All the sages and all the saints have made the
mountains into their inner sanctum and made the mountains into their body
and mind; and by virtue of the sages and the saints the mountains have been
realized.
mountains into their inner sanctum and made the mountains into their body
and mind; and by virtue of the sages and the saints the mountains have been
realized.
Shobogenzo
Sansui suggests natural scenery, or nature itself.
Kyo or gyo
means Buddhist sutras. So Sansuigyo means mountains and water, or nature,
as Buddhist sutras. Buddhism is basically a religion of belief in the universe,
and nature is the universe showing its real form. So to look at nature is to
look at the Buddhist truth itself. For this reason Master Dogen believed that
nature is just Buddhist sutras. In this chapter he explains the real form of
nature, giving particular emphasis to relativity in nature.
[175] The mountains and water of the present are the realization of the words
of eternal buddhas. Both [mountains and water] abide in place in the Dharma,
having realized ultimate virtue. Because they are in the state before the kalpa
of emptiness, they are vigorous activity in the present. Because they are the
self before the sprouting of creation, they are real liberation. The virtues of
the mountains are so high and wide that we always realize moral virtue which
can ride the clouds by relying on the mountains, and we unfailingly liberate
the subtle effectiveness which follows the wind by relying on the mountains.
[176] Master Kai1 of Taiyozan preaches to the assembly, �The Blue
Mountains are constantly walking. The Stone Woman bears children by
night. � Mountains lack none of the virtues with which mountains should be
equipped. For this reason, they are constantly abiding in stillness and con-
stantly walking. We must painstakingly learn in practice the virtue of this
walking. The walking of mountains must be like the walking of human beings;
therefore, even though it does not look like human walking,2 do not doubt
the walking of the mountains. The words preached now by the Buddhist
Patriarch are already pointing to �walking,� and this is his attainment of the
fundamental. We should pursue to the ultimate his preaching to the assem-
bly about �constant walking�: it is because [the mountains] are walking that
they are �constant. �3 The walking of the Blue Mountains is swifter than the
wind, but human beings in the mountains do not sense it or know it. Being
�in the mountains�4 describes the �opening of ? owers� in the �[real] world. �5
People out of the mountains never sense it and never know it�people who
have no eyes to see the mountains do not sense, do not know, do not see,
and do not hear this concrete fact. If we doubt the walking of the mountains,
we also do not yet know our own walking. It is not that we do not have our
own walking, but we do not yet know and have not yet clarified our own
walking. When we know our own walking, then we will surely also know
the walking of the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are already beyond
the sentient and beyond the insentient. The self is already beyond the sen-
tient and beyond the insentient. We cannot doubt the present walking of the
Blue Mountains. [Though] we do not know how many Dharma worlds we
should use as a scale when taking in the Blue Mountains, we should inves-
tigate in detail the walking of the Blue Mountains as well as our own walk-
ing. There should be investigation both of backward steps6 and of stepping
backward. 7 We should investigate the fact that just at the moment before the
sprouting of creation, and since before the King of Emptiness,8 walking�
in forward steps and backward steps�has never stopped even for an instant.
If the walking ceased, the Buddhist patriarchs could not manifest themselves
in reality. If there were an end to the walking, the Buddha-Dharma could not
reach the present day. Forward walking never ceases, and backward walk-
ing never ceases. The moment of forward walking does not oppose back-
ward walking, and the moment of backward walking does not oppose for-
ward walking. 9 We call this virtue �the mountains ? owing,� and we call it
�the ? owing mountains. � The Blue Mountains master in practice the act of
walking and the East Mountain learns in practice the act of moving on water;
therefore, this learning in practice is the mountains' learning in practice. The
mountains, without changing their body and mind, with the face and eyes of
mountains, have been traveling around learning in practice. Never insult
them by saying that the Blue Mountains cannot walk or that the East Moun-
tain cannot move on water. It is because of the grossness of the viewpoint
of the vulgar that they doubt the phrase �the Blue Mountains are walking. �
It is due to the poorness of their scant experience that they are astonished at
the words �? owing mountains. � Now, not even fully understanding10 the
words �? owing water,� they are drowned in prejudice and ignorance. This
being so, they esteem as defining concepts, and esteem as lifeblood, their
enumeration of the accumulated virtues [of mountains]. 11 The act of walk-
ing exists, the act of ? owing exists, and moments in which mountains give
birth to mountain children exist. By virtue of the fact that mountains become
Buddhist patriarchs, Buddhist patriarchs have manifested themselves in real-
ity like this. 12 Though there may be eyes in which grass, trees, soil, stones,
fences, and walls are realized, that moment is beyond doubt and beyond dis-
turbance; it is not �total realization. � Though moments are realized in which
[the mountains] are seen to be adorned with the seven treasures, [those
moments] are not �the real refuge. � Though visions are realized [of the moun-
tains] as the area in which buddhas practice the truth, [those visions] are not
necessarily something to be loved. Though some have got the brains to real-
ize a vision [of the mountains] as the unthinkable merit of the buddhas, real-
ity is not merely this. 13 Every �realization� is an instance of object and sub-
ject. We do not esteem such [�realizations�] as the Buddhist patriarchs' action
in the state of truth: they are one-sided and narrow views. 14 The moving of
circumstances and the moving of mind are criticized by the Great Saint. 15
Explanations of mind and explanations of the nature16 are not affirmed by
the Buddhist patriarchs. Seeing the mind and seeing the nature17 is the ani-
mated activity of non-Buddhists. Staying in words and staying in phrases is
not the speech of liberation. There is [a state] that has got free from states
like these: it is expressed �the Blue Mountains are constantly walking� and
�the East Mountain moves on water. � We should master it in detail.
[182] [In the words] �The Stone Woman bears children by night� time,
in which the Stone Woman bears children, is called night. In general, there
are male stones and female stones, and there are neither male nor female
stones, whose practical function supports the heavens and supports the earth.
There are heavenly stones and there are earthly stones�as the secular say,
but few people know. 18 We should know the facts of childbirth: At the time
of childbirth, are parent and child both transformed? How could we learn in
practice only that childbirth is realized as [the parent] becoming the parent
of a child? We should learn in practice, and should penetrate to the end, that
the time of [the child] becoming the child of the parent is the practice-and-
experience of the reality of childbirth.
[183] Great Master Unmon Kyoshin19 says, �The East Mountain moves
on water. � The point realized in these words is that all mountains are an East
Mountain, and every East Mountain moves on water. 20 Thus [mountains]
such as the nine mountains of Mount Sumeru have been realized, and they
have practiced and experienced. 21 This state is called �the East Mountain. �
Nevertheless, how could Unmon be liberated in the skin, ? esh, bones, and
marrow, the practice-and-experience, and the vigorous activity of the East
Mountain. 22
[184] At the present time in the great kingdom of Song, there is a group
of unreliable23 fellows who have now formed such a crowd that they cannot
be beaten by a few real [people]. They say that the present talk of the East
Mountain moving on water, and stories such as Nansen's sickle,24 are sto-
ries beyond rational understanding. Their idea is as follows: �A story which
involves images and thoughts is not a Zen story of the Buddhist patriarchs.
Stories beyond rational understanding are the stories of the Buddhist patri-
archs. This is why we esteem Obaku's use of the stick and Rinzai's shout,25
which are beyond rational understanding and which do not involve images
and thoughts, as the great realization before the sprouting of creation. The
reason that the expedient means of many past masters employ tangle-cut-
ting26 phrases is that [those phrases] are beyond rational understanding. �
Those fellows who speak like this have never met a true teacher and they
have no eyes of learning in practice; they are small dogs who do not deserve
to be discussed. For the last two or three hundred years in the land of Song
there have been many such demons and shavelings [like those] in the band
of six. 27 It is pitiful that the great truth of the Buddhist Patriarch is going to
ruin. The understanding of these [shavelings] is inferior even to that of sra-
vakas of the Small Vehicle; they are more stupid than non-Buddhists. They
are not laypeople, they are not monks, they are not human beings, and they
are not gods; they are more stupid than animals learning the Buddha's truth.
What the shavelings call �stories beyond rational understanding� are beyond
rational understanding only to them;28 the Buddhist patriarchs are not like
that. Even though [rational ways] are not rationally understood by those
[shavelings], we should not fail to learn in practice the Buddhist patriarchs'
ways of rational understanding. If ultimately there is no rational under-
standing, the reasoning which those [shavelings] have now set forth also
cannot hit the target. There are many of this sort in all directions of Song
China, and I have seen and heard them before my own eyes. They are piti-
ful. They do not know that images and thoughts are words and phrases, and
they do not know that words and phrases transcend images and thoughts.
When I was in China I laughed at them, but they had nothing to say for them-
selves and were just wordless. Their present negation of rational under-
standing is nothing but a false notion. Who has taught it to them? Though
they lack a natural teacher, they have the non-Buddhist view of naturalism.
Remember, this �The East Mountain moves on water� is the bones and mar-
row of the Buddhist patriarchs. Waters are realized at the foot of the East
Mountain;29 thereupon mountains ride the clouds and walk through the sky.
