Xiàn-chéng Gong-an
This first chapter in the Shobogenzo collection is the "Genjo-koan."
It was written when Dogen was 34 years old.
Now when Dogen was in China, the gong-an (koan) was the most important element in training. It would not be a surprise then if we were to find that the pre-preparation for the Last Conceptualization of the Experience of Emptiness was generated in a gong-an (koan) form by Dogen.
The gong-ans were first introduced into Japanese Buddha Dharma by Daie Soko (1089).
Often, the Rinzai trainee would be given a gong-an to consider in his sitting meditation, introduced clearly before the session as a task. This risks the accusation of generating intellectual pursuit of the gong-an.
Because Dogen found no great adherence to the typical method of gong-ans, he turned to Caodong, where a slightly different and essential mode was employed.
The Soto model lays great stress on "sitting contemplation" and "daily life" and also adheres to the Caodong belief that a koan should be expressible in daily practice.
They are not puzzles which must be solved and even in the correct use in the Rinzai model never employs that approach. Nevertheless, here we must make clear that in the Caodong / Soto training the gong-an method is different from that of Rinzai.
Today, the disciplined life of a Soto adept must be a gong-an, in and of itself.
Thus gong-ans are drawn out from the students themselves and transformed into a gong-an. Thus the gong-ans become individual devices which the Master turns in the correct direction.
The Genjo-koan is then a perfect gong-an or rather a set of gong-ans given by Dogen, which probably arose within himself and was written down.
The gong-ans which are an essential part of Caodong and Soto training must arise within each adept in the same way and in with the same direction and thrust and as that of Dogen.
The characters of Genjo-koan give us a fine clue here.
Xiàn-chéng Gong-an means "Readily Available Gong-ans."
THE GENJO GONG-AN ITSELF
Here we set sections apart for easier study:
When all things are Buddhism, delusion and Awakening exist, training exists, life and death exist, Buddhas exist, all-beings exist.
When all things belong to the not-self, there are no delusion, no enlightenment, no all beings, no birth and decay.
Because the Buddha's way transcends the relative and absolute, birth and decay exist, no delusion and Awakening exist, all-beings and Buddhas exist.
And despite this, flowers fall while we treasure their bloom; weeds flourish while we wish them dead. To train and enlighten all things from the self is delusion; to train and Awaken the self from all things is Awakening.
This is, first of all, an expression of the two truths, which are one truth, yet still illusion. All then is indeed emptiness. When we awaken by grasping this truth, that the Buddha Dharma way transcends both the relative and the absolute, we can treasure the flowers' bloom, wish the weeds to fall away and yet be free from the accepted illusion or the illusion beyond.
Those who awaken their delusion are Buddhas; those deluded in Awakening are all-beings.
Again there are those who are Awakened on Awakening and those deluded within delusion.
When Buddhas are really Buddhas, we need not know our identity with the Buddhas. But we are Awakened Buddhas -and express the Buddha in daily life.
Everything that we conceptualize as Awakening or delusion is likewise Empty. We need know nothing of either when we are without intellect responding to what is natural. It is then that Emptiness is understood and applicable without conscious thought in daily life. Emptiness then arises beyond any experience that is conceptual of Emptiness.
When we see objects and hear voices with all our body and mind -and grasp them intimately- it is not a phenomenon like a mirror reflecting form or like a moon reflected on water.
When we understand one side, the other side remains in darkness.
What a mirror reflects is just an image that is allied to another external image.
Those once again present the two truths, one the image and the other the image of the image. When one clings to the former the later is lost. If one clings to the latter the former is lost. Both must be realeased and understood as one image of illusion. Both are essentially part of one Emptiness.
To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be Awakened by all things.
To be awakened by all things is to be free from attachment to the body and mind of one's self and of others.
It means wiping out even attachment to satori. Wiping out attachment to satori, we must enter actual society. When man first recognizes the true law, he unequivocally frees himself from the border of truth.
This is clear. When a man recognizes the true law, which is the Emptiness of all phenomena and their counterparts, he frees himself even from Truth.
He who awakens the true law in himself immediately becomes the original man. If in riding a boat you look toward the shore, you erroneously think that the shore is moving. But upon looking carefully at the ship, you see that it is the ship that is actually moving. Similarly, seeing all things through a misconception of your body and mind gives rise to the mistake that this mind and substance are eternal.
If you live truly and return to the source, it is clear that all things have no substance. Burning logs become ashes -and cannot return again to logs. Therefore you should not view ashes as after and logs as before. You must understand that a burning log -as a burning log- has before and after. But although it has past and future, it is cut off from past and future.
Here once again Emptiness is the key to understanding the gong-an.
Indeed if you carefully examine all the gong-an elements you will discover the same theme of EMPTINESS hidden within each one.
THE MISUSE OF GONG-ANS
What will one have gained if one simply makes this examination using intellect?
Nothing.
What will one have gained using them as traditional gong-ans?
Nothing.
These gong-ans are not in any way to be used as gong-ans in and of themselves.
They are merely examples of the spontaneaous REFLECTION that is minimal upon the theme of Emptiness. They are, if you will, Last conceptual REFLECTIONS of Emptiness. They are, when brought out from the mind store, simply the stimulus (Buddha's vitakka) from which the essential absorption EXPERIENCE (Buddha's vicara) is born.
