Reading: "Wild Ways of the Precepts in Japan"
It is not known if the precepts in sixteen articles resulted from Dogen’s own innovation or if he borrowed this group from another source. [Dogen, in a writing describing the ordination ceremony for his priests] states that the ordination ceremony described therein is exactly the same as the one conducted by [Dogen's Teacher in China] Ju-ching in 1225 when he administered the precepts to Dogen. The reliability of that assertion, however, seems doubtful. [from "Dogen and the Precepts" by Prof. Steven Heine]
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[The following is from a wonderful blog post, recommended to all, by Gesshin Greenwood on her experience of undertaking Jukai in Japan]:
If I could add a footnote here I would mention that the precepts are the same whether you are ordaining as a lay person, a monk-nun-priest, receiving dharma transmission (!), getting married, or you are dead and somebody is doing your funeral. It's all the same precepts.
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The hard-line, conservative view [in Japan] of the precepts is that it doesn't matter if you're aware of the meaning or not; it doesn't matter if you believe in them or not. As in zazen, you sit and this is in itself enlightenment. Sutras abound with descriptions about how simply the act of receiving the precepts is the basis of our enlightenment. In this view, receiving the precepts does the work for you. There's some doctrinal debate about this, of course. According to Buddhist studies professor William Bodiford,
Kyogen [Dogen's disciple] argued in traditional Tendai fashion that the bodhisatva precepts are not merely precepts but actually embody the essence of the Buddha. Kyogo asserts that in contrast to the Hinayana precepts, which just control our karmic actions, the Mahayana bodhisatva precepts describe buddha nature (i.e., reality) itself. The Mahayana precept "not to kill" should be interpreted not as a vow against killing, but as a realization of living enlightenment that clears away the "dead," static entities of our illusions (Zen in the Art of Funerals).
This is pure esoteric-mumbo-jumbo gold. All this time I thought I was just vowing not to kill mosquitos! Turns out it's not about not killing, but about not needing to not kill because I'm already enlightened! Screw you, mosquitos! Wait, what? Ugh. That's not right.
http://thatssozen.blogspot.jp/2015/0...gibberish.html
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[More from Prof. Bodiford in "Bodhidharma’s Precepts in Japan"]:
Japanese Buddhists began to distinguish between conventional wording of the precepts (jikai) to which they assigned secondary importance, and the spiritual essence (kaitai) or ideal precepts (rikai), which became equated with Buddhahood itself. … [Accordingly], each of the individual bodhisattva precepts was (and is) conceived of as expressing a singular Buddha precept that transcends all distinctions-whether between so-called "hinayana vinaya" and precepts, secular life and monastic life, or good and evil. Although the nature of this unified precept is explained differently in various texts and in different schools of Japanese Buddhism, in general its absolute status rests on certain widely shared assumptions: the Buddha proclaiming the precepts is the ultimate Buddha…; each precept of the ultimate Buddha expresses the same unified, all-embracing ultimate reality that is Buddha nature (bussho) and thus the goal of the ordination ceremony is the proper ritual confirmation of this Buddha nature, cementing the bond that unites the limited, individual person to the universal, absolute Buddha.
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The purpose of the ordination is not to instill morality but to confirm the inherent awakening naturally possessed by all beings. Thus behavior, either in conformity with or in violation of the precepts, is meaningless. What is important, however, is to have faith in the Zen lineage and faith in the ritual efficacy of the ordination procedure.
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[More from "Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan" by Prof. Bodiford]:
Dogen told [his Disciple] Ejo that the essential teaching of Zen is sitting in meditation. He argued …that it is mistaken to assert that the essentials of Zen could be found merely in observing the precepts. … Dogen repeatedly stressed that all three aspects of Buddhist learning (i.e., precepts, meditation, and wisdom) are found simultaneously within the act of Zen meditation. In the conversation just cited, he rhetorically inquired of Ejo: “When seated in meditation (zazen), what precepts are not being observed? What virtues are lacking?” … Dogen endorsed the statement that observing the Hinayana precepts entailed breaking the bodhisattva precepts [He even quoted this view as being the true teaching of the Buddha. Dogen argued that precepts common to both scriptures—such as the Hinayana vow not to kill and the Mahayana vow not to kill—actually differ as much as heaven and earth]**
**[Dogen’s writings contain no explanation of the difference between these two identically worded precepts. The Ryakusho [a commentary written in the first generation after Dogen], however, explains that Hinayana precepts merely control karmic actions, whereas Mahayana precepts describe Buddha-nature (i.e., reality) itself.]
… Finally, Dogen regarded the implementation of the Zen monastic codes as being more important than the precepts. The importance of the precepts lay in their power to ordain new monks, but the true expression of the precepts could be realized only through the routines of Zen monastic life. In other words, the observance of the precepts merely represented conformity to the daily conduct …
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In 1872, the [Japanese] government promulgated an unprecedented law, the so-called "clerical marriage and eating meat" law, lifted the ban on clerical marriage, meat-eating, and the wearing of nonclerical garb by the Buddhist clergy. The law stated: “[F]rom now on Buddhist clerics shall be free to eat meat, marry, grow their hair, and so on. "
If you are interested, more on this from Gesshin, and the attitudes of many Buddhist priests in Japan to their callings ...
http://thatssozen.blogspot.jp/2015/0...nese-monk.html
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Originally Posted by Sekishi
