The Lotus
Sutra and Dogen’s Zen Hermeneutics
Michiko
Yusa
Western
Washington University
Bellingham,
WA 98225-9057 (yusa@wwu.edu)
For
the International Conference on the Lotus Sutra, 10-16 July 2002, Tokyo
I was a happy participant in
the 1999 Conference on the Lotus Sutra, and my paper then, "Compassion for the Plants and Trees: An
Eco-centered Message of the Lotus Sutra," included a brief
reference to Dogen. I quoted the observation made by Masutani Fumio, a
translator of the Shōbōgenzō into modern Japanese, who wrote in his
preface to Dogen’s essay, “Hokke ten hokke” (法華転法華,
“Lotus flowers unfolding lotus flowers”):
That Dogen was a man profoundly appreciative of, and deeply
indebted to, the teachings of the Lotus Sutra is self-evident as one
reads, rereads, savors, and relishes his Shōbōgenzō. At numerous
passages not only does Dōgen quote from the Lotus Sutra but also he
turns to the parables in order to drive his point home. Dōgen also wrote waka
poems “On the Lotus Sutra,” and five such poems are compiled in his
collection. Again, according to the Kenzeiki 建撕記,[1]
in the last days of his life Dogen performed his walking meditation (kinhin),
while reciting in low voice a passage from Chapter twenty-one of the Lotus
Sutra, “Supernatural Powers of the Thus Come One” (“Nyoraijinrikihon”).
Dogen recited the passage: “In a hall where scriptural scrolls are kept, or in
a garden, or in a grove, or at the foot of a tree, or in a monkish cell, or in
the home of a white-clad layman, or in an opulent palace, or in a mountain, or
in a valley, or in open fields—everywhere erect a stūpa so that offerings can
be made. Why? That place is the platform of right religious training, the place
where the Buddhas have achieved supreme enlightenment, anuttarasamyaksambodhi,
and where the Buddhas have turned the Dharma-wheel; and that’s the place where
the Buddhas have achieved parinirvāna.” Having finished reciting this
passage, Dogen wrote it down on a pillar. He named the house “Myōhōrengekyō-an”
妙法蓮華経庵
(the Lotus Sutra Hermitage). This was the house[2]
of his lay disciple, Kakunen 覚念, who was taking care of the infirm, dying Dogen.[3]
Despite
this observation by Masutani, I somehow naively continued to assume that at
least in Japan, the Lotus Sutra was central to such sects as the Tendai,
the Nichiren, and the so-called “new” religious sects, such as the Reiyūkai,
Risshō Kōseikai, and Sōkagakkai, but not so important for the followers of Zen
Buddhism. Things remained in the dark until I began doing some reading on the
topic of “the Lotus Sutra and Zen”—this year’s topic of the symposium.
Finally, it dawned on me that not only Dōgen but also many Zen (Chan) masters,
past and present, have drawn their spiritual nutrients from the Lotus Sutra.
Dogen’s famous interpretation of the Nirvana Sutra, that “All is
sentient being, all beings are buddha nature” (“Busshō,” Shōbōgenzō),
for instance, was fundamentally in accordance with the message of the universal
salvation proclaimed in the Lotus Sutra.
In China, where Buddhist sects were often formed based on the
specific scriptures[4]—for instance
the Huayan school was based on the Huayan Sutra, and the Tiantai school
on the Lotus Sutra—some Chan masters, although the Chan school was not
particularly affiliated with any scripture, were nonetheless known for
their profound knowledge and love of the Lotus Sutra. A miracle story is
recorded concerning a master, Niutou Fayong (J. Gozu Hōyū 牛頭法融,
594-657). In the dead of the winter he lectured on the Lotus Sutra; at that
time two stems of golden hibiscus flowers emerged out of the snow-covered icy
ground and continued to bloom for seven days; at the conclusion of his lecture,
these flowers disappeared into the ice.[5]
The
Linjilu (J. Rinzairoku 臨済録) by the Master Linji (ca. some time before 810-868)
reveals that he was also familiar with the Lotus Sutra, as he readily
made reference to the parable of the “burning house” (LS ch. 3) and the Buddha,
Mahā-abhijñā-jñāna-abhibhū (J. Daitsūchishō-butsu 大通智勝仏)
(LS ch. 7; II:76),[6] for
instance.
Again, Shoushan Xingnian (J. Shuzan Shōnen 首山省念, d.
993) was nicknamed “Nianfahua” (“Chanter of the Lotus Sutra,” J.
