dBET ZenTexts 2005
dBET ZenTexts 2005
dBET ZenTexts 2005
ZEN TEXTS
Numata Center
for Buddhist Translation and Research
2005
ZEN TEXTS
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Tripiaka Project
Editorial Foreword
In January 1982, Dr. NUMATA Yehan, the founder of the Bukky
Dend Kykai (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism), decided to
begin the monumental task of translating the complete Taish edition of the Chinese Tripiaka (Buddhist canon) into the English language. Under his leadership, a special preparatory committee was
organized in April 1982. By July of the same year, the Translation
Committee of the English Tripiaka was ocially convened.
The initial Committee consisted of the following members: (late)
HANAYAMA Shy (Chairperson), (late) BAND Shjun, ISHIGAMI
Zenn, (late) KAMATA Shigeo, KANAOKA Shy, MAYEDA Sengaku,
NARA Yasuaki, (late) SAYEKI Shink, (late) SHIOIRI Rytatsu, TAMARU
Noriyoshi, (late) TAMURA Kwansei, URYZU Ryshin, and YUYAMA
Akira. Assistant members of the Committee were as follows:
KANAZAWA Atsushi, WATANABE Shgo, Rolf Giebel of New Zealand,
and Rudy Smet of Belgium.
After holding planning meetings on a monthly basis, the Committee selected one hundred thirty-nine texts for the First Series of
translations, an estimated one hundred printed volumes in all. The
texts selected are not necessarily limited to those originally written
in India but also include works written or composed in China and
Japan. While the publication of the First Series proceeds, the texts
for the Second Series will be selected from among the remaining
works; this process will continue until all the texts, in Japanese as
well as in Chinese, have been published.
Frankly speaking, it will take perhaps one hundred years or more
to accomplish the English translation of the complete Chinese and
Japanese texts, for they consist of thousands of works. Nevertheless,
as Dr. NUMATA wished, it is the sincere hope of the Committee that
this project will continue unto completion, even after all its present
members have passed away.
vii
Editorial Foreword
Publishers Foreword
The Publication Committee shares with the Editorial Committee the
responsibility of realizing the vision of Dr. Yehan Numata, founder
of Bukky Dend Kykai, the Society for the Promotion of Buddhism.
This vision is no less than to make the Buddhas teaching better
known throughout the world, through the translation and publication in English of the entire collection of Buddhist texts compiled in
the Taish Shinsh Daizky, published in Tokyo in the early part
of the twentieth century. This huge task is expected to be carried out
by several generations of translators and may take as long as a hundred years to complete. Ultimately, the entire canon will be available to anyone who can read English and who wishes to learn more
about the teaching of the Buddha.
The present generation of sta members of the Publication Committee includes Marianne Dresser; Reverend Brian Nagata, president of the Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research,
Berkeley, California; Eisho Nasu; and Reverend Kiyoshi Yamashita.
The Publication Committee is headquartered at the Numata Center and, working in close cooperation with the Editorial Committee,
is responsible for the usual tasks associated with preparing translations for publication.
In October 1999, I became the third chairperson of the Publication Committee, on the retirement of its very capable former chair,
Dr. Kenneth K. Inada. The Committee is devoted to the advancement
of the Buddhas teaching through the publication of excellent translations of the thousands of texts that make up the Buddhist canon.
Francis H. Cook
Chairperson
Publication Committee
ix
Contents
A Message on the Publication of the English Tripiaka
NUMATA Yehan
Editorial Foreword
MAYEDA Sengaku
vii
Publishers Foreword
Francis H. Cook
ix
Zen Texts
Essentials of the Transmission of Mind
Contents
Translators Introduction
John R. McRae
Text of Essentials of the Transmision of Mind
3
5
9
59
193
211
241
251
259
263
Glossary
277
Bibliography
287
xi
45
47
Contents
Index
291
xii
Contents
Translators Introduction
11
13
15
17
19
21
23
25
29
31
31
34
35
36
37
37
40
42
Translators Introduction
Translators Introduction
This translation was originally prepared on the basis of the critical edition and modern Japanese translation in Yoshitaka Iriyas
Denshin hyEnryroku, Zen no goroku, no. 8 (Tokyo: Chikuma
shob, 1969). This was actually a group project headed by Professor
Iriya, under whom I worked briey in the past and who I know to
have been a consummate authority on Chinese literature. I have rendered Iriyas headings into English and have included them in the
text for the convenience of the reader; these divisions dier from
those of the traditional text only in that the rst three sections here
represent one overly long section in the traditional version. For the
purposes of this translation I have generally followed the text found
in the Taish shinsh daizky where this diers from Iriyas edition. However, the punctuation of the Taish edition is frequently in
error, and I have almost always followed Iriyas lead in the grammatical interpretation of the text. Except at the very early stages of
this project, I have not consulted the only extant English translation, John Blofelds The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind (New York: Grove Press, 1958). This is not to imply
any undue criticism: Blofelds sensitive renditions of the classics of
Chinese religious literature have proved to be extremely valuable
over the years, but the intervening decades of development in Chan
and Zen studies mandate the appearance of new translations.
Given the widespread eorts toward the international dissemination of Buddhism as a modern message of peace and spiritual wellbeing, I am honored to be able to oer this contribution to the Bukky
Dend Kykai for inclusion in its English Tripiaka series. May it
serve as a catalyst for the enlightenment of all sentient beings!
[Preface]
There was a great Chan master of the religious name Xiyun, who
lived beneath the Eagle Promontory of Mount Huangbo in Gaoan
County in Hongzhou. He was a direct successor to the Sixth Patriarch of Caoqi and the religious nephew of Baizhang [Huaihai] and
Xitang [Zhizang]. Alone did he gird himself with the ineable seal
of the supreme vehicle. He transmitted only the One Mind, other
than which there are no other dharmas.
The essence of the mind is empty, and the myriad conditions
are all serene. It is like the great orb of the sun climbing into
spacethe refulgent brilliance gleams in illumination, purity without a single speck of dust. The realization [of this mind] is without new or old, without shallow or deep. Its explanation depends
neither on doctrinal understanding, on teachers, nor on opening
up the doors and windows [of ones house to let in students]. Right
now, and thats it! To activate thoughts is to go against it! Afterward, [youll realize] this is the fundamental Buddha.
Therefore, his words were simple, his principles direct, his path
steep, and his practice unique. Students from the four directions
raced to his mountain, where they looked on his countenance and
became enlightened. The sea of followers who came and went
always numbered more than a thousand.
In the second year of the Huichang [period] (842), when I (Pei
Xiu) was stationed in Zhongling (Hongzhou), I invited [Chan Master Huangbo] down from his mountain to the prefectural city. He
reposed at Longxingsi, where I inquired of him regarding the path
morning and night. In the second year of the Dazhong [period]
(848), when I was stationed in Yuanling, I again respectfully welcomed him to my oces. He resided at Kaiyuansi, and I received
the teachings morning and night. After leaving his company I
noted down [his teachings], although I managed to get [down in
writing] only one or two of every ten things he said. I have girded
11
379b26
379c
12
1. Mind Is Buddha
The master said to [Pei] Xiu: The Buddhas and all the sentient beings
are only the One Mindthere are no other dharmas. Since beginningless time, this mind has never been generated and has never
been extinguished, is neither blue nor yellow, is without shape and
without characteristic, does not belong to being and nonbeing, does
not consider new or old, is neither long nor short, and is neither large
nor small. It transcends all limitations, names, traces, and correlations. It in itselfthats it! To activate thoughts is to go against it!
It is like space, which is boundless and immeasurable.
It is only this One Mind that is Buddha; there is no distinction
between Buddhas and sentient beings. However, sentient beings
are attached to characteristics and seek outside themselves. Seeking it, they lose it even more. Sending the Buddha in search of the
Buddha, grasping the mind with the mind, they may exhaust themselves in striving for an entire eon but will never get it. They do
not understand that if they cease their thoughts and end their
thinking, the Buddha will automatically be present.
This mind is the Buddha; the Buddha is the sentient being.
When it is sentient being, the mind is not lessened; and when it is
[one of ] the Buddhas, the mind is not increased. And as for the six
perfections (pramits) and the myriad practices, and the types
of merit as numerous as the [sands of the] Ganges River[every
sentient being is] fundamentally sucient in these and requires
no further cultivation. If the conditions occur then give forth [ones
spiritual charity]; when the conditions cease then be silent.
If you are not able to believe resolutely that this [mind] is the
Buddha but attempt spiritual training while attached to characteristics, your quest for spiritual ecacy will be entirely based on
false thoughts and contrary to the enlightenment [of Buddhahood].
This mind is the Buddha; there is neither any separate Buddha
nor any separate mind.
13
380a
This mind is bright and pure and like unto space, without a
single bit of characteristic. To rouse the mind and activate thoughts
is to go against the essence of the Dharma and to be attached to
characteristics. Since beginningless time, there has never been
any Buddha attached to characteristics (i.e., any Buddha associated with or dened by phenomenal characteristics). [The teaching that one can] cultivate the six perfections and the myriad practices in order to achieve Buddhahoodthis is the progressive
[approach to Buddhahood]. Since beginningless time, there has
never been a Buddha [who achieved that state] progressively. Just
be enlightened to the One Mind and there will not be the slightest dharma that can be attainedthis is the true Buddha.
The One Mind is undierentiated in Buddhas and sentient
beings. It is like space, with no heterogeneity and no deterioration. It is like the great orb of the sun that illuminates all beneath
the four heavens: when the sun rises its brightness extends
throughout all the heavens, but space itself does not become
bright; when the sun sets darkness extends throughout all the
heavens, but space itself does not become dark. The realms of
bright and dark besiege each other but the nature of space is
expansive and unchanging. The mind of Buddhas and sentient
beings is also like this.
If you conceive of the Buddha in terms of the characteristics
of purity, brilliance, and liberation, and if you conceive of sentient
beings in terms of the characteristics of impurity, darkness, and
samsaraif your understanding is such as this, then you will never
attain bodhi even after passing through eons [of religious practice] as numerous as the sands of the Ganges River. This is because
you are attached to characteristics. There is only this One Mind
and not the least bit of dharma that can be attained.
This mind is Buddha. Trainees these days are unenlightened
to this essence of the mind, and they generate mind on top of mind,
looking outward in search of the Buddha, and undertaking spiritual cultivation in attachment to characteristics. These are all bad
methods (dharmas) and not the path to bodhi.
14
2. No-mind
To make oerings to all the Buddhas of the ten directions is inferior to making oerings to a single religious person with no-mind.
Why? No-mind refers to the absence of all [states of ] mind. The
essence of suchness is unmoving like wood or stone within and unhindered like space without. It is without subject and object, without
location, without characteristic, and without gain or loss. Those who
would proceed [to enlightenment] are unwilling to enter this Dharma,
fearing that they will fall into the void with nowhere to alight. Therefore they gaze upon the precipice and retreat, then they all seek
widely after conceptual knowledge. Therefore those who seek after
conceptual knowledge are as [numerous as strands of ] hair while
those who are enlightened are as [uncommon as] horns.
Majur stands for principle and Samantabhadra stands for
practice. Principle refers to the principle of unhindered true
emptiness, while practice refers to the practice of the inexhaustible transcendence of characteristics. Avalokitevara stands
for great compassion, and Mahsthmaprpta stands for great
wisdom. Vimalakrti means pure name. Pure is [essential]
nature, and name is characteristic; he is called Pure Name
because of the nondierentiation of nature and characteristic.
[The virtues] typied by the various great bodhisattvas are
possessed by all people; they do not transcend the One Mind, so if
you are enlightened to that then youve got it. Trainees nowadays
do not look within their own minds for enlightenment but become
attached to characteristics and grasp realms outside the mind.
This is totally contrary to the enlightenment [of Buddhahood].
[Take the] sands of the Ganges River: the Buddha has preached
that when the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, Indras, Brahms, and
the various gods walk on them, the sands are not happy. And when
cattle, sheep, worms, and ants step on them, the sands are not
angry. When there is the fragrance of precious treasures, the sands
do not lust after them. And when there is the stench of excrement
and urine, the sands are not displeased.
15
380b
This mind is the mind of no-mind. Transcending all characteristics, there is yet no dierence between sentient beings and
Buddhas. If you can just [attain] no-mind, then that is the ultimate [state of enlightenment]. If a trainee does not instantly
[attain] no-mind but spends successive eons in cultivation, he will
never achieve enlightenment. He will be fettered by the meritorious practices of the three vehicles and will not attain liberation.
However, there is fast and slow in realizing this mind: there
are those who attain no-mind in a single moment of thought after
hearing the Dharma; those who attain no-mind after [passing
through] the ten faiths, the ten abodes, the ten practices, and the
ten conversions; and those who attain no-mind after [passing
through] the ten stages [of the bodhisattva]. In spite of the length
of time it takes them to [attain it, once they] reside in no-mind
there is nothing else to be cultivated or realized. Truly without
anything to be attained, true and not false [is no-mind]. Whether
it is attained in a single moment of thought or at the tenth stage
[of the bodhisattva], its ecacy is identical. There are no further
gradations of profundity, only the useless striving of successive
eons. The performance of good and evil is entirely [within the
domain of ] characteristics. Being attached to characteristics and
doing evil, one uselessly experiences samsara. Being attached to
characteristics and doing good, one uselessly experiences laborious suering. Neither alternative is equal to recognizing the fundamental Dharma at a word [from a true teacher].
These dharmas are the mind; there are no dharmas outside
of the mind. This mind is the dharmas; outside of the dharmas
there is no mind. The mind is of itself no-mind, yet it is without
no-mind. If you take the mind as no-mind, you make the mind into
something that exists. Just conform with it in silence, ceasing the
various [types of ] conceptualization. Therefore it is said, the way
of words is cut o, and the activities of the mind cease.
This mind is the fundamentally pure Buddha, which is possessed by both the Buddhas and [ordinary] people. The wriggling
16
insects and all that has life, the Buddhas and bodhisattvasthese
are identical and not dierent. It is only through false thoughts
and discrimination that [sentient beings] create various types of
karmic fruits.
17
380c
18
19
381a
20
21
381b
interior and exterior, without enumeration, without shape, without form, and without sound. It cannot be seen and cannot be
sought after. It cannot be recognized with wisdom, cannot be
grasped with words, cannot be conformed to realms or things, and
cannot be arrived at with [religious] eort.
The Buddhas and bodhisattvas and all beings that harbor life,
[even down to] the wriggling insects, all share this same great nirvana nature. This nature is the mind, mind is the Buddha, and
the Buddha is the Dharma.
If you depart from the true for a single moment, all is false
thoughts.
You cannot seek the mind with the mind, you cannot seek the
Buddha with the Buddha, and you cannot seek the Dharma with
the Dharma. Therefore, trainees should achieve no-mind right
now. Simply conform with [the mind] in silenceif you try to use
the mind you will miss it.
To transmit the mind with the mindthis is the correct view.
I warn you, do not look outward and chase after realms but recognize that the realms are the mind. [To commit this error would
be] to accept the thief as ones own child.
Due to the existence of greed, anger, and delusion there are
established morality (la), meditation (samdhi), and wisdom
(praj). Fundamentally there are no afictions, so how can there
be bodhi? Therefore the patriarch has said, The Buddha has
preached all the dharmas in order to eliminate all [states of ] mind.
If I am without all [the states of ] mind, what use is there for all
the dharmas?
The fundamentally pure Buddha has not a single thing
attached to it. It is likened to space, and even if one [attempted
to] adorn it with immeasurable precious treasures, there would
never be any place to make them stay. Buddha-nature is identical to space, and even if one [attempted to] adorn it with limitless
[feats of ] merit and wisdom, there would never be any place to
make them stay.
22
23
381c
24
does not come [into one], and when one dies neither does the nature
go [anywhere]. Peaceful, perfect, and serene, the mind and its
realms are identical. If one can only right now suddenly achieve
comprehension in this fashion, you will not be fettered by the three
periods of time (i.e., past, present, and future) and will be a person who has transcended the world. You must denitely avoid having even the slightest bit of intentionality. If you see Buddhas of
excellent characteristics (i.e., in their resplendent superhuman
forms) coming to greet [and escort you to the Pure Land], with all
the various phenomena [involved in such visions], then have no
thought of following them. If you see various phenomena with evil
characteristics, neither should you have any thoughts of fear. Simply forget your mind and identify yourself with the dharmadhtu,
and you will attain autonomy. This is the essential gist [of my
teaching].
25
382a
26
27
[ordinary] seal were axed to emptiness (i.e., space), the seal would
not create a [written] character. If the seal [of the mind] were
axed to a thing, the seal would not create the Dharma. Therefore, the mind is used to seal the mind, and the minds [of all the
successors] have not diered. The conjunction of sealer and sealed
(i.e., teacher and student) is dicult, so those who attain [the transmission] are few. However, the mind is without mind, and attainment is without attainment.
The Buddha has three bodies. The Dharma body preaches the
Dharma of the transparency of the self-nature, the reward body
(sabhogakya) preaches the Dharma of the purity of all things,
and the transformation body (nirmakya) preaches the Dharma
of the six perfections and the myriad practices. The Dharma bodys
preaching of the Dharma cannot be sought with word, voice, shape,
or [written] character. It is without anything that is preached and
without anything that is realized, but is only the transparency of
the self-nature. Therefore it is said, To be without any Dharma
that can be preached is called to preach the Dharma.
The reward body and transformation body both respond [to
beings] and manifest [their teachings] in accordance with [the abilities of the] persons they teach. The Dharmas that they preach
are also responses to the [diering] roots [of sentient beings] in
accordance with phenomena and are used to convert [people to
Buddhism], and none [of these teachings] are the True Dharma.
Therefore it is said, The reward and transformation [bodies] are
not the true Buddha and do not preach the Dharma.
In the saying identically the one vital brilliance, divided into
six that combine together, the one vital brilliance is the One Mind
and the six that combine together are the six sensory capabilities.
These six sensory capabilities each combine with sense objects: the
eye combines with forms, the ear combines with sounds, the nose
combines with fragrances, the tongue combines with tastes, the
body combines with tactile sensations, and the mind combines with
dharmas. Between [these senses and sensations] are generated
the six consciousnesses. These are the eighteen realms. If you com-
28
prehend that the eighteen realms do not exist, [you will understand that] the six [sensory capabilities] combine together to form
a single vital brilliance. The single vital brilliance is the mind.
Trainees all understand this but they are merely unable to
avoid forming the interpretation of the single vital brilliance and
the combining together of the six [sensory capabilities]. They are
thus fettered by the Dharma and do not conform themselves with
the fundamental mind.
When the Tathgata was in the world he wanted to preach the
True Dharma of the One Vehicle. However, sentient beings did not
have faith and reviled [the Dharma], thus drowning themselves in
the sea of suering. If [the Buddha] had not preached anything at
all he would have fallen into [the transgression of ] parsimony and
would not have [been able to] dispense entirely his wondrous enlightenment on behalf of sentient beings. Thus he adopted skillful means
and preached the existence of three vehicles. These vehicles include
[both the] Great [Vehicle] (Mahayana) and Small [Vehicle]
(Hinayana) and their attainments are shallow or profound, but
they are all other than the fundamental Dharma.
Therefore it is said, There is only the enlightenment (Way) of
the One Vehicle; the other two are not true. However, [the Buddha]
was ultimately unable to manifest the Dharma of the One Mind,
so he called Kyapa to share his Dharma seat and individually
conveyed to him the preaching of the Dharma that is of the One
Mind and which transcends words. He had this single branch of
the Dharma carried out separately [from the rest of Buddhism]. If
you are able to achieve conformance with and enlightenment to
[the One Mind], then you have attained the stage of Buddhahood.
8. On Cultivating Enlightenment
Question: What is enlightenment, and how should it be cultivated?
The master said: What sort of thing is enlightenment that you
would want to cultivate it?
29
382b
Question: Masters all over China (lit., in the various locations) have taught that one should practice Chan and study
enlightenment. What about this?
The master said: These are sayings to entice those of dull capabilities and are totally unreliable.
[The questioner] said: If these are sayings to entice those of
dull capabilities, then I wonder what Dharma would be preached
to entice people of superior capabilities?
The master said: If [you are] a person of superior capabilities,
why would you seek it through someone else (i.e., through the
words of a teacher)? Even the self is unattainable, so how could
there possibly be any other Dharma you could gure on? Have you
not seen it said within the teachings, What can the status of the
dharmas be?
[The questioner] said: If it is like this, then seeking is entirely
unnecessary.
The master said: Since that is the way it is, you can save some
energy.
[The questioner] said: If it is like this, is not everything annihilated and [turned into] nonbeing?
The master said: Who has made it into nonbeing? What is it
that you would want to seek?
[The questioner] said: If you do not allow me to seek it, why
do you then say not to eradicate it?
The master said: If you are not going to seek for it, then stop.
But who is making you eradicate [anything]? You see the space
right in front of youhow could you eradicate it?
[The questioner] said: Can this Dharma possibly be identical
to space?
30
The master said: When has space said to you that it is identical to and dierent from [anything]? If I were to preach a bit
like that, you would generate a [conceptualized] interpretation
about it.
[The questioner] said: Should not one have people generate
interpretations?
The master said: I have never caused you diculties [in the
past, so why do you pester me now]? The point is, interpretations
pertain to ratiocination, and the generation of ratiocination means
departure from wisdom.
[The questioner] said: So one is not to generate ratiocination
about this, is that right?
The master said: If no one generates ratiocination, who is to
say it is right?
9. Misspoken
Question: When I said something to you just now, why did you say
youve misspoken?
The master said: You are unable to speak but how could you
be at fault?
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382c
[The questioner] said: If my question itself will generate confusion, what about your answer?
The master said: You should get something to reect your face.
Dont worry about others.
[The master] also said: You are just like a stupid dogif you
see something moving you bark, not even distinguishing whether
it is just the wind blowing the plants and trees.
[The master] also said: In our Chan school, ever since it was
transmitted from previous [generations], never have people been
taught to seek after knowledge or to seek after [conceptual] interpretations. We have only said that one should study enlightenment, and even this is a phrase that is meant [only] to entice [people into religious practice]. Even though [this phrase is used],
enlightenment cannot be studied. The study of [conceptual] interpretations in the context of ratiocination will on the contrary create delusion regarding enlightenment.
Enlightenment is without location and is called the mind of
the Mahayana. This mind does not reside within, without, or in
an intermediate [location]. It is truly without location. The most
important thing is not to form conceptual interpretations and
merely speak on the basis of your current ratiocination. When your
ratiocination is exhausted, [you will realize that] the mind is without location.
Enlightenment is naturally true and is fundamentally without names. It is only that people of the world do not recognize it
and remain deluded within their ratiocination. The Buddhas then
appear [in the world] to destroy their misconceptions. I am afraid
that you people do not comprehend but provisionally establish the
name enlightenment. You must not generate interpretations so
as to maintain this name. Therefore it is said, attain the sh and
forget the trap.
With body and mind as they are, penetrate enlightenment and
recognize the mind. It is because you penetrate the fundamental
source that you are called a monk. The fruit of monkhood is
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33
383a
appropriate [in each situation. These teachings] have been administered as the occasion warrants, and each is dierent. If you are
just able to comprehend, then you will not be deluded by them. The
most important thing is not to maintain the text or form an interpretation of a single [individual] case or a single teaching. Why?
There is truly no denitive Dharma that the Tathgata can preach.
In our school we do not discuss these matters (i.e., the doctrines of
Buddhism). You should simply understand that we do nothing else
but stop the mind. There is no use in thinking about this and that.
34
point out directly that all persons are in their entireties the Buddha.
You fail to recognize this now but grasp onto the ordinary and the
sagely, racing after the external and in turn being deluded as to
your own mind. Therefore, I say to you: this mind is the Buddha.
To generate a single moment of ratiocination is to fall into a
dierent realm. Since beginningless time, [this truth] has been no
dierent from how it is today; there is no other Dharma. Therefore this is called the attainment of [the stages of ] equivalent and
correct enlightenment.
[The questioner] said: What do you mean when you say is
[identical to]?
The master said: What meaning are you looking for? If there
is the slightest bit of meaning, this is to be dierent from the mind.
[The questioner] said: You just said Since beginningless time
[this truth] has been no dierent from how it is today. What did
you mean?
The master said: It is only because of your seeking that you
dier from it. If you dont seek for it, then how could you be
dierent?
[The questioner] said: Then if it [means] not dierent, why
do you say is?
The master said: If you do not believe in the ordinary and the
sagely, who will say is to you? If is is not is, then the mind
is also not the mind. If the mind and is are both forgotten, where
will you try to look for them?
35
The master said: To activate the false in order to expel the false
is to create the false. The false is fundamentally without basis, and
it only exists because of discrimination. If you simply eliminate
your ratiocination regarding ordinary and sagely you will naturally be without the false. Then how could you try to expel it? To
be entirely without even the slightest bit of dependency is called
I have cast o both arms and will certainly attain Buddhahood.
[The questioner] said: If one is without dependency, how can
[the mind of the patriarchs] be transmitted?
The master said: The mind is transmitted with the mind.
[The questioner] said: If the mind is transmitted, how can you
say that the mind is also nonexistent?
The master said: To not attain a single dharma is called the
transmission of the mind. If you comprehend this mind, then there
is no mind and no dharma.
[The questioner] said: If there is no mind and no dharma, why
do you call it a transmission?
383b
36
the realms? If you are able to see [something], this is only the mind
that reects the realms. If you use a mirror to reect your face,
even if you are able to see your features clearly this is fundamentally only an image. How can it have anything to do with you?
[The questioner] said: If one does not depend on [the process
of ] reection, when will one be able to see [ones face]?
The master said: If you are going to depend on causes then
you will always be dependent on things, and when will you ever
comprehend? Havent you had anyone say to you, If I open my
hand to show it to you, there is nothing there? It would be a useless waste of eort to explain it to you several thousand times.
