No More Learning

At just this moment of �good doing� the realized universe exists but it is not
�the creation of the universe,� and it is not �the eternal existence of the uni-
verse. � How much less could we call it �original practice�? 53 Doing right is
�good doing,� but it is not something that can be fathomed intellectually.
�Good doing� in the present is a vigorous eye, but it is beyond intellectual
consideration. [Vigorous eyes] are not realized for the purpose of consider-
ing the Dharma intellectually. Consideration by vigorous eyes is never the
same as consideration by other things. The many kinds of right are beyond
existence and nonexistence, matter and the immaterial, and so on; they are
just nothing other than �good doing. � Wherever they are realized and when-
ever they are realized, they are, without exception, �good doing. � This �good
doing� inevitably includes the realization of the many kinds of right. The
realization of �good doing� is the universe itself, but it is beyond arising and
vanishing, and it is beyond causes and conditions. Entering, staying, leav-
ing, and other [concrete examples of] �good doing� are also like this. At the
place where we are already performing, as �good doing,� a single right among
the many kinds of right, the entire Dharma, the whole body,54 the real land,
and so on are all enacted as �good doing. � The cause-and-effect of this right,
similarly, is the universe as the realization of �good doing. � It is not that
causes are before and effects are after. Rather, causes perfectly satisfy them-
selves and effects perfectly satisfy themselves; when causes are in balance
the Dharma is in balance and when effects are in balance the Dharma is in
balance. Awaited by causes, effects are felt, but it is not a matter of before
and after; for the truth is present that the [moment] before and the [moment]
after are balanced [as they are].
[19] The meaning of �Naturally purifies the mind� is as follows: What
is �natural� is �not to commit,� and what �purifies� is �not to commit. � �The
[concrete state�]55 is �natural,� and the �mind�56 is �natural. � �The [concrete
state�] is �not committing,� the �mind� is �not committing. � The �mind� is
�good doing,� what �purifies� is �good doing,� �the [concrete state�] is �good
doing,� and what is �natural� is �good doing. � Therefore it is said that �This
is the teaching of the buddhas. � Those who are called �buddhas� are, in some
cases, like Siva,57 [but] there are similarities and differences even among
Sivas, and at the same time not all Sivas are buddhas. [Buddhas] are, in some
cases, like wheel-turning kings,58 but not all sacred wheel-turning kings are
buddhas. We should consider facts like these and learn them in practice. If
we do not learn how buddhas should be, even if we seem to be fruitlessly
enduring hardship, we are only ordinary beings accepting suffering; we are
not practicing the Buddha's truth. �Not committing� and �good doing� are
�donkey business not having gone away and horse business coming in. �59
[20] Haku Kyoi60 of Tang China is a lay disciple of Zen Master Bukko
Nyoman,61 and a second-generation disciple of Zen Master Kozei Daijaku. 62
When he was the governor of Hangzhou63 district he practiced in the order
of Zen Master Choka Dorin. 64 In the story, Kyoi asks, �What is the great
intention of the Buddha-Dharma? �
Dorin says, �Not to commit wrongs. To practice the many kinds of
right. �65
Kyoi says, �If it is so, even a child of three can express it! �
Dorin says, �A child of three can speak the truth, but an old man of
eighty cannot practice it. �
Thus informed, Kyoi makes at once a prostration of thanks, and then
leaves.
[21] Kyoi, though descended from Haku Shogun,66 is truly a wizard of
the verse who is rare through the ages. People call him one of the twenty-
four [great] men of letters. He bears the name of Ma�jusri, or bears the name
of Maitreya. Nowhere do his poetical sentiments go unheard and no one
could fail to pay homage to his authority in the literary world. Nevertheless,
in Buddhism he is a beginner and a late learner. Moreover, it seems that he
has never seen the point of this �Not to commit wrongs. To practice the many
kinds of right,� even in a dream. Kyoi thinks that Dorin is only telling him
�Do not commit wrongs! Practice the many kinds of right! � through recog-
nition of the conscious aim. Thus, he neither knows nor hears the truth that
the time-honored67 [teaching] of the �not committing� of wrongs, the �good
doing� of rights, has been in Buddhism from the eternal past to the eternal
present. He has not set foot in the area of the Buddha-Dharma. He does not
have the power of the Buddha-Dharma. Therefore he speaks like this. Even
though we caution against the intentional commitment of wrongs, and even
though we encourage the deliberate practice of rights, this should be in the
reality of �not committing. � In general, the Buddha-Dharma is [always] the
same, whether it is being heard for the first time under a [good] counselor,
or whether it is being experienced in the state which is the ultimate effect.
