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.
came to a small country, they found places where they were barred from
going.
Shobogenzo
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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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. �17 Under the words of the Zen master, the form of his somer-
saulting is still immature,18 but when the voices of the river valley are heard,
waves break back upon themselves and surf crashes high into the sky. This
being so, now that the voices of the river valley have surprised the layman,
should we put it down to the voices of the river valley, or should we put it
down to the in? uence of Shokaku? I suspect that Shokaku's words on �the
nonemotional preaching Dharma� have not stopped echoing but are secretly
mingling with the sounds of the mountain stream in the night. Who could
empirically affirm this situation as a single gallon? 19 And who could pay
homage20 to it as the whole ocean? In conclusion, is the layman realizing the
truth, or are the mountains and waters realizing the truth? How could any-
one who has clear eyes not put on their eyes at once [and look] at the man-
ifestation of the long tongue and the pure body?
[215] Another case: Zen Master Kyogen Chikan21 was learning the truth
in the order of Zen Master Daii Daien. 22 On one occasion, Daii says, �You
are sharp and bright, and you have wide understanding. Without quoting
from any text or commentary, speak a phrase for me in the state you had
before your parents were born. �23 Kyogen searches several times for some-
thing to say, but he is not able. He deeply regrets the state of his body and
mind, and looks through books that he has kept for years, but he is still dumb-
founded. In the end, he burns all the writings he has collected over the years,
and says, �A rice cake that is painted in a picture24 cannot stave off hunger.
Upon my oath, I shall not desire to understand the Buddha-Dharma in this
life. I only want to be the monk who serves the morning gruel and midday
meal. � So saying, he spends years and months as a server of meals. �The
monk who serves the morning gruel and midday meal� means one who waits
upon the other monks at breakfast and the midday meal;25 he would be like
a �liveried waiter�26 in this country. While he is thus occupied, he says to
Daii, �Chikan is dull in body and mind and cannot express the truth. Would
the master say something for me? � Daii says, �I would not mind saying some-
thing for you, [but if I did so,] perhaps you would bear a grudge against me
later. � After spending years and months in such a state, [Chikan] enters
Butozan, following the tracks of National Master Daisho,27 and makes a
thatched hut on the remains of the National Master's hermitage. He has planted
bamboo and made it his friend. One day, while he is sweeping the path, a piece
of tile ? ies up and strikes a bamboo with a crack. Hearing this sound, he sud-
denly realizes the great state of realization. He bathes and purifies himself,
and, facing Daiizan, he burns incense and does prostrations. Then, directing
himself to [Master] Daii, he says, �Great Master Daii! If you had explained
it to me before, how would this thing have been possible? The depth of your
kindness surpasses that of a parent. � Finally, he makes the following verse:
At a single stroke I lost recognition.
No longer need I practice self-discipline.
[I am] manifesting behavior in the way of the ancients,
Never falling into despondency.
There is no trace anywhere:
[The state] is dignified action beyond sound and form.
People everywhere who have realized the truth,
All will praise [these] supreme makings.
He presents the verse to Daii. Daii says, �This disciple is complete. �28
[218] Another case: Zen Master Reiun Shigon29 is a seeker of the truth
for thirty years. One day, while on a ramble in the mountains, he stops for
a rest at the foot of a hill and views the villages in the distance. It is spring,
and the peach blossoms are in full bloom. Seeing them, he suddenly realizes
the truth. He makes the following verse and presents it to Daii:
For thirty years, a traveler in search of a sword. 30
How many times have leaves fallen and buds sprouted?
After one look at the peach blossoms,
I have arrived directly at the present and have no further doubts.
Daii says, �One who has entered by relying on external phenomena will
never regress or falter. �31 This is his affirmation. What person who has entered
could not rely on external phenomena? What person who has entered could
regress or falter? [Isan's words] are not about [Shi]gon alone. Finally, [Shigon]
succeeds to the Dharma of Daii. If the form of the mountains were not the
pure body, how would things like this be possible?
[220] A monk asks Zen Master Chosha [Kei]shin,32 �How can we make
mountains, rivers, and the earth belong to ourselves? � The master says, �How
can we make ourselves belong to mountains, rivers, and the earth? �33 This
says that ourselves are naturally ourselves, and even though ourselves are
mountains, rivers, and the earth, we should never be restricted by belonging.
