Hoko's key messages about ippo-gujin
Ippo-gujin, or total exertion, sounds like an insistence that we should practice and train as hard as we can all the time, but it’s actually about something else. Dogen’s total exertion is another aspect of universal functioning. It’s happening whether we’re aware of it or not, and it's less about our individual determination as practitioners to practice in every moment; it’s about the universe completely doing what the universe does in every moment.
The “total” in total exertion means nondual. There’s no subject separate from an object, no gap between a person or being or something and the activity that’s being carried out. There’s no "me" "doing zazen" or "me" "mending my socks" or "me" "cooking dinner." There’s just zazen or mending or cooking.
This interpenetration is not just between sentient beings and activities, it’s true of all dharmas. Everything is unique and individual, with individual characteristics and a particular dharma position. At the same time, nothing is cut off from anything else. Since nothing exists separate from anything else, nothing opposes or obstructs anything else. When everything is completely carrying out its function and living out its life, completely interpenetrated with everything else, then there is only one thing in the entire universe. There is one unified reality and it always functions harmoniously. If we don’t think so, then we need to investigate our view of reality and see how five skandhas are clinging to five skandhas.
Dogen says if we don’t apply human standards to what we see, then we can see things like mountains flowing. Our view might be deluded, but the things we encounter are not defiled and not limited. They are exerting themselves totally, without obstruction or hindrances. What’s manifesting right in front of us is this complete universal functioning. As Dogen says in Shobogenzo Gabyo, "The 'total experience of a single thing' does not deprive a think of its own unique particularity. It places a thing neither against others nor against none. To place a think against none is another form of dualistic obstruction. When total experience is realized unobstructively, the total experience of a single thing is the same as the total experience of all things."
The “total” in total exertion means nondual. There’s no subject separate from an object, no gap between a person or being or something and the activity that’s being carried out. There’s no "me" "doing zazen" or "me" "mending my socks" or "me" "cooking dinner." There’s just zazen or mending or cooking.
This interpenetration is not just between sentient beings and activities, it’s true of all dharmas. Everything is unique and individual, with individual characteristics and a particular dharma position. At the same time, nothing is cut off from anything else. Since nothing exists separate from anything else, nothing opposes or obstructs anything else. When everything is completely carrying out its function and living out its life, completely interpenetrated with everything else, then there is only one thing in the entire universe. There is one unified reality and it always functions harmoniously. If we don’t think so, then we need to investigate our view of reality and see how five skandhas are clinging to five skandhas.
Dogen says if we don’t apply human standards to what we see, then we can see things like mountains flowing. Our view might be deluded, but the things we encounter are not defiled and not limited. They are exerting themselves totally, without obstruction or hindrances. What’s manifesting right in front of us is this complete universal functioning. As Dogen says in Shobogenzo Gabyo, "The 'total experience of a single thing' does not deprive a think of its own unique particularity. It places a thing neither against others nor against none. To place a think against none is another form of dualistic obstruction. When total experience is realized unobstructively, the total experience of a single thing is the same as the total experience of all things."
