Shōbōgenzō Busshō by Dōgen Zenji (1241)
Below is a translation of the fascicle Busshō (Buddha-nature) from Eihei Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō. It is one of Dōgen’s most important and influential texts, in which he presents his unique understanding of Buddha-nature as the whole of existence. The text was presented before an assembly at Kannondōri Kōshō Hōrin-ji in Kyoto Prefecture in 1241. It is discussed in depth in our blog post on “Busshō: Dōgen and the problem of Buddha-nature” and we recommend reading it in conjunction with the present translation.
Busshō
Sakyamuni Buddha said:
All living beings fully have Buddha-nature.
The Tathāgata is always present, without any change.
This teaching is the turning of the Dharma-wheel and the lion’s roar of our great teacher Sakyamuni. It is the thought and vision of all Buddhas and ancestors. It has been investigated and practiced for two thousand one hundred and ninety years, from hardly fifty generations of authentic successors down to my former teacher Tendō Nyojō. Twenty-eight ancestors in India and twenty-three ancestors in China dwelled in this teaching and preserved it from one generation to the next. The Buddhas and ancestors of the ten directions dwelled in it and preserved it.
What do the World-Honored One’s words mean when he says that all living beings fully are Buddha-nature? These words turn the Dharma-wheel and mean that there is something that has thus come, tathatā. Living beings and the various forms of existence are sometimes called “all living beings”, sometimes “the existence of sentient beings”, sometimes “all forms of existence”, and sometimes “all creatures”. In brief: Fully being is Buddha-nature, and the all-inclusive whole of all existence is called “living beings”. Now, in this moment, the inside and outside of all living beings is the whole existence of Buddha-nature. It does not include only the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow that have been transmitted from one master to another, because it is Eka himself, whom Bodhidharma describes with the words: “You have my skin, my flesh, my bones, and my marrow.” You must know that Buddha-nature is now the whole of existence and is therefore beyond being and non-being. Fully being is the words of Buddha and the tongue of Buddha; it is the clear vision of Buddhas and ancestors, and it is the breath of monks in patched robes.
The whole of existence goes beyond terms such as “initial being”, “original being”, “wonderful being”, and so on. How much less could it be conditioned existence? The whole of existence is also not the duality of mind and external world, or essence and form, and so on. Therefore subject and object, which are the whole of existence of all living beings, go far beyond the force of past actions, beyond the dependent arising of phenomena, beyond what is called “Dharma”, beyond supernatural powers, and beyond practice and experience. For if the whole of existence of all living beings depended on the force of past actions, on the dependent arising of phenomena, and on “Dharma”, then the experience of truth of all saints, the awakening of Buddhas, and the clear vision of Buddhas and ancestors would also depend on their past actions, on the dependent arising of phenomena, and on “Dharma”. But this is not the case.
In the entire universe there is not a single speck of dust. Here and now there is no splitting of the human being into two parts. Therefore it is said that until now no one has recognized how to cut off such thinking directly at the root. When will karmic consciousness finally come to rest? Because there is nothing hidden in the whole world, the whole of existence has nothing to do with the conditioned arising of phenomena. But saying that there is nothing hidden in the whole world does not necessarily mean that the material world is the whole of existence. To think that the whole world belongs to “me” is the false view of people outside the Buddha Way. The whole of existence is not a being that was already there from the beginning, because it includes the eternal past and the eternal present. It is also not an existence that newly arises, because it does not take in even one additional speck of dust. Nor does it consist of separate units of existence, because it includes the whole. It is not a beginningless being, because it is something that thus comes and is therefore not graspable. It is not a newly arisen being, because the balanced and constant mind is the Way. You must above all know that, within the wholeness of existence, it is difficult for living beings to enjoy comfortable pleasures. If you understand the whole of existence in this way, you come to the core of the matter and free yourselves.
Many students, when they hear the term “Buddha-nature”, misunderstand it as a permanent self, as Senika described, who was not a Buddhist. The reason is that these students have never met a real person, never met their true self, and never met a genuine teacher. They believe that mind, will, and consciousness, which are only the movement of brain cells, are enlightened knowledge and understanding of Buddha-nature. Who has ever claimed that there is enlightened knowledge and understanding in Buddha-nature? Those who awaken and understand are Buddhas, but Buddha-nature is beyond enlightened knowledge and understanding. Furthermore, when we speak of Buddhas as awakened and knowing, we do not mean the false views of others concerning awakening and knowledge. We do not regard the movement of brain cells as awakening and knowledge. Awakening and knowledge are one or two living Buddhas or ancestors who now reveal themselves in this world.
For centuries our venerable ancestors went to the western heaven, India, and returned to the eastern land, China, where they taught human beings and gods. From the Han to the Song dynasty they came and went in numbers like rice, hemp, bamboo forests, and reeds. Many of them thought that the movement of brain cells was knowledge and awakening to Buddha-nature. This is regrettable. They committed the error described above because they had moved farther and farther away from the study of truth. We, the students of later generations, and those who today begin with the Buddha-Dharma, should not do this. We study and investigate awakening and knowledge, but this awakening and knowledge is not the movement of brain cells. We study and investigate movement, but this movement is not such a state. If you understand real movement in it, you can also understand real awakening and real knowledge. Buddha and nature are concrete; they realize this or that. Buddha-nature is always the whole of existence, precisely because the whole of existence is Buddha-nature. The whole of existence is neither material nor spiritual. Because the whole of existence is nothing other than doing and action, it is neither large nor small. What we have called “Buddha-nature” above should not be regarded as equivalent to something holy or to the term “Buddha-nature”.
Other people think that Buddha-nature is like the seed of a plant or tree: while the Dharma-rain falls upon it, the seeds germinate and the plant or tree can grow. Then many branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits arise, and these fruits again produce new seeds. This understanding corresponds to the emotional thinking of ordinary people. Even if one has such an understanding, one should still study and investigate that all seeds, flowers, and fruits are separate moments of pure mind. In the fruits there are seeds. Although no one sees the seeds, they produce roots, stalks, and so on; and although the seeds stand by themselves and nothing is added, they produce many branches, twigs, and trunks. The seeds are beyond discussions of inside and outside. They have their past and present time. The roots, stalks, branches, and leaves are all Buddha-nature, arising and passing away with them moment by moment and making up the whole of their existence. This is true even when one relies on the view and understanding of ordinary people.
The Buddha said:
If you want to understand the meaning of Buddha-nature, you should here and now grasp the causes and conditions of real time. When the time has come, Buddha-nature directly appears before you.
