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Right action is a gate of Dharma illumination, for with it there is no karma and no retribution. 正業是法明門、無業無報故. The word karma just means action. In early India, in the Vedic tradition, actions from the past influenced the present, and karma worked in a straight line. When Buddhism came along, things got a little more complicated. There are multiple things influencing the action of this moment, and there is some measure of free will that gets mixed in. Flowing water is a common image used to describe this kind of functioning. Sometimes the current of the flowing water is very strong, and all we can do is hang on for dear life. At other times, that flow is more gentle, and there’s some chance to divert that water, to influence where it goes or to reroute it in some way. This shift turns karma from something that’s depressing, in which there’s there’s no escape from our suffering because our circumstances inevitably lead to some disaster, pain or suffering for us, into something a little more encouraging. We can pay attention to what we’re thinking, saying and doing, the three ways we create karma. We can take some skillful or wholesome action that at least doesn’t create more suffering. We can’t change what we’ve already done, but at least we can pay some attention to how we’re moving forward from here. In fact, Uchiyama Roshi says, "In Japanese, we have expressions such as, a person with deep karma, or, a person whose karma is very strong. These expressions refer to those with extreme condition viewpoints, partly as a result of intensive life experiences. Buddhism is often misunderstood as a teaching of resignation that makes me think, I can’t help it. It’s my karma. Such a teaching cannot be true Buddhism. Instead, Buddhism teaches us to soften our rigid karmic standpoint, deconstruct the illusory views of the karmic self and see life as it is." We have some chance to make a difference, to do something else. The early Indian belief is that there is an unchanging soul or entity called atman that transmigrates through various conditions, life after life after life, being pulled by good or bad karma. The atman was a a fixed self which in itself was pure but was imprisoned in the body, and the body was the source of desire, delusion and hindrances. Somehow there was a pure something which is encased in this flesh, which is the source of problems or pain. The atman served as the owner or driver of the body, the way you might drive a car. When the body and mind die, the atman or the owner leaves the body, transmigrates, and is born with a new body in mind. The circumstances of being reborn are dependent on the good and bad deeds that the owner has done and the resulting karma. Buddhism, however, teaches that there is no fixed permanent self. no atman, no soul, nothing that is fixed and unchanging. There are only the five skandhas of this body and mind, and those five skandas are themselves empty of any permanent, fixed self nature. There’s nothing we can cling to about this, but that doesn’t negate cause and effect, and this is a thorny problem that’s never been resolved. There is still cause and effect, in some cases even beyond this lifetime. We do things in this life, for instance, that continue to have some effect even after we’re not here anymore. We put certain things in motion. People have memories of their encounters with us or things we did, sometimes many years after we’re gone. My mother died more than 20 years ago, and I’m still doing things today that she taught me to do. Also, at some point, I had an ancestor that got on the boat in Greece and came to this country, and I’m here because of that. In some way, their lives are still unfolding. What determines whether we are creating good karma or bad karma is our motivation. Buddha identified four kinds of karma; karma that’s dark with a dark result, karma that’s bright with a bright result, karma that’s dark and bright with a dark and bright result, and karma that’s neither dark nor bright and has neither a dark nor bright result. That one is the ending of karma. Dark means something painful or unwholesome, something that’s creating suffering. Bright means something pleasant and wholesome and doesn’t create suffering. Karma that is neither dark nor light results in taking up the eightfold path. Karma that’s dark and bright with a dark and bright result is a reminder that even when we try to do good and take the right action, somehow, sometimes suffering still results. It’s not completely dark or completely bright, but somewhere in the middle. We have some good intention, and yet perhaps some suffering results. Sometimes we make mistakes, or we actually intend to do something that isn’t so wholesome, and yet something wholesome comes out of it. I’d venture to guess that the mixture of dark and bright is where 98% of our action falls. It’s very difficult to take an action that doesn’t have some little piece of self-interest or delusion in it. Okumura Roshi says, “Intentionally or not, we may create unwholesome karma even when doing good. We must carefully examine our motivations. Identifying twisted karma is easier when we take unwholesome actions that disturb others than when we’re trying to help. Even if we fail to recognize our bad behavior at the time, other people will let us know through their advice, blame, anger, or dislike. But when we create twisted karma with our good deeds, people are usually happy and praise us, and we, in turn, are proud of our actions. In these cases, perceiving the deep and subtle