Do not be
surprised
by or afraid of a great buddha.
Shobogenzo
In Buddhism, this world is the truth itself, so nature is a face of the
truth. Nature is the material side of the real world, so it is always speaking
the truth, and manifesting the law of the universe every day. This is why it has
been said since ancient time that sounds of rivers are the preaching of Gau-
tama Buddha and forms of mountains are the body of Gautama Buddha. In
this chapter, Master Dogen preached to us the meaning of nature in Buddhism.
[209] In the supreme state of bodhi, Buddhist patriarchs who transmitted the
truth and received the behavior have been many, and examples of past ances-
tors who reduced their bones to powder1 cannot be denied. Learn from the
ancestral patriarch who cut off his arm,2 and do not differ by a hair's breadth
[from the bodhisattva who] covered the mud. 3 When we each get rid of our
husk, we are not restricted by former views and understanding, and things
which have for vast kalpas been unclear suddenly appear before us. In the
here and now of such a moment, the self does not recognize it, no one else
is conscious of it, you do not expect it, and even the eyes of Buddha do not
glimpse it. How could the human intellect fathom it?
[210] In the great kingdom of Song there lived Layman Toba, whose name
was Soshoku, and who was also called Shisen. 4 He seems to have been a real
dragon in the literary world,5 and he studied the dragons and elephants of the
Buddhist world. 6 He swam happily into deep depths, and ? oated up and down
through layers of cloud. 7 Once he visited Lushan. 8 In the story he hears the
sounds of a mountain stream ? owing through the night, and realizes the truth.
He makes the following verse, and presents it to Zen Master Joso:9
The voices of the river valley are the [Buddha's] wide and long
tongue,10
The form of the mountains is nothing other than his pure body.
Through the night, eighty-four thousand verses.
On another day, how can I tell them to others?
When he presents this verse to Zen Master [Jo]so, Zen Master [Jo]so
affirms it. [Jo]so means Zen Master Shokaku Joso, a Dharma successor of
Zen Master Oryu Enan. 11 [E]nan is a Dharma successor of Zen Master Jimyo
Soen. 12 Once, when Layman [Toba] met Zen Master Butsuin Ryogen,13
Butsu in gave him a Dharma robe, the Buddhist precepts, and so on, and the
layman always wore the Dharma robe to practice the truth. The layman pre-
sented Butsuin with a priceless jeweled belt. People of the time said, �Their
behavior is beyond common folk. � So the story of realizing the truth on hear-
ing the river valley may also be of benefit to those who are later in the stream.
It is a pity that, so many times, the concrete form of the teaching, preaching
of Dharma by manifestation of the body,14 seems to have leaked away. What
has made [Layman Toba] see afresh the form of the mountains and hear the
voices of the river valley? A single phrase? Half a phrase? Or eighty-four
thousand verses? It is a shame that sounds and forms have been hiding in
the mountains and waters. But we should be glad that there are moments in
which, and causes and conditions whereby, [real sounds and forms] show
up in the mountains and waters. The tongue's manifestation never ? ags. How
could the body's form exist and vanish? At the same time, should we learn
that they are close when they are apparent, or should we learn that they are
close when they are hidden? Should we see them as a unity, or should we
see them as a half? 15 In previous springs and autumns, [Layman Toba] has
not seen or heard the mountains and waters but in moments �through the
night,� he is able, barely, to see and to hear the mountains and waters. Bodhi-
sattvas who are learning the truth now should also open the gate to learning
[by starting] from mountains ? owing and water not ? owing. 16 On the day
before the night during which this layman has realized the truth, he has vis-
ited Zen Master [Jo]so and asked about stories of �the nonemotional preach-
ing Dharma. �17 Under the words of the Zen master, the form of his somer-
saulting is still immature,18 but when the voices of the river valley are heard,
waves break back upon themselves and surf crashes high into the sky. This
being so, now that the voices of the river valley have surprised the layman,
should we put it down to the voices of the river valley, or should we put it
down to the in? uence of Shokaku? I suspect that Shokaku's words on �the
nonemotional preaching Dharma� have not stopped echoing but are secretly
mingling with the sounds of the mountain stream in the night. Who could
empirically affirm this situation as a single gallon? 19 And who could pay
homage20 to it as the whole ocean? In conclusion, is the layman realizing the
truth, or are the mountains and waters realizing the truth? How could any-
one who has clear eyes not put on their eyes at once [and look] at the man-
ifestation of the long tongue and the pure body?
[215] Another case: Zen Master Kyogen Chikan21 was learning the truth
in the order of Zen Master Daii Daien. 22 On one occasion, Daii says, �You
are sharp and bright, and you have wide understanding. Without quoting
from any text or commentary, speak a phrase for me in the state you had
before your parents were born. �23 Kyogen searches several times for some-
thing to say, but he is not able. He deeply regrets the state of his body and
mind, and looks through books that he has kept for years, but he is still dumb-
founded. In the end, he burns all the writings he has collected over the years,
and says, �A rice cake that is painted in a picture24 cannot stave off hunger.
Upon my oath, I shall not desire to understand the Buddha-Dharma in this
life. I only want to be the monk who serves the morning gruel and midday
meal. � So saying, he spends years and months as a server of meals. �The
monk who serves the morning gruel and midday meal� means one who waits
upon the other monks at breakfast and the midday meal;25 he would be like
a �liveried waiter�26 in this country. While he is thus occupied, he says to
Daii, �Chikan is dull in body and mind and cannot express the truth. Would
the master say something for me? � Daii says, �I would not mind saying some-
thing for you, [but if I did so,] perhaps you would bear a grudge against me
later. � After spending years and months in such a state, [Chikan] enters
Butozan, following the tracks of National Master Daisho,27 and makes a
thatched hut on the remains of the National Master's hermitage. He has planted
bamboo and made it his friend. One day, while he is sweeping the path, a piece
of tile ? ies up and strikes a bamboo with a crack. Hearing this sound, he sud-
denly realizes the great state of realization. He bathes and purifies himself,
and, facing Daiizan, he burns incense and does prostrations. Then, directing
himself to [Master] Daii, he says, �Great Master Daii! If you had explained
it to me before, how would this thing have been possible? The depth of your
kindness surpasses that of a parent. � Finally, he makes the following verse:
At a single stroke I lost recognition.
No longer need I practice self-discipline.
[I am] manifesting behavior in the way of the ancients,
Never falling into despondency.
There is no trace anywhere:
[The state] is dignified action beyond sound and form.
People everywhere who have realized the truth,
All will praise [these] supreme makings.
He presents the verse to Daii. Daii says, �This disciple is complete. �28
[218] Another case: Zen Master Reiun Shigon29 is a seeker of the truth
for thirty years. One day, while on a ramble in the mountains, he stops for
a rest at the foot of a hill and views the villages in the distance. It is spring,
and the peach blossoms are in full bloom. Seeing them, he suddenly realizes
the truth. He makes the following verse and presents it to Daii:
For thirty years, a traveler in search of a sword. 30
How many times have leaves fallen and buds sprouted?
After one look at the peach blossoms,
I have arrived directly at the present and have no further doubts.
Daii says, �One who has entered by relying on external phenomena will
never regress or falter. �31 This is his affirmation. What person who has entered
could not rely on external phenomena? What person who has entered could
regress or falter? [Isan's words] are not about [Shi]gon alone. Finally, [Shigon]
succeeds to the Dharma of Daii. If the form of the mountains were not the
pure body, how would things like this be possible?
[220] A monk asks Zen Master Chosha [Kei]shin,32 �How can we make
mountains, rivers, and the earth belong to ourselves? � The master says, �How
can we make ourselves belong to mountains, rivers, and the earth? �33 This
says that ourselves are naturally ourselves, and even though ourselves are
mountains, rivers, and the earth, we should never be restricted by belonging.
[221] Master Ekaku of Roya, [titled] Great Master Kosho,34 is a distant
descendant of Nangaku. 35 One day [Chosui] Shisen,36 a lecturer of a philo-
sophical sect, asks him, �How does pure essentiality suddenly give rise to
mountains, rivers, and the earth? � Questioned thus, the master preaches, �How
does pure essentiality suddenly give rise to mountains, rivers, and the earth? �37
Here we are told not to confuse mountains, rivers, and the earth which are
just pure essentiality, with �mountains, rivers and the earth. � However, because
the teacher of sutras has never heard this, even in a dream, he does not know
mountains, rivers, and the earth as mountains, rivers, and the earth.
