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正法眼藏第五十七 徧參 NOTES 1. “Extensive study” (henzan 徧參): Also read hensan and written 遍參. A term used in Chan literature for the monk’s practice of traveling widely to study with various masters; it conveys the sense of something like “universal, or wide-ranging, consultation.” The graph san 參, here suggesting an audience with the teacher, occurs in such common binomial expressions for Zen “study” or “investigation” as sangaku 參學, sankyū 參究, santetsu 参徹 — all of which occur below in this text. “Study and penetration of the ultimate limit” (kukyō santetsu 究竟參徹): The “ultimate limit” is a common Buddhist expression, used for both the ultimate goal and the extreme efforts to reach it. “Go without a string at your feet” (sokuka mu shi ko 足下無絲去; also read sokka mushi ko; also written 足下無糸去): Typically interpreted to mean untrammeled freedom. From a saying attributed to Dongshan; see Supplemental Note 1. “Clouds arose underfoot” (sokuka unshō 足下雲生): An allusion to the power of flight, one of the standard supernormal powers of the Buddhist adept. For the source, see Supplemental Note 2. “A flower opens and the world arises”(ke kai sekai ki 華開世界起): A well-known line from the transmission of verse of Bodhidharma’s master, Prajñātāra; see Supplemental Note 3. “I always care for this” (go jō o shi setsu 吾常於此切): From a remark again attributed to Dongshan; see Supplemental Note 4. The interpretation of the graph setsu 切 here is uncertain; it is generally taken to mean “to entertain,” “take care of,” “be intimate with”; but might also be understood as “to take seriously.” “The sweet melon is sweet through to its stem” (ten ka tettai ken 甜瓜徹蔕甜); “the bitter gourd is bitter to its root” (ku ka ren kon ku 苦瓠連根苦): A saying, more often in reverse order, occurring with some frequency in Chan texts; see, e.g., its use by Yunfeng Yuewen 雲峰文悦 (998-1061), Gu zunsu yulu 故尊宿語録, ZZ.118:688b7. 2. “The great master Zongyi of Mt. Xuansha” (Genshazan Shūitsu daishi 玄沙山宗一大師): I.e., the Tang-dynasty Chan master Xuansha Shibei 玄沙師備 (835-905). “Xuefeng” (seppō 雪峰) refers to Shibei’s master, Xuefeng Yicun 雪峰義存 (822-908). “Bei Toutuo” (Bi zuda 備頭陀) is said to have been Shibei’s nickname, deriving from his austere practice; toutuo transliterates the Sanksrit dhuta, a standard Buddhist term for austerities. “Dharma didn’t come to the Eastern Land; the Second Ancestor didn’t go to the Western Heavens” (datsuma furai tōdo niso fuō saiten 達磨不來東土二祖不往西天): “Dharma” here refers to the First Ancestor, Bodhidharma, said to have brought the Zen lineage to China; “the Second Ancestor” is Bodhidharma’s disciple Huike 慧可. “Eastern Land” and “Western Heavens” refer to China and India respectively, a usage very common in Dōgen’s writings. 3. “The study of a flip” (honkinto san 翻巾斗參): Or “a flip study.” The flip, or somersault, is a common expression for Zen action. “Don’t do even the noble truths” (shōtai yaku fui 聖諦亦不爲); “what stages are there?” (ka kaikyū shi u 何階級之有): From a conversation between Nanyue and Huineng; see Supplemental Note 5. 4. Dōgen here relates a dialogue between Nanyue and Huineng. The text of the paragraph mixes Chinese quotation with Dōgen’s Japanese translation, paraphrase and comment. For the source, see Supplemental Note 6. 