SHEDDING LAY CLOTHING

SHEDDING LAY CLOTHING,
I VOW WITH ALL BEINGS
TO CULTIVATE ROOTS OF GOODNESS
AND ABANDON THE YOKE OF TRANSGRESSIONS[1]

This verse continues our consideration of the meaning of committing to practice. In this case, the circumstance is ordination as a novice, leaving behind one’s status as a layperson and vowing to carry the dharma and the Buddhist tradition in a formal and public way.

Before the shukke tokudo, the soon-to-be-novice bathes and puts on a white kimono, having shaved off all but a small tuft of hair at the crown of the head. It’s in this condition that he/she/they enter the hall for the ceremony, which includes receiving the koromo (black outer robe) and okesa. Much has symbolically been left behind at this point. The aspirant doesn’t come into the hall still dressed as a layperson; that image has been set aside. However, this person is not yet a novice either, and won’t appear in a new guise until the end of the ceremony.

Shedding lay clothing before the ceremony doesn’t indicate that we no longer love our families, or own our own homes, or function in the world. It means that whatever we’re physically wearing or doing, we’re wearing the robes of the clergy and carrying the practice and the dharma in the world. Naturally, we become more skillful and experienced at this the longer we study and engage in the work, and in the beginning we’re not expected to take on the same responsibilities as senior novices or transmitted teachers. Our focus in the beginning of our training is to establish a good foundation for our continued clerical development, including deepening our own practice.

In the early Buddhist tradition, four good roots were said to appear when the practitioner had reached a higher level of maturity. These are described in various ways depending on sect and school, but suffice it here to say that the longer we sincerely practice, the less likely it is that we fall back into unwholesome habits of body, speech, and mind and the more likely it is that we will deeply understand the Four Noble Truths and act skillfully in the world. Having established this solid foundation for wise, compassionate, ethical action, we become less and less hindered and constrained by the three poisons and feel less compelled to break precepts, causing suffering for ourselves and others.

The four roots of goodness are shizengon 四善根 in Japanese. Shi 四 is four, zen 善 is goodness or virtue, and gon 根 is root. (Interestingly, 根 can also indicate one’s true nature.) These virtues generally have to do with listening to teachings, particularly about the Four Noble Truths, and carrying out acts of kindness and compassion. The better we understand the nature of suffering and how it arises, the better equipped we are to deal with our own delusion and to help others deal with theirs. The wisdom of seeing emptiness and interconnectedness naturally leads us to benevolence and beneficence. While awakening is already here and there’s nothing “out there” that we need to gain through our practice, still, as ordinary humans we’re often driven by our karma rather than by our vow. Zazen, work, study, and ritual can help us see more clearly how the universe actually works and what’s really going on in this one unified reality.

How do we develop these good roots? One way is by hanging around with others who are doing the same thing. We need to be immersed in sangha and learning intellectually and non-intellectually from teachers. However, it’s not enough just to learn. We also have to do. Actually engaging in bodhisattva work plants good roots that not only liberate beings here and now but also enable us to continue our own development. It’s not the case that we need to observe for awhile, lurking on the fringes of the Buddha Way, before we can do something with this body and mind. If we’re waiting for the perfect conditions before we practice, we’ll never get there. As Maya Angelou advised, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

The Avataṃsaka Sūtra says, “There is not a single enlightening being who can ever attain even a little bit of the knowledge and wisdom of buddhas without having planted roots of goodness in the company of buddhas.” Tonen O’Connor expands on this teaching:
“Roots of goodness –the basis upon which our enlightenment rests. Without these roots, no ‘enlightenment experience’ will ever open the door to our universal self. Throughout the many previous pages of the sutra, the enlightening beings have been establishing their roots of goodness through every imaginable action, as well as a few beyond the reach of human imagination, to help sentient beings realize the truth that brings peace and contentment.

“The deeper those roots of goodness are, the greater our ability to help the beings whose lives are inextricably bound to ours. Indeed, it is a wonderful circle, for the roots of goodness themselves grow deeper through our actions to help others. To be in the company of buddhas is to act as they have and as they do, and to honor and learn from the teachings they have left us.”

Of course, engaging in zazen is also vital to establishing good roots. It’s there that we come to realize the nature of the universe as nonduality, and in that moment we liberate ourselves and all beings. On the basis of our wisdom and compassion, we can see the suffering of beings and act skillfully for and with them. Menzan Zuihō wrote in Jijuyu Zanmai, “In the Shōdōka we find the expression, ‘Being aware of reality, there is neither subject nor object, and we are immediately released from the karma of the hell of incessant suffering.’ When you sit in this samadhi, you will enter directly into the realm of the Tathagata. Therefore, this samadhi is endowed with the limitless virtue of the roots of goodness, and the limitless obstructions of one’s evil deeds caused by evil karma will disappear without a trace. As this samadhi is truly the incomparable, great Dharma-wheel, and the practice of ever going beyond buddhahood, it is beyond words and discriminating thoughts.”

