Hokke Ten Hokke: Dharma Flower Turns Dharma Flower
This essay contains selected notes on Shohaku Okumura’s
commentary at GGF August 2015, but the gems of his commentary, for me, are the following ten statements.
- · We practice as bodhisattvas not to become Buddha but to stay in the world as Buddha. To become a Buddha is not the goal, but the starting point.
- · Our practice IS the Buddha (interesting! Buddha is a verb)
- · Bodhisattvas are the 5 skandas. [my note: we tend to think of them as disembodied, magical beings.] We are bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are ordinary beings and work through embodied interconnection.
- · Prajnaparamita is the five skandas. (We were amazed!)
- · Buddha’s “desire” (see paragraph 2) – “Desire” as sickness or malady. Buddha appears in Lotus Sutra because he wants all beings to know reality – to practice. Bodhisattvas have this desire and have to practice. Keep making VOW to walk to Buddhahood with all beings.
- · Freedom (from identification) from skandas is liberation. Skandas themselves are suffering. We are free from suffering when we see the skandas as empty. (first line of heart sutra.) Dogen: “dropping body and mind” is dropping the 5 skandas.
- · Dogen’s practice is not to stop thinking,. Thoughts are who we are. Thinking and not thinking are both there. This is why Dogen is unique. Only one to say you don’t have to stop thinking, just let go.
- · Dogen: taught everyday mind. (not some special mind.) Don’t [need] supernatural world. Dogen talked about the phenomenal world, nothing beyond this world and its emptiness.
- · Practicing in delusion (ours) is bodhisattva practice. (Not some pure bodhisattva practicing in someone else’s delusion!)
- · For Dogen, doesn’t matter if the mind is agitated. How we relate to others is what matters. Our mind becomes distorted when not relating well. When relations are good, our mind calms.
Introduction
Hokke Ten Hokke is a unique fascicle: written as a letter to
his student Etatsu on the occasion of his ordination. Dogen wrote the fascicle
in both Chinese and Japanese, making translation more difficult.
comments re Mahayana (condensed):
That the Buddha practiced as a bodhisattva is the gem of the
creation of the Mahayana.
There are two sets of buddha’s teaching: Do good and do not
do evil; otherwise, a person could go to heaven or hell. (practice offerings, etc) The second set of
teachings was to go beyond good and evil: beyond discriminatory mind and enter
nirvana. Going beyond means no clinging to good deeds or afflictive emotions (like
anger). Mahayana combined both sets of teachings.
Central tenet of Mahayana: samsara and nirvana are one.
Prajna paramita sutras were the insight of emptiness. Basic goal is to become a
buddha and stay in samsara AS A BUDDHA.
Not crossing over [from one plane of existence to another]
results in samsara and nirvana being one.
With this attitude itself, we discover nirvana (in the middle of
samsaric world)
Dogen and the Lotus Sutra
Dogen became a monk in the Tendai tradition, and its main
text was the Lotus Sutra [LS]
Buddha’s first statement in chapter two of the Lotus
Sutra: Sho ho ji so: all dharma beings are true reality.
All people have a unique expression of Buddha’s life. Each one of us expresses the dharma.
Body and sound are one thing. Dogen’s realization: no
separation subject and object. Everything (sentient and insentient) expresses
the dharma when our eyes and ears are open.
Those who hear the dharma are rare.
Main topic of LS chapter 2– 13: prediction that all
bodhisattvas will become a buddha. Bodhisattvas will not enter nirvana, but
stay in samsara.
To become a Buddha is not the goal, but the starting point.
Chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra: buddha’s infinite lifetime
Nirmanakaya: Buddha’s human body and lifetime
Dharmakaya: Buddha’s
teaching
Buddha: if you see dharma, you see me
BUDDHA IS YOUR PRACTICE. Must
study and practice. Dharma body is always present, manifests when you practice
Commentary on Hokke
Ten Hokke – Dharma Flower Turns Dharma Flower
( paragraph 1)
“Within the buddha lands in the ten
directions” [direct quote from Lotus Sutra] is “only being” of the dharma
flower.
Dharma flower is the flower of emptiness and refers to the
Lotus Sutra. A lotus grows in muddy
water. (symbol of samsara and nirvana)
“ten directions”
everything, everywhere. Where you are.
All beings are turned by dharma flowers and turning dharma
flowers.
