FUKANZAZENGI by Eihei Dogen the Way Is Basically Perfect and All

FUKANZAZENGI by Eihei Dogen

The Way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma-vehicle is free and untrammelled. What need is there for concentrated effort? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one, right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice?

And yet, if there is the slightest discrepancy, the Way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the Mind is lost in confusion. Suppose one gains pride of understanding and inflates one's own enlightenment, glimpsing the wisdom that runs through all things, attaining the Way and clarifying the Mind, raising an aspiration to escalade the very sky. One is making the initial, partial excursions about the frontiers but is still somewhat deficient in the vital Way of total emancipation.

Need I mention the Buddha, who was possessed of inborn knowledge? The influence of his six years of upright sitting is noticeable still. Or Bodhidharma's transmission of the mind-seal?--the fame of his nine years of wall-sitting is celebrated to this day. Since this was the case with the saints of old, how can we today dispense with negotiation of the Way?

You should therefore cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest. If you want to attain suchness, you should practice suchness without delay.

For sanzen (zazen), a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thoughts and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Sanzen has nothing whatever to do with sitting or lying down.

At the site of your regular sitting, spread out thick matting and place a cushion above it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, you first place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, you simply press your left foot against your right thigh. You should have your robes and belt loosely bound and arranged in order. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left palm (facing upwards) on your right palm, thumb-tips touching. Thus sit upright in correct bodily posture, neither inclining to the left nor to the right, neither leaning forward nor backward. Be sure your ears are on a plane with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. Place your tongue against the front roof of your mouth, with teeth and lips both shut. Your eyes should always remain open, and you should breathe gently through your nose.

Once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale, rock your body right and left and settle into a steady, immobile sitting position. Think not-thinking. How do you think not-thinking? Non-thinking. This in itself is the essential art of zazen.

The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharma gate of repose and bliss, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. Traps and snares can never reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you are like the dragon when he gains the water, like the tiger when she enters the mountain. For you must know that just there (in zazen) the right Dharma is manifesting itself and that, from the first, dullness and distraction are struck aside.

When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both unenlightenment and enlightenment, and dying while either sitting or standing, have all depended entirely on the strength (of zazen).

In addition, the bringing about of enlightenment by the opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and the effecting of realization with the aid of a hossu, a fist, a staff, or a shout, cannot be fully understood by discriminative thinking. Indeed, it cannot be fully known by the practicing or realizing of supernatural powers, either. It must be deportment beyond hearing and seeing--is it not a principle that is prior to knowledge and perceptions?

This being the case, intelligence or lack of it does not matter: between the dull and the sharp-witted there is no distinction. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the Way. Practice-realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward (in practice) is a matter of everydayness.

In general, this world, and other worlds as well, both in India and China, equally hold the Buddha-seal, and over all prevails the character of this school, which is simply devotion to sitting, total engagement in immobile sitting. Although it is said that there are as many minds as there are persons, still they all negotiate the way solely in zazen. Why leave behind the seat that exists in your home and go aimlessly off to the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you go astray from the Way directly before you.

You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not use your time in vain. You are maintaining the essential working of the Buddha-Way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from the flintstone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass, destiny like the dart of lightning--emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash.

Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. Devote your energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute. Revere the person of complete attainment who is beyond all human agency. Gain accord with the enlightenment of the buddhas; succeed to the legitimate lineage of the ancestors' samadhi. Constantly perform in such a manner and you are assured of being a person such as they. Your treasure-store will open of itself, and you will use it at will. FUKANZAZENGI A Universal Recommendation of Zazen

The Way is originally perfect and all-pervading. What need is there for practice and realization? The Dharma vehicle is rolling freely. Why should we exhaust our effort? There is no speck of dust in the whole universe. How could we ever try to brush it clean? Everything is manifest at this very place. Where are we supposed to direct the feet of our practice?

Now, if you make the slightest discrimination, you will create a gap like that between heaven and earth. If you follow one thing while you resist the other, your mind will be shattered and lost. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. Now your head is stuck in the entranceway, while your body has no clue how to get out.

