32 On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion - Shasta Abbey

32On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion(Kannon)Translator’s Introduction: The name Kannon is a shortened version of Kanzeon (Skt.Avalokiteshvara), ‘The One Who Heeds the Cries of the World’. This Bodhisattva goes undermany names and has taken many forms in India, as well as in other East Asian Buddhist cultures.Originally, Avalokiteshvara was iconographically represented as being male, but after the figurecame into China, it was often pictured as being female, although not exclusively so. From thestandpoint of Buddhist iconography, the male aspect represents the personification ofcompassion, whereas the female aspect represents compassion in action. However, Buddhas andBodhisattvas are said to have the ability to shift between these two functions, depending onwhich seems to be the more spiritually helpful in a given situation. For a translator writing inEnglish, this presents a problem of how to refer to Kannon: as He or as She. Since a choice hasto be made, I have chosen to use masculine grammatical forms simply because, historically, thisBodhisattva is Indian in origin, where the figure is traditionally considered to be male and thename is grammatically masculine in gender.The compassion that is represented by Kannon has no limitations in its functioning, as thedialogue between the two brother-monks, Ungan and Dōgo, expresses. It is like eyes that seeeverything and hands that offer help everywhere, even in the darkest of times. Some readers mayfind it difficult, on occasion, to follow what Dōgen is driving at in this discourse. To put itsimply, when it comes to conveying what the innate compassion of one’s Buddha Nature is, it isdifficult to express what is essentially beyond words to convey, and conventional ways of talkingabout the innate compassion of one’s Buddha Nature do not meet the mark. Therefore, eventhough Ungan and Dōgo successfully found a way of expressing what the compassion of BuddhaNature is like, the way that they put the matter goes beyond conventional ways of understandingwhat is said. At times Dōgen explains what they mean by using the via positiva (saying whatsomething is like) and at other times he does this by using the via negativa (saying whatsomething is not like).Ungan Donjō once asked Dōgo Enchi, 1 “What use does theBodhisattva* of Great Compassion make of His ever so many handsand eyes?”1. Ungan and Dōgo were both Dharma heirs of Yakusan Igen.* See Glossary.458

Shōbōgenzō: On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion 459Dōgo replied, “He is like someone in the night who reachesbehind himself, his hand groping for his pillow.”Ungan remarked, “I get it, I get it!”Dōgo asked, “What did you get?”Ungan said, “That His whole body is hands and eyes.”Dōgo replied, “What you have said is very well put. Still, itonly expresses eighty or ninety percent of the Matter.”*Ungan responded, “Well, so much for the likes of me. Howabout you, my elder brother in the Dharma, what do you make of it?”Dōgo replied, “That His whole being, through and through, ishands and eyes.”In expressing what Kannon is, many voices have been heard before and afterthis incident, but none of them equal the words of Ungan and Dōgo. If you wish toexplore through your training what Kannon is, you should thoroughly investigatewhat Ungan and Dōgo are saying here. The Bodhisattva of Great Compassionspoken of here is Kanzeon Bosatsu, ‘The Bodhisattva Who Heeds the Cries of theWorld’, who is also known as Kanjizai Bosatsu, ‘The Bodhisattva Who ObservesAll Things Free of Attachments’. Through our training, we study Him, or Her, asthe father and mother of all Buddhas. So do not consider Him to be inferior to theBuddhas, thinking that He has not yet realized the Truth, for in the past He was theTathagata known as ‘The Clarifier of the True Dharma’.So, let us now take up, and thoroughly explore, the words spoken by Ungan,namely, “What use does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion make of His ever somany hands and eyes?” There are Buddhist traditions that make a point ofhonoring Kannon, and there are Buddhist traditions that have not yet seen Kannoneven in their dreams. The Kannon that existed for Ungan was in complete harmonywith Dōgo’s Kannon. And this was not so just for one or two Kannons, but Unganwas likewise in harmony with hundreds of thousands of myriad Kannons. OnlyUngan’s assembly allowed Kannon to truly be Kannon. And why is that? Thedifference between the Kannon of which Ungan spoke and the Kannon of whichother Buddhas spoke is like the difference between being able to put It in wordsand not being able to put It in words. The Kannon of some Buddhas merely hadtwelve faces; this was not so for Ungan. The Kannon of some other Buddhasmerely had a thousand hands and eyes; this was not so for Ungan. The Kannon ofstill other Buddhas had eighty-four thousand hands and eyes; this was not so forUngan. How do I know this to be true? Because when Ungan speaks of theBodhisattva of Great Compassion using His ever so many hands and eyes, hisphrase ‘ever so many’ does not mean merely eighty-four thousand hands and eyes.

