I’ve been referring to a text called the BENDOWA by Zen Master Dogen. Dogen Zenji was a 13th century Zen monk who is considered the founder of the Soto Zen tradition, which we practice here at the Shinzo Zen
Meditation Center . Of course, at the time he was writing, he didn’t know he was the founder of the Soto Zen tradition. We ’ve sort of made that up after the fact. He was just trying to figure out what to do with his life. And in the course of trying to figure out what to do what his life, he went to China to study with various teachers there. He settled on a teacher named Nyojo, who for him, clarified the great matter of life and death, or clarified life-long practice. So, he felt that after he had studied in this manner with that teacher, he could move ahead.
Well, he wanted to go back to Japan because that was his home and his intention was to try to bring some of these teachings to Japan. When he got back to his home base, his monastery in Kyoto, they didn’t receive him well because he was bringing teachings that were strange and unfamiliar and against the grain of what they were accustomed to at that time in Japan. So, he ended up leaving the monastery, and it’s not clear if that was voluntary or not. But he left the monastery and went a little bit farther north, into the sub urbs of Kyoto. And that’s where we pick up on the readings for today.
Now, he says he felt a heavy burden with having to bring these teachings to Japan. He felt an obligation, actually, to do that. “In spite of that, I set aside my vow to propagate this in order wait for conditions under which it could flourish.
” He was basically homeless at that time. And he says, “For now, I will live alone, moving from place to place like a cloud or like duckweed and follow the way of the ancient sages.
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Duckweed grows on ponds. It grows here in Missouri, as well as in Japan. So, he thought well, how am I going to accomplish anything? He says of himself, “Since this unworthy wayfarer is living now like a cloud or duckweed, how will people find the mountain or river where they can visit me ?” Monasteries are usually named after mountains or rivers so people can locate them. “Because I care about these people who might be interested in studying. I have recollected and written about what I saw with my own eyes of the style of practice in the Zen monasteries in Song, China. And what I receive and uphold as the profound teaching of my master.
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So, for one thing , if there hadn’t been this situation, he wouldn’t have been writing, and we wouldn’t have these word s to refer to. So, that’s interesting to think about. Because if a bunch of people would have followed him out of the monastery and he were involved in setting up his own monastery right away, and he had these people he was having to teach and give talks, in addition to running the monastery, there wouldn’t be any of these writings, presumably, because he wouldn’t have time or occasion to do so.
Then there is a section that runs about three pages, which is recited in Soto Zen monasteries today. It ’s writing that can be hard to know what to do with using our ordinary, left-brain minds.
Carol and I attended a retreat in Santa Fe which focused on the works of Dogen. Experts from all over gave talks and conducted workshops. One of the messages I took away was “You can trust Dogen. He’s not crazy. Even though it may sound crazy at times, you can trust him.
” I’ve taken that spirit to his writings ever since.
So he goes on, “For all ancestors and Buddhas who have been dwelling in and maintaining Buddha Dharma, practicing upright sitting, in Jijuyu Z anmai.” It’s sometimes translated as “self-fulfilling meditation.” Or, more literally, it’s bringing full function to oneself. Whole-hearted practice. Whole-hearted sitting meditation practice.
“This Jujuyu Zanmai is the true path for opening up enlightenment. Both in India and in China those who have attained enlightenment have followed this way. This is because each teacher and each disciple has intimately and correctly transmitting this subtle method in receiving and maintaining its true spirit.
” Here he’s talking about this person-to-person phenomenon.
“According to the unmistakably handed down tradition, the straight forward Buddha Dharma that has simply been transmitted is supreme among the supreme. From the time you begin practicing with the teacher the practices of incense burning, bowing, nembutsu repentance and reading sutras are not at all essential. Just sit, dropping off body and mind.