Reality and awakening are within the same One Vehicle
“Within these buddha lands are
“original practices within the bodhisattva path” [quote from Lotus Sutra]
without backsliding or deviating [we cannot go backward], the wisdom of the
buddhas that is extremely profound and beyond measurement and peaceful and calm
samadhi that is difficult to understand and enter.” [the entire universe is in
samadhi and cannot be observed. There is no way to know the dharma, because
there is no separation into subject and object]
Practice for a bodhisattva: not to cling to
change/impermanence. Shohaku:
bodhisattvas are the 5 skandas. [my note: we tend to think of them as
disembodied, magical beings. We are
bodhisattvas.
Paragraph (2) Hokke Ten Hokke
This [Buddha’s Appearance ch 15 of
LS] is nothing other than the one time he desires to “open” and “display [the
Buddha’s insight] and “enable living beings” to “realize” and “enter” saying “I
and the Buddhas in the ten directions are able to know this matter.” [Quotes
are from LS]
LS says only Buddha can fathom reality. Dogen: ALL BEINGS. The entire universe is in
samadhi.
Buddha’s “desire” Desire as sickness or malady. Buddha
appears in LS because he wants all beings to know reality – to practice. Bodhisattvas have this desire and have to
practice. Keep making VOW to walk to Buddhahood with all beings.
To find our own, unique activity is to share the dharma.
Paragrah: Dialogue between Huineng and Fada
Dharma in LS and Zen tradition are in the One Vehicle. It
appeared in the world; “indeed it has appeared right here..” The dharma is right here, right now, in your
life, not in some distant buddha land.
“Lifespan of Tathagatha” one
seamless moment. Reality in seamless time and space.
“bestowing of the prediction.” In LS, Buddha’s prediction was that all
beings will be Buddha. In Dogen, not
about the future. Not in time. The
actualized self is the prediction itself.
(9)
You must now believe that the
Buddha’s insight is nothing other than your own mind.”
Shohaku spent time talking about
mind:
Senika teaching:
atman (essential self) is pure and unchanging and undefiled. Must do ascetic practices to mortify body to
realize the atman. Buddha did these
practices. This is a non-Buddhist idea. (a permanent, unchanging essence}
Senika influenced Huineng (6th ancestor) (Nanyo
Echu] whose lineage led to Southern school and sudden realization. (Rinzai) (The
philosophy changed through the generations.)
Buddha taught anatman -
no self. There are 5 skandas and
nothing else.
When asked “what is buddha-nature?” Shohaku said “I don’t know.” Idea of buddha- nature appeared with Nagarjuna.
“Mind itself is Buddha” was not in Indian Buddhism, but Chinese
Chan, crafted by Baso
150-250 ad: Madyamika
appeared. Idea of tathagarbatha. Womb
nature, tiny golden buddha within a person.
Not “the owner of the skandas as with the atman idea.” This idea needed to show a person could
become a buddha. There must be the possibility of Buddhahood.
Dogen: mind is grass, trees, tiles and pebbles. See Dogen
fascicle: Mind Itself is Buddha
Our mind is all dharmas, the reality of all being. Not
beyond the phenomenal world.
For buddha, the 5 skandas are Mara. Buddha did not conquer mara, but lived with
her/him. We identify with the 5 skandas,
and this is the cause of suffering. We identify with the “I” of suffering, but
no one is actually suffering.
Freedom (from identification) from skandas is liberation.
Skandas themselves are suffering. We are free from suffering when we see the
skandas as empty. (first line of heart
sutra.) Dogen: “dropping body and mind” is dropping the 5 skandas.
Everything: prajna
paramita, bodhisattvas, us are the 5 skandas.
Southern school: only
sentient beings can have buddha-nature. Dogen, not so. This highly debated
point and separated northern and southern schools.
Dogen: insentient beings can expound the dharma: pebbles,
rocks, tiles, a stream.
See Dogen fascicle: Mountain Streams Chant Hearing with eyes. Subject and object one, unmediated.
Dogen’s practice is not to stop thinking,. Thoughts are who
we are. Thinking and not thinking are
both there. This is why Dogen is unique.
Only one to say you don’t have to stop thinking, just let go.
Yakusan – Tozan – of northern school mixed with southern
school teachings – intertwined like fibers of a rope. Can find idea of original mind or face in
both. He did not reject Baso.
Dogen: everyday mind. Ordinary world. Don’t [need] supernatural world. Bodhisattvas are ordinary beings and work
through embodied interconnection.
Dogen talked about the phenomenal world, nothing beyond this
world and its emptiness.
Paragraph (12)
“You should know that all beings without exception are rare
treasures.”
Relates to famous story of son who ran away and becomes
impoverished. His father the king is
wealthy, and when his son returns, he puts him to work in the cowshed, because
the son was not ready for the knowledge that he was the king’s son. After the son gradually learns to manage the
kingdom, the king reveals to the son who he really is and that he is the owner
of great wealth.