[222] Remember, if it were not for the form of the mountains and the
voices of the river valley, picking up a ? ower could not proclaim anything,38
and the one who attained the marrow could not stand at his own place. 39
Relying on the virtue of the sounds of the river valley and the form of the
mountains, �the earth and all sentient beings realize the truth simultane-
ously,�40 and there are many buddhas who realize the truth on seeing the
bright star. Bags of skin in this state are the wise masters of the past, whose
will to pursue the Dharma was very deep. People of the present should study
their traces without fail. Now also, real practitioners who have no concern
for fame and gain should establish similar resolve. In [this] remote corner
in recent times, people who honestly pursue the Buddha-Dharma are very
rare. They are not absent, but they are difficult to meet. There are many who
drift into the monkhood, and who seem to have left the secular world, but
who only use Buddhism as a bridge to fame and gain. It is pitiful and lam-
entable that they do not regret the passing of this life41 but vainly go about
their dark and dismal business. When can they expect to become free and to
attain the truth? Even if they met a true master, they might not love the real
dragon. 42 My late [master, the eternal] buddha, calls such fellows �pitiful
people. �43 They are like this because of the bad they have done in past ages.
Though they have received a life, they have no will to pursue the Dharma
for the Dharma's sake, and so, when they meet the real Dharma they doubt
the real dragon, and when they meet the right Dharma they are disliked by
the right Dharma. Their body, mind, bones, and ? esh have never lived fol-
lowing the Dharma, and so they are not in mutual accord with the Dharma;
they do not receive and use [in harmony] with the Dharma. Founders of sects,
teachers, and disciples have continued a transmission like this for a long
time. They explain the bodhi-mind as if relating an old dream. How pitiful
it is that, having been born on the treasure mountain, they do not know what
treasure is and they do not see treasure. How much less could they [actually]
get the treasure of Dharma? After they establish the bodhi-mind, even though
they will pass through the cycle of the six states44 or the four modes of birth,45
the causes and conditions of that cyclical course will all become the actions
and vows of the state of bodhi. Therefore, though they have wasted precious
time in the past, as long as their present life continues they should, without
delay, make the following vow: �I hope that I, together with all living beings,
may hear the right Dharma through this life and through every life hereafter.
If I am able to hear it, I will never doubt the right Dharma, and I will never
be disbelieving. When I meet the right Dharma, I will discard secular rules
and receive and retain the Buddha-Dharma so that the earth and sentient
beings may finally realize the truth together. � If we make a vow like this, it
will naturally become the cause of, and conditions for, the authentic estab-
lishment of the mind. Do not neglect, or grow weary of, this attitude of mind.
In this country of Japan, a remote corner beyond the oceans, people's minds
are extremely stupid. Since ancient times, no saint has ever been born [here],
nor anyone wise by nature: it is needless to say, then, that real men of learn-
ing the truth are very rare. When [a person] tells people who do not know
the will to the truth about the will to the truth, the good advice offends their
ears, and so they do not re? ect upon themselves but [only] bear resentment
toward the other person. As a general rule concerning actions and vows which
are the bodhi-mind, we should not intend to let worldly people know whether
or not we have established the bodhi-mind, or whether or not we are prac-
ticing the truth; we should endeavor to be unknown. How much less could
we boast about ourselves? Because people today rarely seek what is real,
when the praises of others are available, they seem to want someone to say
that their practice and understanding have become harmonized, even though
there is no practice in their body and no realization in their mind. �In delu-
sion adding to delusion�46 describes exactly this. We should throw away this
wrongmindedness immediately. When learning the truth, what is difficult to
see and to hear is the attitude of mind [based in] right Dharma. This attitude
of mind is what has been transmitted and received by the buddhas, buddha
to buddha. It has been transmitted and received as the Buddha's brightness,
and as the Buddha's mind. From the time when the Tathagata was in the
world until today, many people have seemed to consider that our concern in
learning the truth47 is to get fame and gain. If, however, on meeting the teach-
ings of a true master, they turn around and pursue the right Dharma, they
will naturally attain the truth. We should be aware that the sickness described
above might be present in the learning of the truth today. For example, among
beginners and novices, and among veterans of long training, some have got
the makings to receive the transmission of the truth and to pass on the behav-
ior, and some have not got the makings. There may be some who have it in
their nature to learn, in veneration of the ancients. There may also be insult-
ing demons who will not learn. We should neither love nor resent either
group. [Yet] how can we have no regret? How can we bear no resentment?
Perhaps no one bears resentment because almost no one has recognized the
three poisons as the three poisons. 48 Moreover, we should not forget the
determination we had when we began the joyful pursuit of the Buddha's
truth. That is to say, when we first establish the will, we are not seeking the
Dharma out of concern for others, and, having discarded fame and gain
[already], we are not seeking fame and gain: we are just singlemindedly aim-
ing to get the truth. We are never expecting the veneration and offerings of
kings and ministers. Nevertheless, such causes of and conditions for [the
will to fame and gain] are present today. [Fame and gain] are not an origi-
nal aim, and they are not [true] objects of pursuit. To become caught in the
fetters that bind human beings and gods is [just] what we do not hope for.
Foolish people, however, even those who have the will to the truth, soon for-
get their original resolve and mistakenly expect the offerings of human beings
and gods, feeling glad that the merit of the Buddha-Dharma has come to
them. If the devotions of kings and ministers are frequent, [foolish people]
think, �It is the realization of my own moral way. � This is one of the demons
[that hinder] learning of the truth. Though we should not forget the mind of
compassion, we should not rejoice [to receive devotion]. Do you remember
the golden words of the Buddha, �Even while the Tathagata is alive, there
are many who have hate and envy. �49 Such is the principle that the stupid do
not recognize the wise, and small animals make enemies of great saints.
[230] Further, many of the ancestral masters of the Western Heavens
have been destroyed by non-Buddhists, by the two vehicles,50 by kings, and
so on;51 but this is never due to superiority on the part of the non-Buddhists,
or lack of farsightedness on the part of the ancestral masters. After the First
Patriarch52 came from the west, he hung up his traveling stick in the Suzan
Mountains,53 but neither Bu (Ch. Wu) of the Liang dynasty nor the ruler of
the Wei dynasty knew who he was. 54 At the time, there was a pair of dogs
known as Bodhiruci Sanzo55 and Precepts Teacher Kozu. Fearing that their
empty fame and false gain might be thwarted by a right person, they behaved
as if looking up at the sun in the sky and trying to blot it out. 56 They are even
more terrible than Devadatta,57 who [lived when the Buddha] was in the
world. How pitiful they are. The fame and profit that they58 love so deeply
is more disgusting than filth to the ancestral master. That such facts occur is
not due to any imperfection in the power of the Buddha-Dharma. We should
remember that there are dogs who bark at good people. Do not worry about
barking dogs. Bear them no grudge. Vow to lead them and to guide them.
Explain to them, �Though you are animals, you should establish the bodhi-
mind. � A wise master of the past has said, �These are just animals with human
faces. � But there may also be a certain kind of demon which devotes itself
and serves offerings to them. A former buddha has said, �Do not get close
to kings, princes, ministers, rulers, brahmans, or secular people. �59 This is
truly the form of behavior that people who want to learn the Buddha's truth
should not forget. [When] bodhisattvas are at the start of learning, their virtue,
in accordance with their progress, will pile up.
[232] Moreover, there have been examples since ancient times of the
god Indra coming to test a practitioner's resolve, or of Mara-papiyas60 com-
ing to hinder a practitioner's training. These things always happened when
[the practitioner] had not got rid of the will to fame and gain. When the [spirit
of] great benevolence and great compassion is profound, and when the vow
to widely save living beings is mature, these hindrances do not occur. There
are cases when the power of practice naturally takes possession of a nation.
There are cases when [a practitioner] seems to have achieved worldly for-
tune. At such times, reexamine the case carefully. Do not slumber on with-
out regard to the particular case. Foolish people delight in [worldly fortune]
like stupid dogs licking a dry bone. The wise and the sacred detest it as
worldly people hate filth and excrement.
