Dogen: The Insentient Preaching Dharma, Shobogenzo, Mujo-seppo Part 2

Dogen: The Insentient Preaching Dharma, Shobogenzo, Mujo-seppo

Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Mujo-seppo, Part 2
[Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Mujo-seppo, Part 1]


The founding patriarch Great Master Tozan Gohon, while practicing under the ancestral patriarch Great Master Ungan, asks, “What people are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma?”

The ancestral patriarch Ungan says, “The non-emotional are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma.”

The founding patriarch says, “Does the master hear it or not?”

The ancestral patriarch says, “If I hear it, then you will not be able to hear my preaching of the Dharma.”

The founding patriarch says, “If that is so, I would [rather] not hear the master’s preaching of the Dharma.”

The ancestral patriarch says, “You do not even hear me preaching the Dharma; how much less [do you hear] the non-emotional preaching the Dharma.”

Then the founding patriarch sets forth the following verse and presents it to the ancestral patriarch:

How very wonderful! How very wonderful!
The non-emotional preaching the Dharma is a mystery.
If we listen with the ears, it is ultimately too difficult to understand.
If we hear the sound through the eyes, we are able to know it.

The truth expressed now in the founding patriarch’s words “What people are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma” should be painstakingly researched through the effort of one life and many lives. This question is also equipped with the virtue of an assertion. And this assertion has the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow; it is not only “the mind being transmitted by the mind.” Transmission of the mind by the mind is the pursuit of beginners and late learners, but there is a pivotal matter which has been authentically transmitted by means of the robe and authentically transmitted by means of the Dharma. How can people today expect to realize it as the ultimate in only three or four months of effort? The founding patriarch has already experienced the principle expressed in the past by the National Master that “The saints are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma,” and yet he now asks further: “What people are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma?” Should we see this as affirmation of the National Master’s words, or as non-affirmation of the National Master’s words? Should we see it as a question or as an assertion? If he does not completely affirm the National Master, how could he speak words like these? And if he completely affirms the National Master, how could he understand words like those?
Shobogenzo, Mujo-seppo, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross

Dogen’s commentary on this koan begins with his usual affirmation that it is the “words” of Buddhas and ancestors that constitute the “form” or “body” of the Buddha Dharma. Like practice/realization, delusion/enlightenment, self/other, etc., the expression and the truth of Buddhism are a nondual unity: expression/truth. In other words, just as form is emptiness, and emptiness is form (emptiness/form), Buddhist expressions (sutras, turning words, koans, etc.) are the truth of the Dharma, the truth of the Dharma is Buddhist expressions.

As Dogen sees the ancestors “words” as the very form of the ancestors “truth” he goes on to point out the necessity to apply due diligence of painstaking research – discerning the truth of Buddhas should not be done in haste.

Next, Dogen goes on to give us a clue on how to apply ourselves to this research; “This question is also equipped with the virtue of an assertion.” As Hee-Jin Kim has clearly highlighted in his works, Dogen makes much creative use of interrogatives. That this question is “equipped” with the “virtue of an assertion” means that “There are people who have the capacity to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma,” and that these people are known as “what people.” “What,” “how,” “who,” and similar interrogatives are utilized in Dogen’s Zen to indicate the reality of Buddha nature, that is, the “thusness” or “suchness” of reality – the “True person of no rank.”

Now Dogen says that the “transmission of mind by mind” is the activity of beginners and then says “but there is a pivotal matter which has been authentically transmitted by means of the robe and authentically transmitted by means of the Dharma.” Clearly, for Dogen, the “transmission of mind by mind” and the transmission of the “pivotal matter” are not one and the same thing. What is he revealing here?

He shows us where to apply ourselves in order to get to the point by saying, “The founding patriarch has already experienced the principle expressed in the past” (i.e. the principle of the National Master’s saying), then point out, “and yet he now asks further.” In other words, Dogen is pointing out that since Tozan already experienced the principle (verified its truth) in the past, his words are certainly not concerned with the same principle, even if they appear to say the same thing. In short, Dogen is saying that Tozan is not simply repeating himself.

