They must be ashamed, their sorrow in
their hearts must be deep, that they have not received the authentic trans-
mission in their own country.
their hearts must be deep, that they have not received the authentic trans-
mission in their own country.
Shobogenzo
9 The qualities of those things10 are obvious [but] this buddha robe
can never be the same as those things. Those things are not received in the
authentic transmission from rightful successors, but this [robe] has been
received in the authentic transmission from rightful successors. Remember,
we attain the truth when listening to a four-line verse, and we attain the state
of truth when listening to a single phrase. Why is it that a four-line verse and
a single phrase can have such mystical effect? Because they are the Buddha-
Dharma. Now, each robe and [all] nine kinds of robes11 have been received
in the authentic transmission from the Buddha-Dharma itself; [the robe]
could never be inferior to a four-line verse, and could never be less effec-
tive than a single phrase of Dharma. This is why, for more than two thou-
sand years, all followers of the Buddha�those with the makings of devo-
tional practice and of Dharma practice�have guarded and retained the ka? aya
and regarded it as their body and mind. Those who are ignorant of the right
Dharma of the buddhas do not worship the ka? aya.
[132] Now, such beings as Sakra-devanam-indra and the Dragon King
Anavatapta, though they are the celestial ruler of laymen and the king of
dragons, have guarded and retained the ka? aya. Yet people who shave the
head, people who call themselves disciples of the Buddha, do not know that
they should receive and retain the ka? aya. How much less could they know
its material, color, and measurements; how much less could they know the
method of wearing it; and how much less could they have seen the dignified
conventions for it, even in a dream?
[133] The ka? aya has been called since olden times �the clothing that
wards off suffering from heat� and �the clothing of liberation. � In conclu-
sion, its merit is beyond measure. Through the merit of the ka? aya, a dragon's
scales can be freed from the three kinds of burning pain. When the buddhas
realize the truth, they are always wearing this robe. Truly, although we were
born in a remote land in [the age of] the latter Dharma, if we have the oppor-
tunity to choose between what has been transmitted and what has not been
transmitted, we should believe in, receive, guard, and retain [the robe] whose
transmission is authentic and traditional. In what lineage have both the robe
and the Dharma of Sakyamuni himself been authentically transmitted, as in
our authentic tradition? They exist only in Buddhism. On meeting this robe
and Dharma, who could be lax in venerating them and serving 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. Further, we
should vow to meet [the robe] and humbly to receive it upon the head in
every life in every age. We are the stupid people of a remote quarter, born
with a hundred thousand or so miles of mountains and oceans separating us
from the land of the Buddha's birth. Even so, if we hear this right Dharma,
if we receive and retain this ka? aya even for a single day or a single night,
and if we master even a single phrase or a single verse, that will not only be
the good fortune to have served offerings to one buddha or to two buddhas:
it will be the good fortune to have served offerings and paid homage to count-
less hundred thousand ko? is of buddhas. Even if [the servants] are ourselves,
we should respect them, we should love them, and we should value them.
[135] We should heartily repay the great benevolence of the ancestral
master in transmitting the Dharma. 12 Even animals repay kindness; how could
human beings fail to recognize kindness? If we failed to recognize kindness,
we would be inferior to animals, more stupid than animals. People other than
the ancestral masters who transmit the Buddha's right Dharma have never
known the merit of this buddha robe, even in a dream. How much less could
they clarify its material, color, and measurements? If we long to follow the
traces of the buddhas, we should just long for this [transmission]. Even after
a hundred thousand myriads of generations, the authentic reception of this
authentic transmission will [still] be just the Buddha-Dharma itself. The evi-
dence for this is clear. Even secular [teaching] says, �One does not wear cloth-
ing different from the clothing of the past king, and one does not follow laws
different from those of the past king. � Buddhism is also like that. We should
not wear what is different from the Dharma clothing of past buddhas. If [our
clothes] were different from the Dharma clothing of past buddhas, what could
we wear to practice Buddhism and to serve buddhas? Without wearing this
clothing, it might be difficult to enter the Buddha's order.
[136] Since the years of the Eihei period,13 during the reign of Emperor
Komei of the Later Han dynasty, monks arriving in the Eastern Lands from
the Western Heavens have followed on each other's heels without cease. We
often hear of monks going from China to India, but it is not said that they
ever met anyone who gave them the face-to-face transmission of the Buddha-
Dharma. They [have] only names and forms, learned in vain from teachers
of commentaries and scholars of the Tripi? aka. 14 They have not heard the
authentic tradition of the Buddha-Dharma. This is why they cannot even
report that we should receive the authentic transmission of the Buddha's
robe, why they never claim to have met a person who has received the authen-
tic transmission of the Buddha's robe, and why they never mention seeing
or hearing a person who has received the transmission of the robe. Clearly,
they have never entered beyond the threshold of the house of Buddha. That
these fellows recognize [the robe] solely as a garment, not knowing that it
is in the Buddha-Dharma [an object of] honor and worship, is truly pitiful.
Rightful successors to the transmission of the Buddha's Dharma treasury
also transmit and receive the Buddha's robe. The principle that the ances-
tral masters who receive the authentic transmission of the Dharma treasury
have never gone without seeing and hearing15 the Buddha's robe is widely
known among human beings and in the heavens above. This being so, the
material, color, and measurements of the Buddha's ka? aya have been authen-
tically transmitted and authentically seen and heard; the great merits of the
Buddha's ka? aya have been authentically transmitted; and the body, mind,
bones, and marrow of the Buddha's ka? aya have been authentically trans-
mitted, only in the customs of the traditional lineage. [This authentic trans-
mission] is not known in the various schools which follow the teaching of
the Agamas. 16 The [robes] that individuals have established independently,
according to the idea of the moment, are not traditional and not legitimate.
When our Great Master Sakyamuni Tathagata passed on the right Dharma-
eye treasury and the supreme state of bodhi to Maha kasyapa, he transmitted
them together with the buddha robe. Between then and Zen Master Daikan
of Sokeizan, there were thirty-three generations, the transmission passing
from rightful successor to rightful successor. The intimate experience and
intimate transmission of [the robe's] material, color, and measurements have
long been handed down by the lineages, and their reception and retention
are evident in the present. That is to say, that which was received and retained
by each of the founding patriarchs of the five sects17 is the authentic tradi-
tion. Similarly evident are the wearing [of the robe], according to the meth-
ods of former buddhas, and the making [of the robe], according to the meth-
ods of former buddhas, which �buddhas alone, together with buddhas,�
through generations have transmitted and have experienced as the same
state�in some cases for over fifty generations and in some cases for over
forty generations�without confusion between any master and disciple. The
Buddha's instruction, as authentically transmitted from rightful successor to
rightful successor, is as follows:
Robe of nine stripes three long [segments], one
short [segment];18 or four
long, one short
Robe of eleven stripes three long, one short; or four
long, one short
Robe of thirteen stripes three long, one short; or four
long, one short
Robe of fifteen stripes three long, one short
Robe of seventeen stripes three long, one short
Robe of nineteen stripes three long, one short
Robe of twenty-one stripes four long, one short
Robe of twenty-three stripes four long, one short
Robe of twenty-five stripes four long, one short
Robe of two hundred and fifty stripes four long, one short
Robe of eighty-four thousand stripes19 eight long, one short
[140] This is an abbreviated list. There are many other kinds of ka? aya
besides these, all of which may be the sa? gha? i robe. Some receive and
retain [the ka? aya] as laypeople, and some receive and retain [the ka? aya]
as monks and nuns. To receive and to retain [the ka? aya] means to wear it,
not to keep it idly folded. Even if people shave off hair and beard, if they do
not receive and retain the ka? aya, if they hate the ka? aya or fear the ka? aya,
they are celestial demons20 and non-Buddhists. Zen Master Hyakujo Daichi21
says, �Those who have not accumulated good seeds in the past detest the
ka? aya and hate the ka? aya; they fear and hate the right Dharma. �
[142] The Buddha says , �If any living being, having entered my
Dharma, commits the grave sins or falls into wrong views, but in a
single moment of consciousness [this person] with reverent mind hon-
ors the sa? gha? i robe, the buddhas and I will give affirmation, with-
out fail, that this person will be able to become buddha in the three
vehicles. Gods or dragons or human beings or demons, if able to revere
the merit of even a small part of this person's ka? aya, will at once
attain the three vehicles and will neither regress nor stray. If ghosts
and living beings can obtain even four inches of the ka? aya, they will
eat and drink their fill. When living beings offend each other and are
about to fall into wrong views, if they remember the power of the
ka? aya, through the power of the ka? aya they will duly feel compas-
sion, and they will be able to return to the state of purity. If people on
a battlefield keep a small part of this ka? aya, venerating it and honor-
ing it, they will obtain salvation. �22
[143] Thus we have seen that the merits of the ka? aya are supreme and
unthinkable. When we believe in, receive, guard, and retain it, we will surely
get the state of affirmation, and get the state of not regressing. Not only Sakya-
muni Buddha but all the buddhas also have preached like this. Remember,
the substance and form of the buddhas themselves is just the ka? aya. This
is why the Buddha says, �Those who are going to fall into wrong ways hate
the sa? gha? i [robe]. � This being so, if hateful thoughts arise when we see
and hear of the ka? aya, we should feel sorry that our own body is going to
fall into wrong ways, and we should repent and confess. Furthermore, when
Sakyamuni Buddha first left the royal palace and was going to enter the
mountains, a tree god, the story goes, holds up a sa? gha? i robe and says to
Sakyamuni Buddha, �If you receive this robe upon your head, you will escape
the disturbances of demons. � Then Sakyamuni Buddha accepts this robe,
humbly receiving it upon his head, and for twelve years he does not set it
aside even for a moment. This is the teaching of the Agama sutras. Else-
where it is said that the ka? aya is a garment of good fortune, and that those
who wear it always reach exalted rank. In general, there has never been a
moment when this sa? gha? i robe was not manifesting itself before us in the
world. The manifestation before us of one moment is an eternal matter,23 and
eternal matters come at one moment. To obtain the ka? aya is to obtain the
Buddha's banner. For this reason, none of the buddha-tathagatas has ever
failed to receive and to retain the ka? aya. And no person who has received
and retained the ka? aya has failed to become buddha.