[The questioner] said: If someone recognizes it completely,
wouldnt there be no things to reect?
The master said: If there were no things, then what use would
reection be? Dont talk in your sleep with your eyes open!
37
383c
38
Its energy exhausted, the arrow falls to earth. You bring an untoward future birth [upon yourself ]how could this compare to the
teaching of the unconditioned true characteristic, in which with
a single leap one enters directly into the stage of the Tathgata?
Because you are not the right kind of person, you must extensively
study conceptual interpretations based on the teachings of the
ancients. Baozhi has said, If you do not encounter a teacher of
wisdom who is beyond this world, you will uselessly partake of the
Dharma medicine of the Mahayana.
Now, at all times and during all your activities you should simply study no-mind, and eventually [your eorts] will bear fruit. It
is because your abilities are slight that you are unable to make
the sudden leap. If you can just get three years, ve years, or ten
years, then you will denitely be able to get a foothold (lit., a place
to insert the head) and you will understand naturally. It is because
you are unable to do so that you must use the mind to study Chan
and study enlightenment, but what connection does this have with
the Buddha-Dharma? Therefore it is said, All that the Tathgata
has preached was [stated] in order to teach people. For example,
to say that a yellow leaf was gold stopped the crying of a little
child, but it was certainly not true.
If [you think] there is something actually to be attained, then
you are not a member of my school. And what relationship will you
ever have with the fundamental essence? Therefore, the sutra says,
For there to be truly not the slightest dharma that can be attained
is called the insurpassable bodhi. If you are able to understand
the meaning of this, then for the rst time you will understand
that the way of the Buddha and the way of Mra are both wrong.
Fundamentally it is pure and bright, without square and round,
without large and small, and without long and short and other
characteristics. It is untainted and inactive, without delusion and
without enlightenment. See it clearly and distinctly, without there
being a single thing, as well as without people and without
Buddhas. The world-systems [as numerous as the] sands [of the
Ganges River] are but as foam in the ocean, and all the sages are
39
40
chase after the Sixth Patriarch [all the way] to Mount Dayu? The
Sixth Patriarch asked him, What did you come for? Do you seek
the robe or the Dharma? Head monk [Hui]ming said, I have not
come for the robe but only for the Dharma. The Sixth Patriarch
said, You should concentrate your thoughts for just a short while,
without thinking of good and evil. [Hui]ming did as he was told.
The Sixth Patriarch said, Do not think of good and do not think
of evil. When youve got it just right, show me the face you had
before your parents were born. At these words, [Hui]ming suddenly [experienced a] silent conformance [with the Dharma]. He
then paid obeisance [to the Sixth Patriarch] and said, When a
person drinks he automatically knows [whether the water is] hot
or cold. When I was in the assembly of the Fifth Patriarch, I labored
pointlessly for thirty years, and only today have I been able to
eliminate my previous errors.
The Sixth Patriarch said, So it is. Only after coming here have
you understood the ineability of [the saying] the patriarch [Bodhidharmas] coming from the west, directly pointing at peoples
minds, and seeing [Buddha]-nature and achieving Buddhahood.
Havent you heard of nanda asking Kyapa, In addition to the
golden-threaded [robe], what Dharma did the World-honored One
transmit to you? Kyapa called to nanda and nanda responded
[Yes?]. Kyapa [then] said, Knock over the standard-pole in
front of the gate!
[Gloss:] (This was the patriarchs [symbolic] standard.)
[Question:] How could nanda have served [the Buddha] for
thirty years and been scolded by the Buddha for being only erudite in wisdom?
[The master] said: For you to study wisdom for a thousand
days is not equal to studying enlightenment for a single day. If
you do not study enlightenment, how will you be able to use [even]
a single drop of water (i.e., of what is naturally provided for you)?
41
384a
17. Autonomy
Question: How can one avoid falling into the stages?
The master said: Always eating your meals without ever chewing a single grain of rice, always walking without ever stepping
on a single bit of earthwhen you [function] like this then there
are no characteristics of self. You are never separate from all the
aairs [of life], and yet you are not deluded by the various realms.
Only then may you be called an autonomous person. Furthermore,
at all times and in every moment of thought dont perceive all the
characteristics and dont recognize past, [present,] and future, the
three periods of time. The past does not go, the present does not
abide, and the future does not come. Sitting peacefully upright,
letting things happen as they willonly then may you be called
liberated.
Make eort! Make eort! Of the thousand or ten thousand people in this school, only three or ve [have really understood
Buddhism]. If you do not take this seriously then you will suer
for it eventually (lit., there will be a day when you experience a
calamity). Therefore it is said, Be diligent in taking care of this
life, and how could you suer misfortune in eons to come?
End of Chan Master Duanji of Mount Huangbos
Essentials of the Transmission of Mind
42
Contents
Translators Introduction
47
153
168
176
185
189
191
193
Notes
211
45
61
69
71
75
79
82
115
127
129
137
143
Translators Introduction
47
be represented with respective installations in his temple. Eisai immediately had two temples, one Shingon and one Tendai, built in the
compound of the Kenninji in Kyoto, the Zen temple that had been
built for him the previous year by the second shogun of Kamakura,
Minamoto Yoriiye. Beginning around that time, warriors of the
Kamakura shogunate tended to become nancial supporters of the
Zen school.
In 1211 Eisai wrote an article on tea, Kissayjki (Notes on Taking Tea for Nourishing Life), and presented it to the third shogun,
Minamoto Sanetomo. Prior to this, in 1185, two years before Eisai
left for his second visit to China, the Taira (or Heike) warrior clan
was decisively defeated by the Genji (or Minamoto) clan in a battle
famous in Japanese history. The Taira afterward disappeared from
the world of politics but they are said to have continued to nancially
support Eisais activities in Kyushu. The warrior clans possibly saw
in Eisai a truly reliable spiritual guide who could see beyond the contemporary political situation of Japan.
The imperial mandate issued in 1194 to ban the propagation of
Zen reads as follows:
[Emperor] Gotoba, fth year of Kenky (1194), July 5, kinoe-ne:
Buddhist monks of the Tendai school reported to the Throne
that they had heard that elder monks like Eisai, who had been
to China, and Nnin, who abided in the capital, had established
the Daruma school, and that they should be made to stop its
propagation. The Emperor proclaimed that thereafter they
should stop their activities.
This is found in fascicle ten of the Hyakurensh (Finest Style
Excerpts, seventeen fascicles, Kokushi taikei new ed., vol. XI, 1929).
This record, made up of reliable annual records dating from the reign
of Emperor Reizei, which began in 967, through that of Emperor
Gofukakusa, which ended in 1257, gives the reason for the ban as
nothing other than the introduction of a new school. For most Tendai
priests, as well as priests of other traditional schools, the existence of
any new school was perceived as a threat and could not be permitted.
48
Translators Introduction
49
Weishan Jingce (Isan Keisaiku; Weishans Staff of Vigilance). According to Professor Seizan Yanagida and Tsuji Zennosuke (Nihonbukkyshi [History of Japanese Buddhism], Vol. III, Chseihen no.
2, Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten, 1957), this was the rst Zen text to be
printed in Japan. Both Shiren and Eisai failed to appreciate the signicant role that Nnin might have played, as a man of Zen among
the common people, in the history of Japanese Zen. It is said that
Nnin was accidentally killed by his nephew Taira Kagekiyo.
In 1198, the year Eisai wrote this Treatise, the Pure Land
Buddhist teacher Hnenb Genk (11331212) also wrote his main
work, Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Sh (A Collection of Passages on
the Nembutsu Chosen in the Original Vow, English translation by
Morris J. Augustine and Tessh Kond, Numata Center, 1997). In
1207 Hnen was exiled to a remote region far from Kyoto, the capital at the time. The reason given for his exile was that the Pure Land
teaching had caused serious moral problems in society. In both
instances of new schools being advocated, in this case Zen and Pure
Land, repression came from the traditional schools of Buddhism, in
the form of imperial sanctions. The old forces regarded themselves
as guardians of the state and wielded great inuence on the nobles
represented by the emperor. For priests of the traditional schools,
the safety of the nobles meant the safety and security of their respective schools; anyone who might threaten their respective order was
an enemy. Advocates of Zen and Pure Land practices, who were
regarded as being concerned with their own religious life instead of
contributing to the stability of the society, and thus outside the
inuence of the nobles and priests, were seen as such enemies.
Eisai was a Tendai priest of the highest rank (daihosshi). On returning from his second trip to China, in 1191, he began advocating that
Zen should exist as an independent school, rather than merely remaining one among other traditional Tendai teachings, but soon met with
an imperial ban on his activities. Hnen had also been a Tendai priest,
who practiced the nembutsu. When he began advocating Pure Land
practice among those outside the Tendai school he met with grave
punishment. Zen and Pure Land teachings, however, had already
50
Translators Introduction
51
Japan, Eisai insisted on the necessity among Buddhist priests of keeping both individual and social morality (la and vinaya, or ritsu). For
Eisai, the prevailing view in Japan of the history of the degeneration
of the Buddhas teachings in the latter-day world (mapp) worked in
the opposite direction. The awakened nature of all humans was already
there before this world came into being, and will never decay when
this world suers destruction. The Mahparinirva Sutra describes
this awakened nature as nirvana that is the eternal bliss of the formless self, free of all delement. Eisai follows the view of Chinese Tiantai
scholars after Zhiyi, in their interpretation of the above scripture,
that nirvana, the cessation of suering, oers the true ground for
morality. (According to Zhiyis Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra,
Fasc. 4, Vol. 2, T. 33: 726b, nirvana stands as a support not only for
la, or keeping precepts, but also for samdhi and praj.)
It seems to have been Eisais belief that monks and nuns in the
latter-day world are urged by ultimate reality to open themselves to
ultimate reality itself, and that is why they should uphold both la
and vinaya. What urges one to maintain morality is, ultimately, not
any external authority but ones own awakened nature, nirvana. Following Zhanrans phrase, the teaching on the permanence that supports vinaya (see the passage from his Elucidatory Comments on
Zhiyis Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, quoted in Gate III, pp.
845), Eisai calls nirvana the Zen truth that supports morality.
Because of this nirvana-support, Eisai believed, one could and should
do ones best at once to keep precepts and to be in composure. From
Eisais viewpoint, making little of precepts while emphasizing the
importance of attaining awakening constituted a serious oense
against Buddhist practices.
It was on the basis of this understanding that Eisai advocated
Zen practice in Japan. With this understanding, Eisai rejected Nnins
popular Daruma Zen practice as evil. The Zen practice Eisai observed
and experienced in Song China was that of the Chan school as a statesupported and state-supporting religion. He could never have dreamed
of a time when Chan would have nothing to do with any sovereign
52
Translators Introduction
53
the court, though brief in time and formal in nature, of these two
Rinzai Zen priests as presiding priests of the temple dedicated to
Eisai, revealed his contemporaries high estimation of him.
The present text by Eisai has not attracted much attention, written as it was for the special purpose of defending the standpoint of
Zen against groundless rebuke. Composed in Chinese, full of passages
quoted often and repeatedly from one hundred Buddhist sources
(mostly Indian and Chinese), it is not easy to read. Nevertheless, we
have in the Treatise on Letting Zen Flourish to Protect the State a
very passionate and sincere exposition of the Zen truth, based on the
authors own deep experience. In this work we meet a very competent, committed person who devoted himself to exhorting people of
the early Kamakura era to practice Zen, and to pray for the nations
protection from decadence both internal and external, for this was
precisely what he meant by protecting the state.
On reading this treatise, the rst question one has to ask is why
a daihosshi, the highest rank of priest in the Japanese Tendai school,
would come to be in the position of defending the propagation of the
Zen school against imperial prohibition and predicting its future in
Japan. This question naturally nds its answer as one reads the work.
The Zen school predicted by Eisai to ourish half a century after his
lifetime was a form that Eisai believed his contemporary Tendai
school would have to accept. That was the form the Tendai school
had to develop from within itself, which in his time it had not yet
done, as he mentions in this Treatise. It seems that he considered
himself one of those few Tendai priests who could understand the
close relationship between Tendai and Zen. Eisai observed in China
that Tiantai had already been replaced by Chan as a state-supported
religion. He quite possibly returned home with the rm belief that
this ought to be the direction of Japanese Buddhism as well. Eisai
was one of those rare Japanese priests who seriously considered the
future of their contemporary religion.
The Treatise on Letting Zen Flourish to Protect the State is an
excellent introduction to Zen principles and the Chan/Zen school,
made for the rst time in the history of Japanese religious thought.
54
Translators Introduction
55
the last year of Htoku (1451) in the Muromachi period, when Nans
Rysaku, the seventh-generation presiding priest after Eisai of the
Kenninji, went to Ming China. The unattributed Foreword was discovered in Nans Rysakus notebook, and he is presumed to be its
author. The Foreword gives brief sketches of Eisais activities in Japan
and China and also mentions that after Eisai presented the Treatise
to the court, and through it succeeded in gaining imperial sanction
for propagating Zen, the text did not circulate outside the Zen school.
A century after Eisai passed away, Kokan Shiren quoted many important passages from the Treatise in his Genkshakusho, published in
1322. This seems to be the earliest extant record referring to Eisais
Treatise. Tshuns Note on the Foreword and Postscript help us to
understand how the present text has been handed down to us.
56
Translators Introduction
prefers Ysai rather than the more common Eisai for rendering
the authors name) in tracing the sources of the passages quoted in
the present text. Eisai quotes from one hundred parts of scriptures,
and some passages include quotations from other texts. For these
text citations, the English title is used and the source and page reference is given. The Appendix gives a complete list of all texts cited
or mentioned in the Treatise, listed in order of their appearance, numbering 1101, with the English title used in this translation, as well
as providing more complete English titles and Sanskrit, romanized
Chinese, and romanized Japanese titles, where applicable. Sources
for the texts are also given.
In this translation, where terms have Sanskrit, Chinese, and
Japanese equivalents, their romanization appears in that order. Most
certainly the dates Eisai gives in the text are those of the lunar calendar. Dates and original terms appear in parentheses. Interpolatory words or phrases supplied by the translator appear in square
brackets. The endnotes provide explanatory remarks and indicate
the places where corrected words and phrases adopted from Professor Yanagidas work for the scribal errors mentioned previously have
been incorporated.
An English translation of Eisais Foreword and a brief introduction to his thought have been published in Chapter XII, Zen
Buddhism, in Sources of Japanese Tradition, compiled by Rysaku
Tsunoda, William Theodore de Bary, and Donald Keene (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1958). In the same volume see also Zen
Pioneers in Japan, pp. 2356; Eisai: Preface to Kzen gokoku ron
(Propagation of Zen for the Protection of the Country), pp. 2413;
and the material on Eisais Kissayjki (Drink Tea and Prolong
Life), pp. 2436.
The present translation represents an extensive revision of a previous English translation completed in November 1985, on which I
received help from Mr. Jerey Shore, MA, University of Hawaii. At
the time of preparing this revised translation, more than seventeen
years later, I had completed a study of the four-fascicle Chinese version by Guabhadra of the Lakvatra-stra, which was of benet
57
58
Foreword
After its completion this treatise has been circulating only in the
gate of our Zen school. The master is the rst patriarch in this country of the busshin-sh, the school of the Buddhas mind.1 Hence
the appellation, Founding Master Senk. His father, from the
Kaya clan of Bitch Province,2 was descended from Emperor Krei.3
His mother, from the Ta clan, prayed before an altar to the deity
of music, the familys ancestral temple inside the Kibitsu Shrine,
and, on dreaming of the morning star, felt herself pregnant. She
gave birth to the master when the morning star appeared.
At the age of eight the master took leave of his parents and
went to learn the meaning of the Buddhist treatises, the Abhidharmakoa and the [Mah]vaibh-stra, in their Chinese versions, as transmitted in Mii Temple of the Tendai school. In the
autumn of the third year of Ninhei, mizunoto-tori (1153), when he
was thirteen years old, the master ascended Mount Hiei and was
ordained a Tendai priest with the name Eisai. He learned the meaning of the perfect principle of Tendai, and his fame among those
assembling for study already surpassed all others. However, on
contemplating the world to be a oating illusion, his pessimism
strengthened daily. When he was twenty-three years old, he
descended from Mount Hiei and went to live on Mount Nichi of
Bizen Province.4 He spent several years there, abstaining from
[eating] grain while engaged in the esoteric practice of a rite called
samaya (pledge). He dedicated himself to keeping his body and
mind free of delement, and was versed especially in a particular
observance called savara (restraint).
The master had long intended to journey to Song China. However, for the past two hundred years in this country no Buddhist
monks had visited China. When he happened to mention [his wish
to go to China], he was ridiculed by others. Despite this, however,
his determination never waivered. He said to himself:
61
1a
1b
62
Foreword
63
Further, the master dressed for burial the corpse of the Venerable [Tripiaka Master] r Bhadra [from Nland, India], the rst
presiding priest of the Tiantai Wannian Temple, and repaired the
surface of the pagoda which had been built in memory of the priest.
The master did this because he believed the venerable monk was
his own previous incarnation. Once the master composed a verse:
Here where a monastery overseas has specially been built,
Green hills welcome me with beaming smiles.
The bones of the blooming plums remain undecayed for
three lives.
I ponder on a rock, sweeping away green moss.
This appears to have been composed around that time.
When the master saw that the pagoda built in memory of
Dhyna Master Zhizhe8 had become broken down and ruined, he
gave up [his own] daily expenses in order to manage building operations. Subsequently the master had the porches built on both
sides of the gate of Wannian Temple, which had been missing. For
rebuilding a pavilion named the One Thousand Buddhas Towering Pavilion on Mount Tianton, there was so great a contribution from the master that people admired it and a record of it was
engraved in stone. For details, see the Notes on the One ThousandBuddha Pavilion of the Celebrated Mountain Taibai (Taibaimingshan Qianfogeji) by Louyao (d. 1213), a Song scholar, as well as
the Notes on the Memorial Temple for Dharma Master Senk from
the Country of Japan (Ribenguo Qianguangfashi Citangji)9 by
Yuchu, General Taxation Ocer. Both Notes are kept at the Celebrated Mountain Taibai.
The nation of Song was suering from an epidemic disease,
which worried both the emperor and his subjects. The emperor
ordered several high-ranking priests to pray against its prevalence,
with no eect. The emperor then ordered the master to do the same.
A day after the master received the imperial edict, the epidemic
had already ceased. Two days after, those who had died came back
to life. The emperor praised him for this and said:
64
Foreword
65
1c
66
Foreword
67
69
1c21
Preface
By Eisai, An Ajari of Japan,
Who Studied Abroad in Mount Tiantai of the
Great Song, in the Rank of Daihosshi (Great
Dharma Master) for Transmission of the Lamp
How great is the Mind!15 The height of the heavens is such that it
is impossible to reach its end; the Mind rises above the heavens.
The thickness of the earth is such that it is impossible to measure
its extent; the Mind comes out from beneath the earth. The rays
of the sun and moon travel so far that it is impossible to exceed
them; the Mind extends beyond the reach of their rays. The great
thousands of worlds, comparable to [the number of ] grains of sand
in the Ganges River, are boundless; the Mind encompasses these
worlds. You might speak of the great void and the primal energy
that lls it, and the Mind envelops the great void and is pregnant
with the primal energy. Heaven and earth wait for Me and then
cover and uphold one another. Sun and moon wait for Me and then
circulate. The four seasons wait for Me and then change. A myriad of things wait for Me and then are procreated. Great indeed is
the Mind.16
I have no other way than to forcibly name this Mind. This has
been named the best vehicle (rehayna), ultimate reality (paramrtha), the true characteristics of reality (dharmat) revealed
through the knowledge of emptiness (praj), the one true mode
of being (dharmadhtu), the unsurpassed awakening (anuttar
samyaksabodhi),17 the calm self in heroic advance (ragama
samdhi), the eye and treasury of the True Dharma (saddharmacakukoa), as well as the sublime mind (hdaya) of nirvana.18 This
being the case, it is in this Mind that all the expositions classied
as the three wheels, the eight treasuries, the four trees, and the
ve vehicles nd their source.19
71
2a
72
Preface
73
2b
Fascicle One
Gate I
By the rst gate, Having the Buddhas Teachings Abide Long,
I mean what follows.
The Sixfold Prajpramit Sutra (T. 8: 868c) says:
The Buddha [kyamuni] said, So as to have the teachings
abide long, I expound a collection of precepts for monastic
discipline (Vinaya-piaka).
The Mahprajpramit Treatise (T. 25: 130b) says:
The Buddhas disciples are grouped into seven: monks
(bhikus), nuns (bhikus), young monks to be ordained
(rmaeras), young nuns to be ordained (rmaers), female
novices (ikamns), laymen (upsakas), and laywomen
(upsiks). The former ve are mendicants, while the rest
are householders.
75
2b13
Insofar as these seven groups of disciples are free from transgressions, the Buddhas teachings will abide long in the world.
Hence the statement in the Chan School Monastic Rules (Zokuzky 216, 439a):
Indeed, it is by establishing precepts for monastic discipline
and getting the practitioners free from transgressions that
the school can have models for all the threefold world. Therefore, practicing dhyna (chan; zen) and investigating into the
Way29 presuppose moral conduct that follows precepts. Unless
one gets free from transgressions and keeps oneself away
from wrongs, how could one attain awakening and become a
patriarch? Accordingly you should obtain benet by reciting
items from the Vinaya in Four Divisions: the four grave
oenses that result in excommunication (prjik), the thirteen transgressions short of excommunication (saghvaea),
the two faults of indenite character, the thirty faults concerning priests possessions (naisargik pyattik), the
ninety moral transgressions (ptayantik), the four [kinds of
conduct] that must be confessed concerning receiving meals
from others (pratideanyni), a hundred rules to be observed
concerning personal behavior (aikadharma), and the sevenfold decorum for appeasing quarrels (adhikaraaamath).30
Also items from the Brahm Net Sutra on the Bodhisattva
la (T. 24: 10049)that is to say, the threefold collection
of purifying precepts, especially the ten weighty and the fortyeight less weighty precepts.31
By doing all this you should be well versed in both keeping and transgressing precepts, besides in [knowing] what
is prohibited and what is not. You should take recourse only
to the noble words that come from the Buddhas golden
mouth. You should not indulge in obeying people of mediocre
capability.
2c
76
77
78
Gate II
By the second gate, Protecting the State, I mean what follows.
The Sutra of the Benevolent King (T. 8: 832b) says:
The Buddha entrusts realization of the knowledge of emptiness to monarchs and ministers of various countries, large
and small, in present and future ages, and wishes to have
them realize that this knowledge is the secret treasure for
protecting the state.
By the knowledge of emptiness is meant the principle of Zen;38
the above statement comes to mean that insofar as there are people within the land who keep precepts for moral conduct, deities
will protect the state. The Supreme Deity Kings Prajpramit
Sutra (T. 8: 689a) says:
Suppose a bodhisattva who practices to know emptiness for
all beings as well as for himself happens to become a monarch,
and some people who suer from extreme poverty and humiliation come to curse and slander and disgrace him. On that
occasion the monarch will refrain from intimidating them
with punishment by saying, I am ruler of this country; the
law will subject you to capital punishment. Instead, he will
immediately think this way: For many lives gone by I have
vowed in the presence of the World-honored Ones that I would
rescue all living beings from their suering by causing them
to attain unsurpassed awakening. Should I arouse wrath now,
it will go against the original vow of mine.
The Sutra of Forty-two Sections (Zokuzky 159, 36a) says:
Feeding a hundred evil people wont be as good as feeding a
single good person. Feeding a thousand good people wont
79
3a
80
81
3b
Gate III
The third gate, Eliminating Peoples Doubts, discusses two doubts
to be eliminated. One is the doubt caused by ignorance through
confusion and suspicion. The other is the doubt that scholars tend
to embrace through bigotry.
Question: Someone asks, People in the last ve hundred-year
period when the Buddhas teachings are lost are dull-witted and
not very wise. Who can practice the principle of this school?
Answer: The Great Sage kyamuni took time into consideration when he handed down the teachings to posterity. Why should
we trust our worldly feelings to conclude that?
It is said (in the Mahprajpramit Treatise, T. 25: 125c)
that in the past the Buddha lived in Jetavana45 for twenty-ve
years. [During that period,] among the nine hundred thousand
families in the city, one-third saw the Buddha with their eyes,
another one-third heard him speak with their ears but failed to
see him, and the last third neither heard nor saw him.
82
On the part of the Buddha, to people of one capacity he manifested eight forms of being;46 for others he left his relics, for others
he left remains of his teachings; for still others he enabled them to
listen to his teachings in the land beyond after this life. He even
provided some people with adverse circumstances. The Sutra on
the Abiding of the Dharma (T. 12: 1112c) says:
The Buddha said, Dear nanda, soon I shall assume the
form of death. I have already nished everything a Buddha
has to do. I have nished helping those who were to cross the
sea of suering to do so. For those who have not, I have provided them with the conditions in which they all can cross it.
I have already made non-Buddhists, the army of demons, and
others submit to the way of awakening. I have fullled my
previous vows. For the future world I shall be the unsurpassed
Awakened Eye.
Do you not see that the Buddha has already provided us with
the present-life benet? The same is true with the principle of the
Zen school. If a person happens to have the conditions for it, he
will practice it. Otherwise, no one would seek it. Even if he does
not practice it, occasions of seeing, hearing, encountering, or knowing about it will lead one to attain ultimate liberation. You see in
India that not all people have practiced Zen. In China there are
some who have never practiced it. In Japan the same will be true.
