True Dharma Eye (eBook)

Eihei Dogen's Preface

Thetreasury of the true dharma eye was held up by Great Master Sakyamuni.But has it been investigated thoroughly? Through direct transmission Ihave received it more than 2,180 years later. The Buddha'sdharma children and dharma grandchildren in close and remote schoolsnumber myriad and myriad, three before and three after. Would you liketo know the origin of this teaching?

Long ago in front of millions of beings on Vulture Peak ,when the World-Honored One held up a flower and winked, Mahakasyapasmiled. The World-Honored One approved it and said, 'I have thetreasury of the true dharma eye, wondrous mind of nirvana. I entrust itto the great Mahakasyapa.'

Honorable Bodhidharma, the twenty-eighth generation direct heir of Mahakasyapa, went to Shaolin , China ,and sat facing the wall for nine years. Pulling off weed and carryingwind, he got an excellent disciple to entrust his marrow to. This wasthe beginning of the dharma transmission in China .The Sixth Ancestor, Caoxi (Dajian Huineng), had Qingyuan and Nanyue.Transmitted from an excellent teacher to a strong student, heir toheir, the treasury of the true dharma eye is by itself evident.

Hereare the three hundred cases clarified by these ancestors. On behalf ofthem I am presenting the cases to you for appreciation of the ancientsplendor.

On the winter solstice, the first year of the Katei Era (1235). Dogen, abbot of Kannondori Koshohorin Monastery, monastic transmitting the dharma from China, writes this preface.

114

Zhaozhou's Dog

Main Case

A monastic asked Zhaozhou, 'Does a dog have buddha nature?'

Zhaozhou said, 'Yes.'

The monastic said, 'If so, how does it get into its skin bag?'

Zhaozhou said, 'It intentionally offends.'

Another monastic asked, 'Does a dog have buddha nature?'

Zhaozhou said, 'No.'

The monastic said, 'All sentient beings have buddha nature. How come a dog doesn't have buddha nature?'

Zhaozhou said, 'Because it has karmic consciousness.'

Commentary

Thisteaching of Zhaozhou's has created a forest of brambles for countlessgenerations of Zen practitioners. They all seem to confuse the buddhanature with the notion of separate self rather than the totality ofexistence. This view exists because they have not yet encounteredencountering. We should realize that buddha nature is not aboutenlightenment, knowing, or understanding.

As for the dog andbuddha nature, Zhaozhou is not just saying that a dog does or does nothave buddha nature. In reality, he is compounding medicine to heal thesickness and compounding sickness to heal the medicine. The questionis, what is the sickness? If you wish to understand why Zhaozhouanswers the way he does, you must first examine carefully what thesetwo monastics have to say.

Capping Verse

Caught in the sea of affirmation and denial—,
difficult, difficult.
'No' contains the many,
'yes' has no duality.

Notes

1. What causes him to doubt?

2. Yes! But it cannot be attained.

3. He seems annoyed with this. How did you manage to create your skin bag?

4. Don't...