The Precious Mirror Samādhi
The translation offered here is a modified translation of the one that was made (in Dutch) for the benefit of our congregation at Apeldoorn when I was prior there at the beginning of the millennium. In my research and contemplations I have found most translations of this and other Scriptures to be of great value as they are. Each is valid in its own right and does not stand against another. Therefore I recommend reading each version as if it were a different Scripture before you compare it with others.
The Precious Mirror is a Dharma-poem about the Wholeness of our being, how to find and sustain it, written by our Chinese ancestor Dong-shan Liang-jie (807 ̶ 869; Japanese: Tōzan Ryōkai). The image used is a Precious Jewel with its ever-present ability to reflect, together with the momentary reflections in it. Deep meditation, Samādhi, cuts through our belief in the separateness of anything, especially ourselves. This brings about a joy and connectedness with the whole universe. We no longer ‘suffer’ as we see, understand and let go of the mind that we have created and its projections. We are free and truly at home with ourselves and the world as they are ̶ and see the universe as one bright pearl, undivided and whole.*
The Precious Mirror Samādhi
The Dharma of this – as it is,
Passed on in person by Buddhas and Ancestors,
Is now yours;
Guard it well.
A silver bowl full of snow and
A heron hidden in the moonlight –
When you compare them they are not the same,
Mixed together they find their place.
Its meaning does not lie in words
And shows in whatever comes forth;
Move – and you become ensnared,
Deny it – and you fall into dilatory hesitation.
Turning away, going towards, both are inept,
Just as when you relate to a giant fireball.
Express it in fancy words
And you colour it at once.
In the middle of the night it is clear and bright
But in the daylight it cannot be seen.
It acts as a compass for all beings,
When used it liberates from suffering.
Although it is not a doing
It is not without expression.
Just as when you look into a reflecting jewel,
Form and mirror-image behold each other:
You are not it,
It is truly this that you are.
It is as a baby in this world
With all five aspects complete
It neither comes nor goes, arises nor stays.
It babbles, speaking without words –
So we comprehend nothing,
As its words are not recognizable.
Twice the trigram Illumination gives six lines,
Wherein phenomena and the real intermingle.
Stacked up, there are three pairs of combinations,
The whole transformation is completed with the fifth.
It is like the taste of the schizandra, which has five flavours
Or like the diamond sceptre, which has five prongs,
In the true all is wondrously embraced,
Drum and song arise together.
It penetrates the source and flows through the pathways,
It embraces the whole land and covers the roads.
To respect it brings happiness,
It cannot be opposed.
This mystery of natural truth
Is neither a realm of illusion nor of enlightenment,
Following times of cause and of effect
It shines brightly in stillness.
It is so fine that it fits where there is no space
And so broad that it transcends all dimension.
One hair’s breadth off –
And you are not in harmony with it.
So now we have the ‘sudden’ and the ‘gradual’
And we clarify the schools’ meanings and tones.
Once meanings and tones have been defined
They become a measure of practice.
Meaning and tone gone beyond,
Timeless truth flows forever.
The old masters had compassion for those
Who are quiet of body but restless of mind,
Like a tethered horse or a trapped rat,
And offered them Dharma.
In their topsy-turvy state
These people take black for white,
But when confused thinking comes to an end,
The still, accepting mind is naturally present.
If you wish to join the ancients,
Contemplate the ways of old.
Close to realizing the Buddha’s Way,
There was one who sat for ten eons gazing at a tree –
Like a lame tiger
Or a hobbled horse.
The more we feel inadequate
We reach for precious furniture and rich clothes.
According to our fear or wonder
We see black shadows or white oxen.
The archer Yi used his skill
To hit a target at a hundred paces.
But when two arrows meet head on
Does this depend on skill obtained?
As the wooden man begins to sing
A stone woman gets up to dance.
This cannot be realized by feeling or thought,
So why try to work it out!
A minister serves their lord,
A child obeys their parent;
Without obedience there is no filial piety,
Without service there is no advice.
Doing this inner work unseen
You may seem dull and foolish,
But when you are able to persist in it
You will be called a master amongst masters.
Let’s now look at each section in turn:
The Dharma of this – as it is,
Passed on in person by Buddhas and Ancestors,
Is now yours;
Guard it well.