Although Shakyamuni was wise at birth, can't you see the traces of his six years of upright sitting? Bodhidharma transmitted the mind-seal from India. Can't you hear the echo of the nine years he sat facing a wall? If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice? Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Your body and mind will drop away of themselves, and your original face will manifest. If you want to get into touch with things as they are, you - right here and now - have to start being yourself, as you are.

For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Don't think about "good" or "bad". Don't judge true or false. Your mind, intellect, and consciousness are spinning around - let them have rest. Give up measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down?

When you sit, spread a mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus position, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right palm, thumb-tips lightly touching.

Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth, with teeth and lips together both shut. Always keep your eyes open, and breathe softly through your nose. Once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath and exhale fully, rock your body right and left, and settle into steady, immovable sitting. Think of not thinking. Not thinking: What kind of thinking is that? Letting thoughts go (Nonthinking). This is the essential art of zazen.

Zazen is not a meditation technique. It is simply the Dharma gate of joyful ease, it is practicing the realization of the boundless Dharma way. Here, the open mystery manifests, and there are no more traps and snares for you to get caught in.

If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that the true Dharma appears of itself, so that from the start dullness and distraction are struck aside. When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Don't do it head over heels. Understand that those who transcendenced the mundane and sacred, and dyied while either sitting or standing, have all committed themselves entirely to this power.

In addition, turning the Dharma wheel with a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and realizing it with a whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout - these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking. Much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power. Your conduct must be beyond seeing forms and hearing sounds, it must be based on the order that is prior to knowledge and views. Don't worry about if you are more intelligent than the others, or not. Make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-witted. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way. Practice-realization is naturally undefiled. Practicing the way means to live the present day.

In our world and others, in both India and China, all equally hold the buddha-seal. The wind of truth is blowing unhindered, so just give yourself to the sitting, be totally blocked in resolute stability. Although they say that there are ten thousand distinctions and a thousand variations, just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep you stumble past what is directly in front of you. You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not pass your days and nights in vain.

You met the Buddha way in this life - how could you waste your time delighting in sparks from a flint stone? Form and substance are like the dew on the grass, the fortunes of life like a dart of lightning - emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not doubt the true dragon. Devote your energies to the way that points directly to the real thing. Revere the one who has gone beyond learning and is free from effort.

Share the wisdom of Buddhas with Buddhas, transmit the samadhi of patriarchs to patriarchs. Continue to live in such a way, and you will be such a person. The treasure store will open of itself, it is up to you to use it freely.

A Coin Lost in the River is Found in the River

Today I want to talk about zazen, Zen meditation.Here is how Dogen begins Fukanzazengi, his fundamental text on zazen:

The Way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma vehicle is free and untrammeled. What need is there for concentrated effort? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world’s dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one, right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice?

Zazen is fundamentally a useless and pointless activity. A person is devoted to zazen not because it helps anything or is peaceful or interesting or because Buddha tells him to do it — though we may imagine that it helps or is peaceful or interesting — but simply because one is devoted to it. You can’t argue for it or justify it or make it into something good. You just do it because you do it. It’s not even a question of wanting to or not wanting to. Zazen for zazen’s sake. Birds sing, fish swim, and people who are devoted to zazen do zazen with devotion all the time although there is no need for it.

Our life is already fine the way it is. Everything that happens is already a manifestation of our original enlightenment even though we don’t know it. We don’t need to enter another condition or improve or disprove anything. The gentle rain of the Dharma is falling all the time evenly and freely on everything, and each thing receives that rain and uses it in its own way, each in a different way. The whole world is unfolding in a beautiful and perfect interplay of forces. We may have difficulty appreciating this but after all we are only people and why would we not have difficulty? Our difficulty is this: our minds can’t see difference without making comparisons, without making judgments and having preferences. We want either everything to be the same as everything else, which it is although we can’t experience it that way, or if things must be different from one another we struggle to rank them.

