Dogen (1253)

My late master Taintong ascended the seat and taught the assembly:

Tiantong’s first phase of mid-winter:
Old plum tree bent and gnarled
All at once opens one blossom, two blossoms,
three, four, five blossoms, uncountable blossoms,
not proud of purity,
not proud of fragrance;
spreading, becoming spring,
blowing over grass and trees,
balding the head of a patch-robed monk.
Whirling, changing into wind, wild rain,
falling, snow, all over the earth.
the old plum tree is boundless.
A hard cold rubs the nostrils.

This old plum tree is boundless.  All at once its blossoms open, and of itself the fruit is born.

It forms spring; it forms winter.  It arouses wind and wild rain.  It is the head of a patch-robed monk; it is the eyeball of an ancient buddha.  It becomes grass and trees; it becomes pure fragrance. 

Its whirling, miraculous transformation has no limit.  Furthermore, the treeness of the great earth, high sky, bright sun, and clear moon derives from the treeness of the old plum tree.  They have always been entangled, vine with vine.

When the old plum tree suddenly opens, the world of blossoming flowers arises. At the moment when the world of blossoming flowers arises, spring arrives.  There is a single blossom that opens five blossoms  At this moment of a single blossom, there are three, four, five blossoms, hundreds, thousands, myriads, billions of blossoms—countless blossoms. 

Theses blossomings are not-being-proud-of one, two, or countless branches of the old plum tree.  An udumbara flower and blue lotus blossoms are also one or two branches of the old plum tree’s blossoms. Blossoming is the old plum tree’s offering.

The old plum tree is within the human world and the heavenly world. The old plum tree manifests both human and heavenly worlds in its treeness.  Therefore hundreds and thousands of blossoms are called both human and heavenly blossoms. 

This is the time for all human and heavenly beings to turn towards attaining the way, as the old buddha’s dharma wheel is turned to the extreme limit of the entire world.  Even clouds, rain, wind, and water, as well as grass, trees, and insects, do not fail to receive the benefit of this teaching. 

Heaven, earth, and land are vigorously turned by this dharma wheel.  To hear words never heard before is to hear these words. To attain what has never existed is to attain this teaching.  This is the dharma wheel which one cannot see or hear without having some inconceivable good fortune.

When we enter into plum blossoms and fully study them, there is no room for doubt to arise.   Because they bloom through virtue of plum blossoms, billions of blossoms are one family of plum blossoms.  They should be called young plum blossoms.  Furthermore, flowers in the sky, flowers on the earth, and flowers of samadhi are all the large and small members of plum blossoms’ family.

Do not think that plum blossoms are merely snow all over Shaolin Monastery of Mt. Song.  They are eyeballs of the Tathagata illuminating overhead and underfoot.  Do not think that plum blossoms are merely snow of Snow Mountain or Snow Palace.  They are the eyeballs of Gautama’s eye of true teaching. 

The entire world is mind-ground; the entire world is blossom-heart.  Because the entire world is blossom-heart, the entire world is plum blossoms. 

“Here, everywhere, right now” is mountains, rivers, and earth. Everything and every moment is realization everywhere of “I am originally in this land, transmit dharma, and save deluded minds.  One blossom opens for five petals; the fruit matures of itself”  Although there is the coming from India and proceeding eastward, this is the everywhere of plum blossoms right now.

Dogen (1253)

Excerpted from Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen Edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi 1985

Reading this piece is like standing under a plum tree with blossoms falling all around you, the fragrance enveloping your senses and feeling connected with much more. Remember the last time the fragrance wafted into your consciousness?

Here Dogen uses the plum blossoms to discuss the interpenetrating nature of reality. With a wordless grace the natural world communicates an interconnectedness that many teachers have tapped into to help understand principles of Zen.

Blossoming is the old plum tree’s offering.

What then is our offering? To take any teaching the next step we only have to apply some part of it in our daily lives. Each piece overflows with suggestions, hints, and direct clues; which ones will we actualize?

The Master said:

Only one who bursts with enthusiasm do I instruct;
Only one who bubbles with excitement do I enlighten.
If I hold up one corner and you do not come back to me
With the other three,
I do not continue the lesson.

Confucious

How about coming up with one or maybe two other corners for ourselves?

With enthusiasm,

Elana