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citation from Dogen Zenji's
EIHEI KOROKU (永平広録, EK Volume Seven, #518)
(Dogen's Extensive Record, trans. by Leighton & Okumura)
photos: earlywomenmasters.net
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Dogen drew a circle in the air with his [fly-]whisk,
held up the whisk, and said:
If I hold this up, you call it buddhas appearing in the world.
If I put it down, you call it the ancestral teacher [Bodhidharma]
coming from the west. If I draw a circle, you call it what is
protected and cared for by the buddhas and ancestral teachers.
When I do not hold if up, put it down, or draw a circle, how
do you assess this? Even if you assess it, you should laugh at
both the view of the unconditioned and at the livelihood in the
demon's cave. Although it is like this, students of Eihei
[Eternal Peace Monastery], there is another excellent place.
Great assembly do you want to see that excellent place?
Again Dogen held up his whisk, and after a pause said:
Great assembly, do you understand? If you understand, the
Dharma body of all buddhas enters my nature. If you do not
understand, my nature in the same way joins together with the
Tathagata [Buddha]. Great assembly, what is the meaning of my
"the Dharma body of all buddhas enters my nature" and of
nature in the same way joins together with the Tathagata?
After a pause Dogen said:
In the early morning eat gruel, at lunchtime rice. In the
early evening do zazen, and at night sleep.
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