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1 ONE Fukanzazengi 普勧坐禅儀 (Universal Promotion of the Principles of Zazen) Fukanzazengi is Dôgen’s first work. It was written in 1227, the year he returned from China. It is influenced by and in many ways resembles a number of similar tracts on zazen that existed in China, such as the one by tenth-century priest Chang-lu Tsung-tse. All are composed in a highly rhetorical, easily memorized style of Chinese prose. Dôgen declares that he considered his master Ju-ching “the only person since the T’ang master Po-chang who truly understood the significance of zazen.” He praises Ju-ching for teaching that “sitting (zazen) is the Buddha Dharma and the Buddha Dharma is sitting.” Fukanzazengi is Dôgen’s first attempt to transmit this teaching to his countrymen. Fukanzazengi has been recited at the regular night sitting and on other occasions in Sôtô Zen temples down through the centuries. Although it is not a part of the Shôbôgenzô collection, we have included it in the present book because of the important place it occupies in Dôgen’s Zen. In Fukanzazengi senjutsu yurai [Reason for Composing Fukanzazengi], Dôgen explains why he wrote the work: Since in Japan it has never been possible to learn about the “special transmission outside the scriptures” or the “treasure of the right Dharma eye,” 2 THE HEART OF DÔGEN’S SHÔBÔGENZÔ much less the principles of zazen, they are not transmitted here. So as soon as I returned home from the land of the Sung [China], and students began coming to me for instruction, I was obliged for their sakes to compile this work [Fukanzazengi] on the principles of zazen. Long ago, the Chinese Zen master Po-chang constructed a monastery with a hall set aside especially for zazen practice. In so doing he effectively transmitted the true style of the First Zen patriarch Bodhidharma. This style was distinct from the briars and brambles of word-attachment [of the Buddhist schools] that had preceded him. This is something that students should know and not be confused about. There is a Tso-ch’an i (Japanese, Zazengi) by the priest Chang-lu Tsung–tse included in the Ch’an-yüan ch’ing-kuei [Pure Regulations for the Zen Gardens]. For the most part it follows Po-chang’s original intent, but it also contains some additions made by Tsung-tse himself. This has resulted in errors of various kinds, as well as an overall lack of clarity. No one who does not already know the meaning behind the words can fully understand what he is trying to say. For that reason, I have now gathered together and written down the true principles of zazen that I learned [in Sung China] in hopes that they will transmit the inexpressible heart of the Buddha-patriarchs. (Ôkubo, vol. 2, 3–4) A comparison of the Fukanzazengi with the Tso-ch’an i by Tsung-tse shows that while Dôgen often merely appropriated the text of the earlier work, he also changed and added portions to rectify what he regarded as mistakes or ambiguities in Tsung-tse’s work. FUKANZAZENGI The Way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma-vehicle is utterly free and untrammeled . What need is there for our concentrated effort? Indeed, the Whole Body is far beyond the world’s dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean?1 It is never apart from you right where you are. What use is there going off here and there to practice? 1. The Whole Body [of reality] (tathatā) refers to the totality of things in their suchness; the Buddha-nature. The world’s “dust,” giving rise to illusions, defiles the original purity of the Buddhanature . A means to brush it clean is an allusion to the famous verse contest by which the Sixth Zen Patriarch Hui-neng received the Dharma transmission from the Fifth Patriarch Hung-jen. The verse of Shen-hsiu, Hung-jen’s chief disciple, was: “This body is the Bodhi tree; the mind like a bright mirror on a stand. Constantly strive to brush it clean. Do not allow dust to collect.” Huineng responded with the verse: “Basically, Bodhi is not a tree. Neither does the mind-mirror have a stand. From the first there is not a single thing, so where can dust collect?” (CTL, ch. 5...

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