self-centeredness within our benevolence can be very difficult. This is why our practice of zazen as repentance is significant. In zazen, we cannot hide from ourselves. As the Kanfugenbosatsugyohokyo says, “If you wish to make repentance, sit upright and be mindful of the true reality.” There’s always this little bit of mixture. Giving is a wonderful thing; offering help is a great thing to do. Of course, if we’re doing it in order to get something back, we’re looking for praise, rewards, love, good publicity or self-image, it can actually generate bad karma. We’ve started out with some wonderful motivation to give something to help somebody, and yet there’s this little bit of clinging in there that can create some unwholesomeness in the midst of that action. We can be cultivating pride, arrogance and attachment rather than loving kindness, and generosity. That doesn’t mean we don’t take the good action. We just have to be aware of where we’re clinging and where we’re stuck, because there’s probably no pure action. There’s physical karma, there’s verbal karma, and there’s mental karma. Bad physical karma means killing, stealing, or misusing sex. Bad verbal karma means lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, or idle chatter. Bad mental karma is all about the three poisons or greed, anger, and ignorance. Thus there are ten kinds of unskillful action that create suffering for other people as well as for ourselves. It’s a reminder about cause and result, an important teaching in our tradition. Of course, there are also ten kinds skillful actions, which are the opposite of those ten unwholesome things. The resolution not to engage in those ten unwholesome things is also a skillful action. Every time we see what we’re feeling pulled toward and decide That’s not a wholesome thing; I’m not going to do it, that in itself is right action. We take right action now and avoid creating bad, harmful karma that feels painful and unsatisfactory, and at the same time we’re setting up causes and conditions for something in the future. The impact of taking good action now goes beyond here and now. One way we reinforce our intention is with our bodhisatva vows, whether we do that publicly by participating in jukai-e or we just have a private resolution to live this way. When we live by vow, we stop living by karma and our motivation becomes the well-being of everyone. It doesn’t leave ourselves out, but it goes beyond our own personal private self-interest. Uchiyama Roshi says, “Most people live by their desires or karma. They go through their lives dragged around by desires and hindered by the consequences of previous harmful actions. In Japanese, that life is called gōshō no bōmpu. Gōshō are the obstructions to practicing the way caused by our evil actions in the past. Bōmpu simply means ordinary human being, that is, one who lives by karma. Our actions are dictated by our karma. We are born into this world with our desires and may live our whole lives just reacting or responding to them.” (1) That feels like our day to day experience. We’re constantly being pulled by things we like and things we don’t like, chasing after stuff and running away from stuff. He goes on to say that the contrast to that is the way of life of a bodhisattva who lives by vow, gansho no bosatsu. The focus of the bodhisattva is on liberating all beings from suffering. We can’t act in the past, and we can’t act in the future; now is all we’ve got. Once we’ve taken some action, we can’t undo it. We can’t change the creation of that karma, for good or ill. We can only really see what’s happening, do repentance, renew the vow to take unskillful action and cultivate skillful action going forward. We’re still responsible for what happened, but we can’t change what we’ve set in motion. It’s important to head off unskillful action to the degree we can before we take it, so paying attention is important. The result of our action can color the way we see the world in subtle ways. Sawaki Roshi says, “Gokan, or seeing according to one’s karma, is one’s good or bad past actions extending into the present. For example, a widow who has lived her whole life obsessed with sex might be jealous of young couples. Ordinary human beings are pulled by their karma and view the world only according to their karmic conditions. Such people continue undesirable yet unseverable relations with each other one lifetime after another. This is called perpetual wandering within samsara.” In the early teachings, engaging in unwholesome actions was said to create karma that was eventually going to send you to one of the hell realms on the wheel of samsara. Uchiyama Roshi says we get hypnotized by ourselves, which means we just follow our habituated karmic thinking. Without asking why we’re doing what we’re doing or where those impulses are coming from, we just get carried along on a stream of being influenced by what’s unfolding. When we pay attention to what we’re doing, we might realize we’re doing things we don’t want to do anymore, or that we have habits of reacting to things that aren’t actually helpful. If we can step back and look at what we’re doing, we can make some conscious decisions about it. Dogen’s comment on right action as a factor of awakening is too long to include in its entirety, and it’s mostly a long rant. He goes on a tear about Zen masters who pander to kings, rich people and laity in general by saying that it’s possible to receive the truth of the buddhadharma without leaving home and becoming a monk. He thinks these Zen masters are trying to gain some favor or material wealth and that they don’t have any real interest in helping people to practice or in sharing the dharma. He’s attacking these folks because to him, right action starts with leaving home, and he says the 37 factors awakening are the actions of a monk. Right action as a branch of the path is to leave family life and to practice the truth. It is to go into the mountains and to gain experience. Shakyamuni Buddha says the 37 elements are the actions of a monk. The actions of a monk are beyond the great vehicle and beyond the small vehicle. There are buddha monks, bodhisattva monks, sravaka monks, and so on. None has succeeded to the right action of the buddhadharma, and none has received the authentic transmission of the great truth of the buddhadharma without leaving family life. (2) He goes on to use the examples of Bodhidharma and Shakyamuni as practitioners who couldn’t have done what they did for the dharma without leaving home. Bodhidharma is said to have left India and gone to China to transmit the dharma. Shakyamuni left his family, went over the wall and declined to rule the kingdom after his father, not because kinship isn’t important, Dogen says, but because he simply wanted to devote himself to the dharma. The main point of his comment is that being a home leaver is itself right action, and all the activities that flow from being a home leaver are also right action. He says that once someone truly encounters the dharma, then he or she immediately wants to leave family life, simply take up practice and only engage in that. He concludes in his comment, “Right action is the action of a monk. It is beyond the knowledge of commentary teachers and sutra teachers. The action of a monk means effort inside the cloud hall, prostrations inside the Buddha hall, washing the face inside the washroom, and so on. It means joining hands and bowing, burning instance and boiling water. This is right action. It is not only to replace a tail with a head, it is to replace a head with a head. It is to replace the mind with the mind. It is to replace Buddha with Buddha, and it is to replace the truth with the truth. This is just right action as a branch of the path. If appreciation of the buddhadharma is faulty, the eyebrows and whiskers fall down and out and the face falls apart.” Before we all give up our practice because we’re not living in a temple and because we have lives outside of Sanshin, we need to remember that Dogen doesn’t actually take this same position consistently throughout his writing. Either he changes his mind over time or he adjusts what he’s saying depending on the audience. Sometimes he says being a monk is the only option. Sometimes he validates lay practice or practice outside of the temple. We need to be careful not to be too literal about this. I don’t think he’s telling us that if we don’t live in a temple, we shouldn’t be practicing, so please don’t take that to heart. I think he’s saying right action is simply carrying out daily activities. If you’re in the temple, that’s the all-day practice activities of temple life. If not, it’s about taking care of our daily lives, taking care of the things we vow to do in whatever context we’re doing them. Zazen, doing liturgy, taking care of our bodies, doing our work tasks, whatever it is that makes up our bodhisattva action in the world is right action. In other words, right action is just sincerely, wholeheartedly doing our practice moment by moment by moment, seeing the way Buddha sees, remembering our vows, remembering our commitments, doing our best to carry them out with compassion, wisdom and clarity. Then he says, It is not only to replace a tail with a head, it’s to replace a head with a head. What does he mean by that? Right action is not about just replacing attention to broader spiritual concerns with attention to everyday activities. We have to see those everyday activities as spiritual practice. We have to see all of our activities as dharma gates, as a way both to study the dharma and to express buddha nature. Every little thing we do, all of our day-to-day responsibilities, if we’re in the temple, if we’re not in the temple, all those things are dharma gates. How do we see our everyday walking the dog, paying the bills, washing the dishes, doing our work in the office as practice? If we come to them with that spirit and intention, all of those things become right action. Dogen goes on to say, It is to replace the mind with the mind. It is to replace Buddha with Buddha, and it is to replace the truth with the truth. Real bodhisattvas are people who practice and cultivate right action for the sake of practice and right action, not because they’re going to get something back. These bodhisatvas aren’t replacing bad karma with good karma for a selfish end or in order to fix their bad karma so that they feel better. Action is happening because it’s in the best interest of all beings If appreciation of the Buddha Dharma is faulty, the eyebrows and whiskers fall down and out and the face falls apart. You may have actually encountered that image in other texts; Dogen didn’t make this one up. Eyebrows or whiskers falling out is often an image of somebody speaking inappropriately about the dharma, whether from ignorance or intention, and receiving a spiritual retribution—and now we’re back to the gate statement. Often, the problem is a teacher speaking too much. Explaining too much or saying too much about the dharma can be inappropriate. Then, supposedly, the whiskers and the eyebrows fall out and the face falls apart. Our teachers tell us that in zazen, we don’t create karma. We’re just sitting there in complete thusness, not making any decisions, not doing anything, simply dropping off body and mind. We’re not taking any action that’s motivated by the three poisons or by the opposite of the three poisons. We’re simply sitting, and yet thoughts keep coming up based on our karma. Something is continuing to unfold, even though our intention is to sit quietly. We’ve got stuff on our minds because we encounter causes causes and conditions, living in these karmic bodies and minds and going through our daily activities in this samsaric world. Even though we might not be creating new karma in zazen, our old karma is continuing to play out. When Shakyamuni experienced awakening under the bodhi tree, he didn’t poof, disappear. He had to live the rest of his life, because his karma was still playing out. Our challenge in zazen is not to keep getting pulled back into our karma by grabbing those thoughts, adding something in there, creating a cocktail. It’s so easy to get sucked back into what’s on our minds when we’re sitting. We can’t stop thinking in zazen, and we don’t want to. It’s not possible. It’s not a goal. However, if we’re chasing our thoughts, we’re not really engaged in zazen. We’re mostly just caught up in this karmic consciousness that keeps letting these thoughts bubble up. Our practice is to hold both of these things: freedom from attachment and delusion, and taking right action with this body and mind, which is all we have to use. This karmic body and mind is the ground of practice. As Okumura Roshi says, we have manifestation and liberation. We’re manifesting something, and yet there’s liberation. There’s form and emptiness, and all of this happening at the same time. We’re in this body and mind, but we’re free from this body and mind in a certain a way. It’s a karmically created body and mind and we’re moving through a karmic world, and yet, if we’re not attached, if we’re seeing clearly, we’re free from this body and mind. Okumura Roshi says, “Viewing things with the true dharma eye and viewing things with our karmic consciousness are very different. As bodhisatvas, we need to see things with the true dharma eye. Still, we are not completely free from our karmic consciousness. We have to live out our karma. Precisely speaking, our karmic condition is the only device we can use to practice. If this is our attitude toward our daily lives and in our zazen, we can let go of our karma and be liberated from our attachment to it. We need both manifestation and liberation as our life." How do we embrace both of them in a skillful way? When we get up off the cushion, we have to go out and do things. We have to make choices. We have to determine what actions to take as we just move through the world in a normal everyday way. Those choices are based on our values and experiences and our worldviews and all of that, which is an unfolding of our karma. Even when we’re really, really trying to take good action and be skillful in the world for the sake of the dharma, every choice is a continuation of that past karma, and it sets up new karma. There’s this continuous unfolding all the time. The choices we make, the worldview we have, the perceptions we have, are influenced by the things that we’re carrying around, the things that have happened already. Based on that, we make a choice that sets up something that continues to unfold. That’s not a bad thing; it’s the way life is and the way this karmically conditioned body and mind work. We can’t float around not making choices, living on some higher plane, which is why we’re talking about replacing a head with a head or a tail with a head. We can’t avoid taking actions; it’s not responsible, and in some cases it’s dangerous. We’d better know whether that’s a red light or a green one. We’d better know this food is spoiled and this food is wholesome. We just need to remember that our choices and actions are influenced by our karma, and this is how we create our lives, moment by moment by moment. Can we avoid being in the thrall of past unwholesome stuff we’ve done? Can we recognize what happened and take responsibility for that, and then decide what the right action is in this moment? Even as I’m influenced by and carried forward by the things of the past, what do I do now? I can take some action in this moment. I can recognize the influence. I don’t have to get stuck there or just get carried along. If I’m really paying attention, watching my habituated thinking, reflexes and impulses, I have a choice now. Okumura Roshi gets the last word today. He says, “Our practice in daily life is about creating wholesome karma. In this context, wholesome karma means to manifest in daily life what we experience in zazen. There’s a separation between myself and other people in myriad things. That is how the Buddha is expressed in everyday activities. With all the choices we have to make, we try to make these choices in the direction of the bodhisatva path. That is our life based on zazen and the bodhisatva vows.” (3) Notes: (1) Uchiyama, K. (2005). Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice. Ukraine: Wisdom Publications, p. 117. (2) Master Dogen's Shobogenzo, tr. Nishijima and Cross, vol 4. (2006). United Kingdom: Booksurge Publishing, p. 13. (3) Okumura, S. (2018). The Mountains and Waters Sutra: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's "Sansuikyo". United States: Wisdom Publications, ch. 1. 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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