[233] In general, a beginner's sentimental thinking cannot imagine the
Buddha's truth�[the beginner] fathoms but does not hit the target. Even
though we do not fathom [the truth] as beginners, we should not deny that
there is perfect realization in the ultimate state. [Still,] the inner depths61 of
the perfect state are beyond the beginner's shallow consciousness. [The
beginner] must just endeavor, through concrete conduct, to tread the path of
the ancient saints. At this time, in visiting teachers and seeking the truth,
there are mountains to climb and oceans to cross. While we are seeking a
guiding teacher, or hoping to find a [good] counselor, one comes down from
the heavens or springs out from the earth. 62 At the place where we meet him,
he makes sentient beings speak the truth and makes nonsentient beings63
speak the truth, and we listen with body and listen with mind. �Listening
with the ears� is everyday tea and meals, but �hearing the sound through the
eyes�64 is just the ambiguous,65 or the undecided,66 itself. In meeting Buddha,
we meet ourselves as buddha and others as buddha, and we meet great bud-
dhas and small buddhas.
Do not be surprised by or afraid of a great buddha.
Do not doubt or worry about a small buddha. The great buddhas and small
buddhas referred to here are recognized, presently, as the form of the moun-
tains and the voices of the river valley. In this the wide and long tongue
exists, and eighty-four thousand verses exist; the manifestation is �far tran-
scendent,� and the insight is �unique and exceptional. �67 For this reason, sec-
ular [teachings] say �It gets higher and higher, and harder and harder. �68 And
a past buddha says, �It pervades69 the sky and pervades the meridians. � Spring
pines possess constant freshness, and an autumn chrysanthemum possesses
sublime beauty, but they are nothing other than the direct and concrete. 70
When good counselors arrive in this field of earth,71 they may be great mas-
ters to human beings and gods. Someone who randomly affects the forms
of teaching others, without arriving in this field of earth, is a great nuisance
to human beings and gods. How could [people] who do not know the spring
pines, and who do not see the autumn chrysanthemum, be worth the price
of their straw sandals? How could they cut out the roots?
[236] Furthermore, if the mind or the ? esh grow lazy or disbelieving,
we should wholeheartedly confess before the Buddha. When we do this, the
power of the virtue of confessing before the Buddha saves us and makes us
pure. This virtue can promote unhindered pure belief and fortitude. Once
pure belief reveals itself, both self and the external world are moved [into
action], and the benefit universally covers sentient and nonsentient beings.
The general intention [of the confession] is as follows:
I pray that although my many bad actions in the past have accumu-
lated one after another, and there are causes and conditions which are
obstructing the truth, the buddhas and the patriarchs who attained the
truth by following the Buddha's Way will show compassion for me,
that they will cause karmic accumulations to dissolve, and that they
will remove obstacles to learning the truth. May their virtue, and their
gates of Dharma, vastly fill and pervade the limitless Dharma world.
Let me share in their compassion. In the past, Buddhist patriarchs were
[the same as] us, and in the future we may become Buddhist patriarchs.
When we look up at Buddhist patriarchs, they are one Buddhist patri-
arch, and when we re? ect upon the establishment of the mind, it is one
establishment of the mind. When [the Buddhist patriarchs] radiate their
compassion in all directions,72 we can grasp favorable opportunities
and we fall upon favorable opportunities. Therefore, in the words of
Ryuge, �If we did not attain perfection in past lives, we should attain
perfection in the present. With this life we can deliver the body that is
the accumulation of past lives. The eternal buddhas, before they real-
ized the truth, were the same as people today. After realizing the truth,
people today will be eternal buddhas. �
Quietly, we should master this reasoning. This is direct experience of
realizing the state of buddha. When we confess like this, the mystical help
of the Buddhist patriarchs is invariably present. Disclosing the thoughts in
our mind and the form of our body, we should confess to the Buddha. The
power of confession causes the roots of wrongdoing to dissolve. This is right
training of one color;74 it is right belief in the mind and right belief in the
body. At the time of right training, the voices of the river valley and the form
of the river valley, the form of the mountains and the voices of the moun-
tains, all do not begrudge their eighty-four thousand verses. When the self
does not begrudge fame and gain and body and mind, the river valley and
the mountains, similarly, begrudge nothing. Even though the voices of the
river valley and the form of the mountains continue throughout the night to
produce, and not to produce, eighty-four thousand verses, if you have not
yet understood with all your effort that river valleys and mountains are demon-
strating themselves as river valleys and mountains, who could see and hear
you as the voices of the river valley and the form of the mountains?
Shobogenzo Keisei-sanshiki
Preached to the assembly at Kannondoriko-
shohorinji five days after the start of the
retreat in the second year of Eno. 75
---
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A Biography of Sakyamuni
The Lotus Sutra (Second Revised Edition)
The Sutra of Queen Srimala of the Lion's Roar
The Larger Sutra on Amitayus
The Sutra on Contemplation of Amitayus
The Smaller Sutra on Amitayus
The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra
The Vimalakirti Sutra
The Ullambana Sutra
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The Vairocanabhisa? bodhi Sutra
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The Baizhang Zen Monastic Regulations
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 1
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 2
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 3
Shobogenzo: The True Dharma-Eye Treasury vol. 4
Tannisho: Passages Deploring Deviations of Faith
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B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 10
[Chapter Ten]
Shoaku-makusa
Not Doing Wrongs
Translator 's Note: Sho means �many� or �miscellaneous,� aku means
�wrong� or �bad,� maku means �not� or �don't,� and sa means �to do. �
So shoaku makusa means �not doing wrong. �1 These words are quoted from
a short poem called �The Seven Buddhas' Universal Precept�:2 �Don't do
wrong; do right; then our minds become pure naturally; this is the teaching
of the many buddhas . � This poem tells us how closely the teaching of
Buddhism is related to morals. In this chapter Master Dogen teaches us the
Buddhist theory of morality. Morality or ethics is, by its nature, a very prac-
tical problem. But most people are prone to forget the practical character of
morality, and usually only discuss it with words or as an abstract theory.
However, talking about morality is not the same as being moral. Morality is
just doing right or not doing wrong. Here Master Dogen explains real moral-
ity, quoting an interesting story about Master Choka Dorin and a famous
Chinese poet called Haku Kyoi.
[3] The eternal buddha says,
Not to commit wrongs,3
To practice the many kinds of right,4
Naturally purifies the mind;5
This is the teaching of the buddhas. 6
This [teaching], as the universal precept of the ancestral patriarchs, the
Seven Buddhas, has been authentically transmitted from former buddhas to
later buddhas, and later buddhas have received its transmission from for-
mer buddhas. It is not only of the Seven Buddhas: �It is the teaching of all
the buddhas. � We should consider this principle and master it in practice.
These words of Dharma of the Seven Buddhas always sound like words of
Dharma of the Seven Buddhas. What has been transmitted and been received
one-to-one is just clarification of the real situation7 at this concrete place.
This already �is the teaching of the buddhas�; it is the teaching, practice,
and experience of hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of buddhas.
[5] In regard to the �wrongs�8 that we are discussing now, among �right-
ness,� �wrongness,� and �indifference,� there is �wrongness. � Its essence9
is just nonappearance. 10 The essence of rightness, the essence of indiffer-
ence, and so on are also nonappearance, are [the state] without excess,11 and
are real form. At the same time,12 at each concrete place these three proper-
ties13 include innumerable kinds of dharmas. In �wrongs,� there are simi-
larities and differences between wrong in this world and wrong in other
worlds. There are similarities and differences between former times and lat-
ter times. There are similarities and differences between wrong in the heav-
ens above and wrong in the human world. How much greater is the differ-
ence between moral wrong, moral right, and moral indifference in Buddhism
and in the secular world. Right and wrong are time; time is not right or wrong.
Right and wrong are the Dharma; the Dharma is not right or wrong. [When]
the Dharma is in balance, wrong is in balance. 14 [When] the Dharma is in
balance, right is in balance. This being so, when we learn [the supreme state
of] anuttara samyaksa? bodhi, when we hear the teachings, do training, and
experience the fruit, it is profound, it is distant, and it is fine.