This is called �correct in the beginning, correct at the end,� called �the won-
derful cause and the wonderful effect,� and called �the Buddhist cause and
the Buddhist effect. � Cause-and-effect in Buddhism is beyond discussion of
[theories] such as �different maturation� or �equal streams�;68 this being so,
without Buddhist causes, we cannot experience the Buddhist effect. Because
Dorin speaks this truth, he possesses the Buddha-Dharma. Even if wrong
upon wrong pervade the whole universe, and even if wrongs have swallowed
the whole Dharma again and again, there is still salvation and liberation in
�not committing. � Because the many kinds of right are �right at the begin-
ning, in the middle, and at the end,�69 �good doing� has realized �nature,
form, body, energy,� and so on �as they are. �70 Kyoi has never trodden in
these tracks at all, and so he says �Even a child of three could express it! �
He speaks like this without actually being able to express an expression of
the truth. How pitiful, Kyoi, you are. Just what are you saying? You have
never heard the customs of the Buddha, so do you or do you not know a
three-year-old child? Do you or do you not know the facts of a newborn
baby? Someone who knows a three-year-old child must also know the bud-
dhas of the three times. How could someone who has never known the bud-
dhas of the three times know a three-year-old child? Do not think that to
have met face-to-face is to have known. Do not think that without meeting
face-to-face one does not know. Someone who has come to know a single
particle knows the whole universe, and someone who has penetrated one
real dharma has penetrated the myriad dharmas. Someone who has not pen-
etrated the myriad dharmas has not penetrated one real dharma. When stu-
dents of penetration penetrate to the end, they see the myriad dharmas and
they see single real dharmas; therefore, people who are learning of a single
particle are inevitably learning of the whole universe. To think that a three-
year-old child cannot speak the Buddha-Dharma, and to think that what a
three-year-old child says must be easy, is very stupid. That is because the
clarification of life,71 and the clarification of death, are �the one great pur-
pose�72 of Buddhists. A master of the past73 says, �Just at the time of your
birth you had your share of the lion's roar. �74 �A share of the lion's roar�
means the virtue of the Tathagata to turn the Dharma wheel, or the turning
of the Dharma wheel itself. Another master of the past75 says, �Living-and-
dying, coming-and-going, are the real human body. � So to clarify the real
body and to have the virtue of the lion's roar may truly be the one great mat-
ter, which can never be easy. For this reason, the clarification of the motives
and actions of a three-year-old child are also the great purpose. Now there
are differences between the actions and motives of the buddhas of the three
times [and those of children]; this is why Kyoi, in his stupidity, has never
been able to hear a three-year-old child speaking the truth, and why, not even
suspecting that [a child's speaking of the truth] might exist, he talks as he
does. He does not hear Dorin's voice, which is more vivid than thunder, and
so he says, �Even a child of three could express it! � as if to say that [Mas-
ter Dorin himself] has not expressed the truth in his words. Thus [Kyoi] does
not hear the lion's roar of an infant, and he passes vainly by the Zen mas-
ter's turning of the Dharma wheel. The Zen master, unable to contain his
compassion, went on to say, �A child of three can speak the truth, but an old
man of eighty cannot practice it. � What he was saying is this:
A child of three has words which express the truth, and you should
investigate this thoroughly. Old men of eighty say, �I cannot practice
it,� and you should consider this carefully. I leave you to decide whether
an infant speaks the truth, but I do not leave the infant to decide. I leave
you to decide whether an old man can practice, but I do not leave the
old man to decide. 76
It is the fundamental principle to pursue, to preach, and to honor the
Buddha-Dharma like this.
