Hoko's key messages about igisoku buppo
Since we know that one of the two things Dogen wanted to bring to Japan from China was the monastic container, its not surprising that he had something to say about deportment, both from the point of view of daily specifics and from the point of view of absolute reality. We also need to remember the context for his writings about deportment. He was pretty unimpressed by the laxity he saw around him in other temples that were full of men who had become monks looking for free food and an easy life, and thus he established high standards for moral behavior and serious dedication to practice so that his temple was actually able to embody the practice he learned in China, to carry it out and pass it on.
Dogen provided detailed instructions on how to carry out daily tasks and practices and how to behave in various situations with various people. How we conduct ourselves when walking down the hall or brushing our teeth is just as important as how we conduct ourselves during zazen. It’s not that the world will end if we don’t fold the hand towel over the left arm and use one half to wipe the face and the other half to wipe the hands; it’s that each of our daily activities is nothing other than zazen and a complete manifestation of buddha nature. Dogen says that awakening is nothing other than eating rice and drinking tea.
Thus the content of our deportment, if you will—what we’re actually doing or saying or creating—is less important than the enactment of buddha nature itself. It’s the unhindered functioning rather than the specifics of the activity or the outcome of the activity. It’s enactment rather than attainment: the conduct of the dharma talk or the chanting rather than what gets said, the cooking rather than the meal, the washing rather than the clean dishes.
By emulating the conduct of buddhas and ancestors and senior practitioners, we learn with the body. It’s a way of entering into that space of awakening with them by taking on the characteristics of an awakened being. At first we may be intentionally conducting ourselves the way they do, but at some point our deportment becomes an expression of our own awakening. Emulating the conduct of buddhas and ancestors means whether we’re sitting, standing, walking or lying down, we’re acting skillfully, promoting wholesomeness and discouraging unwholesomeness. Dogen tells us several times in the Zuimonki that if we want to practice the Way, we should conduct ourselves the way they do without any expectation of gain or reward.
This is another aspect of "practice and awakening are not two." We’re not practicing to get something later that isn’t here now, and from this larger standpoint, we’re not minding our manners in order to avoid showing disrespect. Our deportment is completely Buddha living out life of Buddha, not something we do for sake of anything else. “The way for the sake of the way” is why late in his life Dogen favors monasticism over lay life, not that laypeople in themselves are incapable. The temple container reinforces our commitment to deportment. All the energy goes into practice rather than being diverted to family, work, and home responsibilities. It's not a comment on the people but on the practice circumstance: temple life is the ideal because there are expectations for our conduct that are reflected back to us by the sangha.
This is a teaching that encourages us to ask ourselves who it is that’s practicing dignified deportment. Is there a “me” in here that’s sitting up straight and keeping my robes off the floor and not chewing gum in the zendo?
If you are already buddha, if you’re not trying to get something, then how do you act? How do you function in this moment—not in the abstract, but with what you’re doing with your body and mind right now? How you walk through a room, handle objects, talk to people -- how does a buddha do that? Am I just doing things to go through the motions, without really investigating what’s happening? Or to shore up my ego? Going through the motions is not Dogen’s kind of practice. If awakening is continuous functioning and encountering the suchness of each thing with our most authentic self, then no wonder he tells us to practice as though our heads were on fire. We need to know what we’re doing and why, and that’s still alive here in Sanshin style, where we keep forms simple so we know what we’re doing and why rather than going through the motions of ceremonies or activities as a performance just because they’re expected.
If we’re paying attention, we’re conducting ourselves as buddha in each moment. Every moment is an opportunity to manifest buddha nature with some intention, so carelessly slouching along with our robes on crooked and a toothpick hanging out of the mouth really misses the mark. It’s not the dignified practice conduct of buddhas and ancestors.
Dogen provided detailed instructions on how to carry out daily tasks and practices and how to behave in various situations with various people. How we conduct ourselves when walking down the hall or brushing our teeth is just as important as how we conduct ourselves during zazen. It’s not that the world will end if we don’t fold the hand towel over the left arm and use one half to wipe the face and the other half to wipe the hands; it’s that each of our daily activities is nothing other than zazen and a complete manifestation of buddha nature. Dogen says that awakening is nothing other than eating rice and drinking tea.
Thus the content of our deportment, if you will—what we’re actually doing or saying or creating—is less important than the enactment of buddha nature itself. It’s the unhindered functioning rather than the specifics of the activity or the outcome of the activity. It’s enactment rather than attainment: the conduct of the dharma talk or the chanting rather than what gets said, the cooking rather than the meal, the washing rather than the clean dishes.
By emulating the conduct of buddhas and ancestors and senior practitioners, we learn with the body. It’s a way of entering into that space of awakening with them by taking on the characteristics of an awakened being. At first we may be intentionally conducting ourselves the way they do, but at some point our deportment becomes an expression of our own awakening. Emulating the conduct of buddhas and ancestors means whether we’re sitting, standing, walking or lying down, we’re acting skillfully, promoting wholesomeness and discouraging unwholesomeness. Dogen tells us several times in the Zuimonki that if we want to practice the Way, we should conduct ourselves the way they do without any expectation of gain or reward.
This is another aspect of "practice and awakening are not two." We’re not practicing to get something later that isn’t here now, and from this larger standpoint, we’re not minding our manners in order to avoid showing disrespect. Our deportment is completely Buddha living out life of Buddha, not something we do for sake of anything else. “The way for the sake of the way” is why late in his life Dogen favors monasticism over lay life, not that laypeople in themselves are incapable. The temple container reinforces our commitment to deportment. All the energy goes into practice rather than being diverted to family, work, and home responsibilities. It's not a comment on the people but on the practice circumstance: temple life is the ideal because there are expectations for our conduct that are reflected back to us by the sangha.
This is a teaching that encourages us to ask ourselves who it is that’s practicing dignified deportment. Is there a “me” in here that’s sitting up straight and keeping my robes off the floor and not chewing gum in the zendo?
If you are already buddha, if you’re not trying to get something, then how do you act? How do you function in this moment—not in the abstract, but with what you’re doing with your body and mind right now? How you walk through a room, handle objects, talk to people -- how does a buddha do that? Am I just doing things to go through the motions, without really investigating what’s happening? Or to shore up my ego? Going through the motions is not Dogen’s kind of practice. If awakening is continuous functioning and encountering the suchness of each thing with our most authentic self, then no wonder he tells us to practice as though our heads were on fire. We need to know what we’re doing and why, and that’s still alive here in Sanshin style, where we keep forms simple so we know what we’re doing and why rather than going through the motions of ceremonies or activities as a performance just because they’re expected.
If we’re paying attention, we’re conducting ourselves as buddha in each moment. Every moment is an opportunity to manifest buddha nature with some intention, so carelessly slouching along with our robes on crooked and a toothpick hanging out of the mouth really misses the mark. It’s not the dignified practice conduct of buddhas and ancestors.