“Nenpokke” 念法華),
as he habitually read and recited the Lotus Sutra.[7]
Apparently, there was a strong tendency to study the doctrines
of various schools among eminent Chinese Buddhists of the late Tang dynasty,
from about 750 to 900—indicating the strong tendency towards syncretism that
existed within Chinese Buddhism.[8] It is therefore entirely possible that
most Chan masters and many Chan practitioners were familiar with various
Mahayana sutras, including, of course, its “king,” the Lotus Sutra.
Dogen
and the Lotus Sutra, A Chinese Connection?
Thus, it turns out that Dogen was no exception among Zen (Chan)
masters who were well versed in the Lotus Sutra. The episode Dogen
quotes in his essay, “Hokke ten hokke” revolves around the encounter between a
monk, a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, Fada (J. Hōtatsu 法達),
and the sixth patriarch, Huineng (J. Enō 慧能). It is very possible that Dogen heard this story
during his stay in China, 1223-1227, perhaps from his fellow Chinese
monks. For some time I even entertained
the idea that his Chinese master, Rujing (J. Nyojō 如浄,
1163-1228) might have held the Lotus Sutra close to his heart. But
having gone through the Hōkyōki（宝慶記）, I came to the conclusion that it was not very
likely. Rujing, certainly well-versed in the scriptures and commentaries, was
nevertheless a man of intense singleminded practice of zhiguan dazuo (shikan
taza 祇管打坐),
and doctrinal discussions were something he had spent less time in his numerous
conversations with Dogen.[9]
Dogen also notes in his essay, “Bukkyō” (仏経, literally, “Buddhist scriptures”):
My former teacher always said, “At my monastery, burning incense焼香,
rendering ritual worship 礼拝, reciting the Buddha’s name 念仏,
making confessions 修懺, and reading sutras 看経are all
unnecessary. Simply sit and meditate 祇管打坐, work out the Way 弁道功夫,
and attain the dropping of the body and the mind 身心脱落.”[10]
I must conclude, therefore, that Dogen’s knowledge and fondness
of the Lotus Sutra was not the influence of his Chinese master but
rather the outcome of his own native Japanese socio-historical,
cultural-religious background. Dogen was by birth very close to the elite
members of the Heian aristocracy and must have been familiar with their custom
of “Hokke hakkō” (法華八講), for instance—an elaborate four-day religious
ceremony in which eight-fascicle Lotus Sutra was recited and expounded
by learned priests, one fascicle each morning and one each evening.[11]
This was an event held quite frequently during the Heian period to commemorate
the anniversary of the death of someone important. Dogen also began his
training at Mt. Hiei, albeit his stay there was brief. Mt. Hiei was the monastic training
center of the Tendai sect, which took the Lotus Sutra as the basis of
their doctrine and developed their meditation practice out of it.
It
turns out that the notable Japanese Zen master, Hakuin (1685-1768), was also a
devout reader of the Lotus Sutra. In fact, he had undergone a kind of
“conversion experience” in relation to the Lotus Sutra. When he was
sixteen years old, he borrowed a copy of the Lotus Sutra from his
friend, a Nichiren priest named Kan’ebō, and read it, only to be disappointed
in it. He felt that the sutra was but largely a collection of parables
that preached causes and effects. He did find, however, the passage such as
“There is only One Vehicle; all dharmas exist in perfect tranquility” rather
profound.[12] He did not
take up the sutra until many moons later, when he was forty-two, when he was
suggested to read it during the bon period. No doubt he took it up
somewhat reluctantly. As it happened, when he was reading chapter three
“Parable,” he heard a cricket’s churr, “rin-rin-rin-rin.” “The instant the sound reached his ears
he suddenly became one with the deep principle of the Lotus Sutra,” so
goes his biographical account. It continues:
The doubts and uncertainties that had arisen at the beginning of
his religious quest and had remained with him ever since dissolved all at once and
ceased to exist. He realized the understanding he had gained from all his satori
had been greatly mistaken. He could see with perfect clarity the reason for the
Lotus Sutra’s reputation as the king of sutras. He let out an
involuntary shout and began weeping uncontrollably. He was able to see for the
first time the enlightened activity that had pervaded [his master] Shōju’s
daily life, and understand that there were no bones at all in the tongue with
which the World-honored One spoke. Hakuin lived from then on in a state of
great emancipation.[13]
The profound significance of the message of the Lotus Sutra—that
all beings have the buddha nature—opened up to him as a naked reality. The
following waka by Hakuin may have been composed at that very occasion of
his “awakening”:
Your
robe is flimsy and thin,
You’ve
got scarcely enough to eat,
You,
poor cricket.