If there is one out of ten thousand people who practices it, how
could it be impossible? If on the grounds that no one can do it you
wont exhort anyone to practice it, then people will lack both the
proper and adverse occasions for it. Moreover, the Mahprajpramit Sutra (T. 6: 539ab, quoted above, p. 78) has this:
Dear riputra, after my death, in the last time, on the last
occasion, in the last ve hundred-year period when my teachings are lost, a scripture like this that accords with the profound knowledge of emptiness will play a great part in helping people attain awakening in the direction of the northeast
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they lack support. Only their own practice and support from
the ground of their being together can cause them to proceed further. The Buddha in transformation himself looked
upon his death as the end of his lifetime activities. Much
more so with our latter-day world, where practice will not
advance without support. Therefore, the sutra expounded
the eternity of nirvana as the true support for morality, and
revealed the reality.
The Lotus Sutra (T. 9: 37c) says:
In a latter-day evil world...a bodhisattva may sit in a secluded
place and practice calming himself, contemplating that everything that has form is empty of self-nature, and that [all phenomena] are in their forms as they should be. . . . He may
always be willing to contemplate on such forms as they are
in their original way, and abide unmoved and stable like
Mount Sumeru.
Great Master Tiantai,52 in his commentary on the chapter
Abiding in Bliss [in the Words and Phrases in the Lotus Sutra]
(T. 34: 120b), says:
By contemplating, the scripture means the wisdom of contemplating the Middle Way. By everything that has form,
it means everything in all ten directions. . . . Contemplation
goes with nineteen phrases. The rst [phrase]53 expresses
what is general; the other eighteen phrases correspond to the
eighteenfold emptiness (nya) expounded in the Mahprajpramit Sutra.
Further, the [Lotus Sutra] (T. 9: 37c38a) says:
In a latter-day world after the Tathgata manifested parinirva, a bodhisattva who wants to preach on this Dharma
Lotus truth should abide in bliss. No matter whether it is when
he is explaining the truth to others or when reading the scripture, he may not speak of the faults of any other person or
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Besides, you are such a worthless character. How dare you abruptly
surprise the lords hearing!
Answer: The Sutra of the Benevolent King (T. 8: 833a) says:
The Buddha said, As I clearly see the kings in the three divisions of time now with my vefold eyes, it is because of their
attendance with ve hundred Buddhas in their past lives that
they have become sovereigns. That is why all the sages and
arhats come to see them in their lands and bring about great
benets. If the sovereign exhausts his good fortune, sages will
abandon him and quit the land. The land, abandoned by sages,
will necessarily suer seven disasters.
Lord, if in a future world kings uphold the Three Treasures [of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha], I shall have the ve
powerful bodhisattvas visit and protect their lands.... Those
ve great beings, assisted by ve thousand great deity-kings,
will bring about great benets in your lands.
Lord, you and you all may uphold prajpramit.
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Buddhas, hadnt he? The same is true with mendicants who transmit the lamp of truth. They have planted excellent roots of virtue,
not merely with two, three, four, or ve Tathgatas. With Buddhas
as numerous as the grains of sand in the Ganges River they have
deeply planted the seeds of vast praj, and now they realize the
living truth of one phrase.
The Diamond Sutra (T. 8: 749ab) says:
The Buddha said, You should know that these people planted
roots of virtue not just with one, two, three, four, or ve
Buddhas. They have already planted roots of virtue with an
innumerable thousand, ten thousand Buddhas, and on hearing these phrases they will have even one moment of calm
pleasure.
It will be the monarchs who will be the most pleased [with the
phrases of the sutra], wont it? So what fault could there be in surprising the emperors ears with my wish to let Zen ourish in this
land?
Generally speaking, destitute peoples grief is likely to reach
the emperors notice. Much more so must it be with the appeal
from a monk who has been granted a royal certicate of ordination! How could it be otherwise with me, Eisai, who has risen to
the present priestly rank? Xuanzangs Great Tang Dynasty Record
of the Western Regions (T. 51: 907c) says in eect:
In ancient times in Central India in a country named Yudhapati there were three Buddhist mendicants coming from
the northern direction, on their way to make a pilgrimage to
the Buddhas holy traces. Meanwhile, temple priests in India
despised these three mendicants, calling them men from out
of the way (i.e., non-Buddhists), and would not let them stay
overnight in their temples. The [mendicants] were always
turned away with the reason that in all the ve parts of India
mendicants had their ears pierced with hanging rings but
these monks did not. Exposed to the rain and mist, they were
skinny, wan, and sallow.
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Question: Traditionally it has been said that the Buddhas disciples are of three sorts: Dhyna masters (zenji), Vinaya masters (risshi), and Dharma masters (hshi, hosshi). Of the contemporary schools, which school has which master?
Answer: The three schools of Zen, Tendai, and Shingon have
Dhyna masters. All the other schools [except the Vinaya
school] have Dharma masters. These three sorts of masters
are found in Dharma Master Shenfangs (Shinb) Brief Commentary on the Ten Wheels Sutra.
Question: As for the Zen school, what kind of school is it?
Answer: This school is not included among the eight schools.65
Question: What is the characteristic of this school?
Answer: The Zen school has the Diamond Sutra and the
Vimalakrti Sutra as its main references. Its principle is that
the mind is nothing other than the Buddha. A mind freed
from clinging to anything constitutes its religious act. Its purpose is [to cause people to realize] that everything that has
its own characteristics is empty of self-nature. Since the
Buddha handed down the robe and bowl to Kyapa, transmission from master to disciple has not changed. Details are
known from the records.
Question: Who has introduced this school to Japan?
Answer: Great masters one after another left Mount Hiei,
entered the Great Tang to seek the truth, personally received
this transmission, and returned home.
Venerable Annens Treatise on Teaching Time Polemics (T.
75: 355b and 362a) says:
In the three countries, various schools have had times of
rise and fall but the nine schools have been practiced side
by side. . . . According to the degree of depth of their doctrines,
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himself. He also asked how the sangha members had comported themselves. The nun answered: In the days when the
Buddha was alive, there was a group of six sangha members
who were very evil mendicants, yet their behavior accorded
with the regulations and excelled yours. In walking, standing, sitting, and lying down they never missed established
rules. When the group of six entered this door, they never
caused any oil to be spilled. You are an arhat who possesses
the six supernatural powers. Nevertheless, you cannot equal
them. Hearing this, Upagupta felt deeply ashamed.
However, in the days when the Buddha was alive, of the group
of six mendicants two fell into the ngas (serpent demon) mode
of existence and two rose to the realm of the devas (heavenly gods).
On the other hand, Upagupta was a man who had gained all the
four attainments.70 Does this not tell us that in the latter-day world
not even a single precept should be made little of ? Still less so with
our intention to benet other beings. Since our intention can never
go against the Buddhas, how could ours be distinguished from the
Buddhas intention?
The Mahparinirva Sutra (T. 12: 590a) says:
As for the aspiration to attain awakening (bodhicitta) and
attaining ultimate awakening (anuttar samyaksabodhi),
these two cannot be separated. Of these two the rst is very
hard; it is the aspiration to have others attain awakening
before oneself does so. Therefore, I respectfully salute people
of original aspiration.
Although this is a rare thing in the history of this country,
and although I am an unworthy person to promote it, my daring
to follow in the footprints of preceding sages with the practice and
vow of great compassion wont meet any obstruction, will it? Besides,
although the latter-day world would not have any appropriate vessel, examples of an important position to be ocially established
in founding a new school have not been lacking. If we want a
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lazy people more disinclined to study the holy teachings and will
lead to the extinction of the Buddha-Dharma.
Answer: The Buddha-contemplation Samdhi Sutra (T. 15:
648a) says:
My disciples in the future world, if they want to contemplate
the Tathgata, should practice three things. The rst is to
recite the profound scriptures expounded by the Buddha. The
second is to keep the moral precepts and the four basic postures (sitting, standing, walking, and lying down) without
transgression. The third is to concentrate [their] thoughts on
the essential features of the Tathgata and not scatter them.
Therefore, this school studies all the eight treasuries,75 and
practices all the six perfections (pramits). If anyone says that
the Zen school advocates the mind as nothing other than the
Buddha, and wont examine the traces of the Buddhas teachings,
how would this be dierent from a person who, [while traveling]
in the night just before dawn when it is not yet bright enough, discards their lamp and thus falls down a rocky precipice?
Question: Someone says, Great Master Dengy, in his Notes
to the Latter-day World Dharma Lamp (Zensh 1, 418) says:
The latter-day world has no one who will keep the moral precepts. If anyone should say to the contrary, it will be a strange
matter. It would be like a tiger roaming in a marketplace.
[How would you defend your position against this view?]
Answer: The Mahprajpramit Sutra (T. 7: 939a) says:
A lion would bite a man, while a mad dog would chase a clod
of dirt thrown by a man.
This may be applied to your case. Let me ask you: Why do you
chase one clod of letters and words after another, whereas you have
long forgotten that we have people who keep the moral precepts
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and practice good? When we see the skillful means of the holy teachings comprehensively, we come to know that the Buddha examined
living beings acts of good far into the future. As we saw above, the
Mahprajpramit Sutra (T. 6: 539a) mentions in the last ve
hundred-year period when my teachings are lost, the Mahparinirva Sutra (T. 12: 472b, Northern version) says in the latterday world and to redeem his life, and the Lotus Sutra says in
a later, latter-day world. The Mahprajpramit Treatise, the
Middle Treatise, and the Great Calming and Contemplation also
have similar expressions. The Diamond Sutra (T. 8: 749ab) says:
In the last ve hundred-year period there will be those who
keep morality, practice for the sake of merit, and have delight
and condence in these phrases. You should know that these
people planted roots of virtue not just with one, two, three,
four, or ve Buddhas. They have already planted roots of
virtue with an innumerable thousand, ten thousand Buddhas,
and on hearing these phrases they will have at least one
moment of calm pleasure.
All these exhort [those in] the latter-day world to practice
morality. It seems that every time the Tathgata opened his mouth,
the phrase latter-day world came rst. Patriarchs moved their
tongues both for the present and the future. Great Master Dengys
interpretation, quoted above (p. 108), may be taken in this sense.
Otherwise he may have meant the Small Vehicle (Hinayana) precepts of restraint, and not the Great Vehicle bodhisattva precepts
of morality.
Queston: Someone says in rebuke, Why does the Zen school
newly call itself [a school] that will cause the Buddhas teachings
to abide long?
Answer: Moral precepts (la) and monastic precepts (vinaya)
are what causes the Buddhas teachings to abide long. Now, the Zen
school regards la and vinaya as its principles. Therefore it has the
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There are three roots of virtue: 1) renouncing envy and rejoicing in what is taught and indicated; 2) when working for the
sake of others, not seeking any reward; and 3) not abusing
or injuring others so as to accomplish ones own good. Besides
this, there are two things: 1) protecting the teachings of the
Buddha-Dharma, and 2) expounding the teachings well.
By protecting the teachings I mean this: When the teachings of the Buddha-Dharma are about to be lost, bodhisattvas
realize this well, protect them so that they may be propagated through various means, and cause them to abide long.
Because of this, one also gains the unique feature of a protuberance on the head (ua) that emits light.
By expounding the teachings well, I mean that when a
bodhisattva expounds the teachings to the four [kinds of ]
sangha members, if there is anyone who misses the teachings even for a moment, the bodhisattva takes care of that
person and repeats the teachings for him.
The Mahparinirva Sutra (T. 12: 383b) says:
Because I have protected the teachings of the BuddhaDharma, I have gained this indestructible body.
The story of a mendicant named Buddhadatta and King Bhavadatta [who saved the life of the mendicant] is also related in the
same section of this scripture.77
End of Fascicle One
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Fascicle Two
Gate III (continued)
Question: Someone says, This school already insists on not setting
up any words.78 This makes it almost the same as those [who are]
ill-attached to emptiness and those of obscure evidence. If that is
the case, the Tiantai school has already denounced it. The Great
Calming and Contemplation (T. 46: 52b) explains the contemplation of what goes beyond thought, and says:
This is far from what is known to a Dhyna master of obscure
evidence or a Dharma master who recites passages.
The Profound Meaning [of the Lotus Sutra] (T. 33: 686a) says:
If a person contemplating himself should say that he, as he
is, is approved of since he is equal to the Buddha, never looks
into scriptures such as sutras and stras (commentaries on
sutras and independent treatises), and thus falls into a kind
of self-conceit that he has attained awakening, then this is
[like] embracing a torch to burn oneself.
The Elucidatory Comments (T. 33: 829c) says:
The one who grasps a torch named obscure evidence burns
his hand called excellent dhyna.
As for the motto of the Zen school, not setting up any words,
how could it be exempt from the above reprobation?
Answer: This Zen school hates masters of obscure evidence, and
rejects those who become ill-attached to emptiness. It is like the bottom of a great ocean that dislikes corpses to lie there. Just abiding
in the perfect rank (yuanwei; eni),79 practicing the perfect and
immediate awakening (yuandun; endon),80 and externally practicing the precepts of restraint to prevent wrongs while internally
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exposition by the teacher, knew it accorded with their natural inclinations, and accepted it in faith. They followed him
in obedience, gave up observing restraints and, leaving no
wrong uncommitted, their transgressions acculmulated into
a high mountain. This nally led the common people to regard
sins as something as triing as weeds, and the monarch and
ministers to destroy the Buddhas teachings. Poison deeply
inltrated peoples minds, and there has been no improvement. . . .
This is a monster destroying the Buddhas teachings, a
monster of the contemporary age. How could it have anything
to do with my so-called spontaneous practice of self-concentration? I say this because such stupid persons, lacking the
understanding based on wisdom, believe in their original
teacher, admire their predecessors, and say decidedly that
this is the path. They consider what agrees with their feelings to be easy to follow. They run after pleasure without
restraint, and wont improve their delusional way of life.
As we see, to the north of the Huai and Huang Rivers long ago
there was a madman. As soon as he heard the truth of Chan, [he
knew it] to be remarkably excellent. But not knowing how to practice, he practiced only dhyna in sitting posture (zazen) as he liked.
He abolished activities both practical and theoretical. He was a
man trapped in the net of false views. This person is to be called
a master ill-attached to emptiness. This is a corpse in the midst of
the Buddhas teachings. The Ancestral Mirrors (T. 48: 689ab),
defeating a hundred and twenty xed views, says:
Some, in their attempt to imitate the one who has attained
freedom from hindrance, relinquish practice; others, following
their self-binding passions, presume emptiness to be the original nature of the passions. Both of them are deluded [as to]
the principle and miss its signicance. They are contrary to
what is profound and true. . . . They break ice so as to get re,
climb a tree in order to seek sh.
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This is a remark made out of disgust for those who do no practice, not to speak of those who give up samdhi and la, or those
who blame true wisdom. Vinaya Master Daoxuan [in his Instructions and Admonitions on Observing Restraints] (T. 45: 869b) says:
Those who dont practice dhyna89 or samdhi90 long deviate
from the mind of true wisdom. Those who dont practice various virtuous restraints (savara-la) will hardly accomplish
excellent activities. That is why persons of great virtue throughout history have really been good elds of merit for the world.
In addition, the Tiantai schools Solutions for Propagation (T.
46: 262a) says:
If there is no keeping of a particular precept, there will be no
practicing of a worldly dhyna. Much less will there be realization of the three modes of reality.
Therefore, the Zen school considers keeping precepts to be what
precedes everything else. The Chan School Monastic Rules (Zokuzky 216) says:
Practicing dhyna and investigating the Way presuppose
moral conduct that follows precepts.
Question: Someone says, Venerable Chnen,91 in the rank of
hokky (Dharma bridge), entered China, and on returning home
wanted to establish the Sangaku school.92 Because of the accusations made against him by the contemporary Buddhist schools, his
plan was abandoned. Is this school identical with or dierent from
what you refer to?
Answer: The names are already dierent; there can be no confusion between the two. I am not sure what Chnens intention was.
The present Zen school advocates the nondiscriminating (ubha;
shj) dhyna of the Tathgatas (nyoraizen).93 It has never assumed
the name Sangaku. Since the Liang dynasty it has only been called
the Chan (Zen) school. There has been no other name or idea for it.
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Question: Someone says, The Zen school has more than a thousand volumes of books. How can this be explained?
Answer: They are records of Zen persons; they are like extracts
in the secular world. Should one speak of any scriptural sources
for the Zen school, it would be like [speaking of the] hair of a tortoise or the horns of a hare, which do not exist. However, this does
not mean [these texts] have no profound, original purport. People
of wisdom should deliberate on this.
Question: If that is the case, the very profound characteristics
of reality will hardly be within the reach of ordinary, unawakened
peoples struggling eorts. By what means and practice can one
attain them?
Answer: The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra (T. 12: 1111a) says:
Dependence on this morality will give rise to various sorts of
concentration and the wisdom that extinguishes suering.
Therefore, mendicants should keep their [practice of the]
moral precepts clean, and never spoil or be lacking in [it].
Without precepts kept clean, no merit or virtue will come into
being. Hence you should know that keeping precepts is the
primary abode of tranquility and merit.
The Foreword to the Brahm Net Sutra says:98
Keeping precepts, like a stable area of ground, plus practicing dhyna, like a house built on the ground, can produce the
light of wisdom from within.
The Lotus Sutra (T. 9: 8a) says:
I tell such people that they will [attain awakening in the
midst of future birth and death] because they cultivate moral
precepts and keep them clean.
The Tiantai schools Great Calming and Contemplation (T. 46:
4b) says:
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they dont long for lesser fruits. Even though they may suer
in various ways, they wont be alarmed or upset. This is how
they dont deceive Buddhas, living beings, or themselves.
Further, there are four modes of being in which bodhisattvas dont deceive Tathgatas: 1) being rm and stable,
2) inspiring awe, 3) exerting themselves to the utmost, and
4) being strenuous in keeping precepts. The four modes of
being in which they dont deceive living beings are: 1) being
rmly determined to keep learning and cultivating themselves, 2) imparting delight to others out of friendliness, 3)
sympathizing with suering people out of compassion, and
4) accepting living beings without exception. The four modes
of being in which they dont deceive themselves are: 1) being
rm and stable, 2) being rm and stable without end, 3) not
attering, and 4) being free from deceit.
The Foreword to the Brahm Net Sutra101 says:
When you keep moral precepts and dont feel guilty, your
longings will also be fullled.
If we keep our la or moral precepts clean, then without fail
our samdhi and praj will be fullled completely.
No other blame against or doubt about the Zen school, if there
were any, need to be taken up for our consideration, and thus the
[third] gate, Eliminating Peoples Doubts, has been established.
Gate IV
By the fourth gate, Scriptural Verication by Ancient People of
Virtue, I mean the proofs that ancient people of virtue practiced
the principle of this school. There are ten.
1. According to the Biography of Prince Shtoku (Dainihon
Bukky Zensho, vol. 112, 25) and Great Master Dengys Single
Mind Moral Precept (T. 74: 645c), vol. II:
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Gate V
By the fth gate, The Sects of the Zen Schools Lineage, I mean
that this seal of the mind105 was transmitted down through the
past seven Buddhas, and that the close transmission that has been
continuing, one lineage106 after another, makes it uninterrupted.
Reasons for the Rise of the Chan School (Shwahb Smokuroku,
General Index 2, 770a) says:
And the Chan school is observed to have started in the times
of the preceding Buddhas, as long ago as kalpas as numerous as dust particles.
According to the Longer Records of the Buddhas Words:107
During the past kalpa of supernal mainfestations (vyhakalpa;
zhuangyanjie; shgong), there appeared a thousand Buddhas
in the world; the last three of them were counted as the rst
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three of the seven Buddhas with whom the present [auspicious] kalpa began.
The seven Buddhas kept entrusting one after another with the
seal of the mind. Their oral transmission exists apart from this.
Their lineage relationship is as108 follows: The Buddhas 1) Vipayin,
2) ikhin, 3) Vivabhu, 4) Krakucchanda, 5) Konakamuni, 6)
Kyapa, and 7) kyamuni.
kyamuni, forty-nine years after attaining awakening, was
with a large assembly at a shrine named Bahuputraka (Having
Plenty of Children)109 on Vulture Peak.110 He praised Mahkyapa, oered him half his seat, and said:
I am entrusting you with the eye of the Dharma that is pure
and clean, the sublime mind of nirvana, the reality that is
without form, the authentic truth that is subtle. You should
protect and uphold this.
He also ordered nanda to help Kyapa preserve the eye of
the Dharma and not let it be interrupted. He also composed a verse.111
The Sutra on Handing Over a Lotus Flower (T. 16: 127b128c)
says:
The Buddha, looking at Kyapa far in the distance, said to
him, Welcome, Kyapa. Its a long time since we met. You
should take this half of the Buddhas seat. When the Buddha
moved aside, the three thousand worlds quaked. Kyapa
said to the Buddha, I dont dare sit at the seat of the
Buddhas robe and bowl. The Buddha is a great master, while
I am a disciple. In the past, from the Buddha I received a
sagh robe.112 Holding it high with esteem, I didnt dare
wear it. . . . Since that time I have had no lust. I received the
Buddhas robe when I was in the process of self-cultivation.
When I raised it in my hands above my head, I attained the
ultimate fruit of no-cultivation. I followed the Buddhas suggestion and received the Tathgatas robe. Although it is in
my possession, I dare not think it has lessened in value. I
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have heard that in the land of Japan the Buddhas teachings have
prevailed. Fortunately I have met you, my respected master. I
must present you my view in written words.
Yes, human beings have the dierence of Chinese and nonChinese. But the Buddhas teachings have the single truth of the
mind. The moment one realizes oneness of the mind,118 one knows
that the truth is a single gate. It is what the Diamond Sutra (T.
8: 749c) says, You should give rise to the mind that abides nowhere.
When you want to know its original streams, please pay a
visit to me. I shall speak with you about each of them. Extensively
knowing the way of the patriarchs exceeds inference made from
the viewpoint of the Small Vehicle.
This was in Qiandao (Kend) the fourth year of Song, the year
of wuzi (1168). In the autumn I returned to Japan. Then, reading
Annens Treatise on Teaching Time Polemics, I knew the names
of the nine Buddhist schools. Besides, carefully reading Chishs
Similarities and Dissimilarities of the Teaching Forms, I knew
the details of Dharma transmission in the Japanese Tendai school
on Mount Hiei. Next, I saw Great Master Dengys Genealogy and
knew that our Mount Hiei had received the transmission of the
Dharma. Since then I kept nourishing this thought, and twenty
years passed. I intended to pay a visit to the eight holy stupas that
had been built in memory of kyamuni in India. In March, the
third year of Bunji in Japan, the year of teimi (dingwei, 1187), I
left my native land. I took with me a list of the lineages of the various schools as well as a book on the geography of the western districts. On reaching the land of the Song I rst went to the capital,
Linanfu, visited the Undersecretary of Pacication, and reported
my wish to travel through India. I presented to him a paper which
conveyed my wishes as follows:119
Dragging this half-shadow of mine on planks laid across a
precipice,
I shall terminate the whole body on the equable diamond
seat of awakening.
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This school, ever since the Sixth Patriarch, has gradually divided
itself into sects, and has caused the Dharma to circulate over the
four seas. Its generations [from Master Nanyue Huairang up to
me] have grown to twenty; its lineage streams became ve (i.e., the
ve leading Chan sects: Fayan [Hgen], Linji [Rinzai], Weiyang
[Igy], Yunmen [Unmon], and Caodong [St]). The one that most
widely ourishes now is the Linji sect. Since the seven [past]
Buddhas down to Eisai, about sixty generations have succeeded in
the lineage. Indeed, it is with good reason that the teachings of the
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Gate VI
By the sixth gate, Scriptural Evidence for Promoting Peoples
Condence in the Zen School I mean what follows:
The principle of this Zen school does not set up any words out
of which to make dogma. It has been specially transmitted outside
of scriptural teachings. It does not cling to passages taught; it only
transmits the seal of the mind. It is free from letters, being without words. Through directly pointing to the source of the mind,122
it has one attain awakening. We see verication for this scattered
in various sutras and stras. Let me show you a few of them to
have them serve as proofs of the present school.
The Flower Ornament Sutra (T. 9, no. 278, 449c) says:
At the time of original aspiration (bodhicitta) one attains
authentic awakening.
It also says (T. 10, no. 279, 89a):
Upon realizing that everything that has its own characteristics is immediately the self-nature of the mind, one fullls the
body of wisdom; no realization through others achieves this.
The Heap of Jewels Sutra (T. 11, vol. 52, 308c) says:
The original nature of the mind is like the moon reected in
water.
It also says (T. 11, vol. 62, 361b):
The self-nature of everything that has its own characteristics is unobtainable. As in a dream one tries to satisfy desires,
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every attempt is made in vain. Things arise according to imagination and turn out to be unreal. This is also how the Worldhonored One knows things.
The Vimalakrti Sutra (T. 14, I, 538c) says:
As the mind is free from discrimination, the Buddhas land
becomes free from discrimination.
It also says (T. 14, IX, 551c) in eect:
Vimalakrti remained silent.123
The Lak[vatra]-stra (T. 16, II, 492a) says:
The Tathgatas nondiscriminating dhyna.124
The Mahprajpramit Sutra (T. 7, fasc. 409, 49a) says:
What is seen as having form does not have its own being, and
is unobtainable. Even all-knowing wisdom (sarvajajna)
has no being of its own and is unobtainable.
It also says:125
There being no words is called the Buddha-Dharma.
And this:
The ultimate way of reality has no words; all verbal expressions are so many secular explications.
The Diamond Sutra (T. 8, X, 749c) says:
You should give rise to the mind that abides nowhere.
It also says (T. 8, XXVI, 752a):
If anyone insists that the Tathgata has any truth that is verbally expounded, he is blaming the Buddha without reason.
It also says (T. 8, XXVI, 752a):
If anyone sees me as form, his practice is deluded.
138
139
11a
140
By the four things the sutra means seeing, hearing, and other
[sense] perceptions, as well as knowing by consciousness.
