The Record of Transmitting the Light

Zen Master Keizan's Denkoroku

Francis Dojun Cook

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780861713301
• eBook ISBN: 9780861717552
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

The Record of Transmitting the Light traces the inheritance of the Buddha's enlightenment through successive Buddhist masters. Written by a seminal figure in the Japanese Zen tradition, its significance as an historical and religious document is unquestionable. And ultimately, The Record of Transmitting the Light serves as a testament to our own capacity to awaken to a life of freedom, wisdom, and compassion. Readers of Zen will also find the introduction and translation by Francis Dojun Cook, the scholar whose insights brought Zen Master Dogen to life in How to Raise an Ox, of great value.

THE RECORD OF
TRANSMITTING
THE LIGHT

SHAKYAMUNI

Case

Shakyamuni Buddha saw the morning star and was enlightened, and he said, “I and the great earth and beings simultaneously achieve the Way.”

Circumstances

Shakyamuni Buddha was of the Sun Race in India.¹ At the age of nineteen he leaped over the palace walls in the dead of night, and at Mount Dantaloka, he cut off his hair. Subsequently, he practiced austerities for six years. Later, he sat on the Adamantine Seat, where spiders spun webs in his eyebrows and magpies built a nest on top of his head. Reeds grew up between his legs as he sat tranquilly and erect without movement for six years. At the age of thirty, on the eighth day of the twelfth month, as the morning star appeared, he was suddenly enlightened. These words [in the above case] are his very first lion’s roar.

From that time on, for forty-nine years, he did not spend a day alone but preached the Dharma for the assembly constantly. He was never without a robe and begging bowl. During that time, he preached to the assembly more than three hundred sixty times. Later, he transmitted the Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma to Mahakashyapa, and it has been passed down from Mahakashyapa through generation after generation to the present. Truly, it has been transmitted through India, China, and Japan, where the practice of the True Dharma is based on it.

The practices of his lifetime are the standard for his descendants. Even though he possessed the thirty-two marks and eighty minor marks,² he certainly looked like an ordinary old monk and was no different from other people. Therefore, after his appearance in the world, throughout the three times of the True Dharma, Counterfeit Dharma, and the present Collapsed Dharma,³ those who emulate his teaching and conduct model themselves on his deportment, use what he used, and each moment, while walking about, standing in place, sitting, or lying down, do as the Buddha did. Buddha after Buddha, and patriarch after patriarch have simply transmitted this so that the True Dharma is not extinguished, and this event clearly indicates this. Even though the method of expression—various stories, figures of speech, and words—was different on the more than three hundred sixty occasions during the forty-nine years, they are nothing more than the expression of this principle.

Teisho

The so-called I [in the main case] is not Shakyamuni Buddha, and Shakyamuni Buddha also comes from this “I.” Not only does Shakyamuni come from it but the great earth and beings also come from it. Just as when a large net is taken up and all the many openings of the net are also taken up, when Shakyamuni Buddha was enlightened, the great earth and all beings were enlightened. Not just the great earth and beings but all the Buddhas of the past, future, and present were also enlightened.

Since this is so, do not think that it was just Shakyamuni Buddha who was enlightened. You must not see any Shakyamuni Buddha apart from the great earth and beings. Even though mountains, rivers, and their myriad forms flourish in great abundance, none are left out of the pupil of Gotama’s eye. All of you here are also established in the pupil of Gotama’s eye. Not only are you established in it but, rather, it is enfolded within you. Also, the pupil of Gotama’s eye becomes the fleshly body; it becomes the whole body of each person, standing like an eighty-thousand-foot precipice in each. Therefore, do not think that from the past to the present there was an eye’s bright pupil and distinct people. You are the pupil of Gotama’s eye; Gotama is the entirety of each of you.

If this is the way it is, what do you call this principle of enlightenment? Let me ask you, monks, does Gotama become enlightened with you, or do you become enlightened with Gotama?⁴ If you say that you become enlightened with Gotama, or that Gotama becomes enlightened with you, this is not Gotama’s enlightenment. Therefore, this is not the principle of enlightenment.