[221] Master Ekaku of Roya, [titled] Great Master Kosho,34 is a distant
descendant of Nangaku. 35 One day [Chosui] Shisen,36 a lecturer of a philo-
sophical sect, asks him, �How does pure essentiality suddenly give rise to
mountains, rivers, and the earth? � Questioned thus, the master preaches, �How
does pure essentiality suddenly give rise to mountains, rivers, and the earth? �37
Here we are told not to confuse mountains, rivers, and the earth which are
just pure essentiality, with �mountains, rivers and the earth. � However, because
the teacher of sutras has never heard this, even in a dream, he does not know
mountains, rivers, and the earth as mountains, rivers, and the earth.
[222] Remember, if it were not for the form of the mountains and the
voices of the river valley, picking up a ? ower could not proclaim anything,38
and the one who attained the marrow could not stand at his own place. 39
Relying on the virtue of the sounds of the river valley and the form of the
mountains, �the earth and all sentient beings realize the truth simultane-
ously,�40 and there are many buddhas who realize the truth on seeing the
bright star. Bags of skin in this state are the wise masters of the past, whose
will to pursue the Dharma was very deep. People of the present should study
their traces without fail. Now also, real practitioners who have no concern
for fame and gain should establish similar resolve. In [this] remote corner
in recent times, people who honestly pursue the Buddha-Dharma are very
rare. They are not absent, but they are difficult to meet. There are many who
drift into the monkhood, and who seem to have left the secular world, but
who only use Buddhism as a bridge to fame and gain. It is pitiful and lam-
entable that they do not regret the passing of this life41 but vainly go about
their dark and dismal business. When can they expect to become free and to
attain the truth? Even if they met a true master, they might not love the real
dragon. 42 My late [master, the eternal] buddha, calls such fellows �pitiful
people. �43 They are like this because of the bad they have done in past ages.
Though they have received a life, they have no will to pursue the Dharma
for the Dharma's sake, and so, when they meet the real Dharma they doubt
the real dragon, and when they meet the right Dharma they are disliked by
the right Dharma. Their body, mind, bones, and ? esh have never lived fol-
lowing the Dharma, and so they are not in mutual accord with the Dharma;
they do not receive and use [in harmony] with the Dharma. Founders of sects,
teachers, and disciples have continued a transmission like this for a long
time. They explain the bodhi-mind as if relating an old dream. How pitiful
it is that, having been born on the treasure mountain, they do not know what
treasure is and they do not see treasure. How much less could they [actually]
get the treasure of Dharma? After they establish the bodhi-mind, even though
they will pass through the cycle of the six states44 or the four modes of birth,45
the causes and conditions of that cyclical course will all become the actions
and vows of the state of bodhi. Therefore, though they have wasted precious
time in the past, as long as their present life continues they should, without
delay, make the following vow: �I hope that I, together with all living beings,
may hear the right Dharma through this life and through every life hereafter.
If I am able to hear it, I will never doubt the right Dharma, and I will never
be disbelieving. When I meet the right Dharma, I will discard secular rules
and receive and retain the Buddha-Dharma so that the earth and sentient
beings may finally realize the truth together. � If we make a vow like this, it
will naturally become the cause of, and conditions for, the authentic estab-
lishment of the mind. Do not neglect, or grow weary of, this attitude of mind.
In this country of Japan, a remote corner beyond the oceans, people's minds
are extremely stupid. Since ancient times, no saint has ever been born [here],
nor anyone wise by nature: it is needless to say, then, that real men of learn-
ing the truth are very rare. When [a person] tells people who do not know
the will to the truth about the will to the truth, the good advice offends their
ears, and so they do not re? ect upon themselves but [only] bear resentment
toward the other person. As a general rule concerning actions and vows which
are the bodhi-mind, we should not intend to let worldly people know whether
or not we have established the bodhi-mind, or whether or not we are prac-
ticing the truth; we should endeavor to be unknown. How much less could
we boast about ourselves? Because people today rarely seek what is real,
when the praises of others are available, they seem to want someone to say
that their practice and understanding have become harmonized, even though
there is no practice in their body and no realization in their mind. �In delu-
sion adding to delusion�46 describes exactly this. We should throw away this
wrongmindedness immediately. When learning the truth, what is difficult to
see and to hear is the attitude of mind [based in] right Dharma. This attitude
of mind is what has been transmitted and received by the buddhas, buddha
to buddha. It has been transmitted and received as the Buddha's brightness,
and as the Buddha's mind. From the time when the Tathagata was in the
world until today, many people have seemed to consider that our concern in
learning the truth47 is to get fame and gain. If, however, on meeting the teach-
ings of a true master, they turn around and pursue the right Dharma, they
will naturally attain the truth. We should be aware that the sickness described
above might be present in the learning of the truth today. For example, among
beginners and novices, and among veterans of long training, some have got
the makings to receive the transmission of the truth and to pass on the behav-
ior, and some have not got the makings. There may be some who have it in
their nature to learn, in veneration of the ancients. There may also be insult-
ing demons who will not learn. We should neither love nor resent either
group. [Yet] how can we have no regret? How can we bear no resentment?