Shōbōgenzō: On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion 460How much less did he limit it to some particular number, like twelve or thirty-twoor thirty-three! ‘Ever so many’ is synonymous with ‘beyond count’. The phrase‘ever so many’ is not limited as to what sort or how many. Since it is not limited toany sort or amount, you should not limit it, not even by calculating it to be anunbounded, limitless amount. You need to explore through your training that theunderlying meaning of the phrase ‘ever so many’ is just like this, for it has alreadygone beyond the bounds of the immeasurable and the unbounded.Now, in taking up Ungan’s phrase ‘His ever so many hands and eyes’, Dōgodid not say that it did not reveal the Matter, so it must have contained theunderlying principle. Ungan and Dōgo were in complete harmony with each otherand stood shoulder-to-shoulder, having already trained together under Yakusan forforty years. During that time, they had discussed accounts from both the past andthe present, rooting out what was not correct and verifying what was correct.Because they had trained together in this manner, when on this day they stated ‘Hisever so many hands and eyes’, Ungan was making a statement and Dōgo wasverifying it. Keep in mind that ‘His ever so many hands and eyes’ was beingdiscussed by both of these Old Buddhas alike. Both Ungan and Dōgo are clearly inaccord concerning ‘His ever so many hands and eyes’, so Ungan now asks Dōgowhat use Kannon makes of them. Do not consider his question to be the same asthe types of questions raised by academic teachers of Scriptures and scholarlywriters of commentaries, or by the ‘thrice wise and ten times saintly’.* Thisquestion has elicited a spiritual affirmation: it has elicited ‘hands and eyes’. Now,there may well be Old Buddhas, as well as more recent Buddhas, who haverealized Buddhahood through the force of Ungan’s having said, “What use does Hemake of His ever so many hands and eyes?” Ungan could also have said, “Whatdoes He accomplish by making use of His ever so many hands and eyes?” And hecould also have expressed the Matter as “What is it that He does?” or “What doesHe put into motion?” or “What is He expressing?”Dōgo replied, “He is like someone in the night who reachesbehind himself, his hand groping for his pillow.”To express the underlying principle, Dōgo gives as an example someone who isgroping behind himself for a pillow in the middle of the night. ‘Groping for’ means‘searching for’. ‘In the night’ is a way of saying ‘being in the dark’, just as wemight speak of ‘seeing a mountain in the light of day’. That is, ‘using one’s handsand eyes’ is like someone in the night reaching behind himself, his hand gropingfor a pillow. We need to investigate ‘using one’s hands and eyes’ on this basis. Andwe need to examine ‘in the night’ from the perspective of ‘in the light of day’, as

