SOTO ZEN JOURNAL

DH AR MA EYE
News of Soto Zen Buddhism: Teachings and Practice

A Greeting p1
Tenyu Fukagawa

After Soto Zen North America100th Anniversary Jukai-e p2

Ejo McMullen

The Fragile Robe of Liberation p5

Zenki Anderson

The Life and Great Work of Keizan Zenji (1) p8

Ryuken Yokoyama

Lecture on the Chapter of Kannon (Avalokitesvara) (7) p11

Shohaku Okumura

Painted Cakes (Gaby ) p24

Carl Bielefeldt

My footnotes on Zazen (24) p35 Number

51
Issho Fujita

March 2023
 A Greetings within Japan, but also across national borders.

Last year, 2022, marked the 100th anniver-

Rev. Tenyu Fukagawa sary of the international teaching activities of
Director of the Department of
Education and Dissemination
Soto Zen in North America. To commemorate this
Sotoshu Headquarters event, Soto Zen North America 100th Anniversary
Jukai-e was held at Zenshuji, the North American
branch temple of the two Head Temples, in Los
I would like to begin this issue of Dharma Angeles, California. About 70 priests and 90 ordi-
Eye No. 51 with a few words. nands from all over North America and abroad
My name is Tenyu Fukagawa. As of October participated in the ceremony, which was a great
21, 2022, I was appointed as the Director of the success. Although I had just been appointed as
Department of Education and Dissemination at the head of the Department of Education and
Administrative Headquarters of Soto Zen Bud- Dissemination, I was very impressed by the dedi-
dhism (Sotoshu Shumucho). I am deeply humbled cation of the local priests to Soto Zen. Further-
by this important responsibility, which is the more, in May of this year, a commemorative
foundation of Soto Zen, and I would like to ask ceremony to celebrate the 100th anniversary of
for your continued guidance and love for the the international teaching activities to North
Dharma in the future. I hope that all of you who America, and a symposium to celebrate the publi-
read the Soto Zen Buddhism International cation of the English translation of “The Treasury
Center’s newsletter, “Dharma Eye”, are enjoying of the True Dharma Eye” (“Shobogenzo”) are
continued good health and prosperity. scheduled to be held at the same place. The
completion of the English translation of “The
Although the number of people infected with Treasury of the True Dharma Eye” is a project that
the new coronavirus, which began spreading in has been more than 20 years in the making, and
2022, has risen and fallen, I feel that people’s one that has been eagerly awaited by people in
lives are gradually regaining their former vigor. In Japan and abroad. We sincerely hope that the
the aftermath of the Corona pandemic, the Soto teachings of the Soto school will be spread to as
school has been seeking new forms of interna- many people as possible.
tional teaching activities such as the use of online
resources, in addition to the face-to-face interna- In 2024, Great Memorial Ceremony for the
tional teaching activities that we have been 700th Anniversary of Daihonzan Sojiji’s Founder
engaged in up until now. Last October, restric- Taiso Keizan Jokin Zenji will be held at Sojiji.
tions on foreigners entering Japan were eased, Prior to the memorial ceremony, a preliminary
and the movement of people has become more memorial ceremony will be held in Japan, as
active. The addition of online resources to the well as in Hawaii, North America, South
original face-to-face format has greatly expanded America, and Europe. We believe that this is an
the possibilities for teaching activities not only excellent opportunity for people in Japan and
1
abroad to learn about the international teaching After the North America
activities of the Head Temple. 100th Anniversary Jukai-e

The history of international teaching can be

Rev. Ejo McMullen
traced back to 1903, when it began with Japa- Administrative Secretary of Soto Zen
nese immigrants in Hawaii and Peru, and later Buddhism North America Office
spread to North America and Europe. Our prede-
cessors overcame many difficulties, but contin-
ued to devote themselves passionately to over- “Smack!” The sting of the kyosaku was wel-
seas missionary work, and the teachings of come. Turning, “Kichijo Kichijo Daikichijo!”
priests steadily spread among the local people. sprang from my belly. Prostrating, I felt deep
Later, overseas missionary teaching work was gratitude for this tradition, for this Precept
transformed into international teaching activi- Master, and for all the masters of our school
ties, and to carry on the spirit of our predeces- reaching back into antiquity.
sors, there are now about 150 Kokusaifukyoshi
(Soto Zen International Teachers) active in vari- The scene was the Gankai Jodo (The Convo-
ous parts of the world, and the number of priests cation Upon Completing Jukai) held on the last
overseas has increased to about 750. This year day of the Jukai-e commemorating the 100th
marks the 120th anniversary of international Anniversary of Soto Zen in North America. The
teaching activities. Looking back at the history team of priests responsible for the Jukai-e had
of international teaching activities, we will con- gathered many times in Los Angeles to plan and
tinue to follow the Dharma light correctly and practice. We were not sure if the COVID pandemic
work in unison with local Kokusaifukyoshi and would even allow us to hold such an intimate
priests to promote the spread of Soto Zen Bud- event. We stayed true to our intention, and in the
dhism. end 93 Kaitei (those participating in the Jukai-e)
received precepts through the long standing
As time goes by, the forms of international Director of Soto Zen North America, Rev. Gengo
teaching change. I would like to express my Akiba.
sincere wishes for the further development of
international teaching activities and ask for your I have known Director Akiba for many years
continued cooperation and love for the Dharma now. We first met when, I was a young monk of
in the future. 25, I visited him at his temple, Kojin-an, in Oak-
land. I asked him about starting a temple in the
United States. He was kind and encouraging.
That was 28 years ago, and like so many others,
I have been guided by his steady, kind, and
encouraging hand ever since. At the request of
the Kokusaifukyoshi (Soto Zen International
2
Teachers) of North America Director Akiba other. We were not sure how this Jukai-e would
agreed to be the Preceptor for this incredibly turn out, if people would even come, if they
important milestone for North American Soto would resonate with the teachings and practices,
Zen Buddhism. coming from different backgrounds if they
would even get along. It was a risk to dedicate so
much, but taking the risk is what allowed us to
rely on each other, uncover and transmit the
Buddha Dharma.

Whatever transmission was possible through

this was due to the countless efforts of our
ancestors in the Buddha Dharma, especially
those who have cared for the lineage here in
North America. At least on Hundred years of the
line in North America so that we may be able to
So it was with a real desire to know his mind receive this life of Buddha Dharma. The 100th
that I asked as the first questioner of the convo- Anniversary Jukai-e was the current generation’s
cation, “What is the heart that is intimately way of honoring these ancestors, and what they
transmitted from east to west?” That is when he risked to our benefit. I am incredibly thankful
hit me with the kyosaku. It was a kindness. In that over the past several years our North Ameri-
that moment were all the years since that first can Soto Zen communities have become more
meeting, all the work trying to keep Soto Zen aware and more venarative of our early Japanese
vibrant in North America, all the work to American ancestors and Japanese ancestors who
prepare and carry out this Jukai-e. To meet like traveled here to bring us the dharma. We are one
this we both had to put ourselves on the line, line of Buddha Dharma, beyond east and west.
just as each person had to do to gather for this
Jukai-e, just as each person has to do to live Several years ago when we first began to
their true life. plan activities for the 100th Anniversary, we
were deeply aware that it would be difficult to
As the long line of questioners each brought enact a Jukai-e in its proper form. We made a
their heart forward, we all knew something of commitment at that time not only to enact a
what it takes to transmit the dharma. Real ques- Jukai-e but to do it using the strength of North
tions and honest responses are not complicated, American priests. Furthermore, we committed to
but neither are they easy! We are required to risk finding ways to make this Jukai-e harmonize
for the sake of what is true. Sometimes that is with the culture of a wide variety of Soto Zen
revealed in a short exchange of questioning and people in North America. With the exception of
response. Ultimately though, the risk is in how a handful of advisors and assistants from Japan,
we live our lives, and how we care for each Europe, South America, and Hawaii, we carried
3
out the Jukai-e with all the roles filled by Priests As for the staff, everyone gave it their all.
living and practicing in North America. Some Because we were wrapped up in making the best
were from Japanese ancestry, and many from Jukai-e we could, it was impossible for us to see
other backgrounds. The same was true for the the change in our own faces. I imagine they
Kaitei. Our various backgrounds made us stron- changed at least as much as the faces of the
ger, and we were able to accomplish something Kaitei, because we also received a precious gift,
profound as one Buddha Family. the gift of offering ourselves.

Over the 5 days of the Jukai-e we saw the Standing at this vista of 100 years, we are
faces of the Kaitei change. They were hopeful looking out over the landscape of possibility that
and bright eyed when they arrived. As we settled is the next 100 years. Rolling hills, jagged peaks,
into practice, calmness and depth began to shine, and broad valleys are our terrain. What will we
and as the lights were raised on the third night do? Where will we travel? These are important
after the Sangedojo (Right of Repentance) the questions, but we must also consider how we will
purity of their faces told us they were ready to travel. What is the form of our tradition and insti-
receive the precious gift of the lineage. On night tutions? How will we grow in our North Ameri-
four by the time we arrived at the Shojudojo (The can soil while remaining accountable to our
Rite of Correctly Bestowing the Precepts), the ancestors and to each other? It is my prayer that
practices of circling and being circled by the Bud- this Jukai-e serves as a model for how we con-
dhas and Ancestors were natural and true. The tinue forward as one line of Shakyamuni
Kechimyaku had become our bodies. Buddha’s, Dogen-zenji’s and Keizan-zenji’s heirs.