When we consider the koan to this point in terms of this clue; the “principle in the past” and the question “now” things begin to fall together. Next, Dogen goes on to bring some of the implications of this into the light:

The ancestral patriarch Ungan says, “The non-emotional are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma.” Following the authentic transmission of this lifeblood, there can be learning in practice that is free of body and mind. Saying “The non-emotional are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma” may be, in essence and in form, [the same as saying] “the buddhas are able to hear the buddhas preaching the Dharma.” An assembly that listens to the non-emotional preaching the Dharma, whether of sentient beings or insentient beings, whether of common people or sages and saints, may just be the non-emotional itself. Relying upon its essence-and-form, we can tell the true from the false among [masters of] the past and present. Even if they have come from India in the west, if they are not true ancestral masters of the authentic transmission, we should not rely on them. Even if they have been learning continually for a thousand myriad years, if they have not received the transmission as rightful successor to rightful successor, we cannot succeed them. Now that the authentic transmission has already spread throughout the Eastern Lands, it may be easy to tell the true from the false. We might be able to receive the bones and marrow of the buddhas and the patriarchs even by listening to the expression “living beings are able to hear living beings preaching the Dharma.” When we hear the words of the ancestral patriarch Ungan and listen to the words of the National Master Daisho, if we truly evaluate them, “the saints” expressed in “The saints are able listen” may be the non-emotional, and “the non-emotional” expressed in “The non-emotional are able to hear” may be the saints. What the non-emotional preaches is the non-emotional—because the non-emotional preaching the Dharma is the non-emotional itself. Thus, the non-emotional is the preaching of Dharma and the preaching of Dharma is the non-emotional. The founding patriarch says, “If that is so, I would [rather] not hear the master’s preaching of the Dharma.” The words “If that is so,” which we now hear, take up the principle that “the non-emotional are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma.” It is in accordance with the truth of the non-emotional being able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma that “I do not hear the master’s preaching of the Dharma.” The founding patriarch at this time is not simply taking a back seat for the non-emotional preaching the Dharma; his own zeal to preach the Dharma to the non-emotional has shown itself and is piercing the sky. Not only does he physically realize that the non-emotional preaches the Dharma; in non-emotional preaching of the Dharma he has physically mastered [transcendence of] hearing and not hearing. Going further, in emotional preaching of the Dharma he has physically realized [transcendence of] preaching and not preaching—in preaching just past, preaching just now, and preaching just coming. And beyond that, in the preaching of the Dharma [that transcends] being heard and not being heard, he has completely clarified the truth [of knowing] that this is emotional and this is non-emotional.
Shobogenzo, Mujo-seppo, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross

If this teaching by Dogen has not sent some sparks up and down your spine, go back over it; it is truly a remarkable passage.

First, notice his stress on what we mentioned earlier about the “form” and “meaning” of the Buddha Dharma as a unity; the “essence and in form” of the “saying” of Buddhas.

Next, when Dogen says “may be” (the “Saying ‘The non-emotional… [may be] the same…”) he means it “is” the same.

Next, Dogen makes one of the clearest statements of a teaching that is repeated throughout his works; that by relying on the “essence-and-form” (the words and their meaning) of the expressions of Buddha ancestors (masters of the past and present) “we can tell the true from the false.”

Wow! True or false teachers of the past and present are not discerned by “sect,” “school,” “lineage,” or even “transmission certificates” – but by the essence-and-form of their expressions.

Not only does Dogen say we can discern true and false teachers (of the past and present) by investigating their expressions – but he says it will “be easy to tell true from false” because the “authentic transmission” has “already spread.” Thus, having the “form” (sutras, sayings, etc.) of the Buddha Dharma, we can discern the truth of the Buddha Dharma.

Herein lies the significance of the “pivotal matter.” What is the pivotal matter? Dogen illumines it in detail in his following commentary:

