Here is another section of
Bussho that really shows that wonder of word-play and grammar bending in Dogen-jazz ...
Going back and forth with the footnotes will give a taste for that. As an entrance way into this portion, it might help to know that Dogen often used question words like "
What" to refer to the ineffable, the wordless, the
beyond expression whatever (
i.e., the indescribable ultimateness that is 'emptiness' or 'buddha nature') ... and words such as "
name" to refer to the true and ultimate identity of concrete things of this relative world ... and words such as '
this' to refer to what is right here before one's eyes and one's eyes too.
However, Dogen's way of expression, by twisting up all of it to capture various Truths, goes far beyond the simplistic formulaic description of the relationship of
"what" "name" "this" etc. that I just wrote! His music expresses that
what-name-thisness.
Dogen bases his word-play on this famous Koan ... For easier reading, Bussho sections are in
BLUE, and footnotes in normal type ... After after getting a bit of what Dogen was doing with the puns and word twists and syncopated grammar ... forget all that, and just let the whole thing wash through you like listening to good music ...
Quote:
As a boy of seven, [Chan Master Zhao Daman] met the Fourth Ancestor, the Chan Master Dayi, on the road in Huangmei. The ancestor saw that, although a child, the master’s build was remarkably fine, different from that of an ordinary child. Seeing this, the ancestor asked, “What’s your name?”
The master answered, “I have a name, but it’s not an ordinary name.”
The ancestor said, “What is this name?”
The master answered, “It’s the buddha nature.”
The ancestor said, “You have no buddha nature.”
The master replied, “It’s because the buddha nature is empty that you say I have none.”
The ancestor, recognizing that he was a vessel of the dharma, made him his attendant. Later, he transmitted the treasury of the eye of the true dharma. [The master] resided on Dongshan at Huangmei, where he greatly wielded the “dark style.”18
Quote:
18.
“You have no buddha nature” (nyo mu busshō 汝無佛性): Or, more collquially, “you don’t have a buddha nature”; a fairly common retort in Chan texts. In scholastic Buddhism, the lack of buddha nature makes one an icchantika (yichanti 一闡提, someone without the potential to achieve the perfect awakening of a buddha.
“Dark style” (genpū 玄風): Or “mysterious style”; a common expression for deep teachings.
Quote:
しかあれはばすなはち、祖師の道取を參究するに、四祖いはく汝何姓は、その宗旨あり。むかしは何國人の人あ り、何姓の姓あり。なんぢは何姓と爲説するなり。たとへば吾亦如是、汝亦如是と道取するがごと し。
Therefore, when investigating these sayings of the ancestral masters, there is an essential point to the Fourth Ancestor’s saying, “What’s your name?” In ancient times, there was a person from the country of He [“what”], who had the He family name. He is saying to him, “You are of the “what” family.” It is like saying, “I’m also like this, you’re also like this.”19
Quote:
19.
“What’s your name?” (nyo ka shō 汝何姓): Dōgen begins here a play with the terms in the quotation. First up is a Chinese version of the old Abbott and Costello joke, “Who’s on first?” The game puns on the Chinese interrogative he 何 (“what”), also used as a family name.
For those who don't know the Abbot and Costello routine ...
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor4.shtml
“From the country of What” (gakokunin 何國人): Or “a citizen of the land of What.” Reference to a dialogue found in the Jingde chuandeng lu 景徳傳燈録 (T.51:433a9-10) and elsewhere; the version in the Liandeng huiyao 聯燈會要 (ZZ.79[1557]:257a21-22):
泗州大聖或問、師何姓。師云、姓何。或云、何國人。師云、何國人。
Dasheng of Sizhou would be asked, “Master, what is your name?”
The master would answer, “My name is He [‘what’].”
Or he would be asked, “What country are you from?”
The master answered, “I’m from the country of He [‘what’].”
“I’m also like this, you’re also like this” (go nyaku nyo ze nyo nyaku nyo ze 吾亦如是汝亦如是): From the words of the Sixth Ancestor, Huineng, in the dialogue with Nanyue Huairang::
The Chan Master Dahui of Mt. Nanyue (descendant of Caoxi, named Huairang) visited the Sixth Ancestor. The Ancestor asked him, “Where do you come from?”
