[57] The four bases of mystical power are a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with them] the body-and-mind is light. 四如意足是法明門、身心輕故。 There has been a significant shift in the understanding of mystical or spiritual powers from early Buddhism through Dogen and up to today. Let’s start with early teachings about the four bases, then we’ll see what Dogen had to say (and he said a lot), and then how we can think about this today. These four bases of mystical power can be said to be related to four kinds of dhyana. Dhyana has various meanings depending on the context; it can mean training the mind, meditation or concentration, and it can also mean attention, thought or reflection. Meditation in early Buddhism was about letting go of being pulled around by sense-data. Withdrawing from the senses allowed for less distraction and more concentration and balance. For later schools, it’s less about withdrawing from the senses and more about fully entering into those experiences, seeing them for what they are so we’re not attached to them. The four dhyanas are stages of meditation. In the first, one starts letting go of sense-desires and the impulse toward unwholesomeness in getting what one wants. The second brings about mental concentration and serenity, and the third, joy and equanimity. In the fourth, one transcends both suffering and joy. There’s a real sense of progression along a path or following a curriculum in this early practice. Taking up the eightfold path is a preparation for meditation. Once you’ve gotten your life in order and settled down, you can start making progress toward nirvana in your sitting. You start with the four foundations of mindfulness, then you add the four exertions, you progress through the four dhyanas, and if do things right, you may develop some mystical powers! So what are these bases of mystical power? They’re four kinds of concentration: 1) Intention / purpose / desire / zeal (chanda) It might seem strange to find desire among the bases of support for manifesting awakening. We’re always being told that not being in the grip of desire is important in our practice. However, this kind of desire is aspiration or intention, wanting to carry out the four exertions. We’ve decided we’re going to practice, so we want to put energy into it, focus on it and make room for it in our lives. We concentrate on that direction and purpose and make a commitment. 2) Effort / energy / will (viriya) This one is about making a real effort in the long term to move away from unskillfulness and toward skillfulness. Even when we get scared or discouraged, we keep going. It’s not only about our activity or energy level, but also about diligence, perseverance and courage. This second base is related to right effort on the eightfold path. If we’re kind of halfhearted in our practice and don’t stick with it, unwholesomeness creeps back in. We forget what Buddha taught, we get out of the habit of sitting, and we can be influenced by what others are doing. This is why sangha is important—we need some regular contact with others who are doing this practice for support and encouragement. Practicing by ourselves is hard, because there’s a lot of delusion in the world and a lot of pressure to go along with it. 3) Consciousness / mind / thoughts (citta) This is the state of mind or mindset, the same citta as bodhicitta. It’s not the intellectual mind. This is important as a base for practice because our mindstate can be out of alignment with our aspiration. If these two things are going off in different directions, we have a problem and it’s difficult to practice. For instance, we may really want to live according to Buddha’s way but still fall prey to hindrances and develop some doubts. Msaybe we’re just too bored and lethargic to get on the cushion every day. It’s important to recognize when we’re running into one of the hindrances so we can do something about it. Citta can really lead us astray, or, if it’s in alignment with aspiration, it can a real support and source of strength. Watching our mindstates is an exercise in understanding impermanence. During sesshin, we can see that the state of mind at 4 am isn’t the same as at lunchtime or 7 pm. The light changes as the day goes along, and so does our attitude, outlook and state of mind. 4) Investigation / discrimination / wisdom (vīmaṃsā) We have to be able to distinguish between wholesome and unwholesome, or skillful and unskillful. Energy and exertion are fine, but are they in support of something real and good? We can feel happy and satisfied in our practice, but is it because we’re letting go of suffering or because we’re feeding our egos and feeling like wizards? We’ve got to apply some discernment about what we’re doing, our motivation, and the effects of our actions. It’s helpful to have teachers and sangha brothers and sisters to point out where we might be taking a wrong turn, but ultimiately we have to do the work. We have to be the ones who see our suffering and delusion clearly. These are the four bases, and we can see the way they’re interconnected in supporting practice. We have some direction or intention, we make some effort in that direction, we pay attention to the mindstate within which we’re carrying out practice activities (which is both cause and result of our actions), and we determine what’s wholesome and skillful and what’s not. If we do all these