It is impos-
sible to count all the possible objects; they say that there are eighty-four
thousand objects.
sible to count all the possible objects; they say that there are eighty-four
thousand objects.
Shobogenzo
2 He is not a person of the past and present, but
may be a good counselor with the spirit of a wild fox. 3 These are the features
of [someone who] has got the marrow;4 he may be a guide and a benefactor;
he is never unclear about cause and effect; he may be you, me, him, or her. 5
[170] Having met with a guiding teacher, we should throw away myr-
iad involvements and, without wasting a moment of time,6 we should strive
in pursuit of the truth. We should train with consciousness, we should train
without consciousness, and we should train with semiconsciousness. Thus,
we should learn walking on tiptoes7 to put out a fire on our head. 8 When we
behave like this, we are unharmed by abusive demons. The patriarch who
cuts off an arm and gets the marrow9 is never another, and the master who
gets free of body and mind10 is ourself already. Getting the marrow, and
receiving the Dharma, invariably come from sincerity and from belief. There
is no example of sincerity coming from outside, and there is no way for sin-
cerity to emerge from within. [Sincerity] just means attaching weight to the
Dharma and thinking light of [one's own] body. It is to get free from the sec-
ular world and to make one's home the state of truth. If we attach even slightly
more weight to self-regard for the body than to the Dharma, the Dharma is
not transmitted to us, and we do not attain the truth. Those resolute spirits
who attach [greater] weight to the Dharma are not unique, and they do not
depend upon the exhortation of others, but let us take up, for the present, one
or two instances. It is said that those who attach weight to the Dharma will
make the body into a seat on the ? oor,11 and will serve for countless kalpas
[whatever] is maintaining and relying upon the great Dharma, [whatever]
has �got my marrow,�12 whether it is an outdoor pillar, whether it is a stone
lantern, whether it is the buddhas, whether it is a wild dog, a demon or a god,
a man or a woman. Bodies and minds are easily received: they are [as com-
mon] in the world as rice, ? ax, bamboo, and reeds. The Dharma is rarely
met. Sakyamuni Buddha says, �When you meet teachers who expound the
supreme state of bodhi, have no regard for their race or caste,13 do not notice
their looks, do not dislike their faults, and do not examine their deeds. Only
because you revere their praj�a, let them eat hundreds and thousands of
pounds of gold every day, serve them by presenting heavenly food, serve
them by scattering heavenly ? owers, do prostrations and venerate them three
times every day, and never let anxiety or annoyance arise in your mind. When
we behave like this, there is always a way to the state of bodhi. Since I estab-
lished the mind, I have been practicing like this, and so today I have been
able to attain anuttara samyaksa? bodhi. � This being so, we should hope
that even trees and stones might preach to us,14 and we should request that
even fields and villages might preach to us. 15 We should question outdoor
pillars, and we should investigate even fences and walls. There is the ancient
[example of the] god Indra16 prostrating himself to a wild dog as his master,
and asking it about the Dharma; his fame as a great bodhisattva has been
transmitted. [Fitness to be asked] does not rest upon the relative nobility of
one's station. Nevertheless, stupid people who do not listen to the Buddha's
Dharma think, �I am a senior bhik? u. I cannot prostrate myself to a junior
who has got the Dharma. � �I have endured long training. I cannot prostrate
myself to a recent student who has got the Dharma. � �I sign my name with
the title of master. I cannot prostrate myself to someone who does not have
the title of master. � �I am an Administrator of Dharma Affairs. 17 I cannot
prostrate myself to lesser monks who have got the Dharma. � �I am the Chief
Administrator of Monks. 18 I cannot prostrate myself to laymen and laywomen
who have got the Dharma. � �I am [a bodhisattva] of the three clever stages
and ten sacred stages . I cannot prostrate myself to bhik? u? is and other
[women], even if they have got the Dharma. � �I am of royal pedigree. I can-
not prostrate myself to the family of a retainer or to the lineage of a minis-
ter, even if they have got the Dharma. � Stupid people like these have heed-
lessly ? ed their father's kingdom and are wandering on the roads of foreign
lands;19 therefore, they neither see nor hear the Buddha's truth.
[176] Long ago, in the Tang dynasty, Great Master Shinsai of Joshu20
established the mind and set off as a wayfarer. 21 In the story he says, �I shall
question anyone who is superior to me, even a child of seven. And I shall
teach anyone who is inferior to me, even a man of a hundred. � The old man22
is willing to prostrate himself on asking a seven-year-old about the Dharma�
this is a rare example of a resolute spirit, and the working of the mind of an
eternal buddha. When a bhik? u? i who has got the truth and got the Dharma
manifests herself in the world,23 bhik? us24 who seek the Dharma and learn
in practice will devote themselves to her order, prostrating themselves and
asking about the Dharma�this is an excellent example of learning in prac-
tice. For instance, it is like the thirsty finding drink.
[178] The Chinese Zen Master Shikan25 is a venerable patriarch in Rin-
zai's lineage. Once upon a time, Rinzai sees the master coming [to visit] and
holds onto him. The master says, �It is understood. �26 Rinzai lets go and says,
�I will allow you to stop for a while. �27 From this point on, he has already
become Rinzai's disciple. He leaves Rinzai and goes to Massan,28 at which
time Massan asks him, �Where have you come from? � The master says, �The
entrance of the road. � Massan says, �Why have you come here without any-
thing on? �29 The master has no words. He just prostrates himself, bowing as
disciple to teacher. The master asks a question back to Massan: �Just what is
Massan? � Massan says, �[Massan] never shows a peak. �30 The master says,
�Just who is the person within the mountain? � Massan says, �It is beyond
appearances such as those of a man or a woman. � The master says, �Then why
do you not change [your form]? � Massan says, �I am not the ghost of a wild
fox. What might I change? � The master prostrates himself. Eventually he
decides to work as the head of the vegetable garden and works there altogether
for three years. Later, when he has manifested himself in the world,31 he
preaches to the assembly, �I got half a dipper at Old Papa Rinzai's place, and
I got half a dipper at Old Mama Massan's place. 32 Making a dipper with both
[halves], I have finished drinking, and, having arrived directly at the present,
I am completely satisfied. � Hearing these words now, I look back on the traces
of those days with veneration for the past. Massan is an excellent disciple33
of Koan Daigu. She has power in her lifeblood, and so she has become Shikan's
�Ma. � Rinzai is an authentic successor of Obaku [Ki]un. 34 He has power in
his efforts, and so he has become Shikan's �Pa. � �Pa� means father, and �Ma�
means mother. 35 Zen Master Shikan's prostration to and pursuit of the Dharma
under the nun Massan Ryonen are an excellent example of a resolute spirit,
and integrity that students of later ages should emulate. We can say that he
broke all barriers, large and small.
[180] Nun Myoshin is a disciple of Kyozan. 36 Kyozan, on one occasion,
is choosing the Chief of the Business Office. 37 He asks around the retired
officers and others on Kyozan, �Who is the right person? � They discuss it
back and forth, and eventually Kyozan says, �Disciple [Myo]shin from the
Wai River, though a woman, has the spirit of a big stout fellow. 38 She is cer-
tainly qualified to be Chief of the Business Office. � All the monks agree.
[So] at length Myoshin is assigned as Chief of the Business Office. The drag-
ons and elephants in Kyozan's order do not resent this. Though the position
is in fact not so grand, the one selected for it might need to love herself.