The Sutra of [the Jain] Satyakas [Instruction] (T. 9: 326a) says:
It is because the nature of everything in the world is free
from discrimination.
The Sutra of Moonlight Samdhi (T. 15: 550b) says:
The self-nature of everything that has its own characteristics
is equal, free from deceit, and in self-concentration (samdhi).
The Majur Inquiry Sutra (T. 14: 495c) says:
That this goes beyond calculation, being free from mind, ego
consciousness, and perceptive consciousnesses, and that every
verbal expression is cut o with itthis is the practice of
praj.
The Sutra of Examining through Divination (T. 17: 907a) says:
Bodhisattva Kitigarbha (Earth Womb) said, By the one
real realm I mean the self-nature of living beings. From the
beginning it is free from generation and extinction, free from
discrimination by its self-nature.
The Sutra of the Diamond Samdhi (T. 9: 373a) says:
Anything that has its own characteristics is originally free
from existence and nonexistence. It is free from self and other,
too. It has no beginning and no end. With it, success and failure have no place.
The Sutra of King Longevity (T. 3: 387c) says:
Being self-eected, liberation is not the gift of any teacher.
For my practice I am under no teachers care. Determined to
proceed alone, I have no companion. . . . The ultimate path
is free from journeying to and fro; it is deep and subtle, pure,
wondrous, and true.
141
11b
We might have to exhaustively quote passages on the essentials of Zen, which kyamuni expounded in his lifetime. Here,
however, I have shown only a few. I hope readers will know the
same is true with other sources. In other words, all the expositions
by the Tathgata that appear in the sutras, some being provisional
and others unconditional, are meant for living beings to accept
and hold the nondual truth of the Buddha as no-mind and sentient beings as mind. For this purpose he rst made the skillful
means of traps and nets. Venerable Annen says [in the Treatise
on Teaching Time Polemics] (T. 75: 355b; quoted above, p. 102):
[T]he Zen school, with its traps and nets amply employed by
kyamuni all his life, and ultimately with emphasis on the
transmission of mind to mind without reliance on scriptural
authority, constitutes the heart of all the Buddhas [teachings].
Great Master Chish says [in the Similarities and Dissimilarities of the Teaching Forms] (T. 74: 312c; quoted above, p. 101):
142
Gate VII
The seventh gate, Citing a General Principle and Exhorting People to Practice Zen, has three aspects. They are: 1) teaching, 2)
143
144
145
11c
146
they continued to struggle with this [question]. For Luoshan, attaining awakening was everything. Only because worldly anxieties confusingly arose and perished without stopping in his mind did he
raise that single question so as to ultimately clarify this matter.
Venerable elder masters prescribed medicines according to the
disease. Some will nd one dose eective. Others will need a variety of methods combined with the application of all kinds of
acupuncture and moxibustion. Only with the disease gone and the
medicine removed does the whole body become light and clean
that fact alone veries the eect. Among later way-seekers, those
who dont reach the original source are likely to distinguish between
superior and inferior, and insist that Shishuangs words for Luoshan
were dead, whereas Yantous words for him were full of life. Discerning views like these are something held only after one buys
sandals to travel on foot on a way-seeking journey.
One who fails to apprehend the aim of the steelyard hook
wrongly clings to the measurement marks on the beam.142 A lion
bites a man while a mad dog chases a clod of dirt thrown by him.
Generally speaking, venerable elder masters never make a remark
in vain. Way-seekers should by all means be equipped with the
eye of discernment critical enough to be able to throw a pepper
seed onto the tip of a needle.143 If one cannot discern what is right
and what is not, it will be like poling a boat casually up the Shanxi
(Senkei) Gorge.144 How could one reach the other shore?
Venerable Tianhuang145 said [in the Jingde Records of Transmission of the Lamp] (T. 51, XIV, 313b):146
Roam through your own inclinations;
Be free, carefree, following conditions.
Exhaust the feeling of being unawakened,
With no self-understanding of being awakened.
If instructions were needed, they would all, the master meant,
be [like] painting legs for a snake.
[According to the Eye and Treasury of the True Dharma, fasc.
5] (Zokuzky 223, 61b),Venerable Qinglin147 said:
147
12a
148
149
12b
example, I undertook long journeys across rivers and seas. Wearing a soiled robe, I spent days sitting [in meditation], facing a wall
in silence. I was content with my lot and refrained from stating
my view to others, for I felt deeply ashamed at my way of life which
was full of stupidities.
Recently, however, following the ancient masters footsteps for
awhile, I observed a Chinese masters style of awakening. He was
often eagerly attentive but would also very often stop. However,
as soon as I burned a stick of incense to salute the master (Xuan
Huaichang; Kian Esh), the relationship of guest and host was
established between us. Fortunately, raising the patriarchs instructions, I had an early opening of the eye of awakening. Repeatedly
I cultivated the method of transcending birth and death and, entering the Way, I returned home. Since I have already achieved the
unity of being, I would very much like to help the patriarchs Way
greatly ourish in this country of Japan. That is the only reason
I have taken upon myself the responsibility for its realization and
at the same time pray heartily for that result.
Because of this I have made repeated cultivation of the method
of transcendence, and when I look back150 on it again and again, I
see not one word to be transmitted and circulated. In the ancient
days, to the repeated censure from a Jain, the Well-awakened One
(Sugata) kyamuni retorted with the unity of silence. That precisely accords with the present case. Whether the school itself is
shallow or deep is known by one who gains its purport. Please dont
exhaust yourself by knocking at the gate or grasping at the sky.
Great Sage Ngrjuna means this when he says [in the Mahprajpramit Treatise] (T. 25, XI, 139c):
Existence is not anything; nonexistence is not anything; existence-nonexistence is not anything; neither existence nor
nonexistence is not anything. This kind of exposition is also
not anything.
He also says [in the same treatise] (T. 25, XVIII, 190b):
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151
Fascicle Three
Gate VII (continued)
Now I would like to exhort youth of the latter-day world to make
this Zen the right occasion for immediately attaining awakening.
No matter whether you might think you have heard little and have
slight understanding, or whether you consider yourself too dull to
gain wisdom, if you wholeheartedly practice sitting dhyna, you
will inevitably attain awakening. The Sutra of the Bodhisattva Precepts for Practicing Good (T. 30: 973b; quoted above, p. 142) says:
Bodhisattvas, for the sake of awakening, practice dhyna,
enjoy delight in this life, and keep body and mind calm and
composedthis is called beneting oneself. Because of the
tranquility of body and mind, they do not worry living beings.
This is called beneting others.
The Essentials for Chan Practice (Zokuzky 215, 419a) says:
According to my ordination teachers both of la (updhyya)
and of mantra (crya), what counts is to learn to practice
dhyna intently. It does not matter whether we have heard
much or little.
For this reason a person of the latter-day world, no matter how
dull-witted he may be, if he fastens his mind to the Buddhas la,
tries making activity and rest no dierent from one another,
remains concerned for all living beings, stops evil views, believes
and accepts the Buddhas words, concentrates his mind on one
object, and stops various associations and related obligations, then
he is really a person of dhyna cultivation. The Bequeathed Teaching Sutra (T. 12: 1111a; quoted above, pp. 110, 124) says:
Dependence on this morality will give rise to various sorts of
concentration and the wisdom that extinguishes suering.
153
12c
154
155
13a
156
157
13b
Now, the monks of the Zen school who have chosen the way of
being of body and mind that preserves both individual and sangha
precepts (i.e., la and vinaya), with the water of their mind clean
and clear will immediately see their own mind, and moment after
moment they will accord with every perfection (pramit). However dull-witted and poor in wisdom they may be, because they
keep morality pure and clean, the clouds of karma will vanish and
the moon of the Mind will manifest itself brightly. The reason why
the Mahparinirva Sutra advocates the eternity of nirvana as
the true support for morality155 is seen here.
Question: If that is the case, when we practice dhyna, what
precepts should we take?
Answer: The precepts given in the Vinaya in Four Divisions
and the Brahm Net Sutra [on the Bodhisattva la] are considered to be appropriate. I say this because in practicing them externally we learn the basic postures of rvakas and internally embrace
the friendly social concern of bodhisattvas.
Question: The Vinaya regulations against the ve denitive
distinctions of oenses and the seven groups of transgressions156
are Small [Vehicle] practices. Where is the need for our being
equipped with the two vehicles? It is said that keeping the precepts for rvakas is breaking the precepts for bodhisattvas. The
Bodhisattva Stages (T. 30: 523a) extensively claries dierences
between the Great Vehicle and the Small Vehicle on keeping and
breaking precepts, doesnt it?
Answer: The original intent of the Buddhas teachings lies only
in avoiding evils and preventing wrongs. Concerning keeping or
breaking precepts and permitting or restraining certain acts, if
you grasp their purport and cultivate them, then it does not matter what vehicle you may choose. Vinaya Master Daoxuan says
(in the preface to his Instructions and Admonitions on Observing
Restraints, T. 45: 869b):
158
There are some who insist: I am a person of the Great Vehicle. I dont need the teachings of the Small Vehicle. Such
people internally betray the bodhisattvas heart and externally lack the rvakas practice. Except for veterans in the
Dharma, who could scrutinize it well?
How profound is this remark! It constitutes the central point
of the Zen school. The Tiantai schools Solutions for Propagation
(T. 46, IV1, 254a) says:
Question: Why do we in the Great Vehicle apply precepts of
the Small Vehicle and explain about the ten kinds of precept
gainers?
Answer: The Mahparinirva Sutra frequently expounds
that the eternity of nirvana supports morality as its ultimate
basis. We are thinking of the same principle here. The Small
Vehicle works as skillful means. Then we know the mendicant bodhisattvas see no dierence between themselves and
rvakas in regard to the six kinds of friendly mutual respect
and the ten benets for regulating morality, but that they
dier with respect to the six perfections and the four extensive vows, which are lacking in the practice of the Small Vehicle. For lay bodhisattvas the three refuges (Buddha, Dharma,
and Sangha) and the ve precepts will all lead them to the
attainment of awakening. Still more so with the Brahm Net
[Sutra on the Bodhisattva la]s so-called eight myriad kinds
of excellence appearing in ones every posture of those who
have been ordained in the Great Vehicle. All seven groups
of the Buddhas disciples actualize them. Beings of the ve
paths that suer from their respective modes of existence will
also commonly be equipped with such excellence. How could
one tolerate the breaking of precepts and call it the Buddha
vehicle? That is why a parallel elucidation is made with the
use of four phrases concerning yna (vehicle) and la (precepts) [with which one is either relaxed or rm].157
159
160
161
13c
162
I sincerely hope you will abstain from using evil words, keep
your body and mouth clean to follow the sincere truth of the noble
teachings, keep your mind pure and clean to enter the wonderful
gate of great compassion, and expect to attain Zen in this life. Does
not the Sutra of ragama Practices (T. 19: 131c; quoted above,
p. 125 ) say:
Practitioners of dhyna, if they dont break o lust, will continue to transmigrate through the three evil modes of existence, unable to escape. It is like steaming grains of sand and
gravel in the hope of cooking them into boiled rice; cooked
for one hundred thousand kalpas, they will still be [only]
heated sand.
Someone says in rebuke: The Lotus Sutra (T. 9, XI, 34b) says,
If anyone holds this scriptural teaching, he will be called a precept holder. He will soon attain the Buddhas Way. This passage
means that he who is rm with yna will attain awakening. [What
is the use for further la?]
This rebuke is wrong. We hear about being rm with yna,
whereas we have never heard of relaxation with la. What we understand by the above passage is only this: In the manner of perfect
permeation, which leaves no room for articiality, every being is
originally endowed with la. It is on this basis that the holding of
this scriptural teaching is mentioned. There cannot be any reason
for acquiring the merit of la in reason while breaking la in phenomena. The Tiantai schools Solutions for Propagation (T. 46, IV1,
254a, quoted above, pp. 159, 161) says, How could one tolerate the
breaking of precepts and call it the Buddha vehicle?
If anyone relies on the passage from the Lotus Sutra, he is
called a precept holder, and continues to violate la in phenomena, there cannot be any reason that reading the Lotus Sutra alone
will yield any expected result; it will be ecacious only for a distant future. It is only through the practice of the contemplative
gate of both phenomena and reason or, in other words, only with
the application of both acupuncture and moxibustion, that the sick
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14a
are healed. The Profound Meaning [of the Lotus Sutra] (T. 33:
II1, 698b) says, The eyes of wisdom and the legs of practice in
unity will reach the pond clean and good.
The Tripiaka Dharma Master Yijing of Tang says [in his
Buddhist Monastic Traditions of Southern Asia] (T. 54: 211c):
People directly point to the gate of emptiness and regard it
as the Buddhas real intent. However, they would rather know
precepts also162 to be the Buddhas intent. Their high valuation of one and low estimation of the other derive from mere
assumption. While they never look into any text of la or
related scriptures, they copy a couple of volumes of the gate
of emptiness and insist that the reason [of emptiness] contains all three collections (Tripiaka) of Buddhist scriptures.
They never think of the pain of thick, molten metal being
poured down their throats. But that is the disaster they are
inviting in this life at every step due to pretending to be
monks, living clandestinely with other ordained monks.
It is a bodhisattvas real determination not to let the oating bag of la, which helps one to cross the sea of birth and
death, become deated. One should not make little of a small
transgression. Instead, one should join the Buddhas call made
for our sake on his last day.163 The truth of his call is that one
should practice both the Great and Small [Vehicles], for this
alone accords with the admonition of the Benevolent Honored One.
Refraining from small transgressions while contemplating vast emptiness, accepting living beings while keeping
oneself pure and cleanwhat fault could there be in doing
this? All the eight myriad teachings of the [Great] Sage (i.e.,
the Buddha) will be summarized into one phrase or two:
Externally following secular ways while internally concentrating on true wisdom.
The orthodox principle of Buddhism in the west regards
keeping la as its basis. One should protect the oating bag
164
165
166
of awakening, while wasting the four periods [of the day] or six
periods [of the day and night] without practicing dhyna, and if
anyone has recourse to the passage, he is called a precept holder,
while recklessly transgressing the fourfold or tenfold restraints,
then such people will be transgressing the Great Vehicle, not to
speak of going against the Small Vehicle, wont they?
The Sutra of the Bodhisattva Precepts for Practicing Good (T.
30, I, 962a) says:
Then Majur asked the Buddha, The word vinaya means
controlling and taming. Everything that has its own characteristics is ultimately under control in its self-nature. Why
does the Buddha advocate vinaya? The Buddha said, If ordinary beings could realize that everything that has its own
characteristics is ultimately under control, no Buddha would
advocate vinaya at all. Because they dont realize that,
Buddhas advocate vinaya.
The same scripture (T. 30, II, 969c) says:
When igonorant people advocate the emptiness of all forms
that have their own characteristics, they are committing
grave transgressions. Even advocating something through
explication for others benet through delusive165 thoughts
will also be a grave oense. Such will truly be disciples of a
non-Buddhist path, such as Pura [Kyapa]. Pura insists
that everything that has its own characteristics is nonexistent in its self-nature. But in the Buddhas teachings it is existent as well as nonexistent. If anyone advocates the emptiness of everything, you should know that he misses the mark.
Abiding with such a person in the biweekly recitation of the
Vinaya rules (upoadha) will cause grave sins. The reason is
that he does not realize the meaning of emptiness. He is
unable to benet others, not to speak of beneting himself.
When ordinary ignorant people like those described above
delusively expound the meaning of emptiness while unable to hold
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14b
precepts, they are non-Buddhists; they are people of the devil. The
Mahparinirva Sutra (T. 12: 467b, quoted above, p. 166) says:
He is kin to devils, far from being a disciple of mine.
That is why the Zen school strongly admonishes people to hold
precepts; it expects them to attain the present-life benet through
a lifetime of eort. You should not, with shallow knowledge, speak
of one as surpassing others and of another as falling short. Supposing that worldly talks and discussions lack real benet, doctrinal arguments for or against either the Great or Small [Vehicle] will all be without benet. Likewise, the perfect permeation
free from articiality, being orally expounded by one who does not
realize it, is like a good taste and cool water that hungry and thirsty
people talk about but which never enters their mouths and throats.
It is also like the case of a rich man, who can recite a text on operating a boat but who cannot actually operate a boat, and who is
drowned.
Herewith I have established the [seventh] gate, Citing a General Principle and Exhorting People to Practice in the Zen School.
Gate VIII
By the eighth gate, A List of the Essential Patterns of Activity
in the Zen School, I mean the following ten, according to the Chan
School Monastic Rules (Zokuzky 216), as well as the prevalent
pattern of monastic activities (shi; shiki) in the large countries.
1. Temples: Although they dier in size, all temples are modeled after the drawings of the Jetavana residence [of kyamuni
and his disciples]; there are drawings of this residence separately.166
A temple has corridors on four sides without any side gates. It has
one gate alone. The single gate has door guardians, who close it
at evening twilight and open it at daybreak. The door guardians
check specically nuns, laywomen, the destitute, and violent people and keep them from staying overnight in the temple. Destruction of the Buddhas teachings occurs solely through aairs with
women and the like.
168
169
14c
170
never leave the community [of their fellow monks]. When a hundred or a thousand monks gather in a hall, all are careful of their
deportment and their conduct toward others. If anyones seat is
empty, the steward monk will check [on the missing practitioner].
In this way, not even a minor transgression is allowed.
7. Clothing: For the upper and lower garments and the outer
and inner ones, all monks should wear the Dharma robes used in
the large countries. This is the bearing that best accords with least
desire and least material. Everything should be simplied.
8. The assembly of disciples: Those who are endowed with both
morality and wisdom, and who possess the nonregressive mind at
the beginning, should join the community. By all means they must
be roundly endowed with the eyes [of wisdom] and the legs [of
practice].
9. Beneting and nourishing oneself: Monks dont engage in
cultivating the land; dhyna cultivation occupies them. They dont
hoard property or treasures, for the Buddhas words are to be
trusted. Except for a hot meal once a day, they cut o any other
desire forever. The Dharma for mendicants is to have little desire
and be content with ones lot.
10. The summer and winter retreats: On April 15 a summer
retreat is formed, and it concludes on July 15. On October 15 a
yearly [winter] retreat is undertaken, and it concludes on January 15. These two special retreats derive from the Buddhas original practice. They should be practiced with condence. In our
country this function has long been abolished, while in the Great
Song monks have never dispensed with the two annual retreats.
For one who has not come through special retreats, to count such
a persons priestly age by the number of either of the two names,
the summer [retreat] (xia; ge) or the yearly [winter retreat]
(la; r), is, in the Buddhas teaching, a laughable matter.
The above descriptions of these ten items are [given in] outline only; details are given in The Pattern of Monastic Activities
[current in the great state of Song].
171
15a
172
173
15b
174
175
Gate IX
15c
176
At times Buddhist monks come from those places. They wear rings
pierced through the ears. They wear a single undergarment and
an unlined robe, roughly the same as the monks from India. In the
winter months they dont wear cotton clothes. When they see the
observances of Chinese monks, they dont praise them.
4. The revered master Zuyong (Soei) of Xiuchansi on Mount
Tiantai (present-day Dacisi; Daijiji) told me, I hear that in Vail,
India, there still stands Layman Vimalakrtis room, the size of a
square zhang (hj). Monks from the South Asian Sea continually
make a pilgrimage to the place below the bodhi tree and worship
the image of Bodhisattva Avalokitevara. In Nland Temple there
are ve thousand monks, most of whom recite the Tripiaka texts.
There are also the Buddhas bowl and navsins robe. Many people go on pilgrimage to where the eight memorable stupas stand.
All these belong to the contemporary age.
In the Song dynasty twenty miracles have been cited:
1. A monk from Weinan (Wainan) told me, On Mount Qingliang (Shry, of Wutaishan; Godaisan) Majur appeared riding
a lion.
2. In Mount Tiantai at times live arhats appear, whose traces
also emit light.
3. At the stone bridge (in Mount Tiantai) blue dragons appear,
and when they do, it rains.
4. The holy traces such as those in Guoqing (Kokusei) Temple176 still remain in dignity.
5. The Buddhas relics preserved in the temple in Mount
Yuwang (Iku) emit light.
6. In Mount Yuwang eels appear, and as soon as they appear,
it rains.
7. Monks maintain a dignied posture at all times.
8. Inside the temples it is calm and silent.
9. There are many who reduce themselves to ashes (i.e., die in
samdhi). In the spring of Chunxi (Junki) the sixteenth year, jiyou,
tsuchinoto-tori (1190) a monk of Xiangtian (Shden) Temple reduced
himself to ashes in samdhi. It is now the tenth year since then.
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16a
10. Among monks, many know when they are going to die.
11. Laypeople hold the precepts of the bodhisattva restraints.
12. Young novices hold the ve precepts.
13. Both laity and clergy are seless.
14. In Mount Dongye (Tekizan), Bodhisattva Samantabhadra
emits light.
15. The Buddha hall in each temple looks as if a living Buddha
abides there.
16. The storehouses for Buddhist scriptures and monks halls
look as dignied as in the Pure Land.
17. Emperors are unfailingly ordained in the bodhisattva
restraints.
18. No monks possess or cultivate rice elds.
19. Animals are often observed to have human sentiments.
20. Government laws are never perverted to wrong the people.
People in Japan, nevertheless, tend to refer to their favorite
saying, In India and China the Buddhas teachings have already
been extinguished. They ourish only in Japan.
[According to the Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western
Regions,] after the passing away of the Tathgata monarchs of
various countries were afraid that the diamond seat177 would be
buried, so they had the seat marked with boundaries and had two
statues of Bodhisattva Avalokitevara built nearby. [According to
the Record of the Transmission of the Dharma Treasury] (T. 50:
303c304b), navsin, the Third Patriarch who transmitted the
Buddha-Dharma to his successor, had a robe he had worn since
being an embryo, and which had grown together with him after
his birth. This natural robe has been preserved by mysterious power
for the sake of peoples faith in the Dharma. [According to the
Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions] (T. 51, VIII,
915b), when Xuanzang visited the two sites, the Avalokitevara
statues [near the diamond seat in Magadha] were buried half up
to their chests; and (T. 51, I, 873b) a small part of navsins robe
178
179
site. In such a holy land, how could the Buddhas teachings not be
alive now? Indeed, what Eisai heard directly from people while
staying in China must tally with the actual situation in India.
Question: According to what has been mentioned, the Buddhas
teachings vigorously ourish in India and China. Now I wonder if
there are people who have attained the fruit of practice.
Answer: As I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my
own ears, there are those in China who reduce themselves to ashes
in samdhi, just as those in India, mentioned above.
Question: If that is the case, will Japan also have such people?
Answer: Yes, there must be.
[Question:] Here is a criticism against this kind of answer:
India and China are supremely holy lands. There may appear
those whose pure fruits of practice will mature to the attainment
of awakening. Japan is just a borderland. Tribes that lack virtue
reside here. Therefore, it is extremely dicult to have such attainers of awakening. Besides, people lack the practice of la. This
makes things more dicult for them, doesnt it?
Answer: The Mahprajpramit Sutra (T. 6: 539ab, quoted
above, pp. 78, 83) says:
[A]fter my death, in the last time, on the last occasion, in the
last ve hundred-year period when my teachings are lost, a
scripture [like this] will play a great part in helping people
attain awakening in the direction of northeast [as well].
In the direction of the northeast is the land of Japan. There
has been no dislike of this borderland, has there? As for la and
vinaya, keeping the two hundred and fty precepts of the Buddhas
day ought to be equivalent to refraining from committing the four
grave oenses in the latter-day world, far distant from the time
of his parinirva. The Record of the Transmission of the Dharma
Treasury (T. 50: 307ab) says:180
180
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16b
the six sense perceptions, [on the way toward ultimate awakening],
respectively. In Japan Kkei (9771049) and his disciple Enin (d.
1050) worked miracles, which surprised heavenly and earthly gods
as well as humans, and they all wore lay garments. Although they
did not show the dignity of uncovering the right shoulder [and
kneeling on the right knee], they kept all the precepts in their practice. That is why they attained such excellent fruits.
Recently I heard about a monk named Kakuben, of jin Temple, Yamada-gun, Iga Province, Japan. Kakuben lectured on the
Mahparinirva Sutra from the platform. When he nished talking about Daosheng, a Chinese Buddhist who had endured death182
[before he had a scriptural verication of his view that there should
be no exception for attaining awakening], Kakuben entered into
nal calmness on the platform [just as Daosheng had done]. Since
no one knows of this, it has not been recognized how miraculous it
was. However, the Essentials of the Single Vehicle (T. 74, III, 351a)
[praises Kakubenand] says:
Throughout the whole country of Japan peoples capacity for
the perfect teaching has reached maturity; both ocials and
the public, those living near the capital and in remote areas,
all have taken shelter in the One Vehicle.
Besides, this country, considering its physical features, is peerless, and the Three Treasures of Buddhism have vigorously ourished [here]. If people dedicate themselves to holding the Buddhist
morality, have deep condence in their true way of being, and cultivate the dignity of the Buddha, how could it be in vain? A layman of the Great Song named Wenbo (Bunhaku), who abides in
Mount Emei (Gabisan), praised Japan, saying:
Who would divide that land from this land? Separating them
is a short distance. Shining with sixty-six provinces (zhou;
sh), the land extends over three thousand li. Its mountains
are mines of diamonds inexhaustible. Gems that are abundant adorn the earth. The Four [Noble] Truths pervade the
182
183
16c
184
and the state. My wrongly being accused of being the root source
of this is a most lamentable matter.
Herewith I have established the [ninth] gate, Information
from the Large Countries.
Gate X
By the tenth gate, Merit Transference and Making Vows, I mean
what follows.