4
 The Fragile Robe of Liberation the robe together, so it is quite a bit heavier now.
The front continues to need ongoing repair.
When people see this delicate old robe, they
often say that it is beautiful. Even though what
Rev. Zenki Anderson they’re seeing is a motley robe that is falling
Green Gulch Farm, Soryuji,
California, U.S.A. apart, this falling-apart robe gives people an
opportunity to see beauty. Part of its beauty is in
the variety of the stitches in which we can see
Now we are celebrating the 100th anniver- the kindness of many people.
sary of Soto Zen in North America. The care and
efforts of many people have sustained this resil- It is easy for me and others to see that this
ient and ever-renewing practice for the welfare old robe is falling apart. We may not know what
of this world. In the midst of constant change an we are seeing. What we are seeing is a robe that
ancient tradition has been maintained and trans- is in an open-ended process of deterioration and
mitted. change and renewal. This robe is not permanent
and it is not annihilated. It is a superficial,
Not long after I was ordained as a priest in perceptible appearance of our profound, imper-
1970, I asked Suzuki Roshi’s wife, whom we ceptible, original nature.
called Okusan, to order a new linen okesa (robe)
for me. Originally, the robe was black. About When I wear this robe, people have an
fifteen years later, after completing the formal opportunity to open their eyes and heart to the
ceremonies of dharma transmission, I was given teaching that all compounded things fall apart:
some brown robes and permission to wear them. the robe and me. If we can endure this awesome
Later, I had the idea to bleach my nice black falling apart, we can experience its beauty. How-
linen robe. When I did this, it came out a lovely, ever, if we can’t tolerate things falling apart, we
uneven, almost mangy dull brown color. This close the door on reality because compounded
was a result of my endeavors, which were part things are falling apart. They are not falling
of my training. However, I didn’t do a very good apart into annihilation; they are falling into bits
job of bleaching the robe. As a result of my and pieces of the entire universe.
color-changing activities, the fabric was weak- The way we are falling into bits and pieces
ened, and gradually started to fall apart in vari- and becoming the whole universe, and the way
ous ways. Even now, it continues falling apart. the universe is becoming us falling apart, is our
original nature. This is the reality of our life and
For more than fifty years, I and many other death. If we can be present and endure the terror
dharma students have made since efforts to of this tremendous process of falling apart and
repair and maintain this fragile robe. A couple becoming, which is the reality of our life, we will
of years ago, a kind person skillfully sewed a witness the beauty of life and death. As long as
new backing on it. The new backing is holding we can tolerate the feeling of trembling and awe
5
in the face of reality, this process will come to us purposes. It could be that someone or something
as beauty. we comfortably call “cute” suddenly becomes
much more than cute. At that moment the door
Everything is turning into infinite parts all of mystery might open, and we might feel terror.
day long, and all day long infinite parts are turn-
ing into things. This process is our true, original I also remember Suzuki Roshi saying that
nature. It offers us an opportunity to develop our zazen is a great tenderizer. In our sitting, we
the ability to live in accord with the terrifying become tender, flexible, and curious like chil-
beauty of wreckage and renewal. In our original dren so that we have the opportunity for initia-
nature, there is no beginning or end. Nothing is tion into the vastness of reality. Since childhood,
completely intact in and of itself. We and all we have been learning techniques to hold the
compounded things are subject to wreckage and vastness of reality at bay, but right now in our
ruin. It is in the midst of our fragility that truth sitting, we have the opportunity to let go of all
comes to us as beauty. techniques, at least temporarily. In this way, we
learn to be more soft, flexible, upright, and
R.M. Rilke wrote: honest like children, like bodhisattvas. But chil-
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of dren and adults do sometimes need techniques
terror in order to cope and feel safe in the face of
which we are barely able to endure, and it impermanence. We may need to temporarily
amazes us so, turn away from a reality that scares us.
because it serenely disdains to destroy us. A few years ago, my younger grandson died sud-
Every angel is terrible.1 denly in a terrible accident when he was 17
years old. At the time of his death someone
Opening to and enduring the awesome asked me, “How are you?” I said, “I’m full of life
impermanence of things is simultaneously open- and death.”
ing to their beauty and truth. Ironically, we As the ancient teacher Yuan Wu wrote:
sometimes say that something is beautiful in an
attempt to protect ourselves from its real beauty. Birth is the manifestation of the whole
Doing this, we close the door on the unmanage- works.
able and inconvenient reality of our life. We Death is the manifestation of the whole
might say that something or someone is beauti- works.
ful in order to avoid the fear of really meeting Filling up the great empty sky,
them. Once, Suzuki Roshi surprised me by saying Upright heart is always bits and pieces.2
that to call something beautiful is a sin. Calling
things beautiful might be a way to minimize Our family grieved the loss of the life of this
them in an attempt to make them manageable beautiful boy and simultaneously faced the
by trying to put them into a box called beauty. beginning of a terror we could barely tolerate.
We could also use the word “cute” for similar When this beautiful boy was alive, we were not
6
so aware of the terrible aspect of his beauty. His present with this potentially frightening vulner-
tragic death opened the door of an unbearable ability and enables us to be present with our
beauty. In our relationship with those we love, impulses to deny it or run away from it. Training
there is no way to really hold on to self and is not to “get” beauty. Training is to become able
other. Attempting to hold on walls off real love. to tolerate the terror of vulnerability and thus to
If we face the terror of losing our hold on these open to the beauty of the moon. The moon just
relationships, the wall of separation starts to happens to be beautiful if we accept and realize
crack. When we open to that crack and compas- that we and the moon are always on the verge of
sionately meet how we feel, the light of beauty breaking, of changing without being annihi-
and truth emerge. This beauty is not our idea of lated. Looking at the moon may be exquisitely
beauty, because our idea of beauty just cracked. painful as we accept our mutual dependence
and impermanence.
The full experience of beauty and truth
includes feeling and accepting our human Wearing and caring for this old dharma robe
vulnerability. But experiencing our vulnerability for more than 50 years has been an opportunity
may be frightening. We may feel that the for me and my friends to learn and practice the
universe is going to overwhelm us and gobble us Buddha Way together. In this world of change, I
up. The universe consumes us. That is half of pray that we, together with all beings, will con-
reality. The other half is that we consume the tinue to study and practice the Buddha Way
universe. The universe is vulnerable to us, too. without end.
This reciprocal vulnerability is our true nature.
It is awesome. In the beginning of that awe,
beauty is glistening.
1 Rainer Maria Rilke, The First Elegy from Duino
As the moon-poet, Saigyo, said:
Elegies, translation by Stephen Mitchell, Vintage
This leaky, tumbledown Books (bilingual edition) 2009, p 3
Grass hut left opening for the moon,
2 Author’s translation. Source.. Yuan Wu Keqin
And I gaze at it
All the while it was mirrored (1063-1135) He was the commentator of the Blue
In a teardrop fallen on my sleeve.3 Cliff Record. After studying with various teach-
ers, he became the dharma heir to Wuzu Fayan
There are training methods, like our sitting of the Linji school. The Chinese character liter-
practice, to enable us to tolerate being a leaky ally is red heart but here it is understood to mean
tumbledown grass hut and to allow the light of upright, genuine.
the moon to penetrate our wreckage. We also
3 Mirror for the Moon: A collection of Poems by
have the opportunity to train by taking care of
things so that they show us the truth of our Saigyo”, translated by William R. Lafleur, New
mutual vulnerability. Training helps us to be Directions Publications, NY, 1977, p 16
7
 The Life and Great Work of In the present Soto Zen school, the principal
Keizan Zenji (1) objects of worship are referred to as “Shakya-
muni Buddha and Two Founders.” Shakyamuni
Buddha was the founder of Buddhism. The two
Rev. Ryuken Yokoyama founders are the Eminent Ancestor Dogen Zenji
Lecturer, Aichi Gakuin University and the Great Ancestor Keizan Zenji. In Soto Zen
Buddhism, Dogen Zenji and Keizan Zenji
together are considered to be the founders of the
I have been given the opportunity to describe Soto Zen school. In other words, Dogen Zenji is
the life and work of Keizan Zenji (1264-1325)1. I the “founder of the Soto Zen teachings” and
will discuss over the course of four Dharma Eye Keizan Zenji is the “founder of the temple
articles the life of Keizan Zenji and his work as a lineages” (founder of the order).
zen priest. It is impossible to say that the Soto It’s very likely that there are hanging scrolls
Zen school in Japan has been able to maintain and statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and the Two
its vitality until the present day without the pres- Founders enshrined in temples and Zen centers
ence of Keizan Zenji. It would be my great plea- outside of Japan. Shakyamuni Buddha is in the
sure if I could interest you in Keizan Zenji, even center, with Dogen Zenji (on the right) and
if only a little. As an introduction to these Keizan Zenji (on the left).
articles, I would like to review the position of
Keizan Zenji in the Soto Zen tradition.

The Position of Keizan Zenji in the Soto Zen

Order Today

Keizan Zenji was a Zen master in the Soto

Zen School who was active in the late Kamakura
period. Tracing the origins of the Soto Zen
School from Dogen Zenji (1200-1253) through
his Dharma lineage, we find Dogen Zenji - Ejo
Zenji (1198-1280) - Gikai Zenji (1219-1309)
-Keizan Zenji. Although the name of Keizan
Zenji may not be familiar to many, he is an
extremely important figure in the Soto Zen
school. The Soto Zen school today has two head
temples. One of them is Eiheiji Temple (Yoshida-
gun, Fukui Prefecture), founded by Dogen Zenji.
The other is Sojiji Temple (Yokohama City, Kana-
gawa Prefecture)2, founded by Keizan Zenji.
8
Keizan Zenji as “Founder of the Order” at Sojiji. Among those who contributed to the
nationwide development of Soto Zen Buddhism
The fact that Keizan Zenji is one of the as we know it today were Gasan Zenji and his
founders of the Soto Zen school becomes clear followers, or those in the lineage of the Sojiji
when we look into the history of the Soto Zen Order. It was the expansion of the lineage of
school. Gasan Zenji and his followers to various parts of
He established seven new temples in Kaga- Japan that led to the nationwide expansion of
no-kuni and Noto-no-kuni (present-day Soto Zen Buddhism. Incidentally, Rev. Shunryu
Ishikawa Prefecture), and trained many Suzuki (1904-1971), known as “the true founder
disciples. In the subsequent history of Soto Zen, of Zen in America3,” was born at Shoganji
it was the zen monks who were disciples of Temple (Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture),
Keizan Zenji and their lineages who were always which is a direct branch temple of Sojiji.
at the center of the Soto Zen tradition, and it was The Rinju Seido (a system of rotating the
through them that the Soto Zen tradition abbot) adopted by Yokoji and Sojiji cannot be
expanded throughout the country of Japan. In overlooked. This rotational system is one in
other words, the history of the development of which the resident priests are rotated within a
the Soto Zen school cannot be discussed without short period of time (from one day to several
mentioning Keizan Zenji. years). This system opened up the possibility for
It was none other than Keizan Zenji who many people to serve as abbots at the temples
formed the foundation of the Soto Zen school founded by Keizan Zenji, and it also fostered a
that has continued to the present day, and it is spirit among his followers to maintain these
truly a great honor to celebrate him as the temples’ rotation of abbots.
“founder of the lineage of temples” and the This system of rotation of abbots was based
founder of the school. on Keizan Zenji’s instruction to “maintain temples
Keizan Zenji had six disciples who were in the order of the succession of the Dharma and
officially recognized as his Dharma heirs. to spread the Buddha Dharma.” (Taken from
Together, they are called “Six brothers who Tozan Jinmiraisai Okibumi, author’s transla-
included all of the four gatekeepers.” His lineage tion). This was a teaching of a system created by
developed around Yokoji Temple (Hakui City, the disciples to embody the teachings of Keizan
Ishikawa Prefecture) and Sojiji Temple (Now, Zenji. Yokoji converted from the rotation system
Sojiji Soin, Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture). to a “one abbot system” in the early Edo period
Among the disciples who received Shiho (1603-1868), but the rotation system continued
(Dharma transmission) from Keizan Zenji were at Sojiji until 1870 (Meiji 3). Over the course of
Zen Masters Meiho Sotetsu (1277-1350) and Gasan its 500-year history, Sojiji began to have people
Joseki (Gasan Zenji : 1276-1366), who together from lineages other than that of Keizan Zenji
were called the two “high disciples.” Zen Master reside at the temple. By integrating people from
Meiho succeeded Keizan Zenji as abbot at Yokoji other schools into the system, the Sojiji Order
and Gasan Zenji succeeded Keizan Zenji as abbot expanded its power.
9
 Let us examine the records to see how far the 2021), which can be found at
Sojiji lineage has spread. According to the “Jiin https://zenken. agu.ac.jp/research/53/08.pdf).
Honmatsu Jisu Kakiage Cho” (A Record of the
2 Sojiji Temple was originally located in Noto
Number of Major and Branch Soto Zen Temples)
compiled in 1785, 17,896 out of 18,7694 Soto Zen (Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture), but was
temples were branch temples of Sojiji, a percent- relocated to Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama in 1911 after
age of more than 95%.5 This ratio does not seem a fire in 1898 destroyed most of the temple
to have changed significantly in modern times. buildings.
When seen in this way, we can understand
3 Author of "Zen Mind: Beginner's Mind." A new
the importance of Keizan Zenji and the Sojiji
Order in the history of the Soto Zen school in translation by Issho Fujita, (PHP Kenkyujo,
Japan. 2022), p.334.

