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Kuge:
Flowers of Space
by
Eihei Dogen zenji
translated by Yasuda Joshu roshi
and Anzan Hoshin roshi
(excerpted from the forthcoming book
Dogen: Zen Writings on the Practice of Realization)
Our
Founding Ancestor composed this verse:
"A single flower blooms, five petals open,
and fruit ripens by itself."
Learn through your practice the moment when the flower blooms, as well
as its form and colour in the light. The flower's body is five petals,
and the blooming of five petals is a flower. The standard of the single
flower comes from [Bodhidharma's verse], "Originally I came to this land
to transmit the Dharma and liberate deluded sentient beings."1
The form and colour in the light are learned through practice. "Fruit
ripening by itself" is natural activity. "Natural activity" means causing
causes and the affect of effects. This world has causes and it has effects.
We cause the causes of this world and are affected by the effects that
are the world. The "self" of "itself"2
is you, those four elements and five aggregates. The "true person without
position"3
is used for this kind of "self" because it is not an "I" or a "someone".
"Being so" means approving this.4
"Ripens by itself" is the moment of flowers opening and fruits ripening,
the moment of transmitting the Dharma and liberating the deluded.
For example, the time and place of the opening and blooming of the blue
lotus5
are in the midst of fire and at the time of flames. These sparks and flames
are the place and time of the blue lotus opening and blooming. All sparks
and flames are within the place and time of the place and time of the
blue lotus opening and blooming. Know that in a single spark are hundreds
of thousands of blue lotuses, blooming in the sky, blooming on the earth,
blooming in the past, blooming in the present. Experiencing the actual
time and place of this fire is the experience of the blue lotus. Do not
drift by this time and place of the blue lotus flower.
An ancient said, "The blue lotus blooms within fire."6
To understand "within fire" you must know where this lotus blooms. Do
not be attached to the viewpoints of humans or of shining beings or you
will not understand this "fire within". If you doubt this, you might as
well also doubt the existence of a lotus in the water, or a flower on
the branch. If you want to doubt something, you should doubt the stability
of an objective world. But you don't. Only the Ancestors realize that
"when the flower blooms the world arises".7
A "flower blooms" is "three by three in front, three by three behind".8
To fill such numbers is the gathering together and raising up of numberless
particles. When this truth comes to you, you can understand how spring
and autumn come. It is not that there are flowers and fruit only in spring
and autumn. Being-time is always flowering and fruiting. Flowers and fruit
are each supported and maintained by their own moments and each moment
is supported and maintained by flowers and fruit. The "hundred grasses"
all have flowers and fruit, all trees have flowers and fruit. Trees of
gold, silver, copper, iron, coral, crystal, and so on, all have flowers
and fruit. Trees of earth, wind, water, fire, and space all have flowers
and fruit. Human trees have flowers, human flowers have flowers, and withered
trees have flowers. In all of this are the "flowers of space"9
spoken of by the Buddha. People of narrow knowledge and small insight
do not know of the form and colour in the light of petals and flowers
and so would only understand this to mean "non-existent flowers". Understand
that speaking of "flowers of space" in the Way of Awake Awareness is not
even known of let alone understood by those outside of the Way. Only the
Buddhas and Ancestors realize the blossoming and falling of flowers in
the sky, flowers on the ground, realize the blossoming and falling of
the flowering of the world and so on; only they know that the flowers
of the sky, the ground, the world are the sutras. This is the standard
through which there is study of Awake Awareness. Since flowers in space
are the vehicle in which the Buddhas and Ancestors travel, the worlds
of the Buddhas and the Teachings are simply these flowers of space.
However, when the common dullard hears of the Thus Come One's words "clouded
eyes see flowers in space" they imagine that these are the "clouded eyes"
of usual people. They understand that diseased eyes can perceive nonexistent
flowers in empty air. Through becoming attached to this perspective, they
think it means that the three worlds, the six realms, Buddha-nature, and
Buddhas have no existence but are seen as existent by the deluded. They
think that by eliminating the delusions of clouded eyes we will not see
flowers in space because space is originally without flowers. I am sorry,
but these people do not know the time of, the beginning and ending of,
the "flowers of space" that the Thus Come speaks of. What Buddhas speak
of when they say "clouded eyes" or "flowers in space" is a truth that
cannot be understood by usual people or those that are not within the
Way. It is through practising this flower of space10
that Awakened Ones and the Thus Come receive the robe, the [Teaching]
Seat, and [a Master's] Room, and fulfill the fruition of the truth. The
standard of "raising a flower and blinking" is a manifestation of "flowers
of space". The unbroken and authentic Transmission to right now of the
Eye of Reality, unsurpassable radiant Knowing,11
is called "clouded eyes" and "flowers in space". Awakening, cessation,
the Body of Reality, the inherent nature and so on are just two or three
petals opened by this flower of space.