This very moment is only what is now and this simply is what it is (it is thus). This is not depending on anything and can be found at all times and in all conditions. Zen therefore does not ‘work with stages’; in the end there is no path. But in and over time, there is change and development which come about through the process of cause and effect, so there ìs depending. We train to see and understand this process in ourselves and in so doing steer the course of karma.
When we begin training we think that the world we see is how the world is (‘mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers’). We are not yet aware of how our mind colours it. Once we start to look inward and question our experience, we sense a Presence. As training unfolds, things are no longer what they seemed; emptiness may make us wonder if they exist at all (mountains are no longer mountains, rivers no longer rivers). And further into training yet, things are simply what they are without any overlay (mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers). We are no longer seeking. Suffering and all things can be seen as Bodhi; first because they lead to Bodhi when faced and investigated, and also because samsara or nirvana are ’neither here nor there’ and we flow with them. Emotions still come and go but there is no-one who owns them. Emotions may teach others as well. If people misuse this world and hurt others, some form of anger shows them directly there is something not right. This is life when one has returned to the market place (the last of the Oxherding pictures). The Song of the Precious Mirror sings about the truth of this as well as about the unfolding stages.
It takes some enquiring in stillness to realize that this as it is, is the truth. Our habitual patterns of thought and feeling need to be recognized and let go of so that our mind and heart is unclogged and open. What does this mean in practice? That things as they are is fully accepted: how we are, how others are and how the world is. There is no fight with anyone or anything. When we offer means to change the world for the better it is from this position of compassionate acceptance.
When an open mind looks into the eyes of a Buddha or Ancestor, there are not two individuals with their conditioning but there is one mind, one heart, that stands up straight in the now. Free Buddha being is experienced directly in your open self. Nothing is given and nothing is received. In terms of this song, there is only the brilliant mirror. That we are not separate, but one whole with all, is passed on and ‘proved’. Zen Master Eihei Dōgen mentions that “Buddhas and Ancestors appear when being is untainted and free”.
The Chinese pictogram for the word ‘in person’, ‘direct’ or ‘secret’ shows a mountain – which means away from the world and from worldly eyes – as well as a heart-mind, which means that it is an intimate affair. Both are placed under a roof: it is private and enclosed. Only those who are receptive to direct pointing can enter this enclosure. They must have let go of their means to get inside it (for example intellectualizing or trying) and have open minds, like a master and their disciple.
Once this Dharma is ‘ours’, we need and want to guard this treasure with all our heart. For example by not letting points of view or a subtle wanting or not-wanting veil it. No longer believing in the worth of our (hi)stories, we take care not to project emotions and thoughts about what happened to us onto ourselves as we are.
When we speak of Dharma-transmission it usually means the passing on of the Buddha-truth by a monastic master to a disciple. This protects the purity of the Dharma, as an ordained monastic has made long-lasting vows. There are also non-monastic meditators who look so deeply into their own being that they are able to receive transmission. Mostly you are open to receiving this teaching when you are already living it. Buddha recognizes Buddha. Each Dharma (thing or being) is ultimately the mirror, the jewel. In Samādhi, existence is seen as that mirror. Dong-shan considers this to be the fifth or highest stage of practice.
A silver bowl full of snow and
A heron hidden in the moonlight –
When you compare them they are not the same,
Mixed together they find their place.
When we meditate we see unity and difference. The moon and the bowl are the Precious Mirror and symbolize the unmoving and timeless, that is not affected by change and accommodates all change. Dong-shan refers to it in his teaching on the Five Positions, or Five Degrees as the Absolute (more about this later). The snow and the heron stand for the world of our experience when we look with enlightened eyes.
When we hold on or push away, our picture of the world gets muddled and unclear and the Mirror is veiled. The unreflective person tends to experience appearances as hugely different and separate from themselves. It is the doubt about the validity of that, which brings us to exploring reality. What is existence? Who am I? In zazen I come to see the Mirror together with the objects: thoughts, sensations and the worlds of objects come and go while a bright infinity ever reflects. Whatever appears seems no longer so substantial and at times the “mirror” seems more solid and present than whatever appears in it. So: comparing, the Absolute and existence are not the same. Letting existence be, the Mirror fills all of space and existence appears in it and as it.