[6] We hear of this supreme state of bodhi �sometimes following [good]
counselors and sometimes following sutras. �15 At the beginning, the sound
of it is �Do not commit wrongs. � If it does not sound like �Do not commit
wrongs,� it is not the Buddha's right Dharma; it may be the teaching of
demons. Remember, [teaching] that sounds like �Do not commit wrongs�
is the Buddha's right Dharma. This [teaching] �Do not commit wrongs� was
not intentionally initiated, and then intentionally maintained in its present
form, by the common person: when we hear teaching that has [naturally]
become the preaching of bodhi, it sounds like this. What sounds like this is
speech which is the supreme state of bodhi in words. It is bodhi-speech
already, and so it speaks bodhi. 16 When it becomes the preaching of the
supreme state of bodhi, and when we are changed by hearing it, we hope
�not to commit wrongs,� we continue enacting �not to commit wrongs,� and
wrongs go on not being committed; in this situation the power of practice is
instantly realized. This realization is realized on the scale of the whole earth,
the whole world, the whole of time, and the whole of Dharma. And the scale
of this [realization] is the scale of �not committing. � For people of just this
reality, at the moment of just this reality17�even if they live at a place and
come and go at a place where they could commit wrongs, even if they face
circumstances in which they could commit wrongs, and even if they seem
to mix with friends who do commit wrongs�wrongs can never be com-
mitted at all. The power of not committing is realized, and so wrongs can-
not voice themselves as wrongs, and wrongs lack an established set of tools. 18
There is the Buddhist truth of taking up at one moment, and letting go at one
moment. 19 At just this moment, the truth is known that wrong does not vio-
late a person, and the truth is clarified that a person does not destroy wrong. 20
When we devote our whole mind to practice, and when we devote the whole
body to practice, there is eighty or ninety percent realization21 [of not com-
mitting wrongs] just before the moment, and there is the fact of not having
committed just behind the brain. 22 When you practice by garnering your own
body and mind, and when you practice by garnering the body and mind of
�anyone,�23 the power of practicing with the four elements and the five aggre-
gates is realized at once;24 but the four elements and five aggregates do not
taint25 the self. [All things,] even the four elements and five aggregates of
today, carry on being practiced; and the power which the four elements and
five aggregates have as practice in the present moment makes the four ele-
ments and five aggregates, as described above, into practice. 26 When we
cause even the mountains, rivers, and the earth, and the sun, moon, and stars,
to do practice, the mountains, rivers, and the earth, the sun, moon, and stars,
in their turn, make us practice. 27 [This is] not a onetime eye; it is vigorous
eyes at many times. 28 Because [those times] are moments in which the eye
is present as vigorous eyes, they make the buddhas and the patriarchs prac-
tice, make them listen to the teachings, and make them experience the fruit.
The buddhas and the patriarchs have never made the teachings, practice, and
experience tainted, and so the teachings, practice, and experience have never
hindered the buddhas and the patriarchs. 29 For this reason, when [teachings,
practice, and experience] compel the Buddhist patriarchs to practice, there
are no buddhas or patriarchs who ? ee, before the moment or after the moment,
in the past, present, or future.
[10] In walking, standing, sitting, and lying down through the twelve
hours,30 we should carefully consider the fact that when living beings are
becoming buddhas and becoming patriarchs, we are becoming Buddhist
patriarchs, even though this [becoming] does not hinder the [state of a]
Buddhist patriarch that has always belonged to us. In becoming a Buddhist
patriarch, we do not destroy the living being, do not detract from it, and do
not lose it; nevertheless, we have got rid of it. We cause right-and-wrong,
cause-and-effect, to practice; but this does not mean disturbing, or inten-
tionally producing, cause-and-effect. Cause-and-effect itself, at times, makes
us practice. The state in which the original features of this cause-and-effect
have already become conspicuous is �not committing,� it is [�the state] with-
out appearance,� it is [�the state] without constancy,� it is �not being unclear,�
and it is �not falling down��because it is the state in which [body and mind]
have fallen away. 31
[11] When we investigate them like this, wrongs are realized as having
become completely the same as �not committing. � Aided by this realization,
we can penetrate32 the �not committing� of wrongs, and we can realize it
decisively by sitting. 33 Just at this moment�when reality is realized as the
�not committing� of wrongs at the beginning, middle, and end�wrongs do
not arise from causes and conditions; they are nothing other than just �not
committing. �34 Wrongs do not vanish due to causes and conditions; they are
nothing other than just �not committing. � If wrongs are in balance, all dhar-
mas are in balance. Those who recognize that wrongs arise from causes and
conditions, but do not see that these causes and conditions and they them-
selves are [the reality of] �not committing,� are pitiful people. �The seeds
of buddhahood arise from conditions� and, this being so, �conditions arise
from the seeds of buddhahood. � It is not that wrongs do not exist; they are
nothing other than �not committing. � It is not that wrongs exist; they are noth-
ing other than not committing. Wrongs are not immaterial; they are �not com-
mitting. � Wrongs are not material; they are �not committing. � Wrongs are
not �not committing;� they are nothing other than �not committing. �35 [Sim-
ilarly,] for example, spring pines are neither nonexistence nor existence; they
are �not committing. �36 An autumn chrysanthemum is neither existence nor
nonexistence; it is �not committing. � The buddhas are neither existence nor
nonexistence; they are �not committing. � Such things as an outdoor pillar, a
stone lantern, a whisk, and a staff are neither existence nor nonexistence; they
are �not committing. � The self is neither existence nor nonexistence; it is
�not committing. � Learning in practice like this is the realized universe and
it is universal realization�we consider it from the standpoint of the subject
and we consider it from the standpoint of the object. When the state has
become like this already, even the regret that �I have committed what was
not to be committed� is also nothing other than energy arising from the effort
�not to commit. � But to purport, in that case, that if �not committing� is so
we might deliberately commit [wrongs], is like walking north and expect-
ing to arrive at [the southern country of] Etsu. [The relation between] �wrongs�
and �not committing� is not only �a well looking at a donkey�;37 it is the
well looking at the well, the donkey looking at the donkey, a human being
looking at a human being, and a mountain looking at a mountain. Because
there is �preaching of this principle of mutual accordance,� �wrongs� are
�not committing. �
The Buddha's true Dharma body38
Is just like space.
It manifests its form according to things,
Like the moon [re? ected] in water. 39
Because �not committing� is �accordance with things,� �not commit-
ting� has �manifest form. � �It is just like space�: it is the clapping of hands
to the left and the clapping of hands to the right. 40 �It is like the moon [re? ected]
in water�: and the water restricted by the moon. 41 Such instances of �not com-
mitting� are the realization of reality which should never be doubted at all.
[14] �Practice the many kinds of right. �42 These many kinds of right are
[classed] within the three properties43 as �rightness. � Even though the many
kinds of right are included in �rightness,� there has never been any kind of
right that is realized beforehand and that then waits for someone to do it. 44
There is none among the many kinds of right that fails to appear at the very
moment of doing right. The myriad kinds of right have no set shape but they
converge on the place of doing right faster than iron to a magnet,45 and with
a force stronger than the vairambhaka winds. 46 It is utterly impossible for
the earth, mountains and rivers, the world, a nation, or even the force of accu-
mulated karma, to hinder [this] coming together of right. 47 At the same time,
the principle that recognitions differ from world to world,48 in regard to right,
is the same [as in regard to wrong]. What can be recognized [as right] is
called right, and so it is �like the manner in which the buddhas of the three
times preach the Dharma. � The similarity is that their preaching of Dharma
when they are in the world is just temporal. Because their lifetime and body
size also have continued to rely totally upon the moment, they �preach the
Dharma that is without distinction. �49 So it is like the situation that right as
a characteristic of devotional practice50 and right as a characteristic of Dharma
practice,51 which are far removed from each other, are not different things.
Or, for example, it is like the keeping of the precepts by a sravaka being the
violation of the precepts by a bodhisattva. The many kinds of right do not
arise from causes and conditions and they do not vanish due to causes and
conditions. The many kinds of right are real dharmas, but real dharmas are
not many kinds of right. Causes and conditions, arising and vanishing, and
the many kinds of right are similar in that if they are correct at the begin-
ning, they are correct at the end. The many kinds of right are �good doing�52
but they are neither of the doer nor known by the doer, and they are neither
of the other nor known by the other. As regards the knowing and the seeing
of the self and of the other, in knowing there is the self and there is the other,
and in seeing there is the self and there is the other, and thus individual vig-
orous eyes exist in the sun and in the moon. This state is �good doing� itself.
