242 - Reflections on Sansuikyo, Dogen’s Mountains and Waters Sutra
252 - Reflections on Dogen’s “Bussho, The Buddha-Nature” Part 2: Total Existence

In his essay “Bussho,” or “The Buddha-Nature,” Dogen explores and expands a classic Mahayana Buddhist teaching. I reflect on a few central concepts from the first paragraph.

Read/listen to Part 2

 

Quicklinks to Article Content:

A Brief Recap of the Teaching of Buddha-Nature
A Refresher on How to Approach Dogen’s Writings
Bussho: Having Versus Being Buddha-Nature
Bussho: Living Beings, Buddha-Nature, and Total Existence

 

This episode is the beginning of a reflection on Dogen’s fascicle, or essay, called “Bussho,” or “The Buddha-Nature.” I will do at least one more episode on Bussho because a group of students at my Zen center are studying it over the next 4-5 months, but I can’t promise to cover the whole text, which is over 30 pages long and incredibly dense. Hopefully whatever I cover will be interesting and helpful. I enjoy taking my time with this kind of reflection, pausing to explore and play with words, phrases, imagery, metaphors, and concepts at length.

 

A Brief Recap of the Teaching of Buddha-Nature

Zen master Dogen lived from 1200-1253 and was a prolific writer. His teachings and texts are widely studied by Soto Zen Buddhists in modern times, and he is well known for taking traditional Buddhist and Zen teachings and turning them inside out in the pursuit of radical non-dualism. To fully appreciate what Dogen is doing in Bussho, I highly recommend listening to/reading my previous episodes on Buddha-Nature before you read or listen to this one, if you haven’t done so recently:

203 – Buddha-Nature: What the Heck is It and How Do We Realize It?

239 – One Reality, Many Descriptions Part 3: Buddha-Nature

To summarize very briefly by way of introduction, Buddha-Nature is a concept that arose as part of Mahayana Buddhism, a branch of Buddhism that started evolving several centuries after the Buddha’s death. Originally, Buddhists viewed a person and their tendencies as being a direct result of past choices in this lifetime or previous lifetimes. People had no “inherent nature,” but were free to shape their future in a positive way through Buddhist practice.

The Mahayanists saw things differently, proposing that our true nature is that of a Buddha – awake to the truth, compassionate, selfless, generous, and full of equanimity. Because of our self-centered greed, anger, and ignorance – all of it based on delusion – our true nature is obscured. Through practice we can awaken to Reality and see that all things are impermanent, the self is empty of any inherent and independent nature, and suffering arises because of our resistance to the truth. Then the qualities of a Buddha flow naturally. The aim of practice, then, is to uncover or discover your Buddha-Nature, as opposed to remaking yourself into an enlightened person through sheer force of will over the course of many lifetimes.

Ultimately, of course, it’s not so easy to awaken to your Buddha-Nature. It takes time, study, and work. The teachings make it clear that your Buddha-Nature doesn’t do you any good unless you awaken to it, so in practice the Mahayana way – at least in Chan/Zen and Vajrayana Buddhism – involves as much meditation and self-cultivation as Buddhist practice that does not include the concept of Buddha-Nature, such as Theravada.

 

A Refresher on How to Approach Dogen’s Writings

Before I get started on my reflections on “Bussho,” a few words about how to approach Dogen’s writings. I’ve talked about this before, especially in episode 242 – Reflections on Sansuikyo, Dogen’s Mountains and Waters Sutra, so I won’t go on too long here. However, before delving into a text as potentially befuddling as “Bussho,” I think it’s important to remind you of a few things:

  • In his profound writings like “Bussho,” Dogen is not explaining. Instead, he is using words, images, and concepts in unusual and creative ways to evoke (or provoke) a response in your heart and mind. In Zen we use the moon as a metaphor for the truth, and say the teachings are like a finger pointing at the moon – don’t get focused on the finger but instead look for the moon. The message Dogen is trying to convey can’t be found within his words but lies beyond his words.
  • The teaching in fascicles like “Bussho” is always pointing us toward the absolute, or the Independent Dimension of Reality (see Episode 202 – Two Truths: Everything is Okay and Everything is NOT Okay at the Same Time). Language and concepts are part of the Dependent Dimension of Reality and usually function to differentiate, define, and pin things down. Our experience of the Independent Dimension is timeless, boundaryless, intimate, and personal, so by their very nature language and concepts are inadequate for describing or expressing it.
  • Still, compassionate teachers say something, even if it can only be a finger pointing at the moon. One way to address the conundrum of using words to describe what can never be captured in words is to use words poetically. This is what Dogen does much of the time. We’re not meant to take the words at face value. It is also not very helpful to simply take them as metaphors for something else, as if Dogen could have written it all out in straightforward prose but chose to put it into a poetic code. Instead, we should allow the words to evoke something in us, and then explore
  • Although words can’t capture the Reality of the Independent Dimension, that doesn’t mean we should disregard them or be careless with them. Dogen chooses his words extremely carefully. Engaging with his language – why this word or phrase or image? – is an important part of opening up to the deeper meaning of his teachings.
  • Finally, Dogen is deeply devoted to pushing his students toward radical non-duality. Our natural tendency is to get attached to fixed and limited concepts such as, “I have Buddha-Nature somewhere deep inside me and I practice to gradually uncover it.” Even when there is some truth or value to such a view, Reality is much more profound than that. To shake us out of our conceptual nests, Dogen often takes classic teachings like Buddha-Nature and turns them upside down, changes them, and sometimes even appears to contradict them. And then in the next paragraph he may take his own language and turn that inside out as well. He is not trying to give us a neat idea we can carry away with us, he is trying to confound and blow our limited, discriminating minds. So hopefully you can relax when you read Dogen and find your brow furrowed with the frustrating attempt to understand what he’s talking about, and just settle in for the ride.

 

Bussho: Having Versus Being Buddha-Nature

The translation I will be reading from is by Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross. Bussho is chapter 22 in their translation of the Shobogenzo and can be found in volume two of their publication. There are certain words and phrases in the text that Nishijima and Cross italicize because Dogen wrote them in Chinese (the rest of his writing was in the colloquial Japanese of his time). He did this throughout the Shobogenzo and it seems to mean he wanted to emphasize the words, or make it clear that they point to an aspect of the truth that should be investigated carefully.

Shakyamuni Buddha says:

            All living beings totally have the Buddha-nature:

            The Tathagata abides [in them] constantly, without changing at all.

What is the point of the World-honored One’s words that “All living beings totally exist as the Buddha-nature“? It is the words “This is something ineffable coming like this” turning the Dharma wheel. Those called “living beings,” or called “the sentient,” or called “all forms of life,” or called “all creatures,” are living beings and are all forms of Existence. In short, Total Existence is the Buddha-nature, and the perfect totality of Total Existence is called “living beings.” At just this moment, the inside and outside of living beings are the Total Existence of the Buddha-nature.[i]

Curiously, Nishijima and Cross translate Dogen’s first quotation of Shakyamuni’s words slightly differently than the second, where he asks the point of the Buddha’s teaching. In the first, Shakyamuni says “all living beings totally have the Buddha-nature,” while the second sentence is translated as “all living beings totally exist as the Buddha-nature.” In his translation of the Shobogenzo, Kaz Tanahashi does not do this, phrasing the very first quotation of Shakyamuni as stating, “living beings all are buddha nature.”[ii]

I don’t want to dwell on translation issues in this episode as that’s a rabbit hole that can be helpful but can also further complicate efforts to engage with Dogen’s text in a deep and personal way. However, I think it’s worth investigating this “totally have” versus “totally exist as” because it marks Dogen’s radical departure from the classic interpretation of the teaching of Buddha-Nature. In their footnote about this, Nishijima and Cross explain:

1. “Totally have” is 悉有 (SHITSU-U).  悉 (SHITSU, kotogoto[ku]) means “totally.”  有 (U, a[ru]) as a verb, means “have” or “possess” and also “exist”; and as a noun it means “being” or “existence.” In his commentary Master Dogen interprets 悉有 (SHITSU-U) in his own way, as an adjective and noun suggesting reality itself: “Total Existence.”[iii]

I don’t read Japanese and am not a professional scholar, so I can’t argue for the legitimacy of Nishijima and Cross’ interpretation here. However, it makes sense to me that Dogen might accurately quote Shakyamuni at first; after all, by Dogen’s time the teaching of Buddha-Nature had been phrased as “all beings have Buddha-Nature” for over 1,000 years. Throughout the rest of “Bussho,” most translators seem to agree, Dogen says all beings are Buddha-Nature. However, the ambiguity of the phrase SHITSU-U also implies that having Buddha-Nature and being Buddha-Nature are not really different but are like two facets of the same jewel.

Let’s explore having Buddha-Nature versus being Buddha-Nature. “Having” requires someone to have and something to be had. There is value in looking at Reality-with-a-capital-R through this lens, as I discuss in Episode 239 – One Reality, Many Descriptions Part 3: Buddha-Nature. Awakening to the truths of Emptiness and Suchness is liberating but in some senses impersonal, while Buddha-Nature celebrates the existence of all beings and things, without which there would be no awakening. The teaching, “You have Buddha-Nature,” encourages you to look within, to stop reaching for things outside yourself, to devote yourself to diligently uncovering what is already yours. However, the dualisms inherent in “having Buddha-Nature” can become an obstacle: You versus your Buddha-Nature; having versus not-having; having uncovered your Buddha-Nature versus not yet having uncovered it.

When, alternatively, you are told, “You are Buddha-Nature,” what changes? Now whatever Buddha-Nature is pervades your whole body and mind. There is no special “nature” residing within you, waiting to be discovered. There is no special nature which exists separately from coverings of delusion and self-centeredness, its beauty and luminosity hidden and oppressed by heavy layers of karma. “You are Buddha-Nature” suggests “you” are not in charge of your practice the way you think you are, nor are you responsible or to blame for however “awakened” you currently are. Instead, the Buddha-Nature is manifesting and acting through you.

Of course, this brief discussion leaves many questions unanswered, but let’s move on.

 

Bussho: Living Beings, Buddha-Nature, and Total Existence

What about Dogen’s phrase “Total Existence?” He says, “All living beings totally exist as the Buddha-nature,” “Total Existence is the Buddha-nature,” and “the perfect totality of Total Existence is called ‘living beings.’” In sections like this, which happen often in Dogen’s writings, it seems like he’s talking in circles, stating A is B, and B is C, and oh, by the way, C is A. It may help to know that stylistically such passages look very different when written in Japanese. English uses a lot of stand-alone words to indicate relationships and causality, where in Japanese the main words – nouns, adjectives, verbs – are represented by ornate and repeated characters interspersed with beginnings and endings written in hiragana, a supplementary form of Japanese script. These beginning and endings are what give you a clue to the relationships between the characters. The visual emphasis remains much more on the nouns, adjectives, and verbs than it does in English, where the sentences can seem rather cluttered with particles and prepositions (of, is, as, are).

When Dogen seems to be equating or tangling up a whole bunch of words or phrases, he’s moving those words or phrases around in his sentences like objects on a shelf. Let’s say we have a visual representation of Buddha-Nature, plus one for “all living beings,” and one for “Total Existence.” Then we place them in order: Buddha-Nature, all living beings, Total Existence. We can make up some prepositions and connecting verbs to make this into a sentence, like “Buddha-Nature is all living beings’ Total Existence.” Or “Buddha-Nature is when all living beings have Total Existence.” Then we can switch things up: Total Existence-Buddha-Nature-all living beings. This might be “Total Existence is the Buddha-Nature of all living beings.” If we play with this enough, it suggests that the possessive or causative relationships between our three items cannot be pinned down. Instead, we start to think of our three things as being in an intimate and interdependent relationship that is ever-changing.