In general, hearing the Dharma is not confined to the spheres of the ear as a sense organ or of auditory consciousness: we hear the Dharma with our whole energy, with the whole mind, with the whole body, and with the whole truth, from before the time our parents were born and from before the time of [King of] Majestic Voice until the limit of the future and into the limitless future. The Dharma is heard prior to the body and after the mind. There is benefit to be got in each of these cases of hearing the Dharma. Never say that there is no benefit in hearing the Dharma without the involvement of mind-consciousness. Those whose mind has ceased and whose body is spent are able to benefit from hearing the Dharma, and those who are without mind and without body are able to benefit from hearing the Dharma. The buddhas and the patriarchs, without exception, pass through series of such instants in becoming buddhas and becoming patriarchs. How can the common intellect be fully aware of the influence of the Dharma connecting with the body-mind? It is impossible for us fully to clarify the limits of the body-mind. The merit of hearing the Dharma, once sown as a seed in the fertile ground of the body-mind, has no moment of decay; sooner or later it will grow, and, with the passing of time, it is sure to bear fruit. Stupid people think: “Without progressing on the path of understanding, and unless our memory is good, even if we listen to the Dharma tirelessly there will be no benefit. The most important thing, whether in the human world or in the heavens above, is to devote one’s body and mind to the pursuit of wide knowledge. If we immediately forget, and leave the seat a blank, what benefit can there be? What educational merit can it have?” They say this because they have not met a true teacher and have not seen a person of the fact. One who does not possess the traditional face-to-face transmission is said not to be a true teacher. One who has received the authentic transmission from buddha to buddha is a true teacher. [The time] that stupid people describe as [preaching the Dharma] being temporarily remembered in the mind-consciousness is the time when the merit of hearing the Dharma is subtly covering the whole mind and covering the whole consciousness. In this very moment, virtue is present which covers the body, which covers the moment before the body, which covers the mind, which covers the moment before the mind, which covers the moment after the mind, which covers causes, conditions, results, actions, forms, natures, substance, and energy, which covers buddhas, which covers patriarchs, which covers self-and-others, and which covers skin, flesh, bones, marrow, and so on. Realized throughout speaking and preaching and throughout [daily actions] such as sitting and lying down, the virtue pervades the meridians and pervades the sky. Truly, it is not easy to recognize such virtue of hearing the Dharma; nevertheless, if we come upon the great order of the Buddhist Patriarch and investigate the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, there will be no time when the good influence of preaching the Dharma does not lead us, and there will be no place where we do not spread the Dharma influence of hearing the Dharma. In this way, allowing moments and kalpas to be fleeting or slow, we will see results become real. We should not deliberately throw away wide knowledge; at the same time, we do not see it, in isolation, as the pivot. Practitioners should know this. The founding patriarch has realized it in physical experience.

The ancestral patriarch says, “You do not even hear me preaching the Dharma; how much less [do you hear] the non-emotional preaching the Dharma.” Here, [confronted] with the founding patriarch’s sudden manifestation of the state of continuing to experience, on the basis of real experience, the [Buddha’s] state of real experience, the ancestral patriarch loosens his collar, and seals and certifies the state as the bones and marrow of the forefathers. [He is saying,] “Even while I am preaching, you are beyond hearing!” He does not speak thus because [Tozan] is ordinary flotsam; he is certifying that the non-emotional preaching the Dharma, though multifarious, does not require the activation of the intellect. The succession that takes place at this time is truly a secret. Those in the states of the common and the sacred cannot easily arrive at it or glimpse it.

Then the founding patriarch composes and presents to the ancestral patriarch Ungan a verse which says that “the mystery of the non-emotional preaching the Dharma” is “How very wonderful! How very wonderful!” So the non-emotional, and the non-emotional preaching the Dharma, are each difficult “to consider intellectually.” How are we to see “the non-emotional” described here? We should learn in practice that it is beyond the common and the sacred, and beyond the sentient and the insentient. Common and sacred, sentient and insentient, are always, whether preached or not preached, within the orbit of intellectual consideration. The present “[non-emotional],” which may indeed be “a mystery,” and “very wonderful,” and again “very wonderful” is beyond the wisdom and the consciousness of common people and sages and saints, and is beyond the reckoning of gods and human beings.

“If we listen with the ears, it is ultimately too difficult to understand”: Even with supernatural ears, or even with universal ears that pervade the whole world and all of time, when we aim to listen with the ears, “it is ultimately too difficult to understand.” Even with an ear on a wall, or an ear on a stick, we cannot understand the non-emotional preaching the Dharma, because it is beyond sound as matter. It is not that there is no “possibility of listening with the ears,” but even if we exhaust hundreds of thousands of kalpas of effort, “it is ultimately too difficult to understand.” [The non-emotional preaching the Dharma] has the dignity of the undivided truth which is originally beyond sound and form; it does not reside in nests and dens near the common and the sacred.