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.
truth. Nature is the material side of the real world, so it is always speaking
the truth, and manifesting the law of the universe every day. This is why it has
been said since ancient time that sounds of rivers are the preaching of Gau-
tama Buddha and forms of mountains are the body of Gautama Buddha. In
this chapter, Master Dogen preached to us the meaning of nature in Buddhism.
[209] In the supreme state of bodhi, Buddhist patriarchs who transmitted the
truth and received the behavior have been many, and examples of past ances-
tors who reduced their bones to powder1 cannot be denied. Learn from the
ancestral patriarch who cut off his arm,2 and do not differ by a hair's breadth
[from the bodhisattva who] covered the mud. 3 When we each get rid of our
husk, we are not restricted by former views and understanding, and things
which have for vast kalpas been unclear suddenly appear before us. In the
here and now of such a moment, the self does not recognize it, no one else
is conscious of it, you do not expect it, and even the eyes of Buddha do not
glimpse it. How could the human intellect fathom it?
[210] In the great kingdom of Song there lived Layman Toba, whose name
was Soshoku, and who was also called Shisen. 4 He seems to have been a real
dragon in the literary world,5 and he studied the dragons and elephants of the
Buddhist world. 6 He swam happily into deep depths, and ? oated up and down
through layers of cloud. 7 Once he visited Lushan. 8 In the story he hears the
sounds of a mountain stream ? owing through the night, and realizes the truth.
He makes the following verse, and presents it to Zen Master Joso:9
The voices of the river valley are the [Buddha's] wide and long
tongue,10
The form of the mountains is nothing other than his pure body.
Through the night, eighty-four thousand verses.
On another day, how can I tell them to others?
When he presents this verse to Zen Master [Jo]so, Zen Master [Jo]so
affirms it. [Jo]so means Zen Master Shokaku Joso, a Dharma successor of
Zen Master Oryu Enan. 11 [E]nan is a Dharma successor of Zen Master Jimyo
Soen. 12 Once, when Layman [Toba] met Zen Master Butsuin Ryogen,13
Butsu in gave him a Dharma robe, the Buddhist precepts, and so on, and the
layman always wore the Dharma robe to practice the truth. The layman pre-
sented Butsuin with a priceless jeweled belt. People of the time said, �Their
behavior is beyond common folk. � So the story of realizing the truth on hear-
ing the river valley may also be of benefit to those who are later in the stream.
It is a pity that, so many times, the concrete form of the teaching, preaching
of Dharma by manifestation of the body,14 seems to have leaked away. What
has made [Layman Toba] see afresh the form of the mountains and hear the
voices of the river valley? A single phrase? Half a phrase? Or eighty-four
thousand verses? It is a shame that sounds and forms have been hiding in
the mountains and waters. But we should be glad that there are moments in
which, and causes and conditions whereby, [real sounds and forms] show
up in the mountains and waters. The tongue's manifestation never ? ags. How
could the body's form exist and vanish? At the same time, should we learn
that they are close when they are apparent, or should we learn that they are
close when they are hidden? Should we see them as a unity, or should we
see them as a half? 15 In previous springs and autumns, [Layman Toba] has
not seen or heard the mountains and waters but in moments �through the
night,� he is able, barely, to see and to hear the mountains and waters. Bodhi-
sattvas who are learning the truth now should also open the gate to learning
[by starting] from mountains ? owing and water not ? owing. 16 On the day
before the night during which this layman has realized the truth, he has vis-
ited Zen Master [Jo]so and asked about stories of �the nonemotional preach-
ing Dharma. �17 Under the words of the Zen master, the form of his somer-
saulting is still immature,18 but when the voices of the river valley are heard,
waves break back upon themselves and surf crashes high into the sky. This
being so, now that the voices of the river valley have surprised the layman,
should we put it down to the voices of the river valley, or should we put it
down to the in? uence of Shokaku? I suspect that Shokaku's words on �the
nonemotional preaching Dharma� have not stopped echoing but are secretly
mingling with the sounds of the mountain stream in the night. Who could
empirically affirm this situation as a single gallon? 19 And who could pay
homage20 to it as the whole ocean? In conclusion, is the layman realizing the
truth, or are the mountains and waters realizing the truth? How could any-
one who has clear eyes not put on their eyes at once [and look] at the man-
ifestation of the long tongue and the pure body?
[215] Another case: Zen Master Kyogen Chikan21 was learning the truth
in the order of Zen Master Daii Daien. 22 On one occasion, Daii says, �You
are sharp and bright, and you have wide understanding. Without quoting
from any text or commentary, speak a phrase for me in the state you had
before your parents were born. �23 Kyogen searches several times for some-
thing to say, but he is not able. He deeply regrets the state of his body and
mind, and looks through books that he has kept for years, but he is still dumb-
founded. In the end, he burns all the writings he has collected over the years,
and says, �A rice cake that is painted in a picture24 cannot stave off hunger.
Upon my oath, I shall not desire to understand the Buddha-Dharma in this
life. I only want to be the monk who serves the morning gruel and midday
meal. � So saying, he spends years and months as a server of meals. �The
monk who serves the morning gruel and midday meal� means one who waits
upon the other monks at breakfast and the midday meal;25 he would be like
a �liveried waiter�26 in this country. While he is thus occupied, he says to
Daii, �Chikan is dull in body and mind and cannot express the truth. Would
the master say something for me? � Daii says, �I would not mind saying some-
thing for you, [but if I did so,] perhaps you would bear a grudge against me
later. � After spending years and months in such a state, [Chikan] enters
Butozan, following the tracks of National Master Daisho,27 and makes a
thatched hut on the remains of the National Master's hermitage. He has planted
bamboo and made it his friend. One day, while he is sweeping the path, a piece
of tile ? ies up and strikes a bamboo with a crack. Hearing this sound, he sud-
denly realizes the great state of realization. He bathes and purifies himself,
and, facing Daiizan, he burns incense and does prostrations. Then, directing
himself to [Master] Daii, he says, �Great Master Daii! If you had explained
it to me before, how would this thing have been possible? The depth of your
kindness surpasses that of a parent. � Finally, he makes the following verse:
At a single stroke I lost recognition.
No longer need I practice self-discipline.
[I am] manifesting behavior in the way of the ancients,
Never falling into despondency.
There is no trace anywhere:
[The state] is dignified action beyond sound and form.
People everywhere who have realized the truth,
All will praise [these] supreme makings.
He presents the verse to Daii. Daii says, �This disciple is complete. �28
[218] Another case: Zen Master Reiun Shigon29 is a seeker of the truth
for thirty years. One day, while on a ramble in the mountains, he stops for
a rest at the foot of a hill and views the villages in the distance. It is spring,
and the peach blossoms are in full bloom. Seeing them, he suddenly realizes
the truth. He makes the following verse and presents it to Daii:
For thirty years, a traveler in search of a sword. 30
How many times have leaves fallen and buds sprouted?
After one look at the peach blossoms,
I have arrived directly at the present and have no further doubts.
Daii says, �One who has entered by relying on external phenomena will
never regress or falter. �31 This is his affirmation. What person who has entered
could not rely on external phenomena? What person who has entered could
regress or falter? [Isan's words] are not about [Shi]gon alone. Finally, [Shigon]
succeeds to the Dharma of Daii. If the form of the mountains were not the
pure body, how would things like this be possible?
[220] A monk asks Zen Master Chosha [Kei]shin,32 �How can we make
mountains, rivers, and the earth belong to ourselves? � The master says, �How
can we make ourselves belong to mountains, rivers, and the earth? �33 This
says that ourselves are naturally ourselves, and even though ourselves are
mountains, rivers, and the earth, we should never be restricted by belonging.