If you want an intimate understanding of enlightenment, you should get rid of “you” and “Gotama” at once and quickly understand this matter of “I.” “I” is the great earth and beings as “and.” “And” is not “I” as the old fellow Gotama. Examine carefully, deliberate carefully, and clarify this “I” and this “and.” Even if you clarify the meaning of “I,” but you fail to clarify “and,” you lose the discerning eye.

This being so, “I” and “and” are neither identical nor different. Truthfully, your skin, flesh, bones, and marrow are totally “and.” The “Lord of the House” is “I.” It has nothing to do with skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, nor has it anything to do with the four elements or the five aggregates. Ultimately, if you wish to know the “Undying Person in the Hermitage,” how could it be something separate from this present skin bag? Thus, do not think of it as the great earth and beings.

Although the seasons change and the mountains, rivers, and great earth are different over time, you should realize that because this is the old fellow Gotama raising his eyebrows and blinking his eyes, all this is that body standing independently and openly within the myriad things. It brushes aside the myriad things and does not brush aside the myriad things. [Zen Master] Fayan said, “You cannot say whether it brushes aside or does not brush aside.”⁵ [Zen Master] Dizang said, “What do you mean by ‘myriad things’?”⁶

Therefore, practice fully and sufficiently, develop full mastery, and clarify both Gotama’s enlightenment and your own as well. You should figure it out by inspecting this case in detail. Let the answer flow from your heart without borrowing the words of former Buddhas or contemporaries. On the next day set aside for explanations, I want you to present your understanding with a decisive word.

Verse

This mountain monk would like to say a few humble words about this case. Would you like to listen?

A splendid branch issues from the old plum tree;

At the same time, obstructing thorns flourish everywhere.

MAHAKASHYAPA

Case

The first patriarch was Mahakashyapa. Once, the World-honored One held up a flower and blinked. Kashyapa smiled. The World-honored One said, “I have the Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma and Wondrous Mind of Nirvana, and I transmit it to Mahakashyapa.”⁷

Circumstances

The Venerable Mahakashyapa’s family was Brahmin.⁸ In India, he was called “Kashyapa,” which in our country means “Most Venerable Light Drinker.” When the Venerable One was born, a golden light filled the room and all of it entered his mouth. Therefore, he was called “Light Drinker.” His body had a golden color, as well as thirty marks, lacking only the protuberance on top of his head and the tuft of white hairs between his eyebrows.⁹

He met the World-honored One in front of the Stupa of Many Children. When the World-honored One said, “Welcome, mendicant,” his hair fell off as a result, he shed his earthly body, and he was [miraculously] clothed in the robes of a monk. Also, he was entrusted with the Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma [by the Buddha]. He practiced the twelve austerities and never vainly wasted his time during the night or day. Seeing his emaciated body and uncouth clothing, the whole community of monks was struck with wonder. As a result, when the Buddha preached the Dharma, he shared his seat at each assembly with Kashyapa. From then on Kashyapa was the senior among the monks. Not only was he the senior monk at the assemblies of Shakyamuni but he was also the nonregressing senior monk among the assemblies of all past Buddhas.¹⁰ You should know that he was an old Buddha and not think that he was simply one of the Buddha’s ordinary disciples.

Also, before an assembly of eighty thousand monks on Mount Grdhrakuta, the World-honored One held up a flower and blinked. None of the assembly understood his mind, and they remained silent. Mahakashyapa alone smiled. The World-honored One said, “I have the Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma and Wondrous Mind of Nirvana, the Complete Pure Markless Teaching, and I transmit it completely to Mahakashyapa.”

Teisho

The so-called holding up a flower of that time has been intimately transmitted from patriarch to patriarch. It has not been indiscriminately transmitted to outsiders. Therefore, it has not been understood by teachers of the scriptures and treatises or even by many meditation teachers. In truth, they did not understand its true meaning. Be that as it may, this koan is not the koan of the assembly at Mount Grdhrakuta but rather the words transmitted at the Stupa of Many Children. It is not a matter of what was said on Mount Grdhrakuta, as claimed by the Chuan Deng Lu,¹¹ the Bu Deng Lu, and others. When the Buddhadharma was transmitted the very first time [to Mahakashyapa] there was this kind of etiquette.

