Love of Dharma illumination is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we attain Dharma illumination. 法の智慧を求めることは法明門である。それによって法の智慧を得るからである。 This is a mouthful and it doesn’t seem to say much. We’ve got three things being translated as “dharma illumination,” but the kanji for these are not the same. Two of them are actually the “prajna or wisdom of the dharma” rather than “love” of dharma illumination; the word actually means seeking or pursuing (求める motomeru). Last week we considered our aspiration to understand the meaning of the dharma, which is related to emptiness. This week we’re talking about our aspiration for prajna, which is also related to emptiness, so we get to talk about what prajna is and how we seek it. One of the most basic elements of Buddha’s teaching is the Eightfold path, and that’s where we as practitioners probably first encountered teachings about prajna. In the Sutta-Nipata, among the earliest Buddhist scriptures, Buddha says “One who possesses the strength of wisdom, born of the moral precepts and restraints, who is tranquil in mind and delights in meditation, who is mindful, free from attachment, free from fallowness of mind and intoxicants, is called a sage by the wise.” He’s describing the three parts of the eightfold path, or three aspects of our practice, wisdom (prajna), precepts (sila), and meditation (samadhi). All Buddhist traditions have these three elements. The prajna section of the eightfold path includes right understanding or right view and right intention. In early Buddhist teachings, this is a linear path that starts with leading an ethical life so we can sit properly and gain insight or wisdom. Zen and Mahayana in general sees this not as one thing leading to another but as all elements arising together and being practiced together, so we can pull out the prajna elements and talk about them, but it’s not that we’re practicing in order to someday attain prajna. We’ve frequently heard Dogen’s teaching that practice and awakening are not two. Right Understanding means we understand what Buddha taught about the nature of suffering and delusion. That pretty much encompasses everything else: emptiness, impermanence, no self, interconnection, three poisons, etc. It all comes back to the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Being ignorant about how this one unified reality actually works is the source of all our delusion and suffering, and the flip side is that when we do understand what Buddha was teaching, our own suffering doesn’t arise and we don’t perpetuate suffering for other beings. Right Intention is sometimes called Right Thought because the next two elements of the path are Right Speech and Right Action, and body, speech, mind are the three things we use to create karma. Right understanding and right intention arise together because when we see ourselves and the universe clearly, we don’t get caught up in delusive thinking. Our motivation moves away from gratifying the craving and aversion of the small self and toward doing what’s wholesome for all beings. Within the eightfold path, understanding and intention are prajna. According to Dogen, seeking after prajna means doing zazen. He says it’s nothing other than dropping off body and mind, sitting in zazen, opening the hand of thought, not clinging to ideas about anything, just being there without any separation from rest of the universe. Prajna is what’s there when we let go of thoughts and get out of the way. Of course, one of the places we most frequently encounter prajna is in the first line of the Heart Sutra: “Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing prajna paramita, clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty and thus relieved all suffering.” Dogen wrote about this line in Shobogenzo Makahannya Haramitsu. He says that not only is clear seeing itself prajna, the five aggregates are the five-fold prajna. Then he says that the six senses coming into contact with the world and giving rise to perceptions are 18 instances of prajna. The four noble truths are four instances of prajna, the paramitas are six instances of prajna, and he goes on to say that various other lists are all instances of prajna. Where the Heart Sutra goes through a list of things and seems to say that they don’t really exist, Dogen says they’re all prajna—and here’s where we come back to emptiness. Again, quick review: emptiness, suchness or thusness is the teaching that no conditioned things have a separate or permanent self-nature. There is nothing we can point to in anything we encounter and say, There! That’s the unchanging, essential nature of that thing! There is emptiness because there is impermanence and interconnectedness; everything is changing all the time and there’s no real separation between one thing and another, so nothing has a separate or permanent self-nature. Prajna is about seeing emptiness. How do we seek prajna, or learn to understand emptiness? Okumura Roshi says: Zazen itself is prajna—seeing the emptiness of all things as they are, without our mind’s incomplete map of the world. In the first sentence of the Heart Sutra. we can clearly see that prajna is something to practice. It is not a technique for using our brain. In this practice of prajna, we have no subject and no object. Everything is just as it is. Avalokitesvara is nothing other than the five aggregates. Five aggregates see the five aggregates as empty. Avalokitesvara sees himself as empty. Aspiring for prajna means we study ourselves and the universe both by getting on the cushion and by carrying out the other activities of the eightfold path. In other words, zazen, work, study and ritual are all gateways to prajna. They’re not actually separate things. We have to be careful about thinking that prajna is a