Sakyamuni Buddha says,
"It is like a person with clouded eyes
seeing flowers in empty air.
When the disease of cloudy eyes is cured,
the flowers in empty air vanish."
None of the scholars have clear understanding of what is being said. Since
they do not realize space,12
they cannot understand "flowers in space". Since they do not understand
"flowers in space", they do not understand "cloudy eyes", cannot see a
person with such "clouded eyes", and cannot become a person of "cloudy
eyes". Through meeting one with such "cloudy eyes", we can understand
"flowers in space" and can see "flowers in space". Having seen "flowers
in space", we then see "flowers in space vanish". The Narrow Path has
the opinion that once "flowers in space" vanish, they cannot appear again.
But if you cannot see "flowers in space", what can you see? If you think
of "flowers of space" as something to be eliminated, then the great matter
following from "flowers in space" and their seeding, ripening, and vanishing
is never realized. The usual scholar of the day thinks of space as the
place where the energy of the sun13
shines, or that where the sun and moon and stars hang is space; and so
they think that the phrase "flowers in space" means that forms appear
like clouds drifting in empty air or like flowers blown east to west,
up and down, with the falling and rising gusts of wind. They do not realize
that the four elements as the creating and created, all of the knowns14
of an "objective" world, primordial Awakeness,15
the original nature and so on are all called "flowers of space". And so
further, they do not realize that the four elements which configure knowns
are also created by knowns, they do not know that the "objective" world
abides as a configuration of knowns but only know knowns as things of
an "objective" world. They understand "flowers in space" to exist because
of "clouded eyes" and do not understand that "clouded eyes" exist because
of "flowers of space". Know that the "person with clouded eyes" spoken
of by the Buddha is a person of primordial Awakening, a person of ineffable
realization, a person of the Buddhas, a person of the three worlds, a
person that moves beyond the Buddhas. Do not dully believe this "cloudiness"
as delusion and look for true reality elsewhere. This is a small view.
If "cloudiness" and "flowers" are delusions, then the attachment to this
wrong view of delusion is deluded and that which is attached is deluded.
With all of this delusion, nothing logical can be said. Nothing could
be true, and so to establish "cloudiness" and "flowers" as delusion would
be impossible.
Realization is "cloudiness" and the numberless aspects of realization
are each part of an array of "clouds". Delusion is also "clouded" and
the numberless aspects of delusion are also an array of "clouds". For
now, let us say that "clouded eyes" are balanced and "flowers in space"
are balanced; since "clouded eyes" are unborn then "flowers in space"
are unborn; when all things are truly known as knowns16
then "cloudy flowers" are truly known. This cannot be said to be a matter
of past, present, or future or of beginning, middle, and end because they
are not blocked by coming and going. They cause coming and going to come
and go. Coming within space17
and going within space, coming in "clouded eyes" and going in "clouded
eyes", coming in "flowers" and going in "flowers". All other times and
places are also like this.
The study of "flowers in space" can take many forms. There is the view
of "cloudy eyes", the view of clear eyes; what is seen by the Buddha's
eyes and what is seen by the eyes of the Ancestors; what is seen by eyes
of the Way and what is seen by the blind. There is a view of three thousand
years, a view of eight hundred years, a view of hundreds of eons, a view
of numberless eons. Although all of these are seeing "flowers in space",
there are many kinds of "space" and so there are many kinds of "flowers".
Know that space is a single grass.18
Space inevitably flowers just as the hundred grasses all flower. To express
this, the Thus Come One said, "Space is originally without flowers." Although
primordially there are no flowers, now there are flowers. This is how
it is for peach and plum, apricot and willow. It is like saying, "Yesterday
the apricot trees had no flowers, but now the apricots flower in spring."