I
could not refuse my ears to your song,
And
now tears are spilling over my cheeks
(koromo
ya usuki 衣や薄き
jiki ya toboshiki kirigirisu 食や乏しき きりぎりす
kikisutekanete
聞き捨てかねて
moru namida kana
もる涙かな)[14]
Following
this experience, Hakuin’s interest progressively turned towards the Lotus
Sutra. As he became busier with requests from all over Japan to come and
give his teisho, he lectured on the Lotus Sutra at least four or
five times.[15] He found in it a vibrant message of the
Buddha that transcended any sectarian divisions.
In the fall of 1747, when he was sixty-one years old, he
lectured on the Lotus Sutra. There was an old nun of the Hokke
(Nichiren) sect present in the audience, who afterwards wrote a letter to
Hakuin, inquiring into the meaning of Hakuin’s words, “Outside the mind there
is no Lotus Sutra, and outside the Lotus Sutra there is no mind.”[16] Hakuin wrote a detailed letter of
response, explaining what he meant by it.
Let me quote a few passages from this long letter to the nun:
There are eighty-four thousand other gates to Buddhism, but they
are all provisional teachings and cannot be regarded as other than
expediencies. When this ultimate is reached, all sentient beings and all
Tathāgata of the three periods, mountains, rivers, the great earth, and the Lotus
Sutra itself, all bespeak the Dharma principle that all things are a
nondual unity representing the true appearance of all things. . . . We have
indeed the 5,418 texts of the Tripitaka, that detail the limitless mysterious
meaning spoken by Śākyamuni Buddha. We have the sudden, gradual, esoteric, and
indeterminate methods. but their ultimate principle is reduced to the 8 volumes
of the Lotus Sutra. The ultimate meaning of the 64,360-odd written
characters of the Lotus Sutra is reduced to the 5 characters in its
title: Myōhō renge kyō. These 5 characters are reduced to the 2
characters myōhō [Wondrous Law] and the 2 characters myōhō return
to the one word mind. . . .
This “one mind” (isshin 一心) is
derived from the two characters myōhō mentioned above, and when it
expands includes all the dharma worlds of the ten directions, and when contracts
it returns to the no-thought and no-mind of the self-nature. Therefore this
reality may be expounded as “outside the mind no thing exists,” “in the three
worlds there is one mind alone,” or “the true appearance of all things.” This
ultimate reality is called the Lotus Sutra, or the Buddha of Infinite
Life [Amitāyus, i.e., Amida]; in Zen it is called the “original face” (honrai
no menmoku 本来の面目),
in Shingon the “Sun Disc of the Inherent Nature of the Letter A,” in the
Precepts school it is the “Basic, Intangible Form of the Precepts.” We ought to
realize that these are but different various names of this “mind.” . . . Myōhō
renge kyō is a title that praises the mysterious virtues of the one mind.
It is composed of words that point to and reveal the inherent character of this
one mind, with which all human beings are innately endowed.[17]
Hakuin
expounded his view that the pursuit of “one mind” through the practice of kōan
and zazen leads to the experience of cosmic unity (samādhi, J. sanmai
三昧),
just as the Nichiren sect’s practice of chanting the title “Myōhōrengekyō”
would lead the practitioners to the same end.[18]
Interestingly enough, however, although Hakuin acknowledged the common effect
and goal of the kōan-zazen practice on the one hand and the chanting of
the title of the Lotus Sutra on the other, he was adamantly opposed to
the practice of “nenbutsu-zen,”[19]
or mixing the kōan-zazen practice with chanting—be it “Namu Amida butsu”
or “Namu Myōhō renge kyō,” I would assume.
In
the foregoing, I believe I have given sufficient evidence to substantiate the
claim that the Lotus Sutra freely circulated among the Zen (Chan)
practitioners. The question I would like to tackle now is how Zen
followers read the Lotus Sutra. There seems to be a peculiarly Zen way
of reading the Lotus Sutra (or any other text for that matter), which I
tentatively call the “Zen method of hermeneutics.” Before going into a more
detailed discussion on this point (and possibly getting lost in the woods), let
me first point out the obvious.
There probably is no list of “forbidden” books for Zen monks and
nuns, and most likely Zen students are free to pick up any sutra or book that
would enhance their bodhisattva career, strengthen and deepen their religious
and spiritual understanding and commitment.
This “freedom of scriptures” is built into the very tenet of
Zen, which traditionally has been summarized in the famous quatrain:
The real teaching is transmitted independent of any Buddhist
doctrines;
It is transmitted not by way of words [but from heart to heart
since the time of the buddhas];
It directly points to the human heart [which is none other than
the buddha nature];
And by realizing one’s true self, one attains buddhahood.