[145] The method of wearing the ka? aya: �To bare only the right shoul-
der� is the usual method. There is also a method of wearing [the ka? aya] so
that it covers both shoulders. When we wear both sides over the left arm and
shoulder, we wear the front edge on the outside and the back edge on the
inside. 24 This is one instance of Buddhist dignified behavior. This behavior
is neither seen and heard nor transmitted and received by the various groups
of sravakas: their scriptures on the teaching of the Agamas do not mention it
at all. In general, the dignified behavior of wearing the ka? aya in Buddhism
has been unfailingly received and retained by the ancestral masters who
received the transmission of the right Dharma and who are present before us
here and now. When receiving and retaining [the ka? aya], we should unfail-
ingly receive and retain it under such an ancestral master. The traditional
ka? aya of the Buddhist patriarchs has been authentically transmitted from
buddha to buddha without irregularity; it is the ka? aya of former buddhas and
of later buddhas, the ka? aya of ancient buddhas and of recent buddhas. When
they transform25 the state of truth, when they transform the state of buddha,
when they transform the past, when they transform the present, and when
they transform the future, they transmit the authentic tradition from the past
to the present, they transmit the authentic tradition from the present to the
future, they transmit the authentic tradition from the present to the past, they
transmit the authentic tradition from the past to the past, they transmit the
authentic tradition from the present to the present, they transmit the authen-
tic tradition from the future to the future, they transmit the authentic tradition
from the future to the present, and they transmit the authentic tradition from
the future to the past; and this is the authentic transmission of �buddhas alone,
together with buddhas. � For this reason, for several hundred years after the
ancestral master came from the west, from the great Tang to the great Song
[dynasties], many of those accomplished at lecturing on sutras were able to
see through their own behavior; and when people of philosophical schools,
of precepts, and so on entered the Buddha-Dharma, they threw away the
shabby old robes that had formerly been their ka? aya, and they authentically
received the traditional ka? aya of Buddhism. Their stories appear one after
another in Records of the Torch such as Den[toroku], Ko[toroku], Zoku[toroku],
Futoroku, and so on. 26 When they were liberated from the small view which
is limited thinking about philosophy and precepts and they revered the great
truth authentically transmitted by the Buddhist patriarchs, they all became
Buddhist patriarchs. People today also should learn from the ancestral mas-
ters of the past. If we would like to receive and to retain the ka? aya, we should
receive the authentic transmission of, and should believe in, the traditional
ka? aya. We should not receive and retain a fake ka? aya. The traditional ka? aya
means the ka? aya now authentically transmitted from Shaolin [Temple] and
Sokei [Mountain];27 its reception from the Tathagata in the transmission from
rightful successor to rightful successor has never been interrupted for even a
single generation. For this reason we have exactly received the practice of
the truth, and we have intimately obtained, in our own hands, the Buddha's
robe; and this is the reason [we should receive the authentic transmission].
The Buddha's [state of] truth is authentically transmitted in the Buddha's
[state of] truth; it is not left for lazy people to receive at leisure. A secular
proverb says, �Hearing a thousand times is not as good as seeing once, and
seeing a thousand times is not as good as experiencing once. � Re? ecting on
this, [we can say that] even if we see [the ka? aya] a thousand times and hear
of it ten thousand times, that is not as good as getting it once, and never as
good as to have received the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe. If
we can doubt those who have authentic traditions, we should doubt all the
more those who have never seen the authentic traditions even in a dream. To
receive the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe may be closer [in
experience] than to receive and to hear Buddhist sutras. Even a thousand expe-
riences and ten thousand attainments are not as good as one realization in
experience. A Buddhist patriarch is the realization of the same state of expe-
rience; we should never rank [a Buddhist patriarch] with common followers
of philosophy and precepts. In conclusion, with regard to the merits of the
ka? aya of the Patriarch's lineage, [we can say that] its authentic transmission
has been received exactly; [that] its original configuration has been conveyed
personally; and [that] it has been received and retained, together with the suc-
cession of the Dharma, without interruption until today. The authentic recip-
ients are all ancestral masters who have experienced the same state and received
the transmission of Dharma. They are superior even to [bodhisattvas at] the
ten sacred stages and the three clever stages; we should serve and venerate
them and should bow down to them and humbly receive them upon our heads.
If this principle of the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe is believed
just once by this body and mind, that is a sign of meeting buddha, and it is
the way to learn the state of buddha. [A life] in which we could not accept
this Dharma would be a sad life. We should profoundly affirm that if we cover
the physical body, just once, with this ka? aya, it will be a talisman that pro-
tects the body and ensures realization of the state of bodhi. It is said that when
we dye the believing mind with a single phrase or a single verse we never
lack the brightness of long kalpas. When we dye the body and mind with one
real dharma, [the state] may be �also like this. � Those mental images28 are
without an abode and are irrelevant to what I possess; even so, their merits
are indeed as described above. The physical body is without an abode; even
so, it is as described above. The ka? aya, too, is without an origin and also
without a destination, it is neither our own possession nor the possession of
anyone else; even so, it actually abides at the place where it is retained, and
it covers the person who receives and retains it. The merits acquired [by virtue
of the ka? aya] may also be like this. When we make the ka? aya, the making
is not the elaboration29 of the common, the sacred, and the like. The import
of this is not perfectly realized by [bodhisattvas at] the ten sacred or the three
clever [stages]. Those who have not accumulated seeds of the truth in the past
do not see the ka? aya, do not hear of the ka? aya, and do not know the ka? aya,
not in one life, not in two lives, not even if they pass countless lives. How
much less could they receive and retain [the ka? aya]? There are those who
attain, and those who do not attain, the merit to touch [the ka? aya] once with
the body. Those who have attained [this merit] should rejoice. Those who
have not attained it should hope to do so. Those who can never attain it should
lament. All human beings and gods have seen, heard, and universally recog-
nized that the Buddha's robe is transmitted�both inside and outside the great-
thousandfold-world�only in the lineage of the Buddhist patriarchs. Clarifi-
cation of the configuration of the Buddha's robe also is present only in the
lineage of the patriarchs, it is not known in other lineages. Those who do not
know it and [yet] do not blame themselves are stupid people. Even if they
know eighty-four thousand samadhi-dhara? is,30 without receiving the authen-
tic transmission of the Buddhist patriarchs' robe and Dharma, without clari-
fying the authentic transmission of the ka? aya, they can never be the rightful
successors of the buddhas. How the living beings of other regions must long
to receive exactly the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe, as it has
been authentically received in China.
