One Bright Pearl, (Ikka-no-myoju,
Part 1)
Master Dôgen quotes and interprets the words of the great Master Gensa. He appreciated him and his words
very much and wrote a special chapter on this in the Shôbôgenzô. The life, the true being and the universe are said to
be similar to a bright pearl. What
does this mean?
These are very important words in ZEN-Buddhism, which were fundamental
in his time and which may be much more essential in our modern time with so
much negativity, fear und depression. We hear a lot of complaining about the
bad and negative situations in this world and many people speak increasingly
about the dark and bad sides of their lives.
The meaning of the bright pearl is the opposite of this. And Master
Dôgen appreciated this idea so much and we understand by it that Buddhism is
not a negative philosophy and life practice as some people claim.
The contrary is true. The beauty and the wonderful brightness of the
world, nature, plants and animals and the whole of human life are all essential
to this chapter. This is the true reality of the universe