While she is posted at the business office, seventeen monks from the Shoku
district39 form a group to visit teachers and seek the truth, and, intending to
climb Kyozan, they lodge at dusk at the business office. In a nighttime talk,
while resting, they discuss the story of the Founding Patriarch Sokei,40 and
the wind and the ? ag. 41 The words of each of the seventeen men are totally
inadequate. Meanwhile, listening from the other side of the wall, the Chief
of the Business Office says, �Those seventeen blind donkeys! How many
straw sandals have they worn out in vain? They have never seen the Buddha-
Dharma even in a dream. � A temple servant present at the time overhears
the Chief of the Business Office criticizing the monks and informs the sev-
enteen monks themselves, but none of the seventeen monks resents the crit-
icism of the Chief of the Business Office. Ashamed of their own inability to
express the truth, they at once prepare themselves in the dignified form,42
burn incense, do prostrations, and request [her teaching]. The Chief of the
Business Office (Myoshin) says, �Come up here! � The seventeen monks
approach her, and while they are still walking, the Chief of the Business Office
says, �This is not wind moving, this is not a ? ag moving, and this is not mind
moving. � When she teaches them like this, the seventeen monks all experi-
ence re? ection. They bow to thank her and have the ceremony to become her
disciples. Then they go straight back home to western Shoku. In the end, they
do not climb Kyozan. Truly the state [demonstrated] here is beyond [bodhi-
sattvas at] the three clever and ten sacred stages;43 it is action in the truth as
transmitted by Buddhist patriarchs from authentic successor to authentic suc-
cessor. Therefore, even today, when a post as master or assistant master44 is
vacated, a bhik? u? i who has got the Dharma may be requested [to fill it]. Even
if a bhik? u is senior in years and experience, if he has not got the Dharma,
what importance does he have? A leader of monks must always rely upon
clear eyes. Yet many [leaders] are drowning in the body and mind of a vil-
lage bumpkin; they are so dense that they are prone to be derided even in the
secular world. How much less do they deserve to be mentioned in the Buddha-
Dharma? Moreover, there may be [men] who would refuse to prostrate them-
selves to women monks who are teachers that have received the Dharma, and
who are [the men's] elder sisters, aunts, and so on. 45 Because they do not
know and will not learn, they are close to animals, and far from the Buddhist
patriarchs. When the sole devotion of body and mind to the Buddha-Dharma
is retained deep in [a person's] consciousness, the Buddha-Dharma always
has compassion for the person. Even human beings and gods, in their stu-
pidity, have the sympathy to respond to sincerity, so how could the buddhas,
in their rightness, lack the compassion to reciprocate sincerity? The sublime
spirit that responds to sincerity exists even in soil, stones, sand, and pebbles.
In the temples of the great kingdom of Song today, if a resident bhik? u? i is
reputed to have got the Dharma, the government issues an imperial edict for
her to be appointed master of a nuns' temple, and she gives formal preach-
ing in the Dharma hall of her present temple. All the monks, from the mas-
ter down, attend [the formal preaching]. They listen to the Dharma, stand-
ing on the ground, and questions are also [put by] the bhik? us, the male
monks. This is a traditional standard. A person who has got the Dharma is
one individual true eternal buddha here and now, and as such should not be
met as someone from the past. When that person looks at us, we meet each
other in a new and singular state. When we look at that person, the mutual
relation may be �today having to enter today. � For example, when arhats,
pratyekabuddhas, and [bodhisattvas at]46 the three clever and ten sacred
stages come to a bhik? u? i who is retaining the transmission of the right
Dharma-eye treasury, to prostrate themselves and to ask her about Dharma,
she must receive these prostrations. Why should men be higher? Space is
space, the four elements are the four elements,47 the five aggregates are the
five aggregates,48 and women are also like this. As regards attainment of the
truth, both [men and women] attain the truth, and we should just profoundly
revere every single person who has attained the Dharma. Do not discuss man
and woman. This is one of Buddhism's finest Dharma standards.
[187] In Song dynasty [China], the term �householder�49 refers to gen-
tlemen who have not left their families. 50 Some of them live in houses with
their wives, while others are single and pure, but anyway we can say that
they are immensely busy in a dense forest of dusty toil. 51 Nevertheless, if
one of them has clarified something, patch-robed monks52 gather to do pros-
trations and to ask for the benefit [of his teaching], as to a master who had
left home. We also should be like that, even toward a woman, even toward
an animal. When [a person] has never seen the truths of the Buddha-Dharma
even in a dream, even if he is an old bhik? u of a hundred years, he cannot
arrive at the level of a man or woman who has got the Dharma, so we should
not venerate [such a person] but need only bow to him as junior to senior.
When [a person] practices the Buddha-Dharma and speaks the Buddha-
Dharma, even if a girl of seven, she is just the guiding teacher of the four
groups53 and the benevolent father of all living beings. We should serve and
venerate her as we do the buddha-tathagatas, and as it was, for example,
when the dragon's daughter became a buddha. 54 This is just the time-hon-
ored form in Buddhism. Those who do not know about it, and who have not
received its one-to-one transmission, are pitiful.
[188] Another case: Since the ancient past in Japan and China, there
have been women emperors. The whole country is the possession of such
an empress, and all the people become her subjects. This is not out of rev-
erence for her person but out of reverence for her position. Likewise, a
bhik? u? i has never been revered for her person but is revered solely for her
attainment of the Dharma. Furthermore, the virtues that accompany the four
effects all belong to a bhik? u? i who has become an arhat. 55 Even [these]
virtues accompany her; what human being or god could hope to surpass these
virtues of the fourth effect? Gods of the triple world are all inferior to her.
While being forsaken [by human beings] she is venerated by all the gods.
How much less should anyone fail to venerate those who have received the
transmission of the Tathagata's right Dharma, and who have established the
great will of a bodhisattva? 56 If we fail to venerate such a person it is our
own wrongness. And if we fail to revere our own supreme state of bodhi,
we are stupid people who insult the Dharma. Again, there are in our coun-
try daughters of emperors, or ministers' daughters who become queens' con-
sorts,57 or queens who are titled with the names of temples. 58 Some of them
have shaved their head, and some of them do not shave their head. In any
case, priests who [only] look like bhik? us, and who crave fame and love gain,
never fail to run to the house of such [a woman] and strike their head at her
clogs. They are far inferior to serfs following a lord. Moreover, many of
them actually become her servants for a period of years. How pitiful they
are. Having been born in a minor nation in a remote land, they do not even
know a bad custom like this for what it is. There was never [such ignorance]
in India and China but only in our country. It is lamentable. Forcedly to shave
the head and then to violate the Tathagata's right Dharma must be called
deep and heavy sin. Solely because they forget that worldly ways are dreams
and illusions, ? owers in space, they are bonded in slavery to women. It is
lamentable. Even for the sake of a tri? ing secular livelihood, they act like
this. Why, for the sake of the supreme bodhi, do they fail to venerate the
venerable ones who have got the Dharma? It is because their awe for the
Dharma is shallow and their will to pursue the Dharma is not pervasive.
When [people] are already coveting a treasure they do not think about refus-
ing it just because it is the treasure of a woman. When we want to get the
Dharma, we must surpass such resolve. If it is so, even grass, trees, fences,
and walls will bestow the right Dharma, and the heavens and the earth, myr-
iad things and phenomena, will also impart the right Dharma. This is a truth
that we must always remember. Before we seek the Dharma with this deter-
mination, even if we meet true good counselors, we will not be soaked by
the benevolent water of Dharma. We should pay careful attention [to this].