Perhaps no one bears resentment because almost no one has recognized the
three poisons as the three poisons. 48 Moreover, we should not forget the
determination we had when we began the joyful pursuit of the Buddha's
truth. That is to say, when we first establish the will, we are not seeking the
Dharma out of concern for others, and, having discarded fame and gain
[already], we are not seeking fame and gain: we are just singlemindedly aim-
ing to get the truth. We are never expecting the veneration and offerings of
kings and ministers. Nevertheless, such causes of and conditions for [the
will to fame and gain] are present today. [Fame and gain] are not an origi-
nal aim, and they are not [true] objects of pursuit. To become caught in the
fetters that bind human beings and gods is [just] what we do not hope for.
Foolish people, however, even those who have the will to the truth, soon for-
get their original resolve and mistakenly expect the offerings of human beings
and gods, feeling glad that the merit of the Buddha-Dharma has come to
them. If the devotions of kings and ministers are frequent, [foolish people]
think, �It is the realization of my own moral way. � This is one of the demons
[that hinder] learning of the truth. Though we should not forget the mind of
compassion, we should not rejoice [to receive devotion]. Do you remember
the golden words of the Buddha, �Even while the Tathagata is alive, there
are many who have hate and envy. �49 Such is the principle that the stupid do
not recognize the wise, and small animals make enemies of great saints.
[230] Further, many of the ancestral masters of the Western Heavens
have been destroyed by non-Buddhists, by the two vehicles,50 by kings, and
so on;51 but this is never due to superiority on the part of the non-Buddhists,
or lack of farsightedness on the part of the ancestral masters.
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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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. �17 Under the words of the Zen master, the form of his somer-
saulting is still immature,18 but when the voices of the river valley are heard,
waves break back upon themselves and surf crashes high into the sky. This
being so, now that the voices of the river valley have surprised the layman,
should we put it down to the voices of the river valley, or should we put it
down to the in? uence of Shokaku? I suspect that Shokaku's words on �the
nonemotional preaching Dharma� have not stopped echoing but are secretly
mingling with the sounds of the mountain stream in the night. Who could
empirically affirm this situation as a single gallon? 19 And who could pay
homage20 to it as the whole ocean? In conclusion, is the layman realizing the
truth, or are the mountains and waters realizing the truth? How could any-
one who has clear eyes not put on their eyes at once [and look] at the man-
ifestation of the long tongue and the pure body?
[215] Another case: Zen Master Kyogen Chikan21 was learning the truth
in the order of Zen Master Daii Daien. 22 On one occasion, Daii says, �You
are sharp and bright, and you have wide understanding. Without quoting
from any text or commentary, speak a phrase for me in the state you had
before your parents were born. �23 Kyogen searches several times for some-
thing to say, but he is not able. He deeply regrets the state of his body and
mind, and looks through books that he has kept for years, but he is still dumb-
founded. In the end, he burns all the writings he has collected over the years,
and says, �A rice cake that is painted in a picture24 cannot stave off hunger.
Upon my oath, I shall not desire to understand the Buddha-Dharma in this
life. I only want to be the monk who serves the morning gruel and midday
meal. � So saying, he spends years and months as a server of meals. �The
monk who serves the morning gruel and midday meal� means one who waits
upon the other monks at breakfast and the midday meal;25 he would be like
a �liveried waiter�26 in this country. While he is thus occupied, he says to
Daii, �Chikan is dull in body and mind and cannot express the truth. Would
the master say something for me? � Daii says, �I would not mind saying some-
thing for you, [but if I did so,] perhaps you would bear a grudge against me
later. � After spending years and months in such a state, [Chikan] enters
Butozan, following the tracks of National Master Daisho,27 and makes a
thatched hut on the remains of the National Master's hermitage. He has planted
bamboo and made it his friend. One day, while he is sweeping the path, a piece
of tile ? ies up and strikes a bamboo with a crack. Hearing this sound, he sud-
denly realizes the great state of realization. He bathes and purifies himself,
and, facing Daiizan, he burns incense and does prostrations. Then, directing
himself to [Master] Daii, he says, �Great Master Daii! If you had explained
it to me before, how would this thing have been possible? The depth of your
kindness surpasses that of a parent. � Finally, he makes the following verse:
At a single stroke I lost recognition.
