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Right discrimination is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we eliminate all discrimination and lack of discrimination. 正分別是法明門、斷一切分別無分別故。 Now we take up the second element of the eightfold path. You may know this element as right thought or right intention, and in a minute we’ll get to why there are multiple interpretations of this element. In the Buddhist tradition there is more than one kind of discrimination. There’s the negative kind that’s based on a limited view, where we pick and choose based on the three poisons, our imagination, our delusions and preconceptions. There’s also the positive kind of discrimination where we know right from wrong, true teachings from false teachings, etc. Gate 75 about right view is related to this one. To quickly review, in its broadest sense, right view is anything that results in wholesome skillful activity that moves you toward letting go of the three poisons and experiencing awakening, as opposed to mistaken views, that lead to suffering for yourself and others. More specifically, traditionally right view is a deep understanding of what Buddha taught about things like cause and effect, the three marks of existence, dependent origination, and the four noble truths. With right view we see things clearly, but with right discrimination or right thought we choose some action to take based on that right view. When we have some insight into the nature of reality based on our experience of what Buddha is teaching, then we may reconsider our values, aspiring to live in a certain way and act in a certain way, Intention connects what we perceive with what we do. What we think drives what we say and do, and we create karma with body, speech and mind. Now we see why this element is sometimes called right intention, and how discriminating between wholesome and unwholesome action is related. Thought, intention and discrimination are all tied up together. Buddha says there are three aspects of right intention, and these have three parallel kinds of wrong intention. While he was sitting under the bodhi tree before his awakening experience, he was watching his thoughts and he saw that they had two categories. They were either about desire, ill will and harmfulness or they were about renunciation, good will and harmlessness. When he noticed the first kind of thinking, he saw that it led to suffering for himself and others and obstructed wisdom and compassion. When he noticed the second kind, he saw it was beneficial and let to cultivating wisdom and compassion. Thus he tried to let go of the first kind of thinking and encourage the second kind. If we’re caught up in wrong views, we set unwholesome intentions and take unskillful actions, and if we hold right views, we set wholesome intentions and take skillful actions. All of the unskillful action in the world starts with views and intentions. It doesn’t arise from nothing, and the consequences can affect one being or millions of beings. Whatever personal or societal problems we’re having start with what’s going on up in our heads. It’s a manifestation of intention, based on wisdom and compassion or on the three poisons, so we can see why cause and effect is such a central teaching for us. What we think and say and do has real consequences. The Buddha’s three kinds of intention are renunciation, good will and harmlessness. The intention of renunciation counters desire. Buddha says this teaching runs contrary to the way of the world! Usually, people follow their desires and believe that the objects of their desires will make them happy. Buddha says we need to give up those desires, not necessarily on moral grounds but because they cause suffering. He’s not saying we should give everything away and go live in caves, but we should live in a way that’s appropriate for our circumstances. We do need to recognize that getting out from under our cravings is tough and we need to be diligent. It’s not enough just to agree with this teaching; we need to have real intention and actually carry it out by investigating how desires arise and keep us bound up—and that’s not easy or comfortable. The intention of good will counters ill will. When we’re feeling angry and frustrated, it can feel good to act out and release that tension, but of course we know that there are likely to be unfortunate consequences to that action. Acting out doesn’t really allow us to let go of that feeling; it just embeds it more deeply in our habituated thinking. However, ignoring or suppressing those angry feelings doesn’t help either, because they just leak out somewhere else as passive aggression, or eat away at our self-image and our spirit. Turning this around so we have goodwill or loving kindness for beings isn’t a matter of being sentimental or feeling obligated to respond to people in a certain way. It doesn’t come from feelings of personal attachment. It’s a selfless kind of good will, because the self isn’t the reference point and it applies to everyone, not just people we like. It’s a matter of taking skillful action based on seeing what’s really happening and how suffering arises and unfolds. If we’ve got our thinking in order, we can say and do right thing. The intention of harmlessness counters harmfulness. While good will is about wishing happiness and wellbeing for others, harmlessness is about having compassion for others and wishing them to be free from suffering. In both cases, we can put ourselves in the position of other beings and understand that everyone (including ourselves) wants to be happy and well and free from suffering. Understanding the four noble truths is central to right intention. When we understand the nature of suffering in our own lives, the intention of renunciation arises. When we understand the four noble truths with relation to other beings, then the intention of good will and the intention of harmlessness arise. Working for these three positive things is said to dislodge thoughts about the three negative things and uproot the three poisons. We can start to shift our habituated thinking away from unskillful responses to what we encounter, and toward our intention to be free from greed, anger, ignorance. Here’s what Dogen has to say about this second item on the eightfold path, which he calls right thinking: “Right thinking as a branch of the path”: When [we] establish this thinking, the buddhas of the ten directions all appear. So the manifestation of the ten directions, and the manifestation of the buddhas, are just the time of the establishment of this concrete thinking. When we establish this concrete thinking we are beyond self and transcending the external world; at the same time, in the very moment of the present, on thinking concrete facts we go straight to Vārāṇasī. The place where the thinking exists is Vārāṇasī. An eternal buddha says, “I am thinking the concrete state of not thinking.” “How can the state of not thinking be thought?” “It is different from thinking.” This is right consideration, right thinking. To break a zafu is right thinking. (1) Probably you’ve picked up on some familiar Dogen patterns here as well as a well known koan. There are lots of allusions here to other things and other stories, which we’ll take apart in a moment, and all that’s lots of fun for our mental gymnastics, but whatever else he’s talking about, Dogen is always trying to get us to let go of our usual systems of thinking and analyzing. In this case, he’s actually talking about thinking, but when he’s talking about mountains or okesa or rice bowls, his goal is always exploding our habituated thinking. We’re always talking about Dogen’s “teachings,” but he’s not trying to “teach” us something. He’s trying to pry our desperate fingers off of clinging to what we think we know. In this comment he starts by telling us what happens when we engage in right thinking, and then he goes on to say something about what right thinking actually is. Right thinking as a branch of the path The words he’s using here for thinking are broader than what thinking means in English. They include wishing, hoping, reflecting and pondering, and that gets added to the original Sanskrit from which it derives that has a sense of direction or purpose. Thus this covers both a general considering and a more specific coming to conclusion, all the ways our brain usually operates. As we’ve seen, right view is a clear perception of what’s happening, and right discrimination or right thinking turns that into action. When [we] establish this thinking, the buddhas of the ten directions all appear. So the manifestation of the ten directions, and the manifestation of the buddhas, are just the time of the establishment of this concrete thinking. The ten directions are north, south, east and west plus the intermediate directions of northwest, northeast, etc. plus up and down, It’s Buddhist shorthand for all space in the universe. Tradition says each direction has its own Buddha land and its own Buddha. Each of these Buddhas has a particular name and dharma position, like Virtue of Goodness or Without Lament or Offering Treasure. “Buddhas in the ten directions” are familiar because at the end of chanting a text we dedicate the merit to “All Buddhas, ten directions, three times.” We’re invoking all the Buddhas everywhere in space and time. Dogen wrote whole fascicle of Shobogenzo about the ten directions, and in "Uji" he talks about time while in "Jippo" he talks about space, although these two things are completely interpenetrated. Dogen says in his comment that when we establish right thinking or right intention, at that moment everything in the universe appears as buddha, or awakening. The phrase “concrete thinking” is interesting, and I have a speculation about what he’s pointing to; you can decide whether you think it’s really where he’s going. I think concrete thinking means zazen. Our everyday thinking is about our ideas, stories and conclusions. It’s “real” in that there’s nothing outside of Buddha’s way, or outside of this one unified reality, but it’s also just our picture of what’s happening. On the other hand, zazen is a physical activity carried out with this body. It’s a concrete manifestation of something like awakening or suchness. We let go of everyday habituated thinking in zazen, so it’s not based on that; it’s a concrete form of opening the hand of thought. If so, then Dogen is saying that everything manifests as its true nature or as awakening when we sit zazen. This is realizing something, making it real. When we establish this concrete thinking, we are beyond self and transcending the external world; in the moment of establishing right thinking, or in the moment of sitting zazen, we drop off body and mind. In other words, we go beyond the separation into self and other and there’s no internal and external world. At the same time, in the very moment of the present, on thinking concrete facts we go straight to Vārāṇasī. The place where the thinking exists is Vārāṇasī. Varanasi was where Buddha first began teaching. For instance, our meal chant says, “Buddha was born in Kapilavastu, enlightened in Magadha, taught in Varanasi, entered Nirvana in Kushinagara.” As soon as we sit zazen and establish right thinking, we go straight to where Buddha is preaching the dharma. We go there in this very moment of the present, even though Buddha lived 2500 years ago. We aren’t separate from the space and time of the Buddha, and we see his dharma continuing to unfold right here and now. This very place where we’re doing our thinking is Varanasi. As the Platform Sutra says, “No-thought is to see and to know all things with a mind free from attachment. When in use it pervades everywhere, yet it sticks nowhere.” Dogen goes on: An eternal buddha says, “I am thinking the concrete state of not thinking.” “How can the state of not thinking be thought?” “It is different from thinking.” This is right consideration, right thinking. To break a zafu is right thinking. Dogen is recalling a famous koan story about Yakusan Igen, and he talks about this story in other places in the Shobogenzo. He says the activity of every buddha is based on non-thinking, so this is a really important point for him. He calls Yakusan an eternal buddha. Now he’s just spent several sentences talking about how we should establish right thinking, and suddenly he seems to be saying that non-thinking is what we really ought to be doing. This is a frequent Dogen tactic, rapidly shifting from one point of view to another, sometimes within the same sentence. He’s trying to shake us up. The full story of this koan is this: When Yakusan was sitting in zazen, a monk asked, “What do you think about, sitting in steadfast composure?” Yakusan said, “I think not thinking.” The monk said, “How do you think not thinking?” Yaoshan said, “Non-thinking.” Yakusan is an important ancestor for us. His teacher was Sekito Kisen, who wrote the Sandokai, the merging of difference and sameness. His student was Ungan Donjo, and Ungan’s student was Tozan Ryokai, one of the founders of the Soto school. It’s probably not a coincidence that this exchange is happening while Yakusan is sitting zazen; in zazen we let go of habituated thinking, but that doesn’t mean we don’t think. In this human form, our karma is that the brain makes thought. We have all kinds of karmic seeds that result in thoughts coming up. We have memories and habits and fears and plans. If our brains aren’t making thoughts, there’s probably something seriously wrong, or we’re no longer alive. One of the footnotes in Opening the Hand of Thought says (and it’s not clear to me whether it was written by Okumura Roshi or Uchiyama Roshi): When we are sitting, we do not follow our thoughts, nor do we stop them. We just let them come and go freely. We cannot call it thinking because the thoughts are not grasped. If we simply peruse our thoughts, it is just thinking; it is not zazen. We cannot call zazen not-thinking either, because thoughts are coming and going like clouds floating in the sky. When we are sitting, our brain does not stop functioning, just as our stomach is always digesting. Sometimes our minds are busy; sometimes our minds are calm. Just sitting, without being concerned with the conditions of our mind, is the most important point in zazen. (2) Thoughts are coming up even in zazen. There’s no goal in zazen of stopping thought, even if that was possible, but we’re doing something other than thinking. We’re going beyond thinking to non-thinking. We’re dropping the separation between “me” as a subject and “my thought” as an object. We’re just letting the universe do what it does, without creating a layer on top of that that’s about “me” thinking a thought. If there’s no subject and object and there’s just complete functioning, that’s nonthinking. Okumura Roshi and Uchiyama Roshi frequently use the analogy of putting a car in neutral. The engine is running but the car isn’t going anywhere. This nonthinking isn’t intellectual and it’s not something happening in the subconscious; it’s something different. Nonthinking is where we don’t cling to either linear, sequentual thinking or blank nothingness in the mind. We’re not trying to leave the everyday world of things and activities, but we’re not getting stuck there either. We’re not trying to force anything; trying to force something is just another idea or story. If we’re caught up with that, we really can’t do nonthinking or see reality for what it is. Kodo Sawaki says: [In zazen,] the residue does not remain even in the occurrence of thought or in the hearing of sounds. Sounds are simply heard, and thoughts simply occur and they they naturally disappear, just like the incoming and the outgoing of breath. In other words, in non-thinking those experiences don’t become seeds that become the basis for new thoughts. We’re not grabbing them and processing them and coming to conclusions about them. We’re not holding them up against a yardstick and making judgements and measurements. We’re also not pushing them away or suppressing them and wishing they weren’t there. Thoughts are passing through just like breathing. In zazen we can let go of dualistic ideas, and that’s when the buddhas of the ten directions appear in the midst of nonthinking. Zazen is where we can really experience what Dogen is talking about in his comment. That’s why he says we need to break the zafu, or wear out our cushion with our sitting. We need to sit completely and wholeheartedly, throwing away separation. Dogen’s comment says the same thing as our gate statement. It’s a bit of a conundrum, because it doesn’t tell us what right discrimination or right thinking itself is; it just indicates that right thinking is eliminating the difference between thinking and not thinking. It doesn’t say that thinking and not thinking don’t exist; it says there’s something bigger than that distinction. This is why there’s no yardstick for zazen. Zazen is a concrete manifestation of going beyond discrimination. As soon as non-thinking is happening, there aren’t any categories like delusion and awakening or good and bad or self and other. There’s just suchness, The irony is that in order to carry out right intention, we have to let go of any distinction between right intention and harmful intention, and in order to experience right discrimination or right thinking as a dharma gate, we have to let go of it. Notes: (1) Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, tr. Nishijima and Cross, vol 4. (2006). United Kingdom: Booksurge Publishing, p. 13. (2) Uchiyama, K. (2005). Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice. Ukraine: Wisdom Publications, p. 179 n 23. 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
June 2025
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