The crowns of the waters are mountains, whose walking, upward or down-
ward, is always �on water. �30 Because the mountains' toes can walk over all
kinds of water, making the waters dance, the walking is free in all direc-
tions31 and �practice-and-experience is not nonexistent. �32 Water is neither
strong nor weak, neither wet nor dry, neither moving nor still, neither cold
nor warm, neither existent nor nonexistent, neither delusion nor realization.
When it is solid it is harder than a diamond; who could break it? Melted, it
is softer than diluted milk; who could break it? This being so, it is impossi-
ble to doubt the real virtues that [water] possesses. For the present, we should
learn in practice the moments in which it is possible to put on the eyes and
look in the ten directions at the water of the ten directions. This is not learn-
ing in practice only of the time when human beings and gods see water; there
is learning in practice of water seeing water. 33 Because water practices and
experiences water, there is the investigation in practice of water speaking
water. We should manifest in reality the path on which self encounters self.
We should advance and retreat along the vigorous path on which the exter-
nal world exhausts in practice the external world, and we should spring free.
[189] In general, ways of seeing mountains and water differ according
to the type of being [that sees them]: There are beings which see what we
call water as a string of pearls,34 but this does not mean that they see a string
of pearls as water. They probably see as their water a form that we see as
something else. We see their strings of pearls as water. There are [beings]
which see water as wonderful ? owers; but this does not mean that they use
? owers as water. Demons see water as raging ? ames, and see it as pus and
blood. Dragons and fish see it as a palace, and see it as a tower. Some see
[water] as the seven treasures and the ma? i gem;35 some see it as trees and
forests and fences and walls; some see it as the pure and liberated Dharma-
nature; some see it as the real human body;36 and some see it as [the oneness
of] physical form and mental nature. Human beings see it as water, the causes
and conditions of death and life. Thus, what is seen does indeed differ accord-
ing to the kind of being [that sees]. Now let us be wary of this. Is it that there
are various ways of seeing one object? Or is it that we have mistakenly
assumed the various images to be one object? At the crown of effort, we
should make still further effort. If the above is so, then practice-and-experi-
ence and pursuit of the truth also may not be [only] of one kind or of two
kinds; and the ultimate state also may be of thousands of kinds and myriad
varieties. When we keep this point in mind, although there are many kinds
of water, it seems that there is no original water, and no water of many kinds.
At the same time, the various waters which accord with the kinds of beings
[that see water] do not depend on mind, do not depend on body, do not arise
from karma, are not self-reliant, and are not reliant upon others; they have
the liberated state of reliance on water itself. This being so, water is beyond
earth, water, fire, wind, space, consciousness, and so on. Water is beyond
blue, yellow, red, white, or black and beyond sights, sounds, smells, tastes,
sensations, or properties; at the same time, as earth, water, fire, wind, space,
and so on, water is naturally realized. Because the nations and palaces of the
present are like this, it may be difficult to state by what and into what they
are created. To assert that they hang on the circle of space and the circle of
wind37 is not true to ourselves and not true to others; it is to speculate on the
basis of the suppositions of the small view. People make this assertion because
they think that, without somewhere to hang, [dharmas] would not be able
to abide. 38
[193] The Buddha says, �All dharmas are ultimately liberated; they are
without an abode. �39 Remember, although they are in the state of liberation,
without any bonds, all dharmas are abiding in place. 40 Even so, when human
beings look at water, the only way we see it is as ? owing ceaselessly. This
? owing takes many forms, each of which is an example of the human view:
[Water] ? ows over the earth, ? ows through the sky, ? ows upward, and ? ows
downward. It ? ows in a single winding brook, and it ? ows in the nine [great]
depths. 41 It rises up to form clouds, and it comes down to form pools. The Bun-
shi42 says, �The way of water is to ascend to the sky, forming rain and dew,
and to descend to the earth, forming rivers and streams. � Now even the words
of a secular person are like this. It would be most shameful for people who
call themselves the descendants of the Buddhist Patriarch to be more igno-
rant than secular people. We can say that the way of water is beyond the
recognition of water, but water is able actually to ? ow. Water is [also] beyond
non-recognition, but water is able actually to ? ow.
[195] �It ascends to the sky and forms rain and dew. � Remember, water
rises up immeasurably high into the sky above to form rain and dew. Rain
and dew are of various kinds corresponding to [the various kinds of] worlds.
To say that there are places not reached by water is the teaching of sravakas
of the Small Vehicle, or the wrong teaching of non-Buddhists. Water reaches
into ? ames, it reaches into the mind and its images, into wit, and into dis-
crimination, and it reaches into realization of the buddha-nature. 43
[195] �It descends to the earth to form rivers and streams. � Remember,
when water descends to the earth, it forms rivers and streams. The vitality of
rivers and streams can become sages. Common and stupid folk today assume
that water is always in rivers, streams, and oceans. This is not so. Rivers and
oceans are realized in water. 44 Thus, water also exists in places which are not
rivers and oceans; it is just that when water descends to the earth, it takes
effect as rivers and oceans. Further, we must not understand that social worlds
cannot exist or that buddha lands cannot exist at a place where water has
formed rivers and oceans. 45 Even inside a single drop, countless buddha lands
are realized. This does not mean that there is water within buddha lands, and
does not mean that there are buddha lands inside water. The place where water
exists is already beyond the three times and beyond the world of Dharma.
Even so, it is the universe in which water has been realized. Wherever Buddhist
patriarchs go water goes, and wherever water goes Buddhist patriarchs are
realized. This is why Buddhist patriarchs without exception, when taking up
water, have treated it as [their] body and mind and have treated it as [their]
thinking. This being so, that water rises up is not denied in any text, within
[Buddhism] or without. The way of water pervades upward and downward,
vertically and horizontally. At the same time, in the Buddhist sutras, �fire and
wind rise upward, earth and water settle downward. � There is something to
be learned in practice in this �upward� and �downward. � That is, we [must]
learn in practice the Buddha's teaching of �upward� and �downward,� as fol-
lows: The place where earth and water go, we think of as �downward. �46 We
do not think of downward as a place where earth and water go. 47 The place
where fire and wind go is �upward. � The �world of Dharma� should not always
be related to measurements upward, downward, and in the four diagonals;48
at the same time, the four elements, the five elements, the six elements, and
so on, relying on the concrete place to which they go, just momentarily estab-
lish the four-cornered Dharma world. 49 It is not to be assumed that the Heaven
of Thoughtlessness50 is above and that the Avici51 Hell is below. Avici is the
whole world of Dharma, and Thoughtlessness is the whole world of Dharma.
Still, when dragons and fish see water as a palace, they are probably like peo-
ple looking at a palace, utterly unable to recognize that it is ? owing away. If
an onlooker were to explain to them, �Your palace is ? owing water,� the drag-
ons and fish would likely be as startled as we were now to hear the assertion
that mountains are ? owing. Further, it may also be possible to maintain and
to rely upon [the assertion] that there is such preaching in [every] railing,
stair, and outdoor pillar of a palace or a mansion. Quietly, we should have
been considering this reasoning and we should go on considering it.
[199] If we are not learning the state of liberation at the face of this
place, we have not become free from the body and mind of the common per-
son, we have not perfectly realized the land of Buddhist patriarchs, and we
have not perfectly realized the palaces of the common person. Although
human beings now are profoundly confident that the inner content of the seas
and the inner content of the rivers is water, we still do not know what drag-
ons, fish, and other beings view as water and use as water. Do not stupidly
assume that every kind of being uses as water what we view as water. When
people today who are learning Buddhism want to learn about water, we
should not stick blindly in only the human sphere; we should move forward
and learn water in the Buddha's state of truth. We should learn in practice
how we see the water that Buddhist patriarchs use. Further, we should learn
in practice whether there is water or whether there is no water in the houses
of Buddhist patriarchs.
[200] Mountains have been the dwelling places of great saints since
beyond the past and present.