If you want to understand the meaning of Buddha-nature does not mean only wanting to understand it, but wanting to practice it, experience it, teach it, and forget it again. This teaching, practicing, experiencing, forgetting, misunderstanding, understanding, and so on is each connected with the causes and conditions of real time. “Grasping the causes and conditions of real time” therefore means grasping them by using the causes and conditions of the present moment. It is a mutual grasping in which you concretely make use of a fly-whisk, a staff, and so on. But if you use only abstract terms such as “perfect wisdom”, “imperfect wisdom”, or the “wisdom of original awakening”, “new awakening”, “free awakening”, or “right awakening”, and so on, you can never grasp the causes and conditions of real time. “Here and now grasping” is independent of the subject that grasps, and it is independent of the object that is grasped. It should also not be confused with “right” or “wrong” grasping. It is simply “here and now grasping”. It is neither subjective nor objective, because it is “right now” grasping. It is the unity of real time with the causes and conditions themselves. It is the transcending of merely imagined causes and conditions. It is Buddha-nature itself, released from its own substance. It is Buddha as real Buddha and nature as real nature.
For a long time, from past to present, many people have believed that the words “when the time has come” refer to a future time for which they wait until Buddha-nature reveals itself before them. They think that this time, in which Buddha-nature reveals itself before them, will come by itself if they continue their practice in this attitude. They say that Buddha-nature has not yet revealed itself before them because the time has not yet come, and they say this even while they go to a teacher, hear the Dharma, and make effort on the Buddha Way. With such a view they fall into the world of illusory future dreams and raise their eyes in vain toward the Milky Way. Such people may well be attached to the naturalism of those who are not Buddhists.
The words “if you want to understand the meaning of Buddha-nature” mean, by contrast, to understand the meaning of Buddha-nature exactly now. To grasp the causes and conditions of real time means to grasp the causes and conditions now as real time. If you want to understand this Buddha-nature, remember that the causes and conditions of real time are precisely Buddha-nature. “When the time has come” means that it is already here. What could you still doubt? Even if there is a time of doubt, it is Buddha-nature coming to you. You should know that the words “when the time has come” mean that for twenty-four hours you do not waste even a single moment uselessly. “When the time has come” is therefore the same as saying: “It is already here.” And because the time is already here, Buddha-nature does not come. Therefore the time that is now here is nothing other than Buddha-nature directly appearing before you. This means that the principle explains itself. In summary, we can say that there has never been a moment that was not here, and there has never been a Buddha-nature that did not reveal itself before us.
When the twelfth ancestor, the venerable Aśvaghoṣa, explained the ocean of Buddha-nature to the thirteenth ancestor, he said:
The mountains, rivers, and the great earth
all rest on Buddha-nature and arise through it.
Samādhi and the six powers rest on it
and are revealed through it.
Therefore all these mountains, rivers, and the great earth are the ocean of Buddha-nature. The statement that they all rest on Buddha-nature and arise through it means that the moment that lets them arise is the mountains, rivers, and the great earth. When he says that they all rest on it and arise through it, you must know that the form of the ocean of Buddha-nature is exactly like this; it has nothing to do with terms such as inside, outside, or middle. If you see mountains and rivers, you are looking at Buddha-nature itself. And when you look at Buddha-nature itself, you see a donkey’s jaw or a horse’s mouth. That they all rest on Buddha-nature means that they rest entirely on the whole. In this way you can understand it and at the same time go beyond intellectual understanding.
The other part of the statement says that samādhi and the six powers rest on it and are revealed through it. Remember that the various forms of samādhi all equally rest on Buddha-nature when they become revealed and come into the now. All six powers rest on Buddha-nature, whether they rely on the concrete or on something spiritual. These six do not include only the six supernatural powers mentioned in the Āgama sūtras, but are like three and again three concrete supernatural powers or pāramitās. Therefore you should not understand the six supernatural powers as if the hundred things were perfectly clear and the intention of Buddhas and ancestors were perfectly clear. Even if you do not attain clarity about the six supernatural powers, in reality they are still completely determined by the ocean of Buddha-nature.
The fifth ancestor, Zen Master Daiman, came from Ōbai in Kishū. He had no father when he was born, and as a child he awakened and attained the truth. Later he practiced the truth by planting pine trees. At first he planted pines on Mount Sei in Kishū. The fourth ancestor, Dai-i, happened to pass by on a walk and said to him: “I would gladly transmit the Dharma to you, but you are already too old. If you return to this world, I will wait for you.” Master Daiman agreed. He was then reborn through a daughter of the Shu family, who, according to tradition, abandoned the infant in the dirty water of a harbor. A supernatural being protected him, and for the first seven days no harm came to him. Then the Shu family took the child in after all and raised him.
When the boy was seven years old, he met the fourth ancestor, Zen Master Dai-i, on the road in Ōbai. The ancestor saw that Master Daiman had an unusually shaped head, even though he was still a child. He was no ordinary child. When the fourth ancestor saw him, he asked: “What kind of name do you have?” Master Daiman answered: “I have a name, but it is not an ordinary name.” The fourth ancestor asked: “What is this name?” Master Daiman answered: “Buddha-nature.” The fourth ancestor said: “You are without Buddha-nature.” Master Daiman said: “Because Buddha-nature is emptiness, we say that it is without something.” The fourth ancestor recognized in the boy a vessel of the Dharma and made him a monk under his authority. Later he transmitted the treasury of the true Dharma-eye to him. The fifth ancestor, Master Daiman, lived in the mountains east of Ōbai and widely taught our profound transmission.
If you thoroughly examine the statements of these old masters, there is meaning in the fourth ancestor’s question: “What kind of name do you have?” In ancient times, a person was described, for example, as “a person of WHAT-land”, and a name as “a WHAT-name”, and one person said of another that his name was “WHAT”. The question “What kind of name do you have?” is here the same as saying, for example: “I am thus, and you are also thus.” The fifth ancestor said: “I have a name, but it is not an ordinary name.” This means: My name is existence itself. But it is not an ordinary name, because an ordinary name is not the right designation for what exists here and now.
The fourth ancestor asked: “What is this name?” In this question, the “what” means the “this”. That is, the fourth ancestor used the concrete “this” to express the ungraspable “what”, which is the name. Because the “what” can realize itself only by means of the “this”, this “this” is the natural function of the “what”. The name designates both the “this” and the “what”. You use both in everyday life, for example when you prepare ordinary or green tea or when you make your meals.
The fifth ancestor said: “My name is Buddha-nature.” He meant that “this”, what exists here and now, is Buddha-nature. Because the concrete “this” is at the same time the ungraspable “what”, it is Buddha. Why should you investigate the concrete “this” only as the ungraspable “what”, since the concrete is already Buddha-nature, even when it does not appear concretely? Therefore this “this” is also the “what”, and it is Buddha. But even if the “this” is also the “what” and Buddha, even if it has freed itself and is completely bare, it still has a name. Such a name is Shu. This name does not come from the father, nor from the ancestors, and it does not resemble the mother’s name. How could it resemble that of a third person?
The fourth ancestor said: “You are without Buddha-nature.” These words mean that you are “without something”, and I leave the name to you, but at the same time, without being anything, you are Buddha-nature. You should ask and understand the following question: In what moment of now could you be without Buddha-nature? Are you without Buddha-nature when you begin as Buddhists, or when you go beyond Buddha? Do not close yourselves off from understanding Buddha-nature seven times, and do not try to realize it eight times. You can experience “being without Buddha-nature” even in a single moment of samādhi. But you must also ask and be able to answer whether you are without Buddha-nature when Buddha-nature becomes Buddha or when Buddha-nature awakens the bodhi-mind. You should ask this of the pillars outside the monastery, and you should also let the pillars themselves ask this; you should let Buddha-nature ask it.
