Appearance & Reality - Form & True Nature
Those who greatly realize delusion are
buddhas. Those who are greatly deluded about realization are ordinary beings.
~Sh�b�genz�, Genj�-k�an, Gudo
Nishijima & Mike Cross
This passage from Shobogenzo, Genjokoan, perfectly presents Zen’s response to the basic question, “What is the
true essence of the things, beings
and events we experience as objects appearing in and as the world.” That true essence is, “The
very forms of the things, beings, and events precisely as they appear (i.e. exactly as we experience them).” A “Buddha” is
a Buddha by the very fact of being aware that (awake to) the “true nature” of
things, beings, and events is not other
than, and nowhere else but in and as those things, beings, and events as they are (as they exist, hence, as
they are experienced).
True, this conclusion directly contradicts
the assertions of many contemporary Zen teachers that contend the “true nature”
or “reality” of the world is beyond our capacity to experience, or other than the world we actually perceive. That it contradicts popular Zen notions,
however, does not mean it is inaccurate, or that Dogen misspoke or was
erroneously edited, etc. This message, which is only one of many wherein Dogen
and contemporary Zen often diverge widely, is not only repeated throughout
Dogen’s works, it is a central characteristic of it. The repeated emphasis,
almost a refrain, in the works of Hee-Jin Kim on the priority of the
“reconstructive” rather the “deconstructive” element of emptiness in Dogen is
reason enough to insist that the fact that this aspect of Zen continues to be
largely ignored in the contemporary discussion is unjustified to the point of
gross negligence. Setting aside any question about right or wrong, when
contemporary Zen teachers proclaim that the reality or true nature of the world
is not the world we perceive, they are asserting a view that is diametrically
opposed to Dogen’s Zen. In fact, according to Dogen, even the view that the
real world is something other than the world as it is, is itself is a mistaken
view of the real world as it is.
The triple world is as the triple world is
seen, and a view of something other than the triple world is a mistaken view of
the triple world…
Great Master ÅšÄ�kyamuni says, “It is best
to see the triple world as the triple world."
This view is the triple world itself. This
triple world is just as it is seen.
~Sh�b�genz�, Sangai-yuishin, Gudo
Nishijima & Mike Cross
In Dogen’s Zen, the true nature of any and
every form is “just as it is seen” – mountains, stars, and fences, dreams,
illusions, and spots in the air – are, as they are, the true nature of reality
as it is. As a Buddhist master, Dogen was particularly concerned with the
significance of this truth in connection to Buddhist forms, especially Buddhist
expressions. Some of the most colorful language of Shobogenzo appear as
repudiations of views suggesting that the reality of Buddhist expressions might exist independently of their forms. According to Dogen, the
expression of a Buddha is nondual with the form of that Buddha, the very
body-mind of that Buddha; thus, such suggestions are not only delusional, they
are slanderous. It is no wonder, then, why Shobogenzo heaps such intense scorn on notions suggesting that Buddhist expressions are “merely
provisional,” and often goes so far as to identify the advocates of such views as
demons and beasts.
Dogen’s colorful, often humorous
repudiations of “little shavers,” “bands of demons,” “wild beasts,” and the
like provide not only good entertainment, they provide us with the assurance
that the lifeless “Zen” of charlatanism and institutional formality so
prevalent today is not a new phenomenon. Moreover, Dogen’s frequent technique
of clearly articulating deluded or wrong views and approaches common to
quacksalvers and deluded teachers offer a wealth of guidance on spotting them
in our own day, thus avoiding being mislead by distorted views and teachings.
In this connection, there are a variety of popular notions about Zen
enlightenment suggesting that “true nature,” “reality,” or “Buddhahood” has to
do with something immanent in the
things, beings, and events of the world, something concealed within, behind, or underlying the forms ever-appearing before our eyes here-and-now –
as if these very “forms” and
“appearances” were mere forms and
appearances, rather than the actual manifest forms and appearances of reality
itself, the Tao as it is, the very face of God, the actual voice of Buddha. In Dogen’s Zen,
such views are the very epitome of the unenlightened condition, the common
denominator of those bound by the shackles of ego-centricity.
Their state is such that they deludedly
imagine that after the triple world and the ten directions which we are
experiencing in the present have suddenly dropped away, then the Dharma-nature
will appear, and this Dharma-nature will be other than the myriad things and
phenomena of the present. The true meaning of the Dharma-nature can never be
like that. This universe of things and phenomena, and the Dharma-nature, have
far transcended discussion of sameness and difference and have transcended talk
of disjunction or union. Because they are beyond past, present, and future;
beyond separation and constancy; and beyond matter, perception, thought,
action, and consciousness, they are the Dharma-nature.
~Sh�b�genz�,
H�ssh�, Gudo Nishijima & Mike Cross
The only “dilemma” as to the difference
or sameness between the true nature or Dharma nature of things, beings,
and events and the forms in which
things, beings, and events appear is, it turns out, only a “dilemma” for those
that make it a dilemma by “adding
legs to a snake,” to use the Zen phrase. In other words, a thing, being, or
event is – as it is – a thing, being
or event. It is only by attempting to
divide a thing, being, or event into a “true nature” and an “appearance” that we come up against a dilemma.
To clarify,
consider an actual dog, manifest before us here-and-now; this dog is the true nature of this dog, this dog is the very form appearing as this dog. Take away the true nature, and you take away this dog; take away the form, and you take away this dog – this dog’s form is nondual with this dog’s Dharma-nature,
not even a laser-scalpel can cut them in two. The division of a dog’s (or
anything else’s) appearance from its true nature can only be accomplished by
the conceptual capacity of abstract speculation; the result of such a division
gives rise to (actualizes; begets) a new, real, existent thing or dharma, this
new element of reality is called a mistaken
view, a deluded notion, a hindrance, or, as in the present case, a
dilemma.
.
From the Zen perspective, the
very appearance “of things and
phenomena” and the true nature of things
and phenomena are far beyond speculative “discussion of sameness and difference”
and transcend conceptual hypothetical “talk of disjunction or union.” The
actual things, beings, and events manifest right here, right now – as right
here, right now – are “beyond past, present, and future,” thus “they are the
Dharma-nature.” Because this dog is this appearance (and no other), the form of
this dog and the true nature of this dog are “beyond separation and constancy”
and beyond divisions of “matter” (from mind), and of “perception, thought,
action, and consciousness” (from appearance, substance, agent, and phenomenon),
“they are the Dharma-nature” as it is.
Please treasure yourself,
Ted