Shobogenzo Shoaku-makusa
Preached to the assembly at Koshohorinji
on the evening of the moon77 in the [second]
year of Eno. 78

---


BDK English Tripitaka
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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 11
[Chapter Eleven]
Uji
Existence-time
Translator 's Note: U means �existence� and ji means �time,� so uji means
�existent time,� or �existence-time. � In this chapter Master Dogen teaches
us the meaning of time in Buddhism. As Master Dogen explains in other
chapters, Buddhism is realism. Therefore, the view of time in Buddhism is
always very realistic. Specifically, time is always related with existence and
existence is always related with momentary time. So in reality, the past and
the future are not existent time; the present moment is the only existent time�
the point at which existence and time come together. Also, time is always
related with action here and now. Action can only be realized in time, and
time can only be realized in action. Thus, the view of time in Buddhism reminds
us of existentialism in modern philosophy. It is very important to understand
the Buddhist view of time in order to grasp the true meaning of Buddhism.
[29] An eternal buddha1 says,
Sometimes2 standing on top of the highest peak,
Sometimes moving along the bottom of the deepest ocean.
Sometimes three heads and eight arms,3
Sometimes the sixteen-foot or eight-foot [golden body]. 4
Sometimes a staff or a whisk,5
Sometimes an outdoor pillar or a stone lantern. 6
Sometimes the third son of Chang or the fourth son of Li,
Sometimes the earth and space.
[30] In this word �sometimes,� time is already just existence, and all
existence is time. The sixteen-foot golden body is time itself. Because it is
time, it has the resplendent brightness of time. We should learn it as the
twelve hours7 of today. The three heads and eight arms are time itself. Because
they are time, they are completely the same as the twelve hours of today. We
can never measure how long and distant or how short and pressing twelve
hours is; at the same time, we call it �twelve hours. �8 The leaving and com-
ing of the directions and traces [of time] are clear, and so people do not doubt
it. They do not doubt it, but that does not mean they know it. The doubts
which living beings, by our nature, have about every thing and every fact
that we do not know, are not consistent; therefore our past history of doubt
does not always exactly match our doubt now. We can say for the present,
however, that doubt is nothing other than time. We put our self in order, and
see [the resulting state] as the whole universe. Each individual and each
object in this whole universe should be glimpsed as individual moments of
time. 9 Object does not hinder object in the same way that moment of time
does not hinder moment of time. For this reason, there are minds which are
made up in the same moment of time, and there are moments of time in which
the same mind is made up. Practice, and realization of the truth, are also like
this. 10 Putting the self in order, we see what it is. The truth that self is time
is like this. We should learn in practice that, because of this truth, the whole
earth includes myriad phenomena and hundreds of things, and each phe-
nomenon and each thing exists in the whole earth. Such toing-and-froing is
a first step [on the way] of practice. When we arrive in the field of the inef-
fable,11 there is just one [concrete] thing and one [concrete] phenomenon,
here and now, [beyond] understanding of phenomena and non-understand-
ing of phenomena, and [beyond] understanding of things and non-under-
standing of things. Because [real existence] is only this exact moment, all
moments of existence-time are the whole of time, and all existent things and
all existent phenomena are time. The whole of existence, the whole universe,
exists in individual moments of time. 12 Let us pause to re? ect whether or not
any of the whole of existence or any of the whole universe has leaked away
from the present moment of time. Yet in the time of the common person who
does not learn the Buddha-Dharma there are views and opinions: when he
hears the words �existence-time� he thinks, �Sometimes I became [an angry
demon with] three heads and eight arms, and sometimes I became the six-
teen-foot or eight-foot [golden body of Buddha]. For example, it was like
crossing a river or crossing a mountain. The mountain and the river may still
exist, but now that I have crossed them and am living in a jeweled palace
with crimson towers, the mountain and the river are [as distant] from me as
heaven is from the earth. � But true reasoning is not limited to this one line
[of thought]. That is to say, when I was climbing a mountain or crossing a
river, I was there in that time. There must have been time in me. And I actu-
ally exist now, [so] time could not have departed. If time does not have the
form of leaving and coming, the time of climbing a mountain is the present
as existence-time. 13 If time does retain the form of leaving and coming, I
have this present moment of existence-time, which is just existence-time
itself. 14 How could that time of climbing the mountain and crossing the river
fail to swallow, and fail to vomit, this time [now] in the jeweled palace with
crimson towers? 15 The three heads and eight arms were time yesterday; the
sixteen-foot or eight-foot [golden body] is time today. Even so, this Buddhist
principle of yesterday and today is just about moments in which we go directly
into the mountains and look out across a thousand or ten thousand peaks; it
is not about what has passed. The three heads and eight arms pass instantly
as my existence-time; though they seem to be in the distance, they are
[moments of] the present. The sixteen-foot or eight-foot [golden body] also
passes instantly as my existence-time; though it seems to be yonder, it is
[moments of] the present. This being so, pine trees are time, and bamboos
are time. We should not understand only that time ? ies. We should not learn
that �? ying� is the only ability of time. If we just left time to ? y away, some
gaps in it might appear. Those who fail to experience and to hear the truth
of existence-time do so because they understand [time] only as having passed.