Shōbōgenzō: On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion 462Ungan’s words, “I get it, I get it!” are not saying, “I understand Dōgo’swords.” It is an “I get It, I get It!” in relation to his having made a statement aboutthe hands and eyes that That Which Is makes use of, which will be Its making freeuse of the here and now, and Its having free entry into this present day.Although Dōgo’s expression, “What did you get?” is another way of hissaying, “I’ve gotten It,” it is one which does not stand against Ungan’s “I get It.”Even so, Dōgo had his own way of putting “What did you get,” a way that means“I’ve got It and you’ve got It.” Would this not be equivalent to “Our eyes get It andour hands get It?” Is it referring to an understanding that has emerged or to anunderstanding that has not yet emerged? While the understanding implied by “I getit” is synonymous with the ‘I’, you need to consider that there is a ‘you’ in “Whatdid you get?”What has come forth as a result of Ungan’s statement, “His whole body ishands and eyes,” is a plethora of Kannons who, in speaking of ‘someone in thenight reaching behind himself, his hand groping for his pillow’, are exploring it bystating that one’s whole body is nothing but hands and eyes. These Kannons indeedare Kannons, even though They have not yet been able to put it into Their ownwords. When Ungan said, “His whole body is hands and eyes,” he was not sayingthat hands and eyes are the Dharma Body which exists everywhere. Even thougheverywhere is the whole universe, the hands and eyes of our body at this instantwill not be the Everywhere that is everywhere. Even though the hands and eyes ofour body can perform the meritorious actions of the Everywhere, they cannot bethe hands and eyes that leave the marketplace with stolen goods. The meritoriousactivities of hands and eyes will be beyond the sort of seeing, behaving, andexpressing that judges rightness. These hands and eyes are already described asbeing ‘ever so many’, so they are beyond a thousand, beyond ten thousand, beyondeighty-four thousand, and beyond the immeasurable and the unbounded. Not onlyis it like the whole body being hands and eyes, it is also like giving voice to theDharma in order to rescue sentient beings, and like letting loose the Lightthroughout the nations. Therefore, you should explore through your training that itmust be, as Ungan put it, that your whole body is hands and eyes. So, even thoughhe says to use your whole body as hands and eyes, and even though he says tochange your demeanor, now being active, now resting, do not let yourself bedisturbed by this.Dōgo replied, “What you have said is very well put. Still, itonly expresses eighty or ninety percent of the Matter.”

Shōbōgenzō: On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion 463The main point of what Dōgo said here is that Ungan’s expression is very well put.‘Putting it very well’ means that what one says hits the mark and that it clarifies theMatter, with nothing left unexpressed. When what has not been expressed before isnow finally expressed so that nothing remains that has not been expressed, it willstill only be expressing eighty or ninety percent of the Matter.Even if your exploration of the intent behind what Ungan said were onehundred percent, if you are still unable to put It in words, then your have notthoroughly explored the Matter. And even if Ungan’s way of putting It was eightyor ninety percent of the Matter, it was still his expression of It, which might beeighty or ninety percent on the mark or one hundred percent on the mark. At thatvery moment in time, Ungan might have stated the Matter through hundreds ofthousands of myriad expressions, but his abilities were so wondrous that he offeredonly a bit of his abilities and expressed a bare eighty or ninety percent of theMatter. For instance, even if he had had hundreds of thousands of myriad abilitiesto bring forth the whole universe, what he actually said would surpass his leavingthe Matter unsaid. At the same time, were he to take up just one of his abilities, itwould not be an ordinary, worldly-wise ability. The meaning of this eighty orninety percent is like this. Even so, when people hear the statement by an Ancestorof the Buddha that someone has expressed eighty or ninety percent of the Matter,they understand it to mean that it is only eighty or ninety percent because it doesnot come up to an expression that would be a hundred percent of the Matter. If theBuddha Dharma were like this, It would not have reached us today. You need toexplore through your training that the so-called ‘eighty or ninety percent’ is aneighty or ninety percent of ‘hundreds of thousands’, as if we were speaking of‘ever so many’. Dōgo had already stated ‘eighty or ninety percent of It’ and hecertainly knew that It must not be confined to a literal eighty or ninety percent. Weneed to explore through our training that this is the way that the Ancestors of theBuddha speak.When Ungan said, “So much for the likes of me. How about you, my elderbrother in the Dharma, what do you make of it?” he said “so much for the likes ofme” because he wanted Dōgo to put into words what he called ‘only expressingeighty or ninety percent of the Matter.’ Although this is his ‘not leaving any tracesbehind’, it is also ‘his arms being long and his sleeves being short’. 3 “While I have3. Another way of expressing this is that, although his words leave no karmic wake (notleaving any traces behind), his intention in asking the question is obvious (his arms stickingout from his sleeves).