Traditionally, the way to cultivate good roots was to devote oneself entirely to studying the dharma and practicing the Way. Thus, this gate associates shedding lay clothing—leaving behind the responsibilities of being a householder and caring for family, fields, business and society—with a wholehearted commitment to practice. Another way to look at this, however, is to see shedding lay clothing as putting aside our habitual focus on satisfying our greed, indulging our anger, and remaining ignorant of things we don’t want to see. We make a shift from setting up conditions that result in worldly benefits—material gain, an impressive reputation, victories over rivals—to setting up conditions that result in moving ourselves and others toward understanding the Four Noble Truths and cause and effect. Worldly benefits may still arrive, but achieving them is not our goal or focus. We’ve redirected ourselves away from self-clinging and toward embracing all beings.

We can all be bodhisattvas in the world regardless of social role or karmic circumstances. Becoming a novice and training to be clergy is one way to carry out vows, but there are others. No one is left out of the opportunity and obligation to repent of our misdeeds and reorient ourselves toward Buddha, dharma, and sangha. There’s a place for everyone in the universal network of giving and receiving, whether or not we’re aware of it or participating in an intentional way. In that way, the roots of goodness are planted without regard to the small self and what it aspires to do.

Nonetheless, how much more good can be done in the world if we’re thoughtful about making space in our lives not only to act with kindness, but to learn from that action. The results of that activity are bigger than simply meeting a recipient’s immediate need for help or care. In the longer term, we’re setting up habits of paying attention, giving up clinging to things or self-image, and recognizing interconnectedness.
Dōgen provided us with not four but eight roots of goodness in his Hachidainingaku (Eight Qualities of a Great Person). These are concrete activities that we can put into practice today in our effort to develop a foundation for our practice and cultivate skillful action.

Shoyoku 少欲: having few desires
Chisoku 知足: knowing satisfaction
Gyojakujo 楽寂浄: enjoying serenity or seclusion
Gonshojin 勤精進: making diligent effort
Fumonen 不忘念: not losing mindfulness
Shuzenjo 修禅定: practicing samadhi
Shuchie 修智慧: practicing wisdom
Fukeron 不戯論: avoiding idle discussion[2]

These in turn are taken from the Sutra of the Buddha’s Last Teachings (Yuikyōgyō). Dōgen put them in front of us in his final writing because he was concerned that these roots were no longer being cultivated:
“Few have laid deep roots in carrying out good because they have neither heard about these qualities nor seen them in action. In the past, during the time when the correct dharma was practiced or later when it was at least heard, those disciples of the Buddha learned and manifested these qualities (through their practice.) But today, only one or two out of a thousand monks know of these eight qualities.”[3]

He seems to be strengthening the case for practicing with a sangha and paying attention to teachers and mature practitioners as examples of listening to dharma teachings and taking bodhisattva action. Dōgen goes on to lament that so few people were making the commitment to leave worldly affairs behind and take advantage of the incomparable opportunity of hearing Buddha’s teachings and putting them into practice. He concludes,  “There are those who died before the Buddha entered nirvana. Unfortunately, they were never able to hear about these eight qualities nor learn or practice them. Today, we have had the good fortune to be able to hear this teaching and practice it, thanks to the roots of goodness that were planted in previous lives. Therefore, it is critical for us to study and practice [these qualities], to expand their merit in each successive life, to realize deepest wisdom; and, finally, just as the Buddha did, to expound that teaching for all sentient beings.”

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Next time:
WHEN SHAVING OFF MY HAIR,
I VOW WITH ALL BEINGS
TO FOREVER DIVORCE ALL AFFLICTIONS
AND PASS ON TO ULTIMATE TRANQUILITY.

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Notes:
[1] Translations are based upon Thomas Cleary’s translation of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, and have been recast by Hoko in the form of standard Sōtōshū gāthās.
[2] See Okumura Rōshi’s discussion of Hachidainigaku at https://dogeninstitute.wordpress.com/2025/02/23/eight-aspects-of-the-awakening-of-great-beings/
[3] Kōshō Uchiyama and Eihei Dōgen. The Roots of Goodness: Zen Master Dōgen’s Teaching on the Eight Qualities of a Great Person. United Kingdom, Shambhala, 2025, p. 32.