[192] Furthermore, nowadays extremely stupid people look at women
without having corrected the prejudice that women are objects of sexual
greed. Disciples of the Buddha must not be like this. If whatever may become
the object of sexual greed is to be hated, do not all men deserve to be hated
too? As regards the causes and conditions of becoming tainted, a man can
be the object, a woman can be the object, what is neither man nor woman
can be the object, and dreams and fantasies, ? owers in space, can also be the
object. There have been impure acts done with a re? ection on water as an
object, and there have been impure acts done with the sun in the sky as an
object. 59 A god can be the object, and a demon can be the object.
It is impos-
sible to count all the possible objects; they say that there are eighty-four
thousand objects. Should we discard all of them? Should we not look at
them? The precepts60 say, �[Abuse of] the two male organs,61 or the three
female organs,62 are both parajika, and [the offender] may not remain in the
community. �63 This being so, if we hate whatever might become the object
of sexual greed, all men and women will hate each other, and we will never
have any chance to attain salvation. We should examine this truth in detail.
There are non-Buddhists who have no wife: even though they have no wife,
they have not entered the Buddha-Dharma, and so they are [only] non-Bud-
dhists with wrong views. There are disciples of the Buddha who, as the two
classes of laypeople,64 have a husband or a wife: even though they have a
husband or a wife, they are disciples of the Buddha, and so there are no other
beings equal to them in the human world or in heaven above.
[194] Even in China, there was a stupid monk who made the following
vow: �Through every life, in every age, I shall never look at a woman. � Upon
what morality is this vow based? Is it based on secular morality? Is it based
on the Buddha-Dharma? Is it based on the morality of non-Buddhists? Or is
it based on the morality of heavenly demons? 65 What wrong is there in a
woman? What virtue is there in a man? Among bad people there are men
who are bad people. Among good people there are women who are good
people. Wanting to hear the Dharma, and wanting to get liberation, never
depend upon whether we are a man or a woman. When they have yet to cut
delusion, men and women alike have yet to cut delusion. When they cut delu-
sion and experience the principle, there is nothing at all to choose between
a man and a woman. Moreover, if [a man] has vowed never to look at a
woman, must he discard women even when vowing to save limitlessly many
living beings? 66 If he discards them, he is not a bodhisattva. How much less
[does he have] the Buddha's compassion. This [vow] is just a drunken utter-
ance caused by deep intoxication on the wine of the sravaka. Neither human
beings nor gods should believe this [vow] to be true. Furthermore, if we hate
[others] for the wrongs they have committed in the past, we must even hate
all bodhisattvas. If we hate like this, we will discard everyone, so how will
we be able to realize the Buddha-Dharma? Words like those [of the monk's
vow] are the deranged speech of a stupid man who does not know the Buddha-
Dharma. We should feel sorry for him. If that monk's67 vow is true, did
Sakyamuni and the bodhisattvas of his time all commit wrongs? 68 And was
their bodhi-mind less profound than the will of that monk? We should re? ect
[on this] quietly. We should learn in practice whether the ancestral masters
who transmitted the treasury of Dharma, and the bodhisattvas of the Buddha's
lifetime, had things to learn in the Buddha-Dharma without this vow. If the
vow of that monk were true, not only would we fail to save women but also,
when a woman who had got the Dharma manifested herself in the world and
preached the Dharma for human beings and gods, we would be forbidden to
come and listen to her, would we not? Anyone who did not come and listen
would be not a bodhisattva, but just a non-Buddhist. When we look now at
the great kingdom of Song, there are monks who seem to have been in train-
ing for a long time, [but] who have only been vainly counting the sands of
the ocean69 and rolling like surf over the ocean of life and death. 70 There are
also those who, although women, have visited [good] counselors, made effort
in pursuit of the truth, and thus become the guiding teachers of human beings
and gods. There are [women] such as the old woman who wouldn't sell her
rice cakes [to Tokusan] and threw her rice cakes away. 71 It was pitiful that
although [Tokusan] was a male monk, a bhik? u, he had been vainly counting
the sands of the ocean of philosophy, and had never seen the Buddha-Dharma,
even in a dream. In general, we should learn to understand clearly whatever
circumstances we meet. If we learn only to fear and to ? ee [from circum-
stances], that is the theory and practice of a sravaka of the Small Vehicle.
When we abandon the east and try to hide away in the west, the west is also
not without its circumstances. Even if we think that we have escaped cir-
cumstances, unless we understand them clearly, though they may be distant
they are still circumstances, we are still not in the state of liberation, and the
distant circumstances will [disturb us] more and more deeply.
[198] Again in Japan, there is one particularly laughable institution. This
is either called a �sanctuary,�72 or called a �place for practicing the truth of
the Great Vehicle,� where bhik? u? is and other women are not allowed to
enter. The wrong custom has long been handed down, and so people cannot
recognize it for what it is. People who emulate the ancients do not rectify it,
and men of wide knowledge give no thought to it. Calling it the enactment
of people of authority, or terming it the legacy of men of tradition, they never
discuss it at all. If one laughed, a person's guts might split. Just who are the
so-called people of authority? Are they sages or are they saints? Are they
gods or are they devils? Are they [bodhisattvas at] the ten sacred stages or
are they [bodhisattvas at] the three clever stages? Are they [bodhisattvas in]
the balanced state of truth or are they [bodhisattvas in] the fine state of truth?
Moreover, if old [ways] should never be reformed, should we refrain from
abandoning incessant wandering through life and death? Still more, Great
Master Sakyamuni is just the supreme right and balanced state of truth itself,73
and he clarified everything that needs to be clarified, he practiced everything
that needs to be practiced, and he liberated74 all that needs to be liberated.
Who today could even approach his level? Yet the Buddha's order when he
was in the world included all four groups: bhik? us, bhik? u? is, upasakas, and
upasikas, it included the eight kinds of beings,75 the thirty-seven kinds of
beings, and the eighty-four thousand kinds of beings. The formation of the
Buddhist order is clearly the Buddhist order itself. So what kind of order has
no bhik? u? is, has no women, and has no eight kinds of beings? We should
never hope to have so-called sanctuaries which surpass in their purity the
Buddhist order of the Tathagata's lifetime, because they are the sphere of
heavenly demons. 76 There are no differences in the Dharma-form of the
Buddhist order, not in this world or in other directions, and not among a
thousand buddhas of the three times. 77 We should know that [an order] with
a different code is not a Buddhist order. �The fourth effect�78 is the ultimate
rank. Whether in the Mahayana or the Hinayana, the virtues of the ultimate
rank are not differentiated. Yet many bhik? u? is have experienced the fourth
effect. [So] to what kind of place�whether it is within the triple world or
in the buddha lands of the ten directions�can [a bhik? u? i ] not go? Who
could stand in her path? At the same time, the fine state of truth79 is also the
supreme rank. When a woman has [thus] already become buddha, is there
anything in all directions that she cannot perfectly realize? Who could aim
to bar her from passing? She already has virtue that �widely illuminates the
ten directions�; what meaning can a boundary have? Moreover, would god-
desses be barred from passing? Would nymphs be barred from passing? Even
goddesses and nymphs are beings that have not yet cut delusion; they are
just aimlessly wandering ordinary beings. When they have wrong, they have;
when they are without [wrong], they are without. Human women and bes-
tial women, also, when they have wrong, they have; when they are without
wrong, they are without. [But] who would stand in the way of gods or in the
way of deities? [Bhik? u? is] have attended the Buddha's order of the three
times; they have learned in practice at the place of the Buddha. If [places]
differ from the Buddha's place and from the Buddha's order, who can believe
in them as the Buddha's Dharma? [Those who exclude women] are just very
stupid fools who deceive and delude secular people. They are more stupid
than a wild dog worrying that its burrow might be stolen by a human being.
