1. From Chapter 1 of the Lotus Sutra.

"These monks" refers to the 12,000 "great monks," designated arhats, who had gathered around Shakyamuni when he was about to preach the Lotus Sutra.

2. "The fourth fruition": I.e., the last of the "four fruits," or stages of fruition, into which the arhat path is traditionally divided: stream-enterer, once-returner, never-returner, and arhat.

While the term "arhat" is often applied to the buddha, the term "buddha arhat" seems to have been coined by Dogen.

3. "Broken ladles missing their handles" signifies something useless.

"In a high place, it is high and level; in a low place, it is low and level": quoting words spoken by the Chan master Yangshan Huiji to Guishan Lingyou.

4. "Seeing a hundred buddha worlds": Doubtless a reference to discussions in the Buddhist literature of how many realms are seen by the paranormal vision respectively of arhats, pratyekabuddhas, and buddhas.

"Just when you think the foreigner's beard is red, there is a red-bearded foreigner": A common saying in Chan texts, generally taken to mean a distinction without a difference.

"The wondrous mind of nirvana": From the famous lines attributed to the Buddha Shakyamuni: "I have the treasury of the eye of the true dharma, the wondrous mind of nirvana, which I transmit to Mahakashyapa."

"Not a place to which one escapes": A line attributed to the Chan master Qinglin Shiqian.

5. From Chapter 4 of the Lotus Sutra.

The phrase rendered "the voice emanating from the Buddha" may also be understood as "the voice of the way of the buddha."

6. Quoting Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra.

7. The phrases "I and the buddhas of the ten directions comprehend this matter well" and "only a buddha and a buddha can thoroughly understand the true characteristics of phenomena" are both quoted from Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra.

"Anuttara samyak sambodhi": Dogen is here transliterating the Sanskrit term for the "supreme, perfect enlightenment" of a buddha.

8. From the Mohe zhiguan, by the sixth-century Tiantai scholar Zhiyi.

9. "The four stages of progress and the four stages of fruition": I.e., the four stages of fruition and the practices leading to each.

"They are not the mind; they are not the buddha, they are not things": A well-known saying found in various Zen texts, reported to have been first used by Nanchuan Puyuan in response to a question put to him by Baizhang Weizheng.

"Before or after 80,000 kalpas": A reference to the doctrine that one who has attained the first stage of fruition may, after 80,000 kalpas, convert to the Mahayana and attain buddhahood.

10. From Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra. This passage follows the sentence in the Lotus quoted above, at note 6.

11. "Toying with the eyes": I.e., seeing things as they really are.

"Wall face sitting": an unusual expression that reverses the characters in the well-known Zen term for "facing a wall," the type of meditation associated with Bodhidharma's legendary nine years of "wall gazing."

"Spirits appearing and demons disappearing," "mutual exchange and a meeting of minds": Expressions taken from the Chan master Yuanwu Kechin.

"Having enough gruel and having enough rice": An expression of the Chan master Shushan Qiangren.

12. From the Yuanwu Foguo Chanshi Yulu.

"Polishing the heels": I.e., training the self.

"One or a half": A common Zen phrase indicating a small number of serious disciples.

"Ceaseless suffering": I.e. the avici hell, the lowest of the hells.

13. From the Tiansheng guangdenglu. Chan Master Dazhi is the posthumous name of Baizhang Huihai (720-814).

"The four-line verse" is likely a reference to the well-known summary of Buddhism: "Do not do evil. Perform good deeds. Purify your mind. This is the teaching of the buddhas."

"The fourth stage of fruition" here might also be translated as "the four stages of fruition," but Dogen's commentary below clearly takes the phrase as a reference to the arhat.

14. "At last reaching the sturdy barrier": A commonly used phrase signifying the barrier that must be passed before awakening takes place.

15. This paragraph is written in Chinese, apparently by Dogen.

"An old fist" is a common Zen expression for the true person.

"The King of Emptiness" is the name of the buddha who appears in the kalpa of emptiness, which follows the kalpa in which the world is destroyed; often used in the sense "primordial buddha."