This kind of difficulty has to do with knowing and thinking, not with our actual being. As far as our actual being is concerned, whether we have difficulty or not we are just fine. What, then, could be more foolish than the idea of religious cultivation, than the thought that we need to change our condition and become more holy, more peaceful, or more wise. In fact, such thoughts only remove us from the holiness, peacefulness, and wisdom that are the actual essence of every moment of our lives. These qualities are with us wherever we are right now. What’s the use in making efforts to acquire them? Such efforts can only lead us in the wrong direction. Someone once asked Master Yunmen, “What does ‘sitting correctly and contemplating true reality’ really mean?” Yunmen said, “A coin lost in the river is found in the river.”

We need to appreciate the truth of these things in order to do zazen. If we don’t appreciate them our zazen will be very acquisitive. Everything else in our lives is inherently acquisitive because our strong, habitual sense of self always demands that we get some good out of everything we do. We become exhausted by all this activity. But zazen is something different. If we don’t appreciate its fundamental uselessness which comes from the fundamental all-rightness of our life we will turn it into something acquisitive and busy, just like everything else we do.

Another story from Master Yunmen: Once a monk asked, “What is my self?” Master Yunmen said, “I, this old monk, enter mud and water for you.” The monk said, “Then I should crush my bones and tear my body to pieces in gratitude.” The master gave a great shout. He said, “The water of the whole ocean is on your head right now. Speak! Speak!” The monk couldn’t say anything. Master Yunmen answered for him, speaking from the monk’s stand point, “I fear that you, Master, don’t think I’m genuine.”

The problem is that we actually are incapable of seeing zazen as useless because our minds can’t accept the fundamental genuineness and all-rightness of our lives. We are actually very resistant to this reality. We hate it, because it is too simple and we persistently think we need more. This is not a detail or a quirk of our minds; it is not even a habit really; it is the deep nature of our minds. The Sanskrit word for consciousness is vijnana, which means to divide, or to cut. In order for us to have what we call experience we have to divide or cut reality. Genuineness or all-rightness is wholeness, indivisibility, so it can’t be an experience. And even if we practice zazen and have an enlightenment experience we immediately confuse ourselves with it. Such an experience can be a promising beginning, but we have to be careful to let go of it, not to define it or to name it, not to make it into a cherished memory, into a hook for identity.

Dogen goes on in Fukanzazengi:

And yet, if there is the slightest discrepancy, the Way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the Mind is lost in confusion. Suppose one gains pride of understanding and inflates one’s own enlightenment, glimpsing the wisdom that runs through all things, attaining the Way and clarifying the Mind, raising an aspiration to assault the very sky. One is making the initial, partial excursions about the frontiers but is still somewhat deficient in the vital way of total emancipation.

He then continues:

This “backward step” is a famous saying of Master Dogen. It is the opposite of knowing or experiencing — or rather, “prior to” knowing or experiencing. Not prior to in time, but in depth. In any case all language fails us here because what I am trying to express doesn’t have to do with space or time, and all our language is built on metaphors of space and time. One student had a good image for it. He said consciousness is like cutting an onion. The edge of the blade of the knife comes into contact with the skin of the onion and immediately slices it, and the onion is divided. Every moment we divide the world like this, and feel separate and lonely in it, divided from ourselves, divided from everything, in exile, lost. And someone else added — “We cry because of this, just as we cry when we divide the onion and release its juices into the air.” The “backward step” is that time when the edge of the blade of the knife touches the skin of the onion. At that precise instant there isn’t any division — not even between knife and onion, let alone onion and onion. There’s only one thing contacting itself, in touch completely with itself. This is how our life is in the present moment — one thing in touch with itself, not past, not future, and not present either. This is the backward step. Resting in the very beginning of the act of consciousness.

