獨坐一間空暗室。陽焔燈光永不逢、眼前純是金州漆。

Sitting alone in a dark, empty room.
Long without greeting sunshine or lamplight;
Before me, it’s all just the [black] lacquer of Jin.  (ZZ.18:333b11-12)

“A pitiful life for an aged one” (awaremu beki rōgo no shōgai あはれむべき老後の生涯):  Or, “the life of a pitiful aged one.”

“Conduct of the old buddha” (kobutsu no sōgyō 古佛の操行):  “Conduct” here in the sense of proper behavior.  The term kobutsu (“old buddha”) could be plural; but, as Dōgen will point out below, Zhaozhou was known as “the old buddha.”

8.  “Joined platform” (renjō 連牀):  Or “continuous bench”; the structure used communally by the monks in the saṅgha hall for sitting and sleeping; said to have been a distinctive feature of the Chan-style meditation quarters.  Dōgen is here recounting an incident recorded in the Zhaozhou yulu (ZZ.18:304b12-13), where the furniture in question is called a “cord bench” (sheng chuang 繩床), a standard term for an individual monk’s meditation platform.

“Stewards” (chiji 知事):  The six major officers of a Chan monastery.  The story in the Zhaozhou yulu makes no mention of them.

“An excellent vestige, rare throughout the generations” (kidai no shōchoku 希代の勝躅):  A somewhat unusual expression also appearing in the Eihei kōroku (DZZ.3:72, number 128).  The graph choku here is probably used in the sense “trace” (seki 跡).

9.  “In the breakfast gruel, there isn’t any grain of rice” (gesai shuku bei zen mu ryū 解齋粥米全無粒):  A quotation again from the Shier shi ge, the verse for dawn (pingdan 平旦), in the third period (yin 寅), 3:00 a.m.-5:00 a.m. (Zhaozhou yulu, ZZ.118:333a5-6).  Interpreters disagree on how to parse the Chinese of the first sentence here, some taking the graphs zhaizhou 齋粥 as the common compound for a monastic meal and the object of the initial jie 解— a reading that might yield something like “dissecting the gruel” (or possibly “in the dissolved gruel).”  The translation here takes  jiezhai as a compound meaning “break the fast” (i.e., the monks’ morning meal); see, e.g., the reading of Akizuki Ryōmin 秋月竜眠珉, Jōshū roku 趙州録, Zen no goroku 禅の語録 11 (Tokyo:  Chikuma Shobō, 1972), p. 424.

“Pick up nuts” (konomi wo hiroite このみをひろひて):  The source for this information is not clear.  It is possible that Dōgen is asking us to take literally the notice on a stele, recorded in the Zhaozhou yulu, which says that, at the time of the persecution of Buddhism in the Huichang era (841-846), Zhaozhou withdrew to Mt. Julai 岨崍山 in Shandong and continued his practice as a monk, living with “tree food and grass robes” (mushi caoyi 木食草衣).  (ZZ.18:304a17.)  Eating only gathered fruits and nuts is one of the standard Buddhist ascetic practices (dhūtāṅga). 

 “Assume the attitude of longing for the ancients” (mōko wo shinjutsu to suru 慕古を心術とする):   More literally, “take ‘longing for the ancients as a mental art (or technique).”  The term mōko (“longing for the ancients”) is much favored by Dōgen and occurs frequently throughout his writings.

10.  For the source of this passage, see Supplemental Note 2.

“Prime great matter” (ichidan no daiji 一段の大事):  From the common Chan expression yiduan dashi 一段大事 or simply yiduan shi 一段事 (“prime matter”); i.e., the most important point.  The translation “prime” takes the Chinese duan 段 here as “rank”; taken simply as a counter, the expression could be read “one great matter.”

11.  “Sit and see” (zakan 坐看):  Dōgen has here picked up an expression from the version of Zhaozhou’s saying found in the Chuandeng lu.  This is not a term of art in his vocabulary and here likely just conveys the sense “try sitting” — as seen in Dōgen’s interpretation above:  “try . . . practicing seated mediation” (zazen shite miru 坐禪してみる).  The term tsokan also occurs in Chan texts in the sense “sit and watch” — perhaps especially from the saying:  “He walks and arrives where the waters end; he sits and watches when the clouds arise” (xingdao shui qiong chu tsokan yun chi shi 行到水窮處坐看雲起時). (Attributed to Guanyin yuan Zhaoxian 觀音院從顯, Jingde chuandeng lu, T.51:417b20.)