Therefore the words “being without Buddha-nature” could be heard from the distant space of the fourth ancestor. They were heard and seen on Mount Ōbai, they were spread widely throughout the region of Jōshū, and they were praised on Mount Dai-i. You should continually investigate the statement “being without Buddha-nature” and spare no effort in doing so. Even if you can trace this “being without Buddha-nature”, there is the standard of the ungraspable “what”, and there is the real time of the now that you yourselves are. There is the “throwing oneself into the moment”, which is the concrete “this”, and there is the name that applies to all and is here Shu. In brief: being without Buddha-nature is ultimately reality here and now!
The fifth ancestor said: “Because Buddha-nature is emptiness, we say that it is without something.” The formulation clearly expresses that emptiness is not non-existence. When we say that Buddha-nature is emptiness, we do not use weight terms such as half a pound or eight ounces, but the expression “without something”. We do not speak of emptiness because it is empty, and we do not say “without something” because nothing exists. Rather, because Buddha-nature is “empty”, we call it “without something”. Therefore the real moments of being-without-something are the standard for describing this emptiness, and emptiness has the power to express this being-without-something.
Emptiness is not the emptiness of the Heart Sūtra, where it says that form is nothing other than emptiness. The statement that form is nothing other than emptiness does not describe a form that one willfully turns into abstract emptiness, nor an emptiness that one cuts apart in order to artificially produce form. The statement may rather describe a situation in which emptiness is simply emptiness. Emptiness, in which emptiness is simply emptiness, is like “a stone in empty space”. Therefore there are these questions and answers between the fourth and fifth ancestors, which treat Buddha-nature as being-without-something, Buddha-nature as emptiness, and Buddha-nature as real being.
When the sixth ancestor in China, Zen Master Daikan Enō of Mount Sōkei, first visited Master Daiman Kōnin on Mount Ōbai, the fifth ancestor asked him: “Where do you come from?” The sixth ancestor said: “I am a man from south of the mountains.” The fifth ancestor said: “What do you want to attain here?” The sixth ancestor answered: “I want to become Buddha.” The fifth ancestor said: “A man from south of the mountains is without Buddha-nature. How can you hope to become Buddha?”
This statement, “A man from south of the mountains is without Buddha-nature”, does not mean that a man from south of the mountains has Buddha-nature or does not have it. It simply says that a man from south of the mountains, without being anything, is Buddha-nature. “How can you hope to become Buddha?” is a question that means: what kind of becoming Buddha do you hope for? Fundamentally, only very few old masters have attained clarity about this principle of Buddha-nature. It goes beyond the various teachings of the Āgama sūtras, and scholars of sūtras and commentaries cannot understand it. This truth is transmitted only from master to student among the successors of Buddhas and ancestors.
The truth of Buddha-nature is that we are not endowed with Buddha-nature before we have realized the body-mind of a Buddha. Only then are we endowed with it. Buddha-nature and Buddha-realization are always experienced simultaneously and together. You should examine this fundamental truth again and again and think about it. You should experience, investigate, and practice it for twenty or thirty years. Even the bodhisattvas of the ten holy and three wise stages cannot clarify this truth. The two statements, “all living beings have Buddha-nature” and “all living beings are without Buddha-nature”, express exactly this fundamental truth. It is correct and reaches the core when you experience and learn that Buddha-nature reveals itself only when you realize the body-mind of a Buddha. If you do not learn it in this way, it is not Buddha’s Dharma. If we had not learned the Buddha-Dharma in this way, it would not have come down to us today. If you do not clarify this truth, you also cannot clarify, see, and hear what a Buddha is. Therefore the fifth ancestor, when instructing the sixth, said that a person from south of the mountains is without Buddha-nature.
When you first meet Buddha and hear the Dharma, it is difficult to hear and understand that all living beings are without Buddha-nature. If you sometimes rely on good teachers and sometimes on the sūtras, you should be filled with joy when you hear that all living beings are without Buddha-nature. Those who are not satisfied to see, hear, realize, and know that all living beings are without Buddha-nature have never seen, heard, realized, or clarified Buddha-nature. When the sixth ancestor sincerely wanted to become Buddha, the fifth ancestor understood how to make him become Buddha simply by saying that a man from south of the mountains is without Buddha-nature. He used no other words and no other means of explanation. You should therefore consider that it is the direct way to realize Buddha when you speak or hear the words that you are without Buddha-nature. Therefore, you are Buddha precisely in the moment when you are without Buddha-nature. Those who have not yet seen, heard, or been told that they are without Buddha-nature are not yet Buddhas.
The sixth ancestor said: “Among human beings there are south and north, but Buddha-nature is without south and north.” Think about this statement and make an effort to understand its core. You should think about the words “south” and “north” with a pure mind. The sixth ancestor’s statement, which expresses the truth, has a deeper meaning. It describes the standpoint that human beings can become Buddhas, but Buddha-nature cannot. Did the sixth ancestor know this or not? The expression “being without Buddha-nature”, which the fourth and fifth ancestors coined, has the power to describe Buddha-nature as it really is. This power works across time: Kāśyapa Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha, and many other Buddhas, by being Buddhas and teaching the Dharma, gained part of this power and were able to express the truth that the whole of existence is fully Buddha-nature. For how could the whole of existence truly exist if it had not received the Dharma of the not-being-something of Buddha-nature, which goes beyond all thinking?
Therefore we hear the words of the not-being-something of Buddha-nature across time from the space of the fourth and fifth ancestors. If the sixth ancestor had already been a person who realized the truth at the time of his conversation with the fifth ancestor, he would have investigated the truth of the not-being-something of Buddha-nature more deeply. If he had set aside for a while the non-existence of having or not having Buddha-nature, he would have had to ask what this Buddha-nature fundamentally is. He would have had to investigate what Buddha-nature itself is. Even today, when someone hears about Buddha-nature, they do not ask what it really is, but obviously want only to talk about whether it exists or not. This is hasty. Ultimately, this “being-without-something”, which belongs to the various negations of existence, must be investigated through the “being-without-something” of Buddha-nature itself.
You should follow the sixth ancestor’s statement, that among human beings there are south and north but Buddha-nature is without south and north, two or three times and over a long period. It may give you strength to investigate this statement. You must calmly accept and then let go of the ancestor’s words that among human beings there are south and north, but Buddha-nature is without south and north. Limited people think that in the human world, which is bounded by matter, there are south and north, while Buddha-nature, which is unbounded and empty, is beyond discussion of south and north. Whoever puts this into the mouth of the sixth ancestor may well be a weak little mind. Do not waste time on this false understanding, but give yourselves directly and seriously to practice.
The sixth ancestor instructed Gyōshō, a monk in his order, with these words: “Buddha-nature does not abide. Only the thinking mind that divides all things and phenomena into good and bad abides.”
