3: Such reasons as correct transmission by the unexcelled method of the Tathagatas and following in the footsteps of the patriarchs are beyond common
sense. To ordinary people, reading the sutra and saying the Nembutsu are the
natural means to enlightenment. You just sit cross-legged and do nothing. How is
this a means to enlightenment?
A: You look on the meditation of the Buddhas and the supreme law as just sitting and doing nothing. You disparage Mahayana Buddhism. Your delusion is deep; you are like someone in the middle of the ocean crying out for water. Fortunately we are already sitting at ease in the self-joyous meditation of the Buddhas. Isn't this a great boon? What a pity that your true-eye remains shut-that your mind remains drunk. The world of the Buddhas eludes ordinary thinking and consciousness. It cannot be known by disbelief and inferior knowledge. To enter one must have right belief. The disbeliever, even if taught, has trouble grasping it. For example, when the Buddha was preaching at Grdhrakuta, the disbelievers were allowed to go away. To bring out the right belief in your mind you must train and study. If you cannot do this, you should quit for awhile, regretting that you lack the influence of
the law from a former beneficial relation. What good are such actions as reading
the sutras and saying the Nembutsu. How futile to think that Buddhist merits
accrue from merely moving the tongue and raising the voice. If you think this
covers Buddhism, you are far from the truth. Your only purpose in reading the
sutras should be to learn thoroughly that the Buddha taught the rules of gradual
and sudden training and that by practicing his teachings you can obtain enlightenment. You should not read the sutras merely to pretend to wisdom
through vain intellections. To strive for the goal of Buddhism by reading many
sutras is like pointing the hill to the north and heading south. It is like putting a square peg in a round hole. While you look at words and phrases, the path of your training remains dark. This is as worthless as a doctor who forgets his prescription. Constant repetition of the Nembutsu is also worthless-like a frog in a spring field croaking night and day. Those deluded by fame and fortune, find it especially difficult to abandon the nembutsu. Bound by deep roots to a profit-seeking mind, they existed in ages past, and they exist today. They are to be pitied. Understand only this: if enlightened Zen masters and their earnest disciples correctly transmit the supreme law of the seven Buddhas, its essence emerges, and it can be experienced. Those who merely study the letters of the sutras cannot know this. So put a stop to this doubt and delusion. Follow the teachings of a real master and, by zazen; attain to the self-joyous samadhi of the Buddhas.
Interpretation
When it is suggested that zazen is 'just sitting and doing nothing' Dogen accuses the questioner of delusion and of blindness to what is all around him - you are like someone in the middle of the ocean crying out for water. This is interesting - he is pointing the questioner to reality that is within and all around him - sometimes this is called 'Buddha nature'. This point is even more explicit when he says Fortunately we are already sitting at ease in the self-joyous meditation of the Buddhas. Isn't this a great boon? What a pity that your true-eye remains shut-that your mind remains drunk
To enter one must have right belief. This corresponds directly to the Right View aspect of the Eightfold Path
He then turns the question around and queries how chanting the Nembutsu and reading the sutras in themselves could ever lead to awakening. The Nembutsu practice is chanting the name of Amida Buddha - the Buddha of compassion - in the hope or faith that Amida's will compassionately take one to the 'Pure Land' of Buddhas after death. This form of Buddhism has evolved into a supernatural form not unlike animism or theistic religion. It relies on chanting (rather than understanding) sutras to invoke the aid of imaginary beings for efficacy in taking one to an imaginary and happier place. It is superstitious and dualistic. Repeating them like parrots, they don't understand that the sutras are training instructions. What difference should it make to the universe whether we chant or not. Such practices are captured by dualistic delusions and attachments. With correct communication, enlightenment is something which can be experienced for oneself. So, Dogen urges them to give up doubt and delusion and practice zazen with a zen master to experience this for yourselves.
He is similarly scornful of 'reading many sutras', saying that it is merely intellectual vanity and that the only purpose of it is 'to learn thoroughly that the Buddha taught the rules of gradual and sudden training and that by practicing his teachings you can obtain enlightenment'. It's interesting to note that Dogen at least considers both gradual and sudden training to be valid. Other than that he has so far insisted that there is just one gate: zazen.
2 comments:
I think Dogen's being very sarcastic and saying something else underneath.
Dogen is advocating just sitting and doing nothing, just in another context. The questioner asks about just sitting and doing nothing as a means to enlightenment as apposed to Dogen's just sitting and doing nothing is enlightenment itself which makes all the empty signifiers meaningless. The questioner will hold on to the signifiers as full of meaning.
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