robe?
[58] Since the tenth year of the Eihei era,20 during the reign of Emperor
Komei (Ch. Mingdi) of the Later Han dynasty,21 monks and laymen going
back and forth between the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands have
followed on each other's heels without cease, but none has claimed to have
met in the Western Heavens an ancestral master of the authentic transmis-
sion from buddha to buddha and from patriarch to patriarch; none has a record
of the lineage of the face-to-face transmission from the Tathagata. They have
only followed teachers of sutras and commentaries, and brought back San-
skrit books of sutras and philosophy. None speaks of having met an ances-
tral master who is a rightful successor to the Buddha's Dharma, and none
mentions that there are ancestral masters who have received the transmis-
sion of the Buddha's ka? aya. Clearly, they have not entered beyond the
threshold of the Buddha's Dharma. People like this have not clarified the
principle of the authentic transmission by Buddhist patriarchs. When Sakya-
muni Tathagata22 passed to Mahakasyapa the right Dharma-eye treasury and
the supreme state of bodhi, he transmitted them together with a ka? aya received
in the authentic transmission from Kasyapa Buddha. 23 Received by rightful
successor from rightful successor, [the ka? aya] reached Zen Master Daikan
of Sokeizan, the thirty-third generation. The material, color, and measure-
ments [of the ka? aya] had been transmitted intimately. Since then, the Dharma
descendants of Seigen and Nangaku24 have intimately transmitted the Dharma,
wearing the Dharma of the ancestral patriarchs and keeping the Dharma of
the ancestral patriarchs in order. The method of washing [the ka? aya] and
the method of receiving and retaining [the ka? aya] cannot be known with-
out learning in practice in the inner sanctum of the legitimate face-to-face
transmission of those methods.
[60] The ka? aya is said to include three robes. They are the five-stripe
robe, the seven-stripe robe, and the large robe of nine or more stripes.
Excellent practitioners receive only these three robes, and do not keep
other robes. To use just the three robes serves the body well enough.
When we are attending to business or doing chores, and when we are
going to and from the toilet, we wear the five-stripe robe. For doing
good practices among the sangha, we wear the seven-stripe robe. To
teach human beings and gods, and to make them devout, we should
wear the large robe of nine or more stripes. Or, when we are in a pri-
vate place we wear the five-stripe robe, when we go among the sangha
we wear the seven-stripe robe, and when we go into a royal palace or
into towns and villages we should wear the large robe. Or, when it is
nice and warm we wear the five-stripe robe, when it is cold we put on
the seven-stripe robe as well, and when the cold is severe we also put
on the large robe. Once, in ancient times, the weather on a midwinter
night was cold enough to split bamboo. As that night fell, the Tatha-
gata put on the five-stripe robe. As the night passed and it got colder,
he put on the seven-stripe robe as well. Later on in the night, when the
coldness reached a peak, he also put on the large robe. At this time,
the Buddha thought, �In future ages, when the cold is beyond endurance,
good sons should be able to clothe their bodies adequately with these
three robes. �25
[62] The method of wearing the ka? aya: �To bare only the right shoul-
der�26 is the usual method. There is a method of wearing [the ka? aya] so that
it goes over both shoulders, a form [followed by] the Tathagata and veter-
ans who are senior in years and experience: both shoulders are covered, while
the chest may be either exposed or covered. [The method of] covering both
shoulders is for a large ka? aya of sixty or more stripes. [Usually,] when we
wear the ka? aya, we wear both sides over the left arm and shoulder. The
front edge goes over the left side [of the ka? aya] and hangs over the [left
upper] arm. 27 In the case of the large ka? aya, [this] front edge passes over
the left shoulder and hangs down behind the back. There are various meth-
ods of wearing the ka? aya besides these; we should take time to study them
and should inquire into them.
[64] For hundreds of years, through one dynasty after another�Liang,
Zhen, Sui, Tang, and Song28�many scholars of both the Great and the Small
Vehicles have abandoned the work of lecturing on sutras, recognizing that
it is not the ultimate, and progressed to learn the authentically transmitted
Dharma of the Buddhist patriarchs; when they do so, they inevitably shed
their former shabby robes and receive and retain the authentically transmit-
ted ka? aya of the Buddhist patriarchs. This is indeed the abandonment of the
false and the return to the true. [In discussing] the right Dharma of the Tatha-
gata, [we see] the Western Heavens as the very root of the Dharma. Many
teachers of human beings, past and present, have established small views
based on the sentimental and parochial thinking of the common person.