The Master said, “I come from the National Teacher An on Mt. Song.”
The Ancestor said, “What is it that comes like this?”
The Master was without means [to answer]. After attending [the Ancestor] for eight years, he finally understood the previous conversation. Thereupon, he announced to the Ancestor, “I've understood what the reverend put to me when I first came: ‘What is it that comes like this?’”
The Ancestor asked, “How do you understand it?”
The Master replied, “To say it's like anything wouldn't hit it.”
The Ancestor said, “Then is it contingent on practice and verification?”
The Master answered, “Practice and verification are not nonexistent; they cannot be defiled.”
The Ancestor said, “Just this ‘not defiled’ is what the buddhas bear in mind. You're also like this, I'm also like this, and all the ancestors of the Western Heavens [i. e., India] are also like this.”
Quote:
五祖いはく、姓即有、不是常姓。いはゆるは、有即姓は常姓にあらず、常姓は即有に不是なり。
The Fifth Ancestor said, “I have a name, but it’s not an ordinary name.” That is, “being as itself a name” is not an ordinary name; an ordinary name “is not right” for “being as itself.”20
四祖いはく是何姓は、何は是なり、是を何しきたれり、これ姓なり。何ならしむるは是のゆゑなり、是ならしむ るは何の能なり。姓は是也何也なり。これを蒿湯にも點ず、茶湯にも點ず、家常の茶飯ともするな り。
The Fourth Ancestor’s saying, “What is this name?” means “what” is “this”; he has “what-ed” “this” — this is his “name.” For what makes it “what” is “this”; making it “this” is the function of “what.” His “name” is both “this” and “what.” We fix it as artemisia tea; we fix it as green tea; we make it our “everyday tea and rice.”21
Quote:
20.
“Being as itself a name” (u soku shō 有即姓): The translation struggles in vain to capture this play with words. Dōgen has here reversed the order of the three graphs shō soku u 姓即有, translated as “I have a name,” in the process, once again shifting the meaning of u 有 from “have” to “be” (see above, Note 4. “The term entirety of being”) and redoing the function of soku 即 from the concessive (“as for a name, I may have one, but . . .”) to an emphatic copula (“is precisely”).
“An ordinary name is not right for being as itself” (jōshō wa sokuu ni fuze nari 常姓は即有に不是なり): Another rearrangement of the Chinese terms in the quotation. Here, Dōgen has taken the graphs soku u 即有 (“have”) as a binomial with a sense, presumably, of something like “precisely being,” “being itself,” etc.; and treated the negative copula fuze 不是 (“it’s not”) as the adjectival “not correct,” “not appropriate,” etc.
21.
“What is this” (ga wa ze nari 何は是なり): Or “what is right.” Continuing his play with the interrogative “what,” Dōgen here reads the question, “what is this [name]?” as a declarative sentence. The translation obscures the pun on the graph, ze 是, rendered here as “this” (from the Fourth Ancestor’s question, “What is this name?”) and as “right” in the preceding remark by Dōgen, “An ordinary name ‘is not right’ for ‘being as itself.’”
“He has what-ed this” (ze wo ga shikitareri 是を何しきたれり): Here, the interrogative “what” is treated as a transitive verb; presumably the meaning is “to make ‘what’ of ‘this,” “to take ‘this’ as ‘what.’” Most interpretation takes “what” to represent the ultimate mystery of things, and “this” to stand for the immediate presence of things; hence, to “what” “this” is to see the mystery in the presence.
“This is the name” (kore shō nari これ姓なり): The antecedent of “this” here is unclear; possibly the act of “what-ing” “this.”
“For what makes it what is this; making it this is the function of what” (ga narashimuru wa ze no yue nari ze narashimuru wa ga no nō nari 何ならしむるは是のゆゑなり是ならしむるは何の能なり): If we follow the common interpretation, the causatives here would convey the reciprocal relationship between the “what” of the ultimate mystery and the “this” of the immediate presence: it is the immediate realm of things that reveals the ultimate; it is the ultimate realm that expresses itself as things.