All the sages and all the saints have made the
mountains into their inner sanctum and made the mountains into their body
and mind; and by virtue of the sages and the saints the mountains have been
realized. We tend to suppose, with respect to mountains in general, that count-
less great saints and great sages might be gathered there; but after we have
entered the mountains there is not a single person to meet. There is only the
realization of the vigorous activity of mountains. Not even the traces of our
having entered remain. When we are in the secular world gazing at the moun-
tains, and when we are in the mountains meeting the mountains, their heads
and eyes are very different. Our notion that [the mountains] are not ? owing
and our view that [the mountains] are not ? owing may not be the same as
the view of dragons and fish. 52 While human beings and gods, in our own
world, are in our element, other beings doubt this [notion and view of ours],
or they may not even doubt it. This being so, we should study the phrase
�mountains ? ow� under Buddhist patriarchs; we should not leave it open to
doubt. 53 Acting once54 is just �? owing�; acting once [more] is just �not ? ow-
ing. � One time round is �? owing�; one time round is �not ? owing. � With-
out this investigation in practice, it is not the right Dharma wheel of the
Tathagata. An eternal buddha55 says, �If you want to be able not to invite the
karma of incessant [hell],56 do not insult the right Dharma wheel of the Tatha-
gata. � We should engrave these words on skin, ? esh, bones, and marrow,
we should engrave them on body and mind, on object-and-subject, we should
engrave them on the immaterial, and we should engrave them on matter;
they are [already] engraved �on trees and on rocks�57 and they are [already]
engraved �in fields and in villages. �58 We generally say that mountains belong
to a country, but [mountains] belong to people who love mountains. Moun-
tains always love their occupiers, whereupon saints and sages, people of high
virtue, enter the mountains. When saints and sages live in the mountains,
because the mountains belong to these [sages and saints], trees and rocks
abound and ? ourish, and birds and animals are mysteriously excellent. This
is because the sages and saint have covered them with virtue. We should
remember the fact that mountains like sages and the fact that [mountains]
like saints. That many emperors have gone to the mountains to bow before
sages and to question great saints is an excellent example in the past and the
present. At such times, [the emperors] honor [the sages and saints] with the
formalities due to a teacher, never conforming to secular norms. Imperial
authority exerts no control whatever over the mountain sages. Clearly, the
mountains are beyond the human world. On Kodo59 [Mountain] in the bygone
days of Kaho,60 the Yellow Emperor61 visited Kosei, crawling on his knees
and kowtowing to beg [instruction]. Sakyamuni Buddha left the palace of
his father, the king, to enter the mountains, but his father, the king, did not
resent the mountains. The royal father did not distrust those in the moun-
tains who would teach the prince, whose twelve years of training in the truth
were mostly spent in the mountains. The revelation of [the prince's] destiny
as the Dharma King also took place in the mountains. Truly, not even the
wheel[-turning] kings hold sway over the mountains. Remember, the moun-
tains are beyond the boundaries of the human world and beyond the bound-
aries of the heavens above; we can never know the mountains with the human
intellect. If [their ? owing] is not to be compared with ? owing in the human
world, who can doubt the ? owing, the non-? owing, and the other activities
of the mountains?
[205] Again, since the ancient past, there have been from time to time
sages and saints who lived by the water. When they live by the water, there
are those who fish fishes, those who fish human beings, and those who fish
the state of truth. Each of these is in the traditional stream of those who are
�in the water. � Going further, there may be those who fish themselves, those
who fish fishing, those who are fished by fishing, and those who are fished
by the state of truth. 62 In days of old, when Master Tokujo63 suddenly left
Yakusan Mountain to live amidst the river's mind, he got the sage64 of the
Katei River. Was this not fishing fishes? Was it not fishing human beings?
Was it not fishing water? Was it not fishing himself? A person who is able
to meet Tokujo is Tokujo;65 and Tokujo's �teaching people�66 is [a human
being] meeting a human being. It is not only that there is water in the world;
there are worlds in the world of water. And it is not only in water that such
[worlds] exist. There are worlds of sentient beings in clouds, there are worlds
of sentient beings in wind, there are worlds of sentient beings in fire, there
are worlds of sentient beings in earth, there are worlds of sentient beings in
the world of Dharma, there are worlds of sentient beings in a stalk of grass,
and there are worlds of sentient beings in a staff. Wherever there are worlds
of sentient beings, the world of Buddhist patriarchs inevitably exists at that
place. We should carefully learn in practice the truth which is like this. In
conclusion then, water is the palace of real dragons; it is beyond ? owing
and falling. If we recognize it as only ? owing, the word �? owing� insults
water, because, for example, [the word] forces [water] to be what is other
than ? owing itself. Water is nothing but water's �real form as it is. � Water
is just the virtues of water itself; it is beyond �? owing. � When we master
the ? ow and master the non-? ow of a single body of water, the perfect real-
ization of the myriad dharmas is realized at once. With mountains too, there
are moun ta ins con ta ined in treasure , there are moun ta ins con ta ined in
marshes, there are mountains contained in space, there are mountains con-
tained in mountains,67 and there is learning in practice in which mountains
are contained in containment. 68 An eternal buddha69 says, �Mountains are
mountains. Water is water. � These words do not say that �mountains� are
�mountains�; they say that mountains are mountains. This being so, we
should master the mountains in practice. When we are mastering the moun-
tains in practice, that is effort �in the mountains. � Mountains and water like
this naturally produce sages and produce saints.
Shobogenzo Sansuigyo70
Preached to the assembly at Kannondori ko -
shohorinji on the eighteenth day of the tenth
lunar month in the first year of Ninji. 71
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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 15
[Chapter Fifteen]
Busso
The Buddhist Patriarchs
Translator's Note: Butsu means �buddha� or �Buddhist,� so means �patri-
arch,� and therefore busso means Buddhist patriarchs. Master Dogen revered
buddhas of the past; he also esteemed the Buddhist transmission from buddha
to buddha. Furthermore he believed in the continuity of the Buddhist order; the
successive leaders of the Buddhist order held an important place in his thought.
Here Master Dogen enumerates the names of the patriarchs of the Buddhist
order, and in doing so, he confirms the Buddhist tradition they maintained.
[209] The realization of the Buddhist patriarchs1 is [our] taking up the Buddhist
patriarchs and paying homage to them. This is not of only the past, the pres-
ent, and the future; and it may be ascendant even to the ascendant [reality]
of buddha. 2 It is just to enumerate those who have maintained and relied
upon the real features3 of Buddhist patriarchs, to do prostrations to them,
and to meet them. Making the virtue of the Buddhist patriarchs manifest and
uphold itself, we have dwelled in and maintained it, and have bowed to and
experienced it.
[210] (1) Great Master4 Vipasyin Buddha
�here5 called Kosetsu [Universal Preaching]6
(2) Great Master Sikhin Buddha
�here called Ka [Fire]
(3) Great Master Visvabhu Buddha
�here called Issaiji [All Benevolent]
(4) Great Master Krakucchanda Buddha
�here called Kinsennin [Gold Wizard]
(5) Great Master Kanakamuni Buddha
�here called Konjikisen [Golden Wizard]
(6) Great Master Kasyapa Buddha
�here called Onko [Drinking Brightness]
(7) Great Master Sakyamuni Buddha
�here called Noninjakumoku [Benevolence and Serenity]
[1] Great Master Mahakasyapa7
[2] Great Master Ananda8
[3] Great Master Sa? avasa9
[4] Great Master Upagupta10
[5] Great Master Dhitika11
[6] Great Master Micchaka12
[7] Great Master Vasumitra13
[8] Great Master Buddhanandhi
[9] Great Master Baddhamitra
[10] Great Master Parsva14
[11] Great Master Pu? yayasas15
[12] Great Master Asvagho? a16
[13] Great Master Kapimala17
[14] Great Master Nagarjuna18
�also [called] Ryuju [Dragon Tree] or Ryusho [Dragon
Excellence] or Ryumo [Dragon Might]
[15] Great Master Ka? adeva19
[16] Great Master Rahulabhadra20
[17] Great Master Sa? ghanandi21
[18] Great Master Geyasata
[19] Great Master Kumaralabdha22
[20] Great Master Gayata23
[21] Great Master Vasubandhu24
[22] Great Master Manura25
[23] Great Master Hakulenayasas26
[24] Great Master Si? ha27
[25] Great Master Vasasuta28
[26] Great Master Pu? yamitra29
[27] Great Master Praj�atara30
[28] [1] Great Master Bodhidharma31
[29] [2] Great Master Eka32
[30] [3] Great Master Sosan33
[31] [4] Great Master Doshin34
[32] [5] Great Master Konin35
[33] [6] Great Master Eno36
[34] [7] Great Master Gyoshi37
[35] [8] Great Master Kisen38
[36] [9] Great Master Igen39
[37] [10] Great Master Donjo40
[38] [11] Great Master Ryokai41
[39] [12] Great Master Doyo42
[40] [13] Great Master Dohi43
[41] [14] Great Master Kanshi44
[42] [15] Great Master Enkan45
[43] [16] Great Master Kyogen46
[44] [17] Great Master Gisei47
[45] [18] Great Master Dokai48
[46] [19] Great Master Shijun49
[47] [20] Great Master Seiryo50
[48] [21] Great Master Sokaku51
[49] [22] Great Master Chikan52
[50] [23] Great Master Nyojo53
[222] Dogen, during the summer retreat of the first year of the Hogyo
era54 of the great kingdom of Song, met and served my late master, the eter-
nal buddha of Tendo, the Great Master. I perfectly realized the act of pros-
trating to, and humbly receiving upon my head, this Buddhist Patriarch; it
was [the realization of] buddhas alone, together with buddhas. 55
Shobogenzo Busso
Written at Kannondorikoshohorinji in the Uji
district of Yoshu,56 Japan, and preached to the
assembly there on the third day of the first
lunar month in the second year of Ninji. 57
---
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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
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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
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B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 16
[Chapter Sixteen]
Shisho
The Certificate of Succession
Translator's Note: Shi means �succession� or �transmission. � Sho means
�certificate. � So shisho means �the certificate of succession. � Buddhism is
not only theory but also practice or experience. Therefore it is impossible for
a Buddhist disciple to attain the Buddhist truth only by reading Buddhist
sutras or listening to a master's lectures. The disciple must live with a mas-
ter and study the master's behavior in everyday life. After a disciple has learned
the master's life and has realized the Buddhist truth in his or her own life, the
master gives a certificate to the disciple, certifying the transmission of the
truth from master to disciple. This certificate is called shisho. From a mate-
rialistic viewpoint, the certificate is only cloth and ink, and so it cannot hold
religious meaning or be revered as something with religious value. But
Buddhism is a realistic religion, and Buddhists find religious value in many
concrete traditions. The certificate is one such traditional object that is revered
by Buddhists. Therefore Master Dogen found much value in this certificate.