Shōbōgenzō: On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion 464not yet exhausted the ways of saying what I have just said, I leave the matter as itis” is not what his expression “So much for the likes of me” means.Dōgo said, “His whole being, through and through, is hands andeyes.”These words of his are not saying that hands and eyes, as independent entities, arewhat one’s whole being is through and through. What he is saying is that one’swhole being, through and through, is hands and eyes. As a consequence, he is notsaying that one’s body is what hands and eyes are. Since ‘with His ever so manyhands and eyes’ means ‘using His hands and using His eyes’, 4 His hands and eyesare, of necessity, the whole of Him being hands and eyes, through and through. Inasking, “What does He do with His ever so many bodies and minds?” there will bethe response, “His whole being, through and through, is whatever He is doing.”What is more, it is not the case that Ungan’s expression, ‘whole body,’ is not quitecomplete whereas Dōgo’s expression, ‘whole being, through and through,’ isthoroughly complete. Ungan’s ‘whole body’ and Dōgo’s ‘whole being, through andthrough’ are not open to any discussion of their comparative value, and the ‘ever somany hands and eyes’ that was stated by each of them is an expression of ThatWhich Is.Thus, the Kannon of whom our old Master Shakyamuni spoke only had athousand hands and eyes, or twelve faces, or thirty-three bodies or eighty-fourthousand bodies. The Kannon of Ungan and Dōgo had ever so many hands andeyes and is beyond any talk about quantities. When you explore through yourtraining the Kannon of Ungan and Dōgo, which has ever so many hands and eyes,then you, together with all Buddhas, will realize eighty or ninety percent ofKannon’s meditative state.Given on the twenty-sixth day of the fourth lunar month in the third year of the Ninji era (May27, 1242).4. The Chinese character, read as yō in Japanese, when functioning as a preposition means‘with’, and when functioning as a verb, means ‘to use’.

Shōbōgenzō: On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion 465❀ ❀ ❀Now, since the Buddha Dharma has come from the West, many Ancestors ofthe Buddha have spoken about Kannon, but they have not equaled Ungan andDōgo, and for that reason, I spoke only about this Kannon of theirs. As YōkaGenkaku said in his poem, “The Song That Attests to the Way”:Not stuck on seeing just one single thing: this we callbeing a Tathagata;Such a one can be called a Kanjizai, one who regards allthings just as they are.This is evidence that even though the Tathagata and Kannon manifest in Theirparticular bodily forms, They are not separate beings.And there was also an exchange between Mayoku and Rinzai concerning thetrue Hands and Eyes. 5 These are just a couple of cases among ever so many. Thereis Ummon’s statement, “There are the Kannons who, upon seeing the forms ofthings, clarify Their minds, or who, upon hearing the sounds of things, awaken tothe Way.” What sights and sounds are not encompassed within KanzeonBodhisattva’s seeing and hearing? And in Hyakujō’s words, “There is His gatewayfor entering into the Truth.” Among the assembly in the Shurangama Scripture,there are the Kannons who have fully realized the Way. And among the assemblyin the Lotus Scripture, there is the Kannon who manifests everywhere. All theseKannons are identical with the Buddhas and They are identical with the great earthwith its mountains and rivers. Yet, at the same time, They are but one or two of theever so many hands and eyes.Copied by me on the tenth day of midsummer in the third year of the Ninji era (June 9, 1242).Ejō5. This exchange is recounted in the Translator’s Addendum immediately following thisdiscourse.

Shōbōgenzō: On Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion 466❀ ❀ ❀Translator’s Addendum fromBook 3, Kōan 44 of Dōgen’s Chinese Shinji ShōbōgenzōOnce while Mayoku Hōtetsu was training in Rinzai’s community, he askedRinzai, “Which is the true Eye of the Compassionate One with a Thousand Handsand Eyes?”Rinzai replied, “Which is the true Eye of the Compassionate One with aThousand Hands and Eyes? Well, quick, you tell me! Speak right up!”Thereupon, Mayoku pulled Rinzai down off his chief monk’s seat in theMeditation Hall and sat himself down in Rinzai’s place.Rinzai got up off the floor and said, “Well, how do you do!” Mayoku wasabout to respond, when Rinzai suddenly gave out a Zen shout, pulled Mayoku offthe chief monk’s seat, and sat back down on it.Mayoku got up off the floor and [since he had been bested] left the hall.