Leandra Robertshaw, Rev. Master

 

A transcript of a Dharma talk given during the 2018 August Sesshin at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, inspired by re-reading Zen Master Dōgen’s fascicle from the Shōbōgenzō: Ikka Myōju (One Bright Pearl).

 

We all are One Bright Pearl. Please do not doubt this by undermining and devaluing yourself with your rational, judging, assessing mind. Don’t let inadequacy knock you off balance. It is not that we alone are the One Bright Pearl. All things in the universe are One Bright Pearl. This pearl is not some thing that can possessed, not some thing that can be owned by an individual; it is the manifestation of Buddha Nature. Being the One Bright Pearl doesn’t make us special, stand out above others. We all are One Bright Pearl; all things in the universe are One Bright Pearl. Yet, at times when the brilliant light of another calls for our attention and we see they are One Bright Pearl, they may seem to stand out above others.

I invite you individually to look into the deep connectedness of all things and how this connectedness can be expressed by taking refuge in the Sangha Treasure. During the Renewal of Vows ceremony, we take refuge in the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and are guided in how best to live in this turbulent world by expressing our Bodhisattva vows. Our lives as Bodhisattvas are guided by our practice. Zazen is central. The Precepts are essential. Finding your own expression in your own authentic voice is fundamental.

Do not copy others.  Do not devalue others.

These two Precepts invite us to take refuge in the Three Treasures along with all beings. We live this life alongside others, intertwined with others. Given this, we endeavour to take true refuge which means we look beyond our personal joy and suffering. True refuge cannot be only about us.

Zazen is useless if we approach it with gain-seeking mind.  Dōgen illustrates this in One Bright Pearl, taking up a set of dialogues between a teacher and a student – Seppō and Gensa. Gensa was a fisherman who loved boating and fishing on the river. One day a golden-scaled fish came to him without his seeking it, and suddenly he had the urge to leave the dusty world. The fish landed itself without being fished, for Gensa was already leading a relaxed and peaceful life without worrying about the results of his efforts, yet he chooses to leave the dusty world.

You too, in your own way, must have chosen to leave the dusty world or you would not be here today. Leaving the dusty world is not restricted to occasions when you are living in the monastery, rather it is an attitude of body and mind that lives in the world as if in the sky. Don’t be deluded or naive; rather, see that all the ten directions are both dusty and without a single speck of dust.

Gensa realised the precariousness of the floating world and the preciousness of the Buddha Way so he gave up his boat and went off into the mountains.

Stop and consider for a moment what you have given up in order to truly follow the Buddhadharma.

Gensa went to study with Seppō and after some years decided to go away and see what other teachers might have to offer. I wonder if he was looking for a more well-rounded education? Or was he at odds with his teacher? Or doubting that he could find enlightenment by staying on at Seppō’s temple? Was he bored? Was he wanting something fresh and more inspiring? I am asking such questions in case these are the sort of ideas that pull you away from your practice, just as it is now, in your daily lives.

As Gensa was walking away he stubbed his toe on a big stone. There was blood everywhere and his toe hurt horribly. He said to himself, “Some say the physical body doesn’t exist, so where then is this pain coming from?” He went back to Seppō’s temple.

Seppō said, “What’s happening, ascetic Gensa?”
Gensa: “The trouble is I can’t be fooled. No one can be fooled.”
Seppō: “Is there anyone who does not have these words inside them?” [i.e. know this deep down.] “But can others express these words out loud as Gensa did?”
Then Seppō  said, “So how come you decided not to leave the temple and further your education?”
Gensa: “Bodhidharma didn’t come to China. Eka didn’t go to India.”1

Historically speaking Bodhidharma did go to China but Eka didn’t go to India. So perhaps what Gensa was suggesting was that those monks responded to a call rather than making an intellectual or worldly decision. Gensa was hoping to learn from others, but in the end how much can we learn from others? Is it possible to find true satisfaction with secondhand knowledge? Don’t we need to experience things for ourselves? And, of course, we do learn from others; we are inspired by others.

Gensa came to see the reality of ‘now you have, this is all’. He came to see that there was nothing lacking in living with Seppō. The universe was always offering all that he needed and teaching at every moment (even if that teaching was sometimes painfully direct, like bashing his toe on a rock!) Sometimes people turn away from Sōtō Zen, or try it out in a different temple with a different flavour that they hope will suit them better, and sometimes like Gensa, they return after the detour.

Are any of you willing to say, “I can’t be fooled”?

Gensa went on to say no one can be fooled. Was he right in your case? Perhaps, we are all fooled at times until we stand on our own true ground. Part of the process of standing on our own true ground seems to be about balance, in the sense of finding our own way to learn from others without copying them. Do you really believe when it comes to rock-bottom that it is you, yourself, and nobody else who is the source of your own delusions and deceptions? Push yourself over this to see if actually you would still like to put the blame on somebody else. Uncomfortable clarity helps us to see that only we have the power to end our delusions, right here and now. Isn’t Buddhism about learning to cut through delusion? Probably most of us want to believe that delusion is caused by forces outside our control. Not so! Delusion and deception don’t come from outside.

Gensa’s ‘I can’t be fooled’ acknowledges that he, and we, can’t blame anyone else for anything. This is difficult, isn’t it? No loophole, no escape route from taking full responsibility for ourselves.

Gensa became Seppō’s heir. After the stubbed-toe episode Gensa never left Seppō. Who is to say whether it is better to stay with a particular teacher or to go around visiting different temples and learning from different teachers? How can we pontificate on this? It is hard enough to know what is good for us to do, let alone attempting to tell others what they should do. Sometimes a trainee leaves the OBC to practice with another Sōtō Zen tradition and yet they keep returning to honour and to express gratitude to their original training place. It can be clear that they have made a beneficial move, both for themselves and for those, as a bodhisattva, they encounter in their ‘new’ life. And, on the other hand, it may be useless to travel around if we have already found who the true teacher is for us.