Because the world of buddha and the world of living beings are beyond being
limited and being unlimited, the teachings, practice, and human truths of the
Mahayana and the Hinayana can never fit inside the narrow thoughts of com-
mon people today. Nevertheless, [common people] in China, acting at ran-
dom, have failed to see the Western Heavens as the root, and have consid-
ered their newly devised, limited, small views to be the Buddha-Dharma.
Such facts should never occur. Therefore if people today who have estab-
lished the mind want to receive and to retain the ka? aya, they must receive
and retain the ka? aya of the authentic transmission. They must not receive
and retain a ka? aya newly created according to the idea of the moment. The
ka? aya of the authentic transmission means the one that has been authenti-
cally transmitted from Shaolin [Temple] and Sokei [Mountain],29 the one
that has been received by the Tathagata's rightful successors without miss-
ing a single generation. The ka? aya worn by their Dharma children and
Dharma grandchildren is the traditional ka? aya. What has been newly cre-
ated in China is not traditional. Now, the ka? aya worn by the monks who
have come from the Western Heavens, in the past and present, are all worn
as the ka? aya authentically transmitted by the Buddhist patriarchs. Not one
of these monks [has worn a ka? aya] like the new ka? aya being produced in
China today by precepts scholars. Dull people believe in the ka? aya of pre-
cepts scholars; those who are clear throw [such robes] away. In general, the
merit of the ka? aya transmitted from buddha to buddha and from patriarch
to patriarch is evident and easy to believe in. Its authentic transmission has
been received exactly, its original form has been handed down personally,
and it exists really in the present. [The Buddhist patriarchs] have received
and retained it, and succeeded to each other's Dharma, until today. The ances-
tral masters who have received and retained [the ka? aya] are all masters and
disciples who experienced the state30 and received the transmission of Dharma.
This being so, we should make [the ka? aya] properly, according to the method
for making the ka? aya that has been authentically transmitted by the Buddhist
patriarchs. This alone is the authentic tradition, and so it has long been expe-
rienced and recognized by all common and sacred beings, human beings and
gods, and dragons and spirits. Having been born to meet the spread of this
Dharma, if we cover our body with the ka? aya only once, receiving it and
retaining it for just a k? a? a or a muhurta,31 that [experience] will surely serve
as a talisman to protect us32 in the realization of the supreme state of bodhi.
When we dye the body and mind with a single phrase or a single verse, it
becomes a seed of everlasting brightness which finally leads us to the supreme
state of bodhi. When we dye the body and mind with one real dharma or one
good deed, it may be also like this. Mental images arise and vanish instanta-
neously; they are without an abode. The physical body also arises and van-
ishes instantaneously; it too is without an abode. Nevertheless, the merit that
we practice always has its time of ripening and shedding. The ka? aya, simi-
larly, is beyond elaboration and beyond non-elaboration, it is beyond having
an abode and beyond having no abode: it is that which �buddhas alone, together
with buddhas, perfectly realize. �33 Nevertheless, practitioners who receive
and retain [the ka? aya] always accomplish the merit that is thus to be gained,
and they always arrive at the ultimate. Those without past good conduct�
even if they pass through one life, two lives, or countless lives�can never
meet the ka? aya, can never wear the ka? aya, can never believe in the ka? aya,
and can never clearly know the ka? aya. In China and Japan today, we see that
there are those who have had the opportunity to clothe their body once in the
ka? aya, and there are those who have not. [The difference] depends neither
upon high or low status nor upon stupidity or wisdom: clearly it was deter-
mined by past good conduct. This being so, if we have received and retained
the ka? aya, we should feel glad about our past good conduct, and should not
doubt the accumulation of merit and the piling up of virtue. If we have not
got [the ka? aya] yet, we should hope to get it. We should strive, without delay,
to sow the first seeds [of receiving and retaining the ka? aya] in this life. Those
who are prevented by some hindrance from receiving and retaining [the ka? aya]
should repent and confess before the buddha-tathagatas and the Three Treas-
ures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. How living beings in other countries
must wish, �If only the robe and the Dharma of the Tathagata had been authen-
tically transmitted and were intimately present in our country, as they are in
China! � Their shame must be deep, and their sadness tinged with resentment,
that the authentic tradition has not passed into their own country. Why are
we so fortunate as to have met the Dharma in which the robe and the Dharma
of the Tathagata, the World-honored One, have been authentically transmit-
ted? It is the in? uence of the great merit of praj �a nurtured in the past. In the
present corrupt age of the latter Dharma, [some] are not ashamed that they
themselves have no authentic transmission, and they envy others who pos-
sess the authentic transmission. I think they may be a band of demons. Their
present possessions and abodes which are in? uenced by their former conduct,
are not true and real. Just to devote themselves34 to and to venerate the authen-
tically transmitted Buddha-Dharma: this may be their real refuge in learning
[the state of] buddha. In sum, remember that the ka? aya is the object of the
buddhas' veneration and devotion. It is the body of the Buddha and the mind
of the Buddha. We call it �the clothing of liberation,�35 �the robe of a field of
happiness,�36 �the robe without form,�37 �the supreme robe,� �the robe of
endurance,�38 �the robe of the Tatha gata,� �the robe of great benevolence and
great compassion,� �the robe that is a banner of excellence,� and �the robe
of anuttara samyaksa? bodhi. � We should receive and retain it like this,
humbly receiving it upon the head. Because it is like this, we should never
change it according to [our own] mind.
