Shushōgi
Introduction
The Shushōgi — "the meaning (義) of practice (修) and verification (証)" — is a text composed in 1890 by Takiya Takushū and Azegami Baisen by selecting and assembling passages from Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō. It was adopted by the Sōtō school as a central liturgical text for laypeople.
Divided into five chapters, it sets out the foundation of Zen practice: the urgency of the question of birth-and-death, confession and purification, the receiving of precepts, the vow to save all beings, and the practice of the Way as an act of gratitude toward all Buddhas and ancestors.
If the Shōbōgenzō is the mountain, the Shushōgi is one of its gates — faithful in substance, accessible in form. It is chanted at funeral ceremonies, retreats, and in the daily liturgy of the Sōtō school.
I. The fundamental question — birth and death
To fully elucidate the question of birth and death — this is the great matter of Buddhist monks.
If the Buddha is present in birth and death, there is neither birth nor death.
It is enough to understand that birth and death are themselves the life of the Buddha.
Neither rejecting them nor desiring them — only then does one enter the mind of the Buddha.
Not calculating them with the mind, not seeking them with the body — freed from body and mind, the Buddha appears directly.
If a person seeks the Buddha, the Buddha goes away.
If a person understands the Buddha, the person too goes away.
If neither person nor Buddha goes away, when the spring flower falls, where does it go?
II. Confession and purification of transgressions
All the negative acts I have performed since the bottomless beginning
were born of greed, hatred, and ignorance.
They were committed through body, speech, and mind.
I now confess them all.
By confessing thus with sincerity, one receives the invisible power of the Buddhas and ancestors.
By confessing, one is freed from the weight of accumulated transgressions.
The virtue of confession causes the root of awakening to bloom and grow without obstacle.
Confession is the vow to no longer create transgressions in the future.
III. Receiving the precepts and entering the Way
To receive the precepts of the Buddhas and ancestors is to enter the rank of the Buddhas.
One then shares in the same virtue as the Buddhas — one is already a child of the Buddhas.
The three refuges — the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha:
I take refuge in the Buddha,
I take refuge in the Dharma,
I take refuge in the Sangha.
The three pure refuges are the foundation of all precepts.
The ten major precepts are the substance of the teaching of the Buddhas and ancestors.
To receive the precepts is to uphold them;
to uphold them is to receive the Buddha himself.
IV. The vow to save all beings
To awaken the thought of Awakening — this is the vow to save all beings even before saving oneself.
Whether layperson or monk, on the street or in the forest,
offering food to a sparrow, giving a little water to a thirsty ant —
these acts are also acts of Prajna, the wisdom of awakening.
The four universal vows of the Bodhisattva:
However numerous beings may be, I vow to save them.
However countless illusions may be, I vow to dissolve them.
However inexhaustible the Dharma may be, I vow to study it.
However supreme Awakening may be, I vow to accomplish it.
One who awakens the thought of Awakening, even for a single instant,
is already the master of all beings of the three worlds.
V. Practicing the Way in gratitude
The grace of the Buddha is immense and profound.
Gratitude toward the Buddhas and ancestors can only be repaid through the practice of the Way.
The practice of the Way is not separate from daily life.
Doing good to all beings, even in small ways, is the way of the ancestors.
To transmit the teaching of Awakening is the great compassion of the Buddhas.
Not to betray this transmission — that is what one owes to all the ancestors.
The Way of the Buddhas and ancestors is always great compassion;
never ceasing to benefit beings, never stopping —
this is returning gratitude to all existence.
Compiled in 1890 by Takiya Takushū and Azegami Baisen from the Shōbōgenzō of Dōgen Zenji. Central liturgical text of the Sōtō school, chanted during ceremonies and transmitted to laypeople.