passing the bowl of full awareness
through the practic of writing
from the shobogenzo, dogen
My late Master, an Old Buddha, when expounding the Teaching to his
assembly, once said:
I can recall an incident in which a monk asked Hyakujō, “Just
what sort of thing is the Wondrous Matter?”
Hyakujō replied, “He sits alone atop Daiyū Peak.
O my great
assembly, this Fellow cannot be disturbed by anything, so let Him sit
for a while in meditation, eliminating dualistic thought.”
If there was someone today, a novice, say, who suddenly asked,
“Just what sort of thing is the Miraculous Matter?” I would simply
turn to the person and say, “What Miraculous Matter is there?” In
short, it is the ‘What!’ in the alms bowl of pure compassion which was
passed on to me to use for eating my rice.
In the everyday life of the Buddhas and Ancestors, without fail, there is the
Miraculous Matter, which is Their so-called ‘sitting alone atop Daiyū Peak’. Even
though we now encounter that Fellow when we let Him sit in meditation and
eliminate dualistic thinking, It is still what the Miraculous Matter is. And there is
that which is even more miraculous: the alms bowl of great compassion being
passed on to Tendō, from which he ate his rice. The Miraculous Matter is each and every thing everywhere ‘eating rice’. Thus, sitting alone atop Daiyū Peak is
precisely what eating rice is. The alms bowl is what we use for eating rice, and
whatever we use for eating our rice is our alms bowl. That is why it is the alms
bowl of great compassion and why Tendō ate his rice from it. There was his
knowing what rice is after he had fully satisfied himself. And there was his being
satisfied from having completely eaten the rice. And there was his full awareness
of the rice satisfying him. And there was his having been fully satisfied and yet
continuing to eat his rice.
"It is the question which drives us, Neo."
"What is the matrix."
