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The faculty of balance is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] the mind is pure. 定 是法明門、心淨故。 The translation I’m using here says balance, but this fourth faculty is more commonly called concentration or meditation. Nonetheless, balance is an important theme. It’s about the settledness and mental equanimity that comes with the attention being perfectly focused. Traditionally, it’s the evenmindedness that comes when we can accept both pleasant and unpleasant sensations for what they are, and can meet whatever is coming at us in a solid and stable way. Concentration is what keeps us single-minded, if you will. In early practice, keeping the mind focused on an object of meditation was what allowed transcendent wisdom to arise. Throughout, there is a sense of nonseparation of mind and object, or unifying subject and object. In general, it’s about keeping the mind from wandering around, and it requires a certain amount of training. The more we settle, the better we’re able to concentrate, and the more settled and balanced we become, and the cycle goes on. Concentration was an antidote to the distraction of the five objects of enjoyment—in other words, what’s coming in through five senses of the body. Instead, one concentrated on the true nature of reality. In the Pali canon, it says that only someone who can “withstand the impact of the senses” can develop concentration. If we think about what the word concentrate means in English, it’s to bring something to the center. One meaning is to remove impurities or extra material so that we’re left with only the element we want, like removing water from juice so we can freeze and store it, or creating a highly concentrated laundry soap or perfume. Buddha describes the process of refining gold; the goldsmith removes each kind of impurity from coarse sand to fine dust so that he ends up with a substance he can work. If he doesn’t, the gold is brittle, not strong or flexible enough to make anything or “withstand impact.” In the same way, he says, we need to get rid of the major hindrances and impulses toward misconduct, and then the moderate ones and more minor ones as we’re better and better able able to concentrate. Driving out hindrances allows for settling and concentrating, and settling and concentrating allow for driving out more and more subtle hindrances. However, we have to be careful about what we’re concentrating on. Singlemindedness is not in itself necessarily wholesome. If we’re fixated on satisfying our cravings and aversions, that’s concentration that’s loaded with hindrances. Thus we’re talking about skillful concentration here. At first, Buddha says, our concentration happens because we force ourselves into it. We’re forceably keeping ourselves from wandering off. It takes a lot of intentional restraint to stay focused, but once we’re not being pulled around by our delusion and hindrances, we can settle and concentrate naturally without force. In the early teachings we hear a lot about meditative absorption and various stages of absorption. What does that mean? It’s actually a way of experiencing non-separation. There were exercises designed to help the practitioner concentrate on a specific quality of an object so completely that it filled their awareness, and the awareness expanded to include the object in its entirety. Concentration on one thing was not to the exclusion of the broader reality but a gateway to the broader reality. It’s this broader or expanded awareness that allows for the emergence of balance or equanimity. One image is that the mind becomes steady like the flame of a lamp in the absence of wind. It’s not wandering around and it’s also not being pushed around by hindrances. One reason that concentration is important is impermanence. Everything is changing all the time, including conditions of mind. What we’re thinking about, how we’re feeling, what we’re perceiving—all are in a constant state of flux. There’s also more than one thing arising at a time. For our own mental health, we need some kind of continuity of attention and processing. However, there’s more than one kind of concentration. There’s the intellectual concentration we use for studying or solving a problem, inventing or building something, or running an experiment. It’s really an activity of the psychological mind only. Concentration in practice needs the body, the emotions, our aspiration, our whole experience of this moment. We take the posture as a part of our practice to support our focus, so we need to be paying attention to what we’re doing with body. We live by precepts so that what we’re doing with our concentration is ethical and wholesome. We take a broader perspective in our concentration that just the sensory world. Our awareness includes both form and emptiness, and when we see that samsara and nirvana are both right here, there’s a better chance of us finding contentment in this moment. The objects of our grasping and craving lose some of their seductive qualities. Sometimes concentration is referred to as samadhi. That can mean focusing our attention on one object, but in the Soto Zen tradition, it can mean to see and hold all things equally, or that mind and environment are one, or actor and action are one. Dogen Zenji was not a big fan of the Theravada view of concentration, as we’ll see in a minute. Of course, there’s a huge connection between concentration and our zazen. The shikan in shikantaza means “just.” When we sit, we just sit. Sitting isn’t a time to ponder challenges in our practice or ruminate on the latest dharma book we read. We do only four things in our zazen: take the posture, keep the eyes open, breathe through the nose, and let go of thought. Anything else is extra. We’re refining the gold and removing the extra stuff so that what we’re left with is something workable. That takes concentration, but not the psychological kind. Uchiyama Roshi says: When