UnMind 57. Self-Fulfilling Samadhi Duet 1: Jijuyuzammai I

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Oh, self-fulfilling!
What samadhi is that, now?
It is the real one.

Master Dogen’s written record is so extensive that it is difficult to select representative teachings, but also impossible to cover them all. The two we have reviewed so far, Fukanzazengi and Genjokoan, are recognized as basic to his message. I feel that this segment’s focus, Jijuyuzammai (Self-fulfilling Samadhi), is as well. Both terms in the title, “self-fulfilling,” and “samadhi,” require some explanation. I interpret the “self-fulfilling” part not as meaning fulfilling the self as we usually conceive it — the false, or constructed self — but that the samadhi discovered in zazen is self-actuating and, therefore, self-fulfilling. In other words, we do not make this happen through our effort, but it is there, waiting for us to uncover it.

Samadhi is interpreted in many ways in Zen literature. It is unfortunately sometimes wielded as mystical, in-group jargon, as if the author understands it, ostensibly from experience, while you, the reader, do not. This reinforces the kind of us-and-them-ism far too prevalent in our culture. We are called upon to de-mystify Zen, including such jargon. Samadhi is often rendered as “centered,” and/or “balanced.” That seems a sufficiently useful definition, if considered in multiple dimensions — physical, emotional, mental, and even social, balance — comes from Zen. Dogen begins by credentialing his thesis:

Now all ancestors and all buddhas who uphold Buddhadharma have made it the true path of enlightenment to sit upright, practicing in the midst of self-fulfilling Samadhi. Those who attained enlightenment in India and China followed this way.

In other words, we are not just making this stuff up as we go along. All the great masters you may have heard and read about, revered, and tried to understand, their teachings — including Buddha himself — did exactly as we are doing. They all sat in upright meditation as their central practice.

It was done so because teachers and disciples personally transmitted this excellent method as the essence of the teaching.

So all the many thousands of teachings in Buddhism that we may choose to study, also stem from this method of zazen. Verbal teachings, as such, do not transmit the essential matter, but simply point at it. Upright sitting — still enough, for long enough — eventually reveals the “essence of the teaching.”

In the authentic tradition of our teaching, it is said that this directly transmitted, straightforward Buddhadharma is the unsurpassable of the unsurpassable.

All other schools of teaching, bodies of knowledge, philosophical views and practical instructions, take second place, at best. Buddha’s tongue is said to be long and broad. The “directly transmitted, straightforward” Buddhadharma is universal, and all-inclusive. The phrase “authentic tradition” implies that there must be traditions that are not authentic, such as competing approaches of other schools. As we heard from Master Tozan, “Whether teachings and approaches are mastered or not, reality constantly flows.” Zazen is the instrument we use to focus like a laser beam on our immediate reality.

From the first time you meet a master — without engaging in incense offering, bowing, chanting Buddha’s name, repentance, or reading scriptures — you should just wholeheartedly sit, and thus drop away body and mind.

Likewise all other practices — usually considered intrinsic to Buddhism — are second in priority to practice-experience in zazen, under the supervision of a true teacher. Such rituals are not absolutely necessary for us as individuals, though helpful, especially within a community. Dogen himself followed these forms. But we do not need to be overly distracted by concerns regarding social forms. If you have not yet met a true teacher, repetition of ritual may support you in your practice, until you do. These routines are meant to be personally supportive psychologically, and to promote harmony in the community.

Completely eliminating traditional so-called “Asian” protocols surrounding meditation — which some Americans have suggested — will only result in substituting new rituals in their place. The main point the master is making, of course, is his johnny-one-note insistence on sitting in zazen, with the emphasis on wholehearted effort. Dropping away body and mind, however, does not sound like a desirable goal, even if we could understand what Master Dogen means by it.

When even for a moment you express the Buddha’s seal in the three actions by sitting upright in Samadhi, the whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha’s seal, and the entire sky turns into enlightenment.

Now we’re talkin’. This is sounding a lot more attractive. There is nothing outside this realization, and nothing that can keep you from it, if only you do not give up on zazen. While not a causality, this is at least a correlation that we can draw, with confidence. The corollary would be that if you are not sitting upright in samadhi, chances are, such a transformation will elude you. And the bonus is that it does not take any time at all, actually. In Dogen’s effusive description, our world is utterly transformed, in the blink of an eye. The “three actions,” incidentally, are those of body, mouth, and mind. Just so you know.

Because of this all buddha tathagatas, as the original source, increase their Dharma bliss, and renew their magnificence in the awakening of the Way.

Here Dogen claims an explicit causal connection, which suggests a kind of magical thinking. But when you realize that the “buddha tathagatas” are merely your and my original natures, it comes full circle. These indicate traditionally cosmic or celestial beings, as they are manifested in you and me.

