Shisho

Buddhas unfailingly succeed to the dharma from buddhas, and ancestors unfailingly succeed to the dharma from ancestors—this is verification and accord; this is the single transmission. Therefore, it is unsurpassable enlightenment. Unless one is a buddha, one cannot verify a buddha. Unless one receives verification from a buddha, one cannot become a buddha. If one is not a buddha, who would acknowledge this as most venerable and unsurpassable? When one receives verification from a buddha, it is awakening without a teacher; it is awakening without a self. Therefore, it is said that buddhas verify succession and ancestors accord in verification.

The principle of this teaching cannot be clarified except by buddhas. How much less can it be within the reckoning of the ten stages or equal enlightenment? How could it be within the speculation of sutra masters or treatise masters? Even if it were explained to them, they could not hear it. Because buddhas succeed one another, the buddha-way is solely the thorough realization of buddhas, and there is no time when it is not buddhas. For example, stone succeeds to stone, and jade succeeds to jade.

Chrysanthemums too have succession, and pines too have verification; all are just as the former chrysanthemum and the later chrysanthemum are thus, just as the former pine and the later pine are thus. Those who do not clarify it thus, even if they encounter the rightly transmitted Way of buddhas, need not wonder what kind of expression it might be. They have no insight into the saying that buddhas succeeding one another is the ancestors' verification and accord. It is pitiable—though they may resemble the buddha lineage, they are not children of the buddha; they are not buddha-children.

Caoqi once showed the assembly, saying, "From the Seven Buddhas to Huineng there are forty ancestors; from Huineng to the Seven Buddhas there are forty ancestors." This principle clearly is the true transmission of the Buddha and ancestors. So-called Seven Buddhas: some appeared in the past Kalpa of Adornment, some appear in the present Kalpa of the Worthy. Yet, to penetrate the face-to-face transmission of the forty ancestors is the Buddha Way, is the Buddha succession. Therefore, ascending from the Sixth Ancestor to the Seven Buddhas, there is the Buddha succession of forty ancestors.

Descending from the Seven Buddhas to the Sixth Ancestor, there should be the Buddha succession of forty Buddhas. The Buddha Way, the Ancestor Way, is like this. Without verification and accord, it is not Buddha and ancestors; it is not Buddha wisdom, it is not the ancestors' exhaustive realization. Without Buddha wisdom, there is no Buddha faith and acceptance. Without the ancestors' exhaustive realization, the ancestors are not verified and accorded. Briefly speaking, "forty ancestors" is provisionally raising the recent ones.

Because of this, the mutual succession of Buddha after Buddha is profound and far-reaching, it is non-retrogressive and non-turning, it is unbroken and unceasing. Its essential meaning is: although Śākyamuni Buddha attained the Way prior to the Seven Buddhas, he long ago received the transmission of the Dharma from Kāśyapa Buddha. Although he attained the Way on the eighth day of the twelfth month at the age of thirty after his descent into the world, it is the attainment of the Way prior to the Seven Buddhas. It is the simultaneous attainment of the Way, shoulder to shoulder with all Buddhas.

It is the attainment of the Way prior to all Buddhas; it is the ultimate attainment of the Way beyond all Buddhas. Furthermore, there is a principle to investigate that Kāśyapa Buddha received the transmission of the Dharma from Śākyamuni Buddha. Not knowing this principle is not clarifying the Buddha Way. Not clarifying the Buddha Way is not being a Buddha successor. Being a Buddha successor means being a child of the Buddha.

Once, Śākyamuni Buddha asked Ānanda, “Whose disciples are the past buddhas?” Śākyamuni Buddha said, “The past buddhas are my, Śākyamuni Buddha’s, disciples.” The buddha-meaning of the buddhas is like this. To serve and behold these buddhas, to succeed the buddhas and accomplish them, is precisely to be in the buddha-way of buddha after buddha. In this buddha-way, when one necessarily succeeds to the dharma, there is definitely a succession document. If there is no succession to the dharma, it is a naturalistic heresy. If the buddha-way were not one that decisively involves succession to the dharma, how could it have reached the present day?

Therefore, for one to be a buddha after buddha, there is definitely a buddha-succession, a buddha’s succession document; one receives the succession document of buddha succeeding buddha. As for the form of that succession document, one succeeds to the dharma by clarifying the sun, moon, and stars; or one succeeds to the dharma by having one obtain the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.