The non-abiding of which the sixth ancestor speaks here cannot even be imagined by people outside the Buddha Way and by adherents of the two vehicles. Our ancestors, the adherents of the two vehicles, and the people outside the Buddha Way are all present moments that do not abide, even if they cannot fully recognize this. Therefore, when non-abiding naturally teaches, practices, and experiences this momentariness, it may be that nothing abides. If someone can now, in this moment, be saved by a body, a body reveals itself in this moment and teaches the Dharma. This is Buddha-nature. In addition, it may be that sometimes a great Dharma-body reveals itself and sometimes a small one. Both ordinary saints and ordinary people do not abide. If you think that ordinary people and saints cannot be Buddha-nature, this may be due to the limitation of your thinking and the narrowness of your understanding. “Buddha” is a little body, and “nature” is a little action. Therefore the sixth ancestor said: “Buddha-nature does not abide.”
What is permanent is what does not change. The absence of change has the following meaning: because what is permanent is not necessarily connected with the traces of coming and going, it is permanent even when we conceptually turn it into a separate subject and a separate object. In brief: The non-abiding moments of grasses, trees, and forests are nothing other than Buddha-nature. The non-abiding moments of body and mind of human beings are Buddha-nature. Since lands, mountains, and rivers do not abide, they are Buddha-nature. Since the truth of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi is Buddha-nature, it does not abide. Because the great parinirvāṇa does not abide, it is Buddha-nature. The various small minds of the two vehicles, as well as the scholars of the Tripiṭaka who teach the sūtras and commentaries, and others like them, may be astonished by the words of the sixth ancestor, doubt them, and fear them. If they are astonished and doubt them, they belong to the type of demons outside the Buddha Way.
The fourteenth Indian ancestor, the venerable Ryūjū, in Sanskrit Nāgārjuna, also called Ryūjū, Ryūshō, or Ryūm in Chinese, was a man from western India who went to the south of the country. There, many people believed in karma that brings happiness. The venerable one taught them another teaching, the wondrous Dharma. Those who heard him said: “The most important thing in this world is karma that brings happiness, while Nāgārjuna speaks in vain about Buddha-nature. Who could actually see Buddha-nature?” The venerable one said: “If you want to see Buddha-nature, first give up self-attachment.” The people asked him: “Is Buddha-nature large or small?” The venerable one answered: “Buddha-nature is neither large nor small, neither wide nor narrow; it is without happiness and without reward; it does not die and is not born.” When they heard these wondrous truths, their previous mind was completely transformed.
Then the venerable one revealed on his seat his liberated body, which resembled the perfect circle of the full moon. All those assembled heard only the sound of the Dharma and did not see the master’s form. Among them was Kānadeva, the son of a wealthy man. He said to the assembly: “Do you want to know what this form means, or not?” The assembly answered: “Our eyes have never before seen what is now revealing itself; our ears have never before heard of it; our mind has never before known it, and our bodies have never before experienced it.” Kānadeva said: “Here the venerable one reveals the form of Buddha-nature in order to show it to us. How do we know this? The form of formless samādhi may resemble the form of the full moon. The meaning of Buddha-nature is obvious and clear.” After these words, the form of the circle immediately disappeared, and the master was alone on his seat. Then he instructed them with the following verse:
My body reveals the roundness of the moon.
Through it the body of all Buddhas becomes visible.
The Dharma-teaching has no fixed form.
True activity is beyond sound and form.
Remember: True activity is beyond the present revelation of sound and form, and the true Dharma-teaching has no fixed form. The venerable one, Nāgārjuna, once taught Buddha-nature throughout the surrounding region and proclaimed it to the people many times. We have given only one example here. “If you want to see Buddha-nature, first give up self-attachment.” You must grasp the meaning of this statement, fully accept it, and take it to heart. It is not that this true seeing does not exist. Rather, this seeing truly exists when you give up self-attachment. There are various kinds of self, and attachment also has many forms. There are also many methods of giving up, but ultimately each giving up means seeing Buddha-nature. You realize it with your eyeballs, and you should learn to see it with your eyes.
You should not confuse the statement that Buddha-nature is neither large nor small with the words of ordinary people or those of adherents of the two vehicles. If you think that Buddha-nature is only wide and large, you cling to a false view. Rather, you should think about this principle that you have just heard. It reveals itself in this very moment through the statement “neither large nor small”. You can use this hearing, which is at the same time understanding.
Let us listen for a while to the verse of the venerable one, Nāgārjuna, in which he says: “My body reveals the roundness of the moon. Through it the body of all Buddhas becomes visible.” Because the body of all Buddhas becomes visible through the revelation of his body, it is the roundness of the moon. Therefore you should recognize and investigate everything long, short, square, or round as the revelation of this body. Those who are not familiar with the body and its revelation do not recognize the roundness of the moon, nor are they like the body of the Buddhas. Ignorant people think that what Nāgārjuna calls the roundness of the moon is the manifestation of a body that has been supernaturally transformed. But this is the false view of those who have not authentically received the Buddha-truth. At what place and at what moment could there have been another, supernatural, or different body? Remember that the venerable Nāgārjuna at that time sat alone on his raised seat. His body revealed itself in the same way as that of someone who is sitting right here. This body is nothing other than the roundness of the moon manifesting itself. The revelation of the body is neither square nor round, neither being nor non-being, neither hidden nor visible. The roundness of the moon is beyond the eighty-four thousand things and phenomena; it is simply a body that reveals itself. The words “the roundness of the moon” describe the moon in the way Master Fuke described it when he said: “Here is the place where something ungraspable exists: rough or fine, call it what you will!” Because this revealed body first had to give up self-attachment, it is not Nāgārjuna’s body, but the body of all Buddhas. Because he revealed the roundness of the moon in a concrete way, he made the body of all Buddhas visible. The imagined level of the Buddhas was insignificant here. Buddha-nature is as clear and transparent as the form of the full moon, and this form is not somehow constructed.
In addition, true activity is beyond sound and form. The body that reveals itself goes beyond the visible body and the world of the skandhas. Its appearance resembles the world of things and phenomena, but it is the body of all Buddhas because it reveals itself in a concrete way. These are the real facts of this world, which proclaim the Dharma and have no fixed form. What has no fixed form and becomes formless samādhi is also a body that reveals itself. The assembly saw the form of the full moon from afar, but their eyes had never before seen such a form. This is because, from moment to moment, the situation itself proclaimed the all-inclusive Dharma and revealed a liberated body beyond sound and form. When Nāgārjuna’s body disappeared for a moment and revealed itself again in the next moment, this was the active and passive aspect of the form of his teaching, which described a circle.
Precisely in the moment when he revealed his liberated body on his seat, all those assembled heard only the sound of his Dharma-teaching and did not see the master’s form. But his Dharma-successor, the venerable Kānadeva, recognized it concretely as the form of the full moon, as the roundness of the moon, as the revelation of a body, as the nature of all Buddhas, and as the body of all Buddhas. Although many entered the room of Master Nāgārjuna and received his teaching, there may have been none equal to Master Kānadeva. Master Kānadeva is the venerable one who received half a seat as successor; he was the leader and teacher of the whole order with the role of a deputy. Since the unsurpassed and highest Dharma of the treasury of the true Dharma-eye was authentically transmitted to him, he is equal to Mahākāśyapa, who held the first seat on Vulture Peak.
