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Shoji

Freedom is found within life and death, without rejecting or clinging to them

A one-minute orientation to this text — How this overview was prepared

For Dogen, freedom is found within life and death themselves, without rejecting them or clinging to them. Life and death are themselves nirvāṇa—the liberation one is seeking—not obstacles to be left behind. Looking for buddha outside them is like facing south while hoping to see the North Star.

Birth and death are each a state in their own moment, each with a past and a future. Dogen asks us to see birth and death as these distinct states, rather than as a movement from one to the other. He calls this very life and death the sacred life of buddha. Trying to get rid of them loses that life, but clinging to them loses it too.

He describes becoming buddha through concrete ways of living. These include refraining from wrongdoing and showing deep compassion for every living being. They also include respect for those above us and care for those below us, without hostility or craving toward things. He also speaks of a mind free of thought and grief. The closing instruction is to look for nothing beyond this way of living.

Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Book 4 (Windbell Publications) — © 1999 by Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross. All rights reserved.

[92]

生死

SHOJI

Life-and-Death

Sho means “life” and ji means “death,” so shoji means “life and death.” Although the words “life” and “death” exist in all languages, Master Dogen says that we are not able to understand intellectually what our life and death are. He says that their meaning is embedded in our real day-to-day life itself. In this chapter he explains life-and-death as the real momentary state at the present moment. In our daily life, life and death both exist in undivided wholeness.

[93] Because in life-and-death there is buddha, there is no life and death. Again, we can say: Because in life-and-death there is no “buddha,” we are not deluded in life-and-death.1 [This] meaning was expressed by Kassan2 and Jozan.3 [These] are the words of the two Zen Masters; they are the words of people who had got the truth, and so they were decidedly not laid down in vain. A person who wishes to get free from life and death should just illuminate this truth. If a person looks for buddha outside of life-and-death, that is like pointing a cart north and making for [the south country of] Etsu, or like facing south and hoping to see the North Star. It is to be amassing more and more causes of life and death, and to have utterly lost the way of liberation. When we understand that only life-and-death itself is nirvāṇa, there is nothing to hate as life and death and nothing to aspire to as nirvāṇa. Then, for the first time, the means exist to get free from life and death. To understand that we move from birth4 to death is a mistake. Birth is a state at one moment; it already has a past and will have a future. For this reason, it is said in the Buddha-Dharma that appearance is just non-appearance.5 Extinction6 also is a state at one moment; it too has a past and a future. This is why it is said that disappearance is just non-disappearance.7 In the time called life, there is nothing besides life. In the time called death, there is nothing besides death. Thus, when life comes it is just life, and when death comes it is just death; do not say, confronting them, that you will serve them,8 and do not wish for them.

[95] This life-and-death is just the sacred life of buddha. If we hate it and want to get rid of it, that is just wanting to lose the sacred life of buddha. If we stick in it, if we attach to life-and-death, this also is to lose the sacred life of buddha. We confine ourselves to the condition of buddha. When we are without dislike and without longing, then for the first time we enter the mind of buddha. But do not consider it with mind and do not say it with words! When we just let go of our own body and our own mind and throw them into the house of buddha, they are set into action from the side of buddha; then when we continue to obey this, without exerting any force and without expending any mind, we get free from life and death and become buddha. Who would wish to linger in mind?

[97] There is a very easy way to become buddha. Not committing wrongs; being without attachment to life-and-death; showing deep compassion for all living beings, venerating those above and pitying those below; being free of the mind that dislikes the ten thousand things and free of the mind that desires them; the mind being without thought and without grief: this is called buddha. Look for nothing else.

Shobogenzo Shoji

Year not recorded.

Notes

  1. These are Master Dogen’s variations of expressions that appear in Keitoku-dento-roku, chap. 7: Jozan says to Kassan, “Because in life-and-death there is no buddha, then it is not life-and-death.” Kassan says, “Because in life-and-death there is buddha, then we are not deluded by life-and-death.” ↩︎

  2. Master Kassan Zen-e (805–881), a successor of Master Sensu Tokujo. At the suggestion of Master Dogo Enchi, he visited Master Sensu and attained the truth under him (see chap. 14, Sansui-gyo, and Shinji-shobogenzo, pt. 1, no. 90). Later he lived and taught on Mt. Kassan. His posthumous title was Great Master Denmyo. ↩︎

  3. Master Jozan Shin-ei (dates unknown), a successor of Master Isan Reiyu. ↩︎

  4. 生 (SHO) means “birth,” “life,” “arising,” or “appearance.” ↩︎

  5. 生すなはち不生 (SHO sunawachi FUSHO). 不生 (FUSHO), “non-appearance,” expresses instantaneousness. See, for example, chap. 3, Genjo-koan. ↩︎

  6. 滅 (METSU) means “extinction,” “death,” “cessation,” or “disappearance.” In general 生死 (SHOJI) suggests “life and death,” whereas 生滅 (SHOMETSU) suggests “appearance and disappearance”; but 滅 (METSU) also means “death.” ↩︎

  7. 滅すなはち不滅 (METSU sunawachi FUMETSU). 不滅 (FUMETSU), “non-disappearance,” also expresses instantaneousness—the moment of the present is independent, so it does not appear from the past and it does not disappear into the future. ↩︎

  8. “Serving life,” or “being a slave to life,” means, for example, the attitude of a hypochondriac, or of the excessively health-conscious. “Serving death” describes the attitude of a drug addict, or of someone who drives unreasonably fast. “Confronting” suggests separation. ↩︎