When I say this it sounds as if I mean that we should all carefully analyze our minds and carefully watch every act of consciousness. Although this might be a useful exercise, and an exercise incidentally, that can only be done in the midst of and after careful training in meditation, still, it is a fundamentally futile exercise because it is an exercise based on a space-time notion of consciousness. They say in Zen a fingertip cannot touch itself, and they say a knife cannot cut itself. In fact that first undivided moment of consciousness cannot be formed in isolation; it pervades the whole of consciousness. The whole act of slicing the onion, even the tears, is the beginning.

In Zen practice we do two things: We just do zazen and pay attention to our lives. We sit with a spirit of the uselessness of sitting, entering it not as our self but as someone who is bigger than ourselves and includes ourselves. We try not to assume anything about anything. Just sit, as Dogen says, “upright in correct bodily posture, neither inclining to the left nor to the right, neither leaning forward nor backward.” Just be determined to be there without any idea of up or down, inside or outside, self or other, until the bell rings or you drop dead, whichever comes first. And then when you get up and resume your life just be aware and simple. Know all the time, as you will have discovered laboriously in zazen, that what is going on in your mind is just what is going on in your mind, that thoughts and feelings are simply thoughts and feelings. What is actually also going on, events that the thoughts and feelings seem to refer to and define are in reality unknown. Don’t forget that and when you do forget it remind yourself many many times. Be sure to keep your sense of humor. Don’t get too tangled up in what happens because while you are tangled up something else is happening that you miss. So move through things as much as you can, just straight ahead, without too much deliberation.

When we sit in zazen we take care of our posture and try to pay attention to our breathing. When we breathe in we know this is breathing in and when we breathe out we know this is breathing out. We give ourselves with great devotion, creativity, and love to our breath and we let everything else go without denying anything or burying anything. When we forget we remind ourselves and come back. But we don’t make the breath into something and we don’t make the fact of our doing zazen into something. There are no big deals in Zen or in zazen because everything in our whole life and in the whole wide world is a big deal — so how could anything be special? If everything is a big deal there is no such thing as a big deal. What we mean by big deal is that something is important and something else is not. So we don’t worry about our zazen and we don’t think we are doing it right or doing it wrong. We just do it. My favorite Zen dialogue about zazen, which I quote whenever I have an excuse, is the saying of Master Chao Jo. When a student asked him, “What is zazen?” he replied, “It is non-zazen.” The student said, “How can zazen be non-zazen?” Chao Jo replied, “It’s alive!”

In Fukanzazengi Dogen says,

The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharma gate of repose and bliss, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. Traps and snares can never reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you are like the dragon when he gains the water, like the tiger when she enters the mountain. For you must know that just there in zazen the right Dharma is manifesting itself and that, from the first, dullness and distraction are struck aside.

“Ultimate reality” sounds like a pretty exalted idea, but actually where would ultimate reality be? Is it under my zafu? Is it buried deep within my brain? Is it in a cloud or under the ocean? I think it is in all those places and everywhere else as well. So sitting in zazen or not sitting in zazen is not preparation for something else. My zazen, your zazen, and Buddha’s zazen are all the same — manifestations of ultimate reality. It’s not a question of meditation or non-meditation. It’s a wonderful thing because it is the one thing that is incorruptible. Traps and snares can never reach it. Reality is reality no matter what anyone does about it or doesn’t do about it. You don’t need to understand it — you can’t understand it. All you need is confidence in it. Once you sit down and have real confidence in sitting down — not because it is something wonderful but just because it is nothing and useless — supremely useless — then you have real confidence in your life. Things certainly could fall apart tomorrow. You could be disgraced and humiliated and lose your job or your reputation, your husband or wife, or your body. But it would still be ultimate reality, it would still be real and genuine life and you would be able to bear it and be with it and see deeply into it for what it is.

