Shobogenzo Shoaku-Makusa 3: There is No Wrong, So Don't Do It!

Master Dogen's chapter on 'not doing wrongs' continues with his discussion of this verse:

Don't do wrong, do right;

Then our minds become pure naturally;

This is the teaching of the buddhas.

To explain his view, Master Dogen describes two seemingly opposing viewpoints, but he then combines them in a practical synthesis. 

He says:

In regard to the wrongs which we are discussing now, among rightness, wrongness, and indifference, there is wrongness. Its essence is just non-appearance. The essence of rightness, the essence of indifference, and so on are also non-appearance, are [the state] without excess, and are real form.

This describes an objective view, a view devoid of our thoughts and values, or the view of 'materialism' as Nishijima Roshi liked to say.

The unifying or fundamental view of Buddhism, the view of 'dropping off body and mind' or dropping off thoughts and feelings in zazen practice, is that all things - everything that is happening now - is a fact, an all-inclusive reality before we separate it out into 'good', 'bad', 'right', 'wrong' etc with our thinking. So, from the point of view of the direct practice of this, these values and ideas do not appear ('non-appearence') and there is no 'excess' of these values and designations in the 'real form' of our life and experience: We can sit in an open state and just allow things to be as they are without our thinking and designating, and thereby realise 'real form'...

At the same time, at each concrete place these three properties include innumerable kinds of dharmas. In wrongs, there are similarities and differences between wrong in this world and wrong in other worlds. There are similarities and differences between former times and latter times. There are similarities and differences between wrong in the heavens above and wrong in the human world. How much greater is the difference between moral wrong, moral right, and moral indifference in Buddhism and in the secular world.

This is right and wrong looked at from the point of view of our thinking and putting values and designations on things, or 'idealism' as Nishijima Roshi called it.

Even though things are essentially free of our 'right' and 'wrong' designations, there are moral values in the world and we will encounter them and live within them, but they aren't all fixed. Such values change from place to place, across different eras, and in different situations... for example, morals change radically at times of war in a society, and what was once considered 'moral' (slavery, the 'inferiority' of women, the concept of eternal damnation in hell etc...) may now widely be considered immoral.

Buddhism too has its own morality, as expressed in the Precepts, but it looks at it from the point of view of the effectiveness of our actions in the present moment, as opposed to a good/evil moral code laid out by a prophet or a god or such...

Right and wrong are Time; Time is not right or wrong. Right and wrong are the Dharma; the Dharma is not right or wrong.

This describes a synthesis of the two previous 'thoughs and values vs no thoughts and values' views. Even though we can realise that things are basically free of our right and wrong designations, there are right and wrong actions in any given real situation, and we are required to act in the world.

The view of Buddhist practice is that we drop off right and wrong and are not bound to our thinking about them. Although the view of zazen practice is that things are essentially free of right and wrong in terms of our ideas/ideals, we have to live in the world of rights and wrongs and can do so in accordance with the view of practice, a practice which brings us into direct solidarity with all things and all people. When we're acting or practicing in that way we become one with time, in that time is no longer abstract thoughts of past, present and future. We're acting in the present free of such thoughts. At that time we can act observing both the Buddhist view of the 'non-appearence' of right and wrong (as our thinking and feelings) and the values of the groups or society we are in... Maybe we act within the values of society, or outside of them. Maybe its right to observe what we think is right or wrong and act accordingly, or maybe we have to let our thinking and feelings go and act in another way. It's up to us. Relying on our own direct practice of the fundamental unity of all things, while being mindful of the guidelines that are the Precepts, is the ultimate moral value in Buddhism.

[When] the Dharma is in balance, wrong is in balance. [When] the Dharma is in balance, right is in balance. This being so, when we learn [the supreme state of] anuttara-samyak-sa-bodhi, when we hear the teachings, do training, and experience the effect, it is profound, it is distant, and it is fine.

In practicing zazen we become more balanced and can see our right and wrong thinking and feeling for just what it is, i.e. just our own thinking and feeling and not an objective reality. We can become less reactive to our thoughts and feelings about right and wrong and act in a more responsive, and less reactive, way.

Further to this, we can develop an intuitive sense of right and wrong that is prior to our thinking, that is 'profound, distant and fine'. This last point is quite a big and interesting (and contested!) topic about human nature, that I'll look at next time.