“Zhaozhou is an old buddha” (jōshū kobutsu 趙州古佛):  For this expression, see Supplemental Note 3.

12.  A dialogue often quoted in Dōgen’s writings and earlier Chan sources; see Supplemental Note 4.

“The intention of the ancestral master’s coming from the west” (soshi seirai i 祖師西來意):  A favorite topic in Chan literature, often the subject of lectures and discussions; the title theme of Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō soshi seirai i.  The “ancestral master” here is of course the first ancestor of Chan in China, Bodhidharma, said to have come from India in the sixth century.  The Chinese term yi 意, translated here as “intention,” can indicate either (a) “intent,” or “purpose,” or (b) “meaning, or “significance”; hence the phrase can be (and perhaps more often is) read “the meaning of the ancestral master’s coming from the west.”  For examples of Zhaozhou’s other comments on this topic, see Supplemental Note 5.

“Show a person with an object” (i kyō shi nin 以境示人):  Or, more colloquially, “don’t use things to teach people”; the somewhat awkward translation here tries to highlight the contrast between “person” and “object” with which Dōgen seems to be playing in his comments below.  “Object” here translates the Chinese jing 境, used for the objects of the senses (Sanskrit viṣaya, ālambana).  The English  “show” here renders the Chinese si 示, which means both “to indicate” and “to instruct.”  The question of what a master uses to “teach people” (shi ren 示人) is a common topic of conversation in Chan texts and occurs several times in Zhaozhou’s recorded sayings.  One instance is particularly close to ours here and may have influenced Dōgen’s commentary; see below, Supplemental Note 8.

13.  For interpretation of this difficult passage, see Supplemental Note 6.

“One public case” (issoku kōan 一則公案):  “Public case” here renders the well-known term kōan.

“Originated” (kishu seri 起首せり):  Literally, “raised its head”; the corporeal image is likely meant to work with the subsequent “whole body.”

“Authored by the whole body of the buddhas” (shobutsu no konshin ni sakke shikitareru 諸佛の渾身に作家しきたれる):  The term konshin (“whole body”) appears very often in the Shōbōgenzō in the sense of the entirety of something; here, it can probably be understood either as the buddhas taken as a “body” or as the “body” that all buddhas share.  The phrase sakke shikitareru, translated here as “authored,” represents an unusual verbal form derived from the Chinese zuojia 作家, indicating an author or poet and, in Chan usage, an accomplished master.

“Who is the one in charge?” (tare ka kore shujinkō nari たれかこれ主人公なり):  Takingnari as naran.  For the expression “the one in charge,” see Supplemental Note 7.

“Impeded” (saherarenさへられん); “obstructed” (keige sera[ru] 罣礙せら[る]):  Probably to be taken in the sense, “identified,” “defined”; a common usage in Dōgen’s writings.

“The treasury of the eye of the true dharma, the wondrous mind of nirvana”  (shōbōgenzō nehan myōshin 正法眼藏涅槃妙心):  The essence of the Buddha’s enlightenment, traditionally said to have first been transmitted from Śākyamuni to Mahākāśyapa on Vulture Peak; what Bodhidharma is said to have brought to China.

“Not the mind” (fu ze shin 不是心); “not the buddha” (fu ze butsu 不是佛); “not a thing” (fu ze motsu 不是物):  Words attributed both to Mazu Daoyi (e.g. at Jingde chuandeng lu, T.51:445ba7) and to Nanquan Puyuan.  The latter attribution, since the context involves Zhaozhou, may be more relevant here; it occurs in the following passage in Nanquan’s notice in the Jingde chuandeng lu (T.51:257c13-15; quoted by Dōgen in the Eihei kōroku (DZZ.4:192):

師有時云、江西馬祖説即心即佛。王老師不恁麼道。不是心、不是佛、不是物。恁麼道、還有過麼。趙州禮拜而出。

The master on one occasion said, “Mazu of Jiangxi teaches, ‘This very mind is itself the buddha.’  This old master Wang [i.e., Nanquan] doesn’t talk like this.  It isn’t mind; it isn’t buddha; it isn’t a thing.  Is there any mistake in talking like this?”  Zhaozhou bowed and left.

