GENJO KOAN
by Eihei Dogen
When all dharmas are buddha-dharma, there are enlightenment and delusion, practice, life and death, buddhas and creatures.
When the ten thousand dharmas are without self, there are no delusion, no enlightenment, no buddhas, no creatures, no life and no death.
The buddha way transcends being and non-being; therefore there are life and death, delusion and enlightenment, creatures and buddhas.
Nevertheless, flowers fall with our attachment, and weeds spring up with our aversion.
To carry the self forward and realize the ten thousand dharmas is delusion.
That the ten thousand dharmas advance and realize the self is enlightenment.
It is buddhas who enlighten delusion.
It is creatures who are deluded in enlightenment.
Further, there are those who attain enlightenment above enlightenment; there are those who are deluded within delusion.
When buddhas are truly buddhas, one need not be aware of being buddha.
However, one is the realized buddha and further advances in realizing buddha.
Seeing forms with the whole body and mind, hearing sounds with the whole body and mind, one understands them intimately.
Yet it is not like a mirror with reflections, nor like water under the moon—
When one side is realized, the other side is dark.
To study the buddha way is to study the self.
To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas.
To be enlightened by the ten thousand dharmas is to free one’s body and mind and those of others.
No trace of enlightenment remains, and this traceless enlightenment is continued forever.
When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself far from its environs.
When one has already correctly transmitted the truth to oneself, one is one’s original self at that moment.
When riding on a boat, if one watches the shore one may assume that the shore is moving.
But watching the boat directly, one knows that it is the boat that moves.
If one examines the ten thousand dharmas with a deluded body and mind, one will suppose that one’s mind and nature are permanent.
But if one practices intimately and returns to the true self, it will be clear that the ten thousand dharmas are without self.
Firewood turns into ash and does not turn into firewood again.
But do not suppose that the ash is after and the firewood is before.
We must realize that firewood is in the state of being firewood and has its before and after. Yet having this before and after, it is independent of them.
Ash is in the state of being ash and has its before and after.
Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, so after one’s death one does not return to life again.
Thus, that life does not become death is a confirmed teaching of the buddha-dharma; for this reason, life is called the non-born.
That death does not become life is a confirmed teaching of the buddha-dharma; therefore, death is called the non-extinguished.
Life is a period of itself.
Death is a period of itself.
For example, they are like winter and spring.
We do not think that winter becomes spring, nor do we say that spring becomes summer.
Gaining enlightenment is like the moon reflecting in the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water disturbed.
Although its light is extensive and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch across.
The whole moon and the whole sky are reflected in a dew-drop in the grass, in one drop of water.
Enlightenment does not disturb the person, just as the moon does not disturb the water.
A person does not hinder enlightenment, just as a dew-drop does not hinder the moon in the sky.
The depth of the drop is the height of the moon.
As for the duration of the reflection, you should examine the water’s vastness or smallness,
And you should discern the brightness or dimness of the heavenly moon.
When the truth does not fill our body and mind, we think that we have enough.
When the truth fills our body and mind, we realize that something is missing.
For example, when we view the four directions from a boat on the ocean, where no land is in sight, we see only a circle and nothing else.
No other aspects are apparent.
However, this ocean is neither round nor square, and its qualities are infinite in variety. It is like a palace. It is like a jewel. It just seems circular as far as our eyes can reach at the time.
The ten thousand dharmas are likewise like this.
Although ordinary life and enlightened life assume many aspects, we only recognize and understand through practice what the penetrating power of our vision can reach.
In order to appreciate the ten thousand dharmas, we should know that although they may look round or square, the other qualities of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety; furthermore, other universes lie in all quarters.
It is so not only around ourselves but also right here, and in a single drop of water.
When a fish swims in the ocean, there is no limit to the water, no matter how far it swims.
When a bird flies in the sky, there is no limit to the air, no matter how far it flies.
However, no fish or bird has ever left its element since the beginning.
When the need is large, it is used largely.
When the need is small, it is used in a small way.
Thus, no creature ever comes short of its own completeness.
Wherever it stands, it does not fail to cover the ground.
If a bird leaves the air, it will die at once.
If a fish leaves the water, it will die at once.
Know, then, that water is life.
Know that air is life.
Life is the bird and life is the fish.