They must be ashamed, their sorrow in
their hearts must be deep, that they have not received the authentic trans-
mission in their own country. Truly, to meet the Dharma in which the robe
and the Dharma of the World-honored Tathagata have been authentically
transmitted is the result of seeds of great merit from past-nurtured praj�a.
Now, in this corrupt age of the latter Dharma, there are many bands of demons
who are not ashamed that they themselves lack the authentic transmission,
and who envy the authentic transmission [of others]. Our own possessions
and abodes are not our real selves. Just authentically to receive the authentic
transmission; this is the direct way to learn the state of buddha.
[153] In sum, remember that the ka? aya is the body of the Buddha and
the mind of the Buddha. Further, it is called �the clothing of liberation,� called
�the robe of a field of happiness,� called �the robe of endurance,� called �the
robe without form,� called �the robe of compassion,� called �the robe of the
Tathagata,� and called �the robe of anuttara samyaksa? bodhi. � We must
receive and retain it as such. In the great kingdom of Song today, people who
call themselves students of the precepts, because they are drunk on the wine
of the sravaka, are neither ashamed, regretful, nor aware that they have received
the transmission of a lineage which is alien to their own clan. Having changed
the ka? aya that has been transmitted from the Western Heavens and handed
down through the ages from Han to Tang China, they follow small thoughts.
It is due to the small view that they are like that, and they should be ashamed
of [their] small view. Given that they now wear a robe [based on] their own
small thinking, they probably lack many [other] of the Buddhist dignified
forms. Such things happen because their learning of, and reception of the trans-
mission of, the Buddhist forms, are incomplete. The fact is evident that the
body and mind of the Tathagata has been authentically transmitted only in the
lineage of the patriarchs, and it has not spread into the customs of those other
lineages. If they knew only one Buddhist form in ten thousand they would
never destroy the Buddha's robe. Not having clarified even [the meaning of]
sentences, they have never been able to hear the fundamental.
[155] There again, to decide that coarse cotton is the only material for
the robe runs deeply counter to the Buddha-Dharma; above all it ruins the
buddha robe. Disciples of the Buddha should not wear [a robe made accord-
ing to this rule]. Why? [Because] to uphold a view about cloth ruins the ka? aya.
It is pitiful that the views of the sravaka of the Small Vehicle are so tortuous.
After their views about cloth have been demolished, the Buddha's robe will
be realized. What I am saying about the use of silk and cotton is not the teach-
ing of one buddha or two buddhas; it is the great Dharma of all the buddhas
to see rags as the best and purest material for the robe. When, for the pres-
ent, we list the ten sorts of rags among those [rags], they include silk, cotton,
and other kinds of cloth too. 31 Must we not take rags of silk? If we are like
that, we go against the Buddha's truth. If we hated silk, we would also have
to hate cotton. Where is the reason to hate silk or cotton? To hate silk thread
because it is produced by killing is very laughable. Is cotton not the habitat
of living things? Sentiment about sentience and insentience is not liberated
from the sentiment of the common and sentimental: how could it know the
Buddha's ka? aya? There is further speaking of nonsense by those who bring
forth arguments about transformed thread. 32 This also is laughable. Which
[material] is not a transformation? Those people believe the ears that hear of
�transformation,� but they doubt the eyes that see transformation itself. They
seem to have no ears in their eyes, and no eyes in their ears. Where are their
ears and eyes at the moment of the present? 33 Now remember, while we are
collecting rags, there may be cotton that looks like silk and there may be silk
that looks like cotton. When we use it, we should not call it silk and we
should not call it cotton; we should just call it rags. Because it is rags it is,
as rags, beyond silk and beyond cotton. Even if there are human beings or
gods who have survived as rags, we should not call them sentient, [but] they
may be rags. Even if there are pine trees or chrysanthemums which have
become rags, we should not call them insentient, [but] they may be rags.
When we recognize the truth that rags are neither silk nor cotton, and that
they are beyond pearls and jewels, rags are realized and we meet rags for
the first time. Before views about silk and cotton have withered and fallen,
we have never seen rags even in a dream. If we retain views about the cloth�
even if we have spent a lifetime receiving and retaining coarse cotton cloth
as a ka? aya�that is not the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe. At
the same time, the various kinds of ka? aya include cotton ka? aya, silk ka? aya,
and leather ka? aya: all of these have been worn by buddhas. They have the
Buddhist merits of the Buddha's robe, and they possess the fundamental
principle that has been authentically transmitted without interruption. But
people who are not liberated from common sentiment make light of the
Buddha-Dharma; not believing the Buddha's words, they aim blindly to fol-
low the sentiment of the common person. They must be called non-Bud-
dhists who have attached themselves to the Buddha-Dharma; they are peo-
ple who destroy the right Dharma. Some claim to have changed the buddha
robe in accordance with the teaching of celestial beings. In that case, they
must aspire to celestial buddhahood. Or have they become the descendants
of gods? The Buddha's disciples expound the Buddha-Dharma for celestial
beings; they should not ask celestial beings about the truth. It is pitiful that
those who lack the authentic transmission of the Buddha-Dharma are like
this. The view of the celestial multitudes and the view of the Buddha's dis-
ciples are very different in greatness, but gods come down to seek instruc-
tion in the Dharma from the Buddha's disciples . The reason is that the
Buddhist view and the celestial view are very different. Discard, and do not
learn, the small views of sravakas of precepts sects. Remember that they are
the Small Vehicle. The Buddha says, �One can repent for killing one's father
or killing one's mother, but one cannot repent for insulting the Dharma. �
[160] In general, the way of small views and foxlike suspicion is not the
original intention of the Buddha. The great truth of the Buddha-Dharma is
beyond the Small Vehicle. No one outside of the Patriarch's state of truth,
which is transmitted with the Dharma treasury, has known of the authentic
transmission of the great precepts of the buddhas. Long ago, [the story goes,]
in the middle of the night on Obaizan, the Buddha's robe and Dharma are
transmitted authentically onto the head of the Sixth Patriarch. 34 This is truly
the authentic tradition for transmission of the Dharma and transmission of
the robe. It is [possible] because the Fifth Patriarch knows a person. 35 Fel-
lows of the fourth effect and the three clever stages, as well as the likes of
[bodhisattvas in] the ten sacred stages36 and the likes of commentary teach-
ers and sutra teachers of philosophical schools, would give the [robe and
Dharma] to Jinshu;37 they would not transmit them authentically to the Sixth
Patriarch. Nevertheless, when Buddhist patriarchs select Buddhist patriarchs,
they transcend the path of common sentiment, and so the Sixth Patriarch has
already become the Sixth Patriarch. Remember, the truth of knowing a per-
son and of knowing oneself, which the Buddhist patriarchs transmit from
rightful successor to rightful successor, is not easily supposed. Later, a monk
asks the Sixth Patriarch, �Should we see the robe you received in the middle
of the night on Obai[zan] as cotton, or should we see it as silk, or should we
see it as raw silk? 38 In short, as what material should we see it? � The Sixth
Patriarch says, �It is not cotton, it is not silk, and it is not raw silk. � The words
of the Founding Patriarch of Sokei are like this. Remember, the buddha robe
is not silk, not cotton, and not cotton crepe. Those who, on the contrary, heed-
lessly recognize [the robe] as silk, as cotton, or as cotton crepe are the sort
who insult the Buddha-Dharma. How could they know the Buddha's ka? aya?
Furthermore, there are episodes of the precepts being taken with [the Buddha's]
�Welcome! � That the ka? aya gained by these [monks] is utterly beyond dis-
cussion of silk and cotton is the Buddha's instruction in the Buddhist truth.
In another case, the robe of Sa? avasa when he is a layman is a secular gar-
ment, but when he leaves family life it becomes a ka? aya. We should quietly
consider this fact. We should not brush it aside as if we did not see or hear it.
