Three types of robes were among the few things monks and nuns were allowed to possess: the outer robe, the inner robe, and the great robe. The kashaya, which covers one shoulder, functions as the symbol of home leavers.
Once when I was in Song China, practicing on a long sitting platform, I observed the monks around me. At the beginning of zazen in the morning, they would hold up their kashayas, place them on their heads, and chant a verse quietly with palms together:
Great is the robe of liberation,
the robe beyond form, the field of benefaction!
I wear the Tathagata’s teaching
to awaken countless beings.
This was the first time I had seen the kashaya held up in this way and I rejoiced, tears wetting the collar of my robe. Although I had read this verse of veneration for the kashaya in the Agama Sutra,36 I had not known the procedure. Now I saw it with my own eyes. In my joy I also felt sorry that there had been no master to teach this to me and no good friend to recommend it in Japan. How sad that so much time had been wasted! But I also rejoiced in my wholesome past actions [that caused me to experience this]. If I had stayed in my land, how could I have sat side by side with the monks who had received and were wearing the buddha robe? My sadness and joy brought endless tears.
Then I made a vow to myself: However unsuited I may be, I will become an authentic holder of the buddha dharma, receiving authentic transmission of the true dharma, and with compassion show the buddha ancestors’ authentically transmitted dharma robes to those in my land.
Know that a kashaya is the buddha body, buddha mind. It is called a robe of emancipation, a field of benefaction. It is called a robe of patience, a robe beyond form. It is called a robe of compassion, a robe of the Tathagata, a robe of unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. Receive and maintain it accordingly.
If you make patched robes and mend bowls your whole life, build a thatch-roofed hut near a mossy cliff or white rock, and practice sitting upright, you immediately go beyond buddha and directly master the great matter of your life’s study.
With this body and capacity, you transform the ordinary and enter the sacred. With this effect and reward, you go beyond buddha and beyond ancestor. Through this cause and condition, you pick up dirt and turn it into gold. Through this effect and reward, there is transmission of dharma and entrustment of the robe.
Once your body is wrapped in a kashaya, you attain Shakyamuni Buddha’s flesh, hands and feet, head and eyes, marrow and brains, radiant light, and turning of the wheel of dharma. You wear a kashaya in this way. This actualizes the power of the robe. You vow and make offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha by maintaining, enjoying, protecting, and wearing the kashaya. By doing so, the practice of countless eons is thoroughly experienced.