Dogen Zenji Goroku: Sayings of Zen Master Dogen by Cleary Thomas

Author:Cleary, Thomas [Cleary, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw
Published: 2015-08-27T16:00:00+00:00

21. “On the peak of Mt. Wutai clouds are steaming rice;

On the steps to the Buddha-shrine a dog is pissing skyward.

On top of a flagpole, steaming buns;

Three monkeys pitch pennies at night.”

If you can command a view here, the black dragon rouses clouds and rain wherever it goes; if not, then wait until the pond blooms with lotuses in December. Investigate!

Notes

The opening verse was composed by an ancient Chinese Zen master on the subject of the body of reality. Mt. Wutai is a holy mountain; on the ‘peak,’ it is not nothingness, nor some special holy state, but nature itself, the being which gives life. Humans enshrine ideals and at times attempt to attain them, but from the point of view of reality, humanity trying to reach a higher state through its unregenerate state is merely a dog pissing skyward.

Atop a flagpole is a metaphor for higher states of consciousness; these may be called a kind of ‘food,’ but from the viewpoint of the summit of mystic experience the whole universe becomes a form of nutrition.

Three monkeys represent the three vehicles of Buddhsim—human beings in the ‘dark night’ of ignorance and the absolute unknown may try to seek enlightenment, but from the perspective of reality itself, this seeking is like pitching pennies.

The black dragon is the enlightened mind; clouds and rain refer to its sphere or realm. The mind, unknowable (‘black’) of itself, is one with the world; the enlightened mind is aware of reality wherever it may be.

When lotuses bloom in December means ‘never,’ and it also means coming to life from the midst of death. Human seeking based on the unregenerate self must die away before the mind, returning to its pristine purity, can be receptive to reality.

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