No longer need I practice self-discipline.
[I am] manifesting behavior in the way of the ancients,
Never falling into despondency.
There is no trace anywhere:
[The state] is dignified action beyond sound and form.
People everywhere who have realized the truth,
All will praise [these] supreme makings.
He presents the verse to Daii. Daii says, �This disciple is complete. �28
[218] Another case: Zen Master Reiun Shigon29 is a seeker of the truth
for thirty years. One day, while on a ramble in the mountains, he stops for
a rest at the foot of a hill and views the villages in the distance. It is spring,
and the peach blossoms are in full bloom. Seeing them, he suddenly realizes
the truth. He makes the following verse and presents it to Daii:
For thirty years, a traveler in search of a sword. 30
How many times have leaves fallen and buds sprouted?
After one look at the peach blossoms,
I have arrived directly at the present and have no further doubts.
Daii says, �One who has entered by relying on external phenomena will
never regress or falter. �31 This is his affirmation. What person who has entered
could not rely on external phenomena? What person who has entered could
regress or falter? [Isan's words] are not about [Shi]gon alone. Finally, [Shigon]
succeeds to the Dharma of Daii. If the form of the mountains were not the
pure body, how would things like this be possible?
[220] A monk asks Zen Master Chosha [Kei]shin,32 �How can we make
mountains, rivers, and the earth belong to ourselves? � The master says, �How
can we make ourselves belong to mountains, rivers, and the earth? �33 This
says that ourselves are naturally ourselves, and even though ourselves are
mountains, rivers, and the earth, we should never be restricted by belonging.
[221] Master Ekaku of Roya, [titled] Great Master Kosho,34 is a distant
descendant of Nangaku. 35 One day [Chosui] Shisen,36 a lecturer of a philo-
sophical sect, asks him, �How does pure essentiality suddenly give rise to
mountains, rivers, and the earth? � Questioned thus, the master preaches, �How
does pure essentiality suddenly give rise to mountains, rivers, and the earth? �37
Here we are told not to confuse mountains, rivers, and the earth which are
just pure essentiality, with �mountains, rivers and the earth. � However, because
the teacher of sutras has never heard this, even in a dream, he does not know
mountains, rivers, and the earth as mountains, rivers, and the earth.
[222] Remember, if it were not for the form of the mountains and the
voices of the river valley, picking up a ? ower could not proclaim anything,38
and the one who attained the marrow could not stand at his own place. 39
Relying on the virtue of the sounds of the river valley and the form of the
mountains, �the earth and all sentient beings realize the truth simultane-
ously,�40 and there are many buddhas who realize the truth on seeing the
bright star. Bags of skin in this state are the wise masters of the past, whose
will to pursue the Dharma was very deep. People of the present should study
their traces without fail. Now also, real practitioners who have no concern
for fame and gain should establish similar resolve. In [this] remote corner
in recent times, people who honestly pursue the Buddha-Dharma are very
rare. They are not absent, but they are difficult to meet. There are many who
drift into the monkhood, and who seem to have left the secular world, but
who only use Buddhism as a bridge to fame and gain. It is pitiful and lam-
entable that they do not regret the passing of this life41 but vainly go about
their dark and dismal business. When can they expect to become free and to
attain the truth? Even if they met a true master, they might not love the real
dragon. 42 My late [master, the eternal] buddha, calls such fellows �pitiful
people. �43 They are like this because of the bad they have done in past ages.
