Date and Place Written: 1239, Kannon-dori-kosho-horin-ji temple (Fukakusa)
Fascicle number and English title in Hubert Nearman translation: 6. On ‘Your Very Mind Is Buddha’
Fascicle number and English title in Nishijima/Cross translation: 6. Mind Here and Now Is Buddha
Fascicle number and English title in Tanahashi translation: 6. The Mind Itself Is Buddha
Fascicle number in 12, 28, 60 and 75 fascicle editions: 5 (60), 5 (75)
Commentaries: Don’t Be A Jerk chapter 10
Audio reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1nI3UDEbrA
Summary
In this fascicle Dōgen explains the meaning of the phrase mind here and now is buddha, pointing out that it is not just our intellect and sense perceptions. He goes on to criticise the views of a non-Buddhist called Senika, who sees ‘spiritual intelligence’ as something innate and continuous, residing in everyone as the ‘true self’, and going on even after death in a new body.
The story of a dialogue between a monk and Master Echu reinforces this point with the master criticising the monk’s view as that of Senika, falsely seeing mental essence as constant and enduring.
Dōgen goes on to point to the fact that there is no separation between mind and all things (“mountains, rivers, and the Earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars”, “living-and-dying, coming-and-going”) but warns that it would be a mistake to think that mind here and now is buddha can be realized without establishing the will to awaken (bodhicitta) and engaging in practice. However, he goes on to say that practice should not be seen as something separate from mind here and now is buddha.
Dōgen ends the fascicle by pronouncing that because Shakyamuni Buddha is just mind here and now is buddha, when we realize mind here and now is buddha we are no different to Shakyamuni himself.
Kōans and Stories
Master Echu (Qingyuan Xingsi, Jp. Seigen Gyōshi) speaks with a monk who puts forward the view of Senika (above) that buddha nature is just our sense fields and sense consciousnesses, and that while the body is inconstant and fleeting, mental essence is constant and enduring. The Master refutes this teaching, saying “If seeing, hearing, awareness, and recognition could be equated with the Buddha-nature, Vimalakirti would not have said , ‘The Dharma is transcendent over seeing, hearing, awareness and recognition’”
Important passages
“What every buddha and every patriarch has maintained and relied on, without exception, is just mind here and now is buddha.”
“Buddhist patriarchs alone, together with Buddhist patriarchs, possess hearing, action, and experience which have enacted and which have perfectly realized mind here and now is buddha. Buddhas have continued to pick up and throw away hundreds of weeds but they never represented themselves as a sixteen-foot golden body [an idealized image of the Buddha].”
“The immediate Universe exists; it is not awaiting realization, and it is not avoiding destruction. This concrete triple world exists; it is neither receding nor appearing, and it is not just mind. Mind exists as fences and walls; it never gets muddy or wet, and it is never artificially constructed. We realize in practice that mind here and now is buddha, we realize in practice that the mind which is buddha is this, we realize in practice that buddha actually is just the mind, we realize in practice that mind-and-buddha here and now is right, and we realize in practice that this buddha-mind is here and now.”
“Realization in practice like this is just mind here and now is buddha picking itself up and authentically transmitting itself to mind here and now is buddha. Authentically transmitting like this, it has arrived in the present day. The mind that has been authentically transmitted means one mind as all dharmas, and all dharmas as one mind. For this reason, a man of old said, “When a person becomes conscious of the mind, there is not an inch of soil on the Earth.” Remember, when we become conscious of the mind, the whole of heaven falls down and the whole ground is torn apart.”
“An ancient patriarch said, “What is fine, pure and bright mind? It is mountains, rivers, and the Earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars.””
“Mind as mountains, rivers, and the Earth is nothing other than mountains, rivers, and the Earth. There are no additional waves or surf, no wind or smoke. Mind as the sun, the moon, and the stars is nothing other than the sun, the moon, and the stars. There is no additional fog or mist. Mind as living-and-dying, coming-and-going, is nothing other than living-and-dying, coming-and-going. There is no additional delusion or realization.”
“All buddhas are untainted buddhas. This being so, mind here and now is buddha is the buddhas themselves who establish the will, undergo training, realize bodhi, and experience nirvāna. If we have never established the will, undergone training, realized bodhi, and experienced nirvana, then the state is not mind here and now is buddha. If we establish the mind and do practice-and-experience even in a single kṣana, this is mind here and now is buddha.”
“Śākyamuni Buddha is just mind here and now is buddha. When all buddhas of the past, present, and future become buddha, they inevitably become Śākyamuni Buddha, that is, mind here and now is buddha.”
Fortunate Way Zen 福 道 