Plum Blossoms

[Onsho]

Once Zen master [Wuzu] Fayan said:
North wind mixed with snow shakes the valley forest.
Myriad things are hidden, but resentment is not deep.
There are only mountain plums which are high-spirited, Spitting out winter's cold heart just before the end of the year."

Hello folks.
Im reading Baika- Plum Blossoms by Dogan, Tanahashi's translation. There is a lot of mention of eye balls and Im looking to clarify its context. I have been treating it to mean True Dharma Eye but im unsure if thats how its supposed to be read.

Tell me who can attain such meaning?

Gassho
Onsho
Sat-lah

[Jundo]

Hi Onsho,

I would suggest to take such references as maybe something like "the eye of Buddha, the eye of Wisdom, which is the eye of life, your eye and my eye, the eye that is the whole world." Something like that.

The scholars at Soto Zen Text Project comment that it is "the image of the plum as the eye of the Buddha handed down in the lineage of the ancestors ... "

For example:

The “plum blossoms in the snow” are the udumbara flower that appears but once.'’ How many times, day after day, while looking upon the eye of true dharma of our Buddha, the Tathagata, have we futilely missed his blink and failed to smile?' Now, we receive and accede to the direct transmission that the plum blossom in the snow is truly the “eye” of the Tathagata. We take it up as the eye on the forehead [perhaps "the “third eye” of wisdom], as the pupil of the eye.'’ Further, when we study within the plum blossom and exhaustively investigate the plum blossom, no occasion for doubts emerges. This is surely the eye of “In heaven and on earth, I alone am honored’; it is honored throughout the dharma realm.”

... it is the “eye” of the Tathagata, illumining above the head, illumining beneath the feet [in all places]. ... it is the true dharma eye of Old Gautama.” The eye of the five eyes is exhaustively investigated here; the eye of the thousand eyes is perfectly realized in this “eye.”

FOOTNOTE:


five eyes (gogen TAR): A standard set of five levels of vision, typically given as (1) the “physical eye” (nikugen (ABR) of ordinary human sight, (2) the “deva eye” (tengen 天眼 ) of paranormal sight, (3) the “wisdom eye” (egen AR) that sees emptiness, (4) the “dharma eye” (hégen YEAR) of the advanced bodhisattva, and (5) the omniscient “buddha eye” (butsugen {fh HE). thousand eyes (sengen Tf): The eyes in the palms of each hand of the thousand-armed Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.

So, take it to mean something like each bud is a Buddha's eye of wisdom preached. Something like that.

Does that help?

Gassho, J

stlah

[Onsho]

Yes! Immensely. It feels so much more intimate now that I'm reading it with that context.
Fantastic....

Thank you Jundo.

Gassho,
Onsho

[Jundo]

The quote I posted references the very same story of the Buddha holding up a flower and winking, and Mahakashyapa smiling, that I play on here ...

Zazen as a Single Flower
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?22546-Zazen-as-a-Single-Flower

Once, on Vulture Peak, amid a great assembly,
the Buddha, the World Honored One, held up a [udumbara] flower [and blinked].
At this, all remained silent. Only Mahakashyapa smiled.
The World Honored One then said,
“I have the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shobogenzo), the wondrous Heart of Nirvana.
This, to Mahakashyapa, I now entrust.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Onsho]

I also happened upon this in Kajo this morning.

"When fatigue comes" means that there is fatigue in the midst fatigue; it springs forth complete from the summit of fatigue. Accordingly, the entire body is completely turned immediately by the activity of the entire body.
To "sleep" is to sleep using buddha eye, dharma eye, wisdom eye, ancestor eye, and pillar-and-lantern.

I feel like these fall into your example of "the same, but different, but the same"

[Kokuu]

"When fatigue comes" means that there is fatigue in the midst fatigue; it springs forth complete from the summit of fatigue. Accordingly, the entire body is completely turned immediately by the activity of the entire body.
To "sleep" is to sleep using buddha eye, dharma eye, wisdom eye, ancestor eye, and pillar-and-lantern.

I feel like these fall into your example of "the same, but different, but the same"

I love that you are diving into Shobogenzo, Onsho!

To me, what Dogen is saying in Kajo is when tired, just experience the tiredness and sleep. Buddha activity is complete realisation/intimacy with what is happening right now.

I see the holding up of the flower in the same way. Me writing this comment is Buddha holding up the flower, you reading it is Buddha holding up the flower, the feel of my fingers hitting the keys is Buddha holding up the flower. It is attention to just this, right here, right now. Realisation is achieved in life just as it is, in sleeping, eating, and seeing the plum blossom. Every moment is Buddha holding up the flower.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-