At the time before Nāgārjuna entered the Mahāyāna and still spread non-Buddhist teachings, he had many students, but he dismissed all of them. He became a Buddha and ancestor and transmitted the treasury of the great Dharma-eye only to Kānadeva, his rightful successor. The unsurpassed Buddha-truth was directly transmitted to Kānadeva. But there was a group of lying and presumptuous people who boasted that they too were Dharma-successors of the great Nāgārjuna. They wrote commentaries and developed interpretations that gave the impression that they came from the master himself. But these works are not those of the great Nāgārjuna. This group, from which Master Nāgārjuna had long since distanced himself, harmed and confused human beings and gods. Buddha’s students should simply recognize that teachings not transmitted by Kānadeva do not represent Nāgārjuna’s truth. This is what we call true trust and correct judgment. But many people accept what they themselves recognize as false. It is regrettable and sad that Nāgārjuna’s great wisdom is abused through the ignorance of these living beings.
The story reports that the venerable Kānadeva pointed to the manifesting body of the venerable Nāgārjuna and said to the assembly: “Here the venerable one reveals the form of Buddha-nature in order to show it to us. How do we know this? The form of formless samādhi may resemble the form of the full moon. The meaning of Buddha-nature is obvious and clear.” Who among the human skin-bags of past and present has ever said that a body revealing its form is Buddha-nature? Even those who had heard and seen the Buddha-Dharma that now unfolds in heaven, on earth, and in the great thousandfold Dharma-worlds did not say this. In the great thousandfold Dharma-worlds, only the venerable Kānadeva put this into words. Others say only that Buddha-nature cannot be seen with the eyes, cannot be heard with the ears, and cannot be recognized by the mind. Because they did not know that a body revealing itself is Buddha-nature, they did not say this. The old masters did not conceal this teaching from them. But their eyes were closed and their ears deaf, and therefore they could not see and could not hear Buddha-nature. The consciousness of their true body had not yet awakened, and therefore they could not recognize this teaching.
When they saw from afar the form of formless samādhi, which resembles the form of the full moon, and bowed down before it, their eyes had never before seen this. The meaning of Buddha-nature is obvious and of radiant clarity. In this way, the body that reveals itself and teaches Buddha-nature is obvious and clear. Through the body that reveals itself and teaches Buddha-nature, the body of all Buddhas becomes visible. Where could there be even one or two Buddhas who do not make the body of all Buddhas visible through their own bodies? The Buddha’s body is the true body that manifests itself. Buddha-nature exists in the form of a body that manifests itself. Even the thoughts of a Buddha or an ancestor that express and understand Buddha-nature through the four elements and the five skandhas are moments of vain body revealing itself. Master Nāgārjuna speaks of the body of all Buddhas, and this means that the world of the skandhas is like this and that all virtues have the quality of revealing the body of all Buddhas. It is the virtue of a Buddha to fully realize this body. This body includes everything. The coming and going of countless and boundless virtues are nothing other than individual moments of this body that reveals itself.
Since the time of Master Nāgārjuna and his student Kānadeva, many people who have practiced the Buddha-Dharma in earlier or later ages throughout the three countries, India, China, and Japan, have never spoken as Nāgārjuna and Kānadeva spoke. How many scholars of sūtras and commentaries, and how many others, have passed blindly by the truth of Buddhas and ancestors? Since the long-past times of the great Song dynasty in China, people have tried to represent this story in images, but they could not reproduce it either with body or with mind, either in space as sculpture or on a wall as painting. When they tried in vain to paint it with the brush, they represented a circle like a round mirror above the Dharma seat. They regarded this as Nāgārjuna’s body revealing the roundness of the moon. Already for many hundreds of years, winters and summers have passed without anyone recognizing that these images were false representations that misled people. How regrettable! Much has been falsified in this way.
If one understands Nāgārjuna’s body, which reveals the roundness of the moon, only as a circle, this is a typical example of a painted rice cake. If one wanted to mock someone over this, one could really die laughing. It is regrettable that among all the lay followers and monks of the great Song dynasty there was not one who received and understood Nāgārjuna’s and Kānadeva’s words. How much less did they know of the state of a body revealing itself? They were blind to the roundness of the moon and had no access to the full moon. This happened because they were careless toward the old masters and did not respect them enough. Earlier and present Buddhas should truly experience the manifesting body and not delight in images of painted rice cakes.
Remember that you must paint the concrete form of the body revealing itself on the Dharma seat if you paint an image of a body revealing the roundness of the moon. You should depict exactly and directly how eyebrows are raised or one eye winks. You must correctly capture skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, which are the treasury of the true Dharma-eye, in the stillness of sitting. You must reproduce the smile on the face, because it creates Buddhas and ancestors. If these images depart from the form of the moon, they do not have the form of the real. They do not teach the Dharma, they are without sound and form, and they have no true activity.
If you want to depict the body that reveals itself, you must paint the roundness of the moon. And if you want to paint the roundness of the moon, you must paint it concretely, because a body revealing itself is itself the roundness of the moon. When you depict the roundness of the moon, then paint the form of the full moon and reveal the form of the full moon yourself in zazen. But those people painted in vain the image of a rice cake, and not the body that reveals itself, not the roundness of the moon, not the form of the full moon, not the body of all Buddhas. They did not concretely paint the body that became visible through Nāgārjuna, and they did not paint the Dharma-teaching. What purpose does such an image serve? Who could immediately arrive at the now and be satisfied when opening their eyes and directly seeing such an image? The moon has a round form, and the body that reveals itself is round. When you experience what round means, you should not experience it as the round form of a coin. Nor should you compare it with the round form of a rice cake. The manifesting body is the roundness of the moon, and the form of reality is that of the full moon. You should experience the real roundness of a coin and of a rice cake.
When I was formerly a wandering monk, I came to the great Song dynasty in China. In the autumn of the sixteenth year of the Kaijō era, 1223, I visited Kōri monastery on Mount Aikuō. On the wall of the western corridor I saw the transformed faces of the thirty-three ancestors in India and China. At that time they were not yet clear to me. Later, during the summer training in the first year of the Hōgyō era, 1225, I visited the monastery again. As I was walking along the corridor with the guest attendant, a monk named Jōkei from the western Shoku district, I asked him: “What kind of transformation is depicted in this image?” The monk answered: “It is Nāgārjuna’s body revealing the form of the round moon.” When he said this, his face was expressionless, and his words sounded trivial. I said: “This seems to be the image of a rice cake.” Then he laughed loudly, but his laughter was not sharp like a sword that would have cut through the painted rice cake.