In this chapter he explains why the certificate is revered by Buddhists, and
records his own experiences of seeing such certificates in China.
[3] Buddhas, without exception, receive the Dharma from buddhas, buddha-
to-buddha, and patriarchs, without exception, receive the Dharma from patri-
archs, patriarch-to-patriarch; this is experience of the [Buddha's] state,1 this
is the one-to-one transmission, and for this reason it is �the supreme state of
bodhi. � It is impossible to certify a buddha without being a buddha, and no
one becomes a buddha without receiving the certification of a buddha. Who
but a buddha can esteem this state as the most honored and approve it as the
supreme? When we receive the certification of a buddha, we realize the state
independently, without a master,2 and we realize the state independently,
without our self. 3 For this reason, we speak of buddhas really experiencing
the succession, and of patriarchs really experiencing the same state. The
import of this truth cannot be clarified by anyone other than buddhas. How
could it be the thought of [bodhisattvas in] the ten states or the state of bal-
anced awareness? 4 How much less could it be supposed by teachers of sutras,
teachers of commentaries, and the like? Even if we explain it to them, they
will not be able to hear it, because it is transmitted between buddhas, buddha-
to-buddha.
[5] Remember, the Buddha's state of truth is the perfect realization only
of buddhas, and without buddhas it has no time. The state is like, for exam-
ple, stones succeeding each other as stones, jewels succeeding each other as
jewels, chrysanthemums succeeding each other, and pine trees certifying
each other, at which time the former chrysanthemum and the latter chrysan-
themum are each real as they are, and the former pine and the latter pine are
each real as they are. People who do not clarify the state like this, even if
they encounter the truth authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha,
cannot even suspect what kind of truth is being expressed; they do not pos-
sess the understanding that buddhas succeed each other and that patriarchs
experience the same state. It is pitiful that though they appear to be the
Buddha's progeny, they are not the Buddha's children, and they are not child-
buddhas.
[6] Sokei,5 on one occasion, preaches to the assembly, �From the Seven
Buddhas to Eno there are forty buddhas, and from Eno to the Seven Bud-
dhas there are forty patriarchs. �6 This truth is clearly the fundamental teach-
ing to which the Buddhist patriarchs have authentically succeeded. Among
these �Seven Buddhas,� some have appeared during the past kalpa of resplen-
dence7 and some have appeared in the present kalpa of the wise. 8 At the same
time, to connect in a line the face-to-face transmissions of the forty patri-
archs is the truth of Buddha, and is the succession of Buddha. This being so,
going up from the Sixth Patriarch to the Seven Buddhas, there are forty patri-
archs who are the buddha successors, and going down from the Seven Bud-
dhas to the Sixth Patriarch, the forty buddhas must be the buddha succes-
sors. The truth of buddhas, and the truth of patriarchs, is like this. Without
experience of the state, without being a Buddhist patriarch, we do not have
the wisdom of a buddha and do not have the perfect realization of a patri-
arch. Without a buddha's wisdom, we lack belief in the state of buddha.
Without a patriarch's perfect realization, we do not experience the same state
as a patriarch. To speak of forty patriarchs, for the present, is just to cite
those who are close. Thus, the succession from buddha to buddha is pro-
found and eternal; it is without regression or deviation and without inter-
ruption or cessation. The fundamental point is this: although Sakyamuni
Buddha realizes the truth before the Seven Buddhas, it has taken him a long
time to succeed to the Dharma of Kasyapa Buddha. 9 Although he realizes
the truth on the eighth day of the twelfth month, thirty years after his descent
and birth, [this] is realization of the truth before the Seven Buddhas; it is the
same realization of the truth shoulder-to-shoulder with, and in time with, the
many buddhas; it is realization of the truth before the many buddhas; and it
is realization of the truth after all the many buddhas. There is also the prin-
ciple to be mastered in practice that Kasyapa Buddha succeeds to the Dharma
of Sakyamuni Buddha. Those who do not know this principle do not clarify
the Buddha's state of truth. Without clarifying the Buddha's state of truth,
they are not the Buddha's successors. The Buddha's successors means the
Buddha's children. Sakyamuni Buddha, on one occasion, causes Ananda to
ask,10 �Whose disciples are the buddhas of the past? � Sakyamuni Buddha
says, �The buddhas of the past are the disciples of Sakyamuni Buddha. � The
Buddhist doctrine of all the buddhas is like this.
[9] To serve these buddhas and to accomplish the succession of Buddha
is just the Buddha's truth [practiced by] every buddha. This Buddha's truth
is always transmitted in the succession of the Dharma, at which time there
is inevitably a certificate of succession. Without the succession of Dharma,
we would be non-Buddhists of naturalism. If the Buddha's truth did not dic-
tate the succession of Dharma, how could it have reached the present day?
Therefore, in [the transmission] that is [from] buddha [to] buddha, a certifi-
cate of succession, of buddha succeeding buddha, is inevitably present, and
a certificate of succession, of buddha succeeding buddha, is received. As
regards the concrete situation of the certificate of succession, some succeed
to the Dharma on clarifying the sun, the moon, and the stars, and some suc-
ceed to the Dharma on being made to get the skin, ? esh, bones, and mar-
row;11 some receive a ka? aya; some receive a staff; some receive a sprig of
pine; some receive a whisk;12 some receive an u? umbara ? ower; and some
receive a robe of golden brocade. 13 There have been successions with straw
sandals14 and successions with a bamboo stick. 15 When such successions of
the Dharma are received, some write a certificate of succession with blood
from a finger, some write a certificate of succession with blood from a tongue,
and some perform the succession of Dharma by writing [a certificate] with
oil and milk; these are all certificates of succession. The one who has per-
formed the succession and the one who has received it are both the Buddha's
successors. Truly, whenever [Buddhist patriarchs] are realized as Buddhist
patriarchs, the succession of the Dharma is inevitably realized. When [the
succession] is realized, many Buddhist patriarchs [find that] though they did
not expect it, it has come, and though they did not seek it, they have suc-
ceeded to the Dharma. Those who have the succession of Dharma are, with-
out exception, the buddhas and the patriarchs.
[12] Since the twenty-eighth patriarch16 came from the west, the fun-
damental principle has been rightly heard in the Eastern Lands that there is
in Buddhism the succession of the Dharma. Before that time, we never heard
it at all. [Even] in the Western Heavens, it is neither attained nor known by
teachers of commentaries, Dharma teachers, and the like. It is also beyond
[bodhisattvas of] the ten sacred and the three clever states. Teachers of mantric
techniques who intellectually study the Tripi? aka17 are not able even to sus-
pect that it exists. Deplorably, though they have received the human body
which is a vessel for the state of truth, they have become uselessly entan-
gled in the net of theory, and so they do not know the method of liberation
and they do not hope for the opportunity to spring free. Therefore, we should
learn the state of truth in detail, and we should concentrate our resolve to
realize the state in practice.
[13] Dogen, when in Song [China], had the opportunity to bow before
certificates of succession, and there were many kinds of certificate. One among
them was that of the veteran master Iichi Seido18 who had hung his traveling
staff at Tendo [Temple]. He was a man from the Etsu district, and was the
former abbot of Kofukuji. He was a native of the same area as my late mas-
ter. My late master always used to say, �For familiarity with the state, ask
Iichi Seido! � One day Seido said, �Admirable old [calligraphic] traces are
prized possessions of the human world. How many of them have you seen? �
Dogen said, �I have seen few. � Then Seido said, �I have a scroll of old cal-
ligraphy in my room. It is a roster. I will let you see it, venerable brother. �
So saying, he fetched it, and I saw that it was a certificate of succession. It
was a certificate of the succession of Hogen's19 lineage, and had been obtained
from among the robes and patra20 of an old veteran monk: it was not that of
the venerable Iichi himself. The way it was written is as follows: �The first
patriarch Mahakasyapa realized the truth under Sakyamuni Buddha; Sakya-
muni Buddha realized the truth under Kasyapa Buddha. . .
means Buddhist sutras. So Sansuigyo means mountains and water, or nature,
as Buddhist sutras. Buddhism is basically a religion of belief in the universe,
and nature is the universe showing its real form. So to look at nature is to
look at the Buddhist truth itself. For this reason Master Dogen believed that
nature is just Buddhist sutras. In this chapter he explains the real form of
nature, giving particular emphasis to relativity in nature.