“We fix it as artemisia tea” (kore o kōtō ni mo tenzu これを蒿湯にも點ず): Likely a suffusion of mugwort (or wormwood) taken for medicinal purposes. The antecedent of “it” (kore これ) is unclear; presumably, his “name.”
“Everyday tea and rice” (kajō no sahan 家常の茶飯): A fairly common expression, in both Chan texts and Dōgen’s writings, for the “daily fare” of the home, what we might call “homestyle” cooking; well known in the saying, often cited by Dōgen, of Fuyung Daokai 芙蓉道楷 (1043-1118): “The words of the buddhas and ancestors are like everyday tea and rice” (fozu yenju ru jiachang chafan 佛祖言句如家常茶飯) (or, in some versions, “the intentions and words of the buddhas and ancestors” (fozu yiju 佛祖意句). See, e.g., Dōgen’s shingji Shōbōgenzō, case 143 (DZZ.5:202).
Quote:
五祖いはく是佛性。いはくの宗旨は、是は佛性なりとなり。何のゆゑに佛なるなり。是は何姓のみに究取しきた らんや、是すでに不是のとき佛性なり。しかあればすなはち、是は何なり、佛なりといへども、脱落しきたり、 透脱しきたるに、かならず姓なり。その姓すなはち周なり。しかあれども、父にうけず、祖にうけず、母氏に相 似ならず、傍觀に齊肩ならんや。
The Fifth Ancestor said, “It’s the buddha nature.” The essential point of what he says is that “it’s” is “the buddha nature.” Because of “what,” it is the buddha. Has “it’s” been exhaustively investigated only in the name “what”? When “it’s” was [said to be] “it’s not,” it was “the buddha nature.” Therefore, while “it’s” is “what,” is the buddha, when they have been sloughed off, when they have been liberated, it is necessarily his “name.” That name is Zhou. Nevertheless, he does not get it from his father; he does not get it from his ancestors; it does not resemble his mother’s family name; how could it be of equal stature with onlookers?22
Quote:
22.
“It’s is the buddha nature” (ze wa busshō nari 是は佛性なり): Continuing the play with the graph ze, here translated as “it’s” in Hongren’s remark, “It’s the buddha nature.”
“Has it’s been exhaustively investigated only in the name what?” (ze wa nan shō nomi ni kyūshū shikitaranya 是は何姓のみに究取しきたらんや): I.e., is the term ze (“it is”) being treated in this conversation only as the name “what”?
When it’s was said to be it’s not, it was the buddha nature” (ze sude ni fuze no toki busshō nari 是すでに不是のとき佛性なり): I.e., when Hongren said, “it’s not [an ordinary name],” the negation of “it is” (ze 是), “it’s not” (fu ze 不是), also indicated the buddha nature.
“When they have been sloughed off, when they have been liberated, it is necessarily his name” (datsuraku shikitari tōdatsu shikitaru ni kanarazu shō nari 脱落しきたり透脱しきたるにかならず姓なり): Usually taken to mean that, although “it’s” can be identified with “what” or “buddha,” when it is freed from these “higher” abstractions, it is Hongren’s actual name.
“That name is Zhou” (sono shō sunawachi shū nari その姓すなはち周なり): According to his biography (e.g., Jingde chuan deng lu 景徳傳燈録, T.51:222c6), Hongren’s family name was Zhou 周 (a common surname, with the meaning “all-embracing”).
“How could it be of equal stature with onlookers?” (bōkan ni seiken naranya 傍觀に齊肩ならんや): I.e., how could the Fifth Ancestor’s name be compared with the names of others?