“Hearing its sound through the eyes, we are able to know it.” Interpreting this expression, certain individuals think: “The activity of grass, trees, flowers, and birds being seen in the present by human eyes may be described as ‘hearing sound through the eyes.’” This point of view is completely mistaken and is not the Buddha-Dharma at all. The Buddha-Dharma has no such theory. When we learn in practice the founding patriarch’s words “hearing sound through the eyes,” the place where the sound of the non-emotional preaching the Dharma is heard, is the eyes themselves; and the place where the sound of the non-emotional preaching the Dharma is realized, is the eyes themselves. We must investigate the eyes still more widely. “Hearing sound” through the eyes must mean the same as “hearing sound” through the ears; and for this reason, “hearing sound through the eyes” can never be the same as “hearing sound” through the ears. We should not learn that “there are ears in the eyes,” we should not learn that “eyes and ears are one,” and we should not learn that “sound is realized inside eyes.” An ancient says, “The whole universe in the ten directions is a śramaṇa’s one eye.” We should not consider, by intellectual comparison, that to hear sound through this eye may be as in the founding patriarch’s words “hearing sound through the eyes.” Although we study the words of the ancient that “the whole universe in the ten directions is one eye,” the whole of the ten directions is just one eye, and furthermore, there are thousands of eyes on the tips of the fingers, there are thousands of eyes of right Dharma, there are thousands of eyes in the ears, there are thousands of eyes on the tip of the tongue, there are thousands of eyes on the tip of the mind, there are thousands of eyes of the thoroughly realized mind, there are thousands of eyes of the thoroughly realized body, there are thousands of eyes on top of a stick, there are thousands of eyes in the moment before the body, there are thousands of eyes in the moment before the mind, there are thousands of eyes of death in death, there are thousands of eyes of liveliness in liveliness, there are thousands of eyes of the self, there are thousands of eyes of the external world, there are thousands of eyes in the concrete place of eyes, there are thousands of eyes of learning in practice, there are thousands of eyes aligned vertically, and there are thousands of eyes aligned horizontally. Thus, we study that the totality of eyes is the whole universe, but still this is not physical mastery of “the eyes.” We should make it an urgent task to investigate, through the eyes, [the action of] just hearing the non-emotional preaching the Dharma. The point expressed now by the founding patriarch is that it is difficult for the ears to understand the non-emotional preaching the Dharma. It is the eyes which hear the sound. Going further, there are instances of the thoroughly realized body hearing the sound and instances of the whole body hearing the sound. Even if we fail physically to master hearing sound through the eyes, we must physically realize, and must get free from, [the truth that] “the non-emotional are able to hear the non-emotional preaching the Dharma,” for this is the truth that has been transmitted.

My late master Tendo, the eternal buddha, says, “A bottle gourd vine entwines with a bottle gourd.”

This is Dharma preaching of the non-emotional state, in which the ancestral patriarch’s right eyes have been transmitted and in which the bones and marrow have been transmitted. Relying upon the truth that all Dharma preaching is in the non-emotional state, the non-emotional preach the Dharma, which is the ancient standard, and the non-emotional preaches Dharma to the non-emotional. What do we call “the non-emotional”? Remember, those who listen to the non-emotional preaching the Dharma are just it. What do we call “preaching the Dharma”? Remember, not knowing oneself to be the non-emotional is just it.

Great Master Jisai of Tosuzan in Joshu (successor of Zen Master Suibi Mugaku, called Daido Myokaku in his lifetime, also called the eternal buddha Tosu), the story goes, is asked by a monk, “What is the non-emotional preaching the Dharma?” The master says, “No abusive language.”

What Tosu expresses here is the very Dharma plan of eternal buddhas and the ordinance of the patriarchs. Such [preaching] as the non-emotional preaching the Dharma, and Dharma preaching of the non-emotional is, in short, not to speak abusive language. Remember, the non-emotional preaching the Dharma is the whole charter of the Buddhist patriarchs. Followers of Rinzai and Tokusan cannot know it; only Buddhist patriarchs devote themselves to its investigation.
Shobogenzo, Mujo-seppo, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross

Peace,
Ted