things, the gate statement says the mind and body will be light. Other translations of that word would be easy, simple, or gentle. We’re not obstructed or constricted, full of hindrances and extra layers of clinging and aversion, and less likely to act out in harmful ways. So what are these mystical spiritual powers that we’re supposed to get from these bases? The Pubba Sutta says: When the four bases of spiritual power have been developed and cultivated in this way, a bhikkhu wields the various kinds of spiritual power: having been one, he becomes many; having been many, he becomes one; he appears and vanishes; he goes unhindered through a wall, through a rampart, through a mountain as though through space; he dives in and out of the earth as though it were water; he walks on water without sinking as though it were earth; seated cross-legged, he travels in space like a bird; with his hands he touches and strokes the moon and sun so powerful and mighty; he exercises mastery with the body as far as the brahmā world.” That’s the early Buddhist point of view. Dogen’s list is a bit different, as we’ll see in a minute. He had a lot to say about spiritual powers in several places in his writings, but in all of his writings his point is this: having spiritual powers is all well and good, but it’s nothing other than awakening, and the way we manifest awakening moment by moment. Certainly, spiritual powers aren’t going to move us toward understanding the dharma. He may have been responding to practices around him like shugendo 修驗道, a combination of Shingon Buddhism and Japanese folk practices. Shu 修 is practice, gen 驗is supernatural powers gained by practicing in the mountains, and do 道 is way. Adherents chant mantras and do ascetic practices like not eating much or walking many miles to purify body and mind and gain magical powers. Dogen says activities like these don’t help with liberation from suffering, which is the central project of Buddhism. Of course, the first place we meet Dogen talking about special powers is in the Fukanzazengi. He lists various examples of awakening stories from the Denkoroku and then says these cannot be understood by discriminitive thinking, much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural powers. Special powers aren’t necessary or even helpful in seeing what Buddha and our ancestors saw. He says we need to sit zazen for ourselves, and this is probably the first place we encounter him talking about this when we begin practicing Soto Zen. Dogen also wrote about it in four or five places in the Eihei Koroku. In one of them: . . . suppose, moreover, that you have supernatural powers to transform yourself and move the great thousandfold worlds, and you can dry up vast oceans, can fly in the sky like a cloud, can walk on water as if on ground, and your body generates fire and water, wind and clouds, and radiant light. Still, in terms of the great matter [of the causal condition for the appearance of buddhas], you have not seen the ultimate Buddha Dharma, even in a dream. Such supernatural powers and so forth as mentioned above are simply the affair in the realms of the two vehicles of listeners and pratyekabuddhas and of those outside the way, and this is just the livelihood in the demons’ cave. How can such people understand this wondrous Dharma of the unsurpassed awakening of the tathagatas? (1) This teaching is making reference to the Lotus Sutra, which says the single great matter of the causal condition for the appearance of buddhas is opening up, demonstrating, realizing and helping others to enter the insight of buddhas—in other words, putting ourselves right in the middle of awakening by practicing. We’re not going to conjure up buddhas by developing some special powers that are somehow outside of the workings of thus one unified reality. We’re also not going to achieve the “cessation of outflows” or the body-and-mind that are light, easy and unobstructed, as the gate statement says, Here’s another teaching from the Eihei Koroku: A capable master must be endowed with the six spiritual powers. The first is the power to go anywhere; second is the power to hear everywhere; third is the poiwer to know others’ minds; fourth is the power to know previous lives; fifth is the power to see everywhere; sixth is the power to extinguish outflows (attachments). Everyone, do you want to see the power to go anywhere? The teacher Dogen raised his fist. Do you want to see the poiwer to know others’ minds? Dogen let one of his legs hang down from his seat. Do you want to see the power of hearing everywhere? Dogen snapped his fingers once. Do you want to see the power of knowing previous lives? Dogen raised his whisk. Do you want to see the power of seeing everywhere? Dogen drew a circle in the air with his whisk. Do you want to see the power of extinguishing outflows? Dogen drew a single horizontal line (the character for one) with his whisk and said: Although this is so, ultimately, six times six is 36. (2) "Six times six is 36" is simple math; spiritual powers are likewise simple everyday things. Also, there are many powers beyond 36; a buddha has innumerable spiritual powers by virtue of awakening. And a third example: Buddhas do not appear in the world by depending on the sixteen especially excellent meditation methods, which generate the spiritual powers. Even when ordinary people with sharp capacity practice