(kyōge betsuden 教外別伝, furyū monji 不立文字, jikishi nin’shin 直指人心,
kenshō jōbutsu 見性成仏)
That
Zen upholds no particular doctrine (or scripture) by default allows students to
read any scripture. On this point, the following comment made en passant
by Kamata Shigeo seems to me to capture the essence of Zen attitude towards
scriptures:
Zen is different from those sects that base their teachings on
one particular scripture or another. For a Zen follower, be it the Lankāvatara
Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, or any other sutra—insofar as the
scripture describes the existential Zen-experience of the practitioner him or
herself—any scripture will do.[20]
The
hermeneutical practice peculiar to Zen, or pronounced with Zen, is informed by
one significant factor—namely, how “Buddha” is understood by Zen practitioners
as one’s own buddha nature, wand this buddha nature is shared by all sentient
and non-sentient beings.
We read scriptures according to how we envision God, or Buddha,
or the Ultimate reality. In the Christian tradition, for instance, there are at
least two distinct approaches to God. One is to worship God, or Christ, or
Virgin Mary as the savior. The other is to engage in the life of the “imitation
of Christ,” as lived by Thomas a Kempis and his group. Depending on how the
“divine” or the “sacred” is conceived—either as the holy subject (object?) of
worship or as someone who shows the path to be emulated—scriptures are read
differently.
Among the Japanese Buddhist sects, the Amidhists place Amida
Buddha on the lotus pedestal and worship him as the savior. The Tendai sect
tended to spread the merit of “receiving and keeping the Lotus Sutra,
reading it, reciting it, expounding it, and copying it.”[22] Out of this emphasis, the activity of
copying the Lotus Sutra (shakyō 写経) became
very popular among the people as a superiorly meritorious practice.[23]
Not only was the Lotus Sutra worshipped as something sacred in itself,
but also numerous Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who appear in the Lotus Sutra—Śākyamuni,
Amitāyus, Manjusri, Maitreya, Bhaishajyarāja (J. Yakushi ), Akshobhya (J.
Ashiku), Samantabhadra (J. Fugen), and Avalokitesvara (J. Kannon), came to be
venerated. The Lotus Sutra especially spread the cult of the devotion to
Guanyin or Kannon in China and Japan. Kannon is still regarded by many Japanese
as the compassionate “savior-goddess.”
In contrast, for Zen practitioners Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are
not the objects of worship but rather they are the living testimony of the life
of spiritual pursuits. In this connection, it is true that Nichiren came to
believe himself as a reincarnation of Jōgyō-bosatsu 上行菩薩
(Viśishtha-cārita),[24]
but in his case, he upheld the Lotus Sutra as the vehicle of salvation
and elevated it to the status of the object of veneration. He devised the
“daimoku,” the title, “Myōhō renge-kyō,” and prescribed the followers to chant
it in the formula of “Namu myoho renge-kyo,” as part of their religious
practice. In the case of the Shingon sect, its founder Kukai was made into a
semi-divine figure and worshipped as the venerable teacher.
In steering clear of the projected and objectively conceived
view of the sacred or holy, Zen holds no “devotional” attitude to scriptures or
to the founders of the sect, without precluding, however, the sense of
reverence rendered to those fully embodied their “original face.” This Zen
approach to the Lotus Sutra may appear prima facie “non-iconic,”
or even “iconoclastic.” That is to say, Zen followers neither venerate it as a
sacred object nor do they worship the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as deities. Zen
is the path that begins with discovering one’s own buddha nature, and as such
it ultimately both denies and affirms the divine. It denies the divine as a
concept, but it affirms the divine as that which sustains and nurtures the buddha
nature. Moreover, Zen followers
aspire to embody this divine reality. To become a buddha (or bodhisattva) may
sound sacrilegious and blasphemous to the mind trained in the theistic
tradition, which tends to consider God as a transcendent Being. However, it is by no means unfamiliar
to the mystics of the theistic tradition.
This non-iconic approach is the very spirit of Zen, which,
radically put, holds “If you meet the Buddha, kill him; if you meet the master,
kill him” (satsubutsu sasso 殺仏殺祖).[25]
This expression should not be taken literally, however. Rather, it bespeaks of the via
negativa of the medieval Christian mystics. The intuition here is whatever
we think of God is actually not God. Concepts may approximate the divine
reality, but it never captures the living “divine sparkle.” And concepts always
stand in the way of our coming in direct contact with living experiences.
The
Indian tradition speaks of three ways to the Ultimate: by way of wisdom (prajna),
by way of action (karman), and by way of devotion (bhakti).[26]
Hinduism especially prizes the path of love and devotion to a deity. This Hindu
model can shed some light on the various trends within the Buddhist tradition.