The Buddha's disciples, whether bodhisattvas or sravakas, have the fol-
lowing ranks: first, bhik? u; second, bhik? u? i; third, upasaka; and fourth,
upasika. These ranks are recognized both in the heavens above and in the
human world, and they have long been heard. This being so, those who rank
second among the Buddha's disciples are superior to sacred wheel-turning
kings,80 and superior to Sakra-devanam-indra. 81 There should never be a
place where they cannot go. Still less should [bhik? u? is] be ranked along-
side kings and ministers of a minor nation in a remote land. [But] when we
look at present �places of the truth� that a bhik? u? i may not enter, any rus-
tic, boor, farmer, or old lumberjack can enter at random. Still less would any
king, lord, officer, or minister be refused entry. Comparing country bump-
kins and bhik? u? is, in terms of learning of the truth or in terms of attainment
of rank, who is superior and who is inferior, in conclusion? Whether dis-
cussing this according to secular rules or according to the Buddha-Dharma,
[one would think that] rustics and boors should not be allowed to go where
a bhik? u? i might go. [The situation in Japan] is utterly deranged; [our] infe-
rior nation is the first to leave this stain [on its history]. How pitiful it is.
When the eldest daughters of the compassionate father of the triple world
came to a small country, they found places where they were barred from
going. On the other hand, fellows who live in those places called �sanctu-
aries� have no fear of [committing] the ten wrongs,82 and they violate the
ten important precepts83 one after another. Is it simply that, in their world
of wrongdoing, they hate people who do not do wrong? Still more, a deadly
sin84 is a serious matter indeed; those who live in sanctuaries may have com-
mitted even the deadly sins. We should just do away with such worlds of
demons. We should learn the Buddha's moral teaching and should enter the
Buddha's world. This naturally may be [the way] to repay the Buddha's
benevolence. Have these traditionalists understood the meaning of a sanc-
tuary, or have they85 not? From whom have they received their transmis-
sion? Who has covered them with the seal of approval? Whatever comes
into �this great world sanctified by the buddhas��whether it is the bud-
dhas, living beings, the earth, or space�will get free of fetters and attach-
ments, and will return to the original state which is the wonderful Dharma
of the buddhas. This being so, when living beings step once [inside] this
world, they are completely covered by the Buddha's virtue. They have the
virtue of refraining from immorality, and they have the virtue of becoming
pure and clean. When one direction is sanctified, the whole world of Dharma
is sanctified at once, and when one level is sanctified, the whole world of
Dharma is sanctified. Sometimes places are sanctified using water, some-
times places are sanctified using mind, and sometimes places are sanctified
using space. For every case there are traditions which have been transmit-
ted and received, and which we should know. 86 Furthermore, when we are
sanctifying an area, after sprinkling nectar87 and finishing devotional pros-
trations88�in other words, after making the place pure�we recite the fol-
lowing verse:
This world and the whole world of Dharma,
Naturally are sanctified, pure and clean.
Have the traditionalists and veterans who nowadays usually proclaim
sanctuaries understood this meaning, or have they not? I guess they cannot
know that the whole world of Dharma is sanctified within [the act of] sanc-
tification itself. Clearly, drunk on the wine of the sravaka, they consider a
small area to be a great world. Let us hope that they will snap out of their
habitual drunken delusion, and that they will not violate the wholeness of
the great world of the buddhas. We should prostrate ourselves in veneration
of the virtue by which [the buddhas], through acts of salvation and accept-
ance, cover all living beings with their in? uence. Who could deny that this
[prostration] is the attainment of the marrow of the truth?
Shobogenzo Raihai-tokuzui
Written at Kannondorikoshohorinji on the day
of purity and brightness89 in [the second year of]
Eno. 90
---
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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
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The Ullambana Sutra
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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
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B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 9
[Chapter Nine]
Keisei-sanshiki
The Voices of the River Valley
and the Form of the Mountains
Translator's Note: Kei means �river valley,� sei means �sound� or �voice,�
san means �mountain,� and shiki means �form� or �color. � So keisei-san-
shiki means the voices of river valleys and the forms of mountains�that is,
nature. In Buddhism, this world is the truth itself, so nature is a face of the
truth. Nature is the material side of the real world, so it is always speaking
the truth, and manifesting the law of the universe every day. This is why it has
been said since ancient time that sounds of rivers are the preaching of Gau-
tama Buddha and forms of mountains are the body of Gautama Buddha. In
this chapter, Master Dogen preached to us the meaning of nature in Buddhism.
[209] In the supreme state of bodhi, Buddhist patriarchs who transmitted the
truth and received the behavior have been many, and examples of past ances-
tors who reduced their bones to powder1 cannot be denied. Learn from the
ancestral patriarch who cut off his arm,2 and do not differ by a hair's breadth
[from the bodhisattva who] covered the mud. 3 When we each get rid of our
husk, we are not restricted by former views and understanding, and things
which have for vast kalpas been unclear suddenly appear before us. In the
here and now of such a moment, the self does not recognize it, no one else
is conscious of it, you do not expect it, and even the eyes of Buddha do not
glimpse it. How could the human intellect fathom it?
[210] In the great kingdom of Song there lived Layman Toba, whose name
was Soshoku, and who was also called Shisen. 4 He seems to have been a real
dragon in the literary world,5 and he studied the dragons and elephants of the
Buddhist world. 6 He swam happily into deep depths, and ? oated up and down
through layers of cloud. 7 Once he visited Lushan. 8 In the story he hears the
sounds of a mountain stream ? owing through the night, and realizes the truth.
He makes the following verse, and presents it to Zen Master Joso:9
The voices of the river valley are the [Buddha's] wide and long
tongue,10
The form of the mountains is nothing other than his pure body.
Through the night, eighty-four thousand verses.
On another day, how can I tell them to others?
When he presents this verse to Zen Master [Jo]so, Zen Master [Jo]so
affirms it. [Jo]so means Zen Master Shokaku Joso, a Dharma successor of
Zen Master Oryu Enan. 11 [E]nan is a Dharma successor of Zen Master Jimyo
Soen. 12 Once, when Layman [Toba] met Zen Master Butsuin Ryogen,13
Butsu in gave him a Dharma robe, the Buddhist precepts, and so on, and the
layman always wore the Dharma robe to practice the truth. The layman pre-
sented Butsuin with a priceless jeweled belt. People of the time said, �Their
behavior is beyond common folk. � So the story of realizing the truth on hear-
ing the river valley may also be of benefit to those who are later in the stream.