The Mahprajpramit Sutra (T. 7, fasc. 543, 794c) says:
Subhti answered Maitreya, saying, Speaking of those men
and women of noble mind who abide in the bodhisattva vehicle, who practice the profound perfection of the knowledge of
emptiness (prajpramit), I would say this: If they want
not to reproach the Buddha but to transfer merit to other
beings, they should think in this way: Tathgatas are really
worthy of oerings; they have attained ultimate awakening.
Just as the Tathgatas, with their unhindered awakened eyes,
penetratively realize, thoroughly know, that meritorious roots
of virtue have such a nature, such a characteristic, and such
content as is worth rejoicing, so also should I rejoice at the
roots of virtue. Tathgatas are really worthy of oerings; they
have attained ultimate awakening. Just as the Tathgatas,
with their unhindered awakened eyes, penetratively realize,
thoroughly know, that one should transfer such acts of merit
toward the attainment of unsurpassed ultimate awakening,
so also should I practice such transference.
The Buddha praised Subhti and said, Very good. . . .
And even188 this was said:189 Who does the transference?
What is transferred? Where is the transference directed?
With the three wheels free from discrimination, being free
from any expectation, let me, equally with other living beings,
transfer this root of virtue toward unsurpassed ultimate awakening (anuttar samyaksabodhi).
185
17a
186
the sutras, stras, and their commentaries, and the original texts
themselves. I might also be mistaken in quoting their titles. The
reason is that I have quoted them from memory. My mistakes may
not be limited just to passages and my understanding of their
meanings. I am afraid that there might be discord beween a truth
and its expression. Notwithstanding all such possible mistakes, a
certain revered ancient (unidentied) remarks thus:
Since I quote without the original text near at hand, I might
give a wrong title. But even if the title may be wrongly quoted,
how could this mean the corruption of the content?
I hope my readers will be kind enough to correct wrong quotations, if there are any.
End of Fascicle Three
187
189
17b
190
[Postscript]
[By Kh Tshun, Compiler of the
Treatise on Letting Zen Flourish to Protect the State]
191
17b14
Appendix
List of Works Cited in the Treatise on
Letting Zen Flourish to Protect the State
The number before each title shows the order in which the text is rst cited
in this translation of the Treatise. These numbers also appear in the endnotes to ease identication and cross-referencing. Each listing includes all
or some of the following information: English title used in the translation;
English title in full, when applicable; Sanskrit title, when applicable (* asterisk denotes provisional Sanskritization); romanized Chinese and/or Japanese title; name of author or translator; date of publication, when known; and
collection reference number.
1. Sixfold Prajpramit Sutra; The Buddhas Teaching in a Scripture
Called the Sixfold Perfection on the Ground of the Great Vehicle; Mahynayuktiprajpramit-stra; Dashengliquliuboluomiduojing; Daijrishuropparamittaky
Translated by Praj, 788, ten fascicles
Taish Vol. 8, No. 261
2. Mahprajpramit Treatise; A Commentary on the Buddhas Teaching in a Scripture Called Perfection of the Knowledge of Emptiness; Mahprajpramit-stra; Dazhidulun; Daichidoron
Translated by Kumrajva, 405, one hundred fascicles
Taish Vol. 25, No. 1509
3. Chan School Monastic Rules; Monastic Rules for the Chan School; Chanyuanqinggui; Zenonshingi
Compiled by Zongze (Ssaku), 1103, ten fascicles
Zokuzky 216
193
194
Appendix
195
196
Appendix
197
Mahvairocanbhisabodhivikurvitdhihnavaipulyastrendrarjadharmaparyya
By Yixing (683727)
1) Taish Vol. 39, No. 1796; 2) Zokuzky 136
27. Majur Inquiry Sutra; The Buddhas Teaching in a Scripture Called
Majurs Inquiry; Wenshushiliwenjing; Monjushirimonky
Translated by Saghavarman, 518, two fascicles
Taish Vol. 14, No. 468
28. The All-pleasing: A Commentary on the Rules of Discipline; Buddhaghoas Commentary on the Vinaya-piaka Called Samantapsdik (Affording Help to All); Shanjianl; Zenkenritsu
Translated by Saghabhadra, 488, eighteen fascicles
Taish Vol. 24, No. 1462
29. Great Calming and Contemplation; The Great Calming (amatha) and
Contemplation (Vipayan) of Tiantai; Tiantaizong Mohezhiguan; Tendaish
Makashikan
Zhiyis lectures recorded by Guanding (561632), 594, twenty fascicles
Taish Vol. 46, No. 1911
30. Sutra of the Brahm Called Excellent Thinker; The Buddhas Teaching
in a Scripture Called the Responses of the Brahm Deity Vieacinti (Excellent Thinker) upon Inquiry; ryabrahmavieacintiparipcchnmamahyna-stra; Siyifantiansuowenjing; Shiyakubontenshomonky
Translated by Kumrajva, four fascicles
Taish Vol. 15, No. 586
Beijing Tibetan Tripiaka Vol. 33, No. 827
31. Diamond Sutra; The Buddhas Teaching in a Scripture Called the Diamond-cutting Perfection of the Knowledge of Emptiness; Vajracchedikprajpramit-stra; Jingangbanruoboluomijing; Konghannyaharamitsuky
Translated by Kumrajva, one fascicle
Taish Vol. 8, No. 235
32. Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions; Datangxiyuji; Genjki Daitsaiikiki
198
Appendix
199
200
Appendix
Compiled in China toward the end of the Six Dynasties period, one fascicle
This text is found in the appendix to Shindai Sekiguchis Tendai Shikan
no Kenky.
44. Vaipulya Sutra; The Buddhas Teaching in a Scripture of the Great Vaipulya (Extensive) on Dhra; Vaipulya-stra; Dafangdengtuoluonijing;
Daihddaraniky
Translated by Fazhong, Northern Liang dynasty, four fascicles
Taish Vol. 21, No. 1339
45. Bodhisattva Garland Sutra; The Buddhas Teaching in a Scripture Called
Bodhisattvas Honored with the Formless Garland upon Attaining Awakening; Pusayingluojing; Bosatsuyrakuky
Translated by Buddhasmti, 376, thirteen fascicles
Taish Vol. 16, No. 656
46. Sutra of Supra-sunlight Samdhi; The Buddhas Teaching in a Scripture Called the Samdhi that Illuminates Beyond the Sun; Chaorimingsanmeijing; Chnichimyzanmaiky
Translated by Nie Chengyuan, Western Jin dynasty (240300)
Taish Vol. 15, No. 638
47. Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra; The Profound Meaning of the Saddharmapuarka-stra; Miaofalianhuajingxuanyi; Myhrengekygengi
By Zhiyi, recorded by Guanding, ten fascicles with two parts each
Taish Vol. 33, No. 1716
48. Collection of Records from the Ancestral Mirrors; Zongjinglu; Sugyroku
Compiled by Yongming Yanshou (Ymy Enju, 90475), 961, one hundred
fascicles
Taish Vol. 48, No. 2016
49. Sutra of Treasure Clouds; The Buddhas Teaching in a Scripture Called
the Mahayana Treasure Clouds; Ratnamegha-stra; Dashengbaoyunjing;
Daijhunky
Translated by Maarsana (?) and Saghapla, Liang dynasty, 503,
seven fascicles
Taish Vol. 16, No. 659
201
202
Appendix
203
204
Appendix
205
206
Appendix
207
86. Sutra on Attaining the Mudr that Effects the Strength of Condence;
ryaraddhbaldhnvatramudrnmamahyna-stra; Xinliruyinfamenjing; Shinrikinyinhmonky
Translated by Dharmaruci, Wei dynasty, ten fascicles
Taish Vol. 10, No. 305
Beijing Tibetan Tripiaka Vol. 34, No. 867
87. Bodhisattva Stages; Bodhisattva Stages of the Observance of Samdhi;
Yogcrabodhisattvabhmi; Yujiashidilun Pusadi; Yugashijiron Bosatsuji
Translated by Xuanzang, fascicles thirty-ve to fty of one hundred total
fascicles
Taish Vol. 30, No. 1579
88. Exposition of the Ten Stages; Daabhmikavibh-stra; Shizhupiposhalun; Jjbibasharon
Attributed to Ngrjuna; translated by Kumrajva, seventeen fascicles
Taish Vol. 26, No. 1521
89. Buddhist Monastic Traditions of Southern Asia: A Record of the Inner
Law Sent Home from the South Seas; Tang Yijingsanzang Datang Nanhaijiguineifazhuan; T Gijsanz Dait Nankaikikinaihden
By Yijing (Gij Sanz, 635713), Tang dynasty, 691, four fascicles
Taish Vol. 54, No. 2125
English translation by Li Rongxi (Numata Center, 2000)
See also J. Takakusu, trans. A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (671695) by I-tsing (New
Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1982, reprint)
90. Sutra of Golden Light; The Buddhas Teaching in a Scripture Called the
Gold Brilliance, Supreme King of All the Scriptures; Suvaraprabhsottamarja-stra; Zuishengwang Jinguangmingjing; Saish Konkmyky
Translated by Yijing, Tang dynasty, ten fascicles
Taish Vol. 16, No. 665
91. Sutra of the Buddhas Names; Fomingjing; Butsumyky
Translated by Bodhiruci, twelve fascicles
Taish Vol. 14, No. 440
208
Appendix
209
210
Notes
I.e., the Zen school. The term busshin is derived from butsugoshin (core
or heart of the Buddhas words), in Sanskrit, buddhapravacanahdaya,
a term used as the subtitle of the text in the Lakvatra-stra [66].
Emperor Krei was the seventh in succession from Emperor Jinmu, according to the records on divine rule by mythological emperors in the two earliest histories of Japan, the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), compiled
in 712 C.E., and the Nihonshoki (Chronicles of Japan), compiled in 720.
Both these early histories were compiled by imperial order for clearly
political purposes.
Zhizhe, i.e., Zhiyi (538597), also called Great Master Tiantai, systematized the Tiantai schools teachings after deep thought and practice. In
the Treatise on Letting Zen Flourish to Protect the State Eisai quotes from
Zhiyis three representative works: Words and Phrases in the Lotus Sutra
[22], Great Calming and Contemplation [29], and Profound Meaning of
the Lotus Sutra [47].
This text is dated the ninth of the eighth month of the rst year of Baoqing, 1205 C.E.
10
11
211
12
Tdaiji, the head temple of the Kegon school in Nara, housed a gigantic
Buddha statue, built by order of Emperor Shmu in 752 C.E., which had
burned down in 1180.
13
14
The original edition of the Treatise was printed in the sixth year of Kanmon, 1666. See the Translators Introduction, p. 56.
15
What Eisai means by Mind here is the original nature of the ordinary
mind, which is no-mind. It also means the shin (essence or heart) of
the busshin-sh, the school of the Buddhas mind.
16
I.e., Me, in that the mind that is me is not any mind that is me.
17
18
The following two terms are from fascicle one of the Baolinzhuan (Hrinden;
originally ten fascicles, seven fascicles extant), an early history of the
Dharma transmission of the Chan school, compiled in 801 by Zhiju (Chiko).
The phrase eye and treasury of the True Dharma (saddharmacakukoa?;
zhengfayanzang; shbgenz) is supposedly quoted in this Chan text from
the Mahparinirva Sutra [6], though the sutra (T. 12: 617b) speaks only
of transmission of the True Dharma. See the Hrinden-yakuch, a Japanese translation of the Baolinzhuan with annotation by Rysh Tanaka
(Tokyo: Uchiyamashoten, 2003), pp. 378. The phrase sublime mind (or
heart, hdaya) of nirvana is also from the Baolinzhuan, where the Buddha
cites it as one of the synonymous phrases of what he transmits to
Mahkyapa. See the Hrinden-yakuch, p. 30.
19
212
Notes
21
The term golden ascetic for Mahkyapa comes from fascicle forty-six
of the Sutra of the Original Practice [96], where the Buddha said to the
monks (T. 3: 869a), Mahkyapa looks like a golden statue because, due
to his virtuous conduct in former lives he was born into a well-o brahman family, wealthy to the extent that he never lacked for anything, of
upright and ne features. He has been foremost in ascetic practice; he has
been completely contented with anything while practicing morality since
becoming a mendicant; he has attained arhatship; and therefore I have
assured his attainment of Buddhahood.
22
213
Whats the use of your being here? Youve already suered having your
head bent down.
In the Lakvatra-stra [66] (T. 16: 503ab), the Buddha expounds
the twofold directives to the awakened truth: communication and principal aim. The latter is the principle by which practitioners get free of
false discrimination, not falling into any of the alternatives of oneness
and dierence, both oneness and dierence, and neither oneness nor
dierence; or of what surpasses the mind, ego-thought, and the thoughtdiscerning faculty. This nondiscrimination is the noble mode of being personally attained and realized by past, present, and future Tathgatas.
The rst directive, communication, refers to a diverse collection of sutra
teachings, required for various purposes and taught according to sentient
beings capacities. Although such teachings are expressed in words, they
are the self-expression of the principal aim, so they are in essence free
from verbal expression. Verbal expression necessarily deviates from nondiscrimination.
Chan practitioners knew this well, and some referred to the danger of
ones eyebrows falling o through speaking of suchness. In case twentyseven of the Blue Cliff Record [77] (T. 51: 167c), the compiler Yuanwu
Keqin admonishes anyone who wants to give expression to true reality to
not spare not only their eyebrows but their very lives.
23
24
25
For a gloss on this phrase support of the teaching of nirvana for monastic discipline (niepanful; nehanfuritsu) and other similar expressions in
the text, such as the eternity of nirvana as the true support of morality
(p. 86), the eternity of nirvana oers ultimate support to monastic discipline (p. 11011), and the eternity of nirvana supports morality as its
ultimate basis (p. 159), see the passage from the Mahparinirva Sutra
[6] given in note 155.
26
27
In the Sutra of Maitreyas Descent and Attainment of Buddhahood (Milexiashengchengfojing; Mirokugenshjbutsuky; Taish vol. 14, no. 454),
it is said that ve trillion, six hundred and seventy billion years after
kyamunis parinirva Bodhisattva Maitreya will appear in the world,
214
Notes
The bubbling spring of ultimate reality is cited as one of the ve signicances of the Buddhist sutras by Chengguan (Chkan; 738839), one of
the great Tang dynasty scholars of the Flower Ornament Sutra [64], in a
detailed commentary on his own commentary on the sutra, the Collected
Writings for Unfolding Meanings through Following the Commentary
(Suishu Yanyichao; Zuisho Engish), Taish vol. 36, no. 1736, 36a. In the
phrase for eons under a thousand Buddhas, Eisai refers to the thousand
Buddhas who are expected to appear in the future lunar-mansion kalpa;
see note 107.
29
The phrase practicing dhyna and investigating the Way appears in the
Blue Cliff Record [77], in two comments by Yuanwu (cases two and nine).
The term dhyna (chan; zen) is commonly translated as meditation but
in a Zen context means getting free from thought, the aim of Zen meditation. The Way (dao; do) refers to the Buddhist path of liberation.
30
The monastic precepts to be followed to avoid various oenses and transgressions, as enumerated in the Vinaya in Four Divisions [4], totals two
hundred and fty for monks; there are three hundred and forty-eight for
nuns.
31
215
33
Tathgatas, lit. one who comes from thusness (tathta), are those who
have realized the true nature of reality, i.e., Buddhas.
34
The awakened truth of Zen that supports people in keeping the precepts:
see notes 25 and 155 for similar expressions, where Eisai identies chan
(zen) with the eternity of nirvana.
216
Notes
35
36
The ua, a protuberance on the top of the head, is one of the thirtytwo distinguishing marks of a Buddha, along with a lock of hair between
the eyebrows (rn), the sign of a thousand-spoked wheel on the soles of
the feet, etc.
37
38
The principle of Zen (zensh)By this term, Eisai seems to mean not
only the Zen principle but also the Zen school and practitioners of Zen.
39
The four kinds of restraint are to have a mind free from thoughts of
obscenity, murder, theft, and the falsehood that one has attained awakening. Toward the end of fascicle six of the Sutra of ragama Practices [14], the Buddha nished expounding these four kinds of restraint,
and now, in fascicle seven, he goes on with the present exposition.
40
41
For understanding the phrase, divine . . . mantras uttered by my heartBuddha (xinfo; shinbutsu), (T. 19: 133a, I, 17), two expressions that precede this in the quoted text, the Sutra of ragama Practices [14], oer
help (T. 19: 133a, II, 68): the unsurpassed sittapatra-dhra (or sittapatra-mantrapadni), which are beams from the protuberance (ua)
of my Buddhas head; the heart-mantras uttered by the heart-Buddha
that is of the unseen nature of the protuberance on the Tathgatas head
and unconditioned, and that issues beams from the ua while [the
217
43
Chish, i.e., Enchin (814891) went to Tang China and studied both
exoteric and esoteric Buddhism from 853858. He established an altar
for goma (i.e., homa, burnt oering) ritual at Onjji, and became the fth
head priest of Enryakuji on Mount Hiei. See Hajime Nakamura, et al.,
Bukky-jiten (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1992). In the Treatise Eisai quotes
from his Ofcial Document Presented to the Emperor [15] and Similarities and Dissimilarities of the Teaching Forms [33].
44
Jikaku, i.e., Ennin (794864), rst studied under Saich, went to Tang
China from 838847, and established the basis for Tendai esoteric
Buddhism. He was the third head priest of Enryakuji on Mount Hiei. His
record of his nine years in Tang China seeking the Dharma, the Nittguhjunreikki, is well known. See Nakamura, et al., Bukky-jiten (Tokyo:
Iwanami shoten, 1992).
45
46
The eight forms of being of the Buddha include his birth, suering, attainment of awakening, and passing away (parinirva). According to the
Treatise on Awakening Condence [76], T. 32: 581a, the eight forms of
being are: 1) leaving the Tuita Heaven, 2) entering a human womb, 3)
abiding in the womb, 4) leaving the womb, 5) becoming a mendicant, 6)
attaining awakening, 7) turning the wheel of the Dharma, and 8) entering nirvana.
47
48
218
Notes
49
Actually, this quote is from fascicle eighteen, 472b, in the Northern version and fascicle sixteen, 715a, in the Southern version of the Mahparinirva Sutra [6].
50
51
52
53
54
The Jingde Records of Transmission of the Lamp [79], fascicle twentyve, about State Master Tiantaishan Deshao (891972), cites the following record (T. 51: 407c):
There was a transmitter of Tiantai Zhizhes teaching named Yiji, who frequently
told the master (Deshao), Zhizhes teachings have become remote as the years
have gone by. I am afraid many of them will be lost. Now the Xinluoguo is
equipped with many of his books. Without the masters compassionate power,
who could aord to bring them here? The master reported this to King Zhongyi
of the Wuyueguo. The king dispatched a messenger with a letter from the master to the country, the messenger made copies there and, fully equipped, returned.
Nowadays the copies prevail.
55
Daoxuan, i.e., Dsen (also Daorui; Dei; 702760). He received transmission of the Northern school of Chan from Puji (651739). In 736 he
came to Japan in response to a request by two monks, Fush and Yei,
who had come to Tang China from Japan, and stayed at the Daianji
Saitoin in Nara. Versed in Kegon and Tendai teachings, he had inuence
on Saich through his disciple Gyhy (see note 56). See Nakamura, et
al., Bukky-jiten (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1992).
56
Gyhy (727797) was ordained along with seven hundred others in 741
at the imperial court, and accepted the precepts and Chan practice under
the guidance of Daoxuan of the Daianji (see note 55). Later he lived at
the Sfukuji in Shiga, mi Province. Toward the end of his life he retired
to the Hisoji in Yamato Province and transmitted the Chan truth to Saich
(see note 41). See Ui, Bukky-jiten (Tokyo: Tsei-shuppansha, 1953).
57
Dengy, i.e., Saich (766 or 767822) was the founder of the Tendai school
in Japan. At the age of twelve he became a disciple of Gyhy (see note
56) of the Kokubunji, mi Province; he was ordained at age fourteen and
took the name Saich. In 785 he entered Mount Hiei, where he built a hut
to live in and began reading Buddhist scriptures such as the Lotus Sutra
[19], the Sutra of Golden Light [90], and the Heart Sutra (Prajpramithdaya-stra; Banruoboluomiduoxinjing; Hannyaharamitashingy; Taish
vol. 8, no. 251), and studying various other scriptures and treatises, especially the three great treatises by the Tiantai master Zhiyi (see note 8).
219
Three years later he consecrated his hut as a temple, naming it the Ichijshikan-in (later known as the Konponchd). In 794 he held a large
oering service at the temple, attended by Emperor Kanmu (r. 781806)
and learned priests of the major temples of Nara. After that he was
appointed to serve the imperial inner court as a priest, and his temple was
ranked as a state-protecting dj (bodhimaa, seat of awakening). In
804, according to an imperial order by Kanmu to promote the study of the
Tiantai school, Saich went to Tang China. There he received the Tiantai
transmission from Daosui and Xingman, the Chan transmission from Xiaoran, the bodhisattva la (precepts) from Daozui, an esoteric method from
Shunxiao and others, and returned the following year, in 805. In 806 he
received public approval for his Tendai school from the imperial court.
Toward the end of his life he wanted to establish a system in which practitioners would be ordained in the Mahayana la to be followed by twelve
years of study and practice at Mount Hiei. Though this system was not
instituted during his lifetime due to opposition from other Buddhist schools
in Nara, it was publicly approved after his death. See Ui, Bukky-jiten
(Tokyo: Tsei-shuppansha, 1953). In the Treatise Eisai quotes from Saichs
Genealogy [23] and Single Mind Moral Precept [58] as well as from the
Notes to the Latter-day World Dharma Lamp [39] attributed to him.
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
The eight schools are the six schools of the Nara period (71094), Hoss,
Jjitsu, Kegon, Kusha, Ritsu, and Sanron; and the two schools of the
Heian period (7951191), Shingon and Tendai. These were the major
schools of Buddhism in Japan.
66
220
Notes
67
68
69
Annen (841889 or 898), was ordained by Ennin (see note 44) in the bodhisattva la in 859. After Ennin died, he studied exoteric and esoteric
Buddhism under Henj. In 884, he became a denb-dai-ajari (great crya
[teacher] for transmission of the esoteric truth) and lived at a temple
called the Godai-in which he had had built on Mount Hiei.
70
71
Taigong Wan (Taik B), a title of honor presented to Lushang of the Zhou
(Sh) dynasty.
72
73
Eisai refers here to the Collection of Records from the Ancestral Mirrors
[48], T. 48: 497a.
74
The king of Pengcheng told the priests that he would take refuge in a holy
person as his master someone who, as the result of having attained awakening, could manifest such miracles as making water gush from under
their left shoulder and ames from under their right shoulder, y up high
into the sky, emit beams of light, and shake the earth. Master Niutou
Farong criticized the kings view, saying he was afraid that if he were to
attain such powers he would be going against the Dharma and that, in
such a case, a magician would be a Buddha. Awakening is the transformation of wisdom, and has nothing to do with mere changes of form, such
as the dierence between male and female or whether men or women have
ne or ugly features or clothing. This story in the Collection of Records
from the Ancestral Mirrors [48] does not appear elsewhere, such as in the
biography of Master Farong in Daoxuans Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks (Taish vol. 50, no. 2060), compiled around 645; in the section of the Collection of the Chan Patriarchal Hall, fascicle three, that
introduces Master Niutou Farong; or in the Jingde Records of Transmission of the Lamp [79], fascicle four.
Meanwhile, these three texts all introduce Farong as a master deeply
respected not only by humans but also by animals and even plants in
221
the unity of all beings. According to the Collection of the Chan Patriarchal
Hall, Daoxin, the Fourth Patriarch of Chan, drawn by some omens he had
observed from far away, came to see Master Farong deep in the mountains,
surrounded by beings that were all friendly to him. After the Fourth Patriarch taught Master Farong how everything was empty of their characteristics, it is said that no ghosts were able to see the master to bring oerings.
Nevertheless, when Master Farong had to leave the mountain, all the animals and plants, it is said, grieved upon being separated from him.
Master Farong is now regarded as the author of the Jueguanlun
(Zekkanron), an early Chan text unearthed from Dunhuang. See the English translation by Gishin Tokiwa, A Dialogue on the Contemplation-Extinguished (Kyoto: Institute for Zen Studies, 1973).
75
76
The four grave oenses are the four prjika oenses that result in
expulsion from the sangha. The ve grave transgressions are 1) patricide, 2) matricide, 3) killing an arhat, 4) causing a schism in the sangha,
and 5) causing blood to ow from the body of a Buddha.
77
In Chapter II, The Tathgatas Indestructible Body, of the Mahparinirva Sutra [6] (Taish vol. 12, no. 374, fasc. 3, 383c4a; Taish vol.
12, no. 376, by Faxian, 666c867a; Tibetan vol. 31, no. 788, 47b49a),
the story of the monk Buddhadatta (datta, given) and King Bhavadatta
(bhava, samsaric being) goes as follows:
In the past, immeasurable kalpas ago, in this same city of Kuinagara there
appeared a Buddha, Tathgata, World-honored One named Nandivardhana
(Pleasure-increasing). In those days the land was as extensive, rich, and comfortable as the Land of Bliss, Sukhvat. The people prospered and knew no
famine. The Buddha abided in the world, teaching people for immeasurable
years, and under the twin la trees he entered parinirva. After this the
Buddhas authentic teachings remained for immeasurable kois of years and
forty more years before the teachings were extinguished.
Then there was a precept-keeper monk named Buddhadatta. He had many
followers surrounding him to hear his lions roar extensively expounding the
222
Notes
nine scriptures. He caused others to restrain from keeping servants, cows, bualo
(sheep in no. 374), as prohibited by the monastic rules.