[175] The mountains and water of the present are the realization of the words
of eternal buddhas. Both [mountains and water] abide in place in the Dharma,
having realized ultimate virtue. Because they are in the state before the kalpa
of emptiness, they are vigorous activity in the present. Because they are the
self before the sprouting of creation, they are real liberation. The virtues of
the mountains are so high and wide that we always realize moral virtue which
can ride the clouds by relying on the mountains, and we unfailingly liberate
the subtle effectiveness which follows the wind by relying on the mountains.
[176] Master Kai1 of Taiyozan preaches to the assembly, �The Blue
Mountains are constantly walking. The Stone Woman bears children by
night. � Mountains lack none of the virtues with which mountains should be
equipped. For this reason, they are constantly abiding in stillness and con-
stantly walking. We must painstakingly learn in practice the virtue of this
walking. The walking of mountains must be like the walking of human beings;
therefore, even though it does not look like human walking,2 do not doubt
the walking of the mountains. The words preached now by the Buddhist
Patriarch are already pointing to �walking,� and this is his attainment of the
fundamental. We should pursue to the ultimate his preaching to the assem-
bly about �constant walking�: it is because [the mountains] are walking that
they are �constant. �3 The walking of the Blue Mountains is swifter than the
wind, but human beings in the mountains do not sense it or know it. Being
�in the mountains�4 describes the �opening of ? owers� in the �[real] world. �5
People out of the mountains never sense it and never know it�people who
have no eyes to see the mountains do not sense, do not know, do not see,
and do not hear this concrete fact. If we doubt the walking of the mountains,
we also do not yet know our own walking. It is not that we do not have our
own walking, but we do not yet know and have not yet clarified our own
walking. When we know our own walking, then we will surely also know
the walking of the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are already beyond
the sentient and beyond the insentient. The self is already beyond the sen-
tient and beyond the insentient. We cannot doubt the present walking of the
Blue Mountains. [Though] we do not know how many Dharma worlds we
should use as a scale when taking in the Blue Mountains, we should inves-
tigate in detail the walking of the Blue Mountains as well as our own walk-
ing. There should be investigation both of backward steps6 and of stepping
backward. 7 We should investigate the fact that just at the moment before the
sprouting of creation, and since before the King of Emptiness,8 walking�
in forward steps and backward steps�has never stopped even for an instant.
If the walking ceased, the Buddhist patriarchs could not manifest themselves
in reality. If there were an end to the walking, the Buddha-Dharma could not
reach the present day. Forward walking never ceases, and backward walk-
ing never ceases. The moment of forward walking does not oppose back-
ward walking, and the moment of backward walking does not oppose for-
ward walking. 9 We call this virtue �the mountains ? owing,� and we call it
�the ? owing mountains. � The Blue Mountains master in practice the act of
walking and the East Mountain learns in practice the act of moving on water;
therefore, this learning in practice is the mountains' learning in practice. The
mountains, without changing their body and mind, with the face and eyes of
mountains, have been traveling around learning in practice. Never insult
them by saying that the Blue Mountains cannot walk or that the East Moun-
tain cannot move on water. It is because of the grossness of the viewpoint
of the vulgar that they doubt the phrase �the Blue Mountains are walking. �
It is due to the poorness of their scant experience that they are astonished at
the words �? owing mountains. � Now, not even fully understanding10 the
words �? owing water,� they are drowned in prejudice and ignorance. This
being so, they esteem as defining concepts, and esteem as lifeblood, their
enumeration of the accumulated virtues [of mountains]. 11 The act of walk-
ing exists, the act of ? owing exists, and moments in which mountains give
birth to mountain children exist. By virtue of the fact that mountains become
Buddhist patriarchs, Buddhist patriarchs have manifested themselves in real-
ity like this. 12 Though there may be eyes in which grass, trees, soil, stones,
fences, and walls are realized, that moment is beyond doubt and beyond dis-
turbance; it is not �total realization. � Though moments are realized in which
[the mountains] are seen to be adorned with the seven treasures, [those
moments] are not �the real refuge. � Though visions are realized [of the moun-
tains] as the area in which buddhas practice the truth, [those visions] are not
necessarily something to be loved. Though some have got the brains to real-
ize a vision [of the mountains] as the unthinkable merit of the buddhas, real-
ity is not merely this. 13 Every �realization� is an instance of object and sub-
ject. We do not esteem such [�realizations�] as the Buddhist patriarchs' action
in the state of truth: they are one-sided and narrow views. 14 The moving of
circumstances and the moving of mind are criticized by the Great Saint. 15
Explanations of mind and explanations of the nature16 are not affirmed by
the Buddhist patriarchs. Seeing the mind and seeing the nature17 is the ani-
mated activity of non-Buddhists. Staying in words and staying in phrases is
not the speech of liberation. There is [a state] that has got free from states
like these: it is expressed �the Blue Mountains are constantly walking� and
�the East Mountain moves on water. � We should master it in detail.
[182] [In the words] �The Stone Woman bears children by night� time,
in which the Stone Woman bears children, is called night. In general, there
are male stones and female stones, and there are neither male nor female
stones, whose practical function supports the heavens and supports the earth.
There are heavenly stones and there are earthly stones�as the secular say,
but few people know. 18 We should know the facts of childbirth: At the time
of childbirth, are parent and child both transformed? How could we learn in
practice only that childbirth is realized as [the parent] becoming the parent
of a child? We should learn in practice, and should penetrate to the end, that
the time of [the child] becoming the child of the parent is the practice-and-
experience of the reality of childbirth.
[183] Great Master Unmon Kyoshin19 says, �The East Mountain moves
on water. � The point realized in these words is that all mountains are an East
Mountain, and every East Mountain moves on water. 20 Thus [mountains]
such as the nine mountains of Mount Sumeru have been realized, and they
have practiced and experienced. 21 This state is called �the East Mountain. �
Nevertheless, how could Unmon be liberated in the skin, ? esh, bones, and
marrow, the practice-and-experience, and the vigorous activity of the East
Mountain. 22
[184] At the present time in the great kingdom of Song, there is a group
of unreliable23 fellows who have now formed such a crowd that they cannot
be beaten by a few real [people]. They say that the present talk of the East
Mountain moving on water, and stories such as Nansen's sickle,24 are sto-
ries beyond rational understanding. Their idea is as follows: �A story which
involves images and thoughts is not a Zen story of the Buddhist patriarchs.
Stories beyond rational understanding are the stories of the Buddhist patri-
archs. This is why we esteem Obaku's use of the stick and Rinzai's shout,25
which are beyond rational understanding and which do not involve images
and thoughts, as the great realization before the sprouting of creation. The
reason that the expedient means of many past masters employ tangle-cut-
ting26 phrases is that [those phrases] are beyond rational understanding. �
Those fellows who speak like this have never met a true teacher and they
have no eyes of learning in practice; they are small dogs who do not deserve
to be discussed. For the last two or three hundred years in the land of Song
there have been many such demons and shavelings [like those] in the band
of six. 27 It is pitiful that the great truth of the Buddhist Patriarch is going to
ruin. The understanding of these [shavelings] is inferior even to that of sra-
vakas of the Small Vehicle; they are more stupid than non-Buddhists. They
are not laypeople, they are not monks, they are not human beings, and they
are not gods; they are more stupid than animals learning the Buddha's truth.
What the shavelings call �stories beyond rational understanding� are beyond
rational understanding only to them;28 the Buddhist patriarchs are not like
that. Even though [rational ways] are not rationally understood by those
[shavelings], we should not fail to learn in practice the Buddhist patriarchs'
ways of rational understanding. If ultimately there is no rational under-
standing, the reasoning which those [shavelings] have now set forth also
cannot hit the target. There are many of this sort in all directions of Song
China, and I have seen and heard them before my own eyes. They are piti-
ful. They do not know that images and thoughts are words and phrases, and
they do not know that words and phrases transcend images and thoughts.
When I was in China I laughed at them, but they had nothing to say for them-
selves and were just wordless. Their present negation of rational under-
standing is nothing but a false notion. Who has taught it to them? Though
they lack a natural teacher, they have the non-Buddhist view of naturalism.
Remember, this �The East Mountain moves on water� is the bones and mar-
row of the Buddhist patriarchs. Waters are realized at the foot of the East
Mountain;29 thereupon mountains ride the clouds and walk through the sky.
The crowns of the waters are mountains, whose walking, upward or down-
ward, is always �on water. �30 Because the mountains' toes can walk over all
kinds of water, making the waters dance, the walking is free in all direc-
tions31 and �practice-and-experience is not nonexistent. �32 Water is neither
strong nor weak, neither wet nor dry, neither moving nor still, neither cold
nor warm, neither existent nor nonexistent, neither delusion nor realization.
When it is solid it is harder than a diamond; who could break it? Melted, it
is softer than diluted milk; who could break it? This being so, it is impossi-
ble to doubt the real virtues that [water] possesses. For the present, we should
learn in practice the moments in which it is possible to put on the eyes and
look in the ten directions at the water of the ten directions. This is not learn-
ing in practice only of the time when human beings and gods see water; there
is learning in practice of water seeing water. 33 Because water practices and
experiences water, there is the investigation in practice of water speaking
water. We should manifest in reality the path on which self encounters self.
We should advance and retreat along the vigorous path on which the exter-
nal world exhausts in practice the external world, and we should spring free.