It is a pity that, so many times, the concrete form of the teaching, preaching
of Dharma by manifestation of the body,14 seems to have leaked away. What
has made [Layman Toba] see afresh the form of the mountains and hear the
voices of the river valley? A single phrase? Half a phrase? Or eighty-four
thousand verses? It is a shame that sounds and forms have been hiding in
the mountains and waters. But we should be glad that there are moments in
which, and causes and conditions whereby, [real sounds and forms] show
up in the mountains and waters. The tongue's manifestation never ? ags. How
could the body's form exist and vanish? At the same time, should we learn
that they are close when they are apparent, or should we learn that they are
close when they are hidden? Should we see them as a unity, or should we
see them as a half? 15 In previous springs and autumns, [Layman Toba] has
not seen or heard the mountains and waters but in moments �through the
night,� he is able, barely, to see and to hear the mountains and waters. Bodhi-
sattvas who are learning the truth now should also open the gate to learning
[by starting] from mountains ? owing and water not ? owing. 16 On the day
before the night during which this layman has realized the truth, he has vis-
ited Zen Master [Jo]so and asked about stories of �the nonemotional preach-
ing Dharma.
may be a good counselor with the spirit of a wild fox. 3 These are the features
of [someone who] has got the marrow;4 he may be a guide and a benefactor;
he is never unclear about cause and effect; he may be you, me, him, or her. 5
[170] Having met with a guiding teacher, we should throw away myr-
iad involvements and, without wasting a moment of time,6 we should strive
in pursuit of the truth. We should train with consciousness, we should train
without consciousness, and we should train with semiconsciousness. Thus,
we should learn walking on tiptoes7 to put out a fire on our head. 8 When we
behave like this, we are unharmed by abusive demons. The patriarch who
cuts off an arm and gets the marrow9 is never another, and the master who
gets free of body and mind10 is ourself already. Getting the marrow, and
receiving the Dharma, invariably come from sincerity and from belief. There
is no example of sincerity coming from outside, and there is no way for sin-
cerity to emerge from within. [Sincerity] just means attaching weight to the
Dharma and thinking light of [one's own] body. It is to get free from the sec-
ular world and to make one's home the state of truth. If we attach even slightly
more weight to self-regard for the body than to the Dharma, the Dharma is
not transmitted to us, and we do not attain the truth. Those resolute spirits
who attach [greater] weight to the Dharma are not unique, and they do not
depend upon the exhortation of others, but let us take up, for the present, one
or two instances. It is said that those who attach weight to the Dharma will
make the body into a seat on the ? oor,11 and will serve for countless kalpas
[whatever] is maintaining and relying upon the great Dharma, [whatever]
has �got my marrow,�12 whether it is an outdoor pillar, whether it is a stone
lantern, whether it is the buddhas, whether it is a wild dog, a demon or a god,
a man or a woman. Bodies and minds are easily received: they are [as com-
mon] in the world as rice, ? ax, bamboo, and reeds. The Dharma is rarely
met. Sakyamuni Buddha says, �When you meet teachers who expound the
supreme state of bodhi, have no regard for their race or caste,13 do not notice
their looks, do not dislike their faults, and do not examine their deeds. Only
because you revere their praj�a, let them eat hundreds and thousands of
pounds of gold every day, serve them by presenting heavenly food, serve
them by scattering heavenly ? owers, do prostrations and venerate them three
times every day, and never let anxiety or annoyance arise in your mind. When
we behave like this, there is always a way to the state of bodhi. Since I estab-
lished the mind, I have been practicing like this, and so today I have been
able to attain anuttara samyaksa? bodhi. � This being so, we should hope
that even trees and stones might preach to us,14 and we should request that
even fields and villages might preach to us. 15 We should question outdoor
pillars, and we should investigate even fences and walls. There is the ancient
[example of the] god Indra16 prostrating himself to a wild dog as his master,
and asking it about the Dharma; his fame as a great bodhisattva has been
transmitted. [Fitness to be asked] does not rest upon the relative nobility of
one's station. Nevertheless, stupid people who do not listen to the Buddha's
Dharma think, �I am a senior bhik? u. I cannot prostrate myself to a junior
who has got the Dharma. � �I have endured long training. I cannot prostrate
myself to a recent student who has got the Dharma. � �I sign my name with
the title of master. I cannot prostrate myself to someone who does not have
the title of master. � �I am an Administrator of Dharma Affairs. 17 I cannot
prostrate myself to lesser monks who have got the Dharma. � �I am the Chief
Administrator of Monks. 18 I cannot prostrate myself to laymen and laywomen
who have got the Dharma. � �I am [a bodhisattva] of the three clever stages
and ten sacred stages . I cannot prostrate myself to bhik? u? is and other
[women], even if they have got the Dharma. � �I am of royal pedigree. I can-
not prostrate myself to the family of a retainer or to the lineage of a minis-
ter, even if they have got the Dharma. � Stupid people like these have heed-
lessly ? ed their father's kingdom and are wandering on the roads of foreign
lands;19 therefore, they neither see nor hear the Buddha's truth.
[176] Long ago, in the Tang dynasty, Great Master Shinsai of Joshu20
established the mind and set off as a wayfarer. 21 In the story he says, �I shall
question anyone who is superior to me, even a child of seven. And I shall
teach anyone who is inferior to me, even a man of a hundred. � The old man22
is willing to prostrate himself on asking a seven-year-old about the Dharma�
this is a rare example of a resolute spirit, and the working of the mind of an
eternal buddha. When a bhik? u? i who has got the truth and got the Dharma
manifests herself in the world,23 bhik? us24 who seek the Dharma and learn
in practice will devote themselves to her order, prostrating themselves and
asking about the Dharma�this is an excellent example of learning in prac-
tice. For instance, it is like the thirsty finding drink.
[178] The Chinese Zen Master Shikan25 is a venerable patriarch in Rin-
zai's lineage. Once upon a time, Rinzai sees the master coming [to visit] and
holds onto him. The master says, �It is understood. �26 Rinzai lets go and says,
�I will allow you to stop for a while. �27 From this point on, he has already
become Rinzai's disciple. He leaves Rinzai and goes to Massan,28 at which
time Massan asks him, �Where have you come from? � The master says, �The
entrance of the road. � Massan says, �Why have you come here without any-
thing on? �29 The master has no words. He just prostrates himself, bowing as
disciple to teacher. The master asks a question back to Massan: �Just what is
Massan? � Massan says, �[Massan] never shows a peak. �30 The master says,
�Just who is the person within the mountain? � Massan says, �It is beyond
appearances such as those of a man or a woman. � The master says, �Then why
do you not change [your form]? � Massan says, �I am not the ghost of a wild
fox. What might I change? � The master prostrates himself. Eventually he
decides to work as the head of the vegetable garden and works there altogether
for three years. Later, when he has manifested himself in the world,31 he
preaches to the assembly, �I got half a dipper at Old Papa Rinzai's place, and
I got half a dipper at Old Mama Massan's place. 32 Making a dipper with both
[halves], I have finished drinking, and, having arrived directly at the present,
I am completely satisfied. � Hearing these words now, I look back on the traces
of those days with veneration for the past. Massan is an excellent disciple33
of Koan Daigu. She has power in her lifeblood, and so she has become Shikan's
�Ma. � Rinzai is an authentic successor of Obaku [Ki]un. 34 He has power in
his efforts, and so he has become Shikan's �Pa. � �Pa� means father, and �Ma�
means mother. 35 Zen Master Shikan's prostration to and pursuit of the Dharma
under the nun Massan Ryonen are an excellent example of a resolute spirit,
and integrity that students of later ages should emulate. We can say that he
broke all barriers, large and small.
[180] Nun Myoshin is a disciple of Kyozan. 36 Kyozan, on one occasion,
is choosing the Chief of the Business Office. 37 He asks around the retired
officers and others on Kyozan, �Who is the right person? � They discuss it
back and forth, and eventually Kyozan says, �Disciple [Myo]shin from the
Wai River, though a woman, has the spirit of a big stout fellow. 38 She is cer-
tainly qualified to be Chief of the Business Office. � All the monks agree.
[So] at length Myoshin is assigned as Chief of the Business Office. The drag-
ons and elephants in Kyozan's order do not resent this. Though the position
is in fact not so grand, the one selected for it might need to love herself.