There were many ill-behaved monks who, on hearing Buddhadattas exposition, decided to kill him. They gathered, took weapons in hand, and went
straight to Buddhadatta. The king of the land, Bhavadatta, heard of this and
in order to protect the Buddhas teachings he went immediately to save the
preacher from harm. He engaged in ghting the ill-behaved monks. The king
was attacked with swords, spears, diamond-pointed weapons, and arrows; no
place on his body, even as small as grains of mustard seed, was left unpierced.
Buddhadatta saw this, and praised the king, A protector of the Buddhas
authentic teachings should be like you. You will be the vessel of truth for innumerable kalpas. The king, hearing the monks words, died and was reborn in
the land of Akobhya (Immovable) Buddha. His men, whose hearts were transported with joy, continued to ght, all determined to attain awakening, and
after death were reborn in the Buddha land of Akobhya.
The monk Buddhadatta also, after the kings death, died and was reborn in
Akobhya Buddhas presence as his chief disciple. The king became the second
disciple (according to the Faxian and Tibetan versions; in no. 374 the king
becomes the chief disciple).
The authentic teachings, when about to be hidden, should be protected in
this way. The one who was King Bhavadatta was me (kyamuni). The monk
Buddhadatta was Kyapa Buddha, who has entered parinirva. The fruit of
protecting the authentic teachings in this way is immeasurable. I have gained
the indestructible body and the Dharma body.
78
The text goes on to say that since no words are set up by Buddhas for
transmissiononly mindnot even words like buddha, bodhi, or nirvana
are set up as something to be transmitted (ibid.). But this does not mean
that the ordinary sentient mind is the ultimate truth for transmission.
The mind that grasps itself and others as actual phenomena does not realize the original nature of mind, which is one, beyond grasping (374a, c).
No one other than the Buddhas realized this empty nature of mind (376a).
Thus setting up no words also means not setting up even the concept of
mind as transmitter or transmitted, and this is called the transmission
of mind through mind from one Buddha to another.
223
79
Perfect rank (yuanwei; eni), one of the terms beginning with perfect
that were frequently used since Zhiyi, means the rank of the perfect
teaching ( yuanjiao; engy), one point of which includes all the other
points in itself. See also Yanagidas headnote for the kundoku text, Nihonshistaikei, vol. 16 (Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten, 1972), p. 39.
80
81
82
An ancient one, namely, Master Zhiyi, quoted from the Great Calming
and Contemplation [29], T. 46: 80c.
83
84
85
86
The three modes of reality (sandi; santai) are: empty (nya), provisional
(prajapti), and the middle (madhya).
87
88
89
90
224
Notes
91
Chnen (9381016), a priest of the Tdaiji, Nara, studied Sanron and Shingon teachings; in 983 he went to Song China and was accorded a cordial
reception by Emperor Taizong (r. 97697), made a pilgrimage to Wutaishan (Godaisan) and so on, and returned to Japan in 987, bringing home
ve thousand volumes of a newly printed Tripiaka and a Buddha image.
See Nakamura, et al., Bukky-jiten (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1992).
92
93
94
Emperor Toba (r. 110741), after leaving the throne, out of his faith in
the Buddha-Dharma, visited the Tennji in Osaka to make oerings in
its Nembutsu hall, November 12, 1149.
95
96
97
98
The Foreword to the Brahm Net Sutra [53], included in the Rinzaishseiten as the Foreword to the Bodhisattvas Moral Precepts; this text diers
from the Brahm Net Sutra on the Bodhisattva la [5].
99
The three evil paths are the three lower realms of hell, hungry ghosts,
and animals into which sentient beings may be reborn.
100
101
102
103
The Postscript to A Treatise on the Contemplation of Mind (Tiantai Guanxinlun Aopi; Tendai Kanshinron hi, Taish vol. 46, no. 1920, 584), is not
extant.
104
225
105
The term seal of the mind expresses the nonduality between the concepts of the mind as a seal for stamping and the mind as the mark stamped
with the seal. It carries the same meaning as transmitting mind through
mind (yixinchuanxin; ishidenshin), i.e., the realization that there is no
transmitter or recipient, just the transmission of mind itself. See also note
78 on not setting up any words.
106
107
The passage quoted here is not found in the Longer Records of the Buddhas
Words [61]. In the Great Root Sutra (Mahpadna-suttanta; Dabenji; Daihongy; Taish vol. 1, no. 1; Dghanikya II), kyamuni cites the names
of the six Buddhas who appeared in the world before him: three in the
past kalpa and three in the present auspicious kalpa (bhadrakalpa). However, the Buddha makes no reference to the name of the past kalpa or to
the appearance of one thousand Buddhas.
What constitutes the source of Eisais quote is seen in the Account of
the Three-Kalpa Three-Thousand Buddhas (Sanjiesanqianfo-yuanqi; Sangsanzenbutsu-engi; Taish vol. 14, no. 446, 364c365a), a passage quoted
from another sutra, the Sutra on Contemplation of the Two Bodhisattvas
Bhaiajyarja and Bhaiajyarjasamudgata (Guanyaowangyaoshangerpusajing; Kanyakuyakujnibosatsuky), translated by Klayaas in the
Liu-Song dynasty, 424442; Taish vol. 20, no. 1161. In the Account of
the Three-Kalpa Three-Thousand Buddhas, kyamuni refers to the threefold one thousand Buddhas and their appearances in the world in the past
kalpa of supernal manifestations (vyhakalpa; zhuangyanjie; shgong),
the present auspicious kalpa (bhadrakalpa; xianjie; geng), and the
future lunar-mansion kalpa (nakatrakalpa; xingxiujie; seishukug). In
the Taish Tripiaka the Account is followed by the Sutra of the Names
of One Thousand Buddhas in the Past Kalpa of Supernal Manifestations
(Guoquzhuangyanjieqianfomingjing; Kakoshgongsenbutsumyky).
After the title, before the text of the sutra, where the translators name
would usually appear, there is a note that reads: The translators name
is missing. This is gleanings from the Kaiyuan (Kaigen) Buddhist Text
Catalogue, recorded in the Liang (Ry) Catalogue. Sengyou (Sy) of
Liang, the compiler of the Liang Catalogue, includes the Account in his
kya Genealogy (Shijiapu; Shakafu), Taish vol. 50, no. 2040, 9c.
The Sanskrit term vyhakalpa, here assumed to be the original for
zhuangyanjie; shgong, has not been conrmed in any available Sanskrit text, including the Mahvastu and the Dharmasagraha. For the
meaning of vyha I consulted Franklin Edgertons Buddhist Hybrid
Sanskrit Dictionary (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1972, reprint).
108
109
226
Notes
called either the Bahuputraka caitya (Duozita; Tashit) or the Bahuputraka nyagrodha (Duozishu; Tashiju), a banyan or Indian g tree located
on the road between Rjagha and Nland, which served as a shrine for
people who prayed for sons. According to the Mahvastu (Stories of Great
Events, a Sanskrit collection of the Buddhas legends edited by E. Senart
in three volumes, Paris, 188297), the Licchavis presented this shrine
together with three others to the Buddha and his sangha for their use
(Vol. I, p. 300). In the chapter Mahkyapas Event of Entering Ascetic Life, Mahkyapa tells nanda how he left the householder life to
practice under the guidance of the Buddha, met him in Rjagha at the
Bahuputraka shrine, was accepted as a disciple, attained arthatship in
eight days, oered a seat for the Buddha by spreading out his cotton underrobe on the ground under a tree, and the Buddha gave him an under-robe
in return (Vol. III, pp. 505).
Concerning the Bahuputraka shrine, see footnotes to the term in the
corresponding pages in J. J. Joness English translation, The Mahvastu
(London: Pali Text Society, 1973, Vol. I; 1978, Vol. III). The same story of
Mahkyapas rst meeting the Buddha appears in fascicle forty-six of
the Sutra of the Original Practice [96], where Bahuputraka is described
as a shrine deity and as a tree (T. 3: 866ab).
110
This story has its antecedent in the Sutra of the Original Practice [96],
fascicle four (T. 3: 668b):
Then Dpakara, the Tathgata, arhan, samyaksabuddha, knew my mind,
and smiled thereupon. An attending bhiku stood up from his seat, adjusted his
robe, uncovered his right shoulder, paid sublime homage to the Buddha, and
said: For what reason, Most Exalted One, did the Tathgata smile? The Buddha
Dpakara told the bhiku: You, my mendicant, have seen how this young
man [Bodhisattva Megha] (megha, cloud) honored me with the seven stalks
of lotus owers he held, and then threw himself face down with hair spreading
out on the muddy ground to make a bridge for me to tread upon. Because of
this, this young man will, after an innumerable kalpa, attain awakening and
be called kyamuni, the Tathgata, arhan, samyaksabuddha, provided with
the Tathgatas ten epithets, no dierent from me.
111
227
113
114
115
Eisai follows the dates given in the Jingde Records of Transmission of the
Lamp [79], fasc. 3, T. 51: 219a. According to the notes of correction later
inserted in the Jingde Records, Bodhidharma reached Guangfu in Putong
the rst year of Liang, not the eighth year (527), and visited Luoyang in
November of the same year, the rst year of Zhengguang (Shk), not
Taihe, the tenth year of Wei (486), as is given here in the Treatise. This
means that the correct date is the year of gengzi (kshi; kanoe-ne), 520.
116
117
228
Notes
By oneness or the single gate of the mind, the monk seems to have
meant the sentient being as mind is originally nothing other than the
Buddha as no-mind. The source of this view is sought in the Treatise on
Awakening Condence [76], where the mind of a sentient being (sattvacitta), as yet unawakened, is explained to have two gates or modes of being:
1) the original, true mode (tathat) of the mind and 2) the arising-perishing mode (samsara) of the mind. The true mode of the mind is the awakened mode of being, free of mind. The arising-perishing mode of the mind
concerns how an unawakened being comes to attain awakening into the
original true mode of being. Speaking of the oneness of the mind presupposes the above two gates. Speaking of oneness or a single gate
without reference to the two gates fails to be real. The original, true mode
of the mind is beyond oneness as well as twoness; it is nothing, of no
gate.
119
120
Concerning the Chinese characters for these two questions, footnote number two in the Taish text has: The Kanmon text had a headnote that
read, All nine characters were possibly incorrectly transcribed.
121
122
229
124
The two lines The Lakvatra-stra says/The Tathgatas nondiscriminating dhyna were lacking in the Kanmon version and added by Kh
Tshun.
125
This quote is not found in the Mahprajparamit Sutra [10], but a similar expression is found in T. 7, fasc. 531, 727c.
126
The Mahparinirva Sutra [6], T. 12: 520b has, The Tathgata never
expounds the Dharma. The line quoted here is found in the Lakvatrastra [66], T. 16: 499c.
127
The passage quoted by Eisai here is from the rst version of the Commentary on the Mahvairocana Sutra [26], the Dainichiky Sho (Taish
vol. 39, no. 1796), brought back by Kkai. It is not found in the second
version, the Dainichiky Gishaku (Zokuzky 136), brought back by
Ennin. There are slight dierences between the two versions. Eisai quotes
from the Dainichiky Gishaku at three other places in the text, pp. 901,
1034, and 154. This is the only quote from the Dainichiky Sho.
128
129
The three schools are the Huayan (Kegon), Faxiang (Hoss), and Tiantai
(Tendai).
130
131
230
Notes
1325 in three fascicles, and printed in Japan in 1690. However, Eisai may
possibly have quoted the passage from the Eye and Treasury of the True
Dharma [78], Zokuzky 223, 59c. The expression of the original four
sentences is the same in both the Extensive Record and the Eye and Treasury. The third sentence given here by Eisai is a shortened form of the last
two sentences of the original, which read:
If you let movement and quietude die out (min; bin), you will fall through and
be lost (luokongwang; rakukb). If you accept (shou; sh) both movement and
quietude, you will squander your Buddha-nature.
132
In his comment on case nine of the Blue Cliff Record [77], T. 48: 149c,
Yuanwu says, Now tell me how you would grasp it. When doing like this
wont do, and not doing like this wont do either, what will you do?
133
The expression an arrow that has left the bow is not bound to return is
from fascicle two of Xuanshas Extensive Record (Zokuzky 231, 190b)
(see note 131, above), where it appears in the following context: The manner of a man of the Way is like re that melts ice and never causes freezing, or like an arrow that has left the bow, never bound to return. Yuanwu
used this as a comment on the opening words of case thirty-seven of the
Blue Cliff Record [77], T. 48: 175a: Panshan said, In this triple world
there is no Dharma, meaning that there is no Dharma, no Buddha, nothing that has its own characteristics. Panshan Baoji (Banzan Hshaku;
dates unknown) was a disciple of Mazu Daoyi (Basu Ditsu; 709788).
The phrase none of the thousand sages would be able to grasp it appears
in Yuanwus foreword to case thirty-eight of the Blue Cliff Record [77], T.
48: 175c: If we speak about the immediacy of awakening, it will leave no
sign or trace. None of the thousand sages would be able to grasp it.
134
In his comment on case nine of the Blue Cliff Record [77] (see also note
132), Yuanwu used the expression the nal day of the year-end to mean
a closing date for settling the accounts of ones life.
135
231
137
138
Luoshan Daoxian (Razan Dkan; dates unknown), a Dharma heir to Yantou Quanhuo (Gant Zenkatsu; 826885).
139
140
The phrase make one moment ten thousand years is from the Inscription on the Condent Mind (Xinxinming; Shinjinmei), in fascicle nineteen of the Jingde Records of Transmission of the Lamp [79], T. 51: 457b:
The Dharma world of suchness has neither self nor other.
To whom accord is pressing, let me just say, Be nondual.
Being nondual, all are the same, leaving none uncontained.
The wise in the ten directions all enter this principal aim.
The principal aim being neither short nor long, one moment is ten thousand
years.
142
In his comment on case two of the Blue Cliff Record [77], Yuanwu cites
the rst two lines of the Inscription on the Condent Mind (see note 140)
with Master Zhaozhou Congshens (Jsh Jshin; 778897) critical
remarks on them. The lines read:
The ultimate Way is not hard to attain, though it dislikes selection.
Only take care not to hate or love, and the Way will be thoroughly clear.
232
Notes
To throw a pepper seed onto the tip of a needlein Chapter I, part two,
of the Mahparinirva Sutra [6], fasc. 2, T. 12: 372c, a lay devotee named
Cunda-Karmraputra expresses in verse his joy at having the opportunity to oer a meal to the Buddha. Tradition holds that the Buddha did
accept the meal, which proved to be his last. In this Mahayana scripture,
however, the Buddha continues discoursing about the meaning of his passing into parinirva. In the verse Cunda compares the rarity and diculty
of receiving a human life and encountering a Buddha to that of throwing
a pepper seed onto the tip of a needle or a blind tortoise ascending from
the depths of the sea through a hole in a piece of wood oating on the surface.
144
Fascicle eighty of the Book of Jin (Shinjo, one hundred and thirty fascicles) cites the following episode with Wang Huizi ( Kishi), the son of
Wang Xizi ( Gishi):
Huizi, who styled himself Ziyou (Shiy) . . . once resided in Shanyin (Sanin).
One night it stopped snowing and cleared up for the rst time. The moon looked
clean and bright, and made all in the four quarters appear bright. Drinking
alone, he recited a poem by Daikui (Daiki), who was then in Shan (Zhe). Immediately Huizi boarded a ship and arrived there. After a night he approached
the hermitage but he stopped at the gate and returned [home]. When someone
asked him the reason [for this], Huizi said, I went there while in a joyful mood.
When the mood was gone, I left. Why did I have to see [Daikui] by all means?
146
147
Qinglin Shiqian (Seirin Shiken; d. 904), a Dharma heir to Dongshan Lianjia (Tzan Rykai).
148
The following passages on the practice of zazen are considered an abbreviated form of material found in the extant text of the Chan School Monastic Rules [3] fasc. 8, Zokuzky 216, 460c. However, according to Seizan
Yanagida, this passage on the manner of practicing zazen was added to
the Chan School Monastic Rules in 1202, after Eisai wrote and made public the Treatise in 1198. Professor Yanagida surmises that Eisai must have
seen the same material in another source.
233
149
150
151
In the Tang dynasty a monk named Wuzhe (Mujaku) learned the Huayan
(Kegon) teachings from Dharma Master Chengguan (Chkan; 738839),
and in the second year of Dali (Daireki; 767) he went to Wutaishan
(Godaisan) to see the region of holy persons. In May he reached the
Huayansi (Kegonji) on the mountain. Then he went to a cave called Jingangku (Kongkutsu) where after a nap he heard an old man admonishing a cow to take water. The old man invited Wuzhe to tea at his own temple nearby. After drinking a cup of tea brought by a young boy, fourteen
or fteen years old, and conversing for awhile, Wuzhe wanted to leave.
Then the old man recited a verse he had composed, quoted by Eisai here
in the Treatise. With deep thanks, Wuzhe parted from the old man. The
latter instructed the boy to accompany Wuzhe down the mountain. The
boy recited a verse: The face with no hatred upon it is oering a gift./The
mouth with no hatred in it breathes out fragrant scent./The mind with
no hatred in it is a rare treasure./Being neither deled nor disgraced, one
is truly constant. After the verse was over, and while he was still enraptured, Wuzhe suddenly lost sight of both boy and temple and saw only
the mountain, forest, earth, and rocks. Wuzhe later secluded himself on
this mountain and died there (T. 50: 836c837b).
152
153
The source of this quote from the Commentary on the Diamond Sutra by
the Dharmalakaa School [84] (Taish vol. 40, no. 1816) by Cien (Jion)
has not been identied.
154
The source of this quote from the Commentary on the Diamond Sutra [85]
by Huizhao (Esh) of Zizhou (Shish) has not been identied.
155
The Mahparinirva Sutra [6] has this passage by the Buddha (T. 12,
XXII, 493b):
Bodhisattvas hear of the great nirvana that has been unheard of. No rvakas
or pratyekabuddhas have ever heard that the Buddha has the eternity-delight
self-purity that is never extinguished, that the Buddha-nature of the Three
Treasures is beyond any discriminative characteristics, and that those who have
committed the fourfold transgressions or found fault with the Mahayana scriptures, transgressors of the ve grave sins, and those who have no aspiration
(icchantikas), when giving rise to the aspiration to attain awakening (bodhicitta), are all equipped with Buddha-nature. But now in this scripture they can
hear of it. This is my so-called hearing of what has been unheard of.
This seems to be what was meant by the Tiantai (Tendai) concept of the
eternity of nirvana as the true support for morality.
234
Notes
156
These are two groups of the monastic precepts. The ve denitive distinctions of sin include the 1) prjika, 2) saghvaesa, 3) pyattika and ptayantika, 4) pratideanya, and 5) bodily and verbal transgressions, which
include aniyata, aikadharma, and adhikaraaamath. See the quote
from the Chan School Monastic Rules [3] in Gate I, p. 76, for a complete
description of these Sanskrit terms.
The seven groups of transgressions include 1) prjika, 2) saghvaesa, 3) sthltyaya (coarse transgressions, i.e., attempted prjika
and saghvaesa), 4) pyattika and ptayantika, 5) pratideanya, 6)
bodily transgressions (dukta) and 7) verbal transgressions (durbhita).
157
158
159
A sutra, unidentied. The quote cited in the Great Calming and Concentration [29] (T. 46: 20a) is found in the Treatise on the Core of Analysis
of Buddhist Concepts Taken Up for Meditation (Sayuktbhidharmahdaya-stra; Zaapitaxinlun; Zabidonshinron), translated by Saghavarman et al., Taish vol. 28, no. 1552. In this text Dharmatrta took up
Dharmars Treatise for meditation. The Treatise on the Core of Analysis
(T. 28, IX, 949c) may be the sutra referred to here.
160
161
235
The word alsocorrection number 26. The Taish text had the word fei
(hi, arazu), not here, which has been replaced by the word yi (yaku,
mata), also, according to the context.
163
According to the Bequeathed Teaching Sutra [40] (T. 12: 1110c), on his
deathbed the Buddha said, After I die you may respectfully make much
of prtimoka (i.e., liberation from all self-aficting passions through the
practice of la), . . . for that is your great master.
164
165
166
167
See the Mahsghika Vinaya [7], T. 22: 262b. The Vinaya text says that
the Tathgata visited monks cells once every ve days in order to know
1) whether or not his disciples were attached to things of the world, 2)
whether or not they indulged in secular discussions, 3) whether or not
they overindulged in sleep to the detriment of practice, 4) whether or not
they looked after sick monks, and 5) so that newly ordained young monks
might rejoice at the sight of the Tathgata.
168
See also a passage from the Chan School Monastic Rules [3], quoted previously in Gate VII, p. 148.
169
170
The extant text of the Bequeathed Teaching Sutra [40] does not include
this passage. It is found in Zhiyis Smaller Tiantai Text of Calming and
Contemplation (Tiantaixiaozhiguan; Tendaishshikan; Taish vol. 46, no.
1915) which quotes it from another, unspecied sutra (T. 46, IV, 465b).
171
172
173
When Eisai, then twenty-eight years old, was about to leave for Song
China.
236
Notes
174
175
176
Master Zhiyi was said to have had spiritual experiences at Guoqing (Kokusei) Temple.
177
I.e., the vajrsana, the place where Siddhrtha attained awakening under
the bodhi tree.
178
179
The source of this quote and one on the following page is unidentied. The
Sutra of the Original Practice [96] does not include these passages.
180
See also another passage about Upagupta and the nun from the Mahprajpramit Treatise [2] quoted in Gate III, pp. 1045.
181
182
Daosheng (Dsh; d. 434), of the Eastern Jin (Shin) dynasty. After becoming a Buddhist mendicant, Daosheng went to Lushan (Rozan) and lived
deep in the mountains for seven years. He later practiced under the guidance of Kumrajva. From his reading of a Chinese version in six fascicles
of the Nirvana Sutra (Niepanjing; Nehangy; Taish vol. 12, no. 376), translated in 418 by Faxian (Hokken), Daoxuan believed in the scriptural standpoint that an icchantika (i.e., one who lacks the aspiration to attain awakening) can indeed attain awakening, though Faxians version of the sutra
did not contain any passage to support this point. Contemporary Buddhist
scholars faulted Daosheng for this lack of scriptural support for his view.
Later a more comprehensive version of the Nirvana Sutra, translated in
422 by Dharmakema (Taish vol. 12, no. 374), included the very passage
that Daosheng had suggested. In the eleventh year of Yuanjia, of Song
of the Southern Dynasties, at Lushan, Daosheng was near the end of giving a Dharma talk when he suddenly saw the strands of a whisk (fuzi;
hossu) in his hand fall thick and fast to the ground. Daosheng then sat
upright, adopted a stern countenance, leaned on the table, and died. See
the Biographies of Eminent Monks (Gaosengchuan; Ksden) compiled by
Huijiao (Ek; 497554), Taish vol. 50, no. 2059, 366bc367a.
Genshin, in his Essentials of the Single Vehicle [99] (T. 74: 361a), praised
Daosheng by calling him a ninshibosatsu (bodhisattva who endured death),
meaning that Daosheng said he had long endured death before his view
that icchantikas could attain awakening could be demonstrated, but when
scriptural support for this view nally appeared, he passed away.
183
184
237
186
Correction number 31. Eisai mistakes this text, An Approach to the Truth
through the Samdhi Called No Polemics [101] for a sutra ( jing; ky),
when the word famen (hmon) in the title, Wuzhengsanmeifamen (Muszanmaihmon) indicates otherwise.
187
188
189
The passage that follows here is not found in the extant text. It seems to
be Eisais interpolation.
190
191
192
Fohai Huiyuan (Bukkai Eon) was the successor to Yuanwu Keqin (Engo
Kokugon; 10631135).
193
194
195
Sea of Penglai (Hrai) refers to the Bohai (Bokkai) Sea, which extends
between the two peninsulas of Shandong and Liaodong in the northeastern part of China. An ancient belief held that a fabled abode of immortals called Mount Penglai (Hraisan) existed in the midst of this sea.
196
238
A UNIVERSAL RECOMMENDATION
FOR TRUE ZAZEN
Translators Introduction
The author of this text, Eihei Dgen, was born in Kyoto in 1200 C.E.
His family was of the noble class: his father, Koga Michichika, was
a minister of the imperial court and his mother was the daughter of
the regent Fujiwara Motofusa. While still a young child, Dgen lost
both parentshis father died when Dgen was just two years old,
and ve years later his mother died. It is not dicult to imagine that
the tragic events of Dgens childhood gave him a powerful experience of the impermanence of existence and led him to seek true awakening and total peace. Five years after his mothers death, at the
age of twelve, he renounced secular life. The following year, in 1213,
he took the tonsure and received ordination in the bodhisattva precepts at Mount Hiei.
At Mount Hiei Dgen rst studied the Tendai teachings, and met
Myan Eisai, who had brought the teachings of the Linji (Rinzai) school
of Chan to Japan. He continued his studies under Eisais disciple,
Myzen Rynen, eventually receiving inka, the certicate of conrmation of spiritual attainment conferred from Zen master to disciple.
In 1223, Dgen traveled to China, seeking the true Awakened
Way. Two years later, in 1225, he met Tiantong Rujing (11631228)
and entered a course of intensive meditation practice (zazen) under
him. During the summer retreat of that year he realized the complete dropping o of body and mind during zazen and received formal conrmation in the Dharma from Rujing. He returned to Japan
in 1227, with the grave thought of propagating the Dharma and
saving sentient beings. He stayed rst at the Kenninji in Kyoto,
then the capital. In 1233 he founded the Kannondri-in (Avalokitevara Benefactory Hall) at the site of the former Gokurakuji
(Supreme Bliss Temple) in the Kyoto suburb of Uji.
241
In 1243 Dgen left Kyoto and went to live deep in the mountains
of Echizen Province (present-day Fukui Prefecture). He founded the
Daibutsuji (Great Buddha Temple), renaming it Eiheiji (Perpetual
Peace Temple) two years later. Dgen passed away in 1253. His transformational work continues even today through his spiritual legacy
that has been maintained and transmitted by many generations of
Zen practitioners.