Though they have received a life, they have no will to pursue the Dharma
for the Dharma's sake, and so, when they meet the real Dharma they doubt
the real dragon, and when they meet the right Dharma they are disliked by
the right Dharma. Their body, mind, bones, and ? esh have never lived fol-
lowing the Dharma, and so they are not in mutual accord with the Dharma;
they do not receive and use [in harmony] with the Dharma. Founders of sects,
teachers, and disciples have continued a transmission like this for a long
time. They explain the bodhi-mind as if relating an old dream. How pitiful
it is that, having been born on the treasure mountain, they do not know what
treasure is and they do not see treasure. How much less could they [actually]
get the treasure of Dharma? After they establish the bodhi-mind, even though
they will pass through the cycle of the six states44 or the four modes of birth,45
the causes and conditions of that cyclical course will all become the actions
and vows of the state of bodhi. Therefore, though they have wasted precious
time in the past, as long as their present life continues they should, without
delay, make the following vow: �I hope that I, together with all living beings,
may hear the right Dharma through this life and through every life hereafter.
If I am able to hear it, I will never doubt the right Dharma, and I will never
be disbelieving. When I meet the right Dharma, I will discard secular rules
and receive and retain the Buddha-Dharma so that the earth and sentient
beings may finally realize the truth together. � If we make a vow like this, it
will naturally become the cause of, and conditions for, the authentic estab-
lishment of the mind. Do not neglect, or grow weary of, this attitude of mind.
In this country of Japan, a remote corner beyond the oceans, people's minds
are extremely stupid. Since ancient times, no saint has ever been born [here],
nor anyone wise by nature: it is needless to say, then, that real men of learn-
ing the truth are very rare. When [a person] tells people who do not know
the will to the truth about the will to the truth, the good advice offends their
ears, and so they do not re? ect upon themselves but [only] bear resentment
toward the other person. As a general rule concerning actions and vows which
are the bodhi-mind, we should not intend to let worldly people know whether
or not we have established the bodhi-mind, or whether or not we are prac-
ticing the truth; we should endeavor to be unknown. How much less could
we boast about ourselves? Because people today rarely seek what is real,
when the praises of others are available, they seem to want someone to say
that their practice and understanding have become harmonized, even though
there is no practice in their body and no realization in their mind. �In delu-
sion adding to delusion�46 describes exactly this. We should throw away this
wrongmindedness immediately. When learning the truth, what is difficult to
see and to hear is the attitude of mind [based in] right Dharma. This attitude
of mind is what has been transmitted and received by the buddhas, buddha
to buddha. It has been transmitted and received as the Buddha's brightness,
and as the Buddha's mind. From the time when the Tathagata was in the
world until today, many people have seemed to consider that our concern in
learning the truth47 is to get fame and gain. If, however, on meeting the teach-
ings of a true master, they turn around and pursue the right Dharma, they
will naturally attain the truth. We should be aware that the sickness described
above might be present in the learning of the truth today. For example, among
beginners and novices, and among veterans of long training, some have got
the makings to receive the transmission of the truth and to pass on the behav-
ior, and some have not got the makings. There may be some who have it in
their nature to learn, in veneration of the ancients. There may also be insult-
ing demons who will not learn. We should neither love nor resent either
group. [Yet] how can we have no regret? How can we bear no resentment?
Perhaps no one bears resentment because almost no one has recognized the
three poisons as the three poisons. 48 Moreover, we should not forget the
determination we had when we began the joyful pursuit of the Buddha's
truth. That is to say, when we first establish the will, we are not seeking the
Dharma out of concern for others, and, having discarded fame and gain
[already], we are not seeking fame and gain: we are just singlemindedly aim-
ing to get the truth. We are never expecting the veneration and offerings of
kings and ministers. Nevertheless, such causes of and conditions for [the
will to fame and gain] are present today. [Fame and gain] are not an origi-
nal aim, and they are not [true] objects of pursuit. To become caught in the
fetters that bind human beings and gods is [just] what we do not hope for.
Foolish people, however, even those who have the will to the truth, soon for-
get their original resolve and mistakenly expect the offerings of human beings
and gods, feeling glad that the merit of the Buddha-Dharma has come to
them. If the devotions of kings and ministers are frequent, [foolish people]
think, �It is the realization of my own moral way. � This is one of the demons
[that hinder] learning of the truth. Though we should not forget the mind of
compassion, we should not rejoice [to receive devotion]. Do you remember
the golden words of the Buddha, �Even while the Tathagata is alive, there
are many who have hate and envy. �49 Such is the principle that the stupid do
not recognize the wise, and small animals make enemies of great saints.
[230] Further, many of the ancestral masters of the Western Heavens
have been destroyed by non-Buddhists, by the two vehicles,50 by kings, and
so on;51 but this is never due to superiority on the part of the non-Buddhists,
or lack of farsightedness on the part of the ancestral masters.