[189] In general, ways of seeing mountains and water differ according
to the type of being [that sees them]: There are beings which see what we
call water as a string of pearls,34 but this does not mean that they see a string
of pearls as water. They probably see as their water a form that we see as
something else. We see their strings of pearls as water. There are [beings]
which see water as wonderful ? owers; but this does not mean that they use
? owers as water. Demons see water as raging ? ames, and see it as pus and
blood. Dragons and fish see it as a palace, and see it as a tower. Some see
[water] as the seven treasures and the ma? i gem;35 some see it as trees and
forests and fences and walls; some see it as the pure and liberated Dharma-
nature; some see it as the real human body;36 and some see it as [the oneness
of] physical form and mental nature. Human beings see it as water, the causes
and conditions of death and life. Thus, what is seen does indeed differ accord-
ing to the kind of being [that sees]. Now let us be wary of this. Is it that there
are various ways of seeing one object? Or is it that we have mistakenly
assumed the various images to be one object? At the crown of effort, we
should make still further effort. If the above is so, then practice-and-experi-
ence and pursuit of the truth also may not be [only] of one kind or of two
kinds; and the ultimate state also may be of thousands of kinds and myriad
varieties. When we keep this point in mind, although there are many kinds
of water, it seems that there is no original water, and no water of many kinds.
At the same time, the various waters which accord with the kinds of beings
[that see water] do not depend on mind, do not depend on body, do not arise
from karma, are not self-reliant, and are not reliant upon others; they have
the liberated state of reliance on water itself. This being so, water is beyond
earth, water, fire, wind, space, consciousness, and so on. Water is beyond
blue, yellow, red, white, or black and beyond sights, sounds, smells, tastes,
sensations, or properties; at the same time, as earth, water, fire, wind, space,
and so on, water is naturally realized. Because the nations and palaces of the
present are like this, it may be difficult to state by what and into what they
are created. To assert that they hang on the circle of space and the circle of
wind37 is not true to ourselves and not true to others; it is to speculate on the
basis of the suppositions of the small view. People make this assertion because
they think that, without somewhere to hang, [dharmas] would not be able
to abide. 38
[193] The Buddha says, �All dharmas are ultimately liberated; they are
without an abode. �39 Remember, although they are in the state of liberation,
without any bonds, all dharmas are abiding in place. 40 Even so, when human
beings look at water, the only way we see it is as ? owing ceaselessly. This
? owing takes many forms, each of which is an example of the human view:
[Water] ? ows over the earth, ? ows through the sky, ? ows upward, and ? ows
downward. It ? ows in a single winding brook, and it ? ows in the nine [great]
depths. 41 It rises up to form clouds, and it comes down to form pools. The Bun-
shi42 says, �The way of water is to ascend to the sky, forming rain and dew,
and to descend to the earth, forming rivers and streams. � Now even the words
of a secular person are like this. It would be most shameful for people who
call themselves the descendants of the Buddhist Patriarch to be more igno-
rant than secular people. We can say that the way of water is beyond the
recognition of water, but water is able actually to ? ow. Water is [also] beyond
non-recognition, but water is able actually to ? ow.
[195] �It ascends to the sky and forms rain and dew. � Remember, water
rises up immeasurably high into the sky above to form rain and dew. Rain
and dew are of various kinds corresponding to [the various kinds of] worlds.
To say that there are places not reached by water is the teaching of sravakas
of the Small Vehicle, or the wrong teaching of non-Buddhists. Water reaches
into ? ames, it reaches into the mind and its images, into wit, and into dis-
crimination, and it reaches into realization of the buddha-nature. 43
[195] �It descends to the earth to form rivers and streams. � Remember,
when water descends to the earth, it forms rivers and streams. The vitality of
rivers and streams can become sages. Common and stupid folk today assume
that water is always in rivers, streams, and oceans. This is not so. Rivers and
oceans are realized in water. 44 Thus, water also exists in places which are not
rivers and oceans; it is just that when water descends to the earth, it takes
effect as rivers and oceans. Further, we must not understand that social worlds
cannot exist or that buddha lands cannot exist at a place where water has
formed rivers and oceans. 45 Even inside a single drop, countless buddha lands
are realized. This does not mean that there is water within buddha lands, and
does not mean that there are buddha lands inside water. The place where water
exists is already beyond the three times and beyond the world of Dharma.
Even so, it is the universe in which water has been realized. Wherever Buddhist
patriarchs go water goes, and wherever water goes Buddhist patriarchs are
realized. This is why Buddhist patriarchs without exception, when taking up
water, have treated it as [their] body and mind and have treated it as [their]
thinking. This being so, that water rises up is not denied in any text, within
[Buddhism] or without. The way of water pervades upward and downward,
vertically and horizontally. At the same time, in the Buddhist sutras, �fire and
wind rise upward, earth and water settle downward. � There is something to
be learned in practice in this �upward� and �downward. � That is, we [must]
learn in practice the Buddha's teaching of �upward� and �downward,� as fol-
lows: The place where earth and water go, we think of as �downward. �46 We
do not think of downward as a place where earth and water go. 47 The place
where fire and wind go is �upward. � The �world of Dharma� should not always
be related to measurements upward, downward, and in the four diagonals;48
at the same time, the four elements, the five elements, the six elements, and
so on, relying on the concrete place to which they go, just momentarily estab-
lish the four-cornered Dharma world. 49 It is not to be assumed that the Heaven
of Thoughtlessness50 is above and that the Avici51 Hell is below. Avici is the
whole world of Dharma, and Thoughtlessness is the whole world of Dharma.
Still, when dragons and fish see water as a palace, they are probably like peo-
ple looking at a palace, utterly unable to recognize that it is ? owing away. If
an onlooker were to explain to them, �Your palace is ? owing water,� the drag-
ons and fish would likely be as startled as we were now to hear the assertion
that mountains are ? owing. Further, it may also be possible to maintain and
to rely upon [the assertion] that there is such preaching in [every] railing,
stair, and outdoor pillar of a palace or a mansion. Quietly, we should have
been considering this reasoning and we should go on considering it.
[199] If we are not learning the state of liberation at the face of this
place, we have not become free from the body and mind of the common per-
son, we have not perfectly realized the land of Buddhist patriarchs, and we
have not perfectly realized the palaces of the common person. Although
human beings now are profoundly confident that the inner content of the seas
and the inner content of the rivers is water, we still do not know what drag-
ons, fish, and other beings view as water and use as water. Do not stupidly
assume that every kind of being uses as water what we view as water. When
people today who are learning Buddhism want to learn about water, we
should not stick blindly in only the human sphere; we should move forward
and learn water in the Buddha's state of truth. We should learn in practice
how we see the water that Buddhist patriarchs use. Further, we should learn
in practice whether there is water or whether there is no water in the houses
of Buddhist patriarchs.
[200] Mountains have been the dwelling places of great saints since
beyond the past and present.
All the sages and all the saints have made the
mountains into their inner sanctum and made the mountains into their body
and mind; and by virtue of the sages and the saints the mountains have been
realized. We tend to suppose, with respect to mountains in general, that count-
less great saints and great sages might be gathered there; but after we have
entered the mountains there is not a single person to meet. There is only the
realization of the vigorous activity of mountains. Not even the traces of our
having entered remain. When we are in the secular world gazing at the moun-
tains, and when we are in the mountains meeting the mountains, their heads
and eyes are very different. Our notion that [the mountains] are not ? owing
and our view that [the mountains] are not ? owing may not be the same as
the view of dragons and fish. 52 While human beings and gods, in our own
world, are in our element, other beings doubt this [notion and view of ours],
or they may not even doubt it. This being so, we should study the phrase
�mountains ? ow� under Buddhist patriarchs; we should not leave it open to
doubt. 53 Acting once54 is just �? owing�; acting once [more] is just �not ? ow-
ing. � One time round is �? owing�; one time round is �not ? owing. � With-
out this investigation in practice, it is not the right Dharma wheel of the
Tathagata. An eternal buddha55 says, �If you want to be able not to invite the
karma of incessant [hell],56 do not insult the right Dharma wheel of the Tatha-
gata. � We should engrave these words on skin, ? esh, bones, and marrow,
we should engrave them on body and mind, on object-and-subject, we should
engrave them on the immaterial, and we should engrave them on matter;
they are [already] engraved �on trees and on rocks�57 and they are [already]
engraved �in fields and in villages. �58 We generally say that mountains belong
to a country, but [mountains] belong to people who love mountains. Moun-
tains always love their occupiers, whereupon saints and sages, people of high
virtue, enter the mountains. When saints and sages live in the mountains,
because the mountains belong to these [sages and saints], trees and rocks
abound and ? ourish, and birds and animals are mysteriously excellent. This
is because the sages and saint have covered them with virtue. We should
remember the fact that mountains like sages and the fact that [mountains]
like saints. That many emperors have gone to the mountains to bow before
sages and to question great saints is an excellent example in the past and the
present. At such times, [the emperors] honor [the sages and saints] with the
formalities due to a teacher, never conforming to secular norms. Imperial
authority exerts no control whatever over the mountain sages. Clearly, the
mountains are beyond the human world. On Kodo59 [Mountain] in the bygone
days of Kaho,60 the Yellow Emperor61 visited Kosei, crawling on his knees
and kowtowing to beg [instruction]. Sakyamuni Buddha left the palace of
his father, the king, to enter the mountains, but his father, the king, did not
resent the mountains. The royal father did not distrust those in the moun-
tains who would teach the prince, whose twelve years of training in the truth
were mostly spent in the mountains. The revelation of [the prince's] destiny
as the Dharma King also took place in the mountains. Truly, not even the
wheel[-turning] kings hold sway over the mountains. Remember, the moun-
tains are beyond the boundaries of the human world and beyond the bound-
aries of the heavens above; we can never know the mountains with the human
intellect. If [their ? owing] is not to be compared with ? owing in the human
world, who can doubt the ? owing, the non-? owing, and the other activities
of the mountains?
