Fukan-Zazengi 17: Real Men Don't Slay Dragons.


The conclusion of Master Dogen's zazen instructions commences with the traditional view of a human life as a great endowment, as it enables us to practice Buddhism and overcome the endless cycle of death and rebirth. However, here it has a Dogen-esque twist on it as he combines this theme with the human body itself as a 'pivotal' thing in practice -- this recalls the earlier theme of zazen as the 'vigorous route of getting the body out', or our practice of realising our body as already free and living in reality via our sitting 'dropping off body and mind'.

'Sparks that fly from flint' can be seen to be thoughts, ideas, likes and dislikes while the flint, the essential thing that gives rise to sparks, is the body - our habitual state may be to be lost in thoughts and feelings not seeing the body as already free of them...


We have already received the essential pivot which is the human body: we must never pass time in vain. We are maintaining and relying upon the pivotal essence which is the Buddha’s truth: who could wish idly to enjoy sparks [that fly] from flint?


Life is fleeting, so we should practice while we can - another traditional Buddhist observation. It's an ironic human thing that we only tend to notice the brevity of this life as we get older.

'Images and the real dragon' refers to the traditional tale of Shoko, a man who loved collecting pictures of dragons. One day an actual dragon noticed this and reckoned that Shoko would enjoy a visit from the real thing. As it was, when Skoko saw the dragon at his door he shat himself and ran far, far away... the idea here is to rely on direct practice-experience, which is directly accesible as our own sitting or actions here and now, not thoughts and grand theories of 'Buddhism' or 'emptiness' or 'enlightenment' or whatever...


What is more, the body is like a dew-drop on a blade of grass. Life passes like a flash of lightning. Suddenly it is gone. In an instant it is lost. I beseech you, noble friends in learning through experience, do not become so accustomed to images that you are dismayed by the real dragon. Devote effort to the truth which is directly accessible and straightforward. Revere people who are beyond study and without intention. Accord with the bodhi of the buddhas. Become a rightful successor to the samadhi of the patriarchs.


Master Dogen saw our own practice of 'dropping off body and mind' as the full transmission of Buddhist truth, the real essence of it. When we are dropping off body and mind we are in the same state as buddhas and buddhist ancestors across time and space, and we ourselves are then transmitting the same state together with them. We don't need to be given permission to be what we already really are from some 'spiritual' authority, we can manifest it tangibly right here and now regardless.


If you practice the state like this for a long time, you will surely become the state like this itself. The treasure-house will open naturally, and you will be free to receive and to use [its contents] as you like.


This may seem a strange statement, because Master Dogen is often associated with the idea that practice-realisation arise together and are instantaneous, so why do we need to practice 'for a long time' at all...?

A conceptual understanding of this might suggest that if we practice and realise 'it' straight away then we don't need to practice very much at all, that we 'get it' straight away, but it's precisely because 'it' (our dynamic lived reality) is not a destination nor a 'thing' but an open, ongoing experience that we have to realise it directly on an ongoing basis. We 'receive and use it' freely according to the extent that we realise in our practice and in our lives that it's already manifesting free of the 'self' that hinders it with our limited feelings and ideas, and that thereby misapprehends it as 'personal' thereby causing the suffering of an isolated, limiting self.

The Buddha's enlightenment is a state of our ongoing conduct, not a one-off event.

That's the end of this short reading of Master Dogen's Fukan-Zazengi.


We dedicate the merit of this practice to all beings. May they be happy. May they be well. May they realise great awakening.

May we realise great awakening together with all things and all beings everywhere.

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