Beyond these, there are further implications and ramifications.
In this way, there are practice and enlightenment, mortality and immortality.
Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the limit of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place.
Attaining this place, one’s daily life is the realization of ultimate reality (genjokoan). Attaining this way, one’s daily life is the realization of ultimate reality (genjokoan).
Since this place and this way are neither large nor small, neither self nor other, neither existing previously nor just arising now, they therefore exist thus.
Thus, if one practices and realizes the buddha way, when one gains one dharma, one penetrates one dharma; when one encounters one action, one practices one action.
Since the place is here and the way leads everywhere, the reason the limits of the knowable are unknowable is simply that our knowledge arises with, and practices with, the absolute perfection of the buddha-dharma.
Do not practice thinking that realization must become the object of one’s knowledge and vision and be grasped conceptually.
Even though the attainment of realization is immediately manifest, its intimate nature is not necessarily realized. Some may realize it and some may not.
Priest Pao-ch’e of Ma-Kushan was fanning himself. A monk approached and asked, “Sir, the nature of the wind is permanent, and there is no place it does not reach. Why, then, must you still fan yourself?” “Although you understand that the nature of wind is permanent,” the master replied, “you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.” “What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?” asked the monk. The master just fanned himself. The monk bowed with deep respect. This is the enlightened experience of buddha-dharma and the vital way of its correct transmission. Those who say we should not use a fan because wind is permanent, and so we should know the existence of wind without using a fan, know neither permanency nor the nature of wind.
Because the nature of wind is eternally present, the wind of Buddhism actualizes the gold of the earth and ripens the cheese of the long river.
Written in mid-autumn of the first year of Tempuku Era (1233 C.E.) and given to my lay student Yo Koshu of Kyushu.
Printed with permission of Zen Center of Los Angeles. This is a revision by Taizan Maezumi and Francis Dojun Cook of the Chotan Aitken Roshi-Kazuaki Tanahashi translation in The Way of Everyday Life: Zen Master Dogen’s Genjokoan with Commentary by Hakuyu, Taizan Maezumi. Los Angeles, Center Publications, © 1978.
(Principles of Seated Meditation)
by Dogen Zenji
translated by Carl Bielefeldt
FUNDAMENTALLY SPEAKING, the basis of the way is perfectly pervasive; how could it be contingent on practice and verification? The vehicle of the ancestors is naturally unrestricted; why should we expend sustained effort? Surely the whole being is far beyond defilement; who could believe in a method to polish it? Never is it apart from this very place; what is the use of a pilgrimage to practice it? And yet, if a hair’s breadth of distinction exists, the gap is like that between heaven and earth; once the slightest like or dislike arises, all is confused and the mind is lost.
Though you are proud of your understanding and replete with insight, getting hold of the wisdom that knows at a glance, though you attain the way and clarify the mind, giving rise to the spirit that assaults the heavens, you may loiter in the precincts of the entrance and still lack something of the vital path of liberation. Even in the case of the one of Jetavana, innately wise though he was, we can see the traces of his six years sitting erect; and in the case of the one of Shao-lin, though he succeeded to the mind seal, we still hear of the fame of his nine years facing the wall. When even the ancient sages were like this, how could men today dispense with pursuing [the way]? Therefore, stop the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing after talk; study the backward step of turning the light and shining it back. Body and mind will drop away of themselves, and your original face will appear. If you want such a state, urgently work at such a state.
For studying Zen, one should have quiet quarters. Be moderate in food and drink. Cast aside all involvements and discontinue all affairs. Do not think of good or evil; do not deal with right or wrong. Halt the revolutions of mind, intellect, and consciousness; stop the calculations of thoughts, ideas, and perceptions. Do not intend to make a Buddha, much less be attached to sitting still.
In the place where you regularly sit, spread a thick mat and use a cushion on top of it. Sit in either the full cross-legged or half cross-legged position. For the full position, first place your right foot on your left thigh; then place your left foot on your right thigh. For the half position, simply rest your left foot on your right thigh.
Loosen your robe and belt, and arrange them properly. Next, place your right hand on your left foot, and your left hand on your right palm. Press the tips of your thumbs together. Then straighten your body and sit erect. Do not lean to the left or right, forward or backward.