4 The current number of Soto Zen school temples

in Japan is 14,485 (according to the 2022 edition

of the "Shukyo Nenkan", the Religious Yearbook
published by the Religious Affairs Division of the
Agency for Cultural Affairs). This is the largest
number of temples for a single sect in Japan. The
Jodo Shinshu sect is divided into the Honganji
sect (10,092 temples) and the Otani sect (8,451
temples), so the number of temples per sect is
smaller than that of the Soto Zen school (the Soto
Zen school is not divided into sects).
1 For a long time, the "58-years-old" theory
5 Fumio Tamamuro, "Reading the Ancient Docu-
(counting the years of his birth and death) was
commmon that Keizan Zenji was born in 1268 ments of Sojiji Temple Soin : The Development of
and died in 1325. However, in the 1970s, new the Soto Shu Order in the Early Modern Period"
documents were discovered that proved the "62- (Sotoshu Headquarters, 2008), p.73.
year-old theory" to be correct. It has recently
been shown that the "58-year-old theory" was a
misunderstanding caused by a misreading of
documents in the Sojiji Order during the Edo
period. This point is discussed in detail in my
article "Reexamination of the Biography of
Keizan Zenji (1): The Process of Establishment of
the Biographical Materials and Its Problems"
(Bulletin of the Institute for Zen Studies, 49,
10
 The 18th Chapter of 眼にあらさるべし。
Shobogenzo Even though the body that is hands -and -eyes
Kannon (Avalokitesvara) has the virtue of “spreading [in the entire
Lecture (7) world], it should not be the hands and eyes
Rev. Shohaku Okumura
Sanshinji, Indiana, U.S.A. that plunder the marketplace.
(Edited by Rev. Shoryu Bradley) 手眼の功徳は、「是」と認する見取・行取・説取あ
らざるべし。
The virtue of hands and eyes should not be a
24. “The whole body is hands and eyes,” seeing, practicing or expounding that recognizes
(17) this.
雲巌道の「 身是手眼」の出現せるは、「夜間背手 「手眼」すでに「許多」といふ、千にあまり、萬に
摸枕子」を講誦するに、「 身これ手眼なり」と道 あまり、八萬四千にあまり、無量無邊にあまる。
取せると参學する觀音のみおほし。 Since [Yunyan] has already said that hands and
As for the emergence of Yunyan’s statement eyes are “innumerable,” there are more than a
“The whole body is hands and eyes,” there are thousand or ten thousand of them, more than
many Avalokitesvaras who, when explaining eighty-four thousand; indeed they surpass
[Daowu’s expression] “in the night, reaching being immeasurable and boundless.
his hand behind, groping for a the pillow,” only 只「 身是手眼」の、かくのごとくあるのみにあら
study that [Yunyan] asserted that the whole ず、度生説法も、かくのごとくなるべし、国土放光
body is covered with hands and eyes. もかくのごとくなるべし。
この觀音たとひ觀音なりとも、未道得なる觀音なり。 It is not only that “the entire body as hands
These Avalokitesvaras, though they are and eyes” is thus; “saving all beings and
Avalokitesvara, are Avalokitesvaras who are expounding the Dharma” or “enabling the
unable to express [the truth]. nation’s land to emit light” must also be thus.
雪巌道の「 身是手眼」といふは、「手眼是身 」 かるがゆゑに、雲巌道は「 身是手眼」なるべし、
といふにあらず。 手眼を 身ならしむるにはあらず、と参學すべし。
Yunyan’s statement, “the whole body is hands Therefore, we should learn that what Yunyan
and eyes,” does not mean that hands and eyes said is that “The entire body is hands and
are spreading everywhere in the body. eyes”. It is not that he is making the hands and
「 」はたとひ 界なりとも、身手眼の正當恁麼は、 eyes into the entire body.
の所 なるべからず。 「 身是手眼」を使用すといふとも、動容進止せし
Even if [these hands and eyes] are spreading in むといふとも、動著することなかれ。
“the entire world,” the very thusness of “body Even though we employ “The entire body as
hands -and -eyes” cannot be [in the dualistic hands and eyes,” and allow its active or resting
relationship] between something that is functions, we should not be surprised.
spreading and the place where that thing is
spreading. This is Dogen’s comment on Yunyan’s
「身」手眼にたとひ の功徳ありとも、簒奪行市の手 saying “the entire body as hands and eyes,”
11
henshin kore shugen, ( 身是手眼). In lecture around, and in my opinion it doesn’t work so
(2), I introduced older versions of the well. Dogen’s word-play is sometimes very
conversation between Yunyan and Daowu good, having an amazing effect –but I don’t
about Avalokitesvara. In those versions, their think that is the case this time. This time
conversation was simpler, and this expression there’s something that’s not right because it’s
doesn’t appear. Instead, Daowu said, not possible to read the text in the way he
“Throughout the body, there are hands and intended. But somehow he still tried.
eyes,” tsu shin ze shugen (通身是手眼). There is
only one word that is different in these sayings. As for the emergence of Yunyan’s statement
But because in this new version Daowu said, “The whole body is hands and eyes,” there
“[what] you are saying is pretty good, but you are many Avalokitesvaras who, when
are only eighty percent correct,” within this explaining [Daowu’s expression] “in the
newer version there’s a trap, and this trap was night, reaching his hand behind, groping for
mentioned by those persons who made a pillow,” only study that [Yunyan] asserted
Hekiganroku and Shoyoroku. that the whole body is covered with hands
and eyes.
The trap is that it seems Daowu’s saying is
superior to Yunyan’s because there is a twenty “Many Avalokitesvaras” means everyone
percent difference between them. So it appears within this network of interconnectedness is
we have to investigate and find this twenty Avalokitesvara. There are some Avalokitesvaras
percent that is lacking in Yunyan’s saying. That who don’t understand that they are part of
is one of the points of this koan in Chinese Avalokitesvara, but nonetheless they are still
Buddhism. But both the Hekiganroku and Avalokitesvara. I think this is the meaning of,
Shoyoroku say this is not the point, that these “is it manifested or not manifested?” He’s
two statements are the same. Still, the saying that some Avalokitesvaras awaken,
conversation is in the texts, even though understand, practice and live as hands and eyes
Chinese masters didn’t pay attention to this of Avalokitesvara, but others are not yet doing
point or didn’t care about it. But here Dogen so. Even so, everything within this network is
wants to make it clear that Yunyan’s saying and still the hands and eyes of Avalokitesvara.
Daowu’s saying are exactly the same. There’s
no such twenty percent gap. Dogen is saying that the conventional way
of interpreting Yunyan’s saying, “whole body is
To do so, Dogen made a unique covered with hands and eyes,” as inferior to
interpretation of Daowu’s statement “You speak “entire body is hands and eyes” is the immature
quite well. But you said only eighty to ninety Avalokitesvara’s interpretation. He says because
percent.” This sentence clearly says there's both sayings are equal, if we read Yunyan’s
some gap, but Dogen tried to read it in a saying in the way most people interpret it, we
different way. His interpretation is twisted don’t understand them, even though we are the
12
hands and eyes of Avalokitesvara. would probably say that even before I
understood his teachings at all and before I
These Avalokitesvaras, though they are tried to incorporate them into my behavior, my
Avalokitesvara, are Avalokitesvaras who are practice was still Avalokitesvara. That is
unable to express [the truth]. because there are many different kinds of
Avalokitesvaras, but they are all Avalokitesvara.
According to Dogen , there are some
Avalokitesvaras who awaken to truth or reality Yunyan’s statement, “The whole body is
and express it, and there are some hands and eyes,” does not mean that hands
Avalokitesvaras who don’t. There are those who and eyes are spreading everywhere in the
are immature and there are those who are body.
mature. In my case, I have been practicing for
over 50 years, since I was 19 years old. For the “Hands and eyes spreading throughout the
first twenty years, I didn’t understand what body” refers to the thousand-armed
Dogen was saying at all, even though I had Avalokitesvara, as depicted in statues which
some knowledge of his teachings, having read actually have a thousand hands and eyes. [See
his writings and many books about him. Even the photo in Lecture (2)]. In these statues the
though I memorized some of his writings in hands and eyes emanate from the back like
various chapters of Shobogenzo as well as some wings, in order to avoid hiding the bodhisattva’s
of the commentaries, that was still in the realm body, but the idea is that they are spreading all
of philosophy or some kind of theory, over the body, perhaps like hair. This is a
something that had nothing to do with my possible understanding of Yunyan’s statement.
actual life. But when I reached around 40 years But if we understand it in that way, our
old, Dogen’s writing started to make sense to understanding is completely different from what
me. Before that, even though I had said similar Yunyan said. That is because the entirety of our
things using the same expressions and words, I body and mind is functioning as one of the
was just talking about Dogen’s philosophy or hands and eyes of Avalokitesvara. So Dogen is
Soto Zen doctrine, and I was not sure whether saying here that if we interpret Yunyan’s
what I was doing and what Dogen taught were expression in the way immature bodhisattvas
the same or not. do, that is a mistake, even though ours is likely
the common interpretation.
I did much practice and study for a long
time before I began to feel I understood his Even if [these hands and eyes] are spreading
sayings in relation to what I was actually doing in “the entire world,” the very thusness of “body,
in my life. Even now, I’m not sure that I fully hands, -and -eyes” cannot be [in the dualistic
understand what he’s saying, but somehow it relationship] between something that is
makes sense to me to a certain degree, and this spreading and the place where that thing is
is what I’m trying to share with you. Dogen spreading.
13
 “Entire world” is a translation of henkai ( This is Buddha’s teaching of emptiness, but
界) which comes from the expression henkai fu somehow we might come to think emptiness is
zozo ( 界不曾蔵), “In the entire world, nothing is a kind of a foundation. We might think empty
hidden,” which Dogen quotes in Tenzokyokun space somehow exists independently, with all
Instructions for the Tenzo; (典座教訓). “Body, beings coming and going within it. But there is
hands, and eyes” are all one thing. Instead of a slight difference between the Buddha’s
referring to our own hands and eyes as part of emptiness teachings and the view of emptiness
our own body, this refers to our entire body as a foundation. In one, for example, this world
functioning as the hands and eyes of is like a hotel, and all beings are like visitors
Avalokitesvara; this is why I put these words in who come, stay for a while, and then leave.
quotes. Here phenomenal beings are like visitors, but
this world of emptiness is like a hotel that
To say that Avalokitesvara’s hands and eyes exists forever. When we have this kind of idea,
are spreading over his/her entire body assumes we might think we somehow need a kind of
the body is there as a place and the hands and foundation to explain how things are coming
eyes are there as things that spread all over that and going. In order to say things are coming
body. So in this case there are two things: a and going, it seems there must be some place
space we call “the body” and the hands and from which things are coming and some kind
eyes that occupy that space. of place where things are going. This again is a
problem created by our thinking. When we
This understanding is similar to what we think using words and concepts, somehow we
see in Indian cosmology where our world is need something that doesn’t change. If there’s
supposedly supported by four circles: a gold nothing at all which doesn’t change, then we
circle, a water circle, a wind circle, and an can’t even say something is changing.
empty space circle. There is an assumption in
this system and others that the phenomenal The color of my hair is changing year after
world is supported by something like a base year, but I think “I” as a person am not
substance or element. But Dogen says in changing. I can say the color of “my” hair is
Shobogenzo Sansuikyo that there is no such changing, comparing it with something that
support, that this world is floating without any doesn’t change, like “I”. If everything is
such support, and everything in it is continually changing, we cannot say that anything is
coming and going. changing. It’s only by comparing something
that is changing to something that isn’t
That is the meaning of emptiness or changing that we can talk about change. When
non-self; nothing is a fixed entity and I was born 74 years ago, for instance, my body
everything appears and disappears without was much smaller and my mind worked very
having any fixed foundation. It means things are differently than it works now. Since then my
coming and going without any base substance. body and mind have been constantly changing.
14
Still, I say when “I” was a baby …, when “I” emptiness of “emptiness.”
was a teenager…, when “I” was in my
forties…, in my fifties…, etc. The “I” which we Even though the body that is hands -and -eyes
assume does not change is actually going has the virtue of “spreading [in the entire
through the process of constant change. But if world], it should not be the hands and eyes that
“I” is also changing and becomes different in plunder the marketplace.
each moment, we cannot even say “I” have
been changing because we cannot say there is “Plunder the marketplace,” is a translation
an “I” at all. That is because when we say of sandatsu koshi (簒奪行市). Sandatsu (簒or
“something is changing,” the “something” is 奪) means “to plunder” or “to steal.” This
identical with the change itself, and it therefore expression appears in case five of the Blue Cliff
becomes something different than what it was. Record. Koshi (行市) means “market place.”
Part of Thomas Cleary’s translation of this case
To talk about impermanence, we need to is, “Where the King’s rule us a little more strict,
assume something is permanent, because the it’s not permitted to plunder the open
word impermanence is a negation of something markets.”1 This seems to refer to stealing
permanent. The concept of permanence exists commercial goods from merchants at a
first, then we negate it: “there’s no such thing as marketplace or to control the prices of a
permanence,” or “everything is impermanent.” marketplace. In the context of Dogen’s
This is what impermanence means. Without the commentary, this would mean that these hands
concept of permanence, we can’t even think or and eyes occupy the entire body (marketplace)
speak of impermanence. This is the nature of and spread all across it and control it. That
our thinking. Somehow we need some fixed means these hands and eyes steal this space,
foundation, even to talk about things that are without its consent. But this is not what Dogen
always changing. meant, because for him there is no such
marketplace, there is only hands and eyes.
Unless we understand this nature of There is no separate space that is occupied by
thought, we are deceived by our own use of hands and eyes, rather, the hands and eyes and
words, concepts and logic. First of all, we must their functioning are nothing other than the
see the emptiness of words and concepts. entirety of Avalokitesvara.
Nagarjuna showed us the emptiness of words
and concepts by analyzing them and probing The virtue of hands and eyes should not be
into their meaning, revealing that they have no a seeing, practicing or expounding that
fixed nature. Therefore, whatever we try to recognizes this.
communicate using words is also without an
unchanging nature. So when Nagarjuna This means there is no fixed thing that
discusses emptiness, he is talking not only recognizes the virtue of the hands and eyes as
about the emptiness of things but also the objects. When we say something, see something,
15
practice something, expound something, and so The Buddha said to him, “Subhuti, those
on, we suggest there is a subject “I” that does who would now set forth on the bodhisattva
these activities and there are things that exist as path should thus give birth to this thought:
objects of our actions. ‘However many beings there are in whatever
realms of being might exist, ….whether they
Since [Yunyan] has already said that hands have form or no form, whether they have
and eyes are “innumerable,” there are more perception or no perception or neither
than a thousand or ten thousand of them, perception nor no perception, in whatever
more than eighty-four thousand; indeed, they conceivable realm of being one might conceive
surpass being immeasurable and boundless. of beings, in the realm of complete nirvana I
shall liberate them all. And though I thus
Here Dogen repeats what he has already liberate countless beings, not a single being is
said, that the number of hands and eyes of liberated.2
Avalokitesvara is beyond any number. That
means they are numberless or boundless, but Therefore, we should learn that what
as soon as we say “numberless” or Yunyan said is that “The entire body is
“boundless,” we have created a boundary. So, hands and eyes”. It is not that he is making
we should go even beyond boundlessness, as the hands and eyes into the entire body.
Dogen said in paragraph (6) and repeats here.
This means the whole body is hands and
It is not only that “the entire body as hands eyes; it is not that hands and eyes are spreading
and eyes” is thus; “saving all beings and all over the body. The meaning of Yunyan’s
expounding the Dharma” or “enabling the saying is exactly the same as Daowu’s saying.
nation’s land to emit light” must also be thus. It’s not that Avalokitesvara is putting hands and
eyes all over his/her entire body.
These are the activities of a Bodhisattva. In
order to save all beings, the Buddha expounded Even though we employ “The entire body as
the Dharma. It’s often said that when the hands and eyes,” and allow its active or
Buddha taught the Dharma, the entire land or resting functions, we should not be surprised.
even the entire universe became bright, and
sometimes everything shook as if there was an “Active function” refers to times when
earthquake. It was said that his practice and we’re active, engaging with something or
teaching activities were like empty lightning, somebody, and “resting function”refers to times
and yet they were beyond any boundary, even when we simply sit or sleep, when we are not
beyond boundlessness. active. Both of these are practice. In Zen
monasteries, for example, the day did not start
This reminds me of what is written at the in the morning, but in the evening. Monks sat
beginning of the Diamond Sutra: in the evening and slept in the monks’ hall, and
16
they woke up very early in the morning for 道吾道取す、「道也太殺道、祇道得八九成。」
zazen and then had breakfast. They practiced Daowu says, “You spoke quite well. But only
or studied in the morning, had lunch, and then eighty or ninety percent was achieved.”
did something in the afternoon. This was all (19)
one day. The day started in the evening, and いはくの宗旨は、道得は、太殺道なり。
ended in the evening. That meant that even The essential meaning indicated here is that
sleeping in the night was part of their practice. your statement greatly expresses [the truth].
So our daily practice does not start when we 「太殺道」といふは、いひあて、いひあらはす、の
wake up and it doesn’t end when we go to bed. これる未道得なしといふなり。
Even our time in bed is part of our practice; we The phrase “greatly expresses” means that his
must practice twenty four hours a day. I think saying points out and reveals [the truth]
this is the meaning of “its active or resting precisely. There is nothing that remains
function,” that even resting or taking a break is unexpressed.
part of our practice. This is a part of the activity いますでに未道得のつひに道不得なるべき、のこり
of the hands and eyes of Avalokitesvara’s body. あらざるを道取するときは、「祇道得八九成」なり。
When we express completely without leaving
When we rest, we do it as practice. That out something unexpressed or something
means we need to rest in the most effective inexpressible, we simply say, “[your expression
way. But often, when we have some days off or is] eighty or ninety percent perfect.”
some time to rest, we do many things and
become more tired than we do even on When Yunyan said, “The whole body is
workdays. But that is not the way to make rest hands and eyes,” Daowu responded, “You
a part of our practice. Practice should include spoke quite well.” But only eighty or ninety
working, resting, and even sleeping. Even percent was achieved.” Paragraph (19) and (20)
when we are sick and cannot practice in our are Dogen’s comments on this response.
usual way, we must take care of our body in
order to heal, and that becomes our practice. In The common understanding of Daowu’s
practice there is no break –that means a break saying is what Dogen will later call incorrect,
is also a practice. “We should not be surprised” since it is based on a misunderstanding of
means throughout the twenty four hours of the Yunyan’s statement. I can see what Dogen is
day, whatever we do is Avalokitesvara using saying about this exchange and why he wants
his/her hands and eyes, and we should ask to say it this way, but what he is saying in this
ourselves, “How can I live as the hands and passage doesn’t make sense to me. There’s
eyes of Avalokitesvara, taking care of these five something strange in it, but anyway, let me
skandhas and the five skandhas of others?” examine it sentence by sentence.