While she is posted at the business office, seventeen monks from the Shoku
district39 form a group to visit teachers and seek the truth, and, intending to
climb Kyozan, they lodge at dusk at the business office. In a nighttime talk,
while resting, they discuss the story of the Founding Patriarch Sokei,40 and
the wind and the ? ag. 41 The words of each of the seventeen men are totally
inadequate. Meanwhile, listening from the other side of the wall, the Chief
of the Business Office says, �Those seventeen blind donkeys! How many
straw sandals have they worn out in vain? They have never seen the Buddha-
Dharma even in a dream. � A temple servant present at the time overhears
the Chief of the Business Office criticizing the monks and informs the sev-
enteen monks themselves, but none of the seventeen monks resents the crit-
icism of the Chief of the Business Office. Ashamed of their own inability to
express the truth, they at once prepare themselves in the dignified form,42
burn incense, do prostrations, and request [her teaching]. The Chief of the
Business Office (Myoshin) says, �Come up here! � The seventeen monks
approach her, and while they are still walking, the Chief of the Business Office
says, �This is not wind moving, this is not a ? ag moving, and this is not mind
moving. � When she teaches them like this, the seventeen monks all experi-
ence re? ection. They bow to thank her and have the ceremony to become her
disciples. Then they go straight back home to western Shoku. In the end, they
do not climb Kyozan. Truly the state [demonstrated] here is beyond [bodhi-
sattvas at] the three clever and ten sacred stages;43 it is action in the truth as
transmitted by Buddhist patriarchs from authentic successor to authentic suc-
cessor. Therefore, even today, when a post as master or assistant master44 is
vacated, a bhik? u? i who has got the Dharma may be requested [to fill it]. Even
if a bhik? u is senior in years and experience, if he has not got the Dharma,
what importance does he have? A leader of monks must always rely upon
clear eyes. Yet many [leaders] are drowning in the body and mind of a vil-
lage bumpkin; they are so dense that they are prone to be derided even in the
secular world. How much less do they deserve to be mentioned in the Buddha-
Dharma? Moreover, there may be [men] who would refuse to prostrate them-
selves to women monks who are teachers that have received the Dharma, and
who are [the men's] elder sisters, aunts, and so on. 45 Because they do not
know and will not learn, they are close to animals, and far from the Buddhist
patriarchs. When the sole devotion of body and mind to the Buddha-Dharma
is retained deep in [a person's] consciousness, the Buddha-Dharma always
has compassion for the person. Even human beings and gods, in their stu-
pidity, have the sympathy to respond to sincerity, so how could the buddhas,
in their rightness, lack the compassion to reciprocate sincerity? The sublime
spirit that responds to sincerity exists even in soil, stones, sand, and pebbles.
In the temples of the great kingdom of Song today, if a resident bhik? u? i is
reputed to have got the Dharma, the government issues an imperial edict for
her to be appointed master of a nuns' temple, and she gives formal preach-
ing in the Dharma hall of her present temple. All the monks, from the mas-
ter down, attend [the formal preaching]. They listen to the Dharma, stand-
ing on the ground, and questions are also [put by] the bhik? us, the male
monks. This is a traditional standard. A person who has got the Dharma is
one individual true eternal buddha here and now, and as such should not be
met as someone from the past. When that person looks at us, we meet each
other in a new and singular state. When we look at that person, the mutual
relation may be �today having to enter today. � For example, when arhats,
pratyekabuddhas, and [bodhisattvas at]46 the three clever and ten sacred
stages come to a bhik? u? i who is retaining the transmission of the right
Dharma-eye treasury, to prostrate themselves and to ask her about Dharma,
she must receive these prostrations. Why should men be higher? Space is
space, the four elements are the four elements,47 the five aggregates are the
five aggregates,48 and women are also like this. As regards attainment of the
truth, both [men and women] attain the truth, and we should just profoundly
revere every single person who has attained the Dharma. Do not discuss man
and woman. This is one of Buddhism's finest Dharma standards.
[187] In Song dynasty [China], the term �householder�49 refers to gen-
tlemen who have not left their families. 50 Some of them live in houses with
their wives, while others are single and pure, but anyway we can say that
they are immensely busy in a dense forest of dusty toil. 51 Nevertheless, if
one of them has clarified something, patch-robed monks52 gather to do pros-
trations and to ask for the benefit [of his teaching], as to a master who had
left home. We also should be like that, even toward a woman, even toward
an animal. When [a person] has never seen the truths of the Buddha-Dharma
even in a dream, even if he is an old bhik? u of a hundred years, he cannot
arrive at the level of a man or woman who has got the Dharma, so we should
not venerate [such a person] but need only bow to him as junior to senior.
When [a person] practices the Buddha-Dharma and speaks the Buddha-
Dharma, even if a girl of seven, she is just the guiding teacher of the four
groups53 and the benevolent father of all living beings. We should serve and
venerate her as we do the buddha-tathagatas, and as it was, for example,
when the dragon's daughter became a buddha. 54 This is just the time-hon-
ored form in Buddhism. Those who do not know about it, and who have not
received its one-to-one transmission, are pitiful.
[188] Another case: Since the ancient past in Japan and China, there
have been women emperors. The whole country is the possession of such
an empress, and all the people become her subjects. This is not out of rev-
erence for her person but out of reverence for her position. Likewise, a
bhik? u? i has never been revered for her person but is revered solely for her
attainment of the Dharma. Furthermore, the virtues that accompany the four
effects all belong to a bhik? u? i who has become an arhat. 55 Even [these]
virtues accompany her; what human being or god could hope to surpass these
virtues of the fourth effect? Gods of the triple world are all inferior to her.
While being forsaken [by human beings] she is venerated by all the gods.
How much less should anyone fail to venerate those who have received the
transmission of the Tathagata's right Dharma, and who have established the
great will of a bodhisattva? 56 If we fail to venerate such a person it is our
own wrongness. And if we fail to revere our own supreme state of bodhi,
we are stupid people who insult the Dharma. Again, there are in our coun-
try daughters of emperors, or ministers' daughters who become queens' con-
sorts,57 or queens who are titled with the names of temples. 58 Some of them
have shaved their head, and some of them do not shave their head. In any
case, priests who [only] look like bhik? us, and who crave fame and love gain,
never fail to run to the house of such [a woman] and strike their head at her
clogs. They are far inferior to serfs following a lord. Moreover, many of
them actually become her servants for a period of years. How pitiful they
are. Having been born in a minor nation in a remote land, they do not even
know a bad custom like this for what it is. There was never [such ignorance]
in India and China but only in our country. It is lamentable. Forcedly to shave
the head and then to violate the Tathagata's right Dharma must be called
deep and heavy sin. Solely because they forget that worldly ways are dreams
and illusions, ? owers in space, they are bonded in slavery to women. It is
lamentable. Even for the sake of a tri? ing secular livelihood, they act like
this. Why, for the sake of the supreme bodhi, do they fail to venerate the
venerable ones who have got the Dharma? It is because their awe for the
Dharma is shallow and their will to pursue the Dharma is not pervasive.
When [people] are already coveting a treasure they do not think about refus-
ing it just because it is the treasure of a woman. When we want to get the
Dharma, we must surpass such resolve. If it is so, even grass, trees, fences,
and walls will bestow the right Dharma, and the heavens and the earth, myr-
iad things and phenomena, will also impart the right Dharma. This is a truth
that we must always remember. Before we seek the Dharma with this deter-
mination, even if we meet true good counselors, we will not be soaked by
the benevolent water of Dharma. We should pay careful attention [to this].