[205] Again, since the ancient past, there have been from time to time
sages and saints who lived by the water. When they live by the water, there
are those who fish fishes, those who fish human beings, and those who fish
the state of truth. Each of these is in the traditional stream of those who are
�in the water. � Going further, there may be those who fish themselves, those
who fish fishing, those who are fished by fishing, and those who are fished
by the state of truth. 62 In days of old, when Master Tokujo63 suddenly left
Yakusan Mountain to live amidst the river's mind, he got the sage64 of the
Katei River. Was this not fishing fishes? Was it not fishing human beings?
Was it not fishing water? Was it not fishing himself? A person who is able
to meet Tokujo is Tokujo;65 and Tokujo's �teaching people�66 is [a human
being] meeting a human being. It is not only that there is water in the world;
there are worlds in the world of water. And it is not only in water that such
[worlds] exist. There are worlds of sentient beings in clouds, there are worlds
of sentient beings in wind, there are worlds of sentient beings in fire, there
are worlds of sentient beings in earth, there are worlds of sentient beings in
the world of Dharma, there are worlds of sentient beings in a stalk of grass,
and there are worlds of sentient beings in a staff. Wherever there are worlds
of sentient beings, the world of Buddhist patriarchs inevitably exists at that
place. We should carefully learn in practice the truth which is like this. In
conclusion then, water is the palace of real dragons; it is beyond ? owing
and falling. If we recognize it as only ? owing, the word �? owing� insults
water, because, for example, [the word] forces [water] to be what is other
than ? owing itself. Water is nothing but water's �real form as it is. � Water
is just the virtues of water itself; it is beyond �? owing. � When we master
the ? ow and master the non-? ow of a single body of water, the perfect real-
ization of the myriad dharmas is realized at once. With mountains too, there
are moun ta ins con ta ined in treasure , there are moun ta ins con ta ined in
marshes, there are mountains contained in space, there are mountains con-
tained in mountains,67 and there is learning in practice in which mountains
are contained in containment. 68 An eternal buddha69 says, �Mountains are
mountains. Water is water. � These words do not say that �mountains� are
�mountains�; they say that mountains are mountains. This being so, we
should master the mountains in practice. When we are mastering the moun-
tains in practice, that is effort �in the mountains. � Mountains and water like
this naturally produce sages and produce saints.
Shobogenzo Sansuigyo70
Preached to the assembly at Kannondori ko -
shohorinji on the eighteenth day of the tenth
lunar month in the first year of Ninji. 71
---
BDK English Tripitaka
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Tools
BDK English Tripitaka
A Biography of Sakyamuni
The Lotus Sutra (Second Revised Edition)
The Sutra of Queen Srimala of the Lion's Roar
The Larger Sutra on Amitayus
The Sutra on Contemplation of Amitayus
The Smaller Sutra on Amitayus
The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra
The Vimalakirti Sutra
The Ullambana Sutra
The Sutra of Forty-two Sections
The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment
The Vairocanabhisa? bodhi Sutra
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 1
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 2
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 3
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 4
Tannisho: Passages Deploring Deviations of Faith
Rennyo Shonin Ofumi: The Letters of Rennyo
The Sutra on the Profundity of Filial Love
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 1 (? ? ? ? (1))
Chapter/Section: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 15
[Chapter Fifteen]
Busso
The Buddhist Patriarchs
Translator's Note: Butsu means �buddha� or �Buddhist,� so means �patri-
arch,� and therefore busso means Buddhist patriarchs. Master Dogen revered
buddhas of the past; he also esteemed the Buddhist transmission from buddha
to buddha. Furthermore he believed in the continuity of the Buddhist order; the
successive leaders of the Buddhist order held an important place in his thought.
Here Master Dogen enumerates the names of the patriarchs of the Buddhist
order, and in doing so, he confirms the Buddhist tradition they maintained.
[209] The realization of the Buddhist patriarchs1 is [our] taking up the Buddhist
patriarchs and paying homage to them. This is not of only the past, the pres-
ent, and the future; and it may be ascendant even to the ascendant [reality]
of buddha. 2 It is just to enumerate those who have maintained and relied
upon the real features3 of Buddhist patriarchs, to do prostrations to them,
and to meet them. Making the virtue of the Buddhist patriarchs manifest and
uphold itself, we have dwelled in and maintained it, and have bowed to and
experienced it.
[210] (1) Great Master4 Vipasyin Buddha
�here5 called Kosetsu [Universal Preaching]6
(2) Great Master Sikhin Buddha
�here called Ka [Fire]
(3) Great Master Visvabhu Buddha
�here called Issaiji [All Benevolent]
(4) Great Master Krakucchanda Buddha
�here called Kinsennin [Gold Wizard]
(5) Great Master Kanakamuni Buddha
�here called Konjikisen [Golden Wizard]
(6) Great Master Kasyapa Buddha
�here called Onko [Drinking Brightness]
(7) Great Master Sakyamuni Buddha
�here called Noninjakumoku [Benevolence and Serenity]
[1] Great Master Mahakasyapa7
[2] Great Master Ananda8
[3] Great Master Sa? avasa9
[4] Great Master Upagupta10
[5] Great Master Dhitika11
[6] Great Master Micchaka12
[7] Great Master Vasumitra13
[8] Great Master Buddhanandhi
[9] Great Master Baddhamitra
[10] Great Master Parsva14
[11] Great Master Pu? yayasas15
[12] Great Master Asvagho? a16
[13] Great Master Kapimala17
[14] Great Master Nagarjuna18
�also [called] Ryuju [Dragon Tree] or Ryusho [Dragon
Excellence] or Ryumo [Dragon Might]
[15] Great Master Ka? adeva19
[16] Great Master Rahulabhadra20
[17] Great Master Sa? ghanandi21
[18] Great Master Geyasata
[19] Great Master Kumaralabdha22
[20] Great Master Gayata23
[21] Great Master Vasubandhu24
[22] Great Master Manura25
[23] Great Master Hakulenayasas26
[24] Great Master Si? ha27
[25] Great Master Vasasuta28
[26] Great Master Pu? yamitra29
[27] Great Master Praj�atara30
[28] [1] Great Master Bodhidharma31
[29] [2] Great Master Eka32
[30] [3] Great Master Sosan33
[31] [4] Great Master Doshin34
[32] [5] Great Master Konin35
[33] [6] Great Master Eno36
[34] [7] Great Master Gyoshi37
[35] [8] Great Master Kisen38
[36] [9] Great Master Igen39
[37] [10] Great Master Donjo40
[38] [11] Great Master Ryokai41
[39] [12] Great Master Doyo42
[40] [13] Great Master Dohi43
[41] [14] Great Master Kanshi44
[42] [15] Great Master Enkan45
[43] [16] Great Master Kyogen46
[44] [17] Great Master Gisei47
[45] [18] Great Master Dokai48
[46] [19] Great Master Shijun49
[47] [20] Great Master Seiryo50
[48] [21] Great Master Sokaku51
[49] [22] Great Master Chikan52
[50] [23] Great Master Nyojo53
[222] Dogen, during the summer retreat of the first year of the Hogyo
era54 of the great kingdom of Song, met and served my late master, the eter-
nal buddha of Tendo, the Great Master. I perfectly realized the act of pros-
trating to, and humbly receiving upon my head, this Buddhist Patriarch; it
was [the realization of] buddhas alone, together with buddhas. 55
Shobogenzo Busso
Written at Kannondorikoshohorinji in the Uji
district of Yoshu,56 Japan, and preached to the
assembly there on the third day of the first
lunar month in the second year of Ninji. 57
---
BDK English Tripitaka
Keyword
C/W Length Limit
Books
Tools
BDK English Tripitaka
A Biography of Sakyamuni
The Lotus Sutra (Second Revised Edition)
The Sutra of Queen Srimala of the Lion's Roar
The Larger Sutra on Amitayus
The Sutra on Contemplation of Amitayus
The Smaller Sutra on Amitayus
The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra
The Vimalakirti Sutra
The Ullambana Sutra
The Sutra of Forty-two Sections
The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment
The Vairocanabhisa? bodhi Sutra
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 1
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 2
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 3
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 4
Tannisho: Passages Deploring Deviations of Faith
Rennyo Shonin Ofumi: The Letters of Rennyo
The Sutra on the Profundity of Filial Love
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 1 (? ? ? ? (1))
Chapter/Section: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 16
[Chapter Sixteen]
Shisho
The Certificate of Succession
Translator's Note: Shi means �succession� or �transmission. � Sho means
�certificate. � So shisho means �the certificate of succession. � Buddhism is
not only theory but also practice or experience. Therefore it is impossible for
a Buddhist disciple to attain the Buddhist truth only by reading Buddhist
sutras or listening to a master's lectures. The disciple must live with a mas-
ter and study the master's behavior in everyday life. After a disciple has learned
the master's life and has realized the Buddhist truth in his or her own life, the
master gives a certificate to the disciple, certifying the transmission of the
truth from master to disciple. This certificate is called shisho. From a mate-
rialistic viewpoint, the certificate is only cloth and ink, and so it cannot hold
religious meaning or be revered as something with religious value. But
Buddhism is a realistic religion, and Buddhists find religious value in many
concrete traditions. The certificate is one such traditional object that is revered
by Buddhists. Therefore Master Dogen found much value in this certificate.