[71] As material for the robe, we use silk or cotton, according to suit-
ability. It is not always the case that cotton is pure and silk is impure. There
is no viewpoint from which to hate cotton and to prefer silk; that would be
laughable. The usual method39 of the buddhas, in every case, is to see rags40
as the best material. There are ten sorts and four sorts of rags; namely, burned,
chewed by an ox, gnawed by rats, from clothes of dead people, and so forth. 41
�The people of the five areas of India42 discarded rags like these in streets
and fields, as if they were filth, and so they called them �filthy rags. '43 Prac-
titioners picked them up, washed them and sewed them, and used them to
cover the body. �44 Among those [rags] there are various kinds of silk and
various kinds of cotton. We should throw away the view [that discriminates
between] silk and cotton, and study rags in practice. When, in ancient times45
[the Buddha] was washing a robe of rags in Lake Anavatapta,46 the Dragon
King praised him with a rain of ? owers, and made prostrations of reverence.
Some teachers of the Small Vehicle have a theory about transformed thread,47
which also may be without foundation. People of the Great Vehicle might
laugh at it. What kind [of thread] is not transformed thread? When those
teachers hear of �transformation� they believe their ears, but when they see
the transformation itself they doubt their eyes. Remember, in picking up
rags, there may be cotton that looks like silk and there may be silk that looks
like cotton. There being myriad differences in local customs it is hard to
fathom [nature's] creation�eyes of ? esh cannot know it. Having obtained
such material, we should not discuss whether it is silk or cotton but should
call it rags. Even if there are human beings or gods in heaven who have sur-
vived as rags, they are never sentient beings, they are just rags. Even if there
are pine trees or chrysanthemums that have survived as rags, they are never
insentient beings, they are just rags. When we believe the principle that rags
are not silk or cotton, and not gold, silver, pearl, or jewel, rags are realized.
Before we have got rid of views and opinions about silk and cotton, we have
never seen rags even in a dream. On one occasion a monk asks the eternal
buddha,48 �Should we see the robe you received on Obai [Mountain] in the
middle of the night as cotton, or should we see it as silk? In short, as what
material should we see it? � The eternal buddha says, �It is not cotton and it
is not silk. � Remember, it is a profound teaching49 of the Buddha's truth that
the ka? aya is beyond silk and cotton.
[74] The Venerable Sa? avasa50 is third in the transmission of the Dharma
treasury. He has been endowed with a robe since birth. While he is a lay-
man this robe is a secular garment, but when he leaves home51 it turns into
a ka? aya. In another case, the bhik? u? i Sukra,52 after establishing the will
and being clothed in a cotton robe, has been born with a robe in every life
and middle existence. On the day that she meets Sakyamuni Buddha and
leaves home, the secular robe that she has had since birth changes instantly
into a ka? aya, as in the case of Venerable Sa? avasa. Clearly, the ka? aya is
beyond silk, cotton, and so forth. Moreover, the fact that the virtue of the
Buddha-Dharma can transform body and mind and all dharmas is as in those
examples. The truth is evident that when we leave home and receive the pre-
cepts, body and mind, object-and-subject, change at once; it is only because
we are stupid that we do not know. It is not true that the usual rule53 of the
buddhas applies only to Sa? avasa and to Sukra but not to us; we should not
doubt that benefit [accrues] in accordance with individual standing. We
should consider such truths in detail and learn them in practice. The ka? aya
that covers the body of [the monks whom the Buddha] welcomes54 to take
the precepts is not necessarily cotton or silk: the Buddha's in? uence is difficult
to consider. The precious pearl within the robe55 is beyond those who count
grains of sand. 56 We should clarify and should learn in practice that which
has quantity and that which is without quantity, that which has form and that
which is without form, in the material, color, and measurements of the ka? aya
of the buddhas. This is what all the ancestral masters of the Western Heav-
ens and the Eastern Lands, past and present, learned in practice and trans-
mitted as the authentic tradition. If someone is able to see and to hear [a mas-
ter] in whom there is nothing to doubt�the authentic transmission from
patriarch to patriarch being evident�but fails, without reason, to receive the
authentic transmission from this ancestral master, such smugness would be
hard to condone. The extent of [this] stupidity might be due to unbelief. It
would be to abandon the real and to pursue the false, to discard the root and
to seek after branches. It would be to slight the Tathagata. People who wish
to establish the bodhi-mind should always receive the authentic transmis-
sion of an ancestral master. Not only have we met the Buddha-Dharma
which is so difficult to meet: also, as Dharma descendants in the authentic
transmission of the Buddha's ka?
