Dogen’s Chinese-style poems include commentaries on ancient Zen dialogues as cases of study. They are commonly called “koans.” In this style of teaching, he presents a koan in Chinese, followed by his comment in verse.
Shigong,130 who would later become Zen Master Huizang of Fu Region, asked his younger dharma brother Xitang,131 who would later become Zen Master Zhizang, “Do you know how to grasp space?”
Xitang said, “Yes, I do.”
Shigong said, “How do you grasp it?”
Xitang stroked the air with his hand.
Shigong said, “You don’t know how to grasp space.”
Xitang responded, “How do you grasp it, elder brother?”
Shigong poked his finger in Xitang’s nostril and pulled.
Xitang grunted in pain and said, “You’re killing me! You’re pulling off my nose.”
Shigong said, “You can grasp it now.”
Whose tree stands between these two?
Somewhere in the east, west, south, and north,
two brothers meet and speak of their parent’s [master’s] labor.
One grasps the earth, the other pulls the sky.
Dongshan, who would later become High Ancestor Great Master Wuben, studied with his teacher Yunyan, Great Priest, Early Ancestor. Dongshan asked Yunyan, “Who can hear insentient beings speak dharma?”
Yunyan said, “Insentient beings hear insentient beings speak dharma.”
Dongshan asked, “Do you hear it, sir?”
Yunyan said, “If I heard it, you could not hear me speak dharma.”
Dongshan responded: “Being so, I don’t hear you speak dharma.”
Yunyan replied, “You haven’t been hearing me speak dharma. How could you hear insentient beings speak dharma?”
Dongshan responded by presenting this poem:
How splendid! How wondrous!
Inconceivable! Insentient beings speak dharma.
The ears never hear it—
only the eyes.
Dogen’s commentary:
Only the insentient know the dharma they speak of,
just as walls, grass, and trees know spring.
Ordinary and sacred are not hemmed in by boundaries,
nor are mountains and rivers; sun, moon, or stars.
Once, Caoshan132 was asked by a monk, “When it is hot, where should we go to escape the heat?”
Caoshan said, “Escape into the cauldron on burning charcoal.”
The monk said, “How do you escape into the cauldron on burning charcoal?”
Caoshan said, “No suffering can reach there.”
Dogen’s commentary:
Autumn slowly approaches, moonlight’s chilly,
fireflies keep chasing the fiery star.133
Once again we will walk in a circle before the burning furnace.
Clouds come to the mountain peak, water emerges in a jar.