25. Only eighty or ninety percent was achieved The essential meaning indicated here is that
(18) your statement greatly expresses [the truth]. The
17
phrase “greatly expresses” means that his saying The Zen Masters who commented in
points out and reveals [the truth] precisely. Hekiganroku or Shoyoroku didn’t care about
There is nothing that remains unexpressed. this difference, they didn’t even discuss this
point. But according to Dogen, if these sayings
What Daowu said is do ya dai satsu do, shi are equal, then we should interpret this saying
do hatchi ku jo (道也太殺道, 祇道得八九成). In “eighty to ninety percent complete” differently.
this case do (道), even though this character is This interpretation is unique, but there’s
the same as tao or “Way,” means “to say” or something strange about it, because it’s very
“to speak”; and daisatsu (太殺) means clear, almost too clear, that Daowu said there is
“greatly,” “very well,” or “very much.” So his twenty percent lacking in Yunyan’s saying. I’m
statement literally means, “as for your not Dogen, but if I had wanted to say Yunyan’s
speaking, you speak very well.” Shi (祇) means saying henshin ( 身) and Daowu’s saying
tada, which means “just.” This shi is the same tsushin (通身) were really the same and
shi in shikan, as in shikantaza, “just sit,” so shi completely equal, probably the best thing to do
means “just” or “only.” Next is again do (道), would have been to delete the second half of
“speak” , then hatchi ku (八九),“eight, nine,” this sentence. Then it becomes clearer and
and then jo (成), the same jo as in Genjokoan, simpler, and Dogen wouldn’t need to use this
which means “to achieve,” “to become,” “to strange logic. I don’t really understand why he
be successful” or “to be complete”; “speak had to make the following twist in meaning:
eighty to ninety percent complete.” So the
entire sentence reads, “You say it quite well, When we express completely without leaving
but your saying is only eighty to ninety percent out something unexpressed or something
complete.” This is an accurate Chinese inexpressible, we simply say, “[your expression
sentence. But I don’t understand why even is] eighty or ninety percent perfect.”
though Daowu said, “only eighty to ninety
percent complete,” Dogen says, “There is I don’t think we say someone’s expression
nothing that remains unexpressed.” is only eighty to ninety percent perfect when
that saying fully expresses what we want to
The phrase “greatly expresses” means that hear. This would only be understandable if it
Yunyan’s saying reveals the truth precisely. were said about one’s own saying and could
There is nothing that remains unexpressed. therefore be seen as an expression of modesty.
Dogen says Yunyan’s saying, “the entire body is
hands and eyes” (henshin kore shugen; 身是 As I showed in Lecture (2), the earlier two
手眼) is one hundred percent complete, and yet versions of this dialogue are different from the
in spite of that, Daowu said that Yunyan’s later versions that were made in the Song
expression is only eighty to ninety percent Dynasty and appear in The Blue Cliff Record,
complete. I don’t understand this logic. The Book of Serenity, and Dogen’s Shobogenzo
Kannon. I will present them again here:
18
In vol. 5 of Zutanji (Sodoshu; 祖堂集) made in 生会。)
952 it says; Daowu said, “The entire body is an eye.” (通身
是眼。)
Daowu asked Yunyan, “What is the bodhisattva
with a thousand hands and eyes like?” (千手千 In the older versions of this conversation,
)
眼如何。 Daowu was the one who asked the question,
Yunyan said, “It is like grabbing a pillow in the “What is [the bodhisattva with] a thousand
night without light.”(如無灯夜把着枕子。) hands and eyes like?” (千手千眼如何) and
Yunyan asked, “Do you also know it?” (汝還知 Yunyan answered, “it is like grabbing a pillow
)
不。 in the night without light.” To this Daowu
Daowu said, “I understand! I understand!” responded, “The entire body is an eye.” Since
(我会也。我会也。) their sayings are not parallel, it is not possible
Yunyan said, “How do you understand it?” to compare them and consider which is
(作 生会。) superior.
Daowu said, “The whole body is an eye.”
(通身是眼。) But in the later version, probably to make
this dialogue into a koan, their sayings became
After this conversation, Shenshan’s comment parallel, and these sentences were added: “You
appears: “The entire body is an eye.” (渾身是眼). spoke quite well. But only eighty or ninety
Shenshan Sengmi (神山僧密, ? - ?) was one of percent was achieved.” I suppose the person
Yunyan’s dharma heirs, and he practiced with who made the later version wanted to turn this
his dharma brother, Dongshan Liangjie (洞山良 dialogue into a question and ask the readers to
价, 807–869). Sehnshan’s comment might be the consider what the twenty percent difference
source of inspiration for the later versions of this between the sayings was. Because in much of
conversation where Yunyan’s henshin ( 身) Zen literature Yunyan was portrayed as
and Daowu’s tsushin (通身) became parallel. dull-witted and Daowu portrayed as
sharp-witted, the position of Yunyan and Daowu
In vol.14 of Jingde Chuandeng lu (Keitoku was reversed in the conversation. In that way,
Denntoroku; 景徳伝灯録) made in 1004 we read:3 readers were led to believe Daowu’s sayings were
twenty percent superior to Yunyan’s and then
Daowu asked, “The Great Compassion led to discover the difference between them.
[Bodhisattva] with a thousand hands and eyes.
What is it like?”(大悲千手眼如何。) The next paragraph is quite long, and it is
Yunyan said, “What about grabbing a pillow difficult for me to understand.
when there is no light?”(如無灯時把得枕子作 生。)
Daowu said, “I understand! I understand!”(我会 (20)
)
也。我会也。 いふ意旨の参學は、たとひ十成なりとも、道未盡な
Yunyan said, “How do [you] understand!”(作 る力量にてあらば、参究にあらず。
19
In studying the above-mentioned meaning, even However, hearing the Buddha-ancestor say,
if there is one hundred percent achievement “you express eighty or ninety percent,” some
[using language], if the person is unable to people may think that the statement should be
express the whole [through his practice], it is not one hundred percent perfect, that what was
actual penetration. said was incomplete, and that for that reason
道得は八九成なりとも、道取すべきを、八九成に道 [Daowu] said that [Yunyan] expressed only
取すると、十成に道取するとなるべし。 eighty or ninety percent.
Even if his expression is eighty or ninety percent 佛法、もしかくのごとくならば、今日にいたるべか
perfect, if [he] expresses eighty or ninety らず。
percent perfectly, then he expresses one If the Buddha-dharma were like that, it could not
hundred percent perfectly. have been transmitted down to the present day.
當恁麼の時節に、百千萬の道得に道取すべきを、力 いはゆるの「八九成」は、百千といはんがごとし、
量の妙なるがゆゑに、些子の力量を擧して、わづか 許多といはんがごとく参學すべきなり。
に「八九成」に道得するなり。 We should learn that “achieving eighty or ninety
At the very moment [of speaking], because percent” is tantamount to saying [achieving]
[Yunyan] has excellent capability, using a little “hundreds or thousands” or “innumerable.”
of his power, he expresses eighty or ninety すでに八九成と道取す、はかりしりぬ、八九にかぎ
percent of the [meaning], which would require るべからずといふなり。
a hundred or a thousand myriad words to [Daowu] already said “eighty or ninety percent
express it. was achieved,” and we should know that [what
たとへば、盡十方界を百千萬力に拈来するあらんも、 he meant] is that it is not limited to [a particular
拈来せざるにはすぐるべし。 fixed number such as] eight or nine.
For example, someone who might be able to 佛祖の道話、かくのごとく参學するなり。
express the entire ten-direction Expressions of the Way by Buddha-ancestors
world through the power of a hundred or a should be studied in this way.
thousand myriad words, must be superior to
others who cannot express it [at all]. In studying the above-mentioned meaning, even
しかあるを、一力に拈来せんは、よのつねの力量な if there is one hundred percent achievement
るべへからず。 [using language], if the person is unable to
In that case, if [someone like Yunyan] can express the whole [through his practice], it is not
express it with the power of one [word], [his] actual penetration.
capability is beyond ordinary.
いま「八九成」のこころ、かくのごとし。 “One hundred percent achievement” is ju jo
The meaning of the expression “eighty to (十成). The words Daowu used are “eight”(八)
ninety percent perfect” is like this. and “nine” (九成) and Dogen also uses “ten,”
しかあるを、佛祖の「祇道得八九成」の道をききて (十). Here these mean eighty, ninety, and one
は、道得十成なるべきに、道得いたらずして、八九 hundred percent. So Dogen is saying that even
成といふと會取す。 if a person is able to express one hundred
20
percent of reality using language, if they are not percent of the power he used. I don’t know
able to express it through his/her practice how such a change can be possible.
experience, the person’s expression is not the
actual penetration of it (sankyu; 参究). But this For example, someone who might be able to
doesn’t make sense to me. How can a person express the entire ten-direction world
who has not experienced the penetration of through the power of a hundred or a
reality express it one hundred percent in words? thousand myriad words, must be superior to
But for some reason Dogen says this is possible. others who cannot express it [at all].