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. Though venerable patri-
archs hitherto have each spoken as they have, how could there be nothing fur-
ther to say? I would like to say:
The half-presence of will and words is existence-time,
The half-absence of will and words is existence-time.
There should be study in experience like this.
Making oneself65 lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is half existence-time,
Making oneself lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is mixed-up
existence-time,
Not making oneself lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is half
existence-time,
Not making oneself lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is mixed-up
existence-time.
When we experience coming and experience leaving, and when we expe-
rience presence and experience absence, like this, that time is existence-time.
Shobogenzo Uji
Written at Koshohorinji on the first day of
winter in the first year of Ninji. 66
Copied during the summer retreat in the
[first] year of Kangen67�Ejo.
---
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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 12
[Chapter Twelve]
Kesa-kudoku
The Merit of the Ka? aya
Translator 's Note: Kesa represents the Sanskrit word ka? aya, or Buddhist
robe, and kudoku means �virtue� or �merit. � So kesa-kudoku means the
merit of the ka? aya. Being a realistic religion, Buddhism reveres our real
life. In other words, Buddhism esteems our real conduct in daily life; wear-
ing clothes and eating meals are very important parts of Buddhist life. In
particular, the ka? aya and patra, or Buddhist bowl, are the main symbols of
Buddhist life. In this chapter Master Dogen explains and praises the merit
of the ka? aya.
[49] The authentic transmission into China of the robe and the Dharma, which
are authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha and from patriarch to
patriarch, was done only by the Founding Patriarch of Sugaku Peak. 1 The
Founding Patriarch was the twenty-eighth patriarch after Sakyamuni Buddha,
the transmission having passed twenty-eight times in India from rightful suc-
cessor to rightful successor. The twenty-eighth patriarch went to China in
person and became the First Patriarch [there]. The transmission then passed
through five Chinese [masters] and reached Sokei,2 the thirty-third patriarch,
whom we call �the Sixth Patriarch. � Zen Master Daikan, the thirty-third patri-
arch, received the authentic transmission of this robe and Dharma on Obaizan3
in the middle of the night, after which he guarded and retained [the robe]
throughout his life. It is still deposited at Horinji on Sokeizan. Many suc-
cessive generations of emperors devoutly asked for [the robe] to be brought
to the imperial court, where they served offerings and made prostrations to
it, guarding it as a sacred object. The Tang dynasty4 emperors Chuso (Ch.
Zhongzong), Shukuso (Ch. Suzong), and Taiso5 (Ch. Daizong) frequently
had [the robe] brought to the court and served offerings to it. When they
requested it and when they sent it back, they would conscientiously dispatch
an imperial emissary and issue an edict. Emperor Taiso once returned the
buddha robe to Sokeizan with the following edict: �I now dispatch the great
General Ryu Shukei,6 Pacifier of the Nation, to receive with courtesy7 and
to deliver [the robe]. I consider it to be a national treasure. Venerable priests,8
deposit it according to the Dharma in its original temple. Let it be solemnly
guarded only by monks who have intimately received the fundamental teach-
ing. Never let it fall into neglect. � Truly, better than ruling a three-thousand-
great-thousandfold realm of worlds as countless as the sands of the Ganges,9
to see and to hear and to serve offerings to the Buddha's robe as the king of
a small country where the Buddha's robe is present, may be the best life
among [all] good lives [lived] in life-and-death. Where, in a three-thou-
sandfold world which has been reached by the Buddha's in? uence, could
the ka? aya not exist? At the same time, the one who passed on the authen-
tic transmission of the Buddha's ka? aya, having received the face-to-face
transmission from rightful successor to rightful successor, is only the ances-
tral patriarch of Sugaku Peak. The Buddha's ka? aya was not handed down
through side lineages. 10 The transmission to Bodhisattva Bhadrapala, a col-
lateral descendant of the twenty-seventh patriarch,11 duly arrived at Dharma
teacher Jo,12 but there was no authentic transmission of the Buddha's ka? aya.