We are buddhas. We are the rare treasure. This is the message
of the Lotus Sutra, of Buddha’s appearing in the world and his infinite
lifetime.
Our treasure is interconnection: Indra’s net. Each node is a
unique individual (five skandas) but Shohaku went on to say there is no being
(because always changing), just connection.
You are the entire network: therefore, everything is yours. (your
treasure.)
(16) Dogen’s Dharma
Flower turning
Shohaku: “having a question is
practice”
Before Dogen: one practiced over time. One heard the teaching and put it into
practice. Cause and effect. Then there was verification of satori based on
evidence.
Dogen: not a matter of cause and effect.
Practice/enlightenment is one word. Cause and result are one. Practice itself
is the evidence.
Shohaku related this to the Genjo Koan:
When we carry ourselves to the dharma, we are in delusion.
Satori comes to us is realization. It is
a matter of direction.
When we try to control others and our life, we are in
delusion. (discriminatory mind) When we
are receptive to the world, we are in enlightenment.
For Dogen, doesn’t matter if the mind is agitated. Practice
is not to stop the mind. How we relate
to others is what matters. Our mind becomes distorted when not relating
well. When relations are good, our mind
calms.
A bodhisattva cannot escape from the world. Must make decisions
in the world. Discriminating mind is important, therefore, delusion is not bad.
(16)
“Because [the dharma flower’s
turning] is only the one Buddha Vehicle, and because it is the dharma flower as
forms of suchness…Whether it is turning or being turned, it is the one Buddha
Vehicle and the single great matter.”
Realization and delusion are one vehicle. Turning and being
turned. Turned by both mayori (delusion) and satori (realization.)
We practice and put forth effort, and at the same time, all
dharmas come to us and support us in our practice.
“Therefore, do not regret having
mind delusions. Your activities themselves are bodhisattva practices.”
Practicing in delusion is bodhisattva practice.
(17)
“The phases of opening, displaying, realizing
and entering are all instance of being turned by dharma flowers.”
Burning house metaphor: in order to get the children out of
the burning house, the Buddha promised toys. This could be pictured as the
house, the gate, and the open field. So through the Buddha’s teaching, one
could travel out of the house, through the gate, and into the open field.
According to Dogen, we are in both the burning house
(samasara) and the open field (nirvana.)
Our minds are always in delusion.
But delusion does not have the bad connotation that it has in
English. We are always inquiring.
We are not trying to escape the burning house.
“right at the gate”
Whether inside the gate, at the gate, outside the gate: we are at the place of
“coming and going.” Right where we are;
each moment of our lives.
Although called delusion, we are always walking toward the
dharma (which is my own particular way and best way for me.)
We need “opening and displaying” by the teacher.
We should know that within the
carriage there is the turning [of the dharma flower] enabling buddhas to “open”
and “display” and [enabling living beings] to “realize” and “enter” the burning
house. And on the open ground, there is turning which causes us to open,
display, realize and enter the burning house.
Bodhisattvas choose to enter the burning house.
Outside (nirvana) and inside (samsara) the burning house is
practice: One Vehicle, one practice.
Our practice is to enter the gate [to the burning house or
to the open field] right were we are. There are boundless gates, and the gate
we enter is the universal gate.
[22]
“Giving the prediction [of future
Buddhahood in the Lotus Sutra] is nothing other than opening the Buddha’s
insight within the self; it is the dharma flower’s turning that cannot be bestowed
by others. This is exactly what is meant by “mind in delusion” is turned by the
Dharma flower.”
When we practice Buddha’s teaching, our practice here and
now is the prediction. Not some future event. [see Dogen’s fascile Juki,
prediction]
(23) Mind in realization turns the dharma flower
“The dharma flower in turn
manifests the energy of suchness that enables us to turn the dharma flower.”
Shohaku calls this energy of suchness, “the life force.” This energy allows us to practice
and, in turn, manifest the life force.
Shohaku
offered an analogy to the lines in Genjo Koan:
“To carry
yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things
come forth and experience themselves is awakening.”
How can
we practice two seemingly different things?
T The first sentence is being
turned by the dharma flower. Our individual life force goes out to
practice. D e Delusion is not necessarily a
bad thing. The second sentence is that myriad dharmas allow me to p ractice. When we practice with the attitude that we
are being turned by myriad dharmas is realization. The attitude corresponds to Uchiyama’s famous
expression, “opening the hand of thought.”
These two approaches happen at
the same time. [see Dogen’s Zenki,
Total Function.]
Buddha’s eternal life is
manifested through our practice.
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