In the next sentence Dogen says: Again, the word he uses is “power” or
“capability.” He says if there is a person who
Even if his expression is eighty or ninety may be able to express the truth of the entire
percent perfect, if [he] expresses eighty or ten-direction world using myriads of words, this
ninety percent perfectly, then he expresses person must be superior to people who cannot
one hundred percent perfectly. do so. And if there is another person who can
express the same truth with the power of one
I again don’t understand what this means. word, or one percent of their capability, this
How can eighty to ninety percent perfect be person’s capability is beyond ordinary. Again, I
equal to one hundred percent perfect? really don’t understand this comparison.

At the very moment [of speaking], because It seems to me that here Dogen changed
[Yunyan] has excellent capability, using a what the eighty, ninety or hundred percent
little of his power, he expresses eighty or refers to from the quality of achievement to the
ninety percent of the [meaning], which number of words, or the amount of power the
would require a hundred or a thousand person used. I don’t know why he would make
myriad words to express. such a change, but Dogen strongly says,

In the original text, Dogen doesn’t say The meaning of the expression “eighty to
Yunyan uses words to express the meaning, but ninety percent perfect” is like this.
rather he uses his “power” (riki ryo; 力量). Riki
means “power” and ryo is “amount.” “Amount It seems he was very sure that what he was
of power” means the amount of his capability. saying was correct and the only possible way to
So Dogen says Yunyan used a small part of his understand Daowu’s statement. There is
capability to express eighty to ninety percent of something here I don’t quite understand.
the meaning. I still don’t understand what this
means. Dogen changed the meaning of “eighty The understanding he presents in the next
to ninety percent” from referring to Yunyan’s sentence accords with the common interpretation
expression or achievement to referring to the and to me seems reasonable:
21
 However, hearing the Buddha-ancestor say, Expressions of the Way by Buddha-ancestors
“you express eighty or ninety percent,” some should be studied in this way.
people may think that the statement should
be one hundred percent perfect, that what Somehow Dogen wants to make Yunyan’s
was said was incomplete, and that for that and Daowu’s sayings the same and equal, even
reason [Daowu] said that [Yunyan] though Daowu said Yunyan’s saying was only
expressed only eighty or ninety percent. eighty to ninety percent complete. Anyway, I
think we can forget about the numbers, but if
I think I’m included in these “some people.” these two sayings are really the same and
I think in this context of the conversation this is equal, if there’s no difference between them,
the only way I can interpret what Daowu says. maybe we should just delete this saying by
But somehow Dogen strongly wants to twist the Daowu. In fact, in older versions such as
meaning, yet this twist is not successful, at least Zutanji and The Record of the Transmission of
to me. the Lamp, there are only three sayings:

If the Buddha-dharma were like that, it Daowu asked, “What is Avalokitesvara

could not have been transmitted down to the doing?” and Yunyan said, “It’s like a person
present day. We should learn that “achieving searching for a pillow in the darkness.,” He
eighty or ninety percent” is tantamount to then and asked Daowu, “How do you
saying [achieving] “hundreds or thousands” understand?”
or “innumerable.” Then Daowu said, “It’s like the entire body
is hands -and eyes.”
It seems Dogen is saying that eighty to
ninety percent is the same as one hundred I think this is all we need. Why do we need
percent. If so, I think it is best to erase such to have the two almost identical sayings to
numbers all together and stop analyzing the compare and search for a twenty percent
inferiority or superiority of the statements. difference between them? This is my question.