Again, Great Master [Doshin], the Fourth Patriarch in China,13 delivered Zen
Master Hoyu14 of Gozusan but did not pass on the authentic transmission of
the Buddha's ka? aya. So even without the transmission from rightful suc-
cessors, the Tathagata's right Dharma�whose merit is never empty�con-
fers its wide and great benefit all through thousands of ages and myriads of
ages. [At the same time] those who have received the transmission from
rightful successors are not to be compared with those who lack the trans-
mission. Therefore, when human beings and gods receive and retain the
ka? aya, they should receive the authentic transmission transmitted between
Buddhist patriarchs. In India and in China, in the ages of the right Dharma
and the imitative Dharma,15 even laypeople received and retained the ka? aya.
In this distant and remote land in the present degenerate age, those who shave
their beard and hair and call themselves the Buddha's disciples do not receive
and retain the ka? aya. They have never believed, known, or clarified that
they should receive and retain [the ka? aya]; it is lamentable. How much less
do they know of the [ka? aya's] material, color, and measurements. How
much less do they know how to wear it.
[54] The ka? aya has been called, since ancient time, �the clothing of
liberation. � It can liberate16 us from all hindrances such as karmic hindrances,
hindrances of af? iction, and hindrances of retribution. If a dragon gets a sin-
gle strand [of the ka? aya], it escapes the three kinds of heat. 17 If a bull touches
[a ka? aya] with one of its horns, its sins will naturally be extinguished. When
buddhas realize the truth they are always wearing the ka? aya. Remember,
[to wear the ka? aya] is the noblest and highest virtue. Truly, we have been
born in a remote land in [the age of] the latter Dharma, and we must regret
this. But at the same time, how should we measure the joy of meeting the
robe and the Dharma that have been transmitted from buddha to buddha,
from rightful successor to rightful successor? Which [other] lineage has
authentically transmitted both the robe and the Dharma of Sakyamuni in the
manner of our authentic transmission? Having met them, who could fail to
venerate them and to serve offerings to them? Even if, each day, we [have
to] discard bodies and lives as countless as the sands of the Ganges, we should
serve offerings to them. Indeed we should vow to meet them, humbly to
receive them upon the head,18 to serve offerings to them, and to venerate
them in every life in every age. Between us and the country of the Buddha's
birth, there are more than a hundred thousand miles of mountains and oceans,
and it is too far for us to travel; nevertheless, promoted by past good con-
duct, we have not been shut out by the mountains and oceans, and we have
not been spurned as the dullards of a remote [land]. Having met this right
Dharma, we should persistently practice it day and night. Having received
and retained this ka? aya, we should perpetually receive it upon the head in
humility and preserve it. How could this only be to have practiced merit
under one buddha or two buddhas? It may be to have practiced all kinds of
merit under buddhas equal to the sands of the Ganges. Even if [the people
who receive and retain the ka? aya] are ourselves, we should venerate them,
and we should rejoice. We should heartily repay the profound benevolence
of the ancestral master in transmitting the Dharma. Even animals repay kind-
ness; so how could human beings fail to recognize kindness? If we failed to
recognize kindness, we might be more stupid than animals.
The merits of
this buddha robe and this Buddha-Dharma were never clarified or known by
anyone other than the ancestral master who transmitted the Buddha's right
Dharma. If we want to follow gladly the traces of the buddhas, we should
just be glad about this [transmission]. Even after hundred thousand myriads
of generations, we should esteem this authentic transmission as the authen-
tic transmission. This [transmission] may be the Buddha-Dharma itself; the
proof in due course will become evident. We should not liken [the trans-
mission] to the dilution of milk with water. It is like a crown prince suc-
ceeding to the throne. When we want to use milk, if there is no milk other
than this diluted milk [described above], although it is diluted milk we should
use it. Even when we do not dilute it with water, we must not use oil, we
must not use lacquer, and we must not use wine. This authentic transmis-
sion may also be like that. Even a mediocre follower of an ordinary master,
providing the authentic transmission is present, may be in a good situation
to use milk. [But] more to the point, the authentic transmission from buddha
to buddha and from patriarch to patriarch is like the succession of a crown
prince. Even secular [teaching] says, �One does not wear clothing different
from the official uniform of the previous reign. �19 How could disciples of
the Buddha wear [robes] different from the Buddha's robe?