Moreover, there is a fundamental principle which has been authentically trans-
mitted from buddha to buddha, and from patriarch to patriarch, and which
the sort who count words in sentences cannot sense and cannot fathom. Truly,
how could the thousand changes and the myriad transformations of the
Buddha's truth belong in the limited area of ordinary folk? The [real state of]
samadhi exists, and [real practices of] dhara? i 39 exist, [but] those who count
grains of sand can never find [these] valuable pearls inside their clothes. We
should esteem, as the right standard of the ka? aya of all the buddhas, the mate-
rial, color, and measurements of the present ka? aya that has been received in
the authentic transmission from Buddhist patriarchs. The precedents for it, in
the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands, going back to ancient times and
arriving at the present, are of long standing; and people who have distin-
guished the right [precedents] from the wrong have already transcended the
state of enlightenment. Even though outside of the Buddhism of the patri-
archs there are those who claim [to have] the ka? aya, no original patriarch
has ever affirmed [their robes] as the twigs and leaves [of the original ka? aya];
how could [their robes] germinate the seeds of good roots? 40 How much less
could they bear real fruit? We now not only are seeing and hearing Buddha-
Dharma that we have not met in vast kalpas; we [also] have been able to see
and to hear the Buddha's robe, to learn about the Buddha's robe, and to receive
and to retain the Buddha's robe. This just exactly means that we are meeting
the Buddha, we are hearing the voice of the Buddha, we are radiating the
brightness of the Buddha, we are receiving and using the state received and
used by the Buddha, we are receiving the one-to-one transmission of the mind
of the Buddha, and we are getting the Buddha's marrow.
[165] For material to make the ka? aya we invariably use that which is
pure. Pure describes material offered by a donor of pure faith, or bought at a
market, or sent by celestial beings, or donated by dragons, or donated by
demons, or donated by kings and ministers, or [even] pure leather. We may
use all such material. At the same time, we esteem the ten sorts of rags as
pure. The ten sorts of rags are namely:
1) Rags chewed by an ox, 2) rags gnawed by rats, 3) rags scorched by
fire, 4) rags [soiled by] menstruation, 5) rags [soiled by] childbirth, 6) rags
[offered at] a shrine, 7) rags [left at] a graveyard, 8) rags [offered in] peti-
tional prayer, 9) rags [discarded by] a king's officers, 10) rags brought back
[from a funeral].
[166] We esteem these ten sorts as especially pure material. In secular
society they throw them away, [but] in Buddhism we use them. From these
customs we can know the difference between the secular world and Buddhism.
So when we want pure [material] we should look for these ten sorts. Find-
ing them, we can know what is pure and we can intuit and affirm what is not
pure. We can know mind and we can intuit and affirm body. When we obtain
these ten sorts, whether they are silk or whether they are cotton, we should
consider their purity and impurity. If we understand that the reason we use
these rags is to idly make ourselves shabby with shabby robes, that might
be extremely stupid. Rags have [always] been used in Buddhism for their
splendor and beauty. In Buddhism, what makes our attire shabby is clothes
which have come from impurity�[clothes of] brocade, embroidered silk,
silk twill, and sheer silk, [clothes of] gold, silver, precious gems, and so on.
This is the meaning of shabbiness. In general, whether in the Buddhism of
this land or of other worlds, when we use pure and beautiful [cloth], it should
be of these ten sorts. Not only has it transcended the limitations of purity
and impurity, it also is beyond the limited sphere of the super? uous and the
absence of the super? uous. 41 Do not discuss it as matter or mind. It is not
connected with gain and loss. [The fact] is only that those who receive and
retain the authentic transmission are Buddhist patriarchs; for when we are
in the state of a Buddhist patriarch we receive the authentic transmission.
To receive and to retain this [transmission] as a Buddhist patriarch does not
depend on manifestation or nonmanifestation of the body, and does not
depend on upholding or non-upholding of the mind, [but] the authentic trans-
mission goes on being received. Absolutely, we should regret that in this
country, Japan, monks and nuns of recent ages have, for a long time, gone
without wearing the ka? aya; and we should be glad that we can receive and
retain [the ka? aya] now. Even laymen and laywomen who receive and keep
the Buddhist precepts should wear the five-stripe, seven-stripe, and nine-
stripe ka? aya. How then could people who have left family life fail to wear
[the ka? aya]? It is said that [everyone] from King Brahma and the gods of
the six heavens,42 down to secular men, secular women, and male and female
slaves, should receive the Buddhist precepts and wear the ka? aya; how could
bhik? us and bhik? u? is fail to wear it? It is said that even animals should
receive the Buddhist precepts and wear the ka? aya; how could disciples of
the Buddha fail to wear the Buddha's robe? So those who want to become
disciples of the Buddha, regardless of whether they are gods above, human
beings, kings of nations, or government officials, and irrespective of whether
they are laypeople, monks, slaves, or animals, should receive and keep the
Buddhist precepts and should receive the authentic transmission of the ka? aya.
This is just the direct way to enter authentically into the state of buddha.
[170] �When washing the ka? aya, you should mix miscellaneous pow-
dered incense into the water. After drying [the ka? aya] in the sun, fold
it and put it in a high place, serve offerings to it of incense and ? ow-
ers, and make three prostrations. Then, kneeling up, humbly receive
it upon the head and, with the hands joined, render devotion by recit-
ing the following verse:
How great is the clothing of liberation,
Formless, field of happiness, robe!
Devoutly wearing the Tathagata's teaching,
Widely I will save living beings.
After reciting [this verse] three times, stand up on the ground and wear
[the ka? aya] devoutly. �43
[170] During my stay in Song China, making effort on the long plat-
form, I saw that my neighbor every morning, at the time of releasing the still-
ness, would lift up his ka? aya and place it on his head; then, holding his
hands together in veneration, he would silently recite the verse. At that time,
there arose in me a feeling I had never before experienced. [My] body was
overfilled with joy, and tears of gratitude secretly fell and moistened the lapels
of my gown. The reason was that when I had read the Agama sutras previ-
ously, I had noticed sentences about humbly receiving the ka? aya upon the
head, but I had not clarified the standards for this behavior and had not under-
stood it clearly. Seeing it done now, before my very eyes, I was overjoyed. I
thought to myself, �It is a pity that when I was in my homeland there was no
master to teach [me] this, and no good friend to tell [me] of it. How could I
not regret, how could I not deplore, passing so much time in vain? Seeing it
and hearing it now, I can rejoice in past good conduct. If I had been idly rub-
bing shoulders in the temples of my home country, how could I have sat shoul-
der-to-shoulder with this treasure of a monk who is actually wearing the
Buddha's robe? � Sadness and joy were not one-sided. Tears of gratitude fell
in thousands and tens of thousands. Then I secretly vowed, �One way or
another, unworthy though I am, I will receive the authentic transmission of
the right traditions of the Buddha-Dharma and, out of compassion for living
beings in my homeland, I will cause them to see and to hear the robe and the
Dharma that have been authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha. �
The vow made at that time has not now been in vain; the bodhisattvas, in fam-
ilies and out of families, who have received and retained the ka? aya are many.
This is a matter in which to rejoice. People who have received and retained
the ka? aya should humbly receive it upon their head every day and night. The
merit [of this] may be especially excellent and supremely excellent. The see-
ing and hearing of a phrase or a verse may be as in the story of �on trees and
on rocks,� [but] the merit of the authentic transmission of the ka? aya is hardly
encountered through the ten directions. In the tenth lunar month, in the win-
ter of the seventeenth year of Kajo in great Song [China], two Korean44 monks
came to the city of Keigenfu. One was called Chigen, the other Keiun. Both
of them were always discussing the meaning of Buddhist sutras, and they
were also men of letters. But they had no ka? aya and no patra; they were like
secular people. It was pitiful that though they had the external form of bhik? us
they did not have the Dharma of bhik? us. This may have been because they
were from a minor nation in a remote land. When people from our country
who have the external form of bhik? us travel abroad, they are likely to be the
same as those two monks. Sakyamuni Buddha himself received [the ka? aya]
upon his head for twelve years, never setting it aside. As already his distant
descendants, we should emulate this. To turn the forehead away from pros-
trations idly done for fame and gain to gods, to spirits, to kings, and to retain-
ers, and to turn it now toward the humble reception upon the head of the
Buddha's robe, is a joyful and great happy event.
Shobogenzo Den-e
The first day of winter, in the first year of
Ninji. 45
Written at Kannondorikoshohorinji
�a srama? a who entered Song [China] and
received the transmission of Dharma, Dogen.