The arriving of the season is when the flowers bloom, in the blooming
of flowers is the time when the flower arrives. The precise moment of
this time of flowering is not arbitrary. Apricot and willow flowers always
bloom on apricot and willow trees. Looking at the flowers you know that
they are apricot or willow, and by looking at apricot and willow trees
you can distinguish their flowers. Peach and plum flowers never bloom
on apricot and willow trees. Apricot and willow flowers bloom on apricot
and willow trees and peach and plum flowers always bloom on peach and
plum trees. The blossoming of "flowers of space" is just like this too;
they are not blooming on some other kind of plant or tree.
Seeing the colours of these "flowers in space," you can have a sense of
the limitlessness of the fruits of space. Seeing the blossoming and falling
of "flowers in space", you can learn the spring and autumn of "flowers
of space". The spring of "flowers of space" is just like the spring of
all flowers. Just as "flowers in space" are myriad, so are there myriad
moments of spring. This is how the springs and autumns of all times are.
Understanding "flowers in space" as unreal but other flowers to be real
is to be ignorant of the Buddha's Teachings. On hearing the Teaching that,
"space is originally without flowers," thinking that "flowers in space"
originally did not exist but that now they do is a small and narrow view.
We should step forward and take a panoramic view. An ancient Ancestral
Adept19
said, "Flowers have never appeared." To unfold this point, the truth is
that flowers have never arisen, that flowers have never vanished, that
flowers have never been flowers, that space has never been space. Don't
be mired in fatuous views of existing or not-existing and thus confuse
the time of flowering with a before and after. It is like the colours
of flowers; colour is not limited to flowers and all seasons also have
blues, yellows, reds and whites. Spring brings on flowers and flowers
bring on spring.
The layman Zhangzhuo20
was a student of Shishuang.21
The verse he wrote expressing his realization goes like this:
"Luminosity shines through worlds numberless as the sands of the Ganges."
This luminosity manifests "the Monks' Hall, the Buddha Hall, the Kitchen,
the gates."22
The "worlds numberless as the sands of the Ganges" is manifested by luminosity
and manifests luminosity.
"All beings, common and sages, are my family."
It is not that there are not common people and sages, but that saying
"common" and "sage" stains it.
"When no single thought arises, the total body is manifest."
Thoughts arise one by one and each are unborn. This non-arising is where
the total body is manifest. This is why he says, "no single thought arises".
"As soon as the six senses stir, they are covered in clouds."
Although there are six senses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and consciousness,
this is not just two times three; they should be "three in front, three
behind". "Stirring" is like Mount Meru, like the earth, like the six senses
and like "as soon as stirring". As "stirring" is like Mount Meru, so "not
stirring" is also like Mount Meru. For example, it makes clouds and rain.
"Eliminating disturbances just doubles the disease."
There has been disease up until now. Then there is the "disease" of the
Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors. Intellectualizing about disturbances and
trying to remove them doubles disease. At the moment you try to "eliminate"
there is "disturbance". They come together and yet are not together. "Disturbance"
includes within itself its own "elimination".
"Aiming at Suchness is also wrong."
To turn away from Suchness is wrong and aiming at Suchness is also wrong.
Suchness approaches and turns away and each moment of aiming or turning
is itself Suchness. Is there anyone who can know this "wrong" to be Suchness?
"Going along with the circumstances of the world without hindrance..."
"Worldly circumstances" "go along" with "circumstances of the world" and
"going along" is a "circumstance of the world" in its "going along". This
is called being "without hindrance". As for being beyond "hindrance" and
"without hindrance", we should study the "hindrance" of the eyes.
"Nirvana and birth and death are just flowers in space."
"Nirvana" is Complete and Utter Awakening. This is the place of the Buddhas
and Awakened Ancestors and of the disciples of Buddhas and Ancestors.
"Birth and death are the true human body."23
Nirvana, and birth and death are all of these things but they are just
"flowers in space". The roots and stalks, stems and leaves, flowers and
fruit, colours and light of "flowers of space" are each the blossoming
of "flowers of space". "Space flowers" give forth "space fruit" and drop
"space seeds". Since the three worlds we now perceive are the "five petals
opening" of "flowers of space", "the best is to see the three worlds with
the three worlds".24
This is the "true form" of "all things".25
This is the "flower form" of "all things". All things and anything that
can be imagined are "flowers of space" and "fruit of space". You should
learn through practice that these are the same as apricot, willow, peach,
and plum trees.
Zen Master Furong26of
Fuchou in Great Song upon his first encounter with Master Zhizhen of Guizhong-si27
asked, "What is Buddha?"