Sometimes a kāṣāya robe is mutually succeeded; sometimes a staff is mutually succeeded; sometimes a pine branch is mutually succeeded; sometimes a whisk is mutually succeeded; sometimes an udumbara flower is mutually succeeded; sometimes a golden brocade robe is mutually succeeded. There is mutual succession of straw sandals; there is mutual succession of a bamboo spatula. When these successions to the dharma are mutually succeeded, sometimes they are written in blood from a finger; sometimes they are written in blood from a tongue. Sometimes they are written with oil and milk, succeeding to the dharma—all of these are succession documents.

That which is succeeded, that which is obtained, is in all cases this buddha-succession. Truly, when one is manifesting as a buddha-ancestor, succession to the dharma is necessarily manifest. When it is manifest, though not awaited, it arrives; though not sought, there are many buddha-ancestors who have succeeded to the dharma. Those who have succession to the dharma are necessarily buddha after buddha, ancestor after ancestor.

The twenty-eighth ancestor, from his coming from the West onward, transmitted to the Eastern Land the principle that in the buddha-way there is an authentic school possessing succession to the dharma. Before that, it had never yet been heard. It is a realm unreached by the disputants and dharma masters of India, and beyond the reach of the ten sages and three worthies. The spell-masters of the scholastic studies of the Tripiṭaka cannot even suspect its existence. It is lamentable that, although they have received a human body which is a vessel of the Way, they are vainly entangled in the net of teachings and do not know the dharma of penetration, not even expecting a time of leaping out. For this reason, one should investigate the Way meticulously; one should devote one’s entire will and spirit to inquiry.

When Dōgen was in Song China, he was able to venerate the succession documents, and there were many such documents. Among them was one belonging to the Elder Ichi Saidō, who had taken up residence at Tiantong. He was a man from Echigo, and the abbot of the former Kōfuku Monastery. He was a fellow countryman of my late teacher. My late teacher often said, "Questions about the 'wind of circumstances' should be asked of Ichi Saidō." On one occasion, Saidō said, "Ancient traces are worthy of viewing, they are rare treasures among men; how many have you seen?" Dōgen said, "I have seen few." Then Saidō said, "I have one scroll of an ancient trace there.

It is such and such; I will show it to you, elder brother." When he brought it and I looked, it was a succession document. It was a succession document in the Hōgen line, which he had obtained from among the robe and bowl of an old monk. It was not originally Elder Ichi's own. What was written on it was: "The First Ancestor, Mahākāśyapa, was awakened under Śākyamuni Buddha. Śākyamuni Buddha was awakened under Kāśyapa Buddha." It was written thus.

When Dōgen saw this, he decisively believed and accepted that there is a transmission of the Dharma within the true lineage of the true lineage. It was a Dharma never seen before. It was the time when the buddhas and ancestors, through their hidden influence, protect and uphold their descendants. His gratitude was boundless.

When the transmission document of the Yunmen lineage was shown to Dōgen by Elder Sōgetsu upon his appointment to the position of chief seat at Tiantong, it listed, in order, the teacher who directly transmitted the hair and whiskers to the current recipient of the document, followed by the buddhas and ancestors of India and China, and beneath them was the name of the recipient of the transmission document. It directly connected the name of the present new ancestral teacher from the buddhas and ancestors. Therefore, over forty-some generations from the Tathagata, all have come down to the name of the new successor. It is as if each one personally bestowed it upon the new ancestor. Mahākāśyapa, Ānanda, and others are listed in a line, unlike other schools. At that time, Dōgen asked Chief Seat Sōgetsu: "Reverend, in the present listing of the lineages of the five schools, there are slight differences and similarities. What is the meaning of this?

If there has been direct transmission from generation to generation since India, how can there be differences and similarities?" Sōgetsu said: "Even if there are differences and similarities, one should simply learn that the buddha of Yunmen Mountain is like this. For what reason is Śākyamuni respected by others? He is respected because of his awakening to the Way. For what reason is Master Yunmen respected by others? He is respected because of his awakening to the Way." Hearing this talk, Dōgen gained some understanding. Nowadays, those who are abbots of great monasteries in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are mostly successors in the Dharma of the Linji, Yunmen, Dongshan, and other lineages. Yet, among those who call themselves distant descendants of Linji, there are occasionally improper deviations.