---
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.
can never be the same as those things. Those things are not received in the
authentic transmission from rightful successors, but this [robe] has been
received in the authentic transmission from rightful successors. Remember,
we attain the truth when listening to a four-line verse, and we attain the state
of truth when listening to a single phrase. Why is it that a four-line verse and
a single phrase can have such mystical effect? Because they are the Buddha-
Dharma. Now, each robe and [all] nine kinds of robes11 have been received
in the authentic transmission from the Buddha-Dharma itself; [the robe]
could never be inferior to a four-line verse, and could never be less effec-
tive than a single phrase of Dharma. This is why, for more than two thou-
sand years, all followers of the Buddha�those with the makings of devo-
tional practice and of Dharma practice�have guarded and retained the ka? aya
and regarded it as their body and mind. Those who are ignorant of the right
Dharma of the buddhas do not worship the ka? aya.
[132] Now, such beings as Sakra-devanam-indra and the Dragon King
Anavatapta, though they are the celestial ruler of laymen and the king of
dragons, have guarded and retained the ka? aya. Yet people who shave the
head, people who call themselves disciples of the Buddha, do not know that
they should receive and retain the ka? aya. How much less could they know
its material, color, and measurements; how much less could they know the
method of wearing it; and how much less could they have seen the dignified
conventions for it, even in a dream?
[133] The ka? aya has been called since olden times �the clothing that
wards off suffering from heat� and �the clothing of liberation. � In conclu-
sion, its merit is beyond measure. Through the merit of the ka? aya, a dragon's
scales can be freed from the three kinds of burning pain. When the buddhas
realize the truth, they are always wearing this robe. Truly, although we were
born in a remote land in [the age of] the latter Dharma, if we have the oppor-
tunity to choose between what has been transmitted and what has not been
transmitted, we should believe in, receive, guard, and retain [the robe] whose
transmission is authentic and traditional. In what lineage have both the robe
and the Dharma of Sakyamuni himself been authentically transmitted, as in
our authentic tradition? They exist only in Buddhism. On meeting this robe
and Dharma, who could be lax in venerating them and serving 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. Further, we
should vow to meet [the robe] and humbly to receive it upon the head in
every life in every age. We are the stupid people of a remote quarter, born
with a hundred thousand or so miles of mountains and oceans separating us
from the land of the Buddha's birth. Even so, if we hear this right Dharma,
if we receive and retain this ka? aya even for a single day or a single night,
and if we master even a single phrase or a single verse, that will not only be
the good fortune to have served offerings to one buddha or to two buddhas:
it will be the good fortune to have served offerings and paid homage to count-
less hundred thousand ko? is of buddhas. Even if [the servants] are ourselves,
we should respect them, we should love them, and we should value them.
[135] We should heartily repay the great benevolence of the ancestral
master in transmitting the Dharma. 12 Even animals repay kindness; how could
human beings fail to recognize kindness? If we failed to recognize kindness,
we would be inferior to animals, more stupid than animals. People other than
the ancestral masters who transmit the Buddha's right Dharma have never
known the merit of this buddha robe, even in a dream. How much less could
they clarify its material, color, and measurements? If we long to follow the
traces of the buddhas, we should just long for this [transmission]. Even after
a hundred thousand myriads of generations, the authentic reception of this
authentic transmission will [still] be just the Buddha-Dharma itself. The evi-
dence for this is clear. Even secular [teaching] says, �One does not wear cloth-
ing different from the clothing of the past king, and one does not follow laws
different from those of the past king. � Buddhism is also like that. We should
not wear what is different from the Dharma clothing of past buddhas. If [our
clothes] were different from the Dharma clothing of past buddhas, what could
we wear to practice Buddhism and to serve buddhas? Without wearing this
clothing, it might be difficult to enter the Buddha's order.
[136] Since the years of the Eihei period,13 during the reign of Emperor
Komei of the Later Han dynasty, monks arriving in the Eastern Lands from
the Western Heavens have followed on each other's heels without cease. We
often hear of monks going from China to India, but it is not said that they
ever met anyone who gave them the face-to-face transmission of the Buddha-
Dharma. They [have] only names and forms, learned in vain from teachers
of commentaries and scholars of the Tripi? aka. 14 They have not heard the
authentic tradition of the Buddha-Dharma. This is why they cannot even
report that we should receive the authentic transmission of the Buddha's
robe, why they never claim to have met a person who has received the authen-
tic transmission of the Buddha's robe, and why they never mention seeing
or hearing a person who has received the transmission of the robe. Clearly,
they have never entered beyond the threshold of the house of Buddha. That
these fellows recognize [the robe] solely as a garment, not knowing that it
is in the Buddha-Dharma [an object of] honor and worship, is truly pitiful.
Rightful successors to the transmission of the Buddha's Dharma treasury
also transmit and receive the Buddha's robe. The principle that the ances-
tral masters who receive the authentic transmission of the Dharma treasury
have never gone without seeing and hearing15 the Buddha's robe is widely
known among human beings and in the heavens above. This being so, the
material, color, and measurements of the Buddha's ka? aya have been authen-
tically transmitted and authentically seen and heard; the great merits of the
Buddha's ka? aya have been authentically transmitted; and the body, mind,
bones, and marrow of the Buddha's ka? aya have been authentically trans-
mitted, only in the customs of the traditional lineage. [This authentic trans-
mission] is not known in the various schools which follow the teaching of
the Agamas. 16 The [robes] that individuals have established independently,
according to the idea of the moment, are not traditional and not legitimate.
When our Great Master Sakyamuni Tathagata passed on the right Dharma-
eye treasury and the supreme state of bodhi to Maha kasyapa, he transmitted
them together with the buddha robe. Between then and Zen Master Daikan
of Sokeizan, there were thirty-three generations, the transmission passing
from rightful successor to rightful successor. The intimate experience and
intimate transmission of [the robe's] material, color, and measurements have
long been handed down by the lineages, and their reception and retention
are evident in the present. That is to say, that which was received and retained
by each of the founding patriarchs of the five sects17 is the authentic tradi-
tion. Similarly evident are the wearing [of the robe], according to the meth-
ods of former buddhas, and the making [of the robe], according to the meth-
ods of former buddhas, which �buddhas alone, together with buddhas,�
through generations have transmitted and have experienced as the same
state�in some cases for over fifty generations and in some cases for over
forty generations�without confusion between any master and disciple. The
Buddha's instruction, as authentically transmitted from rightful successor to
rightful successor, is as follows:
Robe of nine stripes three long [segments], one
short [segment];18 or four
long, one short
Robe of eleven stripes three long, one short; or four
long, one short
Robe of thirteen stripes three long, one short; or four
long, one short
Robe of fifteen stripes three long, one short
Robe of seventeen stripes three long, one short
Robe of nineteen stripes three long, one short
Robe of twenty-one stripes four long, one short
Robe of twenty-three stripes four long, one short
Robe of twenty-five stripes four long, one short
Robe of two hundred and fifty stripes four long, one short
Robe of eighty-four thousand stripes19 eight long, one short
[140] This is an abbreviated list. There are many other kinds of ka? aya
besides these, all of which may be the sa? gha? i robe. Some receive and
retain [the ka? aya] as laypeople, and some receive and retain [the ka? aya]
as monks and nuns. To receive and to retain [the ka? aya] means to wear it,
not to keep it idly folded. Even if people shave off hair and beard, if they do
not receive and retain the ka? aya, if they hate the ka? aya or fear the ka? aya,
they are celestial demons20 and non-Buddhists. Zen Master Hyakujo Daichi21
says, �Those who have not accumulated good seeds in the past detest the
ka? aya and hate the ka? aya; they fear and hate the right Dharma. �
[142] The Buddha says , �If any living being, having entered my
Dharma, commits the grave sins or falls into wrong views, but in a
single moment of consciousness [this person] with reverent mind hon-
ors the sa? gha? i robe, the buddhas and I will give affirmation, with-
out fail, that this person will be able to become buddha in the three
vehicles. Gods or dragons or human beings or demons, if able to revere
the merit of even a small part of this person's ka? aya, will at once
attain the three vehicles and will neither regress nor stray. If ghosts
and living beings can obtain even four inches of the ka? aya, they will
eat and drink their fill. When living beings offend each other and are
about to fall into wrong views, if they remember the power of the
ka? aya, through the power of the ka? aya they will duly feel compas-
sion, and they will be able to return to the state of purity. If people on
a battlefield keep a small part of this ka? aya, venerating it and honor-
ing it, they will obtain salvation. �22
[143] Thus we have seen that the merits of the ka? aya are supreme and
unthinkable. When we believe in, receive, guard, and retain it, we will surely
get the state of affirmation, and get the state of not regressing. Not only Sakya-
muni Buddha but all the buddhas also have preached like this. Remember,
the substance and form of the buddhas themselves is just the ka? aya. This
is why the Buddha says, �Those who are going to fall into wrong ways hate
the sa? gha? i [robe]. � This being so, if hateful thoughts arise when we see
and hear of the ka? aya, we should feel sorry that our own body is going to
fall into wrong ways, and we should repent and confess. Furthermore, when
Sakyamuni Buddha first left the royal palace and was going to enter the
mountains, a tree god, the story goes, holds up a sa? gha? i robe and says to
Sakyamuni Buddha, �If you receive this robe upon your head, you will escape
the disturbances of demons. � Then Sakyamuni Buddha accepts this robe,
humbly receiving it upon his head, and for twelve years he does not set it
aside even for a moment. This is the teaching of the Agama sutras. Else-
where it is said that the ka? aya is a garment of good fortune, and that those
who wear it always reach exalted rank. In general, there has never been a
moment when this sa? gha? i robe was not manifesting itself before us in the
world. The manifestation before us of one moment is an eternal matter,23 and
eternal matters come at one moment. To obtain the ka? aya is to obtain the
Buddha's banner. For this reason, none of the buddha-tathagatas has ever
failed to receive and to retain the ka? aya. And no person who has received
and retained the ka? aya has failed to become buddha.
