Shobogenzo Shoaku-Makusa 7: As Good as the Instantaneous Universe!

Master Dogen goes on to discuss the nature of 'doing good', but by 'good' he means something much more fundamental and immediate and direct than theories of morality or ethics alone... 

The many kinds of right do not arise from causes and conditions and they do not vanish due to causes and conditions.

The many kinds of right happening now, that make up our whole existence now, are of a totally spontaneous nature. Our whole existence fundamentally happens instantaneously from moment to moment regardless of what causes and conditions are present.

The many kinds of right are real dharmas, but real dharmas are not many kinds of right. 

In our experience though, actions are real and have real consequences that may be right or otherwise, but ultimately our actions are beyond 'right' and 'wrong' ideation as they are real things that happen instantaneously outside the sphere of our personal or societal thoughts and values. This seems like a contradiction, but it expresses a complex nature of our reality... actions and real things in the real world are fundamentally free of the values and designations and important meanings we place upon them.

Causes and conditions, arising and vanishing, and the many kinds of right are similar in that if they are correct at the beginning, they are correct at the end.

Even so, our intention can be alligned with 'the many kinds of right', in the very broad sense of our whole existence as a 'right', when we start actions with a good intention: As mentioned previously, Buddhism has a fundamentally positive and holistic view of humanity and our whole broader reality, and through practice we can allign our selves and our actions to the fundamental goodness of reality.

The many kinds of right are 'good doing' but they are neither of the doer nor known by the doer, and they are neither of the other nor known by the other.

It may seem strange from the point of view of idealistic religions or philosophies, but Buddhism directs us towards an intuitive and spontaneous understanding of doing good - our actions in any given moment are already real in the real world, they're not thoughts or ideas or morals. All our actions are already like this, and the activity of our reality that supports our life is already like this. When we see our actions as part of this broader understanding of life then fixed ideas of 'self' and 'other' don't apply so much. Many of our actions are already of this direct, unknowing good nature - we naturally do simple everyday things all the time that support our life and the lives of others, without having to think or theorise about it at all. It doesn't seem obvious because we don't have to think about it, and we trust that a lot of things will just happen as part of our everyday interactions with others (doing our job, feeding the cat, stopping at red lights, not jumping the queue in the shop, refraining from stapling your annoying workmate's ear to their head...)

As regards the knowing and the seeing of the self and of the other, in knowing there is the self and there is the other, and in seeing there is the self and there is the other, and thus individual vigorous eyes exist in the sun and in the moon. This state is good doing itself.

Our human social existence and our perceptions and interactions with each other is just fundamentally the state and activity of 'good', a good more fundamental and instantaneous and direct than our thinking and evaluating things.

At just this moment of 'good doing' the realized Universe exists, but it is not the creation of the Universe, and it is not the eternal existence of the Universe. How much less could we call it 'original practice'?

The good of our present existence is completely spontaneous, and isn't hindered by some sort of static idea or principle such as 'existence' or 'Universe', nor is it hindered by being in sequence with past or future moments... it's completely instantaneous and free. So, if that's the case, then clearly ideas like it being conditioned by our own self-referential practice are out the window.

This is quite a dense passage, but where it's coming from, and what it's pointing to, is a direct sense of fundamental good and balance that is gleaned from the practice of zazen, of 'dropping off body and mind', and aligning ourselves to our direct experience of the breadth of our life, before we chop it into mental mincemeat via our thoughts, views, discriminations, personal narratives, our sob stories, likes and dislikes etc etc etc...