we think of mind in its ordinary use, we usually think of the psychological mind or conscious awareness. In Sanskrit, mind used in this sense is referred to as citta, in which case the expression shin ikkyosho would mean to gather our confused mind together and concentrate on one thing. By definition, zazen would become some sort of exercise in mental or psychic concentration, or a method for training the mind to attain a state whereby all of one’s ideas or thoughts about some object would disappear, leaving the person completely unperturbed. This is the superficial implication of munen muso, no notion, no thought. Zazen of the Theravada teachings and of the non-Buddhist teachings are of this type of psychic concentration. Any method of psychic concentration works from the assumption that our mind is always in disorder and aims to still it by doing zazen. Dogen Zenji, however, never taught that zazen was merely a method of working to improve yourself, not a simplistic straightening out of your own life with no concern for those around you. Dogen once said: “Even if you have the mind of a wily fox, do not practice the Theravada way of trying only to improve yourself!” (1) Concentration is one of the three kinds of elements (prajna/wisdom, sila/ethics and samadhi/concentration) on the eightfold path, making it central to Buddhist practice. Sometimes these are called the three basic studies. Uchiyama Roshi describes the samadhi category simply as settling down in quietness. The three elements that fall into this third category are right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration or right meditation. It’s easy to get confused about the relationship between zazen and concentration; when texts are translated this way, sounds like they’re same thing. However, Dogen says Do not consider zazen to be the concentration and meditation of the three basic studies. (2) Uchiyama Roshi explains this comment: According to common sense, meditation or concentration is considered to be a means to calm down one’s mind, the thoughts—including emotions—produced in our brain. Since thoughts make noise and cause is to worry about one thing or another, we try to calm down. In other words, we try to bring our thoughts under the control of thought itself. This practice takes place on the ground of our thoughts. When we’re feeling agitated and unable to focus, it might seem like we should tell ourselves to concentrate on what we’re doing so we can calm down, but Uchiyama Roshi is saying the opposite: he says we can’t calm our minds with our minds—it’s like trying to pull up the mat we’re sitting on. Thus concentration isn’t about control or forcing our minds into some kind of activity or state, and it’s not about getting our thinking to stop by driving out thoughts. The second part of this gate is indeed about mind, so we have to understand what kind of mind we’re talking about here. Uchiyama Roshi says: Mind as the directly transmitted buddhadharma is used in the sense of mind extending throughout all things, and of all things being included within mind. When we speak of a zazen based on the innate oneness of mind and environment, it should not be understood that zazen is a method of psychic concentration or of trying to still one’s mind. (3) Let’s take a moment here to consider mind and what the gate statement means when it says the mind is pure. Mind here is not the everyday thinking mind of the individual, psychological function that arises from the collection of five skandhas. Historically, conflating Mind with the operations of the brain led to the argument that practice isn’t necessary because we (our thinking minds) are already awakened. Dogen’s question about this teaching was: if we’re already awakened, why do we have to practice? This led him to China and his teacher Tendo Nyojo in search of an answer. Eventually he realized that practice and awakening are not two and are not separate from Mind. This became one of the major themes of his writing. The individual and his/her/their activities are certainly not outside of this one unified reality. The psychological operation is not separate from the total dynamic functioning of the universe, but this isn’t Mind within the Soto Zen tradition. Mind is also not a “thing” that we can grasp or completely and accurately describe, because as soon as we conceive of it, we’re dealing with a copy of Mind itself. Mind is the action of experiencing this moment in the most simple, direct, pure and authentic way, completely integrating the individual self and the universal self without a starting point or fixed point of view, before the personal thinking apparatus begins to color and shape that experience by itself. Mind has no starting point, frame of reference or object. It’s living in the highest degree of non-attachment. In the “Bukkyo” fascicle of the Shobogenzo, Dogen described it as the characters of the sutra without the paper on which they’re written. When he translated the “Sokushin-zebutsu” ("Mind Itself is Buddha") fascicle, Okumura Roshi used the term “to actualize sokushin-zebutsu.” In Japanese it’s literally “to do sokushin-zebutsu.” He says that when a person penetrates sokushin-zebutsu, the person and sokushin-zebutsu are both something happening. At that point, saying “Mind and mind” or “buddha and practice” as different things doesn’t make sense. That’s in line with Dogen frequently telling us to have a spirit of undividedness in each situation, and to work wholeheartedly or put undivided attention into the work. That includes seeing what each circumstance calls for, and that’s concentration: seeing beyond small self to include all of reality and not being separate from that reality. Shikantaza is just sitting with nothing extra, including an individual or personal point of view. Uchiyama Roshi wrote that sitting in order to gain control of our minds, get rid of craving or delusion, and reach Nirvana is not the pure zazen of life itself. That