Dōgen’s Views on Practice and Realization and His Dream Encounter with Damei Fachang

In this paper, I will explore the historical and philosophical significance of two phrases central to Dōgen’s 道元 (1200–1254) teaching, “practice on the basis of realization” (shōjō no shū 證上の修) and “original realization through wondrous practice” (honshō myōshu 本證妙修).

Dōgen’s vision of practice and realization is often specifically identified as “practice on the basis of realization” and “original realization through wondrous practice.” This can be seen in his Bendōwa 辨道話 as follows:

Now then, to think that practice and realization are separate from each other is a non-Buddhist view, or a misunderstanding of the Way. In Buddhism, practice and realization are completely one and the same. Because it is a practice based on being spiritually awake at this very moment, the diligent training, which springs forth from our initial resolve to seek the Way, is, in itself, the whole of one’s innate certainty. For this reason, we teach that you should not hold in mind any expectation of being enlightened as something outside of, or apart from, practice, since this practice directly points you towards your own original, innate certainty. Since this certainty is a spiritually awakened one that already exists within the practice, your certainty will know no limits: since the practice already exists within spiritually awakened certainty, your practice will know no beginning. This is why the Tathāgata Śākyamuni and the Venerable Makakashō [迦葉尊者] were both governed by their practice, which was based on being spiritually awake. The great Master Bodhidharma and the exalted Ancestor Daikan Enō [大鑑慧能; Huineng], likewise, were “hauled and tumbled about” by their practice based on being spiritually awake. Such are the signs of one who resides in, and keeps to, the buddha dharma. A practice that is not separate from being spiritually awake already exists. It is our good fortune to have had this wondrous practice transmitted to us individually, and to diligently pursue it with the attitude of mind which first awakened in us the desire to seek the Truth in itself, to arrive at that original, spiritually awakened state which is our innate, “uncreated” foundation. Be aware that the buddhas and ancestors repeatedly taught that we must not be slack in our training and practice, so that we do not stain or tarnish our innate realization, which is inseparable from our practice. If you let go of any thought of “I am doing a marvelous practice,” your innate realization will fill your hands to overflowing. If you purge yourself of any thought of “being enlightened,” this wondrous practice will operate throughout your whole being.¹

(Dōgen, 2007, 12–13)

This paragraph is the seventh of eighteen or “question and answer sessions” (mondō 問答) in the Bendōwa. It concludes as follows:

Surely you have heard what the masters have said: “It is not that practice and realization do not exist. It is just that they cannot be taken hold of and defiled,” and “The one who clearly sees what the Way is, is the one who practices the Way.” Understand that you must do your training and practice amidst the realizing of the Way.²

(Dōgen 2007, 14)

The first half of the above encounter between the two patriarchs relates the question and answer session between the Sixth Patriarch Huineng and Nanyue Huairang 南嶽懐譲. As is already well known, this is the basis for the theory of original realization through wondrous practice. I would like to deal with this again below. The second half of the discussion consists of the words of the Six Patriarch Huineng’s dharma heir Sikong Benjing 司空本浄 (667–761) as found in scroll five of the Record of the Transmission of the Lamp (Jingde chuangdeng lu 景徳傳燈録).

The master then explained the verse of no practice and no action. “Seeing the Way and then practicing the Way: if you don’t see it, again how do you practice? The nature of the Way is like empty space: in empty space what is practiced? Fully watch the one who practices the Way: they stir the...