these kinds of meditation, the cessation of outflows does not occur. When tathagatas expound the teaching, the cessation of outflows does occur. (3) "Sixteen methods" refers to 16 techniques of awareness in early Buddhism from the Anapanasati Sutta. Dogen says the practice of buddhas is not directed toward gaining some exalted state, unlike special meditation techniques. Dogen frequently says that understanding the dharma and completely manifesting Buddha nature in moment-to-moment activity is the same as having supernatural powers, so they’re nothing special. Although we might want to cultivate magical abilities, we usually do that in order to have power or impress people, or worse, to take advantage of others. Thus seeking after these things with an unwholesome motivation is a problem. Your natural functioning in everyday life after having dropped off body and mind and let go of the three poisons—or just doing whatever needs to be done—is a greater thing, according to Dogen. Previously we’ve talked about Dogen calling the six sense organs six instances of prajna. Rather than just being six sources of distraction that feeds delusion, they’re six kinds of wisdom. He also says that they themselves are six marvelous spiritual abilities. Dogen wrote a whole fascicle on spiritual powers called Jinzu, which we'll summarize in the remainder of this essay. In it he says that the unsurpassed spiritual ability is our three thousand acts of a morning and our eight hundred acts of an evening, which we take as the normal state of things. Supernatural powers are supposed to arise when we become Buddhas, but that means we’ll never recognize that we have them. Buddhas aren’t aware that they’re buddhas because they’re not separate from awakening. The powers are there before we’re buddhas and after we’re buddhas. In this fascicle Dogen tells a story about a teacher who wakes up in the morning, rolls over and calls out to his disciples. One brings him a basin of water to wash his face; another one brings him a cup of tea. The teacher says that all the everyday things they all just did were practicing their marvelous spiritual abilities. Dogen makes a distinction between the teachings and practices of early Buddhsm related to mystical powers, and says that his view is different, and that it’s the true wisdom passed down by buddhas and ancestors. He tells us, when it comes to these powers, not to practice like early Buddhists, or like non-Buddhists, or like academics. He tells this story again in the Eihei Koroku and says, The wondrous transformation of spiritual powers are simply bringing a basin of water and making tea. (4) Dogen says that even if we gain mystical powers, they’re limited and they don’t compare to the scope of awakening. That’s not the way to really understand the true nature of self. He doesn’t negate the potential for developing special powers of some kind, but he says that’s not a goal of our practice or even particularly helpful. Such things as the lesser spiritual abilities do also exist, enveloped within the capacity of this greater spiritual ability. The greater marvelous spiritual ability is in contact with the lesser spiritual abilities, but the lesser spiritual abilities are not aware of the greater marvelous spiritual ability. If somehow we end up with these mystical powers, he says we shouldn’t stop there and think we’re done, or that we‘ve achieved something. He describes how limited these powers are and concludes that therefore they can’t be an end goal and shouldn’t be mistaken for “awakening: They are all tainted by their practice being considered as separate from enlightenment and because they are confined to some time or some place. They reside in life but do not manifest after one’s death; they belong to oneself but do not belong to someone else. Though they may manifest in this land of ours, they may not manifest in all other countries; though some may manifest them without trying, others cannot manifest them when they would. If we consider mystical powers as separate from awakening, or a stepping stone to awakening, we’ve made a mistake. Then he points out that a person using these powers is limited to a time and place, and that such powers belong to one person but not to another. Thus if we’re practicing in order to gain this kind of advantage for ourselves, our motivation is questionable, and also we don’t understand awakening, which is not limited to a time or place or one person. Now we come to a very famous image: The marvelous spiritual ability manifests its enlightened functioning in our carrying water and our hauling firewood. Dogen is quoting this verse by Lay Disciple Hō’on. You’ve likely heard this teaching that it’s the very ordinariness of our moment by moment practice that’s important. Just chop wood and carry water. Dogen says You need to thoroughly explore this principle through your training. It’s not something to study with the intellect but to experience in carrying out our everyday tasks and activities. He says sometimes we do things for ourselves, and sometimes for others. Sometimes we’re not even aware that our daily tasks are manifestations of spiritual power or awakening, but that doesn’t make them any the less marvelous. He suggests we don’t need to compare our mundane activities with exotic mystical powers: Spiritual powers arise along with that which is beyond anything our consciousness can