In some old Buddhist temples that I visited in Nara, which was, in the past, Japan’s capital, I have seen a mirror on a stand in a prominent shrine. The mirror was made of copper and was polished daily. Do we need to polish our mirror? Neither thinking nor not thinking is the polishing, the guarding of our treasure.
Its meaning does not lie in words
And shows in whatever comes forth;
Move – and you become ensnared,
Deny it – and you fall into dilatory hesitation.
Whatever comes forth shows the life of the Precious Mirror. It accommodates all appearances: all we can see and hear and sense, stillness and space. All that arises shows it and is it. Yet it is indescribable and inconceivable. There is not an It.
When we cannot let things be but affirm, hold on or reach out, we become ensnared. This happens for example when we look too intensely for ‘enlightenment’ or love. When we look away from what is, we ignore the Mirror. Then we fail to notice what we need to see and sluggishly hesitate, so no actions come forth or they fail to hit the mark. When we hold on to our ideas and projections, we may hear the words but not the truth in them which comes from the (master’s) one mind. Thus we fall into a hole or come to a dead-end.
Turning away, going towards, both are inept,
Just as when you relate to a giant fireball.
Express it in fancy words
And you colour it at once.
Keeping the right relationship to the mirror (the fireball), to our life as it manifests – not too close, not too far – is the position of just this, just sitting. This is acceptance. Trying to see a Mirror without reflections is tension and misunderstanding. Best leave the Mirror to the Mirror. Wisdom and compassion are not created and cannot be grasped, they manifest naturally. When I fail to look, my mind is filled with haze or gloom. It is when I do not want anything nor fear anything that I experience the Mirror shining in my heart and mind.
When I speak in qualifying terms, it shows the colour of my views and feelings. Elated speech colours the world ‘beautiful’, dismal speech colours it ‘ugly’.
In the middle of the night it is clear and bright
But in the daylight it cannot be seen.
It acts as a compass for all beings,
When used it liberates from suffering.
When I look in the daylight, which symbolizes the discriminating mind, I see entities, objects and issues but the Mirror cannot be seen. When I am becoming less interested in the world of phenomena and am content not to know, they stand out less. Dropping all holding on and pushing away, letting go of the identifications that bind us to a self, in the middle of the darkness of not-knowing, the mirror can be seen clear and bright. As the foundation of my being, the mirror functions as a magnet, pulling all things into Its Presence. It ‘calls’. I listen and let any reflected thing reveal it. Any shadows it shows, point towards it. So it points as a compass – always to itself. I always find my way back to it because it is what I am.
Although it is not a doing, it is not without expression.
Just as when you look into a reflecting jewel,
Form and mirror-image behold each other:
You are not it, it is truly this that you are.
It does not do, nor is it being done to. It just is. Reflecting and allowing is its nature. Who is the true me? Is it the living body and mind here? Or is it the one reflected in the water, in the mirror? Without a body-mind there is nothing to be reflected; without a mirror no-one can be seen. It is the mirror’s function to show what is there. When I look into a jewel (a mirror), I see my image and the jewel. Looking closely, they hold each other – they are not two. I am not the image; I am not the mirror. I am the whole, the holding and the held; I am this miracle. I know the Mirror but it is not a knowing I have learned. I am embraced in this naturally knowing Mirror.
The first sentence of this verse can also be read: “Although it (the Mirror) is not a conditioned thing, we can talk about it.” Of course, that is what Dong-shan is doing.
From this point on he is going to describe qualities of the Mirror:
It is as a baby in this world
With all five aspects complete
It neither comes nor goes, arises nor stays.
It babbles, speaking without words –
So we comprehend nothing,
As its words are not recognizable.
The mind of a just-born human is unformed, not yet programmed. Just so, when I sit immovably in original stillness, the mind flows freely. A baby has full potential. The five aspects point to the five senses as well as to the five skandhas, which are not yet developed. This baby-mind does not channel meaning into separate specific notions, it babbles speech freely – words that will never be in any dictionary. So we do not comprehend what it means. Yet the babbles are very expressive, alive and true.
Twice the trigram Illumination gives six lines,
Wherein phenomena and the real intermingle.
Stacked up, there are three pairs of combinations,
The whole transformation is completed with the fifth.