Zen may be characterized as the path of wisdom and action (e.g., bodhisattva
path), while the Pure Land strands may be said to emphasize the path of
devotion to the Lord, Amida, and the utter trust in the “tariki”—which
is in a way a kind of “passive” action—in the saving grace of Amida. The
Nichiren strands may be characterized as the combination of action and
devotion, either to the founder Nichiren or to the Lotus Sutra as
embodying the eternal truth.
Let
us take up the “parable of the burning house” as an example to see how it
yields arrays of different interpretations. Traditionally, Buddhist scholarship
interprets this parable as Śākyamuni Buddha advancing the teaching of One
Buddha Vehicle, which embraces the path of the “voice-hearers” or śravakas
(Hinayana followers), represented by the goat-drawn carriage; the path of
pratyekabuddhas or self-enlightened ones, represented by the deer-drawn
carriage; and the bodhisattva path, represented by the ox-drawn carriage. This
One Buddha Vehicle is represented by the magnificent carriage drawn by a white
ox. The One Buddha Vehicle “was previously presented as three vehicles as the
Buddhas resorted to the power of expedient devices,”[27]
so the Sutra explains.
According
to Matsubara Taidō, a Zen master-author, this parable teaches us that “while we
are engrossed in our own egotistic pursuits, time is running out; the billowing
dark smoke of old age, illness, and death are encroaching upon us. We must come
out of our selfish small niches and stride toward an open space, a plaza of
compassion, where we live together wishing for the happiness of others.”[28] This indeed is helpful for us lay
readers to reflect on our lives and think about the reality of the “burning
house.” Somehow, however, I am not fully satisfied with this reading. My mind
wanders to Dogen. How did he interpret this parable? In the following, I shall
tackle his essay, “Hokke ten hokke,” which will reveal Dogen’s reading of the
parable as well as the Lotus Sutra.
“Scriptures”
for Dogen
Dogen’s interpretation of the Lotus Sutra cannot be
separated from his high regards for the fundamental importance of scriptures,
which he considered the vehicle of the transmission of Buddhas’ teachings, and
as such scriptures constituted one’s very self. For Dogen scriptures were one
of the two pillars of the religious life—the other being the authentic
master-teacher, without whose guidance, one can never hope to get to the heart
of proper teachings.[29]
Dogen’s attitude towards scriptures is one of ecumenicist,
maintaining that numerous Buddhist scriptures are certainly not equal in
contents and there are many discrepancies among them, but one is not to choose
certain scriptures to belong to his
or her tradition and reject the rest. It is because, as Dogen sees it, “all scriptures are the
treasure storage of the true dharma.”[30]
He also says that for anyone to read and properly interpret scriptures, one
needs to have a certain “scripture-eye,” which may lead one to the “dropping of
the body and the mind” (i.e., enlightenment); otherwise, idle reading of
scriptures is ineffectual, useless,[31]
and waste of time.
More importantly, for Dogen, “sutras” or “scriptures” (kyōkan
経巻)
means not just written materials, physical scrolls, but also include the entire
manifestations of the universe itself (shohōjissō 諸法実相),
be it “the world of human beings, the world of gods, the deep sea, the open
sky, this land, other lands—they are all actual reality.” “Scriptures” are the sources from which
we may learn the message of the Buddha and attain enlightenment. “Scriptures” in the broad sense of the
word, Dogen holds, are none other than “the body of the Tathagata, and through
our encounter with scriptures, we encounter the Tathagata; scriptures are the ‘material
link’ (J. shari, śarīra 舎利) to the Tathagata.”[32]
Scholar-monks who only study scriptures miss out on this and do not learn from
“mountains, rivers, and the great earth.”[33] Clearly for Dogen, nature is a sacred
book, a gateway to enlightenment as much as, if not more than, the written
Buddhist scriptures.
Delusion,
Enlightenment, and the Lotus Sutra
The
essay, “Hokke ten hokke,” was written in the summer of 1241, on the occasion of
a monk, Etatsu 慧達,
who had already been well-versed in the Lotus Sutra, taking further ordination
under Dogen’s guidance. Dōgen, overjoyed by this monk’s commitment to the path,
composed this essay, featuring Huineng’s verse, “When your mind is deluded, the
Lotus Sutra unfolds (Kokoro mayoeba hokke ni tenzeraru 心迷法華転);
when your mind is enlightened, you unfold the Lotus Sutra (Kokoro
satoreba hokke o tenzu 心悟転法華),”[34]
as the leitmotif. This episode is mentioned in another essay of his, “Kankin”
(“Reading Sutras”).[35] Something about it must have been dear
to Dogen.