can feel like concentration, but we’re not doing it with the pure mind of this gate statement. It’s flavored or colored with various kinds of profit or gain. (4) On the other hand, shikantaza in which we let go of thought, and the perspective only of the small self, is the kind of mind we’ve been talkng about here. The same descriptions we’ve used for Mind apply to shikantaza: the activity of experiencing this moment in the most simple, direct, pure and authentic way, completely integrating the individual self and the universal self without a starting point or fixed point of view, before the personal thinking apparatus begins to color and shape that experience by itself. That’s why Sawaki Roshi teaches about sitting zazen beyond gain and beyond satori, translated by Okumura Roshi as “good for nothing.” According to this gate statement, when we concentrate—in other words, when we doing whatever we’re doing with nothing extra—then we have balance and our experience of reality is direct and complete. We see both ourselves and others. We have both wisdom and compassion. We have a direction and we’re also able to adapt. Earlier I mentioned doing the four elements of zazen with nothing extra, and just now I noted that this was one manifestation of concentration. However, we can practice concentration in whatever we’re doing by letting go of whatever is extra. That means having some idea about what’s happening that keeps us from experiencing what’s really happening. If I’m having a conversation with you, I can concentrate by listening carefully to what you’re really saying and not what I expect you to say or what I think you should say. I can see who you really are and not who I think you are. I can stop trying to be somebody in my response to you and instead let wisdom and compassion that are already there come out. All that stuff is extra, and it’s taking up space. Again, concentration is bringing something to the center rather than the attention wandering around. When I notice my attention is sliding over to “What impressive thing can I say when he stops talking?” I can see that clearly and choose to let go of it and return to the actual conversation. I’m not concentrating on whatever is at the center to the exclusion of some other part of my experience. I have to be aware of what’s happening in this body and mind and not disregard that; at the same time, I have to be aware of what’s happening in the external world. We might say that concentration is about refining our practice. We become more and more aware of subtleties; that might be subtleties of what’s going on in the body while we’re sitting zazen, or it might be the little places where we get stuck in three poisons. It might be the assumptions we’re making about who we are and the effects of what we do. For instance, in the beginning of our precept practice we’re working at a pretty gross level: don’t kill people and take their stuff. Then we start seeing more subtle ways in which we break precepts and contribute to unwholesomeness. We see that anything can be an intoxicant, not just alcohol. We see that not feeling anger and not indulging anger aren’t same. We see that not slandering the three treasures is the same as zazen is good for nothing. You may know that the original title for Uchiyama Roshi’s commentary on the Tenzo Kyokun was Refining Your Life. It’s interesting to consider what that means: refining your life or concentrating your life into a pure form. It really sounds like nothing extra, including nothing in our lives that pulls us off the path, feeds our hindrances or delusions, or clouds our vision. Living a refined life in this case isn’t about being an elite, having the refinement of an expensive education or charm school etiquette or something. I think it would be about making careful, intentional choices about what our lives include and what activities we’re doing. Uchiyama Roshi actually equates refining your life with bodhicitta, the aspiration to practice and manifest awakening. The Japanese term for bodicitta is doushin 道心, or way-seeking mind. He says doushin means the aspiration to live the most refined life of the Self in every moment. The bodhisattva vows are the same as living a concentrated or pure life of nothing extra. Now, of course there’s another way to look at nothing extra. Because of interconnectedness, there really is nothing extra. There already can’t be anything extra or outside because there’s no separation. In that sense, living a refined life of nothing extra is simply to see with the eyes of Buddha, to see that there is inside and outside and also to see that from the beginning there is no inside or outside. Zazen with nothing extra is just doing the four activities with this particular body and mind and nothing else, but it’s also zazen that drops off body and mind so there’s no inside and outside. Then we don’t need to try to concentrate on something in our zazen because there is already only one unified reality. There’s kind of refinement or concentration that recognizes impurities, hindrances or delusions, and removes them. There’s also the kind of refinement or concentration that sees that there never were any impurities to begin with. Both of these views are true, and we have to attend to both of them. Notes: (1) Uchiyama, K. (2005). How to Cook Your Life: From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment. United States: Shambhala, p. 25. (2) Both references in this paragraph are from The Wholehearted Way: A Translation of Eihei Dogen's Bendowa, With Commentary by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi. (2011). United States: Tuttle Publishing. The first is p. 158 and the second is p. 29. (3) How to Cook Your Life, p. 26 (4) See Uchiyama, K. (1973). Approach to Zen: The Reality of Zazen/Modern Civilization and Zen. Japan: Japan Publications, p. 70. 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
March 2025
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