I was speaking with my teacher, Kosho, one day. We had made our way to the topic of Pure Land Buddhism and I expressed that Shinran Shonin's teachings helped me better understand the teachings of Dogen Zenji. In response to my bit about Shinran and Dogen, he mentioned to me that a long time student of Houn Jiyu-Kennett Roshi, founder of Shasta Abbey on Mt. Shasta, whose name I cannot recall at this time dropped Zen and began to practice Pure Land Buddhism. After relaying the reason for the practitioner's conversion (which was the welcoming and kind nature of the Pure Land community) he said something that has struck me and has refused to leave my mind, that being:
"... suddenly everyone had become evil beings to him."
That statement struck because it seemed out of place, because I think. In this statement he gave a sort of tacit admission that in Zen there are no evil or foolish beings. Presumably the idea is that everyone is a Buddha from the outset - which is a pretty commonplace concept within Zen that is often expressed in with the phrase 'Soku Shin Ze Butsu' or 'Your very mind is Buddha.' Although it may be the case the this terse phrase carries the truth, if it is interpreted incorrectly -that it is if one takes to mean that their intellectual, calculating, mind or small mind is the mind mentioned in the aphorism - this creates a lot of problems for practitioners. Dogen wrote a whole chapter in his Shobogenzo devoted to the proper understanding of this Zen adage entitled Soku Shin Ze Butsu, on the issue of misunderstandings, Dogen says the following (in Rev.Hubert Nearman's Translation):
"What the Buddhas and Ancestors, without exception, have traditionally maintained and entrusted to us is, simply, that this very mind of ours is Buddha. Even so, the statement “Your very mind is Buddha” did not come from India, but was first heard in China. Many trainees have misunderstood what it means, but have failed to explore their misunderstanding to their advantage. Because many have not seen their misunderstanding through to its obviously erroneous conclusion, they have wandered off onto non-Buddhist paths.
Hearing talk of ‘your very mind’, those befuddled by doubts speculate that the intellective, cognitive, and perceptual functions of sentient beings are synonymous with ‘the Mind of enlightenment before someone has awakened to It’, and accordingly fancy themselves to be a Buddha. This is due to their never having encountered a genuine Teacher of Buddhism."
Dogen points out the problem I saw in the statement by my teacher, that 'those befuddled by doubts speculate that the intellective, cognitive, and perceptual functions of sentient beings are synonymous with ‘the Mind of enlightenment before someone has awakened to It’, and accordingly fancy themselves to be a Buddha.' This 'fancying themselves a Buddha' is a pretty serious problem. This kind of thinking leads to spiritual pride and self-aggrandizing that brings only more suffering and confusion. When we practice the Buddha's way, we don't practice because we are Buddhas already, we practice because we are foolish beings - we are suffering and having become aware of it, seek a way out. We shouldn't bask in the glory and luminosity of our great bright Buddha minds, but diligently seek out our delusion through practice. Dogen in his Shobogenzo chapter Genjokoan wrote:
"Those who have great realization of delusion are Buddhas; those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings."
This is a pretty straightforward statement, there's no getting around what he's saying here. If one continues to fancy themselves a Buddha, they are greatly deluded about realization - neglecting delusion and clinging to this view of enlightenment is further delusion. A part of this fancying oneself a Buddha is the assumption that man's nature is good. I don't believe that this assumption is quite correct, yet those on the Zen side believe that the Shin Buddhists hold that man's nature is bad due to the terms foolish and evil beings. And many turning to their understanding of Shin as 'Buddhist Christianity' or 'Buddhist Protestantism' think that Shin holds a metaphysical dichotomy between foolishness and enlightenment because of the insistence of the Shin that we are all foolish beings incapable of achieving enlightenment by our own means. This understanding of Shin is utterly unfounded, as the Shin idea of butsubon-ittai or kiho-ittai meaning "the Buddha and the fool are of one body" state that, as is explained in the name, the Buddha and the fool share the same nature. It is only the foolishness and pride of the ordinary beings that stands in the way of their union with Amida, not a metaphysical barrier that permanently separates the two like in Christianity. I think that in Zen we have the same idea of Foolish beings that Shin has, but hearing that you're a Buddha is more dignifying and enlightening so people will flock to that.
Getting back to Soku Shin Ze Butsu, we've clarified what is the wrong way of looking at this phrase, so what does Dogen have to say about the proper understanding? Dogen wrote this:
"Now you know clearly: what is called ‘mind’ is the great earth with its mountains and rivers; it is the sun, the moon, and the stars. [...] Since this is the way things are, “Your very mind is Buddha” means, pure and simply, that your very mind is Buddha; all Buddhas are, pure and simply, all Buddhas.
Thus, “Your very mind is Buddha” refers to all Buddhas, that is, to Those who have given rise to the intention to realize Buddhahood by practicing and training until They awaken to Their enlightenment and realize nirvana. Those who have not given rise to the intention to realize Buddhahood by practicing and training until they awaken to their enlightenment and realize nirvana are not those whose very mind is Buddha. Even if, for a fraction of an instant, you give rise to the intention to train and realize the Truth for yourself, your very mind will be Buddha."
This mind that gives rise to the intention to realize Buddhahood is what Dogen called 'the Mind of enlightenment before someone has awakened to It' in the previous quote from the chapter. Dogen gives two conceptions of how your very mind is Buddha - first is the the mind is the great earth and the sun, sky, moon and stars, and second is the mind that gives rise to the intention to attain Buddhahood. How exactly does Dogen reconcile or combine these two conceptions? I think a good idea of how to understand it comes from a line in Genjokoan:
"To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening."
Myriad things is another way of saying the great earth, the sun, sky and stars. The great earth, the sun, sky and stars is another way of saying 'mind.' 'Mind' is another way of saying all Buddhas. All Buddhas is another way of saying those who have the mind that gives rise to the intention to realize nirvana. Those who have the mind that gives rise to the intention to realize nirvana is another way of saying those who have 'the mind of enlightenment before one has awakened to it.' Therefore, myriad things could be understood as the mind of enlightenment. So, when the mind of enlightenment(myriad things) comes forth and experiences itself, that is awakening. When all things along together with the practitioner aspire to realize nirvana it will happen without fail, but if one wishes to realize nirvana and trains, continuing to be in opposition to all things(carrying oneself forward) one will fail. When one practices and trains and sees that all things train with them it is undefiled practice and therefore enlightenment there in that very moment. But one should keep in mind, from the first Genjokoan quote that when we are enlightened it is a great realization of our delusion. Even when our mind itself is Buddha we continue to be foolish beings in the fullest... if you catch my drift.
Is your very mind Buddha?
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