The episode is about the meeting between the sixth patriarch
Huineng and Fada, a monk who already read the Lotus Sutra over 3,000
times. Huineng, having seen how the monk is stuck in his spiritual path, wants
to remove the mental obstacles from him. The master tells the monk that in his
original nature, he is actually riding in the white ox-drawn carriage, the
supreme single vehicle. He further explains this to the monk:
The followers of the three vehicles could not fathom the
Buddhas’ knowledge only because they merely speculated. To run away from the
Buddhas’ preaching is as if to run away from the white ox-drawn carriage and
seek other carriages. The Lotus Sutra says: “there are no two or three
[vehicles].” The single vehicle is
the present moment, and all treasures belong to you. This perfectly sufficient
reality is called the Lotus Sutra.[36]
Huineng’s compassionate urging shattered the monk’s confusion
and freed him; he was now able to embrace the central message of the Lotus
Sutra for the first time, and that fact gave him great happiness.[37]
Dōgen adds his twist to this episode by expanding the horizon of
the discourse.
“The
Buddha land of 10 directions are where the lotus flowers blossom,” so he begins
this essay. We must note here that Dogen’s usage of the word “hokke” 法華
(literally, “dharma-flower”) is multifaceted and evasive in that we cannot
equate one concept for it.
Dogen sets the stage on the entire cosmos where the lotus
flowers blooms, where the truth is found, where the true nature of the self
blossoms. This is the world where the Lotus Sutra is read and exerts its
virtues (tenhokke, hokketen). By the way, the word “ten” 転 (literally, “turning”
or “rotation”) has many meanings in Buddhism and also in Dogen’s writings, such
as “flipping,” “spinning,” “unfolding,” “transforming,” and “quickening.” I
would imagine this word “ten” in this context is a pun on the act of sutra
reading, in which one spreads out the scroll in both hands and rotate one’s
wrists to “turn” the scroll as one reads along.[38]
Having
set up the cosmic stage, Dogen then takes up the first verse by Huineng, “When your mind is deluded, the Lotus
Sutra unfolds itself,” and boldly proclaims that there is no such a thing
as “delusion.” Even if our mind is “deluded,” such is the true nature of the
mind, and it is the doing, the unfolding activity, of the lotus flower (i.e.,
the entire universe). There is nothing to regret; whatever we do is the
bodhisattva act. Our delusion may place us “inside the burning house,” “at the
gate of the burning house,” “outside the gate,” “in front of the gate,” or
“inside the gate,” or wherever. It is the deluded mind that conceives such
things as “inside the gate,” “outside the gate,” “the gate as the passageway,”
and “the burning house.” Instead, Dogen asks: when we see the white ox-drawn
carriage, from where do we approach it?
From the garden? From the burning house? Is the gate just a passageway?
Who runs to the white-ox drawn carriage? Who takes the Buddhas’ teachings of
enlightenment as the “gate” and goes in and out of it? Dogen says, all these mental activities
are in the end nothing but a long enduring bodhisattva practice, which are the
activities of the lotus flower (i.e., the entire reality) unfolding.
Dōgen
then takes up the second verse of Huineng, “When your mind is enlightened, you
unfold the Lotus Sutra,” and he does so on a plane one step beyond the previous
realm, wherein the lotus flower unfolded. This new plane is where one quickens
the lotus flower to unfold. Dōgen explains this as after we completely understand
the powers that the lotus flower possesses to unfold itself and affect us, we
can embody these powers to transform ourselves (jiko o tenzu), to
reorient ourselves. The unfolding of the lotus flower (that leads us to
enlightenment) bounces back to us, and we catch “the ball,” as it were, and we
run as the active player. We embody the quickening power that ushers all beings
to enlightenment. This is what is meant by the mind “unfolding” the lotus
flower.
Dogen
freely quotes passages and phrases from the Lotus Sutra—such as “the
father is always young and the child always old,”[39]
or “a jeweled tower appears in the mid-air, and the jeweled buddha seated
therein invites Shakyamuni to come in and share his seat. Shakyamuni flies into
the air, enters the jeweled tower, and sits right next to the jeweled buddha,”[40]
and so forth. Dogen tells us that these cosmic events are far beyond the
comprehension of the ordinary mind. Moreover, we don’t know that we are the lotus
flowers, because we have not yet realized that fact.
Dogen
wants to make the point that “if our mind is deluded, the lotus flower unfolds
itself; if our mind is enlightened, we unfold the lotus flower. Further, if we
jump all together beyond delusion and enlightenment, it is where the lotus
flower unfolds the lotus flower.”[41]
The vision of such a world has a familiar ring of an
heidegerrian locution that “the world worlds.” Lotus blossoms blossom. This unfolding of the entire
universe, points out Dogen, is synonymous with the Buddha’s teaching career.
