Sandōkai
Introduction
The Sandōkai — literally "the accord (契) of difference (差) and equality (同)" — is a poem in pentasyllabic verse composed by Sekitō Kisen (石頭希遷, 700–790), a Chan master in the lineage of Huineng. It is one of the founding texts of Zen Buddhism, particularly of the Sōtō school.
The poem expresses in poetic form the non-duality between the relative and the absolute, between the multiplicity of phenomena and the unity of their nature. The title itself encapsulates this vision: "difference" (sa) and "equality" (dō) do not oppose one another but are in accord (kai).
Chanted daily in Sōtō monasteries alongside the Hōkyō Zanmai, the Sandōkai is at the heart of Zen liturgy. Dōgen transmitted it to his disciples, attesting to its central importance in the Way.
The mind of the great sage of India
was transmitted in secret from west to east.
Human faculties may be keen or dull,
but the Way has neither a southern nor a northern patriarch.
The spiritual source is bright and pure;
the branches flow in darkness.
To cling to phenomena is fundamentally error;
to accord with principle is not yet awakening.
All gates, all objects —
interpenetration and non-interpenetration.
In interpenetrating they still intermingle;
without that, each remains in its own place.
Color has essentially its own appearance;
sound originally has its joy and its sorrow.
In darkness the higher and middle propositions accord;
in brightness the pure and the turbid are distinguished.
The four elements return to their nature of themselves,
as a child returns to its mother.
Fire is hot, wind moves,
water is wet, earth is solid.
The eye sees forms, the ear hears sounds,
the nose smells odors, the tongue tastes salt and sour.
Each dharma thus depends
on roots from which leaves unfold.
Root and branch must return to their source;
noble and humble each employ their own language.
In the light there is darkness —
do not meet it as darkness.
In the darkness there is light —
do not see it as light.
Light and darkness oppose one another
like the front foot and the back foot.
All things have their own function —
one must speak of use and of place.
Phenomena exist: the lid and the box fit together;
principle responds: the two arrowheads meet.
In receiving words, grasp the essential;
do not establish your own rules.
If your eyes do not touch the Way,
how will your feet know the path?
Moving forward is a matter neither of near nor of far —
in delusion, mountains and rivers stand as obstacles.
I venture to say this to those who seek the mystery:
do not let the light of time pass in vain.
Translated from classical Chinese. Sekitō Kisen (石頭希遷, 700–790), Chan master, disciple of Huineng. Transmitted in the Sōtō lineage.