5. “To say it’s like anything wouldn’t hit it” (setsu ji ichimotsu soku fu chū 説似一物即不中): The relationship of these words, quoting Huairang, to the preceding and following is unclear. The translation here follows Kawamura’s text; but some versions of the text insert at the end of the quote the particle ni, suggesting a reading something like, “in [Huairang’s saying], “to say it’s like anything wouldn’t hit it,” [he is] opening the hall and seeing the buddhas and ancestors; this is the extensive study of [one who is] “also like this.” This reading is also suggested by the 60-fascicle version of the text here: “[In saying,] ‘to say it’s like anything wouldn’t hit it,’ [he makes himself] ‘also’ the ‘like this’ that opens the hall and sees the buddhas and ancestors” (setsu ji ichimotsu soku fu chūshobutsu shoso o kaiten sanken suru nyoze o yaku su 説似一物即不中に諸佛諸祖を開殿見參する如是を亦す). “Opening the hall and seeing the buddhas and ancestors” (shobutsu shoso o kaiten sanken suru 諸佛諸祖を開殿參見する): Likely reflecting the words of Dōgen’s teacher, Tiantong Rujing 天童如淨 (1163-1228): (Rujin yulu 如淨語録 (T.48[2002A]:121c10). A similar expression, “opening the hall and seeing the buddha” (kaiten kenbuts 開殿見佛),” occurs in the Shōbōgenzō jippō 十方 (DZZ.2:95). “Entered the picture and looked” (nyū ga kan 入畫看): Again, likely reflecting Rujing (at T.48[2002A]: 128a13). The expression “enter the picture” appears several times in the Shōbōgenzō; here, no doubt equivalent to the preceding “opening the hall and seeing.” “Sixty-five hundred thousands of ten thousands of hundred millions” (rokujūgo hyaku sen man oku 六十五百千萬億): A number alluding to the Lotus Sūtra. See Supplemental Note 7. “Entering a grove,” “leaving a grove” (nyū ichi sōrin shutsu ichi sōrin 入一叢林出一叢林): I.e., going from one monastery to the next. “The thickness of the skin of the face” (menpi kō tashō 面皮厚多少): A fairly common expression in Chan texts, often seeming to suggest what we might call “thick skinned,” but here sometimes interpreted as the “original face” (honrai menmoku 本來面目) (see, e.g., Shōbōgenzō monge 正法眼藏聞解 (Shōbōgenzō chūkai zensho 正法眼藏註解全書 7:438). 6. “It helps him” (johatsu suru nari 助發するなり): The 60-fasicle Shōbōgenzō version adds after this clause the sentence, “It is, for example, like saying, “how could this not be extensive study?” (tatoheba nanzo henzan ni arazaran to ihan ga gotoshi たとへばなんぞ徧參にあらざらんといはんがごとし). “The great earth lacks an inch of land” (daichi mu sun do 大地無寸土): A saying appearing in several Chan texts (see, e.g., Chingde chuandeng lu, T.51:464a26), usually attributed to Changling Shouzhou 長靈守卓 (1065-1123). The 60-fascicle Shōbōgenzō has here simply “it penetrates the principle of extensive study” (henzan no dōri o tsūtatsu suru nari 徧參の道理を通達するなり). “The point of the vital artery” (meimyaku no issen 命脈一尖): “Point” in the sense of “tip” or “top”; perhaps suggesting that Bodhidharma here represents the ultimate meaning of the ancestral lineage (“vital artery”) of Chan. “Flipping the body in the stream of words” (gomyaku no honshin 語脈の翻身): A version of an expression appearing elsewhere in the Shōbōgenzō as “turning the body in the stream of words” (gomyaku ri tenshin [or tenjin] 語脈裏轉身); doubtless reflecting a fairly common Chan usage (as, e.g., in the Biyan lu 碧巖録 [case 29, T.48:169a19]: “The immeasurably great person turns round [or is turned round] within the stream of words” [meiliang daren yumo li zhuanque 没量大人語脈裏轉却]). The parallel passage in the 60-fascicle Shōbōgenzō gives:
“Taking hold of the buddhas and ancestors but missing their nose” (nen toku busso shitsu kyaku bikū 拈得佛祖失却鼻孔): Generally interpreted to mean that one misses the essential meaning of the buddhas and ancestors. 7. “One arm would fall off” (itsubi rakuryō ya 一臂落了也): No doubt a playful allusion to the famous legend that Huike cut off his arm as an offering to Bodhidharma. The 60-fasicle Shōbōgenzō here is rather different:
“Blue Eyes” (hekigan 碧眼): A common reference to Bodhidharma. “Tiantai” (Tendai 天臺); “Nanyue” (Nangaku 南嶽); “Wutai” (godai 五臺); “the heavens” (jōten 上天): The first three represent famous mountains of China associated with Buddhism; the referent of “the heavens” is somewhat ambiguous here: ordinarily, it would indicate the various heavens of Buddhist cosmology; but, given the context, it may simply mean the “Western Heavens” (i.e., India). “The four seas and five lakes” (shikai goko 四海五湖): I.e., the entire realm of China; a fixed expression, sometimes in reverse order. The four seas are the oceans in the four directions; the five lakes are variously listed. “It makes the road slippery” (rotō wo katsu narashimu 路頭を滑ならしむ): Perhaps recalling the words of the Tang-dynasty Chan master Mazu 馬祖 (709-788) in reference to his contemporary, the Chan master Shitou 石頭: “The Shitou road is slippery” (Shitou lu hua 石頭路滑) (Jingde chuandeng lu, T.51:246b9). 8. “He makes mastery of all the worlds in the ten directions are the true human body his extensive study” (jin jippō kai ze shinjitsu nintai no santetsu o henzan to suru 盡十方界是箇眞實人體の參徹を徧參とする): Reference to words attributed to Xuansha Shibei; see, e.g., Dōgen’s shinji Shōbōgenzō, case 131 (DZZ.5:196). “The bigness of a stone is big, the smallness of a stone is small” (sekitō dai tei dai sekitō shō tei shō 石頭大底大石頭小底小): A saying variously attributed; see, e.g., Jingde chuandeng lu, T.51:403b12. “To make them a big study, a small study” (daisan shōsan narashimuru 大參小參ならしむるなり): Or, perhaps, “to have them study the big, study the small.” The terms daisan and shōsan can refer to greater and lesser convocations for study in a Chan monastery. “The turning of the body hundreds of thousands of ten thousand times within the flow of half a word” (hangomyaku ri ni hyaku sen man tenshin 半語脈裏に百千萬轉身): Dōgen is here playing with the Chan saying, “to be turned within the flow of words”; see above, Note 6. “Dadi just struck the ground” (Daji yui da ji 打地唯打地): From the account of the monk called “Venerable Strike the Ground” (Dadi heshang 打地和尚), who just struck the ground with his staff whenever he was asked a question. (See Jingde chuandeng lu, T.51:261c2-3). “Striking the four quarters and eight sides” (da shihō hachimen rai 打四方八面來): For the likely source, see Supplemental Note 8. “Juzhi studying with Tianlong and getting one finger” (Gutei san Tenryū toku ichi shitō 倶胝參天龍得一指頭): Reference to the well-known story of the Tang-dynasty Chan master Juzhi (dates unknown), who was said to have attained awakening when his teacher Tianlong (dates unknown) held up one finger. Thereafter, Juzhi himself always held up one finger to teach his own students. (See, Jingde chuandeng lu, T.51:b1-3.) The 60-fascicle Shōbōgenzō has here:
9. A conversation found, e.g., in the Liandeng huiyao 聯燈會要, ZZ.136:823a14-15. Xuansha is Xuansha Shibei; see above, Note 2. “The Xie’s third boy on a fishing boat” (chōgyō sen jō Sha sanrō 釣魚舩上謝三郎): A self reference. Xuansha’s biography reports that his family name was Xie 謝, and that he loved fishing as a boy. (See Jingde chuandeng lu, T.51:343c24-25. 10. “The baldhead on Mt. Xuansha” (Gensha san jō tokutō kan 玄沙山上禿頭漢): I.e., Xuansha as a monk; “baldhead” is a common term for the tonsured cleric. “We should have ourselves concentrate, have others concentrate” (mizukara kufū seshime tazukara kufū narashimu beshi みづから功夫せしめ佗づから功夫ならしむべし): Or perhaps, “we should have ourselves concentrate and make it the other’s concentration.” The “other” here is presumably the “partner” with whom one “studies together.” The subject is unstated, and the sentence could still be referring to Xuansha and Śākyamuni. “Raising oneself before fishing” (michō sen jō 未釣先上): Reminiscent of Dōgen’s reference, in a passage on Xuansha’s fishing in the Shōbōgenzō ikka myōju 一顆明珠 (DZZ.1:76), to “the gold fish that raises itself without one fishing” (fuchō jijō no kinrin 不釣自上の金鱗). 