Obviously, Dogen’s use of the word “hokke” is much more than the designation
for the Lotus Sutra. Dogen breaks the shell of the Lotus Sutra as
a written document and gives wings to its teachings to spread out all over the
world on the cosmic scale.
Conclusion:
I was tempted to subtitle this paper as “The Logic of Hishiryō
(非思量 the
unthinkable)” or “The Poetic of the Shikan-taza.” Dogen’s interpretation and handling of
the Lotus Sutra eludes any attempt of scholars to understand him. It
also far surpasses any didactic explanations. Dogen’s words are born out of his meditation practice, each
word alive with his inhalation and exhalation.
Dogen’s through living knowledge of the Lotus Sutra takes
us for a ride along a progressively larger vista, which is inhabited by the
past Buddhas as well as the present bodhisattvas struggling to better the world
and bring peace to it. The effect
of Dogen’s essay is one of a grand cosmic symphony that culminates in the
finale, which unfolds in front of us the spiritual universe vibrating and
pulsating.
Indeed, in an essay, “Buddhist Scriptures” (“Bukkyo”), Dogen
quotes the 27th Dhyana master, Prajñātāra (Han’nyatara Sonja), who
said:
The air I breathe out is free from the objects of five senses;
and the air I breathe in is different from the air that the ordinary human
beings inhale. I unfold (tenzu, “to unfold,” “to turn”) the scriptures
of suchness, the number of which scriptures is way over a million. I live in a
totally different world from those who read only a scripture or two. At every
inhalation and exhalation of my breath, the sutras unfold with me.[42]
I see how a long
period of sustained zazen practice may open up this kind of understanding.
Sadly, however, it is reserved only for those diligent practitioners of
meditation, and the rest of us are left with pale shadows and vague intimations
of that profound reality, the beauty of which is accessible only by the purity
of spiritual life. But at least, we are fortunate in that Dogen’s essays give
us more intimation than we can chew on and digest. And the Lotus Sutra beckons us to “turn” its pages.
[1] It is a two-volume biographical information,
including words and deeds, of Dōgen, compiled by Kenzei, the fourteenth abbot
of the Einenji Temple.
[2] Takatsuji, Nishinotōin in downtown Kyoto.
[3]
Masutani Fumio 増谷文雄, Gendaigo-yaku Shōbōgenzō 『現代語訳 正法眼蔵』(Tokyo:
Kadokawa Shoten, l973), 2:79
[4] T. de Bary & I. Bloom, Sources of Chinese Tradition,
From Earliest Times to 1600, 2nd ed., (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1999), p. 433: “The division of Chinese Buddhism into
discrete schools had its origins in the tendency to concentrate on the study of
one particular scripture or group of scriptures . . .”
[5] Kamata Shigeo 鎌田茂雄, Chūgoku
no Zen 『中国の禅』 (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1980), p. 69.
[6] A reference to the Lotus Sutra is based on
Sakamoto Yukio 坂本幸男 & Iwamoto Yutaka 岩本裕, Hokekyō
『法華経』, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1962 <vol. 1>, 1964
<vol. 2>, 1967 <vol. 3>). The passage is identified by the volume
number in Latin numeral and the page number in Arabic number.
[7] Matsubara Taidō 松原泰道, Zengo hyakusen 『禅語百選』, p.
192.
[8] de Bary & Bloom, Sources of Chinese Tradition,
p. 434.
[9] T. J. Kodera, Dogen’s Formative Years in China:
An Historical Study and Annotated Translation of the Hōkyō-ki (Boulder:
Prajñā Press 1980), p. 58 et passim.
[10] For original Japanese text see Mizuno Yaoko 水野弥穂子,
ed., Shōbōgenzō『正法眼蔵』 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1991), 3:79, and Masutani
Fumio, Gendaigoyaku Shōbōgenzō, 5:166.
[11] On day one, Fascicle One (chapters 1 and 2) was read
in the morning and Fascicle Two (chapters 3 and 4) was read in the evening; on
day two, Fascicle Three (chapters 5, 6 and 7) in the morning and Fascicle Four
(chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11) in the evening; on day three, Fascicle Five
(chapters 12, 13, 14 and 15) in the morning, and Fascicle Six (chapters 16, 17,
18 and 19) in the evening; on day four, Fascicle Seven (chapters 20, 21, 22,
23, and 24) in the morning and Fascicles Eight (chapters 25, 26, 27 and 28) in
the evening. Because Chapter 12 of the Lotus Sutra contains the episode
of the daughter of the Nāga-king attaining enlightenment, day three was
especially a big event among the aristocratic ladies (cf. the Pillow Book).