This verse explains the author’s experience of spiritual development in terms of the I Ching, the Book of Changes. Dong-shan distinguishes five stages on the path of enlightenment, which he describes in terms of the relative (the partial, phenomena) or the absolute (the whole, the true). Here he explains this by means of the hexagram Li (which means Fire). One can combine the six lines that it consists of five times into a pair; each combination points at a certain understanding of the relative and the absolute in the course of training. Each stage progresses into and contains the other stages and the whole of training and enlightenment. It goes beyond the scope of this article to elaborate on what is known as Dong-shan’s Five Positions, Five Ranks or Five Degrees. They make an attempt to describe the path to full enlightenment. We walk pathways, take many turns, and this is all the whole path. And in practice we just practice. Where we are, it is just this as it is.
Zen Master Dōgen, who lived four centuries later than Dong-shan, emphasized zazen without stages. Still, Dong-shan’s Five Positions (Ranks, or Degrees) have been and are used in the Sōtō school of Zen (Ch’an) practice. They give direction and spur us on. They help me not to be satisfied with my bit of understanding but to go deeper. All practitioners are equal practitioners in the Buddhist Way; few maybe realize Dong-shan’s fifth position. If I deny delusion I cannot learn and step forwards in clarity. If I only see the long road ahead – when will I ever arrive?
It is like the taste of the schizandra, which has five flavours
Or like the diamond sceptre, which has five prongs,
In the true all is wondrously embraced,
Drum and song arise together.
The five stages on the Path are like the schizandra berry that has one taste which includes all five flavours that are distinguished in Chinese culture: bitter, sour, salty, pungent and sweet. So all of taste is naturally present in this berry. (In Western culture we are familiar with ice cream which can have many tastes: ginger, coffee, chocolate, vanilla – but it is man-made and lacks the salty taste). The vajra or diamond sceptre has a central pillar at its heart, the Absolute; the five prongs around it represent all relative things. When we turn it around, whatever side is visible, it always shows two prongs (duality, phenomena) together with the one central pillar. Both the diamond scepter and the schizandra serve to show the One Path with the five stages as a whole as well as the heart of being and all its colours. The drum is the heart-beat of the universe, the call; the song is the expression of our life, the response. Both harmonize in the Mirror.
It penetrates the source and flows through the pathways,
It embraces the whole land and covers the roads.
To respect it brings happiness,
It cannot be opposed.
True nature is ever-present, from the very beginning through to the very end. Walking our ways of practice, living our life, we uncover it; doing what is good to do, we exhibit Buddha activity. We do not know where we are but plunge into life and training, trusting our true nature. Truth does not care about our method of training nor about which stage we might be in. And stages do not necessarily progress. Moreover, they do not give us any permanence or value.
Trying to keep the Mirror unstained by avoiding life is not auspicious and does not bring happiness. If we sit for years on a mountain we may miss the opportunity of bumping into other people and meeting our selfish reactions. If we do not receive the feedback or reaction of others, we may not discover important details about ourselves. For this reason novices in Zen mostly train in the context of a community.
This mystery of natural truth
Is neither a realm of illusion nor of enlightenment,
Following times of cause and of effect
It shines brightly in stillness.
Illusion and enlightenment are reflected in the mirror, but neither of them is the mirror. The mirror is real and subtle; it is not born nor does it die. It reflects cause and effect serenely and impartially. And it naturally shines in our mind when nothing impedes its brightness.
It is so fine that it fits where there is no space
And so broad that it transcends all dimension.
One hair’s breadth off –
And you are not in harmony with it.
The slightest movement, the tiniest detail, is registered in the mirror. And however large, it fits. The smallest ego-centric thought, the greatest enlightenment. The minutest holding on or pushing away affects the harmony. Accept things just as they are, and you are in accord.
Here the poem takes a different turn and tone:
So now we have the ‘sudden’ and the ‘gradual’
And we clarify the schools’ meanings and tones.
Once meanings and tones have been defined
They become a measure of practice.
Meaning and tone gone beyond,
Timeless truth flows forever.
The sudden (step-by-step) and the gradual approaches to training started to be distinguished from the time of master Hui Neng (Daikan Enō 638-713), the sixth Chinese Ancestor, and developed further in Dong-shan’s time. Which one is better for me? What are the methods used? What is the meaning of this practice? These are and were questions of beginner trainees. At some point however we need to let go of methods and standards and enter the life of Truth without means.