We are living in an historical period in which we understand that it is necessary for all of us to be conscious and active in our world. None of us can ignore this call to action. And yet, if we do not practice zazen, whether we call it zazen or whatever we call it and however we do it, we cannot act in any accurate way. There has been plenty of action — too much action. What we need is not more action, we need enlightened action. And this means letting go of action.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer, installed as abbot of San Francisco Zen Center in 1995, began practicing at Zen Center in 1970. He was at Tassajara from 1976 to 1981; from 1981 to the present he has been at Green Gulch Farm. He is a poet and has published six books, the last one, Jerusalem Moonlight, is an exploration in prose of his Jewish and Buddhist roots.

From a talk given by Zoketsu Norman Fischer at Green Gulch on May 26, 1996. Reprinted by permission of Norman Fischer. FUKANZAZENGI Universal Recommendation of Zazen by Eihei Dogen

Fukanzazengi: How Everyone Can Sit by Eihei Dogen zenji translated by Yasuda Joshu roshi and Anzan Hoshin roshi (published in Progress Into the Ordinary, Great Matter Publications, 1986 and Chanting Breath and Sound, Great Matter Publications, 2001 and will appear in the forthcoming book

Dogen: Zen Writings on the Practice of Realization)

Primordial Awareness is in essence perfect and pervades everywhere. How could it be dependent upon what anyone does to practice or realize it? The movement of Reality does not need us to give it a push. Do I need to say that it is free from delusion? The vast expanse of Reality can never be darkened by the dust of presumptions. Who then could believe that it needs to cleaned of such dust to be what it is? It is never separate from where you are, so why scramble around in search of it?

The thing is, if there is the slightest gap, sky and earth are ripped apart. If you give rise to even a flicker of like and dislike, you lose your mind in delusion. Just suppose you become puffed up about your understanding and inflate your little experiences: You think you have seen the truth, attained the Way, recognized the luminosity of mind and can grasp at heaven. You might think that these initial jaunts about the borders are entering the realm of enlightenment but you've lost the Way of complete liberation.

May I point out the one from Jetavana, the Buddha, who was himself Primordial Awareness and still sat for six years? And how about Bodhidharma transmitting the seal of Awareness through doing wall-gazing at Shaolin temple for nine years? The echo of those is heard even now. If this is how it was with the great ones and their diligence, then how about you in your own practice? You should stop chasing understanding through juggling words, allow the external seeking of your mind to collapse upon itself and light up your own nature. Doing this, the bodymind will drop through itself spontaneously revealing your Original Nature. If you wish to be realized in Suchness, immediately practice Suchness.

A quiet room is good for zazen. Eat and drink moderately, don't entangle yourself in delusive relationships. Just leave such things to themselves. Don't think about good or bad, right or wrong. Don't give rise to the mind's common concepts, the judging of thoughts and observations. Don't sit to become an Awakened One because you can't fabricate a Buddha out of sitting or lying down.

In the place where you practice spread out some thick matting and place a round cushion on top of them. Sit on the cushion with your legs crossed in either the full lotus posture or the half-lotus. This means place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh, loosen your clothes and belt keeping them neat. Then put your right hand palm up on your left foot and put your left hand in the palm of your right, the tips of the thumbs touching lightly. Find your posture, leaning neither to right nor left, forward or back. Your ears should be aligned with your shoulders, and from the front, your nose in a direct line with your navel. Place your tongue against the roof of your mouth keeping mouth and lips closed. Your eyes should be open and you should breathe gently through your nose.

Once you have found your posture, breathe in and out deeply, sway left and right and then settle firmly and steadily. Think of not-thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Be Before Thinking. These are the basics of zazen.

What I call zazen is not developing concentration by stages and so on. It is simply the Awakened One's own easy and joyful practice, it is realized-practice within already manifest enlightenment. It is the display of complete reality. Traps and cages spring open. Grasping the heart of this, you are the dragon who has reached his waters, the tiger resting in her mountains. Understand that right here is the display of Vast Reality and then dullness and mental wandering have no place to arise.