To grasp the pivot and express it: all that exists throughout the whole uni-
verse is lined up in a series and at the same time is individual moments of
time. 16 Because [time] is existence-time, it is my existence-time. 17 Existence-
time has the virtue of passing in a series of moments. 18 That is to say, from
today it passes through a series of moments to tomorrow; from today it passes
through a series of moments to yesterday; from yesterday it passes through
a series of moments to today; from today it passes through a series of moments
to today; and from tomorrow it passes through a series of moments to tomor-
row. Because passage through separate moments is a virtue of time, moments
of the past and present are neither piled up one on top of another nor lined
up in a row; and, for the same reason, Seigen19 is time, Obaku20 is time, and
Kozei21 and Sekito22 are time. 23 Because subject-and-object already is time,
practice-and-experience is moments of time. Going into the mud and going
into the water,24 similarly, are time. The view of the common person today,
and the causes and conditions of [that] view, are what the common person
experiences but are not the common person's reality. 25 It is just that reality,
for the present, has made a common person into its causes and conditions.
Because he understands this time and this existence to be other than reality
itself, he deems that �the sixteen-foot golden body is beyond me. � Attempts
to evade [the issue] by [thinking] �I am never the sixteen-foot golden body�
are also ? ashes of existence-time; they are glimpses of it by a person who has
yet to realize it in experience and to rely upon it. The [existence-time] that also
causes the horse and the sheep26 to be as they are arranged in the world today,
is a rising and falling which is something ineffable abiding in its place in the
Dharma. The rat is time, and the tiger is time; living beings are time, and bud-
dhas are time. This time experiences the whole universe using three heads and
eight arms, and experiences the whole universe using the sixteen-foot golden
body. To universally realize the whole universe by using the whole universe
is called �to perfectly realize. �27 Enactment of the sixteen-foot golden body28
by using the sixteen-foot golden body is realized as the establishment of the
mind, as training, as the state of bodhi, and as nirvana; that is, as existence
itself, and as time itself. It is nothing other than the perfect realization of the
whole of time as the whole of existence; there is nothing surplus at all. Because
something surplus is just something surplus, even a moment of half-perfectly-
realized existence-time is the perfect realization of half-existence-time. 29 Even
those phases in which we seem to be blundering heedlessly are also existence.
If we leave it utterly up to existence,30 even though [the moments] before and
after manifest heedless blundering, they abide in their place as existence-time.
Abiding in our place in the Dharma in the state of vigorous activity is just exis-
tence-time. We should not disturb it [by interpreting it] as �being without,�31
and we should not enforceably call it �existence. � In regard to time, we strive
to comprehend only how relentlessly it is passing; we do not understand it
intellectually as what is yet to come. Even though intellectual understanding
is time, no circumstances are ever in? uenced by it. [Human] skin bags recog-
nize [time] as leaving and coming; none has penetrated it as existence-time
abiding in its place: how much less could any experience time having passed
through the gate? 32 Even [among those who] are conscious of abiding in their
place, who can express the state of having already attained the ineffable? Even
[among those who] have been asserting for a long time that they are like this,
there is none who is not still groping for the manifestation before them of the
real features. If we leave [even bodhi and nirvana] as they are in the existence-
time of the common person, even bodhi and nirvana are�[though] merely a
form which leaves and comes�existence-time. 33
[38] In short, without any cessation of restrictions and hindrances,34
existence-time is realized. Celestial kings and celestial throngs, now appear-
ing to the right and appearing to the left, are the existence-time in which we
are now exerting ourselves. Elsewhere, beings of existence-time of land and
sea are [also] realized through our own exertion now. The many kinds of
being and the many individual beings which [live] as existence-time in dark-
ness and in brightness, are all the realization of our own effort, and the
momentary continuance of our effort. We should learn in practice that with-
out the momentary continuance of our own effort in the present, not a sin-
gle dharma nor a single thing could ever be realized or could ever continue
from one moment to the next. 35 We should never learn that passage from one
moment to the next is like the movement east and west of the wind and rain.