[192] Furthermore, nowadays extremely stupid people look at women
without having corrected the prejudice that women are objects of sexual
greed. Disciples of the Buddha must not be like this. If whatever may become
the object of sexual greed is to be hated, do not all men deserve to be hated
too? As regards the causes and conditions of becoming tainted, a man can
be the object, a woman can be the object, what is neither man nor woman
can be the object, and dreams and fantasies, ? owers in space, can also be the
object. There have been impure acts done with a re? ection on water as an
object, and there have been impure acts done with the sun in the sky as an
object. 59 A god can be the object, and a demon can be the object.
It is impos-
sible to count all the possible objects; they say that there are eighty-four
thousand objects. Should we discard all of them? Should we not look at
them? The precepts60 say, �[Abuse of] the two male organs,61 or the three
female organs,62 are both parajika, and [the offender] may not remain in the
community. �63 This being so, if we hate whatever might become the object
of sexual greed, all men and women will hate each other, and we will never
have any chance to attain salvation. We should examine this truth in detail.
There are non-Buddhists who have no wife: even though they have no wife,
they have not entered the Buddha-Dharma, and so they are [only] non-Bud-
dhists with wrong views. There are disciples of the Buddha who, as the two
classes of laypeople,64 have a husband or a wife: even though they have a
husband or a wife, they are disciples of the Buddha, and so there are no other
beings equal to them in the human world or in heaven above.
[194] Even in China, there was a stupid monk who made the following
vow: �Through every life, in every age, I shall never look at a woman. � Upon
what morality is this vow based? Is it based on secular morality? Is it based
on the Buddha-Dharma? Is it based on the morality of non-Buddhists? Or is
it based on the morality of heavenly demons? 65 What wrong is there in a
woman? What virtue is there in a man? Among bad people there are men
who are bad people. Among good people there are women who are good
people. Wanting to hear the Dharma, and wanting to get liberation, never
depend upon whether we are a man or a woman. When they have yet to cut
delusion, men and women alike have yet to cut delusion. When they cut delu-
sion and experience the principle, there is nothing at all to choose between
a man and a woman. Moreover, if [a man] has vowed never to look at a
woman, must he discard women even when vowing to save limitlessly many
living beings? 66 If he discards them, he is not a bodhisattva. How much less
[does he have] the Buddha's compassion. This [vow] is just a drunken utter-
ance caused by deep intoxication on the wine of the sravaka. Neither human
beings nor gods should believe this [vow] to be true. Furthermore, if we hate
[others] for the wrongs they have committed in the past, we must even hate
all bodhisattvas. If we hate like this, we will discard everyone, so how will
we be able to realize the Buddha-Dharma? Words like those [of the monk's
vow] are the deranged speech of a stupid man who does not know the Buddha-
Dharma. We should feel sorry for him. If that monk's67 vow is true, did
Sakyamuni and the bodhisattvas of his time all commit wrongs? 68 And was
their bodhi-mind less profound than the will of that monk? We should re? ect
[on this] quietly. We should learn in practice whether the ancestral masters
who transmitted the treasury of Dharma, and the bodhisattvas of the Buddha's
lifetime, had things to learn in the Buddha-Dharma without this vow. If the
vow of that monk were true, not only would we fail to save women but also,
when a woman who had got the Dharma manifested herself in the world and
preached the Dharma for human beings and gods, we would be forbidden to
come and listen to her, would we not? Anyone who did not come and listen
would be not a bodhisattva, but just a non-Buddhist. When we look now at
the great kingdom of Song, there are monks who seem to have been in train-
ing for a long time, [but] who have only been vainly counting the sands of
the ocean69 and rolling like surf over the ocean of life and death. 70 There are
also those who, although women, have visited [good] counselors, made effort
in pursuit of the truth, and thus become the guiding teachers of human beings
and gods. There are [women] such as the old woman who wouldn't sell her
rice cakes [to Tokusan] and threw her rice cakes away. 71 It was pitiful that
although [Tokusan] was a male monk, a bhik? u, he had been vainly counting
the sands of the ocean of philosophy, and had never seen the Buddha-Dharma,
even in a dream. In general, we should learn to understand clearly whatever
circumstances we meet. If we learn only to fear and to ? ee [from circum-
stances], that is the theory and practice of a sravaka of the Small Vehicle.
When we abandon the east and try to hide away in the west, the west is also
not without its circumstances. Even if we think that we have escaped cir-
cumstances, unless we understand them clearly, though they may be distant
they are still circumstances, we are still not in the state of liberation, and the
distant circumstances will [disturb us] more and more deeply.
[198] Again in Japan, there is one particularly laughable institution. This
is either called a �sanctuary,�72 or called a �place for practicing the truth of
the Great Vehicle,� where bhik? u? is and other women are not allowed to
enter. The wrong custom has long been handed down, and so people cannot
recognize it for what it is. People who emulate the ancients do not rectify it,
and men of wide knowledge give no thought to it. Calling it the enactment
of people of authority, or terming it the legacy of men of tradition, they never
discuss it at all. If one laughed, a person's guts might split. Just who are the
so-called people of authority? Are they sages or are they saints? Are they
gods or are they devils? Are they [bodhisattvas at] the ten sacred stages or
are they [bodhisattvas at] the three clever stages? Are they [bodhisattvas in]
the balanced state of truth or are they [bodhisattvas in] the fine state of truth?
Moreover, if old [ways] should never be reformed, should we refrain from
abandoning incessant wandering through life and death? Still more, Great
Master Sakyamuni is just the supreme right and balanced state of truth itself,73
and he clarified everything that needs to be clarified, he practiced everything
that needs to be practiced, and he liberated74 all that needs to be liberated.
Who today could even approach his level? Yet the Buddha's order when he
was in the world included all four groups: bhik? us, bhik? u? is, upasakas, and
upasikas, it included the eight kinds of beings,75 the thirty-seven kinds of
beings, and the eighty-four thousand kinds of beings. The formation of the
Buddhist order is clearly the Buddhist order itself. So what kind of order has
no bhik? u? is, has no women, and has no eight kinds of beings? We should
never hope to have so-called sanctuaries which surpass in their purity the
Buddhist order of the Tathagata's lifetime, because they are the sphere of
heavenly demons. 76 There are no differences in the Dharma-form of the
Buddhist order, not in this world or in other directions, and not among a
thousand buddhas of the three times. 77 We should know that [an order] with
a different code is not a Buddhist order. �The fourth effect�78 is the ultimate
rank. Whether in the Mahayana or the Hinayana, the virtues of the ultimate
rank are not differentiated. Yet many bhik? u? is have experienced the fourth
effect. [So] to what kind of place�whether it is within the triple world or
in the buddha lands of the ten directions�can [a bhik? u? i ] not go? Who
could stand in her path? At the same time, the fine state of truth79 is also the
supreme rank. When a woman has [thus] already become buddha, is there
anything in all directions that she cannot perfectly realize? Who could aim
to bar her from passing? She already has virtue that �widely illuminates the
ten directions�; what meaning can a boundary have? Moreover, would god-
desses be barred from passing? Would nymphs be barred from passing? Even
goddesses and nymphs are beings that have not yet cut delusion; they are
just aimlessly wandering ordinary beings. When they have wrong, they have;
when they are without [wrong], they are without. Human women and bes-
tial women, also, when they have wrong, they have; when they are without
wrong, they are without. [But] who would stand in the way of gods or in the
way of deities? [Bhik? u? is] have attended the Buddha's order of the three
times; they have learned in practice at the place of the Buddha. If [places]
differ from the Buddha's place and from the Buddha's order, who can believe
in them as the Buddha's Dharma? [Those who exclude women] are just very
stupid fools who deceive and delude secular people. They are more stupid
than a wild dog worrying that its burrow might be stolen by a human being.