Getting up from zazen move slowly and quietly. Don't just jump up. Looking at the past, we see that transcending common and sacred, or being able to die while in zazen or standing are all rooted in the power of this practice. It is impossible for words or thinking to grasp how the old masters could seize the moment for disciples with a finger, pole, needle or mallet, display Actuality with a whisk, a fist, a staff or a shout. Practising mystical powers or thinking dualistically about practice and realization don't help in this either. Practice and realization are the deportment of this very bodymind, beyond sight and sound, before thinking and analyzing.

Since this is as it is, it doesn't matter if you're clever or stupid; the distinctions distinguish nothing. Whole-hearted practice is the Way. Since realized-practice cannot be stained, progress into the ordinary.

In this and all other worlds, in India or in China, every place is marked by the seal of Awake Awareness. Upholding the essence of this Way, devote yourself to zazen, completely do zazen. You might hear about ten thousand ways to practice but just be complete and sit. What's the point of giving up your seat to go wandering around in dusty lands and countries? Take a wrong step and you'll miss what's there.

You've got what you need, the treasure of this body and birth, so don't waste your time. Keep to this as the basis of the Way of Awake Awareness. Don't be attracted by just a spark from the flint. Anyway, your body is like dew on the grass, your life a flash of lightning; vain for a moment and then vanished in an instant.

You who are in this excellent lineage of Zen, don't blindly grope only a part of the elephant or fear the true dragon. Put all of yourself into this Way which directly presents your own nature. Be grateful to those who have come before and have done what was to be done. Align yourself with the enlightenment of the Awakened Ones and take your place in this samadhi-lineage. Practice in this way and you'll be what they are. The doors of the treasure house will fall open for you to do with as you will.

(1227 C.E.)

Fukanzazengi (Rules for Zazen)

Chapter 7 (from the book: Soto Approach to Zen)

Introduction

Dogen wrote this essay in the latter half of 1227 (between October 5 and December 10). He was then 28 years old and had just returned from China. His object was to popularize the Buddhism of zazen, to teach the right method of zazen, to transmit the Zen style of Bodhidharma, and to make known the true spirit of Pai-ch'ang.

Dogen has described the motive for this work in zazengi Senjitsuyuraisho (Reason for writing the Rules of Zazen). Dogen modified the rules of zazen in the eighth volumes of Zennenshingi (Ch'an-yuan-ch'ing-kuei) written by Tsung-che (Shusaku) in 1102. Dogen' work, therefore, contains the characteristic method of truly transmitted zazen, and it is supplemented with complete notes. This work remains in two forms: a "popular" edition and one written in Dogen own hand. The "popular" edition appears in the Eiheigenzenjigoroku (published in 1358) and the eighth volumes of Eiheikoroku (published in 1472). But they differ considerably from the edition in Dogen own handwriting. Kept in the Eiheiji repository. This edition reproduces in that the Zazengi written in 1227. Dogen, however, polished the "popular" edition, in the final 20 some years of his life, and he arranged it in the Chinese style that we now see. This translation is based on the "popular" edition.

Text (Fukanzazengi)

The true way is universal so why is training and enlightenment differentiated? The supreme teaching is free so why study the means to it? Even truth as a whole is clearly apart from to dust. Why adhere to the means of "wiping away"? The truth is not apart from here, so the means of training are useless. But if there is even the slightest gap between, the separation is as heaven and earth. If the opposites arise, you lose the Buddha Mind. Even though you are proud of your understanding and have enough enlightenment, even though you gain some wisdom and supernatural power and find the way all illuminate your mind, even though you have power to touch the heavens, and even though you enter into the area of enlightenment - you have almost lost the living way to salvation. Look at the Buddha: though born with great wisdom, he had to sit for six years. Look at Bodhidharma, who transmitted the Buddha Mind: we can still hear the echoes of his nine-year wall gazing. The old sages were very diligent. There is no reason why modern man cannot understand. Just quit following words and letters. Just withdraw and reflect on yourself. If you can cast off body and mind naturally, the Buddha Mind emerges. If you wish to gain quickly, you must start quickly.