14.  “Both people can see the same” (ryōnin dō tokuken 兩人同得見):  Generally understood to mean that the monk and Zhaozhou share the same view.  The Chinese phrase comes from a verse attributed to the eighteenth Chan ancestor, Gāyaśāta 伽耶舍多 (on which Dōgen comments in his Shōbōgenzō kokyō 古鏡):

諸佛大圓鑑、内外無瑕翳、兩人同得見、心眼皆相似。

The great round mirror of the buddhas,
Without flaw or blurring inside or out.
Both people can see the same.
Mind and eye resemble each other.”  (Jingde chuandeng lu, T.51:212b18-19.)

“He cannot see anyone” (ichinin ya mi ka shōken 一人也未可相見); “how much of himself can he get?” (jiko ya nō toku ki 自己也能得幾):  Dōgen slips again into Chinese syntax for these somewhat mysterious remarks, which are generally interpreted to mean that, when the monk asks the question, there is no one to whom it is addressed and no one who is asking it.  Though it is possible to read this passage as a criticism of the monk, most interpreters take it as an affirmation of his understanding.

“Mistake, mistake” (shaku shaku 錯錯):  A common retort of Chan masters, sometimes used in ironic praise—which, given the context, seems the most likely interpretation here.  Some readers take the expression to mean that the monk makes one “mistake” after another; others suggest that both the monk and Zhaozhou make the “mistakes.”  The Shōbōgenzō monge (CKZS 5:231) proposes that the mistakes in question here are the “object” and “person” in the monk’s statement.

“Taking a mistake as a mistake” (shōshaku jushaku 將錯就錯):  An idiom, found in Chan texts, meaning “to recognize one’s mistake” or “to turn a mistake to one’s advantage.”

“To accept the hollow and entertain the echo” (shōkyo [or shōko] sekkyō 承虚接響):   A Chinese idiomatic expression meaning something like “to take seriously what is vacuous.”  Though the connotation is negative, most interpreters take it in a positive sense here; the Shōbōgenzō monge (CKZS 5:232), for example, treats it as the Buddhist vision of all things as empty of their “own natures” (jishō 自性).

 15.  “The all-pervading spiritual root turns neither toward nor away” (kattatsu reikon mu kōhai 豁達靈根無向背):  Or “the all-pervading spiritual root has neither front nor back.”  After a line from the Caoan ge 草菴歌, by the Tang-dynasty master Shitou 石頭 (Jingde chuandeng lu, T.51:461c18):

迴光返照便歸來。廓達靈根非向背。

Turning the light and shining it back, I return;
The all-pervading spiritual root turns neither toward or away.

“It is not an old ancestral shrine” (koshi ni arazu 古祠にあらず):  The rationale for this seeming non sequitur is not clear.  Some interpreters have speculated that it is an allusion to the cypress trees traditionally planted at ancestral shrines in symbolic expression of eternal life; hence, the point is presumably that Zhaozhou’s cypress is not eternal.

“He goes on burying” (maimotsu [or maibotsu) shimoteyuku 埋没しもてゆく):  Or perhaps “it goes on burying (or being buried)”; the grammatical subject is unexpressed.  Some interpreters take this to mean that Zhaozhou’s cypress tree is continually “dying” (and “being reborn”) in each moment.  The Chinese binomial maimei 埋没 carries the sense of “hidden,” “obscured,” “unrecognized”; Chan masters sometimes use it as a transitive verb to deny or dismiss someone.  The translation here is based on such use, as seen in Zhaozhou’s recorded sayings.  See Supplemental Note 8.

“Return my concentrated effort” (gen go kufū rai 還吾功夫來):  An unusual expression, in Chinese syntax, generally taken to mean “[The cypress tree] is my concentrated effort” — i.e, the spiritual effort of teaching by the “I” (go 吾) in the statement, “I . . . show a person.”  The linguistic pattern here seems parallel to a passage in Shōbōgenzō busshō 正法眼藏佛性 (DZZ.1:18):  “return my buddha nature’” (gen ga busshō rai 還我佛性來).