The whole universe is neither beyond moving and changing nor beyond pro-
gressing and regressing; it is passage from one moment to the next. An exam-
ple of the momentary passing of time is spring. Spring has innumerable dif-
ferent aspects, which we call �a passage of time. �36 We should learn in practice
that the momentary passing of time continues without there being any exter-
nal thing. The momentary passing of spring, for example, inevitably passes,
moment by moment, through spring itself. 37 It is not that �the momentary
passing of time� is spring; rather, because spring is the momentary passing
of time, passing time has already realized the truth in the here and now of
springtime. 38 We should study [this] in detail, returning to it and leaving it
again and again.
If we think, in discussing the momentary passing of time,
that circumstances are [only] individual things on the outside, while some-
thing which can pass from moment to moment moves east through hundreds
of thousands of worlds and through hundreds of thousands of kalpas, then
we are not devoting ourselves solely to Buddhist learning in practice. 39
[40] Great Master Yakusan Kodo,40 the story goes, at the suggestion of
Great Master Musai,41 visits Zen Master Kozei Daijaku. 42 He asks, �I have
more or less clarified the import of the three vehicles and the twelve divisions
of the teaching. 43 But just what is the ancestral master's intention in coming
from the west? �44
Thus questioned, Zen Master Daijaku says, �Sometimes45 I make him46
lift an eyebrow or wink an eye, and sometimes I do not make him lift an eye-
brow or wink an eye; sometimes to make him lift an eyebrow or wink an eye
is right, and sometimes to make him lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is not right. �
Hearing this, Yakusan realizes a great realization and says to Daijaku,
�In Sekito's order I have been like a mosquito that climbed onto an iron ox. �
[42] What Daijaku says is not the same as [what] others [can say]. [His]
�eyebrows� and �eyes� may be the mountains and the seas, because the moun-
tains and the seas are [his] �eyebrows� and �eyes. � In his �making himself
lift [an eyebrow],� he may be looking at the mountains; and in his �making
himself wink,� he may be presiding over the seas. �Being right� has become
familiar to �him,� and �he� has been led by �the teaching. �47 Neither is �not
being right� the same as �not making himself [act],� nor is �not making him-
self [act]� the same as �not being right. �48 All these [situations] are �exis-
tence-time. � The mountains are time, and the seas are time. Without time, the
mountains and the seas could not exist: we should not deny that time exists
in the mountains and the seas here and now. If time decays, the mountains
and the seas decay. If time is not subject to decay, the mountains and the seas
are not subject to decay. In accordance with this truth the bright star appears,
the Tathagata appears, the eye appears, and picking up a ? ower appears,49
and this is just time. Without time, it would not be like this.
[44] Zen Master Kisho50 of the Shoken region is a Dharma descendant
of Rinzai, and the rightful successor of Shuzan. 51 On one occasion he preaches
to the assembly:
Sometimes52 the will is present but the words are absent,
Sometimes the words are present but the will is absent,
Sometimes the will and the words are both present,
Sometimes the will and the words are both absent. 53
[44] The will and the words are both existence-time. Presence and absence
are both existence-time. The moment of presence has not finished, but the
moment of absence has come�the will is the donkey and the words are the
horse;54 horses have been made into words and donkeys have been made into
will. 55 Presence is not related to having come, and absence is not related to not
having come. 56 Existence-time is like this. Presence is restricted by presence
itself; it is not restricted by absence. 57 Absence is restricted by absence itself;
it is not restricted by presence. The will hinders the will and meets the will. 58
Words hinder words and meet words. Restriction hinders restriction and meets
restriction. Restriction restricts restriction. This is time. Restriction is utilized
by objective dharmas, but restriction that restricts objective dharmas has never
occurred. 59 I meet with a human being, a human being meets with a human
being, I meet with myself, and manifestation meets with manifestation. With-
out time, these [facts] could not be like this. Furthermore, �the will� is the time
of the realized universe,60 �the words� are the time of the pivot that is the ascen-
dant state,61 �presence� is the time of laying bare the substance,62 and �absence�
is the time of �sticking to this and parting from this. �63 We should draw dis-
tinctions, and should enact existence-time,64 like this. Though venerable patri-
archs hitherto have each spoken as they have, how could there be nothing fur-
ther to say? I would like to say:
The half-presence of will and words is existence-time,
The half-absence of will and words is existence-time.