[Daowu] already said “eighty or ninety Dogen could not have read the oldest
percent was achieved,” and we should know version of this conversation in Zutanji
that [what he meant] is that it is not limited (Sodoshu: 祖堂集), made in 952, because this
to [a particular fixed number such as] eight text was lost in China and somehow preserved
or nine. in Korea until the 20th century. But I’m sure he
read the second oldest one, from the Record of
If this is the case, why didn’t he delete Transmission of the Lamp, made in 1004,
Daowu’s saying, “eighty or ninety percent was because Dogen quotes this text in his writings.
achieved,” in his commentary?
My guess is that even though he didn’t like
22
this saying about Yunyan’s statement being is talking about Avalokitesvara as a collection
eighty to ninety percent complete, somehow of individual knots. They are both asking, from
Dogen wanted to show that these two sayings different perspectives, “How can our practice be
are essentially the same. That was kind of like simply groping for a pillow? How can each
necessary so that he could keep the parallel one of us, as a part of this interconnectedness,
meaning of their statements. In other words, embody or express this totality of
that means Yunyan and Daowu’s sayings are interconnectedness, using our body and mind
equal but at the same time somewhat different. as Avalokitesvara’s hands and eyes?”
This is what I think Dogen wanted to keep, the
equal but different nature of the sayings. I think Yunyan’s henshin ( 身), and
Daowu’s tsushin (通身) are an example how
To me, the difference has to do with an they keep this kind of tension. Yunyan is saying
emphasis on either entirety or on individuality. “totality,” while Daowu is saying “individuality”
First, Yunyan said, “Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva or “particularity,” showing how each and every
of great compassion, using innumerable hands particular person behaves, practices or lives
and eyes, is doing what.” As it is said in the based on this awakening to totality. Their
Hekiganroku, this Avalokitesvara’s innumerable sayings represent the universal and the
hands and eyes refers to Indra’s net, in which particular.
all beings are connected. Here each and every
being, as a knot in the thread of the net, is one Yunyan says that the entire body is hands
of the hands and eyes of Avalokitesvara. Yunyan and eyes, and Daowu says the same, but
is saying that the totality of interconnectedness Yunyan’s henshin ( 身) refers to the entire
is Avalokitesvara, and each being is a knot or a body of Avalokitesvara. Daowu’s tsushin (通身)
mani jewel in Indra’s Net, where all beings and refers to a particular person’s entire body, as in
things permeate each other completely. I think the story from the Shoyoroku about a blind
this is what Yunyan said, emphasizing that this person whose cane and feet functioned as his
entirety is Avalokitesvara. eyes, enabling him to walk on a muddy road
without stepping in the mud. That is how our
Daowu, on the other hand, said entire body works as hands and eyes. The two
Avalokitesvara’s activity is like the activity of a sayings are complementary, supporting each
sleeping person who loses their pillow and other while at the same time being different,
tries to find it in complete darkness. He and yet neither is superior or inferior. I think
emphasized the activity of one person as a part Dogen wanted to keep these two sayings
of this interconnectedness, using their entire parallel, but he probably didn’t want to delete
body as hands and eyes. the sentence mentioning the eighty to ninety
percent difference.
I think Yunyan is talking about Avalokitesvara
as the totality of interconnectedness, and Daowu Daowu represented Avalokitesvara as each
23
and every one of us, and Yunyan represented Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
Avalokitesvara as the totality of interconnectedness. Number 24
That is my guess. But still I don’t understand
Dogen’s comments on the eighty to ninety
Painted Cakes
Gabyo-
percent difference between Daowu’s and
Yunyan’s statements. I understand what he was Translated by
saying, but I don’t understand why he needed The Soto Zen Text Project
to say what he did about the completeness of
Yunyan’s saying. I think it would have been best Introduction
simply to delete the sentence about the
difference in the two statements. - - in late
This essay was composed at Koshoji,
autumn of 1242. It represents number 24 in both
the seventy-five and sixty-chapter compilations
- -
of the Shobogenzo- and number 40 in the Honzan
edition.
1 The Blue Cliff Record (Thomas Cleary, - concerns the famous saying, best
“Gabyo”
Shambhala, 1992), p.32; I added the bold emphasis. known from the story of the ninth-century
figure Xiangyan Zhixian, that “a painted cake
2 The Diamond Sutra (by Red Pine, Counterpoint, doesn’t satisfy hunger.” In this story, which
2001), p. 2-3. Dogen had two years earlier recounted in his
“Keisei sanshoku,” Xiangyan is challenged by
3 In lecture (2) I introduced this dialogue from his teacher, Weishan Lingyou, to say something
the different versions of the Transmission of the “from the time before your father and mother
Lamp. Now I think this version is more compatible were born.” Unable to find anything in his
with Zutanji and later versions. books, he uttered his famous saying in despair.
The painted cake is thus a traditional
symbol of representations of reality, including
the Buddhist representations in Xiangyan’s
books, as opposed to the real thing that is held
-
to be the proper concern of Zen. But Dogen has
a different view. The teachings of Buddhism are
the real thing. The representation of the cake is
the real thing. The real things around us — the
cakes, the humans, the mountains, the buddhas
-
— are, all of them, painted. Therefore, Dogen
concludes at the end of his essay, only a
painted cake can satisfy our hunger; for our
hunger is also painted, our satisfaction is also
24
painted. doesn’t satisfy hunger.”6
This translation is based on the text published Those robed in clouds and sleeved in mist
in Kawamura Kodo,- - ed., Dogen
- -
zenji zenshu, who study these words, the bodhisattvas and
,
vol. 1 (Tokyo: Shunjusha, 1991). -
Sravakas coming from the ten directions, are
not of one name or rank; the skin and flesh of
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye the spirit heads and demon faces arriving from
Number 24 the ten directions are thick and are thin.7 While
Painted Cakes they may be studying the way of the old
buddhas and present buddhas, they make their
Since the buddhas are verification, things living under trees and in thatched huts.
are verification.1 Nevertheless, they are not one Therefore, in directly transmitting the family
nature, they are not one mind. Although they enterprise, some say that this is said because
-
the work of studying the sutras and treatises
are not one nature and are not one mind, at the
time of verification, the verifications appear does not inculcate true wisdom; some hold the
without obstructing one another; at the time of view that such words are to say that instruction
appearance, the appearances will appear in the three vehicles and the one vehicle is not
without engaging one another. This is an the path to sambodhi.8 In general, those who
obvious truth of the ancestors. Do not hold up hold the view that such words are to say that
reckonings of oneness and difference as the provisionally established dharmas are actually
power of study. worthless are greatly mistaken.9 They do not
Therefore, it is said, “A single dharma directly transmit the work of the ancestors; they
barely penetrated and the myriad dharmas are are in the dark about the words of the buddhas
penetrated.”2 It is not that the “single dharma and ancestors. If they are not clear about this
penetrated” spoken of here snatches away the one statement, who would acknowledge that
previous face of the “single dharma”; it is not they have investigated the sayings of other
that the “single dharma” is opposed; it is not buddhas?
that the “single dharma” is unopposed.3 To To say, “a painted cake can’t satisfy hunger”
make it unopposed would be a mutual is like saying, for example, “Do no evil, practice
obstruction.4 When the obstacle of penetration the good”; like saying, “What thing is it that
is eliminated from the “penetration,” a single comes like this?”; like saying, “I’m always close
penetration is myriad penetrations.5 A single to this.”10 We should study it like this for a
penetration is “a single dharma”; “a single while.
dharma penetrated” is “the myriad dharmas In the past, there have been few who saw
penetrated.” the words “painted cake,” and no one at all who
really knew them. How do I know this?
***** Previously, when I examined one or two
stinking skin bags, they were unable even to
An old buddha has said, “A painted cake question it, unable personally to attend to it;
25
they seemed unconcerned, as if not bending an cake,” it does not in the end have the power to
ear to the neighbors’ talk.11 end our “hunger.”18 Since there is no cake
“A painted cake,” we should realize, has a relative to “hunger,” and there is no hunger
face born of father and mother, and has a face relative to “hunger,” no [such] livelihood is
before your father and mother were born.12 transmitted, no house style transmitted.19
Precisely when it is being made using rice flour, “Hunger” is a single staff; shouldered horizontally,
while it is not necessarily “born” or “not born,” shouldered vertically, it is a thousand changes
its realization is the moment that the way is and a myriad transformations. “Cake” is the
attained; and we should not study it single occurrence of body and mind; it is blue,
constrained by our perception of coming and yellow, red, and white; long, short, square, and
going.13 The pigments for painting cakes round.20
should be the same as the pigments for Now, when we paint mountains and waters,
painting mountains and waters.14 That is, we we use blue patina and cinnabar and ochre, we
use blue cinnabar to paint mountains and use weird cliffs and strange rocks, we use the
waters, and we use rice flour to paint painted seven treasures or four treasures.21 The task of
cakes. Such being the case, what is used is the painting a cake is also like this. In painting a
same and the work is identical. person, we use the four elements and five
This being so, the “painted cake” spoken of aggregates.22 In painting a buddha, we use not
here means that all the pastry cakes, vegetable only a clay shrine and dirt clod: we use the
cakes, milk cakes, roasted cakes, steamed thirty-two marks; we use one blade of grass; we
cakes, and so forth — all of them appear from use the inculcation of three asamkhyeya and
paintings. We should realize that the paintings one hundred kalpas.23 In this way, because we
are equal, the cakes are equal, the dharmas are have been drawing the painted buddha on a
equal.15 For this reason, the cakes appearing single scroll, all the buddhas are painted
here are all “painted cakes.” When we seek buddhas, and all the painted buddhas are the
painted cakes other than these, we will never buddhas. We should examine the painted
meet them, never bring them out.16 While they buddha and the painted cake. Which is the
may be a simultaneous occurrence, they are a black stone tortoise, and which is the iron
simultaneous non-occurrence.17 Nevertheless, it staff?24 Which is a form dharma and which is a
is not [that they show] signs of old age or mind dharma?25 We should work away at
youth, it is not [that they leave] traces of investigating this in detail. When we work
coming and going. Here, in such a place, the away at it like this, birth and death, coming
land of the “painted cake” appears and is and going, are all paintings; unsurpassed bodhi
established. itself is a painting. Overall, the dharma realm
“Doesn’t satisfy hunger” means that, while and empty space are nothing but paintings.
“hunger” is not employed by the twelve times,
there is no opportune time to meet the “painted *****
cake”; and that, when we consume the “painted
26
 An old buddha has said,26 certainly one or two “painted cakes.”32 They
The way attained, white snow flies off in a have the “talk that transcends the buddhas and
thousand flakes; surpasses the ancestors”; they have the status of
- 33
entering into buddha and entering into Mara.
The painting done, blue mountains come
forth in multiple scrolls.
This is the talk of great awakening, a saying *****
revealing concentrated effort in pursuit of the
way. Thus, at the very moment of gaining the My former master said, “The tall bamboo
way, the blue mountains and white clouds have and the banana plant enter the picture.”34
been painted in what he calls “multiple This saying is a saying in which one who has
scrolls.”27 One moving, one still, yet all of it transcended and surpassed the long and the
nothing but a painting.28 Our present concentrated short studies the picture of both.
effort has come solely from a painting. The ten “Tall bamboo” is long bamboo.35 While it
epithets and three knowledges — these are a may be the movement of yin and yang, what
single scroll of painting; the faculties, powers, makes the yin and yang move are the years and
awakening, and path — these are a single scroll months of the “tall bamboo.”36 Those years
of painting.29 If we say that paintings are not and months, the yin and yang, cannot be
real, then all the myriad dharmas are not real; calculated. The great sage may observe the yin
if all the myriad dharmas are not real, then the and yang, but the great sage cannot measure
buddha dharma is also not real. If the buddha the yin and yang; for with both yin and yang,
dharma is real, then the “painted cake” must the dharmas are equal, the measurements are
be real. equal, the ways are equal.37 They are not the
yin and yang now seen by the mind and eye of
***** the other paths and the two vehicles; they are
the yin and yang of the “tall bamboo.”38 They
Great Master Kuangzheng of Yunmen was are the transit of the “tall bamboo”; they are
once asked by a monk, “What is the talk that the world of the “tall bamboo.”39 As attendants
transcends the buddhas and surpasses the of the “tall bamboo,” there are the buddhas of
ancestors?”30 the ten directions. We should realize that
The Master said, “Pastry cakes.” heaven and earth are the “roots, stalks,
This saying, we should work on quietly. branches, and leaves” of the “tall bamboo.”40
Where “pastry cakes” are fully realized, there Therefore, they make heaven and earth long
will be ancestral masters who speak of “talk endure; they stabilize the great oceans and
that transcends the buddhas and surpasses the Sumeru, and all the worlds in the ten
ancestors,” men of iron who do not hear it, and directions; they make the staff and the bamboo
students who listen to it; and they have sayings stick “one old, one not old.”41
that realize it.31 Divulging the matter and “The banana plant” takes earth, water, fire,
achieving accord using “pastry cakes” here is wind, and space; mind, mentation, consciousness,
27
and wisdom as its “roots, stalks, branches, and non-hunger — if they are not painted hunger,
leaves, flowers and fruit, lustrous and colored”; they are not attained, they are not spoken of. We
therefore, it wears the autumn wind and is should study for a while the fact that this is a
broken by the autumn wind.42 Not a single dust painted cake.49 When we study the essential point
mote remains; we can say it is pure. In the eye, of this, we exhaustively investigate with body and
there are no sinews or bones; in the colors, mind a little of the virtue of turning things and
there is no adhesive: there is liberation on the things turning.50 Where this virtue is not yet
spot.43 Since it is restricted to being quick, it is manifest, the power of studying the way is not yet
not a question of moments or ksana.44 Taking realized. To bring about the realization of this
up this power, it makes a livelihood of earth, virtue is the realization that verifies the painting.
water, fire, and wind; it makes the great death
of mind, mentation, consciousness, and Treasury of the True Dharma Eye
wisdom.45 Thus, in this family enterprise, the Painted Cakes
work has been taken on with spring, autumn, Number 24
winter, and summer as the implements.
-
[Ryumonji MS:]
Now, as for the whole situation of the “tall
Presented to the assembly at Kannon Dori-
bamboo” and “banana plant,” they are a
- - Horin Monastery; fifth day, eleventh
Kosho
picture. Based on this, those who have a great
awakening by hearing the sound of bamboo, month of the senior water year of the tiger, the
whether dragons or snakes, must be pictures.46 third year of Ninji [28 November 1242]
We should not doubt this with the sentiments of
-
[Tounji MS:]
common people and sages.47 It is “that stem is
- -
Copied this in the guest office at Kosho;
that long”; it is “this stem is this short”; it is
“this stem is this long”; it is “that stem is that seventh day, eleventh month of the senior
short.”48 Because they are both pictures, water year of the tiger, in Ninji [30 November
inevitably they match long and short pictures. It 1242]. Ejo-
is not that, when there are long pictures, there
are no short pictures. We should clearly study
this principle. Truly, because all the worlds and
all the dharmas are a picture, persons and Notes
dharmas appear from the picture; buddhas and
1. Since the buddhas are verification, things
ancestors are realized from the picture.
This being so, if it is not a “painted cake,” it are verification: A play on the word for “things,”
has no cure that “satisfies hunger”; if it is not read here shomotsu, which can also be read
painted hunger, it never encounters a person; if shobutsu, a homophone for “the buddhas.”
it is not painted satisfaction, it has no efficacy.
2. “A single dharma barely penetrated and the
In general, satisfying hunger, satisfying
non-hunger, not satisfying hunger, not satisfying myriad dharmas are penetrated”: A sentence in
28
Chinese that appears to be a quotation but for genzo- keisei sanshoku.”
which no source has been identified. The phrase
7. robed in clouds and sleeved in mist: A literary
“a single dharma barely penetrated” is found in a
saying of the twelfth-century figure Nantang expression for the monk, imagined as wandering
Yuanjing (dates unknown): “A single dharma the landscape; akin to the more common “clouds
barely penetrated, every dharma throughout”; and water.”
and the tenth-century Zongjing lu: “A single the skin and flesh of the spirit heads and demon
dharma barely penetrated, and the myriad dhar- faces arriving from the ten directions are thick
mas all return to the mind ground.” and are thin: I.e., the many different monks
everywhere who have studied this saying. “Spirit
3. snatches away the previous face of the “single heads and demon faces” (i.e., “weird things”) is
dharma”: Perhaps meaning something like, used in self-deprecating reference to monks.
“denies the identity of the dharma in question.”
8. family enterprise: I.e., Buddhism.
the “single dharma” is opposed; the “single
dharma” is unopposed: Exactly to what the instruction in the three vehicles and the one
“single dharma” is (or is not) opposed is not vehicle: I.e., doctrinal learning in the vehicles of
, -
clear; perhaps, to other dharmas (though it might sravaka, pratyeka-buddha, and bodhisattva, and
also be taken as the “penetration”). the one, buddha vehicle.

