Do not think, as most people do, that if one has Great Enlightenment and becomes a buddha, you are different from ordinary people, or that Great Enlightenment causes Bodhisattvas to return to the world and try to save others.

In our present study, we are not concerned with the difference between enlightenment or illusion, or buddhas and ordinary people. Here, Great Enlightenment is even different from the Great Awakening of a Bodhisattva.

The Great Enlightenment of buddhas is for sentient beings, and the Great Enlightenment of sentient beings illuminates the Great Enlightenment of the buddhas. There is no distinction between them.

Great Enlightenment is not just the function of ourselves or others. It fills everywhere and is the center of existence in both the form of enlightenment and illusion. Illusion can only seek Great Enlightenment, and we can never find Great Enlightenment outside of illusion.

Priest Meiu sent a monk to ask Gyozan, “Do people living nowadays need enlightenment?”

Gyozan replied, “Enlightenment exists, but it is easy to misunderstand.”

The monk returned to Meiu and reported Gyozan’s answer. “What a wonderful answer! Only a very great Zen master could give such an answer.” Meiu praised Gyozan highly. “People living nowadays” is the eternal present. Thousands of years exist in the present and our life; in the present is the focal point of our study.

Understanding must be attained through the body and mind and not based on others’ interpretations. We must reflect upon the fact that all things are contained in our original self. We must search for this principle with a clear mind.

Recently in the Sung Dynasty, there were monks who did not shave their heads and did not understand Buddhism, even though they studied it for many years. They were constantly striving to become a Buddha and continually waiting for enlightenment, which for them was the basic purpose of Buddhism.

What vulgar people they were! They never touched real Buddhist teaching, so they thought enlightenment came as a result of their zazen. Trying to gain enlightenment, they lost the chance to meet a real Zen master—they were lazy and slothful, wasted time, and misunderstood Buddhism.

Priests of the present day are evasive about the question, “Do people living now need enlightenment?” If we say there is enlightenment, they will deny it. If we say enlightenment emerges, they ask, “Where is enlightenment in everyday life? Is it really enlightenment? Do we actually need enlightenment?”

Priests of the present day think that there are two distinct states: unenlightenment and enlightenment. They think that unenlightenment becomes enlightenment, and it is attained from somewhere or someone else.

But even that idea is nothing but Great Enlightenment. Unenlightenment is, and always has been, a form of enlightenment.

For example, yesterday I was unenlightened, but today I am enlightened. We possess in the present enlightenment the enlightenment of yesterday—enlightenment does not begin with the moment of perception.

Consequently, everything, right now, in the eternal present, is Great Enlightenment. That is Great Enlightenment; this is Great Enlightenment.

Delivered to the monks on January 20, 1243 by Dogen

Excerpted from Shobogenzo Volume 1 – translated by Kosen Nishiyama and John Stevens 1975 – out of print

Great Enlightenment is not just the function of ourselves or others. It fills everywhere and is the center of existence in both the form of enlightenment and illusion.

Ah, the grand prize of enlightenment in its ultimate form is highlighted by Dogen in this talk. Who doesn’t begin practice without that goal-less goal of enlightenment? How this changes over the years and relaxes its hold over us is an experience we just have to live through to appreciate.

It becomes a kind of mysterious quest balancing meditation for its own sake versus meditation where one is seeking some kind of incremental progress. At some point, it just falls away, similar to walking in a fog and suddenly realizing how wet one has become. The biggest transition is the final blending of meditation and everyday life.

“Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very substance, I am at rest. For it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters.”

Seigen Ishin

There are many ways to anchor practice into your daily life. The most powerful will be what you discover on your own that speaks to you. It may not mean anything to anyone else, but for you, it is your reminder of what you are doing here, and it is powerful enough to bring you right back into the heart of meditation with no cushion required.

Understanding must be attained through the body and mind and not based on others’ interpretations.  We must reflect upon the fact that all things are contained in our original self.  We must search for this principle with a clear mind.

Faith in the Way is our starting point when we begin, and it will serve us throughout life when those discouragements occur. We are all on the way, and not knowing where we are can be a kind of liberation.

Walking with you into Autumn/Spring,
Elana, Scribe for Daily Zen