There should be study in experience like this.
Making oneself65 lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is half existence-time,
Making oneself lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is mixed-up
existence-time,
Not making oneself lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is half
existence-time,
Not making oneself lift an eyebrow or wink an eye is mixed-up
existence-time.
When we experience coming and experience leaving, and when we expe-
rience presence and experience absence, like this, that time is existence-time.
Shobogenzo Uji
Written at Koshohorinji on the first day of
winter in the first year of Ninji. 66
Copied during the summer retreat in the
[first] year of Kangen67�Ejo.

---


BDK English Tripitaka
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 12
[Chapter Twelve]
Kesa-kudoku
The Merit of the Ka? aya
Translator 's Note: Kesa represents the Sanskrit word ka? aya, or Buddhist
robe, and kudoku means �virtue� or �merit. � So kesa-kudoku means the
merit of the ka? aya. Being a realistic religion, Buddhism reveres our real
life. In other words, Buddhism esteems our real conduct in daily life; wear-
ing clothes and eating meals are very important parts of Buddhist life. In
particular, the ka? aya and patra, or Buddhist bowl, are the main symbols of
Buddhist life. In this chapter Master Dogen explains and praises the merit
of the ka? aya.
[49] The authentic transmission into China of the robe and the Dharma, which
are authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha and from patriarch to
patriarch, was done only by the Founding Patriarch of Sugaku Peak. 1 The
Founding Patriarch was the twenty-eighth patriarch after Sakyamuni Buddha,
the transmission having passed twenty-eight times in India from rightful suc-
cessor to rightful successor. The twenty-eighth patriarch went to China in
person and became the First Patriarch [there]. The transmission then passed
through five Chinese [masters] and reached Sokei,2 the thirty-third patriarch,
whom we call �the Sixth Patriarch. � Zen Master Daikan, the thirty-third patri-
arch, received the authentic transmission of this robe and Dharma on Obaizan3
in the middle of the night, after which he guarded and retained [the robe]
throughout his life. It is still deposited at Horinji on Sokeizan. Many suc-
cessive generations of emperors devoutly asked for [the robe] to be brought
to the imperial court, where they served offerings and made prostrations to
it, guarding it as a sacred object. The Tang dynasty4 emperors Chuso (Ch.
Zhongzong), Shukuso (Ch. Suzong), and Taiso5 (Ch. Daizong) frequently
had [the robe] brought to the court and served offerings to it. When they
requested it and when they sent it back, they would conscientiously dispatch
an imperial emissary and issue an edict. Emperor Taiso once returned the
buddha robe to Sokeizan with the following edict: �I now dispatch the great
General Ryu Shukei,6 Pacifier of the Nation, to receive with courtesy7 and
to deliver [the robe]. I consider it to be a national treasure. Venerable priests,8
deposit it according to the Dharma in its original temple. Let it be solemnly
guarded only by monks who have intimately received the fundamental teach-
ing. Never let it fall into neglect. � Truly, better than ruling a three-thousand-
great-thousandfold realm of worlds as countless as the sands of the Ganges,9
to see and to hear and to serve offerings to the Buddha's robe as the king of
a small country where the Buddha's robe is present, may be the best life
among [all] good lives [lived] in life-and-death. Where, in a three-thou-
sandfold world which has been reached by the Buddha's in? uence, could
the ka? aya not exist? At the same time, the one who passed on the authen-
tic transmission of the Buddha's ka? aya, having received the face-to-face
transmission from rightful successor to rightful successor, is only the ances-
tral patriarch of Sugaku Peak. The Buddha's ka? aya was not handed down
through side lineages. 10 The transmission to Bodhisattva Bhadrapala, a col-
lateral descendant of the twenty-seventh patriarch,11 duly arrived at Dharma
teacher Jo,12 but there was no authentic transmission of the Buddha's ka? aya.
