Steven Heine - Readings of Dōgens Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

T he Treasury of the True Dharma eye (Shbgenz , hereafter Treasury) was written by the master Dgen (12001253) during the first half of the thirteenth century as a guidebook for his growing assembly of monks, who were studying meditation at the time of the emergence of the St Zen institution as a major component of religion in medieval Japan. Dgens text has long been recognized as a masterpiece of traditional East Asian Buddhist literature for combining in thought-provoking ways Chinese sources he studied during a pilgrimage to the continent with Japanese grammatical constructions. Since being introduced to the English-speaking world about a half-century ago, the Treasury has been gaining increasing international acclaim for its innovative approach to expressing the Zen view of spiritual awakening. The past few decades have seen an impressive flow of translations and scholarly studies produced by specialists and comparative scholars, in addition to numerous publications geared primarily to the interests of Zen practitioners.

It seems clear that the Treasury is now appreciated perhaps as much as any other single work in the history of Buddhism. However, despite this widespread attention and acclaim, the Treasury remains particularly difficult to comprehend and is subject to diverse and sometimes conflicting interpretations. One of the main translators, Gud Wafu Nishijima, confesses in Understanding the Shbgenz, The first time that I picked up a copy of the Shbgenz, I found that I could not understand any of it, although I was reading a book written in my own native language. This is a common reaction, he points out, because Dgen wrote using many phrases and quotations from Chinese Buddhism which are relatively unknown to the layman, and difficult to render into other languages.

In light of the intertwined attitudes of exhilaration and frustration that many new readers may feel in approaching the Treasury for the first time, my aim is to clarify the complexity of Dgens writing by dealing with several main issues. First, this book explores the religious and cultural context, as well as the personal striving and aspiration, that led Dgen to compose the Treasury, which was edited by the author and prominent followers. Second, it explains the basis for Dgens use of inventive rhetorical flourishes in disclosing the foundation of contemplative experience. Third, it aims to elucidate the various versions and editions that have been constructed over the centuries by monks of the St Zen sect in terms of how these have been analyzed by premodern and modern commentators. Fourth, the book explicates the philosophical implications of Dgens views on attaining and sustaining enlightenment by evaluating the role of meditation and other forms of monastic discipline in terms of the relation between Zen practice and societal concerns.

Readings of Dgens Treasury of the True Dharma Eye contains two main divisions. The first section, consisting of three chapters, discusses the historical background and intellectual significance of the Treasury, especially involving the connections between different manuscripts that were not fully completed at the time of the masters death and are still very much debated and disputed by scholars today. The second section considers five main thematic topics that form the basis of Dgens approach to Zen theory and training, including the meaning of reality or Buddha nature, the impact of temporality and impermanence, the role of expressivity and language, deliberations on reflexivity and meditation, and the moral consequences of karmic causality. In addition, there are several supplementary sections, including a brief review in appendix IV of current complete translations.

Although numerous translations are available in English and other languages, it is fair to say that there is as yet no definitive rendition and that creating such a work is an elusive goal, given the incredible degree of intricacy and ambiguity embedded in Dgens compositions. Therefore, in consultation with the editors at Columbia University Press, I have decided to use my own translations from the following source: Dgen Zenji zensh (Dgens Collected Works), edited by Kawamura Kd , et al. (Tokyo: Shunjsha, 19881993), vols. 1 and 2 (of 7 vols.); this will be referred to in parentheses as Dgen, with volume and page number provided. In the bibliography there are a couple of other Japanese compilations edited by kubo Dsh with the same title.

Since my translations contain brief passages culled from a much longer text, for each translated passage I reference four bits of information:

a)the romanized version of the Japanese title of that fascicle (see appendix I for a list of all the fascicles with Japanese in characters and romanization plus my translation of the titles, which may vary from the versions of other translators although the romanization generally does not);