[145] The method of wearing the ka? aya: �To bare only the right shoul-
der� is the usual method. There is also a method of wearing [the ka? aya] so
that it covers both shoulders. When we wear both sides over the left arm and
shoulder, we wear the front edge on the outside and the back edge on the
inside. 24 This is one instance of Buddhist dignified behavior. This behavior
is neither seen and heard nor transmitted and received by the various groups
of sravakas: their scriptures on the teaching of the Agamas do not mention it
at all. In general, the dignified behavior of wearing the ka? aya in Buddhism
has been unfailingly received and retained by the ancestral masters who
received the transmission of the right Dharma and who are present before us
here and now. When receiving and retaining [the ka? aya], we should unfail-
ingly receive and retain it under such an ancestral master. The traditional
ka? aya of the Buddhist patriarchs has been authentically transmitted from
buddha to buddha without irregularity; it is the ka? aya of former buddhas and
of later buddhas, the ka? aya of ancient buddhas and of recent buddhas. When
they transform25 the state of truth, when they transform the state of buddha,
when they transform the past, when they transform the present, and when
they transform the future, they transmit the authentic tradition from the past
to the present, they transmit the authentic tradition from the present to the
future, they transmit the authentic tradition from the present to the past, they
transmit the authentic tradition from the past to the past, they transmit the
authentic tradition from the present to the present, they transmit the authen-
tic tradition from the future to the future, they transmit the authentic tradition
from the future to the present, and they transmit the authentic tradition from
the future to the past; and this is the authentic transmission of �buddhas alone,
together with buddhas. � For this reason, for several hundred years after the
ancestral master came from the west, from the great Tang to the great Song
[dynasties], many of those accomplished at lecturing on sutras were able to
see through their own behavior; and when people of philosophical schools,
of precepts, and so on entered the Buddha-Dharma, they threw away the
shabby old robes that had formerly been their ka? aya, and they authentically
received the traditional ka? aya of Buddhism. Their stories appear one after
another in Records of the Torch such as Den[toroku], Ko[toroku], Zoku[toroku],
Futoroku, and so on. 26 When they were liberated from the small view which
is limited thinking about philosophy and precepts and they revered the great
truth authentically transmitted by the Buddhist patriarchs, they all became
Buddhist patriarchs. People today also should learn from the ancestral mas-
ters of the past. If we would like to receive and to retain the ka? aya, we should
receive the authentic transmission of, and should believe in, the traditional
ka? aya. We should not receive and retain a fake ka? aya. The traditional ka? aya
means the ka? aya now authentically transmitted from Shaolin [Temple] and
Sokei [Mountain];27 its reception from the Tathagata in the transmission from
rightful successor to rightful successor has never been interrupted for even a
single generation. For this reason we have exactly received the practice of
the truth, and we have intimately obtained, in our own hands, the Buddha's
robe; and this is the reason [we should receive the authentic transmission].
The Buddha's [state of] truth is authentically transmitted in the Buddha's
[state of] truth; it is not left for lazy people to receive at leisure. A secular
proverb says, �Hearing a thousand times is not as good as seeing once, and
seeing a thousand times is not as good as experiencing once. � Re? ecting on
this, [we can say that] even if we see [the ka? aya] a thousand times and hear
of it ten thousand times, that is not as good as getting it once, and never as
good as to have received the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe. If
we can doubt those who have authentic traditions, we should doubt all the
more those who have never seen the authentic traditions even in a dream. To
receive the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe may be closer [in
experience] than to receive and to hear Buddhist sutras. Even a thousand expe-
riences and ten thousand attainments are not as good as one realization in
experience. A Buddhist patriarch is the realization of the same state of expe-
rience; we should never rank [a Buddhist patriarch] with common followers
of philosophy and precepts. In conclusion, with regard to the merits of the
ka? aya of the Patriarch's lineage, [we can say that] its authentic transmission
has been received exactly; [that] its original configuration has been conveyed
personally; and [that] it has been received and retained, together with the suc-
cession of the Dharma, without interruption until today. The authentic recip-
ients are all ancestral masters who have experienced the same state and received
the transmission of Dharma. They are superior even to [bodhisattvas at] the
ten sacred stages and the three clever stages; we should serve and venerate
them and should bow down to them and humbly receive them upon our heads.
If this principle of the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe is believed
just once by this body and mind, that is a sign of meeting buddha, and it is
the way to learn the state of buddha. [A life] in which we could not accept
this Dharma would be a sad life. We should profoundly affirm that if we cover
the physical body, just once, with this ka? aya, it will be a talisman that pro-
tects the body and ensures realization of the state of bodhi. It is said that when
we dye the believing mind with a single phrase or a single verse we never
lack the brightness of long kalpas. When we dye the body and mind with one
real dharma, [the state] may be �also like this. � Those mental images28 are
without an abode and are irrelevant to what I possess; even so, their merits
are indeed as described above. The physical body is without an abode; even
so, it is as described above. The ka? aya, too, is without an origin and also
without a destination, it is neither our own possession nor the possession of
anyone else; even so, it actually abides at the place where it is retained, and
it covers the person who receives and retains it. The merits acquired [by virtue
of the ka? aya] may also be like this. When we make the ka? aya, the making
is not the elaboration29 of the common, the sacred, and the like. The import
of this is not perfectly realized by [bodhisattvas at] the ten sacred or the three
clever [stages]. Those who have not accumulated seeds of the truth in the past
do not see the ka? aya, do not hear of the ka? aya, and do not know the ka? aya,
not in one life, not in two lives, not even if they pass countless lives. How
much less could they receive and retain [the ka? aya]? There are those who
attain, and those who do not attain, the merit to touch [the ka? aya] once with
the body. Those who have attained [this merit] should rejoice. Those who
have not attained it should hope to do so. Those who can never attain it should
lament. All human beings and gods have seen, heard, and universally recog-
nized that the Buddha's robe is transmitted�both inside and outside the great-
thousandfold-world�only in the lineage of the Buddhist patriarchs. Clarifi-
cation of the configuration of the Buddha's robe also is present only in the
lineage of the patriarchs, it is not known in other lineages. Those who do not
know it and [yet] do not blame themselves are stupid people. Even if they
know eighty-four thousand samadhi-dhara? is,30 without receiving the authen-
tic transmission of the Buddhist patriarchs' robe and Dharma, without clari-
fying the authentic transmission of the ka? aya, they can never be the rightful
successors of the buddhas. How the living beings of other regions must long
to receive exactly the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe, as it has
been authentically received in China.