After that, as we walked together through the śarīra hall and the six special sights of the monastery, we spoke several times about the image, but the monk did not have even the slightest doubt about it. Most of the other monks who discussed it also came no closer to the core of the matter. I finally said that I would try to ask the abbot, Master Daikō. The guest attendant said: “He has no power and will not be able to answer you. How should he know?” And so I refrained from asking old Kō. The monk-brother Jōkei said this although he himself could not understand the image. Other human skin-bags who heard us speak also had nothing to say. Earlier and present superiors who held and hold high rank in monasteries do not wonder when they see such an image and do not correct it when it is discussed. Perhaps they themselves could not even paint it.
Fundamentally, the Dharma cannot be represented visually. But if we nevertheless paint it, we must paint it directly and without distortion. Until now, no one has represented the roundness of the moon in the form of a body revealing itself. In brief, because people cannot leave behind their superficial opinion that Buddha-nature is thinking, perception, mindfulness, or realization, it seems that they have lost the final part of clarity about whether Buddha-nature exists or not. Few study that they should speak the word Buddha-nature. Remember that such omission is caused by the decline of truth. Some of those who held high rank in the monastery died without having spoken even once in their lives of Buddha-nature. Some say that only those who hear the teaching, and do not practice, speak about Buddha-nature, while a patched-robed monk who practices zazen should not speak about it. Such people are truly like animals. Who are these demons who falsify the truth of the Buddha-Tathāgatas and seek to defile it? Is there anything in Buddha-truth like the concept of hearing the teaching? And is there anything in Buddha-truth like the idea of practicing zazen? You should know that in Buddha’s truth there have never been abstract ideas such as hearing the teachings or practicing zazen.
The National Teacher Saian, Enkan Saian, from the Enkan district in Kōshū, was a venerable ancestor in Baso’s line. One day he taught the assembly: “All living beings have Buddha-nature.”
You must immediately investigate and experience the words “all living beings”. The actions, ways, conditions, and particularities of all living beings differ, and their views are very diverse. Ordinary people, people outside the Buddha Way, adherents of the three and the five vehicles, and so on all have their own opinions. If we say “all living beings” in the Buddha-Dharma, this means that everything that has mind is a living being, because mind is a living being. What appears to be without mind may also be a living being, because everything that exists has mind. Therefore everything that has mind is a living being, and all living beings have Buddha-nature. Grass, trees, and lands are mind, and because they are mind, they are living beings, and because they are living beings, we say that they have Buddha-nature. The sun, moon, and stars are mind, and because they are mind, they are living beings, and since they are living beings, we say that they have Buddha-nature. This is what the National Teacher meant by the statement “all living beings have Buddha-nature”. If this is not what is meant, then it is not the Buddha-nature of which we speak in the Buddha-Dharma.
What is completely different from “all living beings” may therefore also not have Buddha-nature. But now I would like to ask the National Teacher: “Do all Buddhas have Buddha-nature?” You should ask him and test him. Listen carefully and understand that he said, “All living beings have Buddha-nature,” and not, “All living beings are Buddha-nature.” But he should let the word “have” fall away in the statement “have Buddha-nature”. This falling away makes the whole universe into a single iron ring, and the single iron ring is the way of liberation. Then the nature of all Buddhas includes all living beings. Such a principle illuminates not only living beings but also Buddha-nature. Even if the National Teacher has not fully understood and directly experienced what he expressed, he will undoubtedly realize it. What he formulated still has a certain meaning today.
Furthermore, even if you yourselves do not always understand the truth that is in you, the four elements and the five skandhas are present here and now, and you have your skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. Therefore it may be that sometimes you give a whole life in order to express this truth, and it may be that sometimes the truth expresses itself moment by moment.
Zen Master Isan Reiyū of Mount Dai-i once taught the assembly: “All living beings are without Buddha-nature.”
Some humans and gods have great capacities and rejoice when they hear this, while others, who do not have them, are astonished and doubt. Sakyamuni Buddha taught that “all living beings fully have Buddha-nature”, and Isan taught that “all living beings are without Buddha-nature”. The meanings of the words “have” Buddha-nature and “being without” Buddha-nature may seem far apart, and some will ask themselves which statement is right and which is wrong. The statement that all living beings are without Buddha-nature alone has the highest rank in the Buddha-Dharma.
Master Saian’s words that all living beings have Buddha-nature seem to be in harmony with the eternal Buddha, but it could be that they describe two men carrying one pole on their shoulders without forming a unity. By contrast, in Master Isan’s case, it may be that the pole and the two men form a complete unity. Moreover, the National Teacher Saian was a direct student of Baso, while Isan was a student in the second generation after Baso. But the Dharma-grandson was already very experienced in the truth of his Dharma-grandfather, while the Dharma-son was still somewhat inexperienced in the truth of his Dharma-father. Thus Isan ultimately comes to the conclusion that all living beings are without Buddha-nature. He does not say something outside the criteria of the Buddha-Dharma. “All living beings are without Buddha-nature” is his sūtra, which he preserves in himself in this way.
But you should investigate further. How would it be possible that all living beings are Buddha-nature, and how could they all have Buddha-nature? If any one of them has Buddha-nature, it can only be a kind of demon. In that case, people take a piece of a demon, which they call Buddha-nature, and pull it over all living beings. If Buddha-nature is simply Buddha-nature, living beings are simply living beings. Living beings are not equipped with Buddha-nature from the beginning. Even if they wanted it, Buddha-nature cannot at some point begin to come to them and then belong to them. You should not say that Mr. Chang has drunk sake, but Mr. Li is drunk from it. If living beings “had Buddha-nature”, they would not be living beings, and if there were such living beings, their Buddha-nature would not be real. Therefore Master Hyakujō said: “If we teach that all living beings have Buddha-nature, we degrade Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. If we teach that all living beings are without Buddha-nature, we also degrade Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.” Thus both become degradation, whether we say that living beings have Buddha-nature or whether we say that they are without it. But even so, one should still make such statements.
But now I would like to ask you, Isan and Hyakujō: “I admit that it is degradation, but can you explain Buddha-nature, or not? If you can explain it, the explanation stands by itself. If you can explain it rightly, it will be understood and experienced immediately upon hearing.” I would also like to say to Isan: “You have indeed expressed the truth that all living beings are without Buddha-nature, but you have not said that Buddha-nature is without living beings, and you have also not said that Buddha-nature is without Buddha-nature. More than that, you have not even dreamed that all Buddhas are without Buddha-nature. Let us see how you try once more to explain this.”
Zen Master Hyakujō taught before an assembly: “Buddha is the highest vehicle. He is unsurpassed wisdom. The truth of this Buddha is the firm ground for human beings. This Buddha has Buddha-nature. Buddha-nature is the teacher who shows the Way. It makes possible action free from hindrances. It is unbounded wisdom. Through Buddha-nature you can make meaningful use of causes and effects, and everywhere there exist happiness, wisdom, and freedom. Buddha-nature then becomes the vehicle that moves causes and effects. In life, Buddha-nature is not hindered by the bonds of life. In death, it is not hindered by the bonds of death. In the five skandhas it is like an open gate. It goes and stays unhindered by the skandhas, and it goes out and enters without obstruction. If you can be like this, and even the body of an ant can be like this, and if you do not speak of rank, inferiority, or superiority, then this is completely the pure and wondrous land. You cannot grasp it with thinking.”
