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109 NINE Zazengi 坐禅儀 (The Principles of Zazen) Zazengi was delivered the eleventh month, the first year of Kangen [1243], at Yoshimine-dera, Yoshida, Echizen province. This was the year that Dôgen, then forty-five years old, quit the Kôshô-ji in Uji and went to Echizen province (Ôkubo, vol. 1, 88–90). ZAZENGI The practice of Zen (sanzen) is zazen. For zazen, a quiet place is suitable. Lay a cushion of thick matting. Keep the precincts protected, not allowing drafts of air, mist, rain, or dew to enter. In the past, Shakyamuni sat upon a Diamond Seat.1 Others sat atop large, stable rocks. They all used matting of thick grasses. The place where you sit should be lighted and should not be allowed to grow dark at any time during the day or night. The proper method is to keep it warm in winter and cool in summer. Involvements of every kind must be cast aside. All worldly affairs must be put to rest. Zazen is not thinking good; it is not thinking bad. It is not 1. The Vajra (Diamond) Treasure Seat is where Shakyamuni meditated and attained enlightenment . 110 THE HEART OF DÔGEN’S SHÔBÔGENZÔ mental activity of any kind; it is not contemplation or reflection. Have no intention to become a Buddha. You must cast off your sitting [so that nothing remains]. Be moderate with food and drink, be frugal with your time, and go to zazen as unhesitatingly as you would brush a fire from the top of your head. It was precisely in this way that the Fifth Patriarch of Mount Huang-mei exerted himself single-mindedly in the practice of zazen.2 You should wear your surplice when you do zazen. You should use a round cushion filled with rush-grains. The cushion should not be placed so it extends under your legs; it should be no farther forward than a point just beneath the spine, so that your legs cross above the matting and your spine rests above the cushion. This is the method that all Buddhas and all patriarchs use when doing zazen. You may sit either in the half-lotus or full-lotus posture. In the full-lotus posture, you place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh. The upper surface of your toes should rest on your thighs. There should be no deviation from this. If you use the half-lotus posture, you simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Your garments should be loosely bound and arranged in an orderly manner. Place your right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right hand, with your thumb-tips touching. The hands should be placed close to the body in this manner, with the tips of the thumbs joined opposite the navel. You should sit upright, in correct bodily posture, inclining neither to the left nor to the right, leaning neither forward nor backward. Be sure that your ears are on a plane with your shoulders and that your nose is in line with your navel. Place your tongue against the roof of your mouth and breathe through your nose.3 Lips and teeth should be closed. Eyes should be open, neither too widely nor too narrowly.4 After body and mind are readied in this way, exhale deeply. As you sit, meditating silently and immoveably, think of not thinking. What is thinking of not thinking? Nonthinking. This, in and of itself, is the art of zazen. Zazen is not learning Zen. It is the Dharma Gate of great repose and bliss. It is undefiled practice-realization. 2. Hung-jen, the Fifth Chinese Zen patriarch, who succeeded to the Dharma of the Fourth Patriarch Tao-hsin and resided at Mount Huang-mei (Yellow Plum Mountain), in modern Hupeh. 3. Cf. The chief priest [Ju-ching, Dôgen’s master] taught Dôgen: “When you do zazen you should rest your tongue on the front upper roof of your mouth. You may also place it against the back of your upper front teeth” (Hôkyô-ki, section 41). 4. Eyes are kept open to avoid dozing off. “After forty or fifty years, when zazen has become second nature to you and you never drop you head in a doze, you are not hampered when you do zazen with your eyes shut. Newcomers who are not fully accustomed to sitting, should sit with...

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