In this chapter he explains why the certificate is revered by Buddhists, and
records his own experiences of seeing such certificates in China.
[3] Buddhas, without exception, receive the Dharma from buddhas, buddha-
to-buddha, and patriarchs, without exception, receive the Dharma from patri-
archs, patriarch-to-patriarch; this is experience of the [Buddha's] state,1 this
is the one-to-one transmission, and for this reason it is �the supreme state of
bodhi. � It is impossible to certify a buddha without being a buddha, and no
one becomes a buddha without receiving the certification of a buddha. Who
but a buddha can esteem this state as the most honored and approve it as the
supreme? When we receive the certification of a buddha, we realize the state
independently, without a master,2 and we realize the state independently,
without our self. 3 For this reason, we speak of buddhas really experiencing
the succession, and of patriarchs really experiencing the same state. The
import of this truth cannot be clarified by anyone other than buddhas. How
could it be the thought of [bodhisattvas in] the ten states or the state of bal-
anced awareness? 4 How much less could it be supposed by teachers of sutras,
teachers of commentaries, and the like? Even if we explain it to them, they
will not be able to hear it, because it is transmitted between buddhas, buddha-
to-buddha.
[5] Remember, the Buddha's state of truth is the perfect realization only
of buddhas, and without buddhas it has no time. The state is like, for exam-
ple, stones succeeding each other as stones, jewels succeeding each other as
jewels, chrysanthemums succeeding each other, and pine trees certifying
each other, at which time the former chrysanthemum and the latter chrysan-
themum are each real as they are, and the former pine and the latter pine are
each real as they are. People who do not clarify the state like this, even if
they encounter the truth authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha,
cannot even suspect what kind of truth is being expressed; they do not pos-
sess the understanding that buddhas succeed each other and that patriarchs
experience the same state. It is pitiful that though they appear to be the
Buddha's progeny, they are not the Buddha's children, and they are not child-
buddhas.
[6] Sokei,5 on one occasion, preaches to the assembly, �From the Seven
Buddhas to Eno there are forty buddhas, and from Eno to the Seven Bud-
dhas there are forty patriarchs. �6 This truth is clearly the fundamental teach-
ing to which the Buddhist patriarchs have authentically succeeded. Among
these �Seven Buddhas,� some have appeared during the past kalpa of resplen-
dence7 and some have appeared in the present kalpa of the wise. 8 At the same
time, to connect in a line the face-to-face transmissions of the forty patri-
archs is the truth of Buddha, and is the succession of Buddha. This being so,
going up from the Sixth Patriarch to the Seven Buddhas, there are forty patri-
archs who are the buddha successors, and going down from the Seven Bud-
dhas to the Sixth Patriarch, the forty buddhas must be the buddha succes-
sors. The truth of buddhas, and the truth of patriarchs, is like this. Without
experience of the state, without being a Buddhist patriarch, we do not have
the wisdom of a buddha and do not have the perfect realization of a patri-
arch. Without a buddha's wisdom, we lack belief in the state of buddha.
Without a patriarch's perfect realization, we do not experience the same state
as a patriarch. To speak of forty patriarchs, for the present, is just to cite
those who are close. Thus, the succession from buddha to buddha is pro-
found and eternal; it is without regression or deviation and without inter-
ruption or cessation. The fundamental point is this: although Sakyamuni
Buddha realizes the truth before the Seven Buddhas, it has taken him a long
time to succeed to the Dharma of Kasyapa Buddha. 9 Although he realizes
the truth on the eighth day of the twelfth month, thirty years after his descent
and birth, [this] is realization of the truth before the Seven Buddhas; it is the
same realization of the truth shoulder-to-shoulder with, and in time with, the
many buddhas; it is realization of the truth before the many buddhas; and it
is realization of the truth after all the many buddhas. There is also the prin-
ciple to be mastered in practice that Kasyapa Buddha succeeds to the Dharma
of Sakyamuni Buddha. Those who do not know this principle do not clarify
the Buddha's state of truth. Without clarifying the Buddha's state of truth,
they are not the Buddha's successors. The Buddha's successors means the
Buddha's children. Sakyamuni Buddha, on one occasion, causes Ananda to
ask,10 �Whose disciples are the buddhas of the past? � Sakyamuni Buddha
says, �The buddhas of the past are the disciples of Sakyamuni Buddha. � The
Buddhist doctrine of all the buddhas is like this.
[9] To serve these buddhas and to accomplish the succession of Buddha
is just the Buddha's truth [practiced by] every buddha. This Buddha's truth
is always transmitted in the succession of the Dharma, at which time there
is inevitably a certificate of succession. Without the succession of Dharma,
we would be non-Buddhists of naturalism. If the Buddha's truth did not dic-
tate the succession of Dharma, how could it have reached the present day?
Therefore, in [the transmission] that is [from] buddha [to] buddha, a certifi-
cate of succession, of buddha succeeding buddha, is inevitably present, and
a certificate of succession, of buddha succeeding buddha, is received. As
regards the concrete situation of the certificate of succession, some succeed
to the Dharma on clarifying the sun, the moon, and the stars, and some suc-
ceed to the Dharma on being made to get the skin, ? esh, bones, and mar-
row;11 some receive a ka? aya; some receive a staff; some receive a sprig of
pine; some receive a whisk;12 some receive an u? umbara ? ower; and some
receive a robe of golden brocade. 13 There have been successions with straw
sandals14 and successions with a bamboo stick. 15 When such successions of
the Dharma are received, some write a certificate of succession with blood
from a finger, some write a certificate of succession with blood from a tongue,
and some perform the succession of Dharma by writing [a certificate] with
oil and milk; these are all certificates of succession. The one who has per-
formed the succession and the one who has received it are both the Buddha's
successors. Truly, whenever [Buddhist patriarchs] are realized as Buddhist
patriarchs, the succession of the Dharma is inevitably realized. When [the
succession] is realized, many Buddhist patriarchs [find that] though they did
not expect it, it has come, and though they did not seek it, they have suc-
ceeded to the Dharma. Those who have the succession of Dharma are, with-
out exception, the buddhas and the patriarchs.
[12] Since the twenty-eighth patriarch16 came from the west, the fun-
damental principle has been rightly heard in the Eastern Lands that there is
in Buddhism the succession of the Dharma. Before that time, we never heard
it at all. [Even] in the Western Heavens, it is neither attained nor known by
teachers of commentaries, Dharma teachers, and the like. It is also beyond
[bodhisattvas of] the ten sacred and the three clever states. Teachers of mantric
techniques who intellectually study the Tripi? aka17 are not able even to sus-
pect that it exists. Deplorably, though they have received the human body
which is a vessel for the state of truth, they have become uselessly entan-
gled in the net of theory, and so they do not know the method of liberation
and they do not hope for the opportunity to spring free. Therefore, we should
learn the state of truth in detail, and we should concentrate our resolve to
realize the state in practice.
[13] Dogen, when in Song [China], had the opportunity to bow before
certificates of succession, and there were many kinds of certificate. One among
them was that of the veteran master Iichi Seido18 who had hung his traveling
staff at Tendo [Temple]. He was a man from the Etsu district, and was the
former abbot of Kofukuji. He was a native of the same area as my late mas-
ter. My late master always used to say, �For familiarity with the state, ask
Iichi Seido! � One day Seido said, �Admirable old [calligraphic] traces are
prized possessions of the human world. How many of them have you seen? �
Dogen said, �I have seen few. � Then Seido said, �I have a scroll of old cal-
ligraphy in my room. It is a roster. I will let you see it, venerable brother. �
So saying, he fetched it, and I saw that it was a certificate of succession. It
was a certificate of the succession of Hogen's19 lineage, and had been obtained
from among the robes and patra20 of an old veteran monk: it was not that of
the venerable Iichi himself. The way it was written is as follows: �The first
patriarch Mahakasyapa realized the truth under Sakyamuni Buddha; Sakya-
muni Buddha realized the truth under Kasyapa Buddha. . .