special mystical thing available only to magical Buddhas or locked up in books is a library somewhere. We can’t get it from somebody or learn it by studying Dogen texts or Okumura Roshi’s writings or anything else. It’s very much about what we’re doing while living this moment. Kodo Sawaki says in Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo, “By seizing the sword of wisdom with its prajna point and diamond flame, we seize life afresh, authentic life, life at face value, here and now.” He’s evoking the image of Manjusri here, the bodhisattva that represents wisdom. Prajna isn’t intellectial wisdom that we get from memorizing stuff; just like emptiness, it’s not anywhere other than here and now and it’s not being practiced by beings other than us. This is what it is to be a bodhisattva, manifesting prajna moment by moment. Our dharma cousin Tonen O’Connor has also written about this: We tend to think of [bodhisattvas] as magnificent beings, nearly as awe inspiring as buddhas and remote from our confused lives, forgetting that the definition of a bodhisattva is someone who has generated the aspiration to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all beings. We become bodhisattvas the instant our hearts and minds open to our interconnectedness with all beings and the aspiration rises in us to free all beings from the conditions that constrict their realization of the full possibilities of their lives. Here again we have Right Understanding and Right Intention. As soon as we understand the realities of interconnectedness, our intention or vow is to free all beings from suffering. This is nothing other than the arising and manifestation of prajna, and it’s something we’re actually doing all the time. Tonen goes on: Bodhisattva-hood begins with a response that takes us beyond the confines of our self. In that moment we step onto the Path, although of course not as perfected bodhisattvas approaching the wisdom and compassion of buddhas, but more likely as “not sure I know what I’m doing” bodhisattvas, “falling down and getting up” bodhisattvas, “stumbling along” bodhisattvas. But bodhisattvas nevertheless, aspiring to enlightenment for the sake of all beings. So it is us the Heart Sutra is pointing to when it says bodhisattvas “rely on prajna paramita and thereby attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment.” To rely on prajna means it’s something that’s already here. As Tonen says, we’re not perfect, or as Okumura Roshi would say, we’re baby bodhisattvas. Nonetheless, when we have that first glimpse of what the Buddha was teaching, prajna is there, and based on that prajna, we want to practice and keep going. We’re aspiring toward prajna at the same time that we’re already relying on it. Then our job is to actualize this already-existing prajna. One way is sitting zazen without grasping for any result. As Uchiyama Roshi says in Dogen Zen as Religion, “In zazen which actualizes prajna, there should be mushotoku (no gaining)” However, everything we do with compassion and wisdom is really a manifestation of prajna. When Dogen writes about the Heart Sutra, he says that Avalokitesvara is practicing prajna with the whole body. It isn’t enough just to have an intellectual kind of wisdom. It’s also not enough just to have some feeling of compassion. Prajna actively uses the mind and heart and entire body for actualization in the world. Okumura Roshi says, To see things as they are without discrimination is prajna. Avalokiteshvara clearly sees the reality of all beings without discrimination and performs skillful means to help each and every being. This is the functioning of wisdom that is compassionate activities. This is related to what Tonen was saying—as soon as we see interconnectedness, we understand that we need to help all beings and in that moment we become bodhisattvas. That compassionate action is wisdom or prajna. If prajna is seeing with the eyes of Buddha, seeing everything without discrimination and seeing that everything is empty, then there should be myriad opportunities in a day to actualize prajna . . . and, of course, there are. One example is at mealtime. In a formal meal, we chant May we realize the emptiness of the three wheels: giver, receiver and gift. It’s just another way to talk about prajna. There’s the earth and the right causes and conditions, somebody grew the food, or processed it or bought it or cooked it and put it on the table—all that is the piece about the giver. Then there’s you and your family or friends, accepting the food as a way to support your practice—that’s the receiver. The food and everything that went into making the meal possible is the gift. With prajna we recognize that all three wheels, giver, receiver and gift, are empty of any fixed self-nature, and so we let go of our craving and aversion and the three poisons. Okumura Roshi says: We should practice giving or dana without attachment to this person or to that person or to that thing given. That is called the emptiness of the three wheels. That is the way when you practice dana-paramita. In order to practice dana-paramita, we need wisdom or prajna-paramita, which sees the emptiness of self, other people, and the things given. We can see how wisdom and compassion arise together and are necessary for each other. In order to be generous, we need to understand emptiness. As long as our practise is based on three poisons, we have ignorance, particularly ignorance about the emptiness of everything and all beings. Without prajna, we have attachment and craving and clinging. When we see emptiness, we’re released from attachment and new craving doesn’t arise. Within our prajna we see that there is nothing to which we can become attached. When that happens in zazen, it’s shikantaza, or just sitting with