Guizhong responded, "If I were to tell you, will you believe it?"
Furong said, "How could I not believe the true words of the Master?'
Guizhong said, "You are yourself it."
Furong asked, "How should I maintain this?"
Guizhong said, "If there is a single cloud in the eye, flowers in the
sky tumble in all directions."28
This saying of Guizhong, "When there is a single cloud in the eye, flowers
of space tumble in all directions" expresses maintaining the Buddhas.
Just remember that this "tumbling in all directions" of "clouded flowers"
is what all Awakened Ones realize. And the flowers and fruit in the eye
of space are what the Buddhas maintain. Through "clouds", the eyes are
actualized. Flowers in space manifest the eyes and the eyes realize flowers
in space. You could say, "If there are flowers of space in the eye, then
a single cloud tumbles in all directions." On the other hand, "If the
eyes are there in space, all clouds tumble in all directions. Thus, "cloudiness"
is the "presentation of complete activity",29
"eyes" are the "presentation of complete activity", space is the "presentation
of complete activity", and "flowers" are the "presentation of complete
activity". "Tumbling in all directions" is the "thousand eyes" and "the
whole body is eyes".30
Wherever and whenever there is an eye, there are always "flowers in space"
and "flowers in eyes". "Flowers in eyes" are called "flowers in space".
The expression of "flowers and eyes" should be open and clear.
Thus, the Great Master Guangzhou31
said,
"How wonderful! The Buddhas throughout the ten directions
are originally just the flowers in our eyes.
And if we want to know about these flowers in our eyes
they are originally the Buddhas throughout the ten directions.
If we want to know the Buddhas of the ten directions,
they are not flowers in our eyes.
If we want to know the flowers in our eyes,
they are not the Buddhas of the ten directions.
If you can understand this,
the Buddhas of the ten directions are to blame.
If you don't understand,
those with only hear-say knowledge do a little dance,
and those who make up their own enlightenment put on make up."
You should know that it is not that the Buddhas of the ten directions
are not real but that they are originally "flowers in the eyes". The place
where the Buddhas of the ten directions abide is "in the eyes". Any place
other than "in the eyes" is not the abode of the Buddhas. "Flowers in
the eyes" do not exist nor do not not-exist, are neither nothing nor a
substance; they are themselves "the Buddhas of the ten directions". Now
if you want to know only "the Buddhas of the ten directions", then they
are not the "flowers in our eyes". And if you only want to know the "flowers
in our eyes", then they are not "the Buddhas of the ten directions". This
"wanting to know" and "are not" are manifestations of the wondrous, they
are great wonders. The meaning of "sky flowers" and "earth flowers" spoken
of by the Buddhas and Ancestors is "graceful play".32
Even those who teach only from the sutras or from their commentaries have
the opportunity to hear of "flowers of space" but only Buddhas and Ancestors
use this opportunity to experience the life-pulse of flowers of the earth.
The sayings of the Awakened Ones and the Ancestors capture the life-pulse
of flowers of the earth.
Zen Master Huiche of Shimen33
of Great Song was a great Master of that line. A monk asked, "What is
the jewel in the mountain?" The point of this question is like asking,
"What is Buddha?" It is like asking, "What is the truth?" The Master said,
"Flowers of space unfold on the ground. Throughout the country, there
is no way to buy."
This saying cannot be compared with other sayings. Usually, Teachers only
talk about "flowers of space" as "flowers of emptiness" and only talk
about arising in emptiness and going in emptiness.34
None have yet known "of space"35
let alone "of the ground".36
Only Shimen understood it. The meaning of "on the ground" is that the
"beginning, middle, and end" are "on the ground". "Unfold" is to "release".37
Right now is the unfolding of the "whole earth", the releasing of the
whole earth.
"Throughout the country, there is no way to buy." It is not that "throughout
the country" there is no "buying". It is that "no way"38
cannot be bought.
"Flowers of space" unfold from the ground and the whole earth blooms from
these flowers. Remember this: "flowers of space" means bringing both ground
and space into bloom.
Presented
to the assembly at Kannondori-Koshohorin-ji on May 10th, 1243. Recopied
by Ejo on January 27th, 1244 at the head monk's quarters in Kippo-ji;
copied again on August 28th, 1318 at the Guest Quarters of Eihei-ji.
 
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1999-2004 White Wind Zen Community. All rights reserved.
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