Your ears should be in line with your shoulders, and your nose in line with your navel. Press your tongue against the front of your palate and close your lips and teeth. The eyes should always remain open. Breathe gently through the nose.
Once you have regulated your posture, take a breath and exhale fully. Swing to the left and right. Sitting fixedly, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Nonthinking. This is the essential art of zazen. Zazen is not the practice of dhyana: it is just the dharma gate of ease and joy. It is the practice and verification of ultimate bodhi. The koan realized, baskets and cages cannot get to it.
If you grasp the point of this [practice], you are like the dragon gaining the water or the tiger taking to the mountains. You should realize that when right thought is present, dullness and agitation are, from the start, struck aside.
When you arise from sitting, move slowly and arise calmly; do not be hasty or rough.
Considering the past, we see that transcending the profane and surpassing the holy, shedding [this body] while seated and fleeing [this life] while standing are totally subject to this power. Surely, then, to grasp the turning of the opportunity through a finger, a pole, a needle or a mallet, and to present the verification of the accord with a whisk, a fist, a staff or a shout—these are not to be understood through the discriminations of thinking; much less can they be known through the practice and verification of supernormal powers. They must represent conduct beyond sound and form; how could they fail to provide a standard before knowledge and understanding?
Therefore, it does not matter whether one is very smart or very stupid; there is no distinction between those of sharp and dull faculties. Single-minded exertion is itself pursuit of the way. Practice and verification are by nature undefiled. Advancement [to enlightenment] is just an everyday affair. In our world and the other quarters, from the Western Heaven to the Eastern Earth, all equally maintain the Buddha seal, while each enjoys its own style of teaching. They devote themselves only to sitting; they are obstructed by fixedness. Though they speak of ten thousand distinctions and a thousand differences, they only study Zen and pursue the way.
Why abandon the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty regions of another land? If you make one false step, you miss what is right before you. Since you have already attained the functioning essence of a human body, do not pass your days in vain; when one takes care of the essential function of the way of the Buddha, who can carelessly enjoy the spark from a flint? Verily form and substance are like the dew on the grass, and the fortunes of life like the lightning flash: in an instant they are emptied, in a moment they are lost.
Eminent students [of the dharma], long accustomed to groping for the elephant, pray do not doubt the true dragon. Apply yourselves to the way that points directly at reality; honor the man who is through with learning and free from action. Accord with the bodhi of all the Buddhas; succeed to the samadhi of all the Patriarchs. If you act this way for a long time, you will be this way. Your treasure store will open of itself, and you will use it as you will.
Printed with permission from University of California Press.
Source: Carl Bielefeldt, Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 175–187.
THE IDENTITY OF RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE
by Sekito Kisen
The mind of the Great Sage of India
Is intimately conveyed west and east.
Among human beings are wise ones and fools;
In the Way, there is no teacher of north and south.
The subtle source is clear and bright,
The branching streams flow in the dark.
To be attached to things is primordial illusion,
To encounter the absolute is not yet enlightenment.
All spheres, every sense and field,
Intermingle even as they shine alone,
Interacting even as they merge
Yet keeping their places in expressions of their own.
Forms differ primarily in shape and character,
And sounds in harsh or soothing tones.
The dark makes all words one;
The brightness distinguishes good and bad phrases.
The four elements return to their true nature as a child to its mother.
Fire is hot, water is wet; wind moves and the earth is dense.
Eye and form, ear and sound,
Nose and smell, tongue and taste—the sweet and sour.
Each independent of the other like leaves that come from the same root;
And though leaves and root must go back to the Source,
Both root and leaves have their own uses.
Light is also darkness, but do not move with it as darkness.
Darkness is light; do not see it as light.
Light and darkness are not one, not two,
Like the foot before and the foot behind in walking.
Each thing has its own being, which is not different from its place and function.
The relative fits the absolute as a box and its lid.
The absolute meets the relative
Like two arrows meeting in midair.
Hearing this, simply perceive the Source!
Make no criterion: if you do not see the Way,
You do not see It even as you walk on It.
When you walk the Way, you draw no nearer, progress no farther.
Who fails to see This is mountains and rivers away.
Listen, those who would pierce this Subtle Matter,
Do not waste your time by night or day!
Printed with permission from the Zen Community of New York.