4. 9. provisionally established dharmas: I.e., the

mutual obstruction: Presumably, meaning that
the “single dharma” and other dharmas would teachings of Buddhism based on conventional
obstruct each other (though, again, one might categories.
imagine an obstruction between the “dharma”
10. “a painted cake can’t satisfy hunger”: This
and its “penetration”).
version of the saying, with the auxiliary verb “can”
5. obstacle of penetration: Or “obstacles to pen- does not seem to occur in the Chinese sources.
etration.” “Do no evil, practice the good”: From the famous
a single penetration is myriad penetrations: Some “Verse of the Common Precepts of the Seven Bud-
would read this “it is just one penetration and dhas,” found throughout the Buddhist canon:
myriad penetrations.” To do not evil,
Practice the good,
6. An old buddha: I.e., Xiangyan Zhixian (d. 898), And purify one’s mind:
after searching in vain in texts for something This is the teaching of the buddhas.
with which to answer his teacher’s demand that “What thing is it that comes like this?”: A ques-
he say something “from the time before your tion famously put by the Sixth Ancestor, Huineng
father and mother were born.” The story that is (638-713), upon greeting Nanyue Huairang
- -
(677-744), from a dialogue often cited by Dogen.
the context of this saying is included in Dogen’s
- - - and discussed in the “Shobo-
shinji Shobogenzo - - Chan Master Dahui of Mount Nanyue
29
 12. face born of father and mother; face before
(descendant of Caoxi, named Huairang) visited
the Sixth Ancestor. The Ancestor asked him, your father and mother were born: I.e., phenom-
“Where do you come from?” enal and ultimate identities respectively. The
The Master said, “I come from the National phrase “before your father and mother were
Teacher An on Mount Song.” born” is a classic Zen expression for the true self,
The Ancestor said, “What thing is it that sometimes understood as “before your father
comes like this?” and mother gave birth.” The use of this meta-
“I’m always close to this”: Variant of a phrase phor here likely reflects Weishan’s challenge to
that occurs in the “Jinzu” and “Henzan” chap- Xiangyan to say a word “from the time before
- -
ters of the Shobogenzo.- The sense of the glyph your father and mother were born.” Other
setsu here is subject to interpretation: the transla- versions of the story give somewhat different
-
phrasing; for example, Dogen’s - -
shinji Shobo-
tion takes it as sekkin (“to be familiar with,” “to
be intimate with”), but it could also be, and has genzo- has:
been, understood as shinsetsu (“to be ardent,” Now, I ask you: When you were an infant
“to care deeply,” etc.). From a remark attributed just born, before you could distinguish north,
to Dongshan Liangjie (807-869), in answer to a south, east, and west — try saying something
question about the three bodies of a buddha. The for me from just this time.
Dongshan yulu gives the question as:
13.Precisely when it is being made using rice
[A monk] asked, “Among the three bodies [of
- - inmo (“just such”) as the
flour: Taking shoto
the buddha], which body doesn’t fall among the
- - inmo ji (“at just such a time”).
common shoto
numbered?”
-
Dogen’s - - - has a variant version:
shinji Shobogenzo Some read beimen (“rice flour”) as “rice and
Dongshan was asked by a monk, “Among the wheat”; however it is read, note that, here and
three bodies, which preaches the dharma?” below, the “painted cake” is painted with the
The Master said, “I’m always close to this.” ingredients of the cake.
The monk later asked Caoshan [i.e., Caoshan its realization is the moment that the way is
Benzhi (840-901)], “Dongshan said, ‘I’m always attained (genjo- dojo
- - no jisetsu nari: A tentative

close to this.’ What does that mean?” translation of a phrase somewhat difficult to
Shan said, “If you want my head, cut it off parse, taking genjo- (“realization”) as the gram-
and take it.” - - as “attainment
matical subject and reading dojo
The monk again asked Xuefeng [i.e., Xuefeng of the way” in accordance with its use below, in
Yicun (822-908)]. Feng struck him in the mouth the first line of the verse in section 11. The exact
with his staff and said, “I’ve been to Dongshan.” sense of this sentence is subject to interpretation,
but one reading might be something like, “what-
11.
stinking skin bags: A common term for the ever cake is or is not produced from the ingredi-
-
body, especially of humans; often used by Dogen ents, the making of the cake is the realization of
in reference especially to Chan monks. Buddhist practice.”