They must be ashamed, their sorrow in
their hearts must be deep, that they have not received the authentic trans-
mission in their own country. Truly, to meet the Dharma in which the robe
and the Dharma of the World-honored Tathagata have been authentically
transmitted is the result of seeds of great merit from past-nurtured praj�a.
Now, in this corrupt age of the latter Dharma, there are many bands of demons
who are not ashamed that they themselves lack the authentic transmission,
and who envy the authentic transmission [of others]. Our own possessions
and abodes are not our real selves. Just authentically to receive the authentic
transmission; this is the direct way to learn the state of buddha.
[153] In sum, remember that the ka? aya is the body of the Buddha and
the mind of the Buddha. Further, it is called �the clothing of liberation,� called
�the robe of a field of happiness,� called �the robe of endurance,� called �the
robe without form,� called �the robe of compassion,� called �the robe of the
Tathagata,� and called �the robe of anuttara samyaksa? bodhi. � We must
receive and retain it as such. In the great kingdom of Song today, people who
call themselves students of the precepts, because they are drunk on the wine
of the sravaka, are neither ashamed, regretful, nor aware that they have received
the transmission of a lineage which is alien to their own clan. Having changed
the ka? aya that has been transmitted from the Western Heavens and handed
down through the ages from Han to Tang China, they follow small thoughts.
It is due to the small view that they are like that, and they should be ashamed
of [their] small view. Given that they now wear a robe [based on] their own
small thinking, they probably lack many [other] of the Buddhist dignified
forms. Such things happen because their learning of, and reception of the trans-
mission of, the Buddhist forms, are incomplete. The fact is evident that the
body and mind of the Tathagata has been authentically transmitted only in the
lineage of the patriarchs, and it has not spread into the customs of those other
lineages. If they knew only one Buddhist form in ten thousand they would
never destroy the Buddha's robe. Not having clarified even [the meaning of]
sentences, they have never been able to hear the fundamental.
[155] There again, to decide that coarse cotton is the only material for
the robe runs deeply counter to the Buddha-Dharma; above all it ruins the
buddha robe. Disciples of the Buddha should not wear [a robe made accord-
ing to this rule]. Why? [Because] to uphold a view about cloth ruins the ka? aya.
It is pitiful that the views of the sravaka of the Small Vehicle are so tortuous.
After their views about cloth have been demolished, the Buddha's robe will
be realized. What I am saying about the use of silk and cotton is not the teach-
ing of one buddha or two buddhas; it is the great Dharma of all the buddhas
to see rags as the best and purest material for the robe. When, for the pres-
ent, we list the ten sorts of rags among those [rags], they include silk, cotton,
and other kinds of cloth too. 31 Must we not take rags of silk? If we are like
that, we go against the Buddha's truth. If we hated silk, we would also have
to hate cotton. Where is the reason to hate silk or cotton? To hate silk thread
because it is produced by killing is very laughable. Is cotton not the habitat
of living things? Sentiment about sentience and insentience is not liberated
from the sentiment of the common and sentimental: how could it know the
Buddha's ka? aya? There is further speaking of nonsense by those who bring
forth arguments about transformed thread. 32 This also is laughable. Which
[material] is not a transformation? Those people believe the ears that hear of
�transformation,� but they doubt the eyes that see transformation itself. They
seem to have no ears in their eyes, and no eyes in their ears. Where are their
ears and eyes at the moment of the present? 33 Now remember, while we are
collecting rags, there may be cotton that looks like silk and there may be silk
that looks like cotton. When we use it, we should not call it silk and we
should not call it cotton; we should just call it rags. Because it is rags it is,
as rags, beyond silk and beyond cotton. Even if there are human beings or
gods who have survived as rags, we should not call them sentient, [but] they
may be rags. Even if there are pine trees or chrysanthemums which have
become rags, we should not call them insentient, [but] they may be rags.
When we recognize the truth that rags are neither silk nor cotton, and that
they are beyond pearls and jewels, rags are realized and we meet rags for
the first time. Before views about silk and cotton have withered and fallen,
we have never seen rags even in a dream. If we retain views about the cloth�
even if we have spent a lifetime receiving and retaining coarse cotton cloth
as a ka? aya�that is not the authentic transmission of the Buddha's robe. At
the same time, the various kinds of ka? aya include cotton ka? aya, silk ka? aya,
and leather ka? aya: all of these have been worn by buddhas. They have the
Buddhist merits of the Buddha's robe, and they possess the fundamental
principle that has been authentically transmitted without interruption. But
people who are not liberated from common sentiment make light of the
Buddha-Dharma; not believing the Buddha's words, they aim blindly to fol-
low the sentiment of the common person. They must be called non-Bud-
dhists who have attached themselves to the Buddha-Dharma; they are peo-
ple who destroy the right Dharma. Some claim to have changed the buddha
robe in accordance with the teaching of celestial beings. In that case, they
must aspire to celestial buddhahood. Or have they become the descendants
of gods? The Buddha's disciples expound the Buddha-Dharma for celestial
beings; they should not ask celestial beings about the truth. It is pitiful that
those who lack the authentic transmission of the Buddha-Dharma are like
this. The view of the celestial multitudes and the view of the Buddha's dis-
ciples are very different in greatness, but gods come down to seek instruc-
tion in the Dharma from the Buddha's disciples . The reason is that the
Buddhist view and the celestial view are very different. Discard, and do not
learn, the small views of sravakas of precepts sects. Remember that they are
the Small Vehicle. The Buddha says, �One can repent for killing one's father
or killing one's mother, but one cannot repent for insulting the Dharma. �
[160] In general, the way of small views and foxlike suspicion is not the
original intention of the Buddha. The great truth of the Buddha-Dharma is
beyond the Small Vehicle. No one outside of the Patriarch's state of truth,
which is transmitted with the Dharma treasury, has known of the authentic
transmission of the great precepts of the buddhas. Long ago, [the story goes,]
in the middle of the night on Obaizan, the Buddha's robe and Dharma are
transmitted authentically onto the head of the Sixth Patriarch. 34 This is truly
the authentic tradition for transmission of the Dharma and transmission of
the robe. It is [possible] because the Fifth Patriarch knows a person. 35 Fel-
lows of the fourth effect and the three clever stages, as well as the likes of
[bodhisattvas in] the ten sacred stages36 and the likes of commentary teach-
ers and sutra teachers of philosophical schools, would give the [robe and
Dharma] to Jinshu;37 they would not transmit them authentically to the Sixth
Patriarch. Nevertheless, when Buddhist patriarchs select Buddhist patriarchs,
they transcend the path of common sentiment, and so the Sixth Patriarch has
already become the Sixth Patriarch. Remember, the truth of knowing a per-
son and of knowing oneself, which the Buddhist patriarchs transmit from
rightful successor to rightful successor, is not easily supposed. Later, a monk
asks the Sixth Patriarch, �Should we see the robe you received in the middle
of the night on Obai[zan] as cotton, or should we see it as silk, or should we
see it as raw silk? 38 In short, as what material should we see it? � The Sixth
Patriarch says, �It is not cotton, it is not silk, and it is not raw silk. � The words
of the Founding Patriarch of Sokei are like this. Remember, the buddha robe
is not silk, not cotton, and not cotton crepe. Those who, on the contrary, heed-
lessly recognize [the robe] as silk, as cotton, or as cotton crepe are the sort
who insult the Buddha-Dharma. How could they know the Buddha's ka? aya?
Furthermore, there are episodes of the precepts being taken with [the Buddha's]
�Welcome! � That the ka? aya gained by these [monks] is utterly beyond dis-
cussion of silk and cotton is the Buddha's instruction in the Buddhist truth.
In another case, the robe of Sa? avasa when he is a layman is a secular gar-
ment, but when he leaves family life it becomes a ka? aya. We should quietly
consider this fact. We should not brush it aside as if we did not see or hear it.
