Welcome to our seventh and final talk on A.
H.
Dogen's Ryujin,
The Dragon Song.
He writes in his continued narrative,
The one who questions hearing and singing is not the one who sings the dragon song.
This may be a critique of the intellectualization of Buddhism that was occurring at the time.
But more importantly,
It is a call to practice.
That is,
We each need to actually experience realization through practice.
The practice of just sitting.
Dogen continues,
The dragon's song has its own melody.
In a withered tree or in a skull are neither inside nor outside,
Neither self nor other.
Meaning,
Realization is beyond any dualistic notions like good or bad,
Self or other,
Inside or outside.
He asserts that it is right now and a long time ago.
In other words,
Realization is always who we are.
But we must practice to become aware.
He continues,
It still holds joy,
Is growing a horn on the head.
Horn on the head means becoming realized.
He continues,
It still holds consciousness.
It is the skin dropping away completely.
Again,
Experiencing freedom from the confinement of self and the limitations of preconceived ideas.
Kaoshan's words,
Who we mentioned before,
The blood vein does not get cut off,
Are not avoided.
Turning the body in the word vein,
It does not dry up,
Means that the ocean's dryness never reaches to the bottom.
Since the never reaching,
In other words,
Practicing with Mushotoku or no gaining mind,
Is itself dryness.
Why?
Because when we don't grasp with gaining mind,
We don't create new karma.
So he says it is dryness beyond dryness.
To ask if anyone has heard it is like asking if there is anyone who has not gotten it.
In regard to Kaoshan's statement,
In the entire world,
There is no one who has not heard it.
Ask further,
Never mind the fact that there is no one who has not heard it.
Where is the dragon song at the time when no one in the entire world has heard it?
Dogen says,
Say it quickly,
Quickly.
I wonder if anyone has heard it.
Regarding this question,
He continues,
Say the dragon song is howling and humming in muddy water,
Exhaling through the nostrils.
Here he is talking about realization within samsara,
Realization that's expressed in our everyday interactions with ourselves and others and with the environment in the world.
He continues,
No one knows what kind of song the dragon sings is to have a dragon in the song.
All who hear it lose it.
In other words,
Becoming completely selfless.
He tells us this is something we should treasure.
Now the dragon songs of Qingyan,
Shuihang and Kaoshan come forth,
Forming clouds and forming water.
Dogen is providing us with a review and a summation of his teaching here.
Remember,
The dragon singing is inherent Buddha nature.
The expression,
However it manifests,
Is informed by prajna or intuitive wisdom that becomes expressed through practice,
The practice of just sitting.
Remember,
Practice realization or shusho ichinyo are one.
Dogen has provided us with these three examples.
He simultaneously describes the identity of the relative and the absolute in a concrete way.
That is,
Through these three ancestors,
Unique expression of the Dharma that they express in their own way,
The one Dharma truth.
Dogen continues saying that they,
Quote,
Come forth forming clouds and forming water.
Dragons are associated with clouds,
Rain and bodies of water in the Zen tradition.
For instance,
There's a shakuhachi or Japanese Zen flute piece called Komu o Jishi that honors this tradition.
Komu o Jishi means dragons dancing in the clouds,
Which points to their interrelatedness and their freedom.
The clouds and water in this way represent spiritual nourishment and realization that unfolds through practice and study.
Dogen continues,
They go beyond words,
Beyond saying eyeballs in the skull.
This is thousands and myriad pieces of the dragon song.
It still holds joy,
Is the croaking of frogs.
It still holds consciousness,
Is the singing of earthworms.
Thus,
The blood vein does not get cut off.
A gourd succeeds a gourd.
This represents the transmission of the lineage of master to student,
Gourd to gourd.
Dogen continues,
It does not dry up.
A pillar conceives a child.
A lantern faces a lantern.
Stone lanterns and freestanding pillars are common images sprinkled throughout the Zen encounter dialogues and in Dogen's writings.
They represent concrete reality,
The concrete reality of samsara and our immediate surroundings.
Pregnant pillars also commonly found in Zen texts and functions like the dragon song in the dried up tree to suggest vitality within an apparently lifeless object.
So we're sitting stone still,
But unlike the dead wood and ash that Dogen speaks about in his critique of quietism in the opening of this teaching,
What appears lifeless in mountain still sitting is actually full of light,
Full of life and full of energy,
As are you.
And don't forget that.
So just keep practicing no matter what.
And please bring the energy of your committed practice into your everyday life for the benefit of all.
Thank you.