“I’m also like this” (go yaku nyo ze 吾亦如是):  From the words of the Sixth Ancestor, Huineng.  See Supplemental Note 9.

16.  A dialogue found in the Zhaozhou yulu (ZZ.18:321b14-16) and elsewhere.

“Once space falls on the ground” (tai kokū rakuchi 待虚空落地):  Or “it waits for space to fall to the gound.”  Dōgen will play below on the predicate tai (“to wait for,” “depend on”), translated here as “once.”

17.  “The existence of the buddha nature of the cypress” (hakuju busshō u 柏樹佛性有):  A tentative translation of an ambiguous phrase in Chinese syntax.  The English loses Dōgen’s play here with the graph u 有 (“to have,” “to be”), translated as “it does” in Zhaozhou’s answer.  Readers differ on how to parse this phrase; some would read it, “the buddha nature of the cypress is existence”; others suggest, “the cypress is the buddha nature, is existence.”

“The vital artery of the buddhas and ancestors” (busso no meimyaku 佛祖の命脈):  The term meimyaku 命脈 (“vital artery”; also read myōmyaku) is a common expression in Dōgen's writings for the “life blood” of the Chan ancestral lineage.

“Ground and stage” (jii 地位):  Or simply “position.”  The clumsy translation here seeks to preserve Dōgen’s pun, to which he will return below, on the “grounds” (ji 地; Sanskrit bhūmi), and “stages,” of the bodhisattva path leading to buddhahood. 

“Family and clan” (shushō ruizoku 種姓類族):  The binomial ruizoku, translated here as “clan,” may refer to a range of groupings, from familial “relatives” or larger social units (such as a “people”) to more abstract “types.”  Here and in the following sentences, Dōgen is raising the common Buddhist question of what it means to claim that insentient beings can become buddhas.

“Produce the thought” (hosshin 發心):  See above, Note 1.

“Once you fall on the ground” (tai ni raku chi ji 待儞落地時):  Dōgen has here playfully substituted the pronoun “you” (ni 儞) for “space” in Zhaozhou’s words.

“The first ground” (shoji 初地); “the effect stage” (kai 果位):  I.e., the first of the ten “grounds” (bhūmi) of the bodhisattva’s practice, and the final effect of that practice, buddhahood, known as the “fruit” (phala) stage.  Dōgen is playing here with the terms “space” and “ground,” “tree” and “fruit.”

“Convey such business” (inmo no kakkei wo shōsoku seru 恁麼の活計を消息せる):  A loose translation.  Kakkei typically refers to one’s “livelihood,” “way of life,” etc.; often applied to the Chan master’s activities.  Shōsoku is a noun meaning “news,” “circumstances,” etc.; here put in an unusual verbal form.

18.  “Alien ways or the two vehicles” (gedō nijō 外道二乘):  I.e., those of non-Buddhist religions (Sanskrit, tīrthika) and those of non-Mahayana traditions of Buddhism; a common perjorative in Dōgen’s writing.

“Sutra masters or treatise masters” (kyōshi ronshi 經師論師):  I.e., specialists in the interpretation of the sutras and treatises; scholastics.  Another perjorative term commonly found in Dōgen’s works.

“Word flowers of dead wood and cold ashes” (koboku shikai no gonke 枯木死灰の言華):  “Dead wood and cold ashes” (or “dried wood and dead ashes”) is a common Chan expression, used most often in a perjorative sense, for the mind in trance; here, no doubt, practitioners or advocates of contemplative trance.  “Word flowers” is an unusual term, perhaps coined after the common Buddhist expression “sky flowers” (kūge 空華), the illusory “spots” or “stars,” as we might say, seen by defective eyes.  Dōgen is here no doubt playing with the wood and flowers of Zhaozhou’s tree.

“Is the cypress obstructed by the cypress” (hakuju hi hakuju ge ya mu 柏樹被柏樹礙也無):  This and the following clause are rendered in Chinese syntax.  The odd usage of “obstructed” here follows that seen above, Note 13.