In meditating you should have a quiet room. Eat and drink in moderation. Forsake myriad relations-abstain from everything. Do not think of good and evil. Do not think of right and wrong. Stop the function of mind, of will, of conscious ness. Keep from meaning memory, perception, and insight. Do not strive to become the Buddha. Do not cling to sitting or lying down.

In the sitting place, spread a thick square cushion and on top of it put a round cushion. Some meditate in Paryanka (full cross-legged sitting) and others in half Paryanka. Prepare by wearing your robe and belt loosely. Then rest your right hand on your left foot, your left hand in your right palm. Press your thumbs together.

Sit upright. Do not lean to the left or right, forward or backward. Place your ears in the same plane as your shoulders, your nose in line with your navel. Keep your tongue against the palate and close your lips and teeth firmly. Keep your eyes open. Inhale quietly. Settle your body comfortably. Exhale sharply. Move your body to the left and right. Then sit cross-legged steadily.

Think the unthinkable. How do you think the unthinkable? Think beyond thinking and unthinking. This is the important aspect of sitting.

This cross-legged sitting is not step by step meditation. It is merely comfortable teaching. It is the training and enlightenment of thorough wisdom. The Koan will appear in daily life. You are completely free - like the dragon that has water or the tiger that depends on the mountain. You must realize that the Right Law naturally appears, and your mind will be free from sinking and distraction. When you stand from zazen, shake your body and arise calmly. Do not move violently. That which transcends the commoner and the sage - dying while sitting and standing is obtained through the help of this power: this I have seen. Also the supreme function (lifting the finger, using the needle, hitting the wooden gong) and enlightenment signs (raising the hossu, striking with the fist; hitting with the staff; shouting): are not understood- by discrimination. You cannot understand training and enlightenment well by supernatural p6wer. It is a condition (sitting, standing, sleeping) beyond voice and visible things. It is the true beyond discriminatory views. So don't argue about the wise and foolish. If you can only train hard, this is true enlightenment. Training and enlightenment are by nature undefiled. Living by Zen is not separated from daily life.

Buddhas in this world and in that, and the patriarchs in India and China equally preserved the Buddha seal and spread the true style of Zen. All actions and things are penetrated with pure zazen. The means of training are various, but do pure zazen. Don't travel futilely to other dusty lands, forsaking your own sitting place. If you mistake the first step, you will stumble immediately. You have already obtained the vital functions of man's body. Don't waste time in vain. You can hold the essence of Buddhism. Is it good to enjoy the fleeting world? The body is transient like dew on the grass-life is swift like a flash of lightning. The body passes quickly, and life is gone in a moment.

Earnest trainees, do not be amazed by the true dragon. And do not spend so much time rubbing only a part of the elephant. Press on in the way that points directly to the Mind. Respect those who have reached the ultimate point. Join your-self to the wisdom of the Buddhas and transmit the meditation of the patriarchs. If you do this for some time, you will be thus. Then the, treasure house will open naturally, and you will enjoy it to the full.

American Zen Association Home Zen Temple Teachings AZA News Practice Supplies Affiliates Contact Search

True Zen Teachings

Fukanzazengi Eihei Dogen Zenji

The Way is fundamentally perfect. It penetrates everything. How could it depend upon practice and realization?

The vehicle of the Dharma is free and unobstructed. Why is concentrated effort necessary?

The truth is that the Great Body is well beyond the dust of this world. Who could believe there is a way to dust it?

It is never separate from anyone, always right there where you are. What good is it to go here or there to practice?

But if there is a gap, however narrow, the Way remains as distant as the sky from the earth. If you show the slightest preference or the slightest antipathy, the mind becomes lost in confusion.

Imagine someone who flatters himself on his own understanding and creates illusions about his own awakening, seeing the wisdom which penetrates all things, he joins the way, clarifies the soul, and awakens the desire to climb the sky.

This person has started on the limited outskirts: but he has hardly begun on the vital Way of absolute emancipation.

Do I need to speak of Buddha, who possessed innate knowledge? We still feel the influence of the six years he lived, seated in the lotus, in total immobility.