11. “When the ocean dries up, you cannot see the bottom” (kai ko fuken tei 海枯不見底); “when a person dies, he does not leave his mind behind” (nin shi furyū shin 人死不留心): Variation on a common saying found in Chan texts: “When the ocean dries up, you finally see the bottom; but when a person dies, you cannot find his mind” (hai ku zhong jian di ren shi buzhi xin 海枯終見底人死不知心). (See, e.g., Zongjing lu 宗鏡録, T.48:564b12.) “The front and back of such a single side” (kaku no gotoku no ippō no hyōri かくのごとくの一方の表裏): A tentative translation; presumably ippō, rendered here as “a single side,” refers to the unity of the person and the mind. 12. “My former master, the Old Buddha of Tiantong” (senshi Tendō kobutsu 先師天童古佛): I.e., Dōgen’s teacher, Tiantong Rujing (1163-1228), abbot of Jingde si 景徳寺, on Mt. Tiantong, in modern Zhejiang province. “Old acquaintances” (dōkyū 道舊): Literally, “to talk of the old”; by extension, “old friends.” “Requested a lecture” (jōdō wo shō suru 上堂を請する): Literally, “asked him to ascend the hall” (i.e., present a formal talk from the altar). “It springs forth from the crown in all quarters” (shohō chōnei jō chōshutsu 諸方頂[寧+頁]上跳出): Probably to be understood to mean, “[the geat way] springs from the crown of the heads of [the assembled] masters from all quarters.” “The nostril of Qingliang” (Seiryō biku ri 清凉鼻孔裏): I.e., Rujing’s nostril. As Dōgen notes below, Rujing was at the time the abbot of the Qingliang si 清涼寺. “Seeds of Gautama's traitors” (Kudon zoku shu 瞿曇賊種): Some texts read kudon shu zoku 瞿曇種賊. May be an allusion to the Buddha’s evil cousin, Devadatta. “Ii!” (ii 咦): An interjection, typically indicating a laugh or expression of surprise or delight. “The great house topples over” (taike tendō 大家顚倒): The term taike, translated rather literally here as “great house,” can refer to a “great figure” (a “master”); or, as probably here, to the assembled audience. The term tendō, translated as “topples over,” is regularly used for mistaken views that are “upside down” (viparyasta). Hence, the image of the overturned house can be read as Rujing’s teasing of his learned guests. 13. “Qingliang monastery” (Seiryōji 清凉寺): In modern Jiangsu province. Rujing became abbot there in 1210. “Guest and host” (hinju 賓主); “neighboring seats” (rintan 隣單): The former term indicates the relationship between a visiting monk and an abbot respectively; the latter refers to assigned positions in the monks’ hall. “Completely lacking a saying” (kon mu ko wa 渾無箇話): A somewhat unusual expression, not occurring elsewhere in Dōgen’s writings; presumably, those with nothing significant to say. 14. “Four or five thousand lanes of flowers and willows, twenty or thirty thousand pavilions of flutes and zithers” (shigosen jō keryū kō nisanman za kan genrō 四五千條華柳巷二三萬座管絃樓): “Flower and willow” refer to the pleasure quarters. For an example of this usage, see Supplemental Note 9. The 60-fascicle Shōbōgenzō gives here “‘The great way without a gate’ is ‘one line after another,’” is ‘you ask Zhaozhou.’” (daidō mumon wa jōjōnii nari nyo mon jōshū nii nari 大道無門は條條聻なり汝問趙州聻なり). 15. This section is lacking in the 60-fasicle Shōbōgenzō text, which has at this point simply, “Even up till now, the tradition of seeing a friend, the concentrated effort of hearing a saying, have all derived from this.” “The Fourth Ancestor spending nine years in study with the Third Ancestor” (shiso katte sanso ni sangaku suru koto kusai seshi 四祖かつて三祖に參學すること九載せし): I.e., the third Chinese ancestor, Daoxin 道信 (580-651), who is said to have studied with the second ancestor, Sengcan 僧璨 (d. 606), for nine (or twelve) years from the age of thirteen. “The Chan Master Yuan of Nanquan staying at Chiyang” (Nansen Gan zenji sono kami chiyō ni ichijū shite 南泉願禪師そのかみ池陽に一住して): I.e., Nanquan Puyuan 南泉普願 (748-834), who is said to have entered Mt. Nanquan, in Chiyang 池陽 (modern Anhui), in 795 and remained there for thirty years. “Yunyan, Daowu, and others, concentrating and studying during forty years at