A monk asked Joshu whether or not a dog has buddha-nature. The master replied, "Mu(Wu)." Being within "Mu", can you fathom "Mu", or hold "Mu"? There is no way to grasp it. I say to you. Open your hands. Just let everything go, and see. What is body and mind? What are daily activities? What is life-and-death? What is buddha-dharma? What is the secular way of life? Ultimately, what are mountains and rivers, the great earth, human beings, animals and dwellings?5 Take a careful look at these things again and again. By doing so, the dichotomy of movement and stillness is clearly and naturally unborn. However, at this time, nothing is fixed. No one can realize this [from the human point of view].6 Many have lost sight of this. People practicing Zen! You will attain this first midway on the path. Do not stop practicing even after you arrive at the end of the path.7 This is my wish!
5 In the Gakudo-yojinshu Monge Menzan said, "These 'whats' do not imply questions. In the same manner as it is said in the Shobogenzo that you should study 'what thing, how come' (the Sixth Patriarch's answer) understanding that this is not a question." See footnote 8 on monjo-no-dotoku, in the 3rd chapter, at Dogen Zen as Religion. [see below]
6 This means that the buddha-dharma can be realized by Buddhas only.
7 In the Shobogenzo-Genjokoan Dogen said, "When one's body and mind have not yet been filled with dharma, one thinks that he has gained dharma. When body and mind has [sic] been filled with dharma, he thinks something is still lacking."
A translation of Gakudo-Yojinshu found in Dogen Zen trans. by Shohaku Okumura, pg 35-36
I came across this comment recently & thought I'd share it. I haven't seen Dogen comment on this case before; and shortly after reading this I find two other short comments on this case in Eihei Koroku (vol 3 #226 and vol 9 #73). If any of you here are practicing with 'Mu' maybe this will obstruct you as it has me :)
Note 1: Footnote 6 points to another footnote later in the book about the phrase monjo-no-dotoku (expressing one's true self in the form of a question). That footnote reads as follows:
Dogen often interprets questions that appear in koans as statements. For example in the Shobogenzo Ikka-myoju (One Bright Pearl), Dogen talks about a dialogue between Gensha Shibi (Xuansha Shibei) [835-908] and a monk. The monk asked Gensha, "I heard that you have said the whole universe is one bright pearl. How should I understand it?" Dogen, commenting about this question, said, "Although the monk seemed to be stagnating in karmic mind, when he asked how he should understand, his statement was a manifestation of the great function and the great dharma itself." This means that the brightness of one pearl, that is the reality of the whole universe is only actualized by our practice in which we continually question, how we should understand it. Dogen interprets that the monk stated his understanding about Gensha's words in the form of a question.
Note 2: On occasion in this book the superscripted footnotes are not printed in the text, so I put the 7th superscript where I thought it's suppose to be.
Submitted February 25, 2018 at 05:14AM by HP_LoveKraftwerk http://ift.tt/2FtzYzF
No comments:
Post a Comment