As we recite in Rules for Meditation: “It is futile to travel to other dusty countries, thus forsaking your own seat.”

Life and the changes therein are multitudinous. Thus we need to keep sincerely asking, “What is good to do?” This can mean following changes of direction that may feel challenging, and may disturb and puzzle others that know you.

The chapter moves onto Gensa, who now is the master of the temple, saying to his disciples/students:

The entire world in the ten directions is one bright pearl.
A student asked, “How should I understand this?”
Gensa: What do you do with your understanding?

A good question for all of us to engage with. When we think we have finally understood an aspect of practice by penetrating it deeply through diligent and determined zazen, what then do we do with our understanding? Do we try to speak of it to others? If so, for whose benefit – theirs/ ours/ all of us?

When Dōgen speaks of ‘the universe in the ten directions’ – and he also does so frequently in other chapters of the Shōbōgenzō – what does he mean? Whatever we come up with, for example, ‘vast and great’, I suspect he would have said “No, not that!” So we try again.

Inconceivable and all encompassing.
No, not that!
Obvious and disclosed in perfect clarity.
No, not that!
Not obvious and hidden.
No, not that!

If we sit with and don’t push aside Dōgen’s frequent refusal not to get caught in any duality, something opens up in us even, in spite of continuing to feel we don’t understand. Dōgen goes on to point out, in his poetic and paradoxical way, that the truth of non-dualism is essentially inseparable from dualism; it is not its opposite. If non-duality were the opposite of duality, it would be dualistic, whereas non-duality is real because it flows into duality. Each informs the other in the impossibility of their separation. Thus coming and going, living and dying are expressions of everyday life. The One Bright Pearl is beyond life and death in terms of coming and going, so it is real life and real death in terms of coming and going. The past days have left and present starts from here. Who can see the ten directions as moment following moment, and who can talk about the world in the ten direction as solid and stable?

So can the ten directions be described as a state of total stillness? No and Yes. Personally, I see in myself and others the ceaseless process of pursuing things to make them into self and pursuing the self to make it into things. When emotions arise, wisdom is pushed aside. Because we chase the self and make it into things, the entire world in the ten directions is ceaseless. Yet, at times during zazen we may fall into the depth of total stillness. So here again there is no dualism between different states. It is the whole universe causing things to accord with ourselves and ourselves according with things. Even when our emotions and our intellect separate us from the real universe, and we feel that separation; even then, that sense of separation is also part of reality. Our body-and-mind of each present moment is One Bright Pearl. It isn’t that there are, or are not, miscellaneous things, bits and pieces of the entire world of the ten directions. It is just that they are all One Bright Pearl.

By not having any feature and flowing endlessly, the One Bright Pearl can take on any feature according with circumstances, while simultaneously it is sweeping along without stopping for an instant. This is a way of saying that impermanence never stops, even for an instant; it has no feature and is always manifesting in accordance with differing circumstances. In asking how the One Bright Pearl might be described and then saying, “No! not that”. Dōgen is telling us that the One Bright Pearl IS the world in the ten directions, not something that is IN the world of the ten directions.

We should always give a pearl to a close friend. (there is a story in the Lotus Sūtra of a man who sewed a valuable pearl inside the clothes of a dear friend who was drunk.) When you are drunk, i.e. deluded, there is a close friend who will give the pearl to you; and you as well must give the pearl to a close friend.

Although, you may say, “I am not a bright pearl” you should not doubt. Such doubt comes from limited views. However, limited views are merely limited views. There is nothing to despise or beat yourself up about. We all have limited views at times. In not condemning them we see them with the bright clarity of the pearl and the whole universe in the ten directions reveals the bright pearl’s infinite colours and shades. How lovely! Even our mistakes are part of the perfection of the universe. Everything is enlightened, even delusion. We must try endlessly to penetrate this mystery.

We fan ourselves (i.e. sit in zazen) even though the air is ever present. This refers to the last section of Dōgen’s Genjōkōan. However we assess our training to be going – whether brilliantly or failing hopelessly – it is still the One Bright Pearl. How can we not love the bright pearl? When a body-and-mind has already become a bright pearl, thereafter the body-and-mind is not personal. Then there is no worrying about whether we are a bright pearl or not a bright pearl. What arises and passes is not a substantial self. We are no longer gathering and binding weeds to trap ourselves.

When you clarify that the body-and-mind are the bright pearl, you understand the body-and-mind is not the self. Who then is there to be concerned about whether or not appearing and disappearing are the bright pearl? Even if you are concerned, that doesn’t mean you are not the bright pearl. You have come to see that your real, true nature is impersonal, and empty of any substance that appears and disappears. What results is that you are not bothered anymore about if you are, or are not, the bright pearl. Besides our daily lives, with their ups and downs, there is nothing else called the One Bright Pearl. In the midst of always changing reality, we can wholeheartedly decided to cultivate the practice of One Bright Pearl together with all beings, rather than deciding to follow blindly our desires and run away from our fears.

As Dōgen says in the Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki, “Without exception everyone is a vessel of the Buddha-Dharma.”² Never think you are not a vessel.

 

Notes

1. Tanahashi, Kazuaki – translator: Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo. Shambhala Publications, 2013.

2. Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki, Shohaku Okumura & Tom Wright, translator. Sōtōshū Shumocho 1988. Ch. 4-12, 155.