The Buddha's disciples, whether bodhisattvas or sravakas, have the fol-
lowing ranks: first, bhik? u; second, bhik? u? i; third, upasaka; and fourth,
upasika. These ranks are recognized both in the heavens above and in the
human world, and they have long been heard. This being so, those who rank
second among the Buddha's disciples are superior to sacred wheel-turning
kings,80 and superior to Sakra-devanam-indra. 81 There should never be a
place where they cannot go. Still less should [bhik? u? is] be ranked along-
side kings and ministers of a minor nation in a remote land. [But] when we
look at present �places of the truth� that a bhik? u? i may not enter, any rus-
tic, boor, farmer, or old lumberjack can enter at random. Still less would any
king, lord, officer, or minister be refused entry. Comparing country bump-
kins and bhik? u? is, in terms of learning of the truth or in terms of attainment
of rank, who is superior and who is inferior, in conclusion? Whether dis-
cussing this according to secular rules or according to the Buddha-Dharma,
[one would think that] rustics and boors should not be allowed to go where
a bhik? u? i might go. [The situation in Japan] is utterly deranged; [our] infe-
rior nation is the first to leave this stain [on its history]. How pitiful it is.
When the eldest daughters of the compassionate father of the triple world
came to a small country, they found places where they were barred from
going. On the other hand, fellows who live in those places called �sanctu-
aries� have no fear of [committing] the ten wrongs,82 and they violate the
ten important precepts83 one after another. Is it simply that, in their world
of wrongdoing, they hate people who do not do wrong? Still more, a deadly
sin84 is a serious matter indeed; those who live in sanctuaries may have com-
mitted even the deadly sins. We should just do away with such worlds of
demons. We should learn the Buddha's moral teaching and should enter the
Buddha's world. This naturally may be [the way] to repay the Buddha's
benevolence. Have these traditionalists understood the meaning of a sanc-
tuary, or have they85 not? From whom have they received their transmis-
sion? Who has covered them with the seal of approval? Whatever comes
into �this great world sanctified by the buddhas��whether it is the bud-
dhas, living beings, the earth, or space�will get free of fetters and attach-
ments, and will return to the original state which is the wonderful Dharma
of the buddhas. This being so, when living beings step once [inside] this
world, they are completely covered by the Buddha's virtue. They have the
virtue of refraining from immorality, and they have the virtue of becoming
pure and clean. When one direction is sanctified, the whole world of Dharma
is sanctified at once, and when one level is sanctified, the whole world of
Dharma is sanctified. Sometimes places are sanctified using water, some-
times places are sanctified using mind, and sometimes places are sanctified
using space. For every case there are traditions which have been transmit-
ted and received, and which we should know. 86 Furthermore, when we are
sanctifying an area, after sprinkling nectar87 and finishing devotional pros-
trations88�in other words, after making the place pure�we recite the fol-
lowing verse:
This world and the whole world of Dharma,
Naturally are sanctified, pure and clean.
Have the traditionalists and veterans who nowadays usually proclaim
sanctuaries understood this meaning, or have they not? I guess they cannot
know that the whole world of Dharma is sanctified within [the act of] sanc-
tification itself. Clearly, drunk on the wine of the sravaka, they consider a
small area to be a great world. Let us hope that they will snap out of their
habitual drunken delusion, and that they will not violate the wholeness of
the great world of the buddhas. We should prostrate ourselves in veneration
of the virtue by which [the buddhas], through acts of salvation and accept-
ance, cover all living beings with their in? uence. Who could deny that this
[prostration] is the attainment of the marrow of the truth?
Shobogenzo Raihai-tokuzui
Written at Kannondorikoshohorinji on the day
of purity and brightness89 in [the second year of]
Eno. 90
---
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? 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 9
[Chapter Nine]
Keisei-sanshiki
The Voices of the River Valley
and the Form of the Mountains
Translator's Note: Kei means �river valley,� sei means �sound� or �voice,�
san means �mountain,� and shiki means �form� or �color. � So keisei-san-
shiki means the voices of river valleys and the forms of mountains�that is,
nature. In Buddhism, this world is the truth itself, so nature is a face of the
truth. Nature is the material side of the real world, so it is always speaking
the truth, and manifesting the law of the universe every day. This is why it has
been said since ancient time that sounds of rivers are the preaching of Gau-
tama Buddha and forms of mountains are the body of Gautama Buddha. In
this chapter, Master Dogen preached to us the meaning of nature in Buddhism.
[209] In the supreme state of bodhi, Buddhist patriarchs who transmitted the
truth and received the behavior have been many, and examples of past ances-
tors who reduced their bones to powder1 cannot be denied. Learn from the
ancestral patriarch who cut off his arm,2 and do not differ by a hair's breadth
[from the bodhisattva who] covered the mud. 3 When we each get rid of our
husk, we are not restricted by former views and understanding, and things
which have for vast kalpas been unclear suddenly appear before us. In the
here and now of such a moment, the self does not recognize it, no one else
is conscious of it, you do not expect it, and even the eyes of Buddha do not
glimpse it. How could the human intellect fathom it?
[210] In the great kingdom of Song there lived Layman Toba, whose name
was Soshoku, and who was also called Shisen. 4 He seems to have been a real
dragon in the literary world,5 and he studied the dragons and elephants of the
Buddhist world. 6 He swam happily into deep depths, and ? oated up and down
through layers of cloud. 7 Once he visited Lushan. 8 In the story he hears the
sounds of a mountain stream ? owing through the night, and realizes the truth.
He makes the following verse, and presents it to Zen Master Joso:9
The voices of the river valley are the [Buddha's] wide and long
tongue,10
The form of the mountains is nothing other than his pure body.
Through the night, eighty-four thousand verses.
On another day, how can I tell them to others?
When he presents this verse to Zen Master [Jo]so, Zen Master [Jo]so
affirms it. [Jo]so means Zen Master Shokaku Joso, a Dharma successor of
Zen Master Oryu Enan. 11 [E]nan is a Dharma successor of Zen Master Jimyo
Soen. 12 Once, when Layman [Toba] met Zen Master Butsuin Ryogen,13
Butsu in gave him a Dharma robe, the Buddhist precepts, and so on, and the
layman always wore the Dharma robe to practice the truth. The layman pre-
sented Butsuin with a priceless jeweled belt. People of the time said, �Their
behavior is beyond common folk. � So the story of realizing the truth on hear-
ing the river valley may also be of benefit to those who are later in the stream.
It is a pity that, so many times, the concrete form of the teaching, preaching
of Dharma by manifestation of the body,14 seems to have leaked away. What
has made [Layman Toba] see afresh the form of the mountains and hear the
voices of the river valley? A single phrase? Half a phrase? Or eighty-four
thousand verses? It is a shame that sounds and forms have been hiding in
the mountains and waters. But we should be glad that there are moments in
which, and causes and conditions whereby, [real sounds and forms] show
up in the mountains and waters. The tongue's manifestation never ? ags. How
could the body's form exist and vanish? At the same time, should we learn
that they are close when they are apparent, or should we learn that they are
close when they are hidden? Should we see them as a unity, or should we
see them as a half? 15 In previous springs and autumns, [Layman Toba] has
not seen or heard the mountains and waters but in moments �through the
night,� he is able, barely, to see and to hear the mountains and waters. Bodhi-
sattvas who are learning the truth now should also open the gate to learning
[by starting] from mountains ? owing and water not ? owing. 16 On the day
before the night during which this layman has realized the truth, he has vis-
ited Zen Master [Jo]so and asked about stories of �the nonemotional preach-
ing Dharma.