They say: 'Having practiced under a virtuous teacher, one earnestly requests a single portrait and a single scroll of Dharma words to serve as the standard of Dharma succession.' However, there is a type of cur who, having earnestly requested Dharma words and portraits from a venerable elder, and having made many such requests, upon reaching later years, accompanies officials with monetary contributions, obtains a temple, and is appointed to the position of abbot.

At that time, he does not succeed to the Dharma of the teacher of the Dharma words and portrait, but when succeeding to the Dharma of contemporaries of high reputation, or elders who are intimate with kings and ministers, he does not seek the attainment of the Dharma but only covets reputation. It is lamentable that in this degenerate, evil age there exists such corrupt practices. Among such people, not a single one has ever seen or heard of the Way of the buddhas and ancestors even in a dream. Generally, the granting of Dharma words, portraits, and the like is also done for lecturers of the doctrinal schools, lay men and women, and even for traveling practitioners and merchants.

The principle of this is clear in the records of the various houses. Sometimes, because those who are not the right person recklessly seek proof of Dharma succession, they request a single scroll of writing. Although it is painful for a person of the Way, he reluctantly takes up the brush. In such cases, he does not follow the old format of writing but writes a little about the teacher's good points. In recent times, the method is simply that if one gains strength in the assembly of that teacher, one then succeeds to that teacher as one's master. Even without having received that teacher's seal, if one has consulted in the master's room and in the hall, and is among those on the long platform, then when one becomes abbot, even if there is no time to cite one's lineage, when the great matter is opened up, it is mostly the case that one takes that teacher as one's master.

Furthermore, there was a transmission held by the distant descendant of Zen Master Longmen Foyan, Reverend Qingyuan. That master, Transmission Librarian Chō, also carried a succession document. At the beginning of the Jiading era, although Senior Monk Yō was a man of Japan, when that Transmission Librarian fell ill, Yō diligently nursed him. Because of his devoted labor in nursing him, wishing to thank him for the toil of his care, the Librarian took out the succession document and had him venerate it. It was a precious thing.

He said, "I give it to you to venerate." Thereafter, eight years later, around autumn in the gui-wei year of the sixteenth year of Jiading [1223], when Dōgen first resided at Tiantong Mountain, Senior Monk Yō earnestly requested the Transmission Librarian and showed the succession document to Dōgen. The form of that succession document was that from the Seven Buddhas onward, up to Linji, the forty-five ancestors were listed in a line. For the masters after Linji, a single circle was drawn, and within it, going around, the dharma name and stylized signature were transcribed. At the end for the new successor, it was written beneath the year and month.

You should know that among the venerable elders of Linji, there existed such differences.

My late teacher, the abbot of Tiantong, deeply warned against people frivolously claiming dharma succession. My late teacher's assembly was an assembly of ancient buddhas, a restoration within the monastic community. He himself did not wear a patched kāṣāya. Although he had received the transmission of the robe and dharma from Chan Master Daokai of Mount Furong, he did not use it when ascending the seat in the dharma hall. Generally, as an abbot, he never wore a patched dharma robe in his entire life. Those with understanding and those without all praised him together. They respected him as a true good friend.

When my late teacher, an ancient buddha, ascended the seat, he would always admonish the various quarters, saying: "In recent times, many of those who borrow the name of the ancestral way frivolously don dharma robes, favor long hair, and consider signing a teacher's name as the boat and raft of appearing in the world. It is pitiable. Who will save them? I lament that the elders of the various quarters lack the mind of the Way and do not practice the Way.

Those who have seen or heard the circumstances of a succession document or dharma succession are still rare; not one in a hundred or a thousand. This is the decline of the ancestral way." When he admonished the world like this, the elders under heaven did not resent it. Therefore, if one sincerely engages in discernment of the Way, one should see and hear that there is a succession document. To see and hear it is to practice the Way.

In Linji's succession document, first he writes the name, and writes that so-and-so studied with me, writes that he came to my assembly, writes that he entered my inner hall, writes that he succeeded me, and thus connects to the previous generation in sequence. He also left behind some dharma instructions. What is called the essential purport is not confined to the beginning or end of succession; it is simply the clear and distinct ancestral principle of truly meeting a true good friend. In Linji's case, it is written like this. I record this because I saw it with my own eyes.