Buddha-Nature is our true nature, which in at least one Zen text is described as “eternal, joyous, selfless, and pure.”[iv] We are looking for it. We want to awaken to it. All living beings are us. What is Total Existence, and where does it enter into the relationship between living beings and their Buddha-Nature? What is Total Existence doing up on our metaphorical shelf?

Stop for a moment let the concept of “total” or “totally” fill your heart and mind. Synonyms and alternative translations of the Japanese SHITSU are entirety,[v] entire, complete, altogether, use up.[vi] When we do something totally, we do it wholeheartedly, without reservation. Without letting ourselves be stopped by any inhibition, fear, doubt, or anxiety we might feel. We don’t hold back, concerned about failure or injury or betrayal. Because we don’t hold back, we don’t have to wonder in the future what would have happened if we had thrown ourselves into what we were doing 100%. When we do something totally, we let go of our self-consciousness. The perceived separation between us and our activity falls away.

Even more profound is the idea of Total Existence, which is not even limited to a particular activity. Just being, wholehearted and completely, without getting caught in worries about our small and separate self. When we totally exist, we recognize there is no boundary between self and all things. As Dogen says, “At just this moment, the inside and outside of living beings are the Total Existence of the Buddha-nature.” All things are the Self, and everything is precious and luminous in its Suchness.

Of course, the Total Existence which is Buddha-Nature, and which, in its own totality, is living beings, is not simply a matter of momentary wholeheartedness or lack of self-consciousness. At such moments we are partaking of Total Existence and may intuit in what sense we are Buddha-Nature, but beware of grasping some particular experience and concluding that is it. Do not think you do not know, but also do not think you do know. This kind of knowing is not something fixed.

For example, what if someone asks you, “What is love?” You might throw out a couple definitions that capture important aspects of love, but you would be well aware that such a definition does not really answer the question if it is asked sincerely. You might mention some of your experiences of love, times when you know beyond a doubt that love was manifesting in you or in someone else, but you wouldn’t propose that your story was anywhere near the final word on the subject. In fact, all of us would probably agree that love is something very real, something we can know intimately and manifest, but not something it makes any sense to claim a complete understanding of. The best way to answer the question, “What is love?” is to demonstrate love, right then and there. What that demonstration looks like will be entirely dependent on the circumstances and who is involved.

Buddha-Nature and Total Existence are like this. The knowing inside you will be wordless, tender, and undefended. It will feel like a resonance or an intuition, as opposed to a conscious, intellectual understanding. At the same time, the mind is not excluded, and the words that were pointing to Reality will become clear.

 

I will be back in a few days with continued reflections on Bussho – let’s see if I can make it all the way through Dogen’s first paragraph!

Read/listen to Part 2

 


Endnotes

[i] Nishijima, Gudo and Chodo Cross. Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo (in four volumes). London: Windbell Publications, 1994. Volume 2, chapter 22.

[ii] Tanahashi, Kazuaki. Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo (p. 406). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

[iii] Nishijima, Gudo and Chodo Cross. Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo (in four volumes). London: Windbell Publications, 1994. Volume 2, chapter 22.

[iv] Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo, or the Ten Phrase Life Prolonging Kannon Sutra. Excerpted from The Zen Master Hakuin, translated by Philip B. Yampolsky, reprinted with permission from Columbia University press. https://tricycle.org/magazine/the-kannon-sutra/

[v] https://web.archive.org/web/20120627065128/http://www.stanford.edu/group/scbs/sztp3/translations/shobogenzo/translations/bussho/translation.html

[vi] https://tangorin.com/kanji?search=%E6%82%89

 

242 - Reflections on Sansuikyo, Dogen’s Mountains and Waters Sutra
252 - Reflections on Dogen’s “Bussho, The Buddha-Nature” Part 2: Total Existence
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