If you are not a patriarchal teacher who transmits the seal of Buddha Mind, you do not understand the occasion of his holding up the flower, nor do you understand [the spirit of] his holding up the flower. You must meticulously study and carefully experience it. Understand that Kashyapa is Kashyapa and clarify that Shakyamuni is Shakyamuni, and separately transmit the perfectly pure Way.

Put aside for a while the holding up of the flower and clarify the blinking. There is not a hair’s breadth of difference between your ordinary lifting your eyebrows and blinking, and Gotama’s holding up of the flower. There is not a hair’s breadth of difference between your speaking and smiling and Mahakashyapa’s breaking into a smile. However, if you do not know who it was who raised his eyebrows and blinked, then Shakyamuni and Mahakashyapa are in India, and skin, flesh, bones, and marrow are within you. So many flowers in your eyes, so much floating dust! You have not yet been liberated for countless eons, and for eons to come you will be ruined.

If only once you thoroughly know the Lord,¹² then Mahakashyapa will be able to move his toes in your sandals. Don’t you know that Gotama completely vanished when he raised his eyebrows and blinked, and that Kashyapa was enlightened when he smiled? Isn’t it our own, then? The Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma has been completely transmitted to yourselves. Therefore, it cannot be called Kashyapa or Shakyamuni.

Never presenting this Dharma to others, never receiving the Dharma from another—this is called the True Law. In order to indicate that, [the Buddha] held up a flower and showed that it was unchanging. [Kashyapa] smiled to show that it was eternal. In this way, Shakyamuni and Mahakashyapa became acquainted and their life pulses intermingled. Perfectly pure complete understanding is not involved with the ordinary discriminating mind, so [Mahakashyapa] sat in meditation and cut out the root of thought. He entered Mount Kukkutapada, where he awaits the future appearance of Maitreya. Even now, Mahakashyapa has not entered nirvana.

Monks, if you intimately study the Way and investigate carefully, not only is Mahakashyapa not extinct but Shakyamuni abides eternally. Therefore, [the Wondrous Mind of Nirvana], which has been directly indicated and intimately transmitted before you were born, has burgeoned and spread everywhere from antiquity to the present. Monks, do not yearn for the antiquity of two thousand years ago. If you just urgently practice the Way today, Kashyapa has not yet entered Mount Kukkutapada but can appear in Japan, Shakyamuni’s fleshly body will be warm right now, and Kashyapa’s smile will be new again.

If you can reach this place, then you will be a successor to Kashyapa, and Kashyapa will receive [the True Law] from you. Not only does it come down to you from the seven [past] Buddhas, but you will be able to be the patriarchal teacher of the seven Buddhas. Beginningless and endless, annihilating past and present, here is the abiding place of the entrusting of the Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma.

For this reason, Shakyamuni also received the transmission from Kashyapa, who dwells now in the Heaven of the Satisfied,¹³ and you also abide in the assembly of Mount Grdhrakuta unchanging. Are you not familiar with the expression [by Shakyamuni, in the Lotus Sutra], “I always abide on Mount Grdhrakuta and other places, and at the time of the great conflagration [at the end of the world], my land is peaceful and calm, filled with celestials and humans”?¹⁴ Mount Grdhrakuta is not the only abode [of the Dharma]. How could India, China, and Japan be excluded? The Tathagata’s True Dharma is transmitted and not so much as a hair of it is lost.

If this is so, this assembly [here] must be the assembly of Mount Grdhrakuta, and Mount Grdhrakuta must be this assembly. On the basis of your diligence or lack of diligence, the Buddha either appears or does not appear. Today, also, if you practice the Way incessantly and master it in detail, the Venerable Shakyamuni will instantly appear. It is only because you have not clarified the self that the Venerable Shakyamuni entered nirvana in ancient times. Since you are children of the Buddha...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword by John Daido Loori
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Translation
• Introduction
• The Record of Transmitting the Light
• Guide to the Pronunciation of Pinyin Transliterations
• Alternative Transliterations and Pronunciations
• A Note about the Names of Chinese Buddhist Priests
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Copyright