” So this attitude is probably one of the things that got him in trouble at the home base monastery in Kyoto because their practice included a lot of chanting, and of course burning of incense, bowing, all of these things which are retained in Zen centers to this day. Ne mbutsu is repeating the Buddha’s name over and over again in a particular way, as a devotional exercise. What he’s saying is, all these things are fine but they’re all inessential. Sitting meditation practice is the essential practice.

“When one displays the Buddha Mudra with one’s whole body and mind, sitting upright, in this Samadhi, even for a short time, everything in the entire Dharma world becomes Buddha Mudra. And all space in the universe completely becomes enlightenment.
” Buddha Mudra refers to the attitude or posture of the Buddha or of an awakened person, assuming that attitude. It’s one of the justifications for having these Buddha figures on altars or just having them around, as a reminder. It helps place one in that attitude. And some of them are just very beautifully done and evoke a certain peacefulness. When one displays that with one’s whole body and mind– again referring to that wholeheartedness.
“Therefore, it enables a buddha or awakened beings “to increase the dharma joy of their own original grounds and renew the adornment of the way of awakening. Simultaneously, all living beings of the Dharma world, (of the world of phenomena, of the world as it exists) in the ten directions and six realms, become clear and pure in body and mind, realize great emancipation and their own original face appears. At this time all things together awaken to supreme enlightenment and utilize buddha body, immediately going beyond the culmination of awakening, and sit upright under the kingly bodhi tree. At the same time, they turn the incomparable dharma wheel, and begin expressing ultimate and unfabricated profound wisdom.
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There are a lot of superlatives there. I think part of it, particularly in the West, is that we tend to categorize knowledge. We’ve got biochemistry. We’ve got nuclear physics. We’ve got pre-Socratic philosophy. We’ve got a host of categories. And then we credential experts in those little categories. And with seven billion people in the world, even with all those different categories, there’s always an expert on something out there. In a way, it’s kind of stifling. No matter what the topic is, there are always many, many people who know more about it than you do, presumably.
I think the knowledge Dogen is talking about is clearly not like this. He clearly is not talking about when you study algebra and do the sample questions and you feel like you ’ve mastered algebra. That doesn’t mean that all living beings have also mastered algebra at the same time, at that same moment.
In a way, to me, it seems like Dogen is wanting to, first of all, emphasize that sitting meditation practice is something special. He’s also wanting to open your mind to possibilities. Now all these things involve a dangerous razor’s edge because with sitting mediation practice, oftentimes people coming into it have expectations. Usually the instruction is to just drop those expectations. You might have expectations such as, if I do this meditation practice, I’ve heard that it will bring peacefulness to my life. I won’t be as anxious. It’ll solve my problem with insomnia. It will help me with a number of things in my life and all these thoughts I don ’t like will go away. If somebody’s really Type A, they might ask, how many minutes do I need to do this every day in order to achieve that, and how long will it take until it happens? And, generally, the advic e, is “Don’t go there.” Don’t create those expectations. Just do the sitting practice, and be open to what happens.
I think on the other side, we can, in a way, tilt too far the other direction and just think well, there’s nothing to this.
I’m just sitting here in my room meditating and nothing else is happening in the universe. I think Dogen is wanting us to open our minds to the possibility that in sitting meditation pra ctice, there’s something profound that is accessible, and to just not allow us to limit .
There’s another writing on Dogen’s Fukanzazenji which talks about a description on how to sit zazen. And he ends that with this short paragraph that “Zazen”, (or sitting meditation practice) “is not just learning to do concentration. It is the Dharma gate of great ease and joy. It is unsurpassed practice enlightenment.
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I think it’s helpful to bring that spirit of openness to meditation practice and everything we do. As we’ll go on next time, he talks about grasses and trees and pebbles and tiles being affected by our zazen. I think it’s important to keep in mind our Western biases, prejudices, and limitations of mind that have really discounted the interdependence of all that’s around us. And it is clearly getting us in trouble.
I’ll stop there, and I wonder if there are any questions about those passages or anything else related to meditation practice or anything related to life in general that you would want to share or discuss.