recognize, and they abide in that which is beyond anything our consciousness can recognize, and they take their true refuge in that which is beyond anything our consciousness can recognize. The ever-changing characteristics of the marvelous spiritual ability of Buddhas have no connection with something short or something long, so, in all seriousness, how can one possibly undertake to evaluate them simply by making comparisons? Then Dogen considers what it means to “possess” supernatural powers. Of course, we can grasp them and be hindered by them just like anything else for which we have craving and clinging. Is it really possible to own or possess such powers? Or is that just an obstruction? Does it put artifical limits on something that’s not actually limited? He quotes Hyakujo Ekai: When the six sense gates leave no trace, we call this ‘the six marvelous spiritual abilities’. Simply, at this very moment when we are smoothly going on, unhindered by all the various material and immaterial things that arise, and having brought to an end our dependency on our discriminatory thinking, then this too is called the ‘the six marvelous spiritual abilities’. Not claiming these marvelous spiritual abilities as one’s own is what we call not ‘possessing’ spiritual abilities. Dogen goes on to describe some characteristics of bodhisattvas who may have these powers. They’re no longer dependent only on discriminative thinking, and they may not use the powers they have. In other words, they’re not stuck in the karmic conditions around their powers. They see them from the perspective of the universal self rather than the small karmic self. He tells us not to mistake *meaningless feasting on externals for the daily behavior of returning to one’s True Home,* not to get caught up in the limited view of feeding the ego and instead to respond to this moment using whatever we have, but not being hindered or obstructed by whatever we have. We don’t hear so much about mystical or transcendental powers from our contemporary teachers. In general, it might be difficult for modern Western practitioners to think that teachings about supernatural powers are credible or relevant. Sawaki Roshi said: There are bodhisattvas “without magical abilities.” These are bodhisattvas who have even entirely forgotten words like “practice” or “satori”, bodhisattvas without wonderful powers, bodhisattvas who are immeasurable, bodhisattvas who are not interested in their name and fame. That’s right in line with what Dogen was saying. Elsewhere, Sawaki Roshi says: What’s called “having magical powers” doesn’t mean anything more than having a facial expression that isn’t muddled. It’s good to remember that the focus of this gate is on the bases of mystical power, not on the mystical powers themselves. It’s tempting to jump straight to “Cool! If I do enough sitting practice I can levitate and see through walls and walk on water!” Maybe so, but it’s not enough. The point of these four bases is that they support our sitting practice and help us to be easy and light in body and mind—in other words, to move freely through the world as bodhisattvas liberating beings from suffering without getting caught by the three poisons. Whatever else happens is fine, but whether or not we can read people’s minds or hear things that happen on the other side of the world is not a measure of the success of our zazen. Uchiyama Roshi says: The attitude of the practitioner practicing zazen as a Mahayana Buddhist teaching never means to attempt to artifically create some new self by means of practice. Nor should it be aiming at decreasing delusion and finally eliminating it altogether. We practice zazen, neither aiming at having a special mystical experience nor trying to gain greater enlightenment. Zazen as true Mahayana teaching is always the whole self just truly being the whole self, life truly being life. (5) Our practice not so linear as the early Buddhist style, but the important message is still that we need to cultivate and practice if we’re going to let go of three poisons. Just wishing it to be so or trying to become wizards in order to see what others don’t see isn’t enough. We can’t develop powers in order to aid us in our practice, and we can’t make developing powers as a result of our practice the goal. Okumura Roshi says: Our practice doesn’t have a mystical, mysterious or magical power to clear away all delusions. But like the raindrops, we sit moment by moment, day after day, year after year, and this sitting generates the power to erode a rock. . . . Our effort is like raindrops; it doesn’t create change in one day, or a few days, or a few years. But if we just keep doing it, when conditions are ripe, it happens. (6) Notes: (1) Dogen, E. (2010). Dogen's Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Koroku. United States: Wisdom Publications. p. 512 (2) Eihei Koroku, p. 211 (3) Eihei Koroku, p. 347 (4) Eihei Koroku, p. 90 (5) Uchiyama, K. (2005). Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice. Ukraine: Wisdom Publications, p. 83 (6) Okumura, S. (2012). Living by Vow: A Practical Introduction to Eight Essential Zen Chants and Texts. United Kingdom: Wisdom Publications, p. 48-49. Questions for reflection and discussion:
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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
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