Hoko's key messages about shusho itto in the Sanshin style

Like bussho, this theme is the result of Dogen’s Great Doubt, the question that drove him to practice with a number of teachers and finally leave Japan for China.  Again, his question is:  if all sentient beings without exception have buddha nature, why do we need to practice?  While practicing with his teacher in China, he saw that practice and awakening aren’t two separate things.  We don’t practice to become Buddha, we practice because we are Buddha.

The elements of the eightfold path are grouped together in three categories: prajna (wisdom), sila (ethics) and samadhi (concentration or, for us, zazen or shikantaza).  Prior to Dogen, sila or an ethical life was a prerequisite for samadi, and samadhi or concentration was a prerequisite for prajna or wisdom.  First you established a moral life, then you started a sitting practice, and then you acquired wisdom.

Dogen says prajna is the basis for everything.  Without prajna we don’t know how to make right effort and we don’t have any desire to do zazen, because zazen is simply a manifestation of prajna.  Thus practice and awakening aren’t just separate beads on linear string, with each thing leading to the next thing.  In the Bendowa he says, "Thinking that practice and enlightenment are not one is no more than a view that is outside the Way.  In Buddhism, practice and enlightenment are one and the same.  Because it is the practice of enlightenment, a beginner’s wholehearted practice of the Way is exactly the totality of original enlightenment.  For this reason, in conveying the essential attitude for practice, it is taught not to wait for enlightenment outside practice."

(As an aside, Dogen also says that because everything arises from wisdom or awakening, imposing a set of precepts on ourselves as something from the outside doesn’t make sense.  They arise naturally from awakening as a description of bodhisattva life rather than being a set of rules about things we shouldn’t be doing or have to keep ourselves from doing.)

We’re not doing zazen or any other practice in order to get something called awakening at some time in the future.  As we say in this dharma family, zazen is good for nothing.  Not only is there no reward “out there” for zazen, zazen is good, period.  Awakening is good, period.  It doesn’t need to be good “for something.”  It’s not a tool for human beings.  It’s bigger than human beings.

We’re doing zazen because it’s the expression or realization of awakening that’s already present.  Practice is complete as it is in this moment.  When he gives us instructions for our practice, Dogen isn’t giving us a formula for acquiring awakening.  He’s describing how practice and awakening are the same thing.

Because practice is the manifestation of awakening, you have to practice all the time.  There is no awakening outside of practice (activity).  It's not a state that exists out there waiting for you to enter it, just as there is no sesshin without practitioners.  We can have a concept of sesshin, but if no one shows up it’s not realized and it doesn’t exist in the world.  Emptiness is the emptiness of all things; without things, there would be no emptiness.  There is no Buddha nature without the things that manifest that nature; thus all beings are buddha nature.  Since there’s no awakening other than practice, as Dogen says, a Buddha is simply someone who practices Buddhahood.

From Sotoshu 

修証一等 - Shusho Itto
(Oneness and equality of practice and realization)
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Shusho Itto (修証一等) succinctly embodies Dogen Zenji’s viewpoint about practice and realization. Shu (修) means “practice” and sho (証) means “realization as the fruition of practice.”