Zazen gi Notes
1. The reference to those who spread grass and sat on a vajra
recalls the legend of the Buddha's enlightenment under the bodhi
tree. According to the legend, at the time of Shâkyamuni's
enlightenment, a jewel-encrusted throne, known as the vajra
("diamond", or "adamantine") seat, arose
from the earth beneath the tree. The Buddha is supposed to have
been offered by the god Indra a sacred grass to spread on the
seat, in accordance with the practice of all the past buddhas.
The practice of meditation on a rock appears in several descriptions
of Zen monks who practiced outdoors. |
2. The first of these two sentences is taken from Zongze's Zuochan
yi (ZS.279); the latter is added by Dôgen and
reflects a famous saying attributed to the Sixth Patriarch, Huineng
(JDCDL, T.51:236a20). The entire passage here is
reminiscent of a definition of the "sudden awakening teaching
of the Mahayana" attributed to Baizhang Huaihai (749-814):
"You should first stop all involvements and discontinue
all affairs. Do not bear in mind, do not think of, any dharma
- whether good or bad, mundane or transmundane. Cast aside body
and mind and set them free." (JDCDL, T.51:250a17-20.) |
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3. The idiom "mind, intellect, and consciousness" (shin
i shiki, in scholastic writing representing the Sanskrit
citta, manas, and vijñâna respectively)
is regularly used in Zen texts as equivalent to "thought"
(nen). The expression "thoughts, ideas and perceptions"
(nen sô kan) is rather less common and somewhat
ambiguous: it likely refers here to discriminative cognition
(vikalpa), but it can also represent various Buddhist
contemplative exercises.
"Do not figure to make a
buddha": see Supplemental Notes 1.
The expression "slough off
sitting and reclining" doubtless alludes to the "four
deportments" (igi, or iigi): walking, standing,
sitting, and reclining; it also invokes the famous saying, "slough
off body and mind" (shinjin datsuraku) that Dôgen
attributed to his teacher, Rujing.
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4. The advice to moderate food and drink is based on the Zuochan
yi. The reference to the Fifth Patriarch, Hongren, may be
from a passage in the Jingde chuandeng lu, where Hongren
is said to have "made zazen his work" (T.51:231b). |
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5. The kesa (Skt. kashaya, kâshâya)
is the outer robe, or surplice, worn by the monk especially during
services. Note that Dôgen's reference to this clerical
garb makes it clear that the zazen instruction of the text is
directed to those who have taken orders.
The futon (in modern usage,
zafu) placed on top of the meditation mat is still a standard
feature of Sôtô zazen practice. Keizan's Zazen
yôjin ki, which also emphasizes the need for such a
cushion, gives its diameter as one shaku, two sun
(roughly fourteen inches) (SSZ.Shûgen 2:426b). Despite
Dôgen's final remark here, the use of such a combination
of cushion and mat does not seem to have been a universal practice.
The Zuochan yi, for example, recommends simply spreading
a single mat.
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6. On the position of the legs in zazen, see Supplemental Note 2. |
7. This and the following paragraph largely follow the text of
the Zuochan yi, although Dôgen has added the information
on aligning the hands with the navel. |
8. On the eyes in zazen, see Supplemental Note 3. |
9. On this famous passage, see Supplemental Note 4. |
10. The warning that "zazen is not the practice of dhyâna
(shûzen)" is likely an allusion to a passage in
the Linjian lu (ZZ.2B,21:295d), in which the author,
Huihong, criticizes the association of Bodhidharma's famous nine
years of sitting before a wall at Shaolin with the practice of
dhyâna -- a practice he dismisses as "dead
wood and cold ashes".
The claim that zazen is "the dharma gate of great ease and
joy (anraku, Skt. sukha)", borrowed from the
Zuochan yi (ZS.281), invokes the "Sukhavihâra"
chapter of the Lotus Sûtra, in which it is said
that the bodhisattva's life of ease and joy consists in always
enjoying zazen (pratisamlayana), retiring from the world
to practice control of his mind (T.9:37b10). Dôgen
gives this claim a more concrete sense in his Bendô
wa, where he uses it as a justification of the superiority
of the seated posture itself (DZZ.1:737).
"Undefiled practice and verification": See Supplemental Note 5. |
11. This colophon, appearing on the Kenkon'in and several other
early manuscripts of the Shôbôgenzô, is
now widely accepted as accurate. Some other early manuscripts
associate the work with Daibutsuji, the monastery in Echizen
where Dôgen taught from the autumn of 1244 to the summer
of 1246. |
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