[221] Master Ekaku of Roya, [titled] Great Master Kosho,34 is a distant
descendant of Nangaku. 35 One day [Chosui] Shisen,36 a lecturer of a philo-
sophical sect, asks him, �How does pure essentiality suddenly give rise to
mountains, rivers, and the earth? � Questioned thus, the master preaches, �How
does pure essentiality suddenly give rise to mountains, rivers, and the earth? �37
Here we are told not to confuse mountains, rivers, and the earth which are
just pure essentiality, with �mountains, rivers and the earth. � However, because
the teacher of sutras has never heard this, even in a dream, he does not know
mountains, rivers, and the earth as mountains, rivers, and the earth.
[222] Remember, if it were not for the form of the mountains and the
voices of the river valley, picking up a ? ower could not proclaim anything,38
and the one who attained the marrow could not stand at his own place. 39
Relying on the virtue of the sounds of the river valley and the form of the
mountains, �the earth and all sentient beings realize the truth simultane-
ously,�40 and there are many buddhas who realize the truth on seeing the
bright star. Bags of skin in this state are the wise masters of the past, whose
will to pursue the Dharma was very deep. People of the present should study
their traces without fail. Now also, real practitioners who have no concern
for fame and gain should establish similar resolve. In [this] remote corner
in recent times, people who honestly pursue the Buddha-Dharma are very
rare. They are not absent, but they are difficult to meet. There are many who
drift into the monkhood, and who seem to have left the secular world, but
who only use Buddhism as a bridge to fame and gain. It is pitiful and lam-
entable that they do not regret the passing of this life41 but vainly go about
their dark and dismal business. When can they expect to become free and to
attain the truth? Even if they met a true master, they might not love the real
dragon. 42 My late [master, the eternal] buddha, calls such fellows �pitiful
people. �43 They are like this because of the bad they have done in past ages.
Though they have received a life, they have no will to pursue the Dharma
for the Dharma's sake, and so, when they meet the real Dharma they doubt
the real dragon, and when they meet the right Dharma they are disliked by
the right Dharma. Their body, mind, bones, and ? esh have never lived fol-
lowing the Dharma, and so they are not in mutual accord with the Dharma;
they do not receive and use [in harmony] with the Dharma. Founders of sects,
teachers, and disciples have continued a transmission like this for a long
time. They explain the bodhi-mind as if relating an old dream. How pitiful
it is that, having been born on the treasure mountain, they do not know what
treasure is and they do not see treasure. How much less could they [actually]
get the treasure of Dharma? After they establish the bodhi-mind, even though
they will pass through the cycle of the six states44 or the four modes of birth,45
the causes and conditions of that cyclical course will all become the actions
and vows of the state of bodhi. Therefore, though they have wasted precious
time in the past, as long as their present life continues they should, without
delay, make the following vow: �I hope that I, together with all living beings,
may hear the right Dharma through this life and through every life hereafter.
If I am able to hear it, I will never doubt the right Dharma, and I will never
be disbelieving. When I meet the right Dharma, I will discard secular rules
and receive and retain the Buddha-Dharma so that the earth and sentient
beings may finally realize the truth together. � If we make a vow like this, it
will naturally become the cause of, and conditions for, the authentic estab-
lishment of the mind. Do not neglect, or grow weary of, this attitude of mind.
In this country of Japan, a remote corner beyond the oceans, people's minds
are extremely stupid. Since ancient times, no saint has ever been born [here],
nor anyone wise by nature: it is needless to say, then, that real men of learn-
ing the truth are very rare. When [a person] tells people who do not know
the will to the truth about the will to the truth, the good advice offends their
ears, and so they do not re? ect upon themselves but [only] bear resentment
toward the other person. As a general rule concerning actions and vows which
are the bodhi-mind, we should not intend to let worldly people know whether
or not we have established the bodhi-mind, or whether or not we are prac-
ticing the truth; we should endeavor to be unknown. How much less could
we boast about ourselves? Because people today rarely seek what is real,
when the praises of others are available, they seem to want someone to say
that their practice and understanding have become harmonized, even though
there is no practice in their body and no realization in their mind. �In delu-
sion adding to delusion�46 describes exactly this. We should throw away this
wrongmindedness immediately. When learning the truth, what is difficult to
see and to hear is the attitude of mind [based in] right Dharma. This attitude
of mind is what has been transmitted and received by the buddhas, buddha
to buddha. It has been transmitted and received as the Buddha's brightness,
and as the Buddha's mind. From the time when the Tathagata was in the
world until today, many people have seemed to consider that our concern in
learning the truth47 is to get fame and gain. If, however, on meeting the teach-
ings of a true master, they turn around and pursue the right Dharma, they
will naturally attain the truth. We should be aware that the sickness described
above might be present in the learning of the truth today. For example, among
beginners and novices, and among veterans of long training, some have got
the makings to receive the transmission of the truth and to pass on the behav-
ior, and some have not got the makings. There may be some who have it in
their nature to learn, in veneration of the ancients. There may also be insult-
ing demons who will not learn. We should neither love nor resent either
group. [Yet] how can we have no regret? How can we bear no resentment?
Perhaps no one bears resentment because almost no one has recognized the
three poisons as the three poisons. 48 Moreover, we should not forget the
determination we had when we began the joyful pursuit of the Buddha's
truth. That is to say, when we first establish the will, we are not seeking the
Dharma out of concern for others, and, having discarded fame and gain
[already], we are not seeking fame and gain: we are just singlemindedly aim-
ing to get the truth. We are never expecting the veneration and offerings of
kings and ministers. Nevertheless, such causes of and conditions for [the
will to fame and gain] are present today. [Fame and gain] are not an origi-
nal aim, and they are not [true] objects of pursuit. To become caught in the
fetters that bind human beings and gods is [just] what we do not hope for.
Foolish people, however, even those who have the will to the truth, soon for-
get their original resolve and mistakenly expect the offerings of human beings
and gods, feeling glad that the merit of the Buddha-Dharma has come to
them. If the devotions of kings and ministers are frequent, [foolish people]
think, �It is the realization of my own moral way. � This is one of the demons
[that hinder] learning of the truth. Though we should not forget the mind of
compassion, we should not rejoice [to receive devotion]. Do you remember
the golden words of the Buddha, �Even while the Tathagata is alive, there
are many who have hate and envy. �49 Such is the principle that the stupid do
not recognize the wise, and small animals make enemies of great saints.
[230] Further, many of the ancestral masters of the Western Heavens
have been destroyed by non-Buddhists, by the two vehicles,50 by kings, and
so on;51 but this is never due to superiority on the part of the non-Buddhists,
or lack of farsightedness on the part of the ancestral masters. After the First
Patriarch52 came from the west, he hung up his traveling stick in the Suzan
Mountains,53 but neither Bu (Ch. Wu) of the Liang dynasty nor the ruler of
the Wei dynasty knew who he was. 54 At the time, there was a pair of dogs
known as Bodhiruci Sanzo55 and Precepts Teacher Kozu. Fearing that their
empty fame and false gain might be thwarted by a right person, they behaved
as if looking up at the sun in the sky and trying to blot it out. 56 They are even
more terrible than Devadatta,57 who [lived when the Buddha] was in the
world. How pitiful they are. The fame and profit that they58 love so deeply
is more disgusting than filth to the ancestral master. That such facts occur is
not due to any imperfection in the power of the Buddha-Dharma. We should
remember that there are dogs who bark at good people. Do not worry about
barking dogs. Bear them no grudge. Vow to lead them and to guide them.
Explain to them, �Though you are animals, you should establish the bodhi-
mind. � A wise master of the past has said, �These are just animals with human
faces. � But there may also be a certain kind of demon which devotes itself
and serves offerings to them. A former buddha has said, �Do not get close
to kings, princes, ministers, rulers, brahmans, or secular people. �59 This is
truly the form of behavior that people who want to learn the Buddha's truth
should not forget. [When] bodhisattvas are at the start of learning, their virtue,
in accordance with their progress, will pile up.
[232] Moreover, there have been examples since ancient times of the
god Indra coming to test a practitioner's resolve, or of Mara-papiyas60 com-
ing to hinder a practitioner's training. These things always happened when
[the practitioner] had not got rid of the will to fame and gain. When the [spirit
of] great benevolence and great compassion is profound, and when the vow
to widely save living beings is mature, these hindrances do not occur. There
are cases when the power of practice naturally takes possession of a nation.
