Walking the Razor's Edge of Zen Practice-Realization

Like many Medieval Japanese Buddhists, Dogen was greatly interested in and influenced by the Buddhist teachings of "Hongaku" (original enlightenment). While Dogen fully appropriated elements of hongaku thought, he vehemently disparaged views he considered as inauthentic or outright aberrant.

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Distorted teachings and superficial interpretations of hongaku popularly advanced notions that minimized or denied the significance of ethical codes and spiritual practices. Many interpreted “original enlightenment” simplistically, making the false assumption that because all beings are Buddha-nature as they are, all beings are enlightened as they are. Such shallow interpretations were not only used to justify the abandonment of spiritual practice, but to engage in harmful and immoral behavior.

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Dogen consistently sought to expose the fallacies of one-sided (naturalistic, and essentialist) notions throughout his teaching career. Keenly aware of the dangers of provoking the antagonism of the volatile political, religious, and military powers, thus his criticism, ostensibly, was directed at "non-Buddhist doctrines Naturalism”, particularly as proclaimed by the Indian teacher, Senika.

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This doctrine proclaimed that living beings were innately endowed with an inherent “spiritual intelligence”, or “divine nature”, which alone was real. This “divine nature”, according to Senika, was the only reality. It infused all living beings, was unchanging, eternal, and was not subject to birth and death. Birth was simply a matter of this “nature” entering a material body which would simply be sloughed off at the time of death like an old set of clothing.

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If “divine nature” is replaced with “Buddha-nature”, the viewpoint proposed by those advocating distorted explanations of “original enlightenment”, was almost exactly that of Senika’s “Naturalism”, thus it furnished Dogen with an ideal pretext to repudiate these distortions. “Naturalism”, along with “Senika” (and sometimes Ta-hui), appear throughout Dogen’s works as symbols of heresy, superstition, narrow-mindedness, and stupidity.

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Senika’s "Naturalism" and the superficial notions of "Hongaku" both suggested that the world was divided up into mind and matter, or essence and form; the human body was viewed as temporal, while the mind was supposed to be eternal. In Shobogenzo, Bendowa, Dogen responds to a questioner that asks about this view:

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If we equate the present wrong view that “mind is eternal but forms perish” with the splendid Dharma of the buddhas, thinking that we have escaped life and death when we are promoting the original cause of life and death, are we not being stupid? That would be most pitiful. Knowing that this [wrong view] is just the wrong view of non-Buddhists, we should not touch it with our ears.

Shobogenzo, Bendowa, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross

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Dogen goes on in the same fascicle to vehemently, and convincingly argue that views suggesting a real division between “essence and form” or “mind and body” are not only misguided, they are harmful. Dogen points out that all the Buddhist "lineages" (not just Zen) have clearly proclaimed the nonduality of mind/body, essence/form--what is true of mind is true of body, both arise and perish moment to moment:

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"So remember, in the Buddha-Dharma, because the body and mind are originally one reality, the saying that essence and form are not two has been understood equally in the Western Heavens and the Eastern Lands, and we should never dare to go against it. Further, in the lineages that discuss eternal existence, the myriad dharmas are all eternal existence: body and mind are not divided. And in the lineages that discuss extinction, all dharmas are extinction: essence and form are not divided. How could we say, on the contrary, that the body is mortal but the mind is eternal? Does that not violate right reason? Furthermore, we should realize that living-and-dying is just nirvana; [Buddhists] have never discussed nirvana outside of living-and-dying. Moreover, even if we wrongly imagine the understanding that “mind becomes eternal by getting free of the body” to be the same as the buddha-wisdom that is free of life and death, the mind that is conscious of this understanding still appears and disappears momentarily, and so it is not eternal at all. Then isn’t [this understanding] unreliable? We should taste and reflect. The principle that body and mind are one reality is being constantly spoken by the Buddha-Dharma. So how could it be, on the contrary, that while this body appears and disappears, the mind independently leaves the body and does not appear or disappear? If there is a time when [body and mind] are one reality, and another time when they are not one reality, then it might naturally follow that the Buddha’s preaching has been false."

Shobogenzo, Bendowa, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross

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Dogen's teaching is consistent with all the classic Zen masters in the affirmation of the dynamic nonduality of body and mind. In Dogen’s works "jin" (body) and "shin" (mind) are frequently combined as "jinshin" (body-mind). This method of combining two (or more) foci (plural of "focus") to underscore nonduality is a common feature in Dogen’s works.

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With a deep understanding of nonduality we can see why Dogen was so adamantly committed to exposing biased views. Comprehending the simultaneity of both the “unity” and “particularity” of body-and-mind (as well practice-and-realization, emptiness-and-form, expression-and-understanding, etc.) is central to the transmission of the True-Dharma Eye.

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According to Dogen, authentic practice-realization is only possible at, and as the very pivot-point of here-and-now. Traversing the “razor’s edge”, so to speak, between Buddha-nature and the myriad dharmas— without denying or reifying either. The mind is established here and now with the body-mind. The real body-mind is the body-mind as it is—and the as it is is the real body-mind here and now.

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The relative "here and now," is not universalized, and the universal "here and now," is not particularized—they are not one, not two.

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This is often demonstrated in Dogen’s works with his adaption (and slight modification) of the dynamic Huayen Buddhist doctrine of “mutual penetration and non-obstruction.” Here is one lovely example:

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Grass, trees, tiles, and pebbles, and the four elements and five aggregates, are all equally “the mind alone,” and are all equally “real form.” The whole universe in ten directions, and the true and real buddha-nature, are both the Dharma abiding in the Dharma’s place. In the true and real buddha-nature, how could there be such things as “grass” and “trees”? How could grass, trees, and so on not be the true and real buddhanature? All dharmas are beyond “intentional doing” and beyond “nondoing”; they are real form. Real form is real form as it is, and the as-it-is is the body-mind here and now. With this body-mind we should establish the mind. Do not be averse to treading in water or treading on rocks. Just to take one stalk of grass and make it into the sixteen-foot golden body, or to take one particle of dust and construct an eternal buddha’s stupa or shrine, is the establishment of the bodhi-mind itself. It is to meet Buddha, to listen to Buddha, to meet Dharma, to listen to Dharma, to become Buddha, and to act as Buddha.

Shobogenzo, Hotsu-mujoshin, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross

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Peace,

Ted