[58] Since the tenth year of the Eihei era,20 during the reign of Emperor
Komei (Ch. Mingdi) of the Later Han dynasty,21 monks and laymen going
back and forth between the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands have
followed on each other's heels without cease, but none has claimed to have
met in the Western Heavens an ancestral master of the authentic transmis-
sion from buddha to buddha and from patriarch to patriarch; none has a record
of the lineage of the face-to-face transmission from the Tathagata. They have
only followed teachers of sutras and commentaries, and brought back San-
skrit books of sutras and philosophy. None speaks of having met an ances-
tral master who is a rightful successor to the Buddha's Dharma, and none
mentions that there are ancestral masters who have received the transmis-
sion of the Buddha's ka? aya. Clearly, they have not entered beyond the
threshold of the Buddha's Dharma. People like this have not clarified the
principle of the authentic transmission by Buddhist patriarchs. When Sakya-
muni Tathagata22 passed to Mahakasyapa the right Dharma-eye treasury and
the supreme state of bodhi, he transmitted them together with a ka? aya received
in the authentic transmission from Kasyapa Buddha. 23 Received by rightful
successor from rightful successor, [the ka? aya] reached Zen Master Daikan
of Sokeizan, the thirty-third generation. The material, color, and measure-
ments [of the ka? aya] had been transmitted intimately. Since then, the Dharma
descendants of Seigen and Nangaku24 have intimately transmitted the Dharma,
wearing the Dharma of the ancestral patriarchs and keeping the Dharma of
the ancestral patriarchs in order. The method of washing [the ka? aya] and
the method of receiving and retaining [the ka? aya] cannot be known with-
out learning in practice in the inner sanctum of the legitimate face-to-face
transmission of those methods.
[60] The ka? aya is said to include three robes. They are the five-stripe
robe, the seven-stripe robe, and the large robe of nine or more stripes.
Excellent practitioners receive only these three robes, and do not keep
other robes. To use just the three robes serves the body well enough.
When we are attending to business or doing chores, and when we are
going to and from the toilet, we wear the five-stripe robe. For doing
good practices among the sangha, we wear the seven-stripe robe. To
teach human beings and gods, and to make them devout, we should
wear the large robe of nine or more stripes. Or, when we are in a pri-
vate place we wear the five-stripe robe, when we go among the sangha
we wear the seven-stripe robe, and when we go into a royal palace or
into towns and villages we should wear the large robe. Or, when it is
nice and warm we wear the five-stripe robe, when it is cold we put on
the seven-stripe robe as well, and when the cold is severe we also put
on the large robe. Once, in ancient times, the weather on a midwinter
night was cold enough to split bamboo. As that night fell, the Tatha-
gata put on the five-stripe robe. As the night passed and it got colder,
he put on the seven-stripe robe as well. Later on in the night, when the
coldness reached a peak, he also put on the large robe. At this time,
the Buddha thought, �In future ages, when the cold is beyond endurance,
good sons should be able to clothe their bodies adequately with these
three robes. �25
[62] The method of wearing the ka? aya: �To bare only the right shoul-
der�26 is the usual method. There is a method of wearing [the ka? aya] so that
it goes over both shoulders, a form [followed by] the Tathagata and veter-
ans who are senior in years and experience: both shoulders are covered, while
the chest may be either exposed or covered. [The method of] covering both
shoulders is for a large ka? aya of sixty or more stripes. [Usually,] when we
wear the ka? aya, we wear both sides over the left arm and shoulder. The
front edge goes over the left side [of the ka? aya] and hangs over the [left
upper] arm. 27 In the case of the large ka? aya, [this] front edge passes over
the left shoulder and hangs down behind the back. There are various meth-
ods of wearing the ka? aya besides these; we should take time to study them
and should inquire into them.
[64] For hundreds of years, through one dynasty after another�Liang,
Zhen, Sui, Tang, and Song28�many scholars of both the Great and the Small
Vehicles have abandoned the work of lecturing on sutras, recognizing that
it is not the ultimate, and progressed to learn the authentically transmitted
Dharma of the Buddhist patriarchs; when they do so, they inevitably shed
their former shabby robes and receive and retain the authentically transmit-
ted ka? aya of the Buddhist patriarchs. This is indeed the abandonment of the
false and the return to the true. [In discussing] the right Dharma of the Tatha-
gata, [we see] the Western Heavens as the very root of the Dharma. Many
teachers of human beings, past and present, have established small views
based on the sentimental and parochial thinking of the common person.
Because the world of buddha and the world of living beings are beyond being
limited and being unlimited, the teachings, practice, and human truths of the
Mahayana and the Hinayana can never fit inside the narrow thoughts of com-
mon people today. Nevertheless, [common people] in China, acting at ran-
dom, have failed to see the Western Heavens as the root, and have consid-
ered their newly devised, limited, small views to be the Buddha-Dharma.