There are cases when [a practitioner] seems to have achieved worldly for-
tune. At such times, reexamine the case carefully. Do not slumber on with-
out regard to the particular case. Foolish people delight in [worldly fortune]
like stupid dogs licking a dry bone. The wise and the sacred detest it as
worldly people hate filth and excrement.
[233] In general, a beginner's sentimental thinking cannot imagine the
Buddha's truth�[the beginner] fathoms but does not hit the target. Even
though we do not fathom [the truth] as beginners, we should not deny that
there is perfect realization in the ultimate state. [Still,] the inner depths61 of
the perfect state are beyond the beginner's shallow consciousness. [The
beginner] must just endeavor, through concrete conduct, to tread the path of
the ancient saints. At this time, in visiting teachers and seeking the truth,
there are mountains to climb and oceans to cross. While we are seeking a
guiding teacher, or hoping to find a [good] counselor, one comes down from
the heavens or springs out from the earth. 62 At the place where we meet him,
he makes sentient beings speak the truth and makes nonsentient beings63
speak the truth, and we listen with body and listen with mind. �Listening
with the ears� is everyday tea and meals, but �hearing the sound through the
eyes�64 is just the ambiguous,65 or the undecided,66 itself. In meeting Buddha,
we meet ourselves as buddha and others as buddha, and we meet great bud-
dhas and small buddhas.
Do not be surprised by or afraid of a great buddha.
Do not doubt or worry about a small buddha. The great buddhas and small
buddhas referred to here are recognized, presently, as the form of the moun-
tains and the voices of the river valley. In this the wide and long tongue
exists, and eighty-four thousand verses exist; the manifestation is �far tran-
scendent,� and the insight is �unique and exceptional. �67 For this reason, sec-
ular [teachings] say �It gets higher and higher, and harder and harder. �68 And
a past buddha says, �It pervades69 the sky and pervades the meridians. � Spring
pines possess constant freshness, and an autumn chrysanthemum possesses
sublime beauty, but they are nothing other than the direct and concrete. 70
When good counselors arrive in this field of earth,71 they may be great mas-
ters to human beings and gods. Someone who randomly affects the forms
of teaching others, without arriving in this field of earth, is a great nuisance
to human beings and gods. How could [people] who do not know the spring
pines, and who do not see the autumn chrysanthemum, be worth the price
of their straw sandals? How could they cut out the roots?
[236] Furthermore, if the mind or the ? esh grow lazy or disbelieving,
we should wholeheartedly confess before the Buddha. When we do this, the
power of the virtue of confessing before the Buddha saves us and makes us
pure. This virtue can promote unhindered pure belief and fortitude. Once
pure belief reveals itself, both self and the external world are moved [into
action], and the benefit universally covers sentient and nonsentient beings.
The general intention [of the confession] is as follows:
I pray that although my many bad actions in the past have accumu-
lated one after another, and there are causes and conditions which are
obstructing the truth, the buddhas and the patriarchs who attained the
truth by following the Buddha's Way will show compassion for me,
that they will cause karmic accumulations to dissolve, and that they
will remove obstacles to learning the truth. May their virtue, and their
gates of Dharma, vastly fill and pervade the limitless Dharma world.
Let me share in their compassion. In the past, Buddhist patriarchs were
[the same as] us, and in the future we may become Buddhist patriarchs.
When we look up at Buddhist patriarchs, they are one Buddhist patri-
arch, and when we re? ect upon the establishment of the mind, it is one
establishment of the mind. When [the Buddhist patriarchs] radiate their
compassion in all directions,72 we can grasp favorable opportunities
and we fall upon favorable opportunities. Therefore, in the words of
Ryuge, �If we did not attain perfection in past lives, we should attain
perfection in the present. With this life we can deliver the body that is
the accumulation of past lives. The eternal buddhas, before they real-
ized the truth, were the same as people today. After realizing the truth,
people today will be eternal buddhas. �
Quietly, we should master this reasoning. This is direct experience of
realizing the state of buddha. When we confess like this, the mystical help
of the Buddhist patriarchs is invariably present. Disclosing the thoughts in
our mind and the form of our body, we should confess to the Buddha. The
power of confession causes the roots of wrongdoing to dissolve. This is right
training of one color;74 it is right belief in the mind and right belief in the
body. At the time of right training, the voices of the river valley and the form
of the river valley, the form of the mountains and the voices of the moun-
tains, all do not begrudge their eighty-four thousand verses. When the self
does not begrudge fame and gain and body and mind, the river valley and
the mountains, similarly, begrudge nothing. Even though the voices of the
river valley and the form of the mountains continue throughout the night to
produce, and not to produce, eighty-four thousand verses, if you have not
yet understood with all your effort that river valleys and mountains are demon-
strating themselves as river valleys and mountains, who could see and hear
you as the voices of the river valley and the form of the mountains?
Shobogenzo Keisei-sanshiki
Preached to the assembly at Kannondoriko-
shohorinji five days after the start of the
retreat in the second year of Eno. 75
---
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B2582_1 (biblio info) Chapter/Section 10
[Chapter Ten]
Shoaku-makusa
Not Doing Wrongs
Translator 's Note: Sho means �many� or �miscellaneous,� aku means
�wrong� or �bad,� maku means �not� or �don't,� and sa means �to do. �
So shoaku makusa means �not doing wrong. �1 These words are quoted from
a short poem called �The Seven Buddhas' Universal Precept�:2 �Don't do
wrong; do right; then our minds become pure naturally; this is the teaching
of the many buddhas . � This poem tells us how closely the teaching of
Buddhism is related to morals. In this chapter Master Dogen teaches us the
Buddhist theory of morality. Morality or ethics is, by its nature, a very prac-
tical problem. But most people are prone to forget the practical character of
morality, and usually only discuss it with words or as an abstract theory.
However, talking about morality is not the same as being moral. Morality is
just doing right or not doing wrong. Here Master Dogen explains real moral-
ity, quoting an interesting story about Master Choka Dorin and a famous
Chinese poet called Haku Kyoi.
[3] The eternal buddha says,
Not to commit wrongs,3
To practice the many kinds of right,4
Naturally purifies the mind;5
This is the teaching of the buddhas. 6
This [teaching], as the universal precept of the ancestral patriarchs, the
Seven Buddhas, has been authentically transmitted from former buddhas to
later buddhas, and later buddhas have received its transmission from for-
mer buddhas. It is not only of the Seven Buddhas: �It is the teaching of all
the buddhas. � We should consider this principle and master it in practice.
These words of Dharma of the Seven Buddhas always sound like words of
Dharma of the Seven Buddhas. What has been transmitted and been received
one-to-one is just clarification of the real situation7 at this concrete place.
This already �is the teaching of the buddhas�; it is the teaching, practice,
and experience of hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of buddhas.
[5] In regard to the �wrongs�8 that we are discussing now, among �right-
ness,� �wrongness,� and �indifference,� there is �wrongness. � Its essence9
is just nonappearance. 10 The essence of rightness, the essence of indiffer-
ence, and so on are also nonappearance, are [the state] without excess,11 and
are real form. At the same time,12 at each concrete place these three proper-
ties13 include innumerable kinds of dharmas. In �wrongs,� there are simi-
larities and differences between wrong in this world and wrong in other
worlds. There are similarities and differences between former times and lat-
ter times. There are similarities and differences between wrong in the heav-
ens above and wrong in the human world. How much greater is the differ-
ence between moral wrong, moral right, and moral indifference in Buddhism
and in the secular world. Right and wrong are time; time is not right or wrong.
Right and wrong are the Dharma; the Dharma is not right or wrong. [When]
the Dharma is in balance, wrong is in balance. 14 [When] the Dharma is in
balance, right is in balance. This being so, when we learn [the supreme state
of] anuttara samyaksa? bodhi, when we hear the teachings, do training, and
experience the fruit, it is profound, it is distant, and it is fine.