Quote:
四祖いはく汝無佛性。いはゆる道取は、汝はたれにあらず、汝に一任すれども、無佛性なりと開演するなり。し るべし、學すべし、いまはいかなる時節にして無佛性なるぞ。佛頭にして無佛性なるか、佛向上にして無佛性な るか。七通を逼塞することなかれ、八達を摸索することなかれ。無佛性は一時の三昧なりと修習することもあり 。佛性成佛のとき、無佛性なるか、佛性發心のとき、無佛性なるかと問取すべし、道取すべし。露柱をしても問 取せしむべし、露柱にも問取すべし、佛性をしても問取せしむべし。
The Fourth Ancestor said, “You have no buddha nature.” This saying proclaims, “Although I allow that ‘you’ are ‘you’ and not another, you are ‘no buddha nature.’” We should know, we should study, at what time now is it that he is “no buddha nature”? Is it at the head of the buddha that he is “no buddha nature”? Is it “beyond the buddha” that he is “no buddha nature”? Do not block up “the seven penetrations”; do not grope for “the eight masteries.” There are instances when “no buddha nature” is also studied as a momentary samādhi. When the buddha nature becomes a buddha, is this “no buddha nature”? When the buddha nature arouses the aspiration [to become a buddha], is this “no buddha nature”? We should ask this; we should say it. We should make the columns ask it; we should ask the columns. We should make the buddha nature ask it.23
Quote:
23.
“Although I allow that you are you and not another” (nyo wa tare ni arazu nyo ni ichinin suredomo 汝はたれにあらず汝に一任すれども): A tentative translation of an odd locution, literally something like, “you are not someone; although entrusting [this] to you . . . ”); taken here to mean, “acknowledging your identity as ‘you,’” The verb ichinin su 一任 (translated here “allowing”) occurs often in Dōgen’s writings in the sense, common in Chan texts, “to leave entirely to . . . .”
“You are no buddha nature” (mu busshō nari 無佛性なり): Or “you lack a buddha nature.” Here and in the remainder of his discussion of this topic, Dōgen treats the phrase mu busshō 無佛性 (“having no buddha nature,” “lacking buddha nature”) as a single semantic unit.
“At what time now is it” (ima wa ikanaru jisetsu ni shite いまはいかなる時節にして): Perhaps recalling the earlier discussion of the phrase “if the time arrives.”
“The head of the buddha” (buttō 佛頭): An unusual expression, not occurring elsewhere in Dōgen’s writings; possibly a variant of the more common bucchō 佛頂 (“buddha’s ‘crown,’ or ‘topknot’”; buddhōṣṇīṣa), often used metaphorically as the very pinnacle of awakening; generally taken here to indicate the attainment of buddhahood.
“Beyond the buddha” (butsu kōjō 佛向上): A common expression in Chan texts and Dōgen’s writings, as in the sayings “a person beyond the buddha” (butsu kōjō nin 佛向上人) or “what lies beyond the buddha” (butsu kōjō ji 佛向上事).
“Block up the seven penetrations” (shittsū o hissaku su 七通を逼塞す); “grope for the eight masteries” (hattatsu o mosaku su 八達を摸索す): The “seven penetrations and eight masteries” (shittsū hattatsu 七通八達), or “seven passes and eight arrivals,” is a common expression in Dōgen’s writings and earlier Chan texts for “thorough understanding,” or “complete mastery.”
“Studied as a momentary samādhi” (ichiji no zanmai nari to shushū su 一時の三昧なりと修習す): The term samādhi here should probably be understood in its common usage in reference to any spiritual practice or experience, rather than to a psychological state of extreme concentration. Some interpreters take ichiji no zanmai 一時の三昧 as indicating “samādhi in each moment”; the translation takes it simply as a temporary state, or experience (in contrast to a general condition”) of which the following two questions here would be examples.
“The buddha nature becomes a buddha” (busshō jōbutsu 佛性成佛); “the buddha nature arouses the aspiration” (busshō hosshin 佛性發心): I.e. at the end and at the beginning respectively of the bodhisattva path. The questions may presuppose the common notion that the “buddha nature” refers to the potential to undertake and complete quest for buddhahood.