The keeper of the storehouse, Ryōha, is a man of Ibu. He is now my son. Tokkō attended and served the Venerable Kō of Kinzan. Kinzan succeeded Kinzan Kin, Kin succeeded Yōgi En, En succeeded Kaikai Tan, Tan succeeded Yōgi E, E succeeded Jimyō En, En succeeded Fun’yō Shō, Shō succeeded Shuzan Nen, Nen succeeded Fūketsu Jō, Jō succeeded Nan’in Yū, Yū succeeded Kōke Sō. This Sō is the direct, legitimate heir of the high ancestor, Linji. This [document] is the succession certificate written by the Chan master Buddha-Illumination, Tokkō, of Ayuwang Mountain, and given to Ha Mugi.

When I was the abbot of Tendo, the young monk Chikō secretly brought it and showed it to Dōgen in the Ryōran quarters. The time was the twenty-first day of the first month in the kinoe-saru year, the seventeenth year of the Jiading era of the Great Song dynasty. When I first saw it, my joy and emotion were boundless. It was indeed the hidden influence of the buddhas and ancestors. I burned incense, made prostrations, and opened it to view. Concerning the procuring of this succession document, around the seventh month of last year, the prior, Shikōji, secretly spoke of it to Dōgen in the Jakkōdō hall.

Dōgen incidentally asked the prior, “Who carries this with them now?” The prior said, “Does the old fellow in the abbot’s quarters have something like it? If you later request it earnestly, you will surely be able to see it.” From the time I heard these words, my intention to seek it did not cease day or night. Therefore, this year, I earnestly urged the young monk Chikō and, throwing my whole heart into it, requested and obtained it. The ground upon which it is written is brushed upon white silk that has been backed. The cover is of crimson brocade. The roller-ends are of jade. It is about nine sun in length and over seven shaku in width. I do not show it to idle persons.

Dōgen then thanked Chikō and further, at that very time, went to the abbot’s quarters, burned incense, and made prostrations to the monk Mugi. At that time, Mugi said, “Few gain the opportunity to see and know this matter. Now, my elder brother, you have known it. This is precisely the true homecoming of the study of the Way.” At that time, Dōgen’s joy and emotion were unsurpassed.

Later, during the Baoqing era, Dōgen, while wandering the clouds to places such as Mount Tiantai and Mount Yanshan, came to the Wannian Temple in Pingtian. The abbot at that time was the Venerable Yuanzi of Fuzhou. After the elder Zongjian retired from the temple, Venerable Yuanzi succeeded him and revived the assembly. In the course of conversation, when discussing the ancestral style of the buddhas and patriarchs that has come down from of old, the topic of the instruction of the true heirs of Guishan and Yangshan was raised. The elder said, "Have you ever seen my certificate of succession?" Dōgen said, "How could I have seen it?" The elder then personally stood up, presented the certificate, and said, "This, even if it were a close relative, even if it were a senior attendant monk, I would not show it. This is precisely the dharma instruction of the buddhas and patriarchs.

However, Yuanzi, having gone out of the city on an ordinary day and being in the city on business for the prefect, had a dream in which a venerable monk who seemed to be Chan Master Fachang of Mount Damei offered up a branch of plum blossoms and said, 'If there is a true person who has already crossed the gunwale, do not begrudge the flower,' and gave the plum blossom to me. Unconsciously, in the dream, I recited, 'Not yet having crossed the gunwale, it is good to give thirty.' Yet, within five days, I met you, my elder brother. Moreover, you, elder brother, have already crossed the gunwale, and this certificate of succession is also mounted on plum-blossom damask.

It must be what Damei transmitted. I bring it out because it accords with the dream. Would you, elder brother, seek succession in the dharma from me? Even if you sought it, it would not be something to begrudge." Dōgen felt profound faith and awe. Although he could have requested the certificate, he merely offered incense, bowed in veneration, and paid reverent homage to it. At that time, there was an incense attendant named Faning who said it was the first time he had seen such a certificate.