Again, Great Master [Doshin], the Fourth Patriarch in China,13 delivered Zen
Master Hoyu14 of Gozusan but did not pass on the authentic transmission of
the Buddha's ka? aya. So even without the transmission from rightful suc-
cessors, the Tathagata's right Dharma�whose merit is never empty�con-
fers its wide and great benefit all through thousands of ages and myriads of
ages. [At the same time] those who have received the transmission from
rightful successors are not to be compared with those who lack the trans-
mission. Therefore, when human beings and gods receive and retain the
ka? aya, they should receive the authentic transmission transmitted between
Buddhist patriarchs. In India and in China, in the ages of the right Dharma
and the imitative Dharma,15 even laypeople received and retained the ka? aya.
In this distant and remote land in the present degenerate age, those who shave
their beard and hair and call themselves the Buddha's disciples do not receive
and retain the ka? aya. They have never believed, known, or clarified that
they should receive and retain [the ka? aya]; it is lamentable. How much less
do they know of the [ka? aya's] material, color, and measurements. How
much less do they know how to wear it.
[54] The ka? aya has been called, since ancient time, �the clothing of
liberation. � It can liberate16 us from all hindrances such as karmic hindrances,
hindrances of af? iction, and hindrances of retribution. If a dragon gets a sin-
gle strand [of the ka? aya], it escapes the three kinds of heat. 17 If a bull touches
[a ka? aya] with one of its horns, its sins will naturally be extinguished. When
buddhas realize the truth they are always wearing the ka? aya. Remember,
[to wear the ka? aya] is the noblest and highest virtue. Truly, we have been
born in a remote land in [the age of] the latter Dharma, and we must regret
this. But at the same time, how should we measure the joy of meeting the
robe and the Dharma that have been transmitted from buddha to buddha,
from rightful successor to rightful successor? Which [other] lineage has
authentically transmitted both the robe and the Dharma of Sakyamuni in the
manner of our authentic transmission? Having met them, who could fail to
venerate them and to serve offerings to them? Even if, each day, we [have
to] discard bodies and lives as countless as the sands of the Ganges, we should
serve offerings to them. Indeed we should vow to meet them, humbly to
receive them upon the head,18 to serve offerings to them, and to venerate
them in every life in every age. Between us and the country of the Buddha's
birth, there are more than a hundred thousand miles of mountains and oceans,
and it is too far for us to travel; nevertheless, promoted by past good con-
duct, we have not been shut out by the mountains and oceans, and we have
not been spurned as the dullards of a remote [land]. Having met this right
Dharma, we should persistently practice it day and night. Having received
and retained this ka? aya, we should perpetually receive it upon the head in
humility and preserve it. How could this only be to have practiced merit
under one buddha or two buddhas? It may be to have practiced all kinds of
merit under buddhas equal to the sands of the Ganges. Even if [the people
who receive and retain the ka? aya] are ourselves, we should venerate them,
and we should rejoice. We should heartily repay the profound benevolence
of the ancestral master in transmitting the Dharma. Even animals repay kind-
ness; so how could human beings fail to recognize kindness? If we failed to
recognize kindness, we might be more stupid than animals. The merits of
this buddha robe and this Buddha-Dharma were never clarified or known by
anyone other than the ancestral master who transmitted the Buddha's right
Dharma. If we want to follow gladly the traces of the buddhas, we should
just be glad about this [transmission]. Even after hundred thousand myriads
of generations, we should esteem this authentic transmission as the authen-
tic transmission. This [transmission] may be the Buddha-Dharma itself; the
proof in due course will become evident. We should not liken [the trans-
mission] to the dilution of milk with water. It is like a crown prince suc-
ceeding to the throne. When we want to use milk, if there is no milk other
than this diluted milk [described above], although it is diluted milk we should
use it. Even when we do not dilute it with water, we must not use oil, we
must not use lacquer, and we must not use wine. This authentic transmis-
sion may also be like that. Even a mediocre follower of an ordinary master,
providing the authentic transmission is present, may be in a good situation
to use milk. [But] more to the point, the authentic transmission from buddha
to buddha and from patriarch to patriarch is like the succession of a crown
prince. Even secular [teaching] says, �One does not wear clothing different
from the official uniform of the previous reign. �19 How could disciples of
the Buddha wear [robes] different from the Buddha's robe?
