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<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nIn our recently concluded summer study session through the Vine of Obstacles Zen<\/a>, we explored \u201cZen Conduct\u201d through D\u014dgen\u2019s teaching in \u201cGuidelines for Studying the Way.\u201d <\/span>At the same time, I\u2019ve been playing around with translating some bits of D\u014dgen from his Eihei Koroku<\/em> (D\u014dgen\u2019s Extensive Record<\/em>), looking again at some of the sections that have been most meaningful to me over the years, as I highlighted in my recent post: Whole-Body Little Dog: New Translations of Two Old D\u014dgen Poems<\/a>. (1) The dharma<\/a> hall discourse that I\u2019ve translated below is much about \u201cZen Conduct\u201d and the \u201coutward\u201d signs of awakening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For this dharma hall discourse, I\u2019ve numbered the sentences for citation purposes. My brief comments follow:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n First, a general comment: this is an unusual dharma hall discourse in D\u014dgen\u2019s Record<\/em> in that it includes, indeed hinges on, an interaction with a student. Most other records from Zen masters in the classical period have a many such teacher-student interactions, but inexplicably, D\u014dgen\u2019s Record<\/em> has little. Perhaps there were such interactions that were not recorded, or perhaps D\u014dgen\u2019s style was to lay it out there and step down from the teaching seat.<\/p>\n That is not to say that D\u014dgen held himself aloof from his students. We know from his recorded interactions with both Koun Ej\u014d<\/a> and Tetsu Gikai<\/a> that he met them intimately, but perhaps not in verbal exchanges during dharma hall discourses.<\/p>\n Second, D\u014dgen\u2019s inquiry in this short discourse has long struck me as inspiringly clear and powerful: \u201cIs there someone who gets it?\u201d \u201cYes\u201d or \u201cNo\u201d are just falling into the secondary.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there someone who gets it?\u201d<\/p>\n Now, according to the Post Meiji Soto Orthodoxy (PMSO)\u2122, everytime anyone sits zazen, everyone gets it. But when they don\u2019t, they don\u2019t. If that was D\u014dgen\u2019s view, why would he raise this question and why wouldn\u2019t all the monks just run to the zendo and pull their legs up into full lotus?<\/p>\n I love this guy for stepping up and bowing. Well, it\u2019s also a bit of a stinky replay of Hu\u00eck\u011b in the cave with Bodhidharma, so even while loving it, I might shout, \u201cStop the Zen antics already!\u201d Or \u201cWhat is your way?\u201d<\/p>\n And to paraphrase D\u014dgen\u2019s comment \u2013 there is getting it, but this ain\u2019t it.<\/p>\n The monk persists. You go monk! Afterall, aren\u2019t we full and complete from the beginningless beginning? If so, what is<\/em> there to get? Turnabout is just turnabout and fairness isn\u2019t the issue \u2013 it\u2019s \u201cIs there someone who gets it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[I] know [your] feelings are agitated\u201d is a provisional translation of this difficult line (\u5e2b\u4e91\u3001\u60c5\u77e5\u6cf1\uff62\u5f97\u3002\u5e2b\u4e43\u4e91)<\/span>. D\u014dgen seems to be saying something like \u201cI see you, dude. I know who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n D\u014dgen refines the question for the monk: \u201cIs<\/em> there someone who gets it?\u201d becomes \u201cHow<\/em> is a person that gets it?\u201d D\u014dgen invites the monk and the assembly too, presumably, to share how they actually know if someone like them, for example, gets it.<\/p>\n The assembly has no response.<\/p>\n So after a long pause, with D\u014dgen waiting for someone to show one of the many ways how<\/em> one is who gets it, D\u014dgen speaks.\u00a0 And in so doing, he focuses not on the content of such a response, but on the so-called inner state of the practitioner and how it<\/em> is manifest in whatever response they might have. While sitting upright, D\u014dgen says with what must have been a lofty voice, \u201cBodymind upright, the sound of the voice is lofty.\u201d<\/p>\n What I\u2019ve translated \u201clofty\u201d (\u9ad8),<\/span> by the way, is \u201chigh\u201d or \u201chigh pitched\u201d or \u201cof high quality.\u201d Or \u201clofty.\u201d I assume here that D\u014dgen isn\u2019t centering sopranos, but is referring to the quality of the voice that is an expression of the upright bodymind, so I\u2019ve gone with \u201clofty.\u201d<\/p>\n In this dharma hall discourse, D\u014dgen clearly points to the work that can be done in the Great Way. Elsewhere, he says \u201cOne-pointed diligent effort (\u5c08\u4e00\u529f\u592b) precisely distinguishes the way.\u201d In this discourse, he meets a monk and the assembly through his bodymind presentation, offering them (and us) the upright truth.<\/p>\n (1) For other versions of what I\u2019ve translated in this post this see Taigen Dan Leighton and<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Shohaku Okumura\u2019s <\/span>Dogen\u2019s Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku<\/span><\/em><\/a> or Thomas Cleary\u2019s Eihei Koroku I-V, <\/em><\/a>#69.<\/em><\/p>\n In our recently concluded summer study session through the Vine of Obstacles Zen, we explored \u201cZen Conduct\u201d through D\u014dgen\u2019s teaching in \u201cGuidelines for Studying the Way.\u201d At the same time, I\u2019ve been playing around with translating some bits of D\u014dgen from his Eihei Koroku (D\u014dgen\u2019s Extensive Record), looking again at some of the sections that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68,11,14,18],"class_list":["post-10333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-awakening","tag-dogen","tag-enlightenment","tag-zen"],"yoast_head":"\nDogen\u2019s Extensive Record v1.72: <\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Click here<\/a><\/em> to support my Zen teaching practice <\/em><\/span>via Patreon. T<\/em>ranslations and writings like this are one facet of this work.<\/em><\/h4>\n
Sentence 1<\/h3>\n
Sentence 2<\/h3>\n
Sentence 3<\/h3>\n
Sentence 4<\/h3>\n
Sentence 5<\/h3>\n
Sentence 6<\/h3>\n
Sentence 7<\/h3>\n
To sum up<\/h3>\n
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