[12] Norman Waddell, tr., “A Chronological Biography of
Zen Priest Hakuin” (Hakuin Oshō Nempu 『白蔭年譜』), Eastern
Buddhist, 27.1 (1994), 108.
There is
also the mention that when Hakuin was seven years old: “He memorized a talk he
heard a temple priest give on the Devadatta chapter of the Lotus Sutra,
and when he returned home repeated what he had heard for the elderly members of
the household. By the time he had finished, one of the old men had tears in his
eyes.” (Waddell, op. cit., p. 101)
[13] Norman Waddell, tr., “A Chronological Biography of
Zen Priest Hakuin” (Hakuin Oshō Nempu), Eastern Buddhist, 27.1
(1994), 154.
[14] Matsubara Taidō 松原泰道, Hokekyō
nyūmon 『法華経入門』, 26-30.
[15] Norman Waddell, tr. “Wild Ivy, The Spiritual Autobiography
of Hakuin Ekaku, Part 2,” Eastern Buddhist 16.1 (1983), 137.
[16] Philip Yampolsky, The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected
Writings (New York & London: Columbia University Press, 1971), p. 86.
[17] Hakuin ‘s letter, “Letter in Answer to an Old Nun of
the Hoke [Nichiren] Sect,” written on 26 December 1747, and composes Part III
of Orategama. The English translation, somewhat altered, is taken from
Yampolsky, The Zen Master Hakuin, 87-88. Japanese versions consulted
include Kamata Shigeo 鎌田茂雄, ed., Hakuin 『白隠』 (Nihon no Zengoroku 『日本の禅語録』, vol. 19), (Tokyo, Kōdansha, 1977), and Izuyama
Kakudō 伊豆山格堂, ed., Hakuin Zenji, Orategama 『白隠禅師遠羅天釜』
(Tokyo, Shunjū-sha, 1985).
[18] Kamata
Shigeo, Hakuin, 42.
[19] Ibid.,
44.
[20] Kamata
Shigeo, Chūgoku no Zen, 43.
[21] Shōbōgenzō, Masutani, 3:55-58, Mizuno, 2:297.
[22] Cf. LS ch.
10, “Preachers of Dharma” (“Hosshihon”) II:142; ch. 21, “The Supernatural
Powers of the Thus Come One” (“Nyoraijinrikihon”) III:158.
[23] Tamura Yoshirō, “The Lotus Sutra,” Art of the
Lotus Sutra, (Tokyo: Kōsei Publishing Co., 1987), p. 28. On this point see
LS ch 10, “Preachers of Dharma,” II:142, and ch 21, “The Supernatural Powers of
the Thus Come One,” III:158.
[24] Cf. LS ch.
15, “Welling Up out of the Earth” (Jūjiyujutsuhon 従地涌出品), II:292.
[25] See Linjilu.
Asahina Sōgen朝比奈宗源, ed., Rinzairoku 『臨済録』, (Tokyo:
Iwanami Shoten, 1984), p. 88; Iriya Yoshitaka 入矢義高, ed., Rinzairoku
『臨済録』, (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1995), p. 96.
[26] R. C. Zaehner, The Bhagavad-Gītā, (London,
Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 146, p. 162, et passim.
[27] Leon Hurvitz,
tr., Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1976), pp. 63-64.
[28] Matsubara Taidō, Hokekyō nyūmon, p. 53.
[29] Dogen, “Kankin” (“Reading Sutras”), in
Masutani Fumio, Shobogenzo, 2:215-16.
[30] Dogen, “Bukkyo” (“Buddhist Scriptures”),
in Masutani, Shobogenzo, 5:166. あらゆる仏経は正法眼蔵なり。一異にあらず、自他にあらず。
[31] Ibid. 脱落の看経あり、不用の看経あること、参学すべきなり
[32] Dogen,
“Nyorai zenshin” (“The Whole Body of the Tathagata”), Masutani, Shobogenzo,
6:276-77.
[33] Dogen,
“Keisei sanshoku” (“The voice of valleys, the hues of mountains”), Masutani, Shobogenzo,
1:149-50.
[34] Dogen, “Hokke ten hokke,” Masutani, Shobogenzo,
2:89.
[35] “Kankin” 看経 (“Reading Sutras”)
was written the fall of 1241, the same year Dogen wrote his “Hokke ten hokke.”
[36] “Hokke ten
hokke,“ Masutani, Shobogenzo, 2:90.
[37] Ibid.,
2:90-91.
[38] There is a
related word, “tengin” 転経, literally, “turning the sutra,” which means
to read the sutra. Masutani, “Bukkyō,” Shobogenzo, 5:163, note.
[39] LS ch. 15, “Welling Up out of the Earth,”
II:314.