Each adept must also allow this spontaneous dwelling upon the verbal descriptions of Emptiness which emerge as a result of being in contact with the precious daily illusion of existence. In other words, your own gong-ans may emerge from daily life and they must be recognized understood and used effectively.
Allow these to arise in oneself and dwell with them. As a result of these gong-ans which can arise from daily experiences, the REFLECTIONS will have been accomplished and the later Experiences awakened.
With careful holding of the Reflection or Experience of emptiness without the slightest mind contamintion you will be prepared correctly for the "Sitting Contemplations" or, as Soto would declare, "Just Sitting."
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE THE ABILITY
THE DIRECT LAST CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE EXPERIENCE OF EMPTINESS
This may arise from a noise, a shooting star, or the sudden unexpected rush of a torrent. Once againnit is important for the student to be constantly ware that EMPTINESS is the natural state of all things mirrored within apparent illusions.
In fact, it was the late Ku-Xin-Shan that experienced this rushing torrent suddenly when walking in the woods and understood the Last Conceptualization of the Experience of Emptiness.
Dwelling thus, with these Emptiness Experiences, without setting this as a target to be brought into the "sitting Contemplation" itself during contemplation, the great joy of the mind and the latent impulse to act will provoke the entry, when it is appropriate, beyond the last Conceptualization. This is the Gateway to the Awakening by way of forms.
Examine the following spontaneous generations of Emptiness of Dogen:
Ashes as ashes have after and before. Just as ashes do not become logs again after becoming ashes, man does not live again after death. So not to say that life becomes death is a natural standpoint of Buddhism. So this is called no-life.
To say that death does not become life is the fixed sermon of the Buddha. So this is called no-death.
Life is a position of time, and death is a position of time . . . just like winter and spring. You must not believe that winter becomes spring -nor can you say that spring becomes summer. When a man gains Awakening, it is like the moon reflecting on water: the moon does not become wet, nor is the water ruffled.
Even though the moon gives immense and far-reaching light, it is reflected in a puddle of water. The full moon and the entire sky are reflected in a dewdrop on the grass. Just as Awakening does not hinder man, the moon does not hinder the water.
Just as man does not obstruct Awakening, the dewdrop does not obstruct the moon in the sky. The deeper the moonlight reflected in the water, the higher the moon itself. You must realize that how short or long a time the moon is reflected in the water testifies to how small or large the water is, and how narrow or full the moon.
When the true law is not fully absorbed by our body and mind, we think that it is sufficient. But if the right law is fully enfolded by our body and mind, we feel that something is missing. For example, when you take a boat to sea, where mountains are out of sight, and look around, you see only roundness; you cannot see anything else. But this great ocean is neither round nor square. Its other characteristics are countless.
Some see it as a palace, other as an ornament. We only see it as round for the time being within the field of our vision: this is the way we see all things. Though various things are contained in this world of enlightenment, we can see and understand only as far as the vision of a Zen trainee. To know the essence of all things, you should realize that in addition to appearance as a square or circle, there are many other characteristics of ocean and mountain and that there are many worlds. It is not a matter of environment: you must understand that a drop contains the ocean and that the right law is directly beneath your feet.
When fish go through water, there is no end to the water no matter how far they go. When birds fly in the sky, there is no end to the sky no matter how far they fly. But neither fish nor birds have been separated from the water or sky from the very beginning. It is only this: when a great need arises, a great use arises; when there is little need, there is little use. Therefore, they realize full function in each thing and free ability according to each place.
But if birds separate themselves from the sky they die; if fish separate themselves from water they die. You must realize that fish live by water and birds by sky. And it can be said that the sky lives by birds and the water by fish, and those birds are life and fish are life. You probably will be able to find other variations of this idea among men, although there are training and enlightenment and long and short lives, all are modes of truth itself. But if after going through water, fish try to go farther, or if after going through the sky, birds try to go farther they cannot find a way or a resting place in water or sky.
If you find this place, your conduct will be vitalized, and the way will be expressed naturally. If you find this way, your conduct is realized truth in daily life. This way and place cannot be grasped by relative conceptions like large and small, self and others - neither are they there from the beginning nor emerging now. They are there just as they ought to be. Because the way and place are like this if, in practicing Buddhism, you pick up one thing, you penetrate one thing; if you complete one practice, you penetrate one practice. When deeply expressing this place and way, we do not realize it clearly because this activity is simultaneous with and interfused with the study of Buddhism.
You must not think that upon gaining enlightenment you can always become aware of it as personal knowledge. Although we are already awakened, what we intimately have is not necessarily expressed, and we cannot point it out definitely.
Zen master Pao-ch'ih was fanning himself one summer day when a passing priest asked: The nature of wind is stationary, and it is universally present. Why do you then use your fan, sir? The Zen master replied: Though you know the nature of wind is stationary, you do not know why it is universally present.
The priest asked, Why then is the wind universally present?
The master only fanned himself, and the priest saluted him.
Enlightenment through true experience and the vital way of right transmission are like this. Those who deny the need for fanning because the nature of wind is stationary and because the wind is sensed without the use of a fan understand neither the eternal presence of the wind nor its nature.
Because the nature of wind is eternally present, the wind of Buddhism turns the earth to gold and ripens the rivers to ghee.