“We should make the columns ask it; we should ask the columns” (rochū o shitemo monshu seshimubeshi rochū ni mo monshu subeshi 露柱をしても問取せしむべし露柱にも問取すべし): The term rochū 露柱 (“exposed column”) refers to the free-standing pillars of monastic buildings, appearing often in Chan conversations as symbols of the objective world. Dōgen here reflects a saying attributed to Shitou Xiqian; Allusion to a well-known saying of the famous Tang-dynasty Chan master Shitou Xiqian 石頭希遷 (700-790), found, e.g., in the Liandeng huiyao 聯燈會要 (ZZ.136:738a3-4) and recorded in Dōgen’s shinji Shōbōgenzō (DZZ.5:148, case 41):
石頭無際大師〈嗣青原諱希遷〉因僧問、如何是祖師西來意。師曰、問取露柱。僧曰、某甲不會。師曰、我更不會 也。
The Great Master Wuji of Shitou (succeeded Qingyuan, called Xiqian) was once asked by a monk, “What is the intention of the ancestral master’s coming from the west?”
The master said, “Ask the columns.”
The monk said, “I don’t understand.”
The master said, “I don’t understand either.”
Quote:
しかあればすなはち、無佛性の道、はるかに四祖の祖室よりきこゆるものなり。黄梅に見聞し、趙州に流通し、 大潙に擧揚す。無佛性の道、かならず精進すべし、趑趄することなかれ。無佛性たどりぬべしといへども、何な る標準あり、汝なる時節あり、是なる投機あり、周なる同姓あり、直趣なり。
Therefore, the words “no buddha nature” are something heard far beyond the ancestral rooms of the Fourth Ancestor. They are seen in Huangmei; they circulate to Zhaozhou; they are raised by Dayi. The words “no buddha nature,” we should pursue with vigour; do not falter or hesitate. Though we may well have lost our bearings in “no buddha nature,” we have “what” as the standard, “you” as the time, “this” as the accord, Zhou as the same name; and we advance directly.24
Quote:
24.
“Ancestral rooms” (soshitsu 祖室): A common expression in Chan for the “inner recesses” of the tradition handed down from master to disciple.
“Huangmei” (ōbai 黄梅); “Zhaozhou” (jōshū 趙州); “Dayi” (daii 大潙): Reference to famous Chan masters who use the expression “no buddha nature.” “Huangmei” indicates the Fourth Ancestor, Daoxin himself; “Zhaozhou” and “Dayi” refer to Zhaozhou Congshen 趙州從諗 (778-897) and Guishan Lingyou 潙山靈祐 (771-853) respectively, both of whom will be quoted below.
“Pursue with vigour” (shōjin subeshi 精進すべし): I.e., make effort to understand. The term shōjin 精進, commonly used for the virtue of “zeal,” or “exertion,” does not typically occur as a transitive verb.
“Though we may well have lost our bearings in no buddha nature” (mu busshō tadorinubeshi to iedomo 無佛性たどりぬべしといへども): Most readers take the verb tadoru here in the sense tomadoi 戸惑 (“lose one’s way,” “grope about,” etc.).
“We have what as the standard” (ga naru hyōjun ari 何なる標準あり): The first in a list of four terms in Dōgen’s preceding discussion of the dialogue. The term hyōjun 標準 occurs fairly often in Dōgen’s writings in the sense of a “marker” or “norm”; akin to hyōkaku 標格.
“You as the time” (nyo naru jisetsu 汝なる時節): It is unclear what “time” is referred to here: the most likely candidate is the “time” in the question of the preceding section: “at what time now is it that he is ‘no buddha nature’?”
“This as the accord” (ze naru tōki 是なる投機): The term ze 是 (“this”) has also appeared above as “it’s” in Hongren’s statement, “it’s the buddha nature.” The word “accord” here translates tōki 投機, a term often indicating a perfect “fit,” or “match,” perhaps especially between master and disciple; here, perhaps the accord between “what” and “this.”
“Zhou as the same name” (shū naru dōshō 周なる同姓): Some manuscripts give the more familiar expression dōshō 同生 (“the same birth,” “born together”). “Zhou” (“all-embracing”) is Hongren’s family name (see, above, Note 22: “That name is Zhou”). It is not clear who (or what) here shares the name Zhou.
“We advance directly” (jikishu 直趣): The implication seems to be that, though “no buddha nature” may be confusing, given the guidance of the terms in the dialogue listed, we can immediately understand it. The expression, “advance directly” here may reflect the words, quoted elsewhere in Dōgen’s writings, “advance directly to supreme bodhi” (jikishu mujō bodai 直趣無上菩提).