Moreover, there is a fundamental principle which has been authentically trans-
mitted from buddha to buddha, and from patriarch to patriarch, and which
the sort who count words in sentences cannot sense and cannot fathom. Truly,
how could the thousand changes and the myriad transformations of the
Buddha's truth belong in the limited area of ordinary folk? The [real state of]
samadhi exists, and [real practices of] dhara? i 39 exist, [but] those who count
grains of sand can never find [these] valuable pearls inside their clothes. We
should esteem, as the right standard of the ka? aya of all the buddhas, the mate-
rial, color, and measurements of the present ka? aya that has been received in
the authentic transmission from Buddhist patriarchs. The precedents for it, in
the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands, going back to ancient times and
arriving at the present, are of long standing; and people who have distin-
guished the right [precedents] from the wrong have already transcended the
state of enlightenment. Even though outside of the Buddhism of the patri-
archs there are those who claim [to have] the ka? aya, no original patriarch
has ever affirmed [their robes] as the twigs and leaves [of the original ka? aya];
how could [their robes] germinate the seeds of good roots? 40 How much less
could they bear real fruit? We now not only are seeing and hearing Buddha-
Dharma that we have not met in vast kalpas; we [also] have been able to see
and to hear the Buddha's robe, to learn about the Buddha's robe, and to receive
and to retain the Buddha's robe. This just exactly means that we are meeting
the Buddha, we are hearing the voice of the Buddha, we are radiating the
brightness of the Buddha, we are receiving and using the state received and
used by the Buddha, we are receiving the one-to-one transmission of the mind
of the Buddha, and we are getting the Buddha's marrow.
[165] For material to make the ka? aya we invariably use that which is
pure. Pure describes material offered by a donor of pure faith, or bought at a
market, or sent by celestial beings, or donated by dragons, or donated by
demons, or donated by kings and ministers, or [even] pure leather. We may
use all such material. At the same time, we esteem the ten sorts of rags as
pure. The ten sorts of rags are namely:
1) Rags chewed by an ox, 2) rags gnawed by rats, 3) rags scorched by
fire, 4) rags [soiled by] menstruation, 5) rags [soiled by] childbirth, 6) rags
[offered at] a shrine, 7) rags [left at] a graveyard, 8) rags [offered in] peti-
tional prayer, 9) rags [discarded by] a king's officers, 10) rags brought back
[from a funeral].
[166] We esteem these ten sorts as especially pure material. In secular
society they throw them away, [but] in Buddhism we use them. From these
customs we can know the difference between the secular world and Buddhism.
So when we want pure [material] we should look for these ten sorts. Find-
ing them, we can know what is pure and we can intuit and affirm what is not
pure. We can know mind and we can intuit and affirm body. When we obtain
these ten sorts, whether they are silk or whether they are cotton, we should
consider their purity and impurity. If we understand that the reason we use
these rags is to idly make ourselves shabby with shabby robes, that might
be extremely stupid. Rags have [always] been used in Buddhism for their
splendor and beauty. In Buddhism, what makes our attire shabby is clothes
which have come from impurity�[clothes of] brocade, embroidered silk,
silk twill, and sheer silk, [clothes of] gold, silver, precious gems, and so on.
This is the meaning of shabbiness. In general, whether in the Buddhism of
this land or of other worlds, when we use pure and beautiful [cloth], it should
be of these ten sorts. Not only has it transcended the limitations of purity
and impurity, it also is beyond the limited sphere of the super? uous and the
absence of the super? uous. 41 Do not discuss it as matter or mind. It is not
connected with gain and loss. [The fact] is only that those who receive and
retain the authentic transmission are Buddhist patriarchs; for when we are
in the state of a Buddhist patriarch we receive the authentic transmission.
To receive and to retain this [transmission] as a Buddhist patriarch does not
depend on manifestation or nonmanifestation of the body, and does not
depend on upholding or non-upholding of the mind, [but] the authentic trans-
mission goes on being received. Absolutely, we should regret that in this
country, Japan, monks and nuns of recent ages have, for a long time, gone
without wearing the ka? aya; and we should be glad that we can receive and
retain [the ka? aya] now. Even laymen and laywomen who receive and keep
the Buddhist precepts should wear the five-stripe, seven-stripe, and nine-
stripe ka? aya. How then could people who have left family life fail to wear
[the ka? aya]? It is said that [everyone] from King Brahma and the gods of
the six heavens,42 down to secular men, secular women, and male and female
slaves, should receive the Buddhist precepts and wear the ka? aya; how could
bhik? us and bhik? u? is fail to wear it? It is said that even animals should
receive the Buddhist precepts and wear the ka? aya; how could disciples of
the Buddha fail to wear the Buddha's robe? So those who want to become
disciples of the Buddha, regardless of whether they are gods above, human
beings, kings of nations, or government officials, and irrespective of whether
they are laypeople, monks, slaves, or animals, should receive and keep the
Buddhist precepts and should receive the authentic transmission of the ka? aya.
This is just the direct way to enter authentically into the state of buddha.
[170] �When washing the ka? aya, you should mix miscellaneous pow-
dered incense into the water. After drying [the ka? aya] in the sun, fold
it and put it in a high place, serve offerings to it of incense and ? ow-
ers, and make three prostrations. Then, kneeling up, humbly receive
it upon the head and, with the hands joined, render devotion by recit-
ing the following verse:
How great is the clothing of liberation,
Formless, field of happiness, robe!
Devoutly wearing the Tathagata's teaching,
Widely I will save living beings.
After reciting [this verse] three times, stand up on the ground and wear
[the ka? aya] devoutly. �43
[170] During my stay in Song China, making effort on the long plat-
form, I saw that my neighbor every morning, at the time of releasing the still-
ness, would lift up his ka? aya and place it on his head; then, holding his
hands together in veneration, he would silently recite the verse. At that time,
there arose in me a feeling I had never before experienced. [My] body was
overfilled with joy, and tears of gratitude secretly fell and moistened the lapels
of my gown. The reason was that when I had read the Agama sutras previ-
ously, I had noticed sentences about humbly receiving the ka? aya upon the
head, but I had not clarified the standards for this behavior and had not under-
stood it clearly. Seeing it done now, before my very eyes, I was overjoyed. I
thought to myself, �It is a pity that when I was in my homeland there was no
master to teach [me] this, and no good friend to tell [me] of it. How could I
not regret, how could I not deplore, passing so much time in vain? Seeing it
and hearing it now, I can rejoice in past good conduct. If I had been idly rub-
bing shoulders in the temples of my home country, how could I have sat shoul-
der-to-shoulder with this treasure of a monk who is actually wearing the
Buddha's robe? � Sadness and joy were not one-sided. Tears of gratitude fell
in thousands and tens of thousands. Then I secretly vowed, �One way or
another, unworthy though I am, I will receive the authentic transmission of
the right traditions of the Buddha-Dharma and, out of compassion for living
beings in my homeland, I will cause them to see and to hear the robe and the
Dharma that have been authentically transmitted from buddha to buddha. �
The vow made at that time has not now been in vain; the bodhisattvas, in fam-
ilies and out of families, who have received and retained the ka? aya are many.
This is a matter in which to rejoice. People who have received and retained
the ka? aya should humbly receive it upon their head every day and night. The
merit [of this] may be especially excellent and supremely excellent. The see-
ing and hearing of a phrase or a verse may be as in the story of �on trees and
on rocks,� [but] the merit of the authentic transmission of the ka? aya is hardly
encountered through the ten directions. In the tenth lunar month, in the win-
ter of the seventeenth year of Kajo in great Song [China], two Korean44 monks
came to the city of Keigenfu. One was called Chigen, the other Keiun. Both
of them were always discussing the meaning of Buddhist sutras, and they
were also men of letters. But they had no ka? aya and no patra; they were like
secular people. It was pitiful that though they had the external form of bhik? us
they did not have the Dharma of bhik? us. This may have been because they
were from a minor nation in a remote land. When people from our country
who have the external form of bhik? us travel abroad, they are likely to be the
same as those two monks. Sakyamuni Buddha himself received [the ka? aya]
upon his head for twelve years, never setting it aside. As already his distant
descendants, we should emulate this. To turn the forehead away from pros-
trations idly done for fame and gain to gods, to spirits, to kings, and to retain-
ers, and to turn it now toward the humble reception upon the head of the
Buddha's robe, is a joyful and great happy event.
Shobogenzo Den-e
The first day of winter, in the first year of
Ninji. 45
Written at Kannondorikoshohorinji
�a srama? a who entered Song [China] and
received the transmission of Dharma, Dogen.
---
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.
