Dogen (1200-1253)

Great Master Chosa Shoken in the Sung Dynasty once told his followers:  “The entire world is reflected in an eye; the entire world is contained in everyday conversation; the entire world is throughout your body; the entire world is your own Divine Light; the entire world is within your Divine Light and inseparable from yourself.”

Everyone who is seeking the Buddhist Way should study this teaching diligently and never become slack.  If they do not persist, there will be very few Zen students with the Divine Light of enlightenment.

The Divine Light of Buddha’s teaching has been handed down continuously by each successive Patriarch.  Before Bodhidharma’s time the Divine Light of Buddha was not seen or heard in China; no one was able to perceive his own Divine Light.  Even though everyone inherently possesses Divine Light, no one can discover it by only using their own judgments.  Therefore, no one in China was able to clarify the form and original nature of Divine Light or experience its virtues until Bodhidharma.  They did not understand that Divine Light is their very essence.

They thought that the Divine Light was completely separate from themselves.  Their mind was clouded by this false idea of separation, and they could not perceive that everything is Divine Light.

People who think that they are separate from Divine Light also believe that Divine Light is red, white, blue, or yellow, similar to the light from a fire, or the reflected light of water, or the sparkle of gems of jewels, or the light of a  dragon or like the sun and moon light.

Do not study under masters who only teach letters.  Many teachers are like Chosa who taught that Divine Light is like the light of a firefly and did not emphasize the Divine Light should be studied through enlightenment. From the Han Dynasty to the present time most people have thought like this.  Even though you may study under a master with a famous name, you should not accept any distorted explanations.

The Divine Light of Buddha fills the entire universe; everything is Buddha, everything is the Patriarchs.  This is the transmission from Buddha to Buddha.  The Buddhas and Patriarchs constitute Divine Light.  Through the practice and enlightenment of Divine Light we can become a Buddha and do zazen as he did; then we will be able to discover the actualization of enlightenment. 

Divine Light is found even in countless grasses.  The harmonization of all the different functions of a plant, roots, stalk, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit, color, are expressions of Divine Light.  Not only this world, but also in the other worlds of celestial beings, human beings, hell, the animals, and asuras can Divine Light be seen. 

If we understand Divine Light, then mountains, rivers and land are secondary.  Study Chosa’s saying in the sense that the entire world is suffused with our own Divine Light.  The changing of life and death are the changing of Divine Light.  The change from ordinary person to saint is like the changing of different colors in Divine Light.  To become a Buddha or Patriarch is like the colors of black and yellow.

Practice and enlightenment are one form of Divine Light.  Grasses, trees, a mud fence, skin, flesh, bones and marrow are colors of Divine Light.  Smoke, mist, water, stones, sky, flying birds, the Way of enlightenment—all these are the changing form of Divine Light. 

To understand our Divine Light is to meet and experience the real Buddha.  The entire world is ourselves; we ourselves are the entire world. We cannot escape from this fact.

We can see now that Divine Light possesses everyone; everyone possesses Divine Light within themselves.  Everything about Divine Light is everything about ourselves. 

Delivered to the monks June 2, 1243 at Kannon-dori

Dogen (1200-1253)

Excerpted from Shobogenzo The Eye and Treasury of the True Law Volume 1-Translated by Kosen Nishiyama and John Stevens out of print

In the beginning I was seeking that one essential point to connect with, to focus on, which would allow me a foundation which didn’t clutter up the mind with too many concepts or formulas or rules.  Something I wouldn’t have to strain to remember in the moment; a touchstone that would always be there to return to.  In reality, however, there is such a tapestry of life experience and such varied turns of thought that occur in any one day that it seems simplistic to think there could be such a point.  Dogen’s address on Divine Light seems to cut through all confusions that attempt to distract us.  It has that universal ring that resonates in the deepest part of any spiritual tradition.

It is true we balance ourselves in practice and at some point, patience seems to be the quality to master.  At other times, strength needs to be developed.  We can all think of paramitas we could spend a lifetime developing, however, we also need to stay connected with the biggest perspective of why we even train at all. 

For some maybe it’s a story that symbolizes Everything; for others a personal experience of breakthrough; even a close call with death can be a teacher.  For those of us desiring to wake up, we want to find a way to breathe life into the teachings, so that they become alive on a daily basis.  So for those who can feel a connection with Divine Light as Dogen is expressing, this is one of those primary insights that for the person who can actualize this point, the whole of practice is realized.

“When Ummon was about to die, he admonished his students in these terms: ‘I have four statements. First is to cut through all mental entanglements, to rely on universal truth.  Second is to let go of the body and mind, to shed birth and death. Third is to transcend the absolute, to establish an individual life.  Fourth is to haul rocks and carry earth, to perpetuate the life of wisdom.’”

With care,

Elana