And the transmission of the seal has preserved the memory of Bodhidharma's nine years of zazen facing the wall.

Since it was thus ancient Buddhas and Patriarchs, how can anyone today excuse themselves from negotiating the Way?

So abandon all practice founded on intellectual comprehension, running after words and holding to the letter, and learn the about-face which directs your light to the inside, to illuminate your own true nature.

By themselves, body and mind drop off, and your original face appears.

If you want to attain awakening, you must practice awakening, without delay.

For zazen, find a quiet room. Eat and drink moderately. Throw off all obligations and give up all affairs.

Do not think: "This is good, that is bad." Do not take sides for or against. Stop all movement of the conscious mind. Do not judge thoughts and opinions. Have no desire to become a Buddha.

Zazen has absolutely nothing to do with the sitting posture or the lying posture.

In the place where you sit, spread out a thick mat and place a zafu on top of it. Sit down in the lotus or half-lotus posture.

In the lotus, place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus simply press your left foot against your right thigh.

Make sure that you loosen your clothes and your belt, and arrange them carefully.

Then place your right hand, palm up, on your left leg and your left hand on top of your right hand, palms up, the tips of the thumbs touching.

Sit straight in the correct posture, without leaning to the left or to the right, nor forwards or backwards.

Make sure your ears in line with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel.

Place your tongue against the front of the palate: mouth closed, teeth just touch.

The eyes are always open, and always breathe gently through the nose.

Once you assume the correct posture, breathe once deeply in and out.

Sway your body from the right to the left, and sit, without moving, in this stable posture.

Think from the depths of non-thinking.

How do you think from the depths of non-thinking?

Hishiryo-beyond thinking and non-thinking.

This in itself is the essential art of zazen.

This zazen is not step-by-step meditation, it is nothing other than the dharma of peace and happiness, the practice-realization of perfect awakening.

Zazen is the manifestation of ultimate reality. Snares and nets can never catch it.

Once you have grasped its heart, you are like the dragon when he enters the water and like the tiger when he enters the mountain.

For you must know that at this moment in zazen, true Dharma manifests itself. So from the start, drop off all physical and mental laziness and distraction.

When you get up again, move without hurrying, calmly and deliberately. Do not get up suddenly or clumsily.

Consider the past and see that transcending at once both illumination and non- illumination, that dying seated or standing, has always depended upon the vigor of zazen.

And further, the opening to illumination in the situations provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, a mallet; and the accomplishment of realization due to a fly-swatter, a fist, a stick, a cry-all this cannot be fully grasped by dualistic thinking. Nor any better understood through the practice of supernatural powers.

This is beyond that which man sees and hears, isn't it prior to knowledge and to perception?

So it doesn't matter if you are intelligent or not, and do not think whether you are superior or inferior. When you practice wholeheartedly, this in itself is following the Way.

Practice-realization cannot be defiled. Making the effort to follow the Way, is itself, its manifestation in daily life.

This world and the others (India and China) respect the seal of the Buddha. This school is unique in its devotion only to zazen: sitting immobile in total engagement.

Though it is said that there are as many souls as people, all negotiate the way in the same manner-through the practice of zazen.

Why give up your seat at home to wander in the dust of other lands? One false step and you stray from the Way traced out directly before you.

You have had the unique opportunity to take human shape. Do not waste it.

You can contribute to the essential work of the Way of the Buddha. Who could take vain pleasure from sparks of flint?

Form and substance are like the dew on the grass, the destined one similar to a flash of lightning. Your body will vanish soon, your life will be lost in an instant.

So I ask you please, honored disciples of Zen, for a long time so used to feeling for the elephant in the dark-do not fear the true dragon! Devote your energy to the way which points directly to the absolute. Respect those who realize their Self and no longer seek outside themselves. Put yourself in harmony with the illumination of the Buddhas, succeed to the legitimate dynasty of the satori of the Patriarchs. Practice like this always, and you can be as they. Your treasure house will open of itself, and you can use it as you please.