Dgen is regarded by Japanese Buddhist historians as the founder
of the Japanese St Zen school. However, the full scope of his contribution to the Buddhist tradition has long been underestimated.
He was a truly great reformer of Japanese Buddhism. By his time
Buddhism in Japan had undergone both evolution and involution.
Scholasticism and ritualism dominated within the traditional Buddhist
institutions. At the same time, several new Buddhist movements had
evolved, such as the Pure Land (Jdo) and Nichiren schools founded
respectively by Hnen (11331212) and Nichiren (12221282), nearcontemporaries of Dgen. New schools struggled for ascendancy and
legitimacy within the existing state-supported Buddhist institutions,
often facing imperial sanction.
Facing this tumultuous situation, Dgen advocated the single
Awakened Way, which went far beyond the narrow sectarian boundary of the St school. He stressed the signicance of practice through
maintaining awakening with the body, and revealed the path of pure
sitting (shikantaza), which requires no other goal or activity. At the
same time Dgen upheld the idea of universal salvation on the basis
that all beings are endowed with Buddha-nature. He thus embraced
both the rigorous path of early Buddhist practice and the comprehensive ideals of the Mahayana (Great Vehicle).
Text of A Universal Recommendation
for True Zazen
In 1227, at the midpoint of his career, Dgen returned from China,
having found an answer to his long-standing question: Why does one
need to practice, if, as is taught in the Mahayana tradition, all beings
242
Translators Introduction
243
244
Translators Introduction
245
have been recorded in Zen literature. In the Chinese Chan tradition, Juzhi always used his nger to respond to questions. There
are yet other examples dating further back, to the roots of Zen in
Indian Buddhism. On nandas response to Kyapas calling him,
Kyapa bade nanda to take down the banner sta, indicating
that his teaching was completed. ryadeva was admitted as Ngrjunas disciple when he placed a needle onto the surface of water in
a bowl proered by Ngrjuna. Kyapa did not raise his mallet to
admonish Majur for going out to propagate the teachings during
the rainy season (summer) retreat, when monks were forbidden to
leave, on hearing the Buddha ask, Which (of the limitless) Majurs
do you expel? Qingyuans whisk, Zhaozhous st, Teshans stick, and
Linjis shout were all methods employed by these Zen masters to catalyze students attainment of awakening.
4. Existence: Dgen returned home from China emptyhanded,
knowing only that the eyes are horizontal and the nose vertical. He
realized intimately that the realization of Buddha-nature is the very
fact, right here and now, of the dropping o of body and mind in zazen
itself. It is the realization (awakening and actualization) of the limitless Dharma.
This point is underscored in the Bendwa (Lecture on the Wholehearted Practice of the Way), where Dgen says:
Though this Dharma is abundantly endowed, it never develops
without cultivation; it can never be attained without verication.
And this:
As verication is already cultivation, it has no end. As cultivation is verication, it has no beginning.
And in this passage from the Genjkan (Realization of the Universal Truth):
When Zen Master Baochi was using his fan, a monk came and
asked, The wind-nature abides constantly everywhere and per-
246
Translators Introduction
247
248
Translators Introduction
249
253
1a
1b
The usual practice is to spread out a thick mat and place a cushion upon it. Then sit in the full or half cross-legged position. In the
full cross-legged position, place your right foot on your left thigh
and your left foot on your right thigh. In the half cross-legged position, simply press your right thigh with your left foot. Wear your
robes and sashes loosely but neatly and orderly.
Next, rest your right hand on your left foot, and place your
left palm on your right palm, [both facing upward], with the thumbtips supporting each other.
Now, sit upright, leaning neither to left nor right, neither forward nor backward. You must align your ears over your shoulders
and keep your nose in line with your navel. Rest your tongue
against the upper palate, lips and teeth closed. You must always
keep your eyes open. Breathe through your nose subtly and silently.
Maintaining the proper bodily alignment, exhale deeply once
and rock to the left and right. Settle into the solid, steadfast seated
samdhi. Fathom the unfathomed state. How do you fathom the
unfathomed state? Fathomless! Such is the essential art of zazen.
What is here called zazen is not learning mere meditation. It
is the Dharma gate of pure peace and bliss. It is the cultivation
and verication of ultimate awakening. Here, the universal truth
is realized, and nets and cages are totally absent.
If you realize this tenet completely, you are like a dragon obtaining water and a tiger reclining on the mountain. You will surely
know that the True Dharma will naturally manifest itself, and
dullness and distraction will drop o.
When you rise from sitting, move slowly and rise calmly and
carefully. Never act hastily or violently.
Observe and appreciate that transcending the ordinary and going
beyond the holy, passing away while sitting and dying while standing, all depend solely on this power. The transforming ability of a
nger, a sta, a needle, and a mallet, or the verifying utilization
of a whisk, a st, a stick, and a shout at a critical moment cannot
readily be realized by the discrimination of measuring thoughts.
254
255
Translators Introduction
Keizan Jkin (12681325) was one of the main patriarchs of Japanese St Zen, generally considered second in importance only to Dgen
(12001253), founder of the school. Keizan established the prestigious Sjiji in Ishikawa Prefecture, and wrote more than two dozen
works on the St approach to Buddhist theory and practice. For a
comprehensive study of Keizans life and works in light of critical
theory, see Bernard Faure, Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval
Japanese Buddhism, translated by Phyliss Brooks (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1996).
Keizan was born in Echizen Province (present-day Fukui Prefecture), where several decades earlier Dgen had established Eiheiji,
which became the center of the St sect. He studied with Tetts
Gikai, a leading St gure at Eiheiji and Djiji. He also trained under
Ej, Dgens main disciple, and Jakuen, a Chinese monk who was one
of Dgens followers. In addition, he came in contact with Rinzai Zen
scholars and with representatives of the Tendai, Shingon, Pure Land
(Jdo), and Shugend Buddhist schools and movements on Mount
Hiei and in his travels in the mountain provinces.
In absorbing these various inuences and teachingsincluding
esoteric and exoteric teachings, the Pure Land notions of self-power
and other-power, the idea of sudden and gradual enlightenment, zazen
practice and kan study, and traditional and independent practices
and in assimilating popular rituals, Keizan developed a highly integrative and popularizing approach. This eclectic attitude helped transform the St school from a conservative monastic institution to a mass
movement that spread throughout the northern and northeastern
provinces. Keizan was largely responsible for giving St an appeal
based on faith and devotion as well as meditation, and he advocated a
259
260
Translators Introduction
261
262
265
412a24
412b
412c
266
outside the gate, zazen is sitting calmly in ones own home. How
true! For listening and thinking perpetuate [one-sided] views, leaving the primordial mind in turmoil, just like being outside the gate.
But zazen creates an all-pervasive restfulness, just like sitting
calmly at home.
The attachments of the ve desires all arise from ignorance,
ignorance is due to a lack of clarity about the self, and zazen illuminates the self. For example, although the ve desires may be
removed, if ignorance is not yet removed that is not yet [the attainment] of a Buddha or patriarch. If you want to remove ignorance,
the diligent practice of zazen is the key. An ancient said, If distraction is removed tranquility arises, and if tranquility arises wisdom is attained, and if wisdom is attained the truth is clearly seen.
If you want to remove distractions, you must be free from thoughts
of [the distinction of ] good and evil, and renounce all involvement
in karmic relations. The most important concern is that the mind
be free from thinking and the body free from acting. When distracting relations are ended mental disturbances are subdued, and
when mental disturbances are subdued the unchanging body is
manifest. You continuously realize its clarity as neither extinction
nor commotion.
Therefore, you must not be involved in arts and crafts or healing and divination. Furthermore, song, dance, and music, debate
and rhetoric, as well as the pursuit of fame and fortune must be
completely avoided. Although eulogy and lyrical poetry can in
themselves contribute to calming the mind, you must not indulge
in writing them. The renunciation of literature and calligraphy is
a priority for seekers of the Way, and is the most eective means
of regulating the mind.
Do not wear clothing that is either elegant or tattered. Fine
clothes give rise to greed as well as the fear of being robbed, and
this becomes an obstacle to the pursuit of the Way. To refuse clothes
if oered as alms has always been a praiseworthy practice since
ancient times. Even if you already own such clothes, do not indulge
in wearing them. If thieves come to steal the clothes, do not bother
267
413a
to chase after them or regret the loss. You should wear old clothes
that have been washed and mended till completely clean. If you
do not clean [and mend] the clothes you will get cold and sick, and
that is also an obstacle to the pursuit of the Way. Although we
should not be overly concerned with physical conditions, the lack
of food, clothing, and shelter is known as the three insuciencies,
all of which are obstructive conditions.
Do not eat food that is either raw or tough, stale or spoiled, for
intestinal rumbling is a discomfort for the body and mind and an
obstacle to zazen. Do not indulge in eating ne food. That is not
only an obstruction for the body and mind but indicates that you
have not overcome greed. Eat enough food to maintain your vitality but do not relish it. If you try to sit in meditation after you have
eaten until you are full, it can cause illness. Do not attempt meditation immediately after either a large or small meal; you must
wait awhile to be ready to sit. Generally, mendicants and monks
should eat sparingly. That means that they should limit their portions, for example, eating two parts of three and leaving the rest.
The usual medicinal foods, such as sesame and yams, should be
eaten. That is an eective means of regulating the body.
When sitting in meditation, you must not lean against a wall,
support, or screen to prop yourself up. Do not sit in a place susceptible to wind and storm, or in a high and exposed spot, for that
can lead to illness. When sitting in meditation, your body may feel
hot or cold, tight or slack, sti or loose, heavy or light, or you may
feel abruptly awakened, all because the breath is not regulated
and must be controlled. The method for regulating the breath is
to keep your mouth open for a while, holding deep breaths and
short breaths alternately until your breathing is gradually regulated and controlled for a period of time. When awareness comes,
it means that breathing is spontaneously regulated. After this, let
the breath pass naturally through the nose.
The mind may feel depressed or ighty, foggy or clear. Or,
sometimes it may see outside the room or inside your body. Or, it
may visualize the bodies of Buddhas or the forms of bodhisattvas,
268
or it may formulate theories, or evaluate the sutra or stra literature. Such types of miraculous and unusual behavior result
from a lack of regulating ones consciousness and breathing. When
attachments such as this arise, focus attention on your lap. When
the mind lapses into bewilderment, focus attention on the middle
of your forehead (three inches above the center of the eyebrows).
When the mind is distracted, focus attention on the tip of your
nose or your lower abdomen (one and a half inches below the navel).
As you remain seated, focus attention on the left palm. When sitting for a long time, although you will not necessarily reach a state
of tranquility, your mind will on its own be freed from distraction.
Although the traditional precepts are instructions for illuminating the mind, you must not read, write, or listen to them too
much, for that will cause mental disturbances. Generally, weariness of the body and mind is the cause of illness. Do not practice
zazen in a place where there may be danger from re, ood, storms,
or robbers, or near the seashore, a liquor store, or brothel; or where
you may meet a widow, virgin, or geisha. Do not visit the homes
of kings, important ocials, or powerful people, or associate with
people who indulge in their desires or who gossip. Although attending a large congregation of monks or engaging in full-scale construction projects may be of great importance, you must avoid such
practices in order to concentrate on zazen. Do not be attached to
explanations and [intellectual activity], for a distracted mind and
confused thinking will arise from them. Do not take pleasure [in
attracting] crowds or seek out disciples. Do not be distracted by
various sorts of practices or learning. Do not practice zazen where
it is extremely light or dark, cold or hot, or in the vicinity of rowdy
men and indecent women.
You must spend time in a monastery, among wise and compassionate people. Or, you must travel deep into the mountains
and valleys, practicing concentration next to owing streams amid
the mountains or clearing the mind by sitting in meditation in a
valley. You must carefully observe impermanence and never forget its signicance, for this inspires the mind in the pursuit of the
269
413b
Way. You must lay out a thick meditation cushion so as to be comfortable during zazen. The zazen area must be perfectly clean, and
if you always burn incense and oer owers, the good spirits who
guard the Dharma, as well as Buddhas and bodhisattvas, will cast
a protective aura around it. If you install an image of a Buddha,
bodhisattva, or arhat there, no mischievous demons will be able
to harm you. Always abide in great compassion and pity, and dedicate the immeasurable merit of zazen to all sentient beings. Do
not develop pride, conceit, or self-righteousness, for these are the
ways of non-Buddhists and ordinary people. Be concerned only
with eorts to end attachment and realize enlightenment. The singleminded concentration of zazen is the most eective means of
practicing Zen. You must always wash your eyes and feet, and act
with dignity and compassion to keep body and mind tranquil. You
must renounce both worldly attachments and any clinging to the
pursuit of the Way.
Although you must not be stingy with the Dharma, do not oer
explanations of it to anyone unless you are asked about it. Then,
wait until the inquirer has asked three times and respond only if
the fourth request is sincere. Of ten things you may wish to say,
hold back nine. The method of followers of the Way can be likened
to a winter fan waved around the mouth, or to a bell hanging in
the air which does not wonder about the breeze blowing from all
directions. Do not rely upon anyone in pursuing the Dharma, and
do not overestimate yourself because of the Waythis is the most
important consideration. Although zazen is not just a matter of
teaching, practice, or realization, it encompasses all three ideals.
That is, to evaluate realization only in terms of attaining enlightenment is not the essence of zazen; to evaluate practice only as following the true path is not the essence of zazen; and to evaluate
teaching only as cutting o evil and practicing good is not the
essence of zazen.
Although the establishment of teaching lies within Zen, it is not
ordinary teaching. Rather, the Way of simple transmission through
direct pointing is an expression demonstrated by the entire body.
270
271
413c
272
273
414a
414b
274
275
Glossary
277
Glossary
Buddhahood: The state of being or becoming a Buddha; the goal of the bodhisattva path.
Buddha-nature: The basic enlightened nature of sentient beings, which is
chronically obscured by their ignorance and attachment to dualistic
views. According to the Chan/Zen school, enlightenment is nothing other
than the complete unfolding of ones inherent Buddha-nature. See also
Chan school; enlightenment.
calming and contemplation: The two meditative practices of matha, which
entails calming the mind, stilling discursive thoughts, in order to prepare a stable base for the practice of vipayana, meditative insight into
the nature of reality. Also called cessation and contemplation.
Chan school: A major school of East Asian Buddhism that developed in China
in the sixth and seventh centuries, and was subsequently transmitted
to Japan where it is known as the Zen school; so-called because of its
emphasis on the practice of meditation (Skt.: dhyna; Ch.: chan; Jp.:
zen). The Chan/Zen school evolved new approaches to religious practice
based on a lineal succession of Buddhas and patriarchs, in a special
transmission outside the scripturesdirect transmission from master
to disciple of the teaching and realization which does not rely on intellectual analysis or scriptural authority. The tradition traces its roots to
an event related in the sutras, in which kyamuni Buddha, while teaching an assembly of followers, wordlessly raised a ower, upon which his
disciple Mhakyapa smiled, indicating his realization of the Buddhas
intent and teaching, without any verbal exchange. The Chan/Zen school
emphasizes intensive meditation practice as the best means to a direct
experience of enlightenment (bodhi) and realization of ones own Buddhanature, which brings about the immediate transcendence of all dualistic conceptualization and a profound apprehension of ultimate reality.
In the development of Chan Buddhism in China two approaches to the
attainment of enlightenment came to be postulatedgradual, as the
result of long practice, which was the approach adopted by the Northern school; and a sudden, spontaneous, direct experience of ones Buddhanature, which was emphasized in the Southern school. See also bodhi;
dhyna; Buddha-nature; Mhakyapa; patriarchs; Rinzai sect; kyamuni; St sect; ultimate reality.
cultivation and verication: The oneness of practice or sitting meditation
(zazen), which represents the aspect of cultivation, and realization, which
represents the aspect of verication. These are considered two inseparable aspects of the Zen religious experience according to St sect masters Dgen and Keizan. See also St sect; zazen.
278
Glossary
279
Glossary
280
Glossary
281
Glossary
282
Glossary
shikantaza: Just sitting or pure sitting, a form of practice of zazen involving resting in a state of alert attention free of discursive thoughts, directed
on no object, and attached to no particular content; the meditative practice emphasized in the St school of Zen. See also St school; zazen.
la: Moral conduct or the practice of the precepts; one of the six perfections.
See also precepts; six perfections.
la, samdhi, and praj: The three practices of morality, meditation, and
wisdom, which are also three of the six perfections. Also called discipline, concentration, and wisdom; morality, concentration, and wisdom.
See also six perfections.
six consciousnesses: 1) Eye consciousness, 2) ear consciousness, 3) nose consciousness, 4) tongue consciousness, 5) body consciousness, and 6) the
mental sense or intellect, which result from contact between the six
senses and their respective objects. See also six sense objects; six senses.
six modes of existence: The six realms of samsaric existence into which sentient beings are reborn in accordance with their karma: the three higher
realms of gods (devas), asuras (demigods), and human beings; and the
three lower realms of animals, hungry ghosts (pretas), and hell, which
are also known as the three evil paths. See also karma; samsara.
six perfections (pramits): Six practices, or qualities, perfected by bodhisattvas
on the path to Buddhahood1) generosity (dna), 2) morality (la), 3)
patience (knti), 4) energy (vrya), 5) meditation (dhyna), and 6) wisdom (praj). See also dhyna; bodhisattva; Buddhahood; praj; la.
six sense objects: The objects of perception associated with each of the six
senses1) form, 2) sound, 3) smell, 4) taste, 5) tactile objects, and 6)
mental objects. See also six senses.
six senses: The six sense faculties of the 1) eyes, 2) ears, 3) nose, 4) tongue,
5) body, and 6) mind. Also called sense perceptions; sensory capabilities.
See also six consciousnesses; six sense objects.
Small Vehicle. See Hinayana.
St sect (Ch.: Caodong): One of the two main branches of Chan/Zen
Buddhism, along with the Rinzai (Ch.: Linji) sect; founded in China during the Tang dynasty and brought to Japan in the early thirteenth century by Eihei Dgen. The St school emphasizes the practice of shikantaza. See also Rinzai sect; shikantaza.
rvaka (auditor): Originally, a disciple of the Buddha, one of those who
283
Glossary
heard him expound the teachings directly; later, the term came to refer
to one of the two kinds of Hinayana followers, along with pratyekabuddhas, to distinguish them from followers of the Mahayana. See also
Hinayana; Mahayana; pratyekabuddha; two vehicles.
suchness: Ultimate reality, the state of things as they really are, i.e., dependently arisen and empty of inherent, independent, permanent existence.
Insight into the suchness of all phenomena is praj, transcendental
wisdom. See also dependent origination; emptiness; praj; ultimate
reality.
Tathgata: An epithet for a Buddha, meaning one who has gone to (gata)
and come from (gata) suchness (tath), i.e., the embodiment of the truth
of suchness. See also suchness.
tathgatagarbha: Lit., the womb (garbha) of the Tathgata, the inherent
capacity for Buddhahood within all sentient beings. See also Buddhahood; Tathgata.
ten directions: The four cardinal directions, the four intermediate directions,
plus the zenith and nadir, i.e., all directions, everywhere.
three bodies: The three bodies in which a Buddha may appear1) the Dharma
body (dharmakya), synonymous with ultimate truth or ultimate reality; 2) the reward body (sabhogakya), a symbolic personication of the
Dharma body that a Buddha assumes both as a reward for eons of ascetic practice and in order to expound the Dharma to bodhisattvas and others; and 3) the transformation body (nirmakya), an incarnate or
historically manifested body of a Buddha such as kyamuni, which
appears in the world to guide sentient beings in the manner best suited
to their situations and abilities. See also kyamuni; ultimate reality.
three evil paths: The three lower samsaric realms of animals, hungry ghosts,
and hell. Also called three lower realms; three evil modes of existence.
See also six modes of existence.
three periods of time: Past, present, and future.
three poisons: Greed, anger, and delusion, all of which hinder the pursuit of
enlightenment.
three refuges. See Three Treasures.
Three Treasures: The Buddha, the Dharma (the Buddhist teachings), and
the Sangha (the community of Buddhist followers). Also called the three
refuges because one becomes a Buddhist upon taking refuge in them.
284
Glossary
three vehicles: The three Buddhist paths followed by rvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas respectively. See also bodhisattva; pratyekabuddha; rvaka.
three worlds: The three realms of samsaric existence: the realm of desire
(kmadhtu), i.e., the world of ordinary consciousness accompanied by
desires; the realm of form (rpadhtu), in which desires have been eliminated but the physical body remains; and the formless realm (rpyadhtu), in which the physical body no longer exists. See also samsara.
Tripiaka: The three divisions or baskets (piakas) of the Buddhist canon:
the Sutras, discourses and teachings of the Buddha; the Vinaya, codes
of monastic discipline; and the Abhidharma, scholastic treatises on the
Buddhist teachings.
two vehicles: The two Hinayana paths of rvakas and pratyekabuddhas.
See also Hinayana; rvaka; pratyekabuddha.
ultimate reality: Ultimate truth, the state of things as they really are, suchness; the state of enlghtenment (bodhi), in which ultimate reality is
apprehended. See also bodhi; suchness.
Vimalakrti: A lay bodhisattva, subject and expounder of the Vimalakrti
Sutra, renowned for his great wisdom and spiritual accomplishment.
vinaya: Moral conduct or precepts, as practiced within the monastic community. Individual moral conduct is referred to as la. See also la.
Vinaya: Precepts and rules of conduct for monastics; along with the Abhidharma and the Sutras, one of the three divisions of the Tripiaka. See
also Tripiaka.
Way (Ch.: Dao): The Buddhist path; the ultimate state of enlightenment,
bodhi. See also Awakened Way.
zazen: Seated (za) meditation (zen, from dhyna), the practice of sitting meditation emphasized in Zen Buddhism. See also dhyna.
Zen school. See Chan school; St sect; Rinzai sect.
285
Bibliography
287
Bibliography
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Kennett, Jiyu, trans. Evening Service. Fuzanzazengi (Zazen Rules), Selling Water by the River: A Manual of Zen Training. New York: Pantheon Books, 1972, pp. 2313.
Maezumi, Taizen, and Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, trans.The Universal Promotion of the Principles of Zazen, On Zen Practice, Vol. II.
Los Angeles: Zen Center of Los Angeles, 1977, pp. 1316.
Masunaga, Reih. Introduction to Fukanzazengi. Tokyo: Seishin Shob,
1956.
. The St Approach to Zen. Tokyo: Layman Buddhist Society Press,
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. Zen for Daily Living. Tokyo: Shunjsha, 1964.
Nishijima, Gudo, and Chodo Cross, trans. Master Dgens Shbgenz,
Book I. London: Windbell Publications Ltd., 1998.
Okamura, Shohaku, trans. Shikantaza: An Introduction to Zazen. Tokyo:
Stsh Shumucho, 1985.
St Zen Text Project, trans. Universally Recommended Instructions for
Zazen, St School Scriptures for Daily Services and Practice. Tokyo:
Stsh Shumuchu, 2001.
Tanahashi, Kazuaki, trans. Recommending Zazen to All People, Enlightenment Unfolds: The Essential Teachings of Zen Master Dgen. Boston:
Shambhala Publications, 2000, pp. 324.