nothing extra, but that’s not the only place to actualize prajna. Any time we’re able to see all sides of reality in the midst of what we’re doing, we’re actualizing prajna. When we do that, then samsara and nirvana are really the same. We’re practicing with this limited body and mind and with our limited understanding as part of the human condition, but at the same time prajna and emptiness and the complete functioning of the universe are there. This sameness of samsara and nirvana is one of the most important teachings of the prajna paramita literature. The Heart Sutra seems to be negating all of Buddha’s teaching. There’s no four noble truths or eightfold path or twelve-fold chain of dependent origination. It’s saying that even those teachings are empty, and we can’t cling even to what Buddha said. When we see that, that’s prajna. If we can do what Avalokitesvara is doing in this sutra—seeing that we ourselves are empty—we’re practicing prajna paramita. We see that we’re nothing more than five skandhas, and that somehow this impermanent collection of skandhas tends to cling to the idea that it’s a permanent thing, and that’s where our suffering begins. We see impermanence, we see that there is no fixed self, and we see that ignoring all that leads to suffering. One of the most important sources on prajna is the prajna paramita sutras, of which there are about 40; these are some of the earliest Mahayana texts. One of the sutras says a bodhisattva is a being that experiences everything without attachment and sees reality or suchness. The practice of prajna is central to the nature of the bodhisattva and it comes down to five skandhas not attaching to five skandhas. Aspiring toward prajna and taking bodhisattva vows are same. Prajna is the basis for how we liberate all beings, and as we’ll see a bit later it’s the basis for being a Buddha. There’s an image in the eight-thousand line sutra that I particularly like. The bodhsattva stands in emptiness by not standing on anything, whether conditioned or unconditioned. In other words, when the bodhisattva relies on prajna paramita, he or she is not relying on anything. The sutra goes on to say that bodhisattvas wander without a home, or without attaching to the ideas and stories humans usually write based on what comes in through the senses, and on that basis don’t set themselves up for suffering. Those ideas and stories, by the way, include things like “form and emptiness are not two” and “there is no fixed self nature” and “now I’m practicing prajna.” All those things are important teachings, but the bodhisattva doesn’t stand even on those and doesn’t make a home even there. As soon as we find ourselves grasping something--Oh! Wait! Open the hand and move on. It’s like we’re reminding ourselves not to play favorites, to see each thing without discrimination, to have compassion and wisdom for everything equally, and see everything clearly, not just those things with which we want to spend our time. Sometimes we hear prajna referred to as the mother of all buddhas. Why? Because you have to see all things with the eye of prajna in order to manifest buddha nature. Prajna is the basis for all buddhas. From the point of view of prajna, we treat everything as our children. This is how Buddha sees us; we’re all Buddha’s children. Ideally, parents don’t favor one child over another. They have wisdom and compassion for them all equally. In fact, the sutras say things like “Prajñāpāramitā itself sees all the dharmas and discerns their true nature. As a result of this great merit, it is called Mother.” Prajna and buddhas actually arise together, because you need the wisdom eye to be a Buddha, and when you’re a Buddha you see everything with the wisdom eye as a matter of course. Thus the practice of prajna is not a way to get to something else. We don’t practice wisdom in order to get smarter or become people we like better or get something called awakening or enlightenment. Practicing prajna is a description of how we live when we’re completely standing up in emptiness. It’s like the precepts being a description of a life of awakening rather than a list of dos and don’ts. The point of the Heart Sutra is to keep us from getting stuck anywhere, like wanting to get something out of our practice or wanting to cling to the teachings and use them as a permanent yardstick to measure our experiences and actions. Even Buddha’s teachings aren’t the whole story. Whatever he says is only a part of complete working of universe. By the time he says it, or you read it, the whole universe has moved on, so clinging to anything, even dharma teachings, is a problem. You want to grasp form, feeling, perception, formation, consciousness? In emptiness, they don’t exist. You want to grasp what comes in through your senses? That stuff doesn’t exist either. You want to grasp the four noble truths and the eightfold path? Nope. Anything you want to pick up—prajna says put it down. Don’t deny it, don’t reject it, don’t separate from it, don’t ignore it, don’t supress it—but don’t carry it around, or stand on it and think that it’s firm ground. In zazen we get to see how that kind of mind feels. What does it feel like when we stop bouncing from one shiny toy to the next? What does it feel like just to rest in what’s sometimes called choiceless awareness? Usually we don’t have that luxury. Our aspiration for prajna or wisdom is not about acquiring knowledge or experience or anything we don’t already have. It’s about letting go of the stuff that gets in the way. In order to get through this gate, we have to put down all the extra baggage we’re carrying and leave it at the side of the road. Otherwise, we miss the gate even though it’s right in front of us. Questions for reflection and discussion
Comments are closed.