[6] We hear of this supreme state of bodhi �sometimes following [good]
counselors and sometimes following sutras. �15 At the beginning, the sound
of it is �Do not commit wrongs. � If it does not sound like �Do not commit
wrongs,� it is not the Buddha's right Dharma; it may be the teaching of
demons. Remember, [teaching] that sounds like �Do not commit wrongs�
is the Buddha's right Dharma. This [teaching] �Do not commit wrongs� was
not intentionally initiated, and then intentionally maintained in its present
form, by the common person: when we hear teaching that has [naturally]
become the preaching of bodhi, it sounds like this. What sounds like this is
speech which is the supreme state of bodhi in words. It is bodhi-speech
already, and so it speaks bodhi. 16 When it becomes the preaching of the
supreme state of bodhi, and when we are changed by hearing it, we hope
�not to commit wrongs,� we continue enacting �not to commit wrongs,� and
wrongs go on not being committed; in this situation the power of practice is
instantly realized. This realization is realized on the scale of the whole earth,
the whole world, the whole of time, and the whole of Dharma. And the scale
of this [realization] is the scale of �not committing. � For people of just this
reality, at the moment of just this reality17�even if they live at a place and
come and go at a place where they could commit wrongs, even if they face
circumstances in which they could commit wrongs, and even if they seem
to mix with friends who do commit wrongs�wrongs can never be com-
mitted at all. The power of not committing is realized, and so wrongs can-
not voice themselves as wrongs, and wrongs lack an established set of tools. 18
There is the Buddhist truth of taking up at one moment, and letting go at one
moment. 19 At just this moment, the truth is known that wrong does not vio-
late a person, and the truth is clarified that a person does not destroy wrong. 20
When we devote our whole mind to practice, and when we devote the whole
body to practice, there is eighty or ninety percent realization21 [of not com-
mitting wrongs] just before the moment, and there is the fact of not having
committed just behind the brain. 22 When you practice by garnering your own
body and mind, and when you practice by garnering the body and mind of
�anyone,�23 the power of practicing with the four elements and the five aggre-
gates is realized at once;24 but the four elements and five aggregates do not
taint25 the self. [All things,] even the four elements and five aggregates of
today, carry on being practiced; and the power which the four elements and
five aggregates have as practice in the present moment makes the four ele-
ments and five aggregates, as described above, into practice. 26 When we
cause even the mountains, rivers, and the earth, and the sun, moon, and stars,
to do practice, the mountains, rivers, and the earth, the sun, moon, and stars,
in their turn, make us practice. 27 [This is] not a onetime eye; it is vigorous
eyes at many times. 28 Because [those times] are moments in which the eye
is present as vigorous eyes, they make the buddhas and the patriarchs prac-
tice, make them listen to the teachings, and make them experience the fruit.
The buddhas and the patriarchs have never made the teachings, practice, and
experience tainted, and so the teachings, practice, and experience have never
hindered the buddhas and the patriarchs. 29 For this reason, when [teachings,
practice, and experience] compel the Buddhist patriarchs to practice, there
are no buddhas or patriarchs who ? ee, before the moment or after the moment,
in the past, present, or future.
[10] In walking, standing, sitting, and lying down through the twelve
hours,30 we should carefully consider the fact that when living beings are
becoming buddhas and becoming patriarchs, we are becoming Buddhist
patriarchs, even though this [becoming] does not hinder the [state of a]
Buddhist patriarch that has always belonged to us. In becoming a Buddhist
patriarch, we do not destroy the living being, do not detract from it, and do
not lose it; nevertheless, we have got rid of it. We cause right-and-wrong,
cause-and-effect, to practice; but this does not mean disturbing, or inten-
tionally producing, cause-and-effect. Cause-and-effect itself, at times, makes
us practice. The state in which the original features of this cause-and-effect
have already become conspicuous is �not committing,� it is [�the state] with-
out appearance,� it is [�the state] without constancy,� it is �not being unclear,�
and it is �not falling down��because it is the state in which [body and mind]
have fallen away. 31
[11] When we investigate them like this, wrongs are realized as having
become completely the same as �not committing. � Aided by this realization,
we can penetrate32 the �not committing� of wrongs, and we can realize it
decisively by sitting. 33 Just at this moment�when reality is realized as the
�not committing� of wrongs at the beginning, middle, and end�wrongs do
not arise from causes and conditions; they are nothing other than just �not
committing. �34 Wrongs do not vanish due to causes and conditions; they are
nothing other than just �not committing. � If wrongs are in balance, all dhar-
mas are in balance. Those who recognize that wrongs arise from causes and
conditions, but do not see that these causes and conditions and they them-
selves are [the reality of] �not committing,� are pitiful people. �The seeds
of buddhahood arise from conditions� and, this being so, �conditions arise
from the seeds of buddhahood. � It is not that wrongs do not exist; they are
nothing other than �not committing. � It is not that wrongs exist; they are noth-
ing other than not committing. Wrongs are not immaterial; they are �not com-
mitting. � Wrongs are not material; they are �not committing. � Wrongs are
not �not committing;� they are nothing other than �not committing. �35 [Sim-
ilarly,] for example, spring pines are neither nonexistence nor existence; they
are �not committing. �36 An autumn chrysanthemum is neither existence nor
nonexistence; it is �not committing. � The buddhas are neither existence nor
nonexistence; they are �not committing. � Such things as an outdoor pillar, a
stone lantern, a whisk, and a staff are neither existence nor nonexistence; they
are �not committing. � The self is neither existence nor nonexistence; it is
�not committing. � Learning in practice like this is the realized universe and
it is universal realization�we consider it from the standpoint of the subject
and we consider it from the standpoint of the object. When the state has
become like this already, even the regret that �I have committed what was
not to be committed� is also nothing other than energy arising from the effort
�not to commit. � But to purport, in that case, that if �not committing� is so
we might deliberately commit [wrongs], is like walking north and expect-
ing to arrive at [the southern country of] Etsu. [The relation between] �wrongs�
and �not committing� is not only �a well looking at a donkey�;37 it is the
well looking at the well, the donkey looking at the donkey, a human being
looking at a human being, and a mountain looking at a mountain. Because
there is �preaching of this principle of mutual accordance,� �wrongs� are
�not committing. �
The Buddha's true Dharma body38
Is just like space.
It manifests its form according to things,
Like the moon [re? ected] in water. 39
Because �not committing� is �accordance with things,� �not commit-
ting� has �manifest form. � �It is just like space�: it is the clapping of hands
to the left and the clapping of hands to the right. 40 �It is like the moon [re? ected]
in water�: and the water restricted by the moon. 41 Such instances of �not com-
mitting� are the realization of reality which should never be doubted at all.
[14] �Practice the many kinds of right. �42 These many kinds of right are
[classed] within the three properties43 as �rightness. � Even though the many
kinds of right are included in �rightness,� there has never been any kind of
right that is realized beforehand and that then waits for someone to do it. 44
There is none among the many kinds of right that fails to appear at the very
moment of doing right. The myriad kinds of right have no set shape but they
converge on the place of doing right faster than iron to a magnet,45 and with
a force stronger than the vairambhaka winds. 46 It is utterly impossible for
the earth, mountains and rivers, the world, a nation, or even the force of accu-
mulated karma, to hinder [this] coming together of right. 47 At the same time,
the principle that recognitions differ from world to world,48 in regard to right,
is the same [as in regard to wrong]. What can be recognized [as right] is
called right, and so it is �like the manner in which the buddhas of the three
times preach the Dharma. � The similarity is that their preaching of Dharma
when they are in the world is just temporal. Because their lifetime and body
size also have continued to rely totally upon the moment, they �preach the
Dharma that is without distinction. �49 So it is like the situation that right as
a characteristic of devotional practice50 and right as a characteristic of Dharma
practice,51 which are far removed from each other, are not different things.
Or, for example, it is like the keeping of the precepts by a sravaka being the
violation of the precepts by a bodhisattva. The many kinds of right do not
arise from causes and conditions and they do not vanish due to causes and
conditions. The many kinds of right are real dharmas, but real dharmas are
not many kinds of right. Causes and conditions, arising and vanishing, and
the many kinds of right are similar in that if they are correct at the begin-
ning, they are correct at the end. The many kinds of right are �good doing�52
but they are neither of the doer nor known by the doer, and they are neither
of the other nor known by the other. As regards the knowing and the seeing
of the self and of the other, in knowing there is the self and there is the other,
and in seeing there is the self and there is the other, and thus individual vig-
orous eyes exist in the sun and in the moon. This state is �good doing� itself.
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.
