Welcome,
And thank you for being here for our fifth talk on A.
H.
Dogen's Ryujin,
The Dragon Song.
Dogen continues with a line from the 8th century Chinese Zen teacher,
Damao Fuchang,
Quoting,
I have encountered spring many times,
But the mind has not changed.
Is the dragon singing with complete witheredness?
Here's another translation.
How many times have I met the spring,
My heart unswerving?
This is the dragon song of one who is completely withered.
Again,
This is the dharma expressed in complete stillness and silence.
Dogen borrows this line from a poem by a hermit mountain monk named Hoji,
And was a response to the 8th century Zen teacher,
Baso.
Here is the background story that Dogen details in Gyoji on Ceaseless Practice.
Baso says to Hoji,
This very mind is Buddha.
Hoji responds by becoming a mountain hermit.
Here is the story as told by Dogen.
While training in Baso's community,
Hojo once asked the master,
What is Buddha?
Baso replied,
Your very mind is Buddha.
Hojo immediately experienced great realization.
As a consequence,
He climbed to the summit of Mount Daibai to be away from society.
Living alone in a hermit's thatched hut,
He survived on pine nuts and wore clothing he made from lotus leaves.
For more than 30 years,
He pursued the way by doing seated meditation.
He neither met anyone nor heard about any human affairs,
And he forgot about the passing years,
Seeing only the mountains turning now green,
Now yellow.
You can imagine how wretched the winds and frosts were.
In Zazen,
He would place an eight-inch iron pagoda atop his head as if he were wearing a jeweled crown.
By endeavoring to keep this pagoda from dropping off,
He kept from falling asleep.
Until his death,
This is how he tirelessly trained in the way.
One day,
A monk from Enkan's community arrived.
The monk had come to the mountain in search of a traveling staff,
But he had wandered off the mountain path and fortuitously came upon the master's hermitage.
Unexpectedly,
He encountered the master,
Whereupon he asked him,
Venerable monk,
How long have you been living on this mountain?
The master replied,
All I have seen is the mountains about me,
Now dyed green,
Now dyed yellow.
The monk then asked him,
In what direction should I go to find the path out of the mountains?
The master said,
Go by following the stream.
The monk was struck by this response.
So,
When he returned,
He told Enkan what had happened.
Enkan said,
Some years ago,
When I was with Baso,
I once met a certain monk,
But I don't know what happened to him.
I wonder whether he could be that monk.
Later,
When Enkan sent the monk to invite the master for a visit,
The master would not leave the mountain.
Rather,
He composed a poem in reply.
Broken down yet living still,
A withered tree,
A slant amidst the chill forest.
How many times have I met this spring,
My heart unswerving?
Woodcutters pass this monk by without even a backward glance.
So why does the carpenter eagerly desire to seek me out?
Woodcutter is a common metaphor in Zen Buddhism for disciples who are still working on cutting the roots off of their past karma.
The carpenter is an allusion to Enkan as a spiritual master and teacher.
The upshot was he didn't pay Enkan a visit.
In fact,
Afterwards,
He decided to move deeper into the mountain.
And he composed another poem.
From this pond,
The lotus leaves I have taken for wear have no end.
And from a few trees,
The pine cones have supplied for my meals more than enough.
Now people from the world have discovered my dwelling place.
So I shall move my reed abode to enter a seclusion ever more deep.
One day,
Baso had a monk go and expressly ask Hojo,
Venerable monk,
In former times when you went in deepest respect to train under Baso,
What led you to dwell on this mountain?
He answered,
Baso said your very mind is Buddha.
And then I came to dwell upon this mountain.
The monk then said,
These days,
His Buddha dharma is different.
The master asked,
In what way is it different?
The monk replied,
Baso now says,
What is not mind is not Buddha.
The master responded,
That old fellow,
I swear there is no end to his bewildering people.
Even if that what is not mind is not Buddha of his is so,
Well,
I'll just stick with your very mind is Buddha.
When the monk reported to Baso what Hojo had said,
Baso replied,
The plum has fully ripened.
Whether or not this story is actually true or not,
Does not matter.
In fact,
The Zen scholar John McRae notes that made up stories may have more impact than historical fact.
The point here is that we can view this legend as a metaphor for deep,
Committed,
Continuous practice.
So until next time,
Please,
For the sake of all beings,
Just keep practicing no matter what.
Thank you.