Furthermore, all beings in the ten directions and the six realms, including the three lower realms, at once obtain pure body and mind, realize the state of great emancipation, and manifest the original face.

Next comes everybody else. The “ten directions” are the cosmological dimensions, eight horizontal and two vertical: the apex over your head, the nadir beneath your feet. The “six realms” indicate traditional categories of sentient beings, with human beings in the middle, the titans or angry gods next level “up,” and the denizens of Tusita heaven at the top. Just below us, the hell realms of the “lower” animals and insects, then the hungry ghosts, and at bottom, the Avici hells. These heavens and hells are not conceived as actual places, but realms of our own making.

Our personal emancipation in Zen is all-inclusive, of all beings, as Buddha himself reported. We only imagine their bondage, of course, but our imaginations are powerful. “Pure body and mind” is not a reference to morality, and is not really obtainable, but describes our original, nondual state. Purity is a lack of confusion about the relationship of so-called duality to its nonidentical twin, nonduality. The “state of great emancipation” is the true state of our existence, but we bind ourselves to our own misguided opinions. Realizing that this is a kind of cosmic category error is the first step toward true liberation. The “original face” is the only face we can manifest, actually. But Dogen is talking about realizing this, not simply knowing it to be true.

At this time, all things realize correct awakening; myriad objects partake of the buddha body; and sitting upright under the bodhi tree, you immediately leap beyond the boundary of awakening.

Even the many seemingly inanimate and insentient objects, are not as they appear. They, too, are part of the whole buddha-body. You find yourself back in reality, for the first time in memory, crossing the boundary of the “Original Frontier™” along with all other beings, plus the ten thousand things. Returning to our original buddha-body, and re-entering real time and space, our true home. Yet, having never left.

At this moment you turn the Dharma wheel, and expound the profound wisdom, ultimate and unconditioned.

You yourself manifest and expound the true teaching without error, or ceasing; dwelling in the ultimate, “eternal moment,” beyond conditions.

Because such broad awakening resonates back to you, and helps you inconceivably, you will, in zazen, unmistakably drop off body and mind, cutting off the various defiled thoughts from the past, and realize the essential Buddhadharma.

Like an echo bouncing back from the distant valley, this awakening is a guaranteed slam-dunk, in which the apparent separation of self and other appears as it really is. You find yourself not at all alone, and not at all confused, in any negative sense. Clarity is not separate from confusion, and manifests as wonder, or awe. The “essential Buddhadharma” suggests that some Buddhadharma may not be as essential as this direct insight. Along with negative habitual thoughts, even your prior understanding of Dharma may constitute the “various defiled thoughts” that have bedeviled you in the past.

Thus you will raise up buddha activity at innumerable practice places of buddha tathagatas everywhere, cause everyone to have the opportunity of ongoing buddhahood, and vigorously uplift the ongoing Buddhadharma.

Buddha activity may be ongoing, but it is not raised up, unless and until we make the effort. This is effort without aiming at it, returning to the reality that precedes activity. In doing so, we benefit ourselves and others, a distinction without a difference. This is the bodhisattva vow.

Because earth, grass, trees, walls, tiles and pebbles all engage in buddha activity, those who receive the benefit of wind and water caused by them, are inconceivably helped by the Buddha’s guidance, splendid and unthinkable, and awaken intimately to themselves.

The ten-thousand things are all manifesting this activity of awakening, moment by moment, the four elements and fundamental forces included, inherent in nature as well as our bodies. The buddha’s guidance is innate, and not a mystical emanation from a separate spirit, or spooky action at a distance. Awakening intimately to ourselves is all-encompassing, and simultaneously intimate.

Those who receive these water and fire benefits spread the Buddha’s guidance, based on original awakening.

Receiving the elemental benefits of this practice directly, recognized as compassion of the universe for allowing our very being, is the only real merit. It cannot be accumulated, but can be shared, once we awaken to it. This awakening is original to the individual, and simultaneously the Buddha’s awakening.

Because of this, all those who live with you and speak with you will obtain endless buddha virtue, and will unroll widely, inside and outside of the entire universe, the endless, unremitting, unthinkable, unnameable Buddhadharma.

If you have original awakening, it will have a ripple effect on those around you. But only if you take the necessary action of sharing it with others. This means entering into the realm of skillful or expedient means, which are designed and intended to fit the recipient of the teaching. Communication is the message received, not the message sent. It all depends upon the sincerity of the aspiring student, as well as the genuineness of the teacher’s insight. Correctly transmitted, it empowers others to accede to the same wisdom. As a force of nature, it is endless and unremitting, yet remains unthinkable and unnameable. Not your usual topic of discussion at cocktail parties.

In the next segment we will continue with the second half of Jijuyuzammai, where Master Dogen continues his exposition of “buddha activity,” and goes into some of the caveats around misinterpreting his message so far. Please join when convenient for you. And do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.