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Dogen’s teacher & Koan mastery
Dogen’s demonstration of his teacher’s koan skill:
My late master Tendo, the eternal buddha, on the day he takes up residence on Tendo, in the first year of the Great Song era of Hogyo, says in formal preaching in the Dharma hall, “I remember the following: A monk asks Hyakujo, ‘What is a miracle?’ Hyakujo says, ‘Sitting alone on Great and Mighty Peak.’ Monks, do not be disturbed. Let the fellow kill himself by sitting for a while. If someone today were suddenly to ask, ‘Venerable [Nyo]jo, what is a miracle?’ I would only say to them, ‘What miracle could there be?’ Finally, what else? The patra of Joji having passed to Tendo, I eat meals.” ~Shobogenzo, Hatsu-u, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross
Peace,
Ted
Hola Amigo,
Speaking of eating meals. I knew/know of a fellow while sitting on the great and mighty peak, swallowed the mountain and everything else with it in his belly. This fellow knew well the mountain, the green grass, the demons and angels that reside there. What aloneness is there to speak of?
This morning, one of our patients was passing. The family crying and praying. I too shared in the palpable sadness, but even there, I can find no aloneness, Just a miracle.
Take care my brother,
“Y”
Hola my friend!
It is great to hear the clear bell ringing out through time and space.
This comment you left reminded me of something you said at another “being-time”:
Whenever there is a person of unsurpassed enlightenment, we call such a one ‘a Buddha’. When the unsurpassed enlightenment of a Buddha arises, we call this state ‘unsurpassed enlightenment’. Those who do not recognize how someone looks at the time of his or her being in such a state must surely be befuddled. This so-called ‘look’ is that of being untainted. ‘Being untainted’ does not mean being deliberately devoid of any purpose or refusing to make choices, nor is it being compulsively preoccupied with trying to be aimless or glossing over everything. How could there possibly be an untainted state in which someone is devoid of any
purpose and refuses to make choices! For instance, upon meeting someone, the untainted person does not bring to mind judgmental thoughts concerning just how that other person looks. And with both flowers and the moon, such a one does not think of adding anything to their present brightness and color. Such a one does not attempt to evade the feelings that a spring day is spring just as it is, or that the beauty or dreariness of an autumn day is autumn just as it is, and he or she will be aware that this is not to be taken as being separate from himself, or even as being part and parcel of himself. But such a one may reflect upon the sounds of spring and autumn as being part of himself or as being separate from himself. And there is nothing that such a one is adding to himself nor does he have any thought that even now he still has a self. This means that such a one will not see the four elements and the five skandhas of the present as himself, nor will he trace them back to someone else. Hence, we should not treat the images in the mind which are evoked by flowers and moon as being ourself, though we are prone to do so. If we consider that which is not ourself to be our self, well then, we do so, but when we illumine the condition where there is no color that repels us nor any that attracts us, then our everyday behavior as monks who have realized the Way conceals nothing, for this is what our original Buddha Nature is.
Shobogenzo, Yui Butsu Yo Butsu, Hubert Nearman
Thank you!
Peace,
Ted
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