Dōgen secretly reflected, "This matter, if it were not truly the hidden aid of the buddhas and patriarchs, would still be difficult to see or hear. As a foolish person from a remote land, by what fortune have I seen this several times?" Tears of emotion soaked his sleeves. At that time, in the Vimalakīrti room and the Great Abandonment Hall, it was quiet and without people. This certificate was mounted on white, fallen-ground plum-blossom damask. It was over nine inches long and over an armspan wide. The roller ends were of yellow jade, the cover was of brocade.

When Dōgen, on his return journey from Mount Tiantai to Mount Tiantong, lodged in the tanguo quarters at the Hüsheng Temple on Mount Damei, he had a numinous dream in which the Patriarch of Damei came and bestowed upon him a single branch of blooming plum blossoms. The Zujian also records something to be relied upon. The length of that single branch of blossoms was over one foot. Is the plum blossom not the udumbara flower? The dream state and the waking state should be equally real. While Dōgen was in Song, and after returning to his country, he had not spoken of this to anyone.

Now, the transmission document conferred within our Dongshan lineage differs from that of the Linji school and others. It is written within the very robe of the Buddha and Ancestors. The Great Ancestor Qingyuan, in intimate presence before the seat of Caoxi, drew pure blood from his own finger and wrote it, and thus the true transmission was conferred. It is transmitted that this finger-blood was mingled with the finger-blood of Caoxi for the written transmission. It is also transmitted that the rite of mingling blood was performed at the places of the First Ancestor and the Second Ancestor.

This is not written in such cases as "my son, investigate me"; it is the rite of the transmission document written and passed down by all buddhas and the Seven Buddhas. Therefore, know this: the blood and vital force of Caoxi gratefully mingled with the pure blood of Qingyuan, and the pure blood of Qingyuan intimately mingled with the direct blood of Caoxi. The one who directly received this verification was solely the Great Ancestor, the Venerable Qingyuan. It is not something the other ancestors could reach.

Those who know this matter declare that the Buddha-Dharma was truly transmitted only to Qingyuan.

My late teacher, the Ancient Buddha, the Great Monk of the Hall of Tiantong, instructed thus: "All buddhas unfailingly have succession in the Dharma. That is to say, Śākyamuni Buddha succeeded to the Dharma from Kāśyapa Buddha. Kāśyapa Buddha succeeded to the Dharma from Kanakamuni Buddha. Kanakamuni Buddha succeeded to the Dharma from Krakucchanda Buddha. In this way, buddha succeeding buddha, one should believe and accept that it continues to the present. This is the Way of learning the Buddha." At that time, Dōgen said, "After Kāśyapa Buddha entered nirvana, Śākyamuni Buddha first appeared in the world and attained the Way.

Moreover, how could the various buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa succeed to the Dharma from the various buddhas of the Vyūhakalpa? What is the principle of this?" My late teacher said, "What you speak of is the understanding of one who listens to teachings; it is the path of the ten saints and three worthies and the like; it is not the direct, authentic path of the Buddhas and Ancestors. The path of our buddha-to-buddha transmission is not so. We learn that Śākyamuni Buddha truly succeeded to the Dharma from Kāśyapa Buddha.

We learn that after Śākyamuni Buddha succeeded to the Dharma, Kāśyapa Buddha then entered nirvana. If Śākyamuni Buddha had not succeeded to the Dharma from Kāśyapa Buddha, he would be the same as a naturalistic outsider. Who would then believe in Śākyamuni Buddha? It is precisely because buddhas have succeeded to buddhas in this way, reaching to the present, that each and every buddha is a true successor. It is not a linear sequence; it is not an assembly. We learn that they truly succeed to each other in this way. It should not be constrained by what the various Āgama teachings say about kalpa measurements, life spans, and so on.

If one were to say it began solely from Śākyamuni Buddha, it would be merely over two thousand years, not ancient. The succession would also be merely over forty generations, which could be called new. This buddha-succession is not learned in such a way. We learn that Śākyamuni Buddha succeeded to the Dharma from Kāśyapa Buddha, and we learn that Kāśyapa Buddha succeeded to the Dharma from Śākyamuni Buddha. When one learns in this way, it is precisely the succession in the Dharma of all buddhas and all ancestors.

At this time, Dōgen not only for the first time received and accepted that there is succession in the Dharma among Buddhas and Ancestors, but also cast off the old nest of conventional views.