|
About the text The Ippyakuhachi Homyomon, or 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination, appears as the 11th fascicle of the 12 fascicle version of Dogen Zenji’s Shobogenzo. Dogen didn't compile the list himself; it's mostly a long quote from another text called the Sutra of Collected Past Deeds of the Buddha. Dogen wrote a final paragraph recommending that we investigate these gates thoroughly. Hoko has been talking about the gates one by one since 2016. She provides material here that can be used by weekly dharma discussion groups as well as for individual study. The 108 Gates of Dharma Illumination
[1] Right belief [2] Pure mind [3] Delight [4] Love and cheerfulness The three forms of behavior [5] Right conduct of the actions of the body [6] Pure conduct of the actions of the mouth [7] Pure conduct of the actions of the mind The six kinds of mindfulness [8] Mindfulness of Buddha [9] Mindfulness of Dharma [10] Mindfulness of Sangha [11] Mindfulness of generosity [12] Mindfulness of precepts [13] Mindfulness of the heavens The four Brahmaviharas [14] Benevolence [15] Compassion [16] Joy [17] Abandonment The four dharma seals [18] Reflection on inconstancy [19] Reflection on suffering [20] Reflection on there being no self [21] Reflection on stillness [22] Repentance [23] Humility [24] Veracity [25] Truth [26] Dharma conduct [27] The Three Devotions [28] Recognition of kindness [29] Repayment of kindness [30] No self-deception [31] To work for living beings [32] To work for the Dharma [33] Awareness of time [34] Inhibition of self-conceit [35] The nonarising of ill-will [36] Being without hindrances [37] Belief and understanding [38] Reflection on impurity [39] Not to quarrel [40] Not being foolish [41] Enjoyment of the meaning of the Dharma [42] Love of Dharma illumination [43] Pursuit of abundant knowledge [44] Right means [45] Knowledge of names and forms [46] The view to expiate causes [47] The mind without enmity and intimacy [48] Hidden expedient means [49] Equality of all elements [50] The sense organs [51] Realization of nonappearance The elements of bodhi: The four abodes of mindfulness [52] The body as an abode of mindfulness [53] Feeling as an abode of mindfulness [54] Mind as an abode of mindfulness [55] The Dharma as an abode of mindfulness [56] The four right exertions [57] The four bases of mystical power The five faculties [58] The faculty of belief [59] The faculty of effort [60] The faculty of mindfulness [61] The faculty of balance [62] The faculty of wisdom The five powers [63] The power of belief [64] The power of effort [65] The power of mindfulness [66] The power of balance [67] The power of wisdom [68] Mindfulness, as a part of the state of truth [69] Examination of Dharma, as a part of the state of truth [70] Effort, as a part of the state of truth [71] Enjoyment, as a part of the state of truth [72] Entrustment as a part of the state of truth [73] The balanced state, as a part of the state of truth [74] Abandonment, as a part of the state of truth The Eightfold Path [75] Right view [76] Right discrimination [77] Right speech [78] Right action [79] Right livelihood [80] Right practice [81] Right mindfulness [82] Right balanced state [83] The bodhi-mind [84] Reliance [85] Right belief [86] Development The six paramitas [87] The dāna pāramitā [88] The precepts pāramitā [89] The forbearance pāramitā. [90] The diligence pāramitā [91] The dhyāna pāramitā [92] The wisdom pāramitā [93] Expedient means [94] The four elements of sociability [95] To teach and guide living beings [96] Acceptance of the right Dharma [97] Accretion of happiness [98] The practice of the balanced state of dhyāna [99] Stillness [100] The wisdom view [101] Entry into the state of unrestricted speech [102] Entry into all conduct [103] Accomplishment of the state of dhāraṇī [104] Attainment of the state of unrestricted speech [105] Endurance of obedient following [106] Attainment of realization of the Dharma of nonappearance [107] The state beyond regressing and straying [108] The wisdom that leads us from one state to another state and, somehow, one more: [109] The state in which water is sprinkled on the head Archives
February 2025
|