So far Hyakujō’s quotation. The five skandhas are this indestructible body that acts here and now. This present moment is an open gate and unhindered by the five skandhas. If you use life moment by moment, life cannot hinder you. If you use death in every moment, death cannot hinder you. Do not love life uselessly, and do not fear death without reason. Life and death are certainly the place where Buddha-nature exists. Those whom this disturbs or injures are not Buddhists.
To recognize Buddha-nature as the manifold momentary facts revealing themselves before you means living freely and without hindrance. This is how this Buddha, who is the highest vehicle, is. Certainly the place where this Buddha exists is the pure and wondrous land.
Ōbaku was sitting in Nansen’s tea room. Nansen asked Ōbaku: “When balance and wisdom are practiced together, Buddha-nature is clearly realized. What do you think of this theory?” Ōbaku said: “If you are dependent on nothing for twenty-four hours, you already have Buddha-nature.” Nansen asked: “Is this your own view, or not?” Ōbaku said: “I would not dare to say that.” Nansen said: “For now I give you soybeans and water free of charge, but who will pay me back the price of your straw sandals?” Ōbaku did not answer.
Nansen’s statement does not mean that Buddha-nature is realized only when the practice of balance and wisdom no longer obstructs itself. Rather, it means that in the clear realization of Buddha-nature there is in fact a practice in which both balance and wisdom are practiced together. Master Nansen said: “What do you think of this theory?” To ask this may be the same as asking: “Whose action is it that clearly realizes Buddha-nature?” To say, “What do you think of the theory that Buddha-nature is clearly realized when we practice in harmony with it?” also means expressing the truth.
Ōbaku said: “If you are dependent on nothing for twenty-four hours.” This means that the twenty-four hours exist moment by moment for twenty-four hours, and they depend on nothing else. The clear realization of Buddha-nature exists because these real twenty-four hours depend on nothing. When you consider these twenty-four hours, you may ask yourselves what moments they are that come, and from what country they come. Must the twenty-four hours be those of the human world, or do twenty-four hours also exist in distant places? Or have the twenty-four hours of the white silver world of the Himalayas come to us for a while? The real twenty-four hours depend on nothing, whether they are from this earth or from other worlds. Since they are already twenty-four hours, they can depend on nothing.
The question “Is this your own view, or not?” means the same as: “You are surely not saying that this is your view, are you?” Although Nansen asks whether this is Ōbaku’s view, Ōbaku cannot simply say to Nansen that it is his own view. Even if this is exactly true, it is not Ōbaku’s subjective view. It is not about Ōbaku as a person, because it is about the view of an old ancestor who practiced for a long time and reveals this with radiant clarity.
Ōbaku said: “I would not dare to say that.” When someone in Song China is asked whether they possess a certain ability, they do not simply affirm it, but say that they would not dare to say so. This expresses that they truly have this ability. Therefore the phrase is not to be taken literally. It says that he does not dare to say it, although it is the view of a real ancestor, Master Ōbaku. This is like a water buffalo emerging from the water and letting out a deep “moo”. To speak like this is truly to speak. You too should try to express the truth with a turn of speech that really says something.
Nansen said: “For now I give you soybeans and water free of charge, but who will pay me back the price of your straw sandals?” This could also be expressed in the following words: “Let us put aside for now how much your rice gruel cost, but who will give me back the money for your straw sandals?” You should make effort for many lives to investigate and experience the intention of this statement. Exert your mind and thoroughly examine why he does not first concern himself with the cost of soybeans and water, but is interested in the price of the straw sandals. He could also say: “How many straw sandals have you worn out in the years and months of your wandering in search of truth?” Ōbaku could have answered that he had not worn any straw sandals he had not paid for. He could also have said: “Two or three pairs.” Perhaps this would have been his intention and he would have expressed the truth in this way. But Ōbaku did not answer. This means that he ended the conversation. He did not end it because he received no confirmation from Nansen, and not because he confirmed Nansen, for no true patched-robed monk would act like this. Remember that silence can be eloquent and laughter sharp as a sword. It is the clear realization of Buddha-nature when one is satisfied with rice in the morning and at noon.
After Master Isan had told this story, he asked Master Kyōzan: “Can Ōbaku not prevail against Nansen, or can he?” Kyōzan said: “It is not like that. We should know that Ōbaku was able to set a trap for the tiger.” Isan said: “The student’s view is already excellent.”
Isan’s words mean that Ōbaku at that time could not answer Nansen. Kyōzan said that Ōbaku was able to set a trap for the tiger. If he could already capture a tiger, he could also tame it. If one can capture and tame a tiger, this means living among strangers. But when one realizes Buddha-nature, this means receiving a new view or losing every view. Answer at once! Answer at once! Isan said that Kyōzan’s view of Buddha-nature was already excellent. Because this is so, half and whole things, one hundred thousand things, and one hundred thousand hours depend on nothing. One can also describe it like this: The world is an interwoven whole; the twenty-four hours, dependent or independent, are like climbing plants winding around a tree. The whole universe and all worlds contained in it already exist before a word is spoken.
A monk asked the great master Jōshū: “Does even a dog have Buddha-nature, or not?”
You must clarify the meaning and intention of this question. The Chinese character kushi means “dog”. The monk did not ask whether the dog has Buddha-nature or not. Rather, he asked simply whether a man of iron, like the master, truly practices the Way. Even when Master Jōshū was confronted with such a razor-sharp question, after thirty years he had the opportunity to meet an excellent student. Jōshū answered: “No!” There are methods and ways to investigate and learn something about this “No” that you have heard. This “No” may be a statement that describes Buddha-nature itself; it may be an expression that describes the dog; and it may also be an exclamation uttered by a third party. And one day the problem of this “No” may completely dissolve.
The monk asked further: “It is said that all living beings fully have Buddha-nature. Why does the dog exist without it?” The meaning of the question is as follows: If all living beings exist without the idea of Buddha-nature, it is clear that Buddha-nature also exists without the idea of Buddha-nature, and the same must apply to the dog. How is this? Why should the Buddha-nature of the dog depend on the words “it exists without it”? Jōshū answered: “Because it has karmic consciousness conditioned by earlier experience.” This means that the dog exists because there is consciousness, and because there is consciousness, the dog exists. Although this is so, the dog exists “without” the idea of Buddha-nature, and Buddha-nature exists “without” the idea of Buddha-nature. The dog’s consciousness can never grasp its nature. How, then, could the dog encounter its Buddha-nature? Whether you forget the dog and Buddha-nature or whether you speak about them, both are the never-ending activity of consciousness conditioned by earlier experience.
Another monk asked Jōshū: “Does Buddha-nature exist even in the dog, or not?”
The question may suggest that the monk knows how to hold his own before Jōshū. Therefore, the questions and answers about Buddha-nature are like the daily rice and tea of Buddhas and ancestors.
