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<\/a>In recent days, I\u2019ve been playing around with translating some bits of D\u014dgen from his Eihei Koroku<\/em> (D\u014dgen\u2019s Extensive Record<\/em>), especially from Volume 9, his collection of ninety k\u014dans with verses. The only translation of these that I know of is by Leighton and Okumura and they are good, of course, but I\u2019ve long wondered if I might focus them from the perspective of k\u014dan training.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Given what we\u2019re working with these days at Vine of Obstacles Zen, including a bunch of our students digging into the mu<\/em> k\u014dan, and also that we\u2019re working through D\u014dgen\u2019s \u201cGuidelines for Studying the Way, #8\u201d (which addresses the mu<\/em> k\u014dan), I started by playing around with the two verses that D\u014dgen offers for \u201cVolume 9, 73, Zh\u00e0ozh\u014du\u2019s Dog.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n D\u014dgen first cites the full k\u014dan with both \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d responses from Zh\u00e0ozh\u014du and then gives two verses without further comment. However, I will say a few words about both verses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A monk ask Zh\u00e0ozh\u014du, \u201cA little dog also has the buddhanature, no?\u201d Whole-body little dog, whole-body buddha The first two lines express the tension of the this-little-dog life in the midst of the radiant-Buddha life. Although it is difficult to digest the apparent difference, that is precisely our practice, throughout the Circle of the Way, again and again.<\/p>\n The third line offers both a practice pointer (let go of both the this-little-dog\u201d life and the radiant Buddha life), and the fruit of the mu<\/em> k\u014dan (purchasing the self, or we might say, \u201cobtaining the true self\u201d).<\/p>\n The fourth line is encouragement \u2013 don\u2019t worry about you!<\/p>\n The cost of breakthrough is well worth the extraordinary effort that is required. Withering away, sloughing off bodymind is freedom and not something to be worried or feared.<\/p>\n \u201cYes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d \u2013 two buddha natures<\/span> In this verse, D\u014dgen again highlights the apparent duality of \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d, of being and nonbeing, and boldly asserts that seeing things as two is not the end of the story. A singular view may be difficult, but it is not our fate to be locked in the prison of the divided heart.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The third line contrasts two things that are much alike, cultured horse\u2019s milk and cultured cow\u2019s milk, aka, po-tato\/pot-ato. For D\u014dgen, \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d are like that \u2013 neither same, nor different. <\/span><\/p>\n And in the fourth line, D\u014dgen identifies \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d with the \u201cabsorption of total cessation\u201d \u2013 a technical dharma<\/a> term (<\/span>\u6ec5\u5c3d\u5b9a, Skt. nirodha-sam\u0101patti) defined in the Buddhist<\/a> Digital Dictionary as follows:<\/p>\n \u201cThis concentration has the power to extinguish mental functions in the first six consciousnesses <\/span>as well as the afflicted <\/span>manas<\/span><\/i>\u00a0(seventh consciousness), it is said to be the concentration practiced by sages. Since low-level practitioners and non-Buddhists are afraid to extinguish their individuality, they do not enter this concentration of complete extinction, but instead can only attain, at best, thoughtless concentration.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The parallel between what D\u014dgen identifies frequently as not-thinking (aka, thoughtless concentration) and non-thinking (the absorption of total cessation) is striking. And that the old dog D\u014dgen sees both \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d as the absorption of total cessation\/non-thinking, points to the liberation realized through becoming and breaking mu <\/em>open. <\/span><\/p>\n Open!<\/span><\/p>\n Both of these poems by D\u014dgen are \u201cinside jobs\u201d and reveal a intimate understanding that can, in my view, only come from working with mu<\/em> as a k\u014dan and probably also working with students.<\/p>\n Up next from D\u014dgen, \u201cRight now, clouds and water practitioners, is there someone who gets it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach Sensei, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen<\/a>, an online training group. D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is also the author of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/a><\/i>. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a> was published in 2021 (Shambhala). His\u00a0third book, Going Through the Mystery\u2019s One Hundred Questions<\/em><\/a>, is now available. Click here<\/a> to support the teaching practice of D\u014dsh\u014d R\u014dshi.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In recent days, I\u2019ve been playing around with translating some bits of D\u014dgen from his Eihei Koroku (D\u014dgen\u2019s Extensive Record), especially from Volume 9, his collection of ninety k\u014dans with verses. The only translation of these that I know of is by Leighton and Okumura and they are good, of course, but I\u2019ve long wondered […]<\/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":[11,412,62],"class_list":["post-10339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dogen","tag-eihei-korokuroku","tag-mu-koan"],"yoast_head":"\nVolume 9, 73: Zh\u00e0ozh\u014du\u2019s Dog<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nZh\u014du said, \u201cYes.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe monk said, \u201cSince they have, why do they run into this skin bag?
\nZh\u014du said, \u201cBecause knowingly, they intentionally make a mistake.\u201d<\/span>
\nAgain, a monk asked, \u201cA little dog also has the buddhanature, no?\u201d<\/span>
\nZh\u014du said, \u201cNo.\u201d
\nThe monk said, \u201cAll living beings each and everyone have the buddhanature. Why then doesn\u2019t a dog?\u201d
\nZh\u014du said, \u201cBecause they are in karmic knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\nD\u014dgen\u2019s first verse<\/h3>\n
\nIt\u2019s difficult to have a singular view, no?
\nSelling them for the same price, purchasing the self
\nDon\u2019t worry about selling below cost or withering away<\/p>\nD\u014dgen\u2019s second verse<\/h3>\n
\nare not the fate of living beings
\nEven though they seem like koumis becoming buttermilk
\nthey are the same as the absorption of total cessation<\/p>\nOne general comment<\/h3>\n
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