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Shōbōgenzō: On Learning the Way Through Body and Mind 498 expression something that has not been heard before, due to its implications that the ten quarters are equal to each other and that the universe is equal to itself. A human body is composed of four elements* and five skandhas. * Its four elements and its six sense organs, all together, are not something thoroughly understood by ordinary, worldly people, but they are something that saintly people have thoroughly explored through their training. Further, we need to clearly see the ten quarters within a single dust mote, and it is not that the ten quarters are all packed up in one sack. 15 Sometimes, the Monks’ Hall and the Buddha Hall are erected within a single mote of dust, and sometimes the whole universe is erected in the Monks’ Hall and the Buddha Hall, for it is from these Halls that the universe has been built. The principle of this is that the universe in all ten quarters is our real Body. Do not follow erroneous views that deny causality. Since the universe is beyond measure, it is beyond being wide or narrow. The universe in all ten quarters is the eighty-four thousand skandhas that give expression to the Dharma, the eighty-four thousand meditative states, and the eighty-four thousand invocations. The eighty-four thousand skandhas that give expression to the Dharma are the turning of the Wheel of the Dharma, and the place where the Wheel of the Dharma turns spans the whole universe and spans all time. It is not a place without directions or boundaries: it is our real Body. You and I, right now, are human beings who are the real Body of the whole universe in all ten quarters. We learn the Way without ever making a mistake about such things. We go on, discarding one body and receiving another, for three great asamkhyeya eons, or thirteen great asamkhyeya eons, or immeasurable asamkhyeya eons, 16 during which time, without fail, we learn the Way. We learn the Way by now stepping forward, now stepping back. Our respectfully bowing, with hands in gasshō,* is our everyday behavior of walking and standing still. In our painting a picture of a withered tree, or in our polishing a tile made of dead ashes, there is not the slightest break. Though our days, as they say, are short and swift in their passing, our learning the Way is profound and far-reaching. So, even though the demeanor of those who have abandoned their homes and left home life behind to become monks may seem bleak, do not confuse them with woodcutters. And even though their lives may seem a struggle, they are not the same as farmers working in rice fields. So, do not compare them by discussing whether they are deluded or enlightened, or good or bad; do not pursue such questions as “Are they false or true” or “Are they genuine or fake” 15. That is, there is no inside or outside of them. 16. ‘Asamkhyeya’ is a Sanskrit term of measurement for something that is experienced as being interminably long, but which simply takes as long as it takes.
Shōbōgenzō: On Learning the Way Through Body and Mind 499 When people speak of living and dying, coming and going, as being what the real human body is, they use the words ‘living and dying’ to describe the wandering of ordinary, worldly people lost in samsara as well as to describe what the great saintly ones have escaped from. But this does not mean that going beyond the ordinary and transcending the holy are simply to be considered as ‘our real Body’, for life and death come in two kinds and in seven kinds. 17 At the same time, because each and every one of these kinds, when thoroughly understood, is totally life-and-death, there is nothing that we need fear. And the reason why we need not fear life and death is that even before we have abandoned this life, we are already encountering death in the present. And even before we have abandoned death, we are already encountering life in the present. Life is not something that stands in the way of death, and death is not something that stands in the way of life. Neither life nor death are understood by ordinary, worldly people. Life may be likened to an oak tree in its growing; death may be likened to an iron man in its immobility. Though oak trees are restricted to being oak trees, life is never restricted by death, which is why we take up learning the Way. Life is not one sort of thing, and death is not another, second sort of thing. Never does death stand against life: never does life stand against death. Meditation Master Engo once said: ❀ Life fully manifests its function And death fully manifests its function as well, All within the limits of Great Unbounded Space, For they are both the moment-by-moment manifestations of a sincere heart. We need to do our utmost to tranquilly consider these words of his. Although Meditation Master Engo spoke these words, he still had not recognized that life and death are beyond the scope of their functions. When exploring ‘coming and going’ through our training, there is life-and-death in going, and there is life-and-death in coming. There is coming-and-going in life, and there is coming-and-going in death. With the whole universe in all ten directions as its two or three wings, coming-andgoing flies off and flies back, and with the whole universe in all ten directions as its three or five feet, coming-and-going steps forward and steps back. With lifeand-death as Its head and tail, the real Body, which is the whole universe in all ten 17. There are various listings of the two and seven kinds of life and death, all of which describe different perspectives on how life and death function.
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