Jōshū answered: “It exists.” What Jōshū means by this “it exists” is neither the meaning of “existence” used by the scholars who comment on sūtras, nor the “existence” of the philosophers of the school of existence. You should therefore go one step further and investigate Buddha’s existence. Buddha’s existence is identical with Jōshū’s “it exists”. Jōshū’s statement “it exists” means that the dog exists, and because the dog exists, Buddha-nature also exists.
The monk asked further: “It already exists. Why should it necessarily enter this concrete skin-bag, this dog’s body?”
The monk is asking here whether Buddha-nature exists in the present, in the past, or already now, in this very moment. The existence of the present moment stands clearly by itself moment by moment, although it seems to resemble the other imagined forms of existence. The question is whether this existence in this moment must necessarily enter a dog’s body or whether it does not necessarily have to do so. In the act of entering this skin-bag there is no room for useless thought processes.
Jōshū answered: “Because it knowingly makes this mistake.” This statement has long been known as a worldly expression, but here it is Jōshū’s expression of the truth. He speaks of a mistake that has been made. There may be only few people who do not doubt these words. The word “entering” is difficult to understand; on the other hand, the word itself is unnecessary. For how could we recognize a person who lives beyond death in his hut if we had to leave this body now? And how would it be possible that such a person leaves his concrete skin-bag, even if he is beyond death?
Knowingly making a mistake does not necessarily mean entering this body, and when one enters this body, that does not necessarily mean that one has knowingly made a mistake. Because there is knowledge, there can also be knowing mistakes. But you should understand that even this mistake may contain doing and action that frees you from the body. This is what is meant by the words “necessarily entering”. Precisely the moment of freeing the body contains yourselves and others. At the same time, you should not lament the fate of the person who cannot avoid running behind a horse or in front of a donkey. In addition, the great ancestor Ungo said that it is already the wrong approach to use only our intellect when we study things connected with the Buddha-Dharma. Therefore, if for many days and months you have made the mistake of studying matters related to the Buddha-Dharma only with the intellect and therefore only halfway, you may fare just like the dog that necessarily enters a concrete dog’s body. Even if it knows that this is a mistake, it has Buddha-nature.
A government official named Jiku asked Master Chōsa Keishin the following question at a meeting: “A worm was cut into two parts, and both parts move. I wonder in which part Buddha-nature is located.” The master said: “Do not be deluded!” The official asked: “How should we explain the fact that they move?” The master answered: “Wind and fire have not yet dispersed.”
The official said that a worm was cut into two parts. Should we infer from this that the worm was one before it was cut? Buddhas and ancestors do not deal with such things in everyday life, because a worm does not originally consist of one part, and when it is cut, it does not consist of two. Make an effort to investigate and experience the meaning of the words “one” and “two”. He says that the two parts move together. Does he understand it to mean that the two parts were one before they were cut, or that from the higher standpoint of a Buddha they were one? You should not set aside the words “both parts”, regardless of whether the official understood them or not. If one conceptually makes the two cut parts into a unity, are they really a unity? When the official speaks of movements, does it mean that both parts move together? If the bodhisattvas move hindrances out of their balance and then remove them with their wisdom, it may be that balance and wisdom move together.
The statement “I wonder in which part Buddha-nature is located” could also be formulated in this way: “Buddha-nature was cut into two parts. I wonder in which part the worm is located.” You should thoroughly investigate this expression of the truth, that both parts move, and ask yourselves in which part Buddha-nature is located. Does this mean that Buddha-nature cannot be located in them if both move? Or does it mean that Buddha-nature can exist only in one part or the other if both move?
The master said: “Do not be deluded!” What does he mean by this? He simply said: “Do not be deluded!” Does he mean that there is no delusion when one has the fact of the two moving parts before oneself? Or does he express that there cannot be any delusion at all? Or does he mean that only Buddha-nature is without delusion? You should also investigate whether he simply said that one should not be deluded without entering into a discussion of Buddha-nature and the two parts of the worm.
We now come to the question: “How should we explain the fact that both parts move?” Does this mean that, because both parts move, one must add a level of Buddha-nature? Or does it mean that Buddha-nature cannot possibly be located in them? The master said: “Wind and fire have not yet dispersed.” Could it be that Buddha-nature is showing itself right now? Should we regard the master’s statement as Buddha-nature or as wind and fire? You should neither say that Buddha-nature appears together with wind and fire, nor should you say that when one appears, the other does not appear. Nor may you claim that wind and fire are Buddha-nature. Therefore Master Chōsa did not say that a worm has Buddha-nature, nor did he say that it does not have it. He only said that you should not be deluded and that wind and fire have not yet dispersed.
If you want to grasp the powerful activity of Buddha-nature, you should investigate Chōsa’s statement. Think calmly about this sentence, that wind and fire have not yet dispersed. What principle stands behind the words “not yet dispersed”? Does he mean that wind and fire have indeed gathered, but that the time of their dispersal has not yet come? This cannot be. With the statement “wind and fire have not yet dispersed”, Buddha teaches reality, the Dharma. At the same time, wind and fire that have not yet dispersed are themselves reality teaching Buddha. For example, when one says: “The moment has come”, this one sound expresses reality. At the same time, the moment that has come is itself the expression of the reality of this one sound. Reality is a sound because a sound is reality.
It is very naive and superficial if you think that Buddha-nature exists only while you live and disappears when you have died. As long as you live, you have Buddha-nature, and at the same time you do not have it. When you have died, you have Buddha-nature, and at the same time you do not have it. If you speak about whether wind and fire have dispersed or not, you may be discussing whether Buddha-nature has dispersed or not. Even if wind and fire disperse, it may be that Buddha-nature exists and at the same time does not exist. Even if wind and fire do not disperse, it may be that Buddha-nature exists and at the same time does not exist.
Those who claim that Buddha-nature is something material whose existence or non-existence depends on whether something moves or not are not Buddhists. Those who claim that Buddha-nature is something spiritual whose holiness or non-holiness depends on whether one is aware of it or not are also not Buddhists. Ultimately, those who say that Buddha-nature is something original whose nature or non-nature depends on whether one recognizes it or not are also not Buddhists. Since beginningless time, many ignorant people have regarded Buddha-nature as the consciousness of the holy one and took it to be the original state of the human being. One could die laughing! If you want to describe Buddha-nature further, it is simply the fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles before you; it does not necessarily have to be your everyday life. If you want to express the situation even more truly, what is this Buddha-nature? Have you fully understood it? Three heads and eight arms!
Shōbōgenzō Busshō
Presented before an assembly at Kannondōri Kōshō Hōrin-ji in Kyoto Prefecture, on the fourteenth day of the tenth lunar month in the second year of the Ninji era, 1241.
References and further reading
- Dogen Zenji, Shobogenzo – Die Schatzkammer des wahren Dharma-Auges, 4 Bände, 2013, Verlage: Kristkeitz Werner, Übersetzung: Ritsunen Gabriele Linnebach, Gudo Wafu Nishijima, ISBN: 9783921508909