[58] Since the tenth year of the Eihei era,20 during the reign of Emperor
Komei (Ch. Mingdi) of the Later Han dynasty,21 monks and laymen going
back and forth between the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands have
followed on each other's heels without cease, but none has claimed to have
met in the Western Heavens an ancestral master of the authentic transmis-
sion from buddha to buddha and from patriarch to patriarch; none has a record
of the lineage of the face-to-face transmission from the Tathagata. They have
only followed teachers of sutras and commentaries, and brought back San-
skrit books of sutras and philosophy. None speaks of having met an ances-
tral master who is a rightful successor to the Buddha's Dharma, and none
mentions that there are ancestral masters who have received the transmis-
sion of the Buddha's ka? aya. Clearly, they have not entered beyond the
threshold of the Buddha's Dharma. People like this have not clarified the
principle of the authentic transmission by Buddhist patriarchs. When Sakya-
muni Tathagata22 passed to Mahakasyapa the right Dharma-eye treasury and
the supreme state of bodhi, he transmitted them together with a ka? aya received
in the authentic transmission from Kasyapa Buddha. 23 Received by rightful
successor from rightful successor, [the ka? aya] reached Zen Master Daikan
of Sokeizan, the thirty-third generation. The material, color, and measure-
ments [of the ka? aya] had been transmitted intimately. Since then, the Dharma
descendants of Seigen and Nangaku24 have intimately transmitted the Dharma,
wearing the Dharma of the ancestral patriarchs and keeping the Dharma of
the ancestral patriarchs in order. The method of washing [the ka? aya] and
the method of receiving and retaining [the ka? aya] cannot be known with-
out learning in practice in the inner sanctum of the legitimate face-to-face
transmission of those methods.
[60] The ka? aya is said to include three robes. They are the five-stripe
robe, the seven-stripe robe, and the large robe of nine or more stripes.
Excellent practitioners receive only these three robes, and do not keep
other robes. To use just the three robes serves the body well enough.
When we are attending to business or doing chores, and when we are
going to and from the toilet, we wear the five-stripe robe. For doing
good practices among the sangha, we wear the seven-stripe robe. To
teach human beings and gods, and to make them devout, we should
wear the large robe of nine or more stripes. Or, when we are in a pri-
vate place we wear the five-stripe robe, when we go among the sangha
we wear the seven-stripe robe, and when we go into a royal palace or
into towns and villages we should wear the large robe. Or, when it is
nice and warm we wear the five-stripe robe, when it is cold we put on
the seven-stripe robe as well, and when the cold is severe we also put
on the large robe. Once, in ancient times, the weather on a midwinter
night was cold enough to split bamboo. As that night fell, the Tatha-
gata put on the five-stripe robe. As the night passed and it got colder,
he put on the seven-stripe robe as well. Later on in the night, when the
coldness reached a peak, he also put on the large robe. At this time,
the Buddha thought, �In future ages, when the cold is beyond endurance,
good sons should be able to clothe their bodies adequately with these
three robes. �25
[62] The method of wearing the ka? aya: �To bare only the right shoul-
der�26 is the usual method. There is a method of wearing [the ka? aya] so that
it goes over both shoulders, a form [followed by] the Tathagata and veter-
ans who are senior in years and experience: both shoulders are covered, while
the chest may be either exposed or covered. [The method of] covering both
shoulders is for a large ka? aya of sixty or more stripes. [Usually,] when we
wear the ka? aya, we wear both sides over the left arm and shoulder. The
front edge goes over the left side [of the ka? aya] and hangs over the [left
upper] arm. 27 In the case of the large ka? aya, [this] front edge passes over
the left shoulder and hangs down behind the back. There are various meth-
ods of wearing the ka? aya besides these; we should take time to study them
and should inquire into them.
[64] For hundreds of years, through one dynasty after another�Liang,
Zhen, Sui, Tang, and Song28�many scholars of both the Great and the Small
Vehicles have abandoned the work of lecturing on sutras, recognizing that
it is not the ultimate, and progressed to learn the authentically transmitted
Dharma of the Buddhist patriarchs; when they do so, they inevitably shed
their former shabby robes and receive and retain the authentically transmit-
ted ka? aya of the Buddhist patriarchs. This is indeed the abandonment of the
false and the return to the true. [In discussing] the right Dharma of the Tatha-
gata, [we see] the Western Heavens as the very root of the Dharma. Many
teachers of human beings, past and present, have established small views
based on the sentimental and parochial thinking of the common person.