Such facts should never occur. Therefore if people today who have estab-
lished the mind want to receive and to retain the ka? aya, they must receive
and retain the ka? aya of the authentic transmission. They must not receive
and retain a ka? aya newly created according to the idea of the moment. The
ka? aya of the authentic transmission means the one that has been authenti-
cally transmitted from Shaolin [Temple] and Sokei [Mountain],29 the one
that has been received by the Tathagata's rightful successors without miss-
ing a single generation. The ka? aya worn by their Dharma children and
Dharma grandchildren is the traditional ka? aya. What has been newly cre-
ated in China is not traditional. Now, the ka? aya worn by the monks who
have come from the Western Heavens, in the past and present, are all worn
as the ka? aya authentically transmitted by the Buddhist patriarchs. Not one
of these monks [has worn a ka? aya] like the new ka? aya being produced in
China today by precepts scholars. Dull people believe in the ka? aya of pre-
cepts scholars; those who are clear throw [such robes] away. In general, the
merit of the ka? aya transmitted from buddha to buddha and from patriarch
to patriarch is evident and easy to believe in. Its authentic transmission has
been received exactly, its original form has been handed down personally,
and it exists really in the present. [The Buddhist patriarchs] have received
and retained it, and succeeded to each other's Dharma, until today. The ances-
tral masters who have received and retained [the ka? aya] are all masters and
disciples who experienced the state30 and received the transmission of Dharma.
This being so, we should make [the ka? aya] properly, according to the method
for making the ka? aya that has been authentically transmitted by the Buddhist
patriarchs. This alone is the authentic tradition, and so it has long been expe-
rienced and recognized by all common and sacred beings, human beings and
gods, and dragons and spirits. Having been born to meet the spread of this
Dharma, if we cover our body with the ka? aya only once, receiving it and
retaining it for just a k? a? a or a muhurta,31 that [experience] will surely serve
as a talisman to protect us32 in the realization of the supreme state of bodhi.
When we dye the body and mind with a single phrase or a single verse, it
becomes a seed of everlasting brightness which finally leads us to the supreme
state of bodhi. When we dye the body and mind with one real dharma or one
good deed, it may be also like this. Mental images arise and vanish instanta-
neously; they are without an abode. The physical body also arises and van-
ishes instantaneously; it too is without an abode. Nevertheless, the merit that
we practice always has its time of ripening and shedding. The ka? aya, simi-
larly, is beyond elaboration and beyond non-elaboration, it is beyond having
an abode and beyond having no abode: it is that which �buddhas alone, together
with buddhas, perfectly realize. �33 Nevertheless, practitioners who receive
and retain [the ka? aya] always accomplish the merit that is thus to be gained,
and they always arrive at the ultimate. Those without past good conduct�
even if they pass through one life, two lives, or countless lives�can never
meet the ka? aya, can never wear the ka? aya, can never believe in the ka? aya,
and can never clearly know the ka? aya. In China and Japan today, we see that
there are those who have had the opportunity to clothe their body once in the
ka? aya, and there are those who have not. [The difference] depends neither
upon high or low status nor upon stupidity or wisdom: clearly it was deter-
mined by past good conduct. This being so, if we have received and retained
the ka? aya, we should feel glad about our past good conduct, and should not
doubt the accumulation of merit and the piling up of virtue. If we have not
got [the ka? aya] yet, we should hope to get it. We should strive, without delay,
to sow the first seeds [of receiving and retaining the ka? aya] in this life. Those
who are prevented by some hindrance from receiving and retaining [the ka? aya]
should repent and confess before the buddha-tathagatas and the Three Treas-
ures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. How living beings in other countries
must wish, �If only the robe and the Dharma of the Tathagata had been authen-
tically transmitted and were intimately present in our country, as they are in
China! � Their shame must be deep, and their sadness tinged with resentment,
that the authentic tradition has not passed into their own country. Why are
we so fortunate as to have met the Dharma in which the robe and the Dharma
of the Tathagata, the World-honored One, have been authentically transmit-
ted? It is the in? uence of the great merit of praj �a nurtured in the past. In the
present corrupt age of the latter Dharma, [some] are not ashamed that they
themselves have no authentic transmission, and they envy others who pos-
sess the authentic transmission. I think they may be a band of demons. Their
present possessions and abodes which are in? uenced by their former conduct,
are not true and real. Just to devote themselves34 to and to venerate the authen-
tically transmitted Buddha-Dharma: this may be their real refuge in learning
[the state of] buddha. In sum, remember that the ka? aya is the object of the
buddhas' veneration and devotion. It is the body of the Buddha and the mind
of the Buddha. We call it �the clothing of liberation,�35 �the robe of a field of
happiness,�36 �the robe without form,�37 �the supreme robe,� �the robe of
endurance,�38 �the robe of the Tatha gata,� �the robe of great benevolence and
great compassion,� �the robe that is a banner of excellence,� and �the robe
of anuttara samyaksa? bodhi. � We should receive and retain it like this,
humbly receiving it upon the head. Because it is like this, we should never
change it according to [our own] mind.
