Calligraphic Drawings
for Zen Master Dogen's Ecological Healing of the Earth
Dogen Portrait - Page 1 - [Page 2] - Citation Sources



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• D-GK - Fish & Seaweed - Citation from Dogen's GENJO-KOAN:

Though there are many features in the dusty world
and the world beyond conditions,
you see and understand only
what your eye of practice can reach.

In order to learn the nature
of the myriad things,
you must know that although they may look round or square,
the other features of oceans and mountains
are infinite in variety,
whole worlds are there.

It is so not only around you,
but also directly beneath your feet,
or in a drop of water.


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• D-KS - Dharma Water -- Citation from Dogen's RAIHAI TOKUZUI:
When he became abbot of a monastery,
Chih-hsien instructed the assembly saying:

"I attained a half ladle of dharma-water
at the vererable father Lin-shi's place
and another half at the venerable mother Mo-Shan's.

The two together making a full ladle,
I drank it up and have been thoroughly full ever since."


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• D-SG - Empty Leaf -- Citation from Dogen's SHINJIN-GAKUDO:
Earth is not necessariy ground
and ground is not necessarily earth.

There is earth-ground,
there is mind ground,
there is treasure ground.

Although the varieties are innumerable,
it is not that there is no earth, but invariably
there is a world where emptiness is earth.


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• D-G - Not Two (Advaita) - Citation from Dogen's GABYO:

This "understand one thing"
does not mean depriving the thing itself
or its unique character,
nor does it mean to oppose it to something else
or not oppose it to another,
non-opposition is also an obstruction.

When understanding one thing
does not obstruct understanding all things,
this is both one thing and all things.
"Understanding one thing"
means totally penetrating one thing;
"understanding one thing"
means understanding all things.



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• D-KS - This is Thusness, That is Thusness - Citation from Dogen's KOBUTSU-SHIN:

Once a monk asked the National Teacher:

'What is the mind of ancient buddhas?"
The master replied: "Walls, partitions, tiles, pebbles."

The question means:
'this is thusness and that is thusness.'
The monk turned the expression into a question,
one which has become the expression of all ages.

For this reason, myriad trees and countless grasses
      with flowers blooming
are the expressions of the ancient buddhas,
      the questions of ancient buddhas.
The nine mountains and the eight seas
in the world arising are the sun aspect
and the moon aspect of ancient buddhas,
the skin, fresh, bones, and marrow of ancient buddhas.


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• D-GYS - Scrolls in Clouds & Logs -- Citation from Dogen's GAKUDO YUJIN-SHU:


If anyone of ordinary appearance or humble position
were excluded from the buddha way,
how could Huineng become the Sixth Ancestor?
It is clear that the buddha way's transmission
lies outside brilliance and broad knowledge.

Search and find out. Reflect and practice.

Being old or decrepit does not exclude you.
Being quite young or in your prime does not exclude you.
Although Zhouzhou first studied when he was over sixty,
he became a man of excellence in the ancestral lineage.
Zheng's daughter had already studied long
by the the time she was thirteen,
and she was outstanding in the monastery.
   



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• D-G-1 - Bird's Path -- Citation from Dogen's GYOJI - #I:

You should quietly engage in the sustained practice
of "not leaving the monastery"
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You should learn to treasure each moment of sustained practice.
Do not assume to not speak is useless.
It is entering the monastery, leaving the monastery.

The bird's path is the forest.
The entire world is the forest, the monastery.


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• D-KS2 - Mountains & Rivers -- Citation from Dogen's KEISEI-SANSHOKU
(Sounds of Valley-Streams and Colors of the Mountains):

One night when [Layman] Dongpo visited Mt Lu,
he was enlightened upon hearing the sound of the valley stream.
He composed the following verse, which he presented
to Zen Master Changzong:

Valley sounds are the long, broad tongue.
Mountain colors are no other than the unconditioned body.
Eighty-Four thousand verses are heard throughout the night.
What can I say about this at a future time?

Seeing this verse, Changzong approved his understanding.


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• D-B - Old Plum -- Citation from Dogen's BAIKA:

My old master Tiantong
ascended the seat and taught the assembly:

"Tiantong's first phrase mid-winter:

Old plum tree bent and gnarled
all at once opens one blossom, two blossoms
three, four, five blossoms, uncountable blossoms,
not proud of purity, not proud of fragrance;
spreading, becoming spring,
blowing over grass and trees,
balding the head of a patch-robed monk.

Whirling, changing into wind, wild rain,
falling, snow, all over the earth.
The old plum tree is boundless.
A hard cold rubs the nostrils..."

* * *
Blossoming is the old plum tree's offering.


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• D-KS - Water's Moon -- Citation from Dogen's TSUKI:

Buddha's true dharma body is the "as it is" of empty sky.
This empty sky is the "as it is" of buddha's true dharma body.
Because it is buddha's true dharma body,
the entire earth, the entire universe,
all phenomena, and all appearances are empty sky.
Hundreds of grasses and myriad forms -- each appearing "as it is" --
are nothing but buddha's true dharma body,
thusness of the moon in the water.

The time when the moon appears is not necessarily night.
Night is not necessarily dark.
Do not be limited to the narrow view held by human beings.
Even when there is no sun or moon, there is day and night.
Sun and moon are not day and night, each is as it is.


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• D-FZG - A Dragon Finding Water - Citation from Dogen's FUKAN ZAZEN-GI:

Zazen is not "step-by-step meditation."

Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a buddha,
the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

The truth appears, there being no delusion.
If you understand this, you are completely free,
like a dragon that has obtained water
or a tiger that reclines on a mountain.

The supreme dharma will then appear of itself,
and you will be free of all weariness and confusion.


more drawings & citations... Page 1 [2] - PREV > >

PAGE 2
citations from the writings
of Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253)

adapted (with line breaks added) from:
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• MOON IN A DEWDROP
(citation from Genjo-Koan)
(citation from Shinjin-Gakudo)
(citation from Gabyo)
(citation from Gakudo Yujin-shu)
(citation from Tsuki)
edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi, Northpoint Press, 1985

• ENLIGHTENMENT UNFOLDS:
THE ESSENTIAL TEACHINGS OF ZEN MASTER DOGEN
(citation from Keisei Sanshoku)
(citation from Gyoji #1)
edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi, Shambhala, 2000

• FLOWERS OF EMPTINESS
(citation from Kobustu-Shin)
(citation from Raihai Tokuzui)
translated by Hee-Jin Kim, Mellen Press, 1985

• ZEN MASTER DOGEN:
AN INTRODUCTION WITH SELECTED WRITINGS
(citation from Fukan Zazen-gi)
editied by Yuho Yokoi with Daizen Victoria
Weatherhill Inc, 1976

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