2012 Ango: The Samadhi of the Whole Self — Jijuyu Zanmai
from Bendowa: The Wholehearted Way, by Eihei Dogen Zenji
All buddhas directly transmit inconceivable dharma and actualize perfect awakening by a wondrous unfabricated means whose touchstone is the samadhi of the whole self. To rejoice freely in this samadhi, sitting upright in zazen is the true gate. Although this inconceivable dharma is abundant in each person, it is not actualized without practice, and it is not attained without realization. When you release it, the dharma fills your hand—how could it be limited to one or many? When you speak it, the dharma fills your mouth—it is not bounded by length or width.
All buddhas continuously abide in this profound dharma, but do not leave traces of consciousness in their illumination. Sentient beings continuously move about in it, but illumination is not manifest in their consciousness. The wholehearted endeavor of the way I am speaking of allows all things to come forth in awakening and practice all-inclusiveness.
All ancestors and buddhas have held that practice based upon sitting in this whole-self samadhi was the path by which they awakened…. When you display the buddha-mudra with your whole body and mind, sitting upright in this samadhi even for a short time, each and every thing throughout the dharma world is the buddha-mudra and all space without exception is enlightenment.
At this time, all beings in the ten directions of the universe, being all together at one time bright and pure in body and mind, realize absolute emancipation and reveal their original aspect. Utilizing the buddha-body and immediately leaping beyond the confines of personal attainment, they sit erect beneath the kingly tree of enlightenment, turn simultaneously the incomparable dharma wheel, and expound profound wisdom free from all human agency.
Since all these beings enter directly into the way of imperceptible mutual assistance, the person seated in zazen unmistakably drops off body and mind, severs previous disordered and defiled thoughts and views emanating from discriminating consciousness, conforms totally with the genuine buddha-dharma, and assists in performing buddha-work far and wide, at each of the places the buddhas teach, which are as numberless as the smallest atom particles—imparting universally the dynamic buddha-functioning, vigorously upholding the ongoing buddha-dharma.
The land, trees and grasses, fences and walls, tiles and pebbles, all the various things in the ten directions perform the work of buddhas. Those who receive the benefits produced by these wind and water elements are inconceivably helped by the buddhas’ wondrous guidance, and all awaken intimately to themselves. Those who receive these benefits of water and fire turn round and round the buddha-making activity based on original enlightenment. And those who dwell and speak with them also join with one another in possessing inexhaustible buddha-virtue, spreading it ever wider, circulating the unceasing, incomprehensible, and immeasurable buddha-dharma inside and outside the entire universe.
Yet such things do not appear in the perceptions of a person sitting in zazen, because this occurs in the stillness of unfabricated samadhi. It is in itself realization. If practice and realization were two different stages, as ordinary people consider them to be, each could be recognized separately. But any such separation and recognition are not the sign of realization, because the characteristic of realization is to be beyond such illusion.
Both the mind of the person seated in zazen, and objects perceived, enter, and leave realization within the stillness of samadhi. Since this occurs within the sphere of the whole receiving and giving self, it does not disturb a single mote of dust, or obstruct a single phenomenon. It performs great and wide-ranging buddha-work and carries on the exceedingly profound and subtle activities of practicing and realizing.
The trees, grasses, and land involved in this radiate a bright and shining light, and bring forth the profound and inconceivable dharma, and it is endless. Trees and grasses, walls and fences expound and exalt the dharma for the sake of ordinary people, sages, and all living beings. Ordinary people, sages, and all living beings in turn expound and exalt the dharma for the sake of trees, grasses, walls, and fences. The realm of self-awakening as awakening others is full of the characteristics of realization, and this realization continues without ceasing.
Because of this, at each moment when just one person does zazen, that person imperceptibly accords with each and all of the myriad things and permeates completely all time. Within the limitless universe, throughout past, present, and future, this person is performing the eternal and ceaseless work of carrying onward the buddhas’ teaching. It is, for each and every being, one and the same whole practice, one and the same whole realization.
This is true not only of practice while sitting. It is like the sound that comes from a hammer striking emptiness, an endless and wondrous voice that resounds before and after the fall of the hammer. And this is not limited to the Zen practitioner. Each and every thing is, in its original aspect, endowed with original practice—it cannot be measured or comprehended.
Shohaku Okumura and Taigen Leighton, The Wholehearted Way (Tuttle, 1997)
Norman Waddell and Masao Abe, The Heart of Dogen’s Shobogenzo (SUNY Press 2002)
Kaz Tanahashi, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shambhala, 2010)