[71] As material for the robe, we use silk or cotton, according to suit-
ability. It is not always the case that cotton is pure and silk is impure. There
is no viewpoint from which to hate cotton and to prefer silk; that would be
laughable. The usual method39 of the buddhas, in every case, is to see rags40
as the best material. There are ten sorts and four sorts of rags; namely, burned,
chewed by an ox, gnawed by rats, from clothes of dead people, and so forth. 41
�The people of the five areas of India42 discarded rags like these in streets
and fields, as if they were filth, and so they called them �filthy rags. '43 Prac-
titioners picked them up, washed them and sewed them, and used them to
cover the body. �44 Among those [rags] there are various kinds of silk and
various kinds of cotton. We should throw away the view [that discriminates
between] silk and cotton, and study rags in practice. When, in ancient times45
[the Buddha] was washing a robe of rags in Lake Anavatapta,46 the Dragon
King praised him with a rain of ? owers, and made prostrations of reverence.
Some teachers of the Small Vehicle have a theory about transformed thread,47
which also may be without foundation. People of the Great Vehicle might
laugh at it. What kind [of thread] is not transformed thread? When those
teachers hear of �transformation� they believe their ears, but when they see
the transformation itself they doubt their eyes. Remember, in picking up
rags, there may be cotton that looks like silk and there may be silk that looks
like cotton. There being myriad differences in local customs it is hard to
fathom [nature's] creation�eyes of ? esh cannot know it. Having obtained
such material, we should not discuss whether it is silk or cotton but should
call it rags. Even if there are human beings or gods in heaven who have sur-
vived as rags, they are never sentient beings, they are just rags. Even if there
are pine trees or chrysanthemums that have survived as rags, they are never
insentient beings, they are just rags. When we believe the principle that rags
are not silk or cotton, and not gold, silver, pearl, or jewel, rags are realized.
Before we have got rid of views and opinions about silk and cotton, we have
never seen rags even in a dream. On one occasion a monk asks the eternal
buddha,48 �Should we see the robe you received on Obai [Mountain] in the
middle of the night as cotton, or should we see it as silk? In short, as what
material should we see it? � The eternal buddha says, �It is not cotton and it
is not silk. � Remember, it is a profound teaching49 of the Buddha's truth that
the ka? aya is beyond silk and cotton.
[74] The Venerable Sa? avasa50 is third in the transmission of the Dharma
treasury. He has been endowed with a robe since birth. While he is a lay-
man this robe is a secular garment, but when he leaves home51 it turns into
a ka? aya. In another case, the bhik? u? i Sukra,52 after establishing the will
and being clothed in a cotton robe, has been born with a robe in every life
and middle existence. On the day that she meets Sakyamuni Buddha and
leaves home, the secular robe that she has had since birth changes instantly
into a ka? aya, as in the case of Venerable Sa? avasa. Clearly, the ka? aya is
beyond silk, cotton, and so forth. Moreover, the fact that the virtue of the
Buddha-Dharma can transform body and mind and all dharmas is as in those
examples. The truth is evident that when we leave home and receive the pre-
cepts, body and mind, object-and-subject, change at once; it is only because
we are stupid that we do not know. It is not true that the usual rule53 of the
buddhas applies only to Sa? avasa and to Sukra but not to us; we should not
doubt that benefit [accrues] in accordance with individual standing. We
should consider such truths in detail and learn them in practice. The ka? aya
that covers the body of [the monks whom the Buddha] welcomes54 to take
the precepts is not necessarily cotton or silk: the Buddha's in? uence is difficult
to consider. The precious pearl within the robe55 is beyond those who count
grains of sand. 56 We should clarify and should learn in practice that which
has quantity and that which is without quantity, that which has form and that
which is without form, in the material, color, and measurements of the ka? aya
of the buddhas. This is what all the ancestral masters of the Western Heav-
ens and the Eastern Lands, past and present, learned in practice and trans-
mitted as the authentic tradition. If someone is able to see and to hear [a mas-
ter] in whom there is nothing to doubt�the authentic transmission from
patriarch to patriarch being evident�but fails, without reason, to receive the
authentic transmission from this ancestral master, such smugness would be
hard to condone. The extent of [this] stupidity might be due to unbelief. It
would be to abandon the real and to pursue the false, to discard the root and
to seek after branches. It would be to slight the Tathagata. People who wish
to establish the bodhi-mind should always receive the authentic transmis-
sion of an ancestral master. Not only have we met the Buddha-Dharma
which is so difficult to meet: also, as Dharma descendants in the authentic
transmission of the Buddha's ka?