Yueshan” (Ungan Dōgo tō zai Yakusan shijū nen no aida kufū sangaku suru 雲巖道吾等在藥山四十年のあひだ功夫參學する): Reference to Yunyan Tancheng 雲巖曇晟 (782-841) and Daowu Yuanzhi 道吾圓智 (769-835), who studied with Yueshan Weiyan 藥山惟儼 (751-834). “The study of the Second Ancestor at Songshan was eight years” (niso sono kami Sūzan ni sangaku suru koto hassai nari 二祖そのかみ嵩山に參學すること八載なり): The second Chinese ancestor of Chan, Huike 慧可 (487-593), who is held to have studied with Bodhidharma at Shaolin 少林 on Mt. Song 嵩山 (in modern Henan). “He exhausted the extensive study of skin, flesh, bones, and marrow” (hi niku kotsu zui wo henzan shitsukusu 皮肉骨髄を徧參しつくす): Reference to the tradition that, at the time he was to choose a successor among his four disciples, Bodhidharma said of each in turn that he (or she) had got “my skin,” “my flesh,” “my bones,” and, to Huike, “my marrow.” Dōgen regularly uses the four-character phrase to refer to the essence of the Chan tradition. 16. “Just sitting and sloughing off body and mind” (shikan taza shinjin datsuraku 祇管打坐身心脱落): Combining two famous lines that Dōgen attributes to his teacher, Rujing. “Going that goes there and coming that comes here” (ko nahen ko rai shari rai 去那邊去來遮裏來): Unusual expressions that might also be rendered, “when you go, go there; when you come, come here.” Perhaps meaning something like, “just go when you go and come when you come.” “Walking on Vairocana’s head is the samādhi without feeling” (Biru chō jō gyō wa mujō zanmai nari 毘盧頂上行は無情三昧なり): The Buddha Vairocana often symbolizes the dharma, or “cosmic,” body of the buddha. The translation “without feeling” follows Kawamura’s text, which gives mujō 無情 (“insentient”) where other texts, including the 60-fascile Shōbōgenzō version, have the more familiar mujō 無諍 (“unconflicted”; Sansrit araṇa). For the source, see Supplemental Note 10. “Definitely getting such” (ketsu toku inmo 決得恁麼): Perhaps reflecting the famous saying attributed to Yunju Daoying 雲居道膺 (d. 902) (Chingde chuandeng lu, T.51.2076:335c19-20):
“The walk of Vairocana” (Biru gyō 毘盧行): The translation retains from the previous sentence the English “walk” for gyō 行, though the phrase could also be rended “the practice of Vairocana.” “The bottle gourd springing forth from the bottle gourd” (koro no koro wo chōshutsu suru 葫蘆の葫蘆を跳出する): Perhaps an allusion to the saying by Dōgen’s teacher, Rujing, quoted often in the Shōbōgenzō: “The bottle gourd vine entwines the bottle gourd” (koro tōshu ten koro 葫蘆藤種纏葫蘆). (Rujing yulu 如淨語録, fascicle 2 [Kagamishima, 306-307].) “The seat of the way where the buddha is selected” (senbutsu dōjō 選佛道場): I.e., the site of a buddha’s enlightenment. “His life is like a thread” (myō nyo shi 命如糸): Possibly an indirect reference to the condition of having been “selected as a buddha”; see Supplemental Note 11. “Set up a single blade of grass” (ikkyō sō wo konryū suru 一莖草を建立する): References to “a single blade of grass” occur frequently throughout Dōgen’s writings, as they do in Chan texts more generally, especially to stand for the familiar particular in which can be seen the spiritual universal. For examples, see Supplemental Note 12. 17. “First year of Kangen” (kangen gannen 寛元元年): I.e., 1243. “A thatched hut below Yamashibu, in the region of Etsu” (Etsu-u Yamashibu ge bōan 越宇禪師峰下茅菴): Apparently a small temple not far from Dōgen’s residence at Kippōji 吉峰寺, in Echizen 越前 (modern Fukui prefecture); a site given in the collophon of several texts of the Shōbōgenzō. 18. “The month of rō” (rōgatsu 臘月): I.e., the twelfth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, named after the la 臘 winter festival. “Ejō” 懐奘: I.e., Koun Ejō 孤雲懐奘 (1189-1280), Dōgen’s close disciple and the copier of many of his Shōbōgenzō manuscripts.
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