30
14. pigments: More literally, “cinnabar and The Master [Zhaozhou] said, “You are
ochre,” used as a generic term for the colors employed by the twelve times. This old monk
employed in painting. The compound “mountains employs the twelve times.”
and waters” is a standard term for “landscape.”
19. Since there is no cake relative to “hunger,”
15. the paintings are equal, the cakes are equal, and there is no hunger relative to “hunger,” no
the dharmas are equal: A common rhetorical [such] livelihood is transmitted, no house style
-
pattern that Dogen will repeat below, section 18. transmitted: Perhaps meaning that, since “cake”
It can be seen, for example, in a saying by Mazu and “hunger” are not related to each other, there
Daoyi (709-788): is no Buddhist tradition of eating painted cakes
The names are equal, the meanings are to satisfy hunger. The first two phrases here
equal, and all the dharmas are equal, pure could also be parsed, “There is no cake relative
and unadulterated. to hunger; and because there is no hunger rela-
-
Dogen quotes this line in his Fushukuhanpo- and tive to hunger . . . .”
- - -
uses a variant of the pattern in his “Shobogenzo
- (DZZ.1:49):
shinjin gakudo” 20. single occurrence of body and mind: Or
The words are equal, the minds are equal, “occurrence of a single body and mind.”
the dharmas are equal. blue, yellow, red, and white; long, short, square,
and round: A fixed set, appearing often in Bud-
16. we will never meet them, never bring them dhist literature, for the variety of things in the
out: Borrowing the fixed expression, “meeting world.
without bringing it out”; here, probably meaning
21. blue patina and cinnabar and ochre: The
simply that there are no other painted cakes.
term seiroku (translated here “blue patina”) is
17. while they may be a simultaneous occur- thought to be synonymous with rokusho- (literally,
rence, they are a simultaneous non-occurrence: “greenish blue,” referring to the patina forming
Probably, meaning that the cakes and the paint- on bronze and copper used as a pigment); the
ings occur and do not occur together. expression seiroku sansui indicates a colored
landscape painting (as opposed to a black ink
18. employed by the twelve times: The notion of landscape).
employing and being employed by the twelve weird cliffs and strange rocks: A fixed idiom for
times (into which the day was traditionally the bizarre natural forms in Chinese landscape
- - - it
divided) occurs frequently in the Shobogenzo; painting.
comes from a popular saying attributed to the seven treasures or four treasures: “The seven
famous Tang-dynasty Chan master Zhaozhou treasures” is a standard term in Buddhist litera-
Congshen (778-897); ture for various lists of precious substances; one
[A monk] asked, “How does one use the mind common version gives gold, silver, beryl, crystal,
throughout the twelve times [of the day]?” agate, ruby, and cornelian. Mount Sumeru, at the
31
center of the world, is sometimes said to be made three asamkhyeya and one hundred kalpas: The
of the seven treasures. “The four treasures” is a length of time it takes in some accounts to become
somewhat less common list consisting of gold, a buddha; three incalculable (asamkhyeya) æons
silver, beryl, and crystal. Interestingly, in our to master the six (or ten) perfections of the
context of painting here, the same expression can bodhisattva, and a hundred additional æons to
refer to the four implements used in calligraphy: develop the thirty-two marks of a buddha’s body.
brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.
24. black stone tortoise; iron staff: The former is
22. four elements and five aggregates: I.e., the a stone image of a black tortoise used as an aus-
four primary forms of matter — earth, water, fire, picious decoration and sometimes used in Zen
and wind — of which the physical world is com- texts as a symbol of something free from deluded
posed; and the five “heaps” — form, sensation, discrimination; the latter is the walking stick of
cognition, formations, and consciousness — into the traveling Buddhist monk, often carried by the
which the psychophysical organism can be ana- Zen master when he “ascends to the hall” for a
lyzed. formal lecture. Why the two appear together here
is uncertain.
23. clay shrine and dirt clod: I.e., the materials of
25. form dharma; mind dharma: Standard terms
the Buddhist icon. Perhaps alluding to the conver-
sations of Chan Master Zhaozhou Congshen. E.g., for physical and mental phenomena respectively;
A monk asked, “What is a buddha?” or for the first of the five aggregates and the
The Master said, “What’s in the hall.” remaining four, respectively.
The monk said, “What’s in the hall — that’s
26. old buddha: The source of this verse, given in
nothing but a molded image in a clay shrine.”
The Master said, “Right.” Chinese, has not been identified.
And again,
27.what he calls “multiple scrolls”: Following the
A monk asked, “What is a buddha?”
-
reading of MSS that give sujiku to nazuku.
He said, “A dirt clod.”
thirty-two marks: The extraordinary physical
28. One moving, one still: Or “each movement,
characteristics ascribed to the body of a buddha
in Buddhist literature. each stillness.” The translation assumes “clouds”
one blade of grass: Likely reflecting a well- and “mountains” respectively as the antecedents.
known Zen trope, invoked elsewhere in the
- - - that equates a single blade of grass
Shobogenzo, 29. Ten epithets and three knowledges: (a) Ten
with the body of the buddha: titles by which a buddha is known, and (b) the
Sometimes we take one blade of grass and three paranormal knowledges possessed by a
use it as a sixteen-foot golden body [of the buddha.
-
a) Ten epithets: (1) tathagata (“thus come”),
buddha]; sometimes we take a sixteen-foot
golden body and use it as one blade of grass. (2) arhat (“worthy”), (3) samyak-sambuddha
32
 -
(“perfectly awakened”), (4) vidya-cara a-sampanna relationship between master and disciple.
(“perfectly endowed with wisdom and conduct”),
33.status of entering into buddha and entering
(5) sugata (“well gone”), (6) lokavid (“knower of
the world”), (7) anuttara (“unsurpassed”), (8) -
into Mara: I.e., advanced spiritual abilities. To
- -
“enter into buddha and Mara” is a common
puru adamya-sarathi (“tamer of people”); (9)
,- - - - (“teacher of devas and
sasta-devamanu yanam image in Zen texts, as in the saying, “You can
- (“world-honored”). -
enter into buddha, but you can’t enter into Mara.
humans”); bhagavan
b) Three knowledges: (1) divya-caksus (“the
- - -
deva eye”), (2) purva-nivasanusmrti (“recollection 34. My former master: I.e., Tiantong Rujing (1162-
- - (“knowledge
of former lives”), (3) asrava-ksaya-jñana 1227).
of the elimination of the contaminants”).
35. -
“Tall bamboo” is long bamboo: Dogen is here
faculties, powers, awakening, and path: Four of
the groups of virtues that make up the traditional simply explaining the Chinese term.
list of the thirty-seven factors of bodhi (for
-
Dogen’s - -
discussion of which, see “Shobogenzo- 36. While it may be the movement of yin and
-
sanjushichi -
hon bodai bunpo”): (1) the five yang: I.e., although the length of the bamboo is
faculties (indriya); (2) the five powers (bala); (3) a result of the processes of yin and yang.
the seven factors of awakening (bodhya ga); and
-
(d) the eightfold path (marga). 37. great sage: May refer either (a) to a buddha or
other advanced Buddhist adept, or (b) to a sagely
30. Great Master Kuangzheng of Yunmen: I.e., figure of Chinese tradition.
Yunmen Wenyan (864–949). “Great Master
38. mind and eye of the other paths and the two
Kuangzheng” is a posthumous title; “Yunmen” is
the name of a mountain in the Shaozhou area of vehicles: I.e., the perceptual faculties of the mem-
bers of non-Buddhist religions and non-Mahayana - -
Guangdong Province. This dialogue, given here
mostly in Japanese, is found in several Chinese Buddhist traditions.
sources.
39. transit of the “tall bamboo”: Using an astro-
31. men of iron who do not hear it: “Man of iron” logical term for the progress of a body through
is a common Zen term, occurring frequently in the celestial houses.
-
Dogen’s writings, for the solid practitioner.”
40.“roots, stalks, branches, and leaves”: Recall-
Some manuscript witnesses give here the less
surprising “have heard it.” -
ing a verse from the Lotus Sutra, repeated in the
following section; see Note 42, below.
32. Divulging the matter and achieving accord
41. great oceans and Sumeru: I.e., Mount Sumeru,
using “pastry cakes” here: “Divulging the
matter and achieving accord” is a fixed idiom, the mountain at the center of a Buddhist world
common in Zen texts, used especially for the system. “The great oceans” refers to the rings of
33
seas surrounding Sumeru. both liberated.
they make the staff and the bamboo stick “one
44. Since it is restricted to being quick: Some
old, one not old”: “Staff” and “bamboo stick”
refer to implements carried by the Zen master: a editions read here “since it is not restricted in its
walking staff and a curved stick held when quickness.”
teaching. The expression “one old, one not old” moments or ksana: The term ksana is used in
likely reflects a verse by Dongshan Liangjie, Buddhist texts for the shortest unit of time. The
-
quoted by Dogen -
in his Eihei koroku: term for “moment” here (shuyu) is used for San-
The way, without mind, accords with the -
skrit muhurta, a very short period of time, some-
,-
person; times reckoned as 216,000 ksana, or one thirtieth
The person, without mind, accords with part of a day.
the way.
45. Taking up this power: Both the agent of the
If you want to know the point in this,
It’s one old, one not old. verb and the antecedent of the pronoun are
unexpressed. The translation assumes that the
42. earth, water, fire, wind, and space; mind, “banana plant” takes up the power of liberation,
mentation, consciousness, and wisdom: I.e., the but one might also understand that we take up
physical and mental realms. The first five terms the power of the “banana plant.”
represent the five elements of Buddhist physics;
46. those who have a great awakening by hearing
the next three terms are a common expression
for mental functions; the last item is the standard the sound of bamboo: Likely an allusion to the
compound expression for “wisdom” (though, for story, alluded to above, Note 6, of the awakening
linguistic symmetry, it might be that we are sup- of Xiangyan Zhixian, who gained an understand-
posed to read it here as separate words, “knowl- ing upon hearing the sound of a bit of debris
edge” and “wisdom”). striking a bamboo stalk.
“roots, stalks, branches, and leaves, flowers and dragons or snakes: Used generically for reptilian
fruit, lustrous and colored”: From a verse in the creatures, and sometimes used for great men (“a
-
Lotus Sutra describing the varied plants of the dragon of a snake”); in the context here, likely
world watered by the same rain. “the great and the small” — i.e., akin to
“common people and sages.” Perhaps, reflecting
43. in the colors, there is no adhesive: Referring to the expression “dragon head, snake tail,” used in
the bonding agent in pigments. The choice of reference to those who pretend to be better than
“color” for the Japanese term shiki here obscures they are.
-
its use to render rupa, the object of the “eye”
47. common people and sages: I.e., ordinary
with which it is being paired.
there is liberation on the spot: It is not obvious people and advanced adepts on the Buddhist
what is liberated from what. Perhaps the banana path.
plant is liberated, or the “eye” and “colors” are
34
48. “that stem is that long”: Reference to the My Footnotes on Zazen (24)
culm of the bamboo; after a saying of Cuiwei To Be Skillful on the Path of
-
Wuxue (dates unknown) included in Dogen’s Connecting Thoughts (1)
- - - and treated elsewhere in his
shinji Shobogenzo
writings. Here is one version:
[Yunmen Wenyan] asked, “What is the Rev. Issho Fujita
clear intention of [Bodhidharma’s] coming
from the west?”
Cuiwei said, “Once no one’s around, I’ll
tell you.” (Continued from previous article) Another
The Master [i.e., Wenyan] waited a while thing I felt was a sense of déjà vu: somewhere
and said, “No one’s around; I beg the Master before I had seen the expressions “with my teeth
to tell me.” clenched and my tongue pressed against the roof
Cuiwei got down from his meditation of my mouth......” and “It is just like a strong
seat and led the Master into the bamboo person grabbing a weak person by the head,
garden. The Master said again, “No one’s throat, or shoulders ......” Then, after a while, I
around; I beg the Reverend to tell me.” remembered a passage from the Mahasacchaka
-
Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya, 36th Sutra). It was
Cuiwei pointed at the bamboo and said,
“This stem is this long; that stem is that indeed written as follows:
short.”
“O Aggivessana, I thought: ‘Suppose, with
49. this is a painted cake: The pronoun “this” my teeth clenched and my tongue pressed
here has no obvious antecedent; perhaps, a refer- against the roof of my mouth, I beat down, con-
ence to both our hunger and its satisfaction. strain, and crush mind with mind.’ O Aggives-
sana, so, with my teeth clenched and my tongue
50.
turning things and things turning: Expressions pressed against the roof of my mouth, I beat
,
- -
best known from the Chinese Surangama-sutra: down, constrained, and crushed mind with
Living beings from beginningless time have mind. O Aggivessana, while I did so, sweat ran
all been deluded by things. They lose their from my armpits. O Aggivessana, just as a strong
original mind due to being turned by things. man might seize a weaker man by the head or
Therefore, they see here the large and see the shoulders and beat him down, constrain him,
small. If they could turn the things, they and crush him, so too, with my teeth clenched
-
would be the same as a tathagata. Their and my tongue pressed against the roof of my
bodies and minds would be perfect and bright; mouth, I beat down, constrained, and crushed
without moving from the place of awakening, mind with mind, and sweat ran from my arm-
in the tip of a single hair, they could fully pits. O Aggivessana, but although tireless energy
include the lands of the ten directions. was aroused in me and unremitting mindfulness
was established, my body was overwrought and
35
uncalm because I was exhausted by the painful tion and Healing: Sutra on the Four Establish-
striving. O Aggivessana, but such painful feeling ments of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh]
that arose in me did not invade my mind and
remain.” If you have been reading this series of
articles of mine, you will know that the Buddha
This passage is written as the Buddha clearly stated that such practices with such
reflects on the intense suffering he experienced qualities as “gritting the teeth,” “controlling and
as a young man. Interestingly, it is here that he holding the mind with the mind,” “no peace of
uses the phrases, “With my teeth clenched and mind or body,” “painstaking effort,” “exhaus-
my tongue pressed against the roof of my tion,” and “further suffering in the mind,” are
mouth, I beat down, constrain, and crush mind “futile.” I hope you understand that my position
with mind” and “Just as a strong man might is that the Buddha gave up on these qualities
seize a weaker man by the head or shoulders and sat under a tree, and that this is the origin of
and beat him down, constrain him, and crush zazen. In other words, zazen is a completely
him.” This part of the Vitakkasanthana Sutta different kind of activity from “gritting one’s
and the Mahasacchaka Sutta is probably a teeth” (forceful) in that it is a “spontaneous
canonical expression of the Buddhist scriptures, action.” So, how should we accept the Buddha’s
which in the original Pali texts are exactly or advice to “grit one’s teeth ......” in the “Vitakkas-
almost exactly the same words. At any rate, what anthana Sutta (“Stop Thinking Sutra”) which is
must not be forgotten here is that in the context treated negatively in the Mahasacchaka Sutta?
of this Mahasacchaka Sutta, the “forceful” and
“forcible” practice indicated by such expressions First of all, I should take the Buddha’s advice
was finally abandoned by the Buddha. favorably and literally, in other words, I should
This passage is translated in another transla- try to understand it in a way that is consistent
tion as follows, and it is more likely that the with my own understanding of zazen. What I
Buddha is reflecting such a way of practice: can do now is to accept that the Buddha’s inten-
tion is not to appeal to the fifth and final
In the past, I gritted my teeth, pressed my method1, but to expect us to do our utmost to let
tongue against my palate, and used my mind to go of our thoughts through earlier methods. This
overrule and suppress my mind. As I did this, I is to be understood as saying that we should
was bathed in sweat. Although I was not lacking practice by avoiding the use of these methods as
in strength, although I maintained mindfulness much as possible, even if they are mentioned as
and did not fall from mindfulness, my body and methods. We treat it as a method that is conceiv-
my mind were not at peace, and I was worn out able, but not actually used.
by these exhausting efforts. This practice caused
other feelings of pain to arise in me besides the Another way to take this is to interpret it as
pain associated with the austerities, and I was saying that even if, in the worst case scenario,
not able to tame my mind.” [From Transforma- you have to use this fifth method, you are not to
36
 1 The fifth method is the last and final coping
“make enemies” of the unwholesome thoughts
with aversion, hatred, shame, and other self- method, which is what to do if none of the four
destructive and offensive feelings and thoughts, preceding coping methods have been successful.
and to take the fight to them, literally “to defeat, In a sense, it is the worst-case scenario. That is,
subdue, and crush” them by force. Although the “grit your teeth, press your tongue against your
text may evoke violent and combative images, as upper palate, and use your awareness to defeat,
the Buddha clearly states, “By awareness, you block, and crush the mind.” (Quoted from the
will defeat, cut off, and crush the mind,” when previous article in this series)
this fifth method is actually applied, the energy
of awareness will cause the unwholesome
thoughts to evaporate as if the morning dew
were evaporating in the sun’s rays. This will be a
quiet and peaceful development letting it be
without resistance, far from a “battle” in the
common sense of the word, and this is how you
will carry it out as such.

Let’s recall here the scene of the Buddha’s

so-called “subduing the demons and attaining
the Way.” When Shakyamuni Buddha was
sitting under a tree, a demon (Mara) attacked
him with his army to prevent him from sitting,
but he defeated the demon at every turn and
attained enlightenment. The story is told of a
demon, but it is nothing more than the evil
movement of the mind. The army sent by the
demons to disturb one’s practice is actually a
metaphor for the delusive afflictions that arise in
zazen such as desires, anger, and foolishness.
How did Shakyamuni Buddha under the tree
“repel” these forces? As shown in depictions of
“subduing the demons and attaining the Way,”
Shakyamuni Buddha was alone in the face of a
huge army of demons. It was truly a solitary
struggle. In such a situation, we would either
surrender in fear or “clench our teeth and press
our tongue against our upper palate,” and try to
fight to the best of our ability.
37
 NEWS

September 28, 2022February 3, 16, 2023March 8, 15, 2023

South America Soto Zen Workshop was held on Zoom

October 79, 2022

Europe Soto Zen Workshop was held at Zendonien in Blois, France.

October 15, 2022

South America Soto Zen Conference was held at Daisenji, in Florianópolis, Brazil

October 22, 2021

Hawaii Soto Zen Conference was held on Zoom

November 14, 2022

North America Soto Zen Conference was held at Zenshuji in Los Angeles, U.S.A.

November 14 - 15, 2022

North America Soto Zen Workshop was held at Zenshuji in Los Angeles, U.S.A.

November 1620, 2022

Soto Zen North America 100th Anniversary Jukai-e held at Zenshuji in Los Angeles, U.S.A.

February 11, 2023

South America Soto Zen Conference was held at Daishiji, in Bogota, Colombia

February 2426, 2023

Hawaii Soto Zen Workshop was held at Shoboji, in Hawaii, U.S.A.

February 25, 2023

Hawaii Soto Zen Conference was held at Shoboji, in Hawaii, U.S.A.

38