On Life and Death: Deciphering Dogen’s 'Shoji'
It has been a season of many losses within my family and
circle of friends, bringing life and death to the forefront of my mind. Life
and death is something of a koan that each of us must resolve—the Great Matter
that I spoke of in a recent post. Dogen’s Shoji (Life and Death),
on the other hand, is a koan in the more traditional and literal sense. It is one
short fascicle of a larger work, the Shobogenzo, composed sometime in
the first half of the 13th Century by Eihei Dogen, preeminent
teacher within the Soto Zen tradition.
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| Sunset with silhouette of trees |
Dogen begins Shoji with a quote from another Zen teacher:
“Because in life and death there is buddha, there is no life and death”
(Nishijima and Cross, 2009, p. 299). This first sentence may well be a koan unto
itself—a koan within a koan, if you will. What does it mean? Perhaps we can
gain a toehold by thinking of Buddha as ultimate reality beyond all so-called
separate things. Thus, when we recognize Buddha in life and death, we see them
as but aspects of a seamless continuation that we’ve come to erroneously parse
into “my life,” “my death,” “my loved one’s life,” “my loved one’s death.” We
might also understand that, since there is no realization of buddhahood other
than within this life and death, and since the realization of buddhahood is the
unsurpassed realization of the emptiness of all phenomena, then life and death
are also seen as empty—lacking permanence and finality.
Some grasp of this first sentence might make us feel as
though we have a handle on what Dogen is about to present. Ah, but then we get
to the second sentence where Dogen quotes yet another Zen teacher: “Because in
life and death there is no ‘buddha,’ we are not deluded in life and death”
(Nishijima and Cross, 2009, p. 299). So, which is it? Is buddha in life and
death or not? In fact, Dogen maintains that both these utterances are great
truths. Hence, our koan within a koan.
Might a different translation shed some light on the matter?
Let’s see: 1. “There is no life and death when Buddha is within life and death.” 2. “If there is no Buddha within life and
death, then there is no illusion about life and death” (Nishiyama, 1975, p.
21). Hmm. It would seem this couplet presents the same difficulty as the first.
Let’s look at another: 1. “Because there is Buddha in birth and death, there is
no birth and death.” 2. “[B]ecause there is no Buddha in birth and death, one
is not deluded by birth and death” (Cleary, 2001, p. 363). Are you confused?
You’re in good company! Is there a clue to be found somewhere?
In fact, in the note preceding Hubert Nearman’s translation,
we do find a so-called “turning word,” a tip that will lead us to a more
complete understanding of Shoji. Nearman maintains that Dogen is
actually playing with nuanced meanings of the word shoji. On one hand we
have “living and dying,” in reference to a dynamic process always transitioning
from one moment to another. He contrasts this with “life and death,” which are
merely ideas created by the deluded mind. Nearman goes on to say that “birth
and death” are merely two distinct moments that we point to in the seamless and
continuous process of “living and dying.” Aha!
Let’s now look at Nearman’s presentation of this couplet: 1.
“Because there is Buddha within living and dying, life and death do not exist.”
2. “Because the Buddha did not exist within life and death, He was not
infatuated with living and dying” (Nearman, 2007, p. 1086). I maintain that the
first quote is amenable to the interpretation that I presented at the beginning
of this post. But what does the second quote add? Well, since Buddha arises
within the seamless and continuous process of living and dying and not from
within barren (and erroneous) ideas about life and death, then he was
able to relinquish attachment to living and dying, meeting each moment with openness
and equanimity.
We can now see this couplet within the context of one of
Dogen’s most popular teachings. This is from Genjokoan, another fascicle
of the Shobogenzo: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To
study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by
all things. To be verified by all things is to let the body and mind of the
self and the body and mind of others drop off. There is a trace of realization that
cannot be grasped. We endlessly express this ungraspable trace of realization”
(Okumura, 2010, p.2). This quote informs our understanding of Shoji in
that it points to life lived in connection with all things, arising with and
from all things, none of which are truly separate one from another.
We see another great Zen teaching evident in Dogen’s Shoji,
namely, that of the unified nature of nirvana and samsara. Further on in Shoji,
Dogen says: “[L]iving and dying is what nirvana is, for there is nothing to
despise in living and dying, nor anything to be wished for in nirvana” (Nearman,
2007, p. 1086). So, whereas some think of nirvana as liberation from this
samsaric realm of birth and death, Dogen is reminding us that liberation is
only to be found right here and now amidst this “messy” dance.
You may be wondering, though, whether Shoji can really
help us with our most intimate existential angst? Can it truly help us resolve
the Great Matter, or is it just more words about words? In other words, are
these just ideas to ponder until such time as we find ourselves “down in the
trenches,” having come face-to-face with our own death or that of a loved one? Only
you can judge the merit contained therein, but here is a passage that may help
you decide: “This living and dying is precisely what the treasured life of a
Buddha is. If we hate life and want to throw it away, that is just our attempt
to throw away the treasured life of Buddha. And if we go no farther than this
and clutch onto life and death, this too is our throwing away the treasured
life of Buddha by limiting ourselves to the superficial appearance of Buddha.
When there is nothing we hate and nothing we cling to, then, for the first
time, we enter the Heart of Buddha” (Nearman, 2007, pp. 1086-1087).
This is why the practice of equanimity is so central to the
practice of Buddhism. For if we struggle with being denied our fountain
beverage of choice at whatever convenience store we happen to find ourselves
stopped at during our travels, then we will no doubt struggle as death begins
to stare us down. Thus, let me close this post with one more passage from Shoji:
“When we simply let go of and forget all about ‘my body’ and ‘my
mind’, relinquishing them to the Life of Buddha and letting them be put into
operation from the vantage point of Buddha, then, when we rely on
this—following where It leads—without forcing the body or laboring the mind, we
free ourselves from life and death, and become Buddha” (Nearman, 2007, p. 1087).
May it be so for each and every one of us.
References
Nearman, H. (2007) Shobogenzo: The treasure house of the eye
of the true teaching. (H. Nearman, Trans.) Shasta Abbey Press: https://www.shastaabbey.org/pdf/shoboAll.pdf
Nishijima, G.W., Cross, C. (2009) Shobogenzo: The true dharma-eye
treasury, Vol. IV. (G. W. Nishijima & C. Cross, Trans.) dBET PDF Version:
https://terebess.hu/zen/dogen/Shobogenzo4.pdf
Nishiyama, K. (1975). Shobogenzo: the eye and treasury of the
true law, Vol. I. (K. Nishiyama, Trans.) Published by Nakayama Shobo Buddhist
Book Store
Okumura, S. (2010). Realizing genjokoan: The key to Dogen’s
shobogenzo. (S. Okumura, Trans.) Wisdom Publications.
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