The old masters had compassion for those
Who are quiet of body but restless of mind,
Like a tethered horse or a trapped rat,
And offered them Dharma.
When we have spent some time in retreat we have seen the stillness of the setting and practice of meditation and Precepts quieten our surface energy. To appease all underlying tensions I need to see what I think I am. It is important that I no longer identify with thoughts, stories and emotions and let go of my thoughts about others and the world. Because with those beliefs I cannot be free: I am like a trapped rat or a tethered horse.
In their topsy-turvy state
These people take black for white,
But when confused thinking comes to an end,
The still, accepting mind is naturally present.
When I do not know the heart of being, reality as it is, I tend to have all kind of ideas about it. My ideas about the world and others hold a separate self in place. When I see that the world as I see it, is simply the thoughts that I create out of habit, fear or desire, that confused thinking comes to an end. Then there is a profound peace naturally present.
If you wish to join the ancients,
Contemplate the ways of old.
Close to realizing the Buddha’s Way,
There was one who sat for ten eons gazing at a tree –
Like a lame tiger
Or a hobbled horse.
Dong-shan points here again to the unhelpfulness of too contemplative a focus. Yes, it is important to see beyond, and still the moving mind, but if then I retreat into quietism, I shun life as it is and cannot act. The mighty potential for freedom that a lion has, then goes unused. The song here refers to a story from the Lotus Sūtra.
The more we feel inadequate
We reach for precious furniture and rich clothes.
According to our fear or wonder
We see black shadows or white oxen.
When I feel inadequate or doubt myself, I may hold on to or search for means to adorn myself, make myself look ‘better’ to myself. I create these means for adornment to boost my status, to show my success or prove that I have the ‘right’ ideas about the world I live in, or that I follow the Precepts well. The self still seeks ways to stand out and feels a need for approval. But with each and any bit of desire to be something worthy, fear arises also and I cannot be free. If somehow I believe the world is a dismal place, I may project small or large disasters onto it – I see black shadows. When I am fearless and see the skandhas as empty, I may come across lovely white oxen. The Chinese here is rather obscure; the word for ‘black shadows’ could be translated as ‘wild cats’ or ‘black slaves’. Chinese society existed maybe not of castes but surely of strongly defined social groups. Some people of high class rarely met a person of the lowest stratum, who often also were the people with the darkest skin. They very likely were afraid of them. To see a white ox however was fortuitous. The Chinese did not have holy cows but the ‘great white ox’ was an image for the great vehicle and there are therefore several monasteries of that name.
The archer Yi used his skill
To hit a target at a hundred paces.
But when two arrows meet head on
Does this depend on skill obtained?
There are many difficult skills that we can learn. But on this pathless path we mainly unlearn. We yield to the natural unfolding of life, which brings peace and joy:
As the wooden man begins to sing
A stone woman gets up to dance.
This cannot be realized by feeling or thought,
So why try to work it out!
Sentient and insentient things manifest their true nature when we discover the wholeness of being and no longer think and feel we are separate. Then the universe rejoices.
A minister serves their lord,
A child obeys their parent;
Without obedience there is no filial piety,
Without service there is no advice.
When a minister serves their lord there is a merging. The child obeys but the parent does not give orders. The child drops its immature wishes and perspectives and yields to the parental way of harmony. Thus love is found and lived.
Doing this inner work unseen
You may seem dull and foolish,
But when you are able to persist in it
You will be called a master amongst masters.
The Way is not a way of glamour. The sage works in darkness. The sage may look stupid and dull and yet may become a beacon. Masters will acknowledge that. The last verses strongly echo the Dao De-jing (Tao Te-ching) which celebrates natural truth and the unseen work. When we follow the pointing of the old masters and prove their truth for and within ourselves through deep listening and testing, we will also find it.
* When conditioning sees the universe it sees fragmentation and difference; when seeing sees the universe, it sees one bright pearl. Zen Master Dōgen writes about Master Gensa’s saying: “The whole universe in ten directions is one bright pearl” in the chapter One Bright Pearl of the Shōbōgenzō. The offertory of the Segaki ceremony says it similarly: “The Body of the Buddha permeates the universe; it manifests itself in front of all of us; there is no place where it does not so manifest itself.”