Waddell, Norman, and Masao Abe. Dgens Fukanzazengi and Shbgenz Zazengi, The Eastern Buddhist, Vol. VI, No. 2 (October 1973),
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289
Index
A
Abe, Masao 248
Abhidharmakoa 61, 102
abiding (see also self-abiding) 18,
19, 38, 85, 110, 115, 117
abode(s) 93, 124, 238
ten 16
crya 47, 153, 221
Account of the Three-Kalpa ThreeThousand Buddhas 226
action(s) (see also non-action) 20,
36, 244, 245, 265
three, of body, speech, and mind
144
virtuous 27
activity(ies) 39, 48, 51, 53, 55, 56,
57, 86, 90, 100, 120, 121, 153,
183, 242, 244, 260, 269, 272, 274
false 17
mental, of the mind 6, 16
monastic 168, 170, 171, 1723
acupuncture 147, 163
Advice on the Practice of Zazen
26375
afiction(s) 20, 21, 22
Afterword to the Mahparinirva
Sutra 125, 202
ajari. See crya
Akobhya 223
All-pleasing: A Commentary on the
Rules of Discipline, The 91, 198
Amitbha 224, 2378
angmin 80, 221
291
Index
292
B
Baizhang Huaihai 67, 11, 132
Bmiyn 178, 181
banyan tree 227
Baochi 246
Baolinzhuan 195, 212
Baozhi 38, 39
being (see also nonbeing) 13, 23,
26, 38, 52, 71, 83, 86, 87, 90, 98,
100, 104, 110, 111, 112, 123, 124,
125, 127, 138, 140, 148, 149, 150,
151, 157, 158, 182, 212, 214, 218,
225, 229, 244, 262
being(s) (see also living being; ordinary being; sentient being) 28,
51, 55, 79, 93, 94, 105, 116, 134,
159, 160, 161, 163, 185, 186, 211,
222, 227, 2423
Bendh 247, 261
Bendwa 51, 246, 261
benet(s) 38, 58, 73, 76, 83, 84, 89,
94, 104, 105, 106, 112, 157, 159,
161, 167, 168, 169, 172, 184
beneting 184
oneself 142, 153, 162, 171
others 55, 116, 126, 142, 153, 162
Bequeathed Teaching Sutra 110,
111, 124, 153, 175, 200, 236
Bhavadatta, King 2223
bhiku(s) (see also monk) 75, 169,
215, 227, 228
bhikun(s) (see also nun) 75, 212
Bielefeldt, Carl 247
Index
293
Index
294
rvaka- 20, 26
statue(s) 81, 94, 212
teachings of 52, 75, 76, 77, 78,
79, 82, 85, 87, 90, 92, 93, 94,
96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 108,
10910, 112, 120, 122, 125,
126, 134, 142, 144, 157, 158,
165, 167, 168, 171, 175, 176,
178, 179, 180, 183, 186, 213,
216, 222, 223, 228
truth of 78, 144, 145
vehicle 159, 161, 163
words of 76, 88, 104, 153, 170,
171, 211
Buddhabhadra 194, 200, 204
Buddhabhalliya 200
Buddhacarita 2356
Buddha-contemplation Samdhi
Sutra 108, 200
Buddhadatta 113, 2223
Buddha-Dharma (see also Dharma)
39, 90, 97, 98, 100, 101, 103, 106,
108, 113, 116, 119, 137, 138, 144,
145, 156, 157, 172, 174, 175, 178,
179, 186, 189, 225, 230
Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha (see
also three refuges; Three Treasures) 78, 91, 94, 97, 144, 155,
159, 215
Buddhahood 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 26,
29, 36, 41, 213, 215, 230, 266
Buddhamitra 131
Buddhanandi 131
Buddha-nature 5, 13, 22, 41, 145,
230, 231, 234, 242, 243, 245, 246,
265, 266, 272, 274
Buddhas 6, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20,
21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 32, 38, 39, 62,
73, 77, 78, 80, 89, 93, 945, 96,
97, 102, 109, 116, 126, 127, 129,
139, 157, 167, 172, 179, 213, 215,
Index
C
calligraphy 135, 229, 267
calming 86, 267
and contemplation (see also cessation, and contemplation) 173
Calming and Contemplation: Their
Meaning and Examples 85, 197,
218
Caodong sect (see also St sect)
51, 136
Caoqi 11
causal conditioning, causality 26,
140
cause(s) 37, 98, 160, 269
and conditions (see also causal
conditioning, causality) 244
Central Asia 199
certicate of ordination 49, 95,
135, 241
cessation 52, 117, 136
and contemplation (see also calming, and contemplation)
11718, 165
three kinds of 11718, 140
chan (see also dyhna; meditation;
zen) 55, 76, 128, 215, 216
Chanlinsi 88, 200
Chan master(s) 11, 133, 135, 232
Chanmenniansongji 232
Chan school (see also Zen school) 5,
6, 7, 8, 11, 23, 30, 32, 38, 39, 42,
47, 49, 51, 54, 55, 58, 62, 65, 72,
81, 87, 88, 100, 102, 107, 120,
121, 128, 129, 1323, 135, 144,
145, 146, 148, 189, 190, 195, 203,
212, 214, 219, 220, 222, 223, 225,
228, 231, 232, 241, 246
295
Index
296
Index
consecration 63
construction projects 260, 269
contemplation (see also calming,
and contemplation; cessation,
and contemplation) 26, 63, 86,
87, 115, 11718, 119, 139, 140,
149, 155, 165, 173, 212, 224, 271
Contemplation Sutra 173, 209
Continued Biographies of Eminent
Monks 220, 221
Cook, Francis H. 206, 247
Cross, Chodo 248
cross-legged position 148, 254
Capanthaka 154
cultivation (see also self-cultivation) 6, 13, 14, 16, 19, 26, 130,
150, 153, 154, 160, 171, 181, 253
and verication 2434, 245, 246,
253, 254, 255
Cunda-Karmraputra 233
D
Dacisi (see also Chanlinsi) 88, 177
Dahui Zonggao 206, 238
Daianji 88, 219
Daibutsuji 242
daihosshi 50, 54, 71
Daikui 233
Daisen 62
dna (see also six perfections) 156
Daoist 94
Daosheng 182, 237
Daosui 220
Daowu Yuanzhi 232
Daoxin 132, 222
Daoxuan 88, 121, 128, 158, 202,
219, 220, 221, 236, 237
Daoyuan. See Dgen
Daozui 220
darkness 14, 140
Daruma school 48, 49, 52, 118
297
Index
298
Index
E
Eagle Promontory 11
earth 23, 39, 42, 71, 179, 182, 221,
234, 253, 255, 265, 274
Eastern Buddhist, The 248
Eastern Jin dynasty (see also Jin
dynasty) 209, 237
Echizen Province 242, 259
Edgerton, Franklin 226
eort(s) 8, 17, 18, 19, 22, 33, 37,
38, 39, 40, 42, 49, 85, 91, 124,
148, 156, 168, 174, 186, 270
ego 6
consciousness 122, 141, 144, 148
299
Index
ego (continued)
-thought 112, 214
-view 118
Eich 66
eighteen realms 19, 289
eight rules of respect 92
eight schools. See school(s), eight
eight stupas 63, 134, 177
eight treasuries 71, 108, 143, 169,
213, 222
Eiheiji 242, 259, 260
Eisai, Myan 478, 4954, 55, 56,
57, 58, 59, 61, 71, 88, 95, 106,
128, 132, 133, 136, 180, 189, 190,
202, 209, 211, 212, 215, 216, 217,
218, 220, 221, 225, 226, 227, 228,
229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 236,
237, 238, 241
Eisai: Preface to Kzen gokoku
ron 57
Ej 53, 259, 260
Elucidatory Comments 52, 845,
115, 196, 218
emptiness 15, 21, 27, 28, 33, 72, 79,
84, 117, 118, 119, 120, 139, 140,
148, 155, 160, 164, 166, 167, 265
attachment to, ill-attached to 73,
115, 116, 118, 120
eighteenfold 86
xed views on 49, 84, 118, 119
knowledge of (see also praj) 51,
71, 78, 79, 83, 89, 90, 92, 93, 98,
126, 139, 156, 185, 186, 212
twofold, of self and dharmas 274
Enchin (see also Chish) 129, 196,
199, 218
Enin 182
enlightenment (see also awakening;
bodhi) 8, 3, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20,
23, 24, 27, 2930, 32, 33, 38, 39,
300
Index
F
face 32, 41, 72, 118, 234
and mirror 367
original 253, 265
faith(s) (see also condence) 26, 29,
120, 176, 178, 225, 259
ten 16
Fajian 12
Faju 207
Fali 207
Farong 107, 2212
Faur, Bernard 259
Faxian 194, 222, 223, 237
Faxiang school (see also Hoss
school) 230
Fayan 72
Fayan sect 87, 136
Fazhong 201
fear 19, 20, 25, 267
Fengxue Yanzhao 132
Fengyang Shanzhao 132
Fifth Patriarch of Chan. See Hongren
Finest Style Excerpts. See Hyakurensh
ve ve hundred-year period(s) 78,
82, 84, 88, 89, 109, 129, 140, 180,
216
ve skandhas 19, 24, 266
Five Tathgatas 217
Flower Ornament Sutra 137, 204,
215
Foguo Weibai 203
Fohai Huiyuan 189, 190, 238
food(s) 107, 118, 154, 170, 216, 268
Foreword to the Bodhisattvas
Moral Precepts 225
Foreword to the Brahm Net Sutra
124, 127, 202, 225
301
Index
G
Ganges River 13, 14, 15, 39, 71, 95,
103, 132, 154
Gaoan County 11
302
Index
H
Hakata 62, 133, 176, 189, 236, 238
Hakozaki 49
Hakozaki Shrine 238
Hanazono University 58
Hansheng 229
harmony 174, 243, 244, 271
Hashimoto, Ek 247
Heap of Jewels Sutra (see also Great
Heap of Jewels Sutra) 1378, 204
Heart Sutra 219
heaven(s) 14, 63, 66, 71, 160, 179,
253, 255, 265, 274
four 14
Hedong 9
hell(s) 38, 103, 162, 235
realm of 161, 225
Heng-ching Shih 195
Henj 221
heresy 24
Himlayas 181, 221
Hinayana, Hinayanists (see also
Small Vehicle) 24, 26, 29, 38,
109, 228
hindrance(s) 97, 100, 111, 116, 120
hishiry. See non-thinking
Hisoji 219
History of Japanese Buddhism. See
Nihonbukkyshi
Hj. See Pengcheng, king of
Hki Province 62
Hkyji 260
Hkyki 261
Hnen 501, 242
Hongren 5, 132
honsh myshu. See practice-inrealization
Hrinden-yakuch 212
Hosshji 66
Hoss school (see also Faxiang
school) 55, 220, 231
householder(s) (see also laity; laypeople) 75, 227
How to Raise an Ox 247
Huaichang 135, 150
Huai River 119, 120
Huangbo Xiyun (see also Duanji)
67, 11, 12, 132, 22930, 232
Huanglong Huinan 130, 133
Huang River 119, 120
Huayan school (see also Kegon
school) 7, 230, 234
Huayansi 234
Huijiao 237
Huike 128, 132
Huiming 401
Huineng (see also Sixth Patriarch
of Chan) 5, 401, 132, 230
Huitang Zuxin 133
Huizhao 157, 207, 234
303
Index
Huizhi 200
Huizong 94
hungry ghost(s) 77
realm of 161, 225
Hyakurensh 48, 49
I
icchantikas 26, 234, 237
Ichijshikan-in 220
Iga Province 182
ignorance (see also confusion) 82,
87, 175, 181, 267, 274
illumination (see also self-illumination) 5, 11
illusion(s) 61
impermanence 155, 228, 241, 261,
269, 271
Inagaki, Hisao 209
incarnation 64
incense 80, 135, 150, 155, 170, 270,
272, 275
India 62, 63, 64, 72, 83, 88, 95, 96,
97, 100, 103, 128, 134, 135, 176,
177, 178, 179, 180, 183, 214, 255
Central 95, 100, 181
ve parts of 95, 99
Northern 200
Indra(s) 15, 217
net of 247
inka. See certicate of ordination
Inscription on the Condent Mind
232
Instructions and Admonitions on
Observing Restraints 121,
1589, 202
intention(s), intentionality 5, 25,
105, 119, 123, 133
interpretations 21, 23, 29, 31, 32,
33, 34, 266
conceptual, conceptualized 6, 18,
20, 31, 32, 33, 39
304
J
Jain 150
Jakuen 259, 260
Jambudvpa 157
Japan 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 55, 56,
71, 72, 83, 87, 88, 89, 97, 100,
102, 122, 128, 133, 134, 135, 149,
150, 176, 178, 180, 181, 182, 189,
211, 215, 216, 219, 220, 225, 231,
237, 241, 242, 247
Japanese 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55,
101, 102, 134, 242, 259
Buddhism 54, 242
history 48, 260
language 8, 56, 57, 58, 193, 211,
212, 217, 247, 248, 260
Jayanta 131
Jetavana 82, 168, 236, 253
jijiyu zammai. See samdhi, selffullling
Jikaku (see also Ennin) 82, 128,
218
Jin dynasty (see also Eastern Jin
dynasty; Western Jin dynasty)
204, 207
Jingangku cave 234
Jingde Records of Transmission of
the Lamp 147, 207, 219, 221,
228, 232
Jinlin. See Sumatra
Jizang 202, 212
Jnabhadra 202
Jnagupta 195, 209
Jdo. See Pure Land school
Index
Johnston, E. H. 236
Jjitsu school 55, 220
Jones, J. J. 227
Jueguanlun 222
Juzhi 246
K
Kaifeng. See Dongjing
Kaiyuan Buddhist Text Catalogue
226
Kaiyuansi 11
Kakuan 53
Kakuben 182
Klayaas 209, 226
kalpa(s) (see also eon) 116, 125,
163, 222, 223, 226, 227
as numerous as dust particles
129
auspicious 130, 226
lunar-mansion 215, 226
of supernal manifestations 129,
226
kmadhtu. See world, of desire
Kamakura 48, 53, 54, 55
Kamo River 47, 65
Kadeva 131
Kanmu, Emperor 220
Kannondri-in 241
Kapilavastu 179
Kapimala 131
karma(s) 158, 189, 243, 244
karmic 17, 244, 267, 274
kaya. See robe, kaya
Kyapa (see also Mahkyapa)
27, 29, 41, 98, 99, 101, 103, 130,
132, 223, 227, 246
Kyapa-Mtaga 102, 195, 220
Kawagishi, Kshin 248
Kaya clan 61
Keenan, John P. 205
Keene, Donald 57
305
Index
L
laity (see also lay; layman; laypeople; laywoman) 178
Land of Bliss 222, 238
Lakvatra-stra 55, 57, 138,
151, 204, 211, 212, 214, 225, 230
306
Lanxi Daolong 53
Laozi 123
Large Collection Sutra 216
Later Han dynasty 128
latter-day world 52, 73, 84, 85, 86,
87, 89, 92, 103, 105, 106, 107,
108, 109, 136, 143, 153, 165, 174,
180, 184, 216
lay (see also laity) 72, 159, 169,
174, 181, 182, 211, 216, 233
layman, laymen 75, 78, 97, 128,
182, 261
laypeople 73, 87, 178, 216
laywoman, laywomen 75, 78, 97,
168
Lecture on the Wholehearted Practice of the Way. See Bendwa
letters (see also phrases; words)
108, 119, 137, 144, 191
Liang Catalogue 226
Liang dynasty (see also Northern
Liang dynasty) 102, 121, 123,
131, 142, 201, 206, 226, 228
Liaodong 238
liberation 14, 16, 83, 140, 141, 148,
165, 213, 215, 216, 225, 235, 236,
253
Li Dezhao 62, 133, 176
lightning 40, 255
Linanfu 134, 189
lineage(s) 57, 75, 88, 100, 129, 130,
132, 134, 136, 137, 226, 260
Lingsu 94
Lingyin Temple 189
Linji lu. See Recorded Sayings of
Linji
Linji sect, school (see also Rinzai
school) 7, 47, 135, 136, 241
Huanglong branch of 47, 132
Linji Yixuan 7, 73, 132, 246
Linyuan Weiqing 133
Index
M
Maezumi, Taizen 248
Magadha 178, 214
Mahkla 217
Mahkyapa (see also Kyapa)
72, 130, 131, 136, 212, 213, 214,
227
Mahparinirva Sutra 52, 767,
845, 87, 98, 99, 105, 109, 110,
111, 113, 125, 139, 140, 145, 158,
159, 160, 161, 162, 166, 168, 172,
182, 194, 212, 214, 219, 221, 222,
230, 233, 234, 235
Mahprajpat 214
307
Index
308
Index
309
Index
N
nga(s) 105, 160, 162
Ngrjuna 103, 131, 150, 196,
208, 246, 265
Nakamura, Hajime 218, 219, 225
Nland 64, 177, 227
name(s) (see also letters; words)
13, 15, 32, 102, 121, 144, 145
nameless 265
Nandivardhana 222
310
Index
O
ocean 39, 115, 128, 169, 176, 265,
266, 272
oense(s) (see also transgression) 52,
78, 162, 165, 167, 184, 215, 222
ve denitive distinctions of 158,
160, 166
four grave 76, 111, 143, 162, 180,
183, 222
oering(s) 15, 62, 77, 106, 118,
135, 155, 172, 173, 185, 220, 222,
225, 234
burnt 51, 218
Ofcial Document Presented to the
Emperor 82, 196, 218
jin Temple 182
Okamura, Shohaku 248
Okayama Prefecture 211
mi Province 219
One Dharma 23
One Mind 11, 13, 14, 15, 23, 24, 28,
29, 116, 11718, 186, 266
seal of 63
311
Index
P
pagoda 64
pacala. See precepts, ve
Panshan 231
prjiks. See oenses, four grave
paramrtha. See reality, ultimate;
truth, ultimate, of ultimate
meaning
Paramrtha 205, 206
Parikh 107
parinirva 84, 86, 88, 136, 180,
181, 214, 216, 218, 222, 223, 233,
235, 265
Prva 131
passion(s) 55, 120, 169, 275
self-aficting 118, 119, 181, 184,
236
path(s), pathway(s) 11, 14, 18, 20,
26, 72, 73, 97, 99, 104, 119, 120,
125, 141, 144, 148, 172, 184, 215,
242, 243, 253, 255, 270, 271
ve 159
non-Buddhist 167
312
Index
313
Index
Q
Qianguang. See Senk
Qi dynasty 210
Qin dynasty (see also Eastern Qin
dynasty) 209
Qinglin Shiqian 147, 233
Qingyuan 246
Qin, king of 94
quietude 145, 149, 231
R
Rhultta 131
314
Index
S
Saga, Emperor 197
sage(s), sagehood, sagely (see also
arhat; arhatship) 5, 34, 35, 36,
38, 39, 62, 72, 94, 105, 110, 145,
179, 231, 253
Saich (see also Dengy) 47, 88, 100,
197, 200, 215, 216, 218, 21920
sakdgmin 80, 221
kya Genealogy 226
315
Index
316
Index
317
Index
Sennyji 66
sense(s) (see also six senses, sense
perceptions, sensory capabilities)
28, 266
faculties 90
objects (see also six sense objects)
28
perceptions (see also perceptive
faculties) 141
sensory realm(s) 21, 23, 24, 26
sentient being(s) (see also living
beings) 5, 8, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20,
21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 142, 213, 214,
225, 229, 241, 265, 266, 270
Separate Biography of Monk Falin
of Tang 220
Shan 233
Shanxi Gorge 147
Shaodong 238
Shaolin Temple 128, 132, 253
Shenfang 101, 199
Shenxiu 40
Shiga 219
shikantaza (see also sitting) 242,
244, 245, 255, 261
Shikantaza: An Introduction to
Zazen 248
Shingon school (see also Mantra
school) 47, 51, 55, 90, 100, 101,
102, 173, 220, 225, 259, 260
shinjin datsuraku. See body and
mind, dropping o of
Shinjinmeinentei 260
Shinsen-en 63
Shiren, Kokan 4950, 534, 56
Shishuang Chuyuan (see also
Sekis) 132
Shishuang Qingzhu 1467, 213, 232
Shitennoji International Buddhist
University 217
Shitou Xiqian 233
318
Index
319
Index
320
Index
T
Ta clan 61
Taibai 64
Taibaimingshan Qianfogeji. See
Notes on the One ThousandBuddha Pavilion of the
Celebrated Mountain Taibai
Taigong Wan 106, 221
Taira clan 48, 203
Taira Kagekiyo 50
321
Index
teaching(s) (continued)
176, 178, 17980, 183, 186, 196,
211, 213, 214, 215, 217, 218, 219,
222, 223, 225, 228, 234, 241, 246,
259, 261, 2701, 272
authentic 77, 92, 98, 99, 216,
222, 223
on the awakened truth 72, 73,
77, 78, 89, 90
oral 20, 26
perfect 100, 182, 224
provisional 23, 84
scriptural 72, 91, 137, 145, 163,
166, 169, 213
three. See three teachings
teaching, practice, and realization
261, 270
temple(s) 47, 48, 54, 61, 65, 66, 81,
82, 95, 100, 129, 135, 155, 168,
172, 173, 174, 177, 178, 190, 212,
216, 220, 221, 231, 234, 260, 275
ten conversions 16
Tendai school (see also Tiantai
school) 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54,
55, 61, 63, 65, 66, 73, 82, 100,
101, 103, 134, 173, 196, 215, 216,
218, 219, 220, 228, 230, 234, 241,
259, 260
Tendai Shikan no Kenky 201
Tennji 122, 225
Teshan 246
Tetts Gikai 259, 260
text(s) (see also commentaries;
stra; scripture; sutra; treatise)
5, 6, 7, 8, 33, 34, 50, 54, 55, 56,
57, 58, 69, 73, 87, 88, 90, 100,
119, 124, 160, 164, 168, 177, 187,
191, 193, 195, 196, 197, 199, 201,
202, 205, 207, 209, 211, 212, 213,
214, 215, 217, 218, 221, 222, 223,
224, 225, 226, 229, 230, 233, 235,
322
Index
323
Index
324
U
Udraka Rmaputra 161, 2356
Ui, Hakju 213, 219, 220
Uji 241
unconditioned 20, 39, 217, 243,
245, 255
Universal Guide on the Right Way
to Zazen, A 248
Universally Recommended
Instructions for Zazen 2489
Universal Recommendation of True
Zazen, A 239, 2423, 2479,
2515, 261
universal salvation 242, 244
University of Hawaii 57
updhyya 153
Upagupta 1045, 131, 181, 237
upsaka(s) (see also layman) 75, 215
upsik(s) (see also laywoman) 75,
215
Upanya 195
upoadha 65, 167, 169, 173, 216
ua. See Buddha, protuberance
on head of
Ua Sittapatra 217
Uttarakuru 107
Index
V
Vaipulya Sutra 111, 201
Vairocana 102
Vail 177
vajra 100, 222
Vajrabodhi 102, 221
Vajradhara 81
vajrsana. See diamond seat
Vaiha 130
Vasubandhu 131, 209
Vasumitra 131
Vedas 72, 90
vehicle(s) (see also Buddha vehicle;
Great Vehicle; One Vehicle; Small
Vehicle) 24, 29, 72, 85, 158, 159,
160, 161, 169, 213, 228, 235
best 71, 212
bodhisattva 185
esoteric 100
ve 71, 213
supreme 11, 253
three 16, 24, 29, 33, 34, 91, 183,
213
two 25, 26, 158
utmost 66
Veranj 106
verbal 90, 93, 139, 140, 151, 235
expression(s) (see also phrase;
word) 84, 122, 138, 140, 141,
142, 214
Victoria, Brian Daizen 248
view(s) 23, 24, 49, 52, 108, 131,
134, 147, 150, 182, 221, 229, 237,
255, 267
correct 22
ego- 118
evil 77, 92, 125, 153, 175
false 120
xed 49, 84, 90, 93, 118, 120
perverted 119, 140
vijaptimtra 142
Vimalakrti 15, 138, 177, 230
Vimalakrti Sutra 101, 138, 199
vinaya (see also monastic, discipline; moral, precept; morality;
precept; Vinaya) 52, 109, 111,
158, 167, 180, 222
Vinaya(s) 65, 75, 99, 123, 129, 158,
166, 167, 169, 173, 211, 216, 236
Vinaya in Four Divisions 76, 106,
135, 158, 194, 211, 215
Vinaya master(s) 101, 121, 158
Vinaya school (see also Ritsu
school) 99, 101
Vipayin 130
virtue(s) 15, 75, 106, 121, 124, 127,
129, 154, 156, 172, 179, 180, 181
roots of 95, 109, 113, 185
vrya (see also six perfections) 156
Visions of Power: Imagining
Medieval Japanese Buddhism
259
Vivabhu 130
void 15, 21, 27, 71
vow(s) 75, 77, 82, 83, 87, 90, 105,
128, 185, 186
bodhisattva 81, 274
comprehensive 148
fourfold grand, four extensive
159, 224
original 79
-power 160
Vulture Peak 72, 128, 130, 214, 227
W
Waddell, Norman 248
walking meditation 261, 274
walking, standing, sitting, and
lying down (see also four basic
postures) 38, 105, 108, 145, 149,
245, 274
325
Index
326
Index
X
Xiangtian Temple 177
Xiaoran 88, 220
Xiaozong, Emperor 63
Xinghua Cunjiang 132
Xingman 220
Xinluoguo 219
Xinwen Tanben 133
Xitang Zhizang 11
Xiuchansi 128, 177
Xuan Huaichang 133, 150
Xuansha Shibei 230, 231
Xuanzang 95, 178, 179, 181, 195,
196, 199, 204, 206, 207, 208, 209,
214, 229
Xuean Congjin 133
Xuedou Chongxian 206
Xuefeng Yicun 213, 231, 232
Y
Yama 36
Yamada-gun 182
Yamaguchi Prefecture 212
Yamato Province 219
yna. See vehicle
Yanagida, Seizan 50, 56, 58, 213,
220, 223, 224, 233
Yantou Quanhuo 146, 147, 232
Yasuda Joshu Roshi 249
Yiji 219
Yijing 164, 181, 208, 229, 235
Yixing 198, 205
Yei 219
Yjin 229
Yj (see also Eisai) 63, 65
Yokawa 210
Yokoi, Yh 248
Ykji 260
Yongming Yanshou 201
Ysai. See Eisai
Z
Zanning 102, 199
zazen (see also meditation, seated;
sitting) 62, 87, 120, 233, 241,
243, 2446, 247, 254, 255, 259,
261, 262, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269,
270, 271, 2723
Zazengi 247, 261
Zazen Lancet. See Zazenshin
Zazensangonsetsu 260
Zazenshin 247, 261
Zazenyojinki. See Advice on the
Practice of Zazen
zen (see also chan; dhyna) 55, 76,
128, 215, 216, 243, 245
Zen (see also Zen school) 50, 51, 54,
65, 723, 83, 95, 102, 116, 119,
1434, 151, 153, 163, 183, 186,
215, 225, 246, 253, 259, 260, 261,
2701, 272, 274
awakened truth of 78, 216
essentials of 129, 142, 144
master(s) 241, 246
person(s) 112, 124, 125
practice(s) 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 82
practitioner(s) 51, 53, 217, 242,
255
principle(s) 55, 75, 79, 80, 82, 93,
99, 118, 137, 143, 144, 151, 217
327
Index
Zen (continued)
studies 8, 260
temple 48, 65, 82, 129, 172, 173
truth 52, 54, 99, 103
Zen Buddhism 57
Zen for Daily Living 248
Zen Master Dgen 248
Zennosuke, Tsuji 50, 53
Zen Pioneers in Japan 57
Zen school (see also Chan school;
Rinzai sect; St sect) 8, 4751,
534, 556, 61, 72, 73, 75, 80,
81, 83, 93, 99100, 1012, 106,
1078, 10912, 11516, 11819,
1214, 127, 129, 143, 151, 158,
159, 161, 162, 1689, 173, 176,
190, 211, 217, 228, 242
Dharma transmission in 1313
imperial sanction for 47, 56
lineage 75, 129, 137
propagation of 47, 48, 56
traps and nets of 102, 142
Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the
Transmission of Mind, The 8
Zhang Guoan 18990
328