FREE Zen Newsletter!
Posts
Shobogenzo, Genjokoan: Study
and the Commentary from
The Flatbed Sutra of LouieWing by Ted
Biringer
PART 7
There are people in the midst of delusion
adding to delusion.
.
Dogen is not
simply repeating his previous point but indicating something else. In Shobogenzo, Keisei-Sanshiki, Dogen uses the same phrase in a manner
that suggests its deeper implication:
When [a person] tells people who do not
know the will to the truth about the will to the truth, the good advice offends
their ears, and so they do not reflect upon themselves, but [only] bear
resentment towards the other person. As a general rule concerning actions and vows,
which are the bodhi-mind, we should not intend to let worldly people know
whether or not we have established the bodhi-mind or whether or not we are practicing
the truth; we should endeavor to be unknown. How much less could we boast about
ourselves? Because people today rarely seek what is real, when the praises of
others are available, they seem to want someone to say that their practice and
understanding have become harmonized, even though there is no practice in their
body, and no realization in their mind. “In delusion
adding to delusion” describes exactly this.xxix
In this
passage, Dogen defines the condition of “increasing delusion in the midst of
delusion” as the denial
of delusion. That is to
say, when people in delusion deny they are deluded (or assert they are
enlightened) they are “in delusion adding to delusion.”
Looking at
case one of the Blue
Cliff Record can shed
some light on this particular condition. The koan reads:
Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma, “What is
the ultimate meaning of the holy truths?”
Bodhidharma said, “Vast emptiness,
nothing holy.”
The Emperor asked, “Who is facing me?”
Bodhidharma responded, “I don’t know.”
The Emperor did not understand. After
this Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtse River and traveled to the
kingdom of Wei. Later the Emperor asked
Master Chih about it. Master Chih asked, “Do you know who this man is?”
The Emperor said, “I don’t know.”
Master Chih said, “He is the great
bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara, transmitting the confirmation of the buddha-mind.”
The Emperor was regretful and wanted to
send an envoy to bring Bodhidharma back. Master Chih said, “Don’t say you will
send someone to bring him back. Even if everyone in China went after him, he
would not return.”
Commenting on
the line “The Emperor did not understand,” Engo says, “Too bad! Still, he’s
gotten somewhere.” The meaning of Engo’s comment, “Still, he’s gotten
somewhere,” illumines what Dogen means by “in delusion adding to delusion.” In
following the reasoning here, Emperor Wu was “adding to delusion” when he thought he knew something (asserted his enlightenment). However,
(although he is still in delusion) after his meeting with Bodhidharma, he
admits that he does “not understand,” that is, he does not deny his own delusion. The Emperor is in delusion (not
enlightened), but he is no longer adding to
delusion (by asserting his enlightenment).
Recognizing
and acknowledging the reality of your own delusion is a prerequisite to
enlightenment. For arousing the necessary will for enlightenment is only
possible when you recognize and acknowledge your own delusion. For Dogen,
recognition and acknowledgement of your delusion is simultaneous with
enlightenment. Throughout the Shobogenzo, Dogen remains ever-aware of the nondual
nature of delusion and enlightenment. For as we read above, buddhas are those “who
are enlightened about delusion.” Dogen does not say that buddhas are free from delusion, as is sometimes proclaimed
by people without a clear understanding of Zen.
The Genjokoan goes on to say:
When buddhas are buddhas, they do not
know they are buddhas.
This line
points out that when buddhas are experiencing the condition of Buddhahood,
there is nothing but Buddha in the whole universe. This is the condition that
is sometimes described in Buddhist literature as the state where the known and the knower (or
actor and action) are one. Obviously, for a buddha to have the thought, “I am a
buddha,” they would have to perceive themselves as something (buddha) in
opposition to something else (not buddha), hence; they would not be in the
condition of Buddhahood. That does not mean there are no buddhas, as the Genjokoan points out next:
Nevertheless, buddhas are buddhas and
continuously actualize Buddhahood.
The condition
of Buddhahood is not something that is gained, but
something that is discovered and activated; that
is, the nature of delusion is illumined and your original Buddhahood is realized. Of course, this experience is only
called Buddhahood to differentiate it from delusion. When you speak of a state
beyond delusion you call it “Buddhahood.” However, in the absolute sense, as in
Dogen’s opening lines to Genjokoan, there is nothing to be grasped (no
buddhas, no ordinary beings, etc.) and in the transcendent sense, buddhas and
ordinary beings always contain and include each other.
In the actual
experience of Buddhahood all names and labels are meaningless; for from the
perspective of oneness or emptiness, differentiation does not exist. Even “oneness” is a relative term–that is, oneness is
relative and only valid in contrast to multiplicity. Therefore, when
differentiation is truly dissolved so, too, is oneness or Buddhahood.
One wonderful
Zen expression of this principle is a verse attributed to Ananda, one of Buddha’s
disciples and the traditional Second Ancestor of Zen in India:
When we are awake to the truth, even the
nondharma does not exist.xxx
The simple
fact that the Genjokoan
goes to such lengths to
describe the nature and actual experience of Buddhahood is enough to put Dogen
in a very exclusive minority. When the experience of Buddhahood is described, it is usually simply described
as “indescribable.” In Genjokoan, Dogen not only describes
characteristics like “buddhas do not know they are buddhas” and that buddhas “continuously
actualize Buddhahood,” he also describes why and
how that is. The Genjokoan explains:
Mustering the whole body-and-mind to look
at forms, and mustering the whole body-and-mind to listen to sounds, they
perceive them directly; not like an image reflected in a mirror, and not like
the reflection of the moon on water.
This is a
description of the condition called Buddhahood. “Buddha” describes a person in
the activity or condition of authentic practice and enlightenment, the deeper
meaning of zazen. The keystone of Zen practice is not “sitting meditation”
(though that is where it is often first discovered), it is “mustering the whole
body-and-mind” and perceiving the world directly…
xxix Gudo Nishijima & Chodo Cross, Master
Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Keisei-Sanshiki, Book 1, 91
xxx
Ogata, Sohaku, The
Transmission of the Lamp, 10
…To Be
Continued…
No comments:
Post a Comment