19.  “While for the time being is within the twelve periods, is further within thirteen periods” (shibaraku jūni ji chū naredomo sara ni jūsan ji chū nari しばらく十二時中なれども、さらに十三時中なり):  Generally taken to mean that the buddhahood of the cypress occurs both within and beyond time.  For the twelve periods, see above, Note 4.  Some versions of the text give the second clause here as sara ni jūni ji chū nari さらに十二時中なり:  “is further within the twelve periods.”

“Commoners and sages” (bonshō 凡聖):  A standard Buddhist expression for ordinary humans (Sanskrit pṛthagjana, “born apart”) and Buddhist adepts (Sanskrit ārya, “nobles”).

“Something not seen by others” (yonin shofuken 餘人所不見):  Perhaps from a verse in the Lotus Sutra (Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經, T.9:50a7):  “The bodhisattva, in his pure body, sees all things in the world.  Only he alone comprehends this; it is something not seen by others (yu ren suo bu jian 餘人所不見).”

“A further piece of ground, something not reached by yin and yang” (sara ni ippen no chi ari onyō sho futō nari さらに一片の地陰陽所不到なりあり):  The sense of “yin and yang” here may be the cosmic forces of “positive and negative” or merely “dark and light,” the “shaded (north) and sunny (south).”  An allusion to a story found in several Chan texts; see Supplemental Note 10.

“Though they be the sun and moon, mountains and rivers, they must be “once” (tatoi jitsugetsu [or nichigatsu] sanka nari tomo tai naru beshi たとひ日月山河なりとも待なるべし):  Or “they must wait.”  Generally taken to mean that everything in the world occurs at the time that space falls on the ground.  Dōgen is here playing with the predicate tai (“to wait”) from Zhaozhou’s statement, “once space falls on the ground.”  See above, Note 16.

20.  “Not different notes with the same tune” (ion dōchō ni arazu 異音同調にあらず):  Usually interpreted to mean that the cypress and the buddha nature are neither different nor the same.

“Since it is ‘why so?’ we should investigate it asking, ‘what about it?’” (kahitsu naru ni somosan to sankyū subeshi 何必なるに作麼生と參究すべし):  A tentative translation of a rather odd sentence.  The antecedent of “it” here is not clear; presumably the buddha nature of the cypress or the relationship between the two terms.  The awkward “why so” is a loose rendering of the Chinese interrogative hebi 何必:  “why must” something be the case, or be done (sometimes in the rhetorical sense, “not necessarily”).  Some editions of the text read nari (“it is”) here for naru ni (“since it is” or “while it is”).

21. “Third year of Ninji (mizunoe-tora)” (ninji sannen mizunoe tora 仁治三年壬寅):  1242, the year of the ninth stem, third (“tiger”) branch, in the traditional sixty-year calendrical cycle.  “Sweetflag season” (shōsetsu 菖節) refers to the fifth month, on the fifth day of which was celebrated sweetflag day (shōbu no hi 菖蒲の日).

“Cloister of Kannon Dōri” (kannon dōri in 觀音導利院):  The monastery on the southern outskirts of the capital at Heian-kyō (present-day Kyoto), where Dōgen lived from 1236 to 1243; its full name was Kannon Dōri Kōshō Hōrinji 観音導利興聖寶林寺.  “Yōshū” is a literary name for the capital district.

22.  “First year of Kangen (mizunoto-u)” (kannen gannen mizunoto-u 寛元元年癸卯 :  1243, the year of the tenth celestial stem, fourth (“hare”) branch of the calendrical cycle.

“Kippōji” 吉峯寺:  Also called Yoshimine-dera.  The monastery in the province of Echizen (present-day Fukui prefecture), where Dōgen resided following his move from the capital area in summer 1243 and prior to the construction of Daibutsuji (later named Eiheiji).  “Shibi manor” (shibi shō 志比荘) was the domain of Dōgen’s patron Hatano Yoshishige 波多野義重.  The “head of cloister” (inju 院主) is the chief administrator of the monastery.

“Ejō” 懐奘:  Koun Ejō 孤雲懐奘 (1198-1280).  Dōgen’s close disciple and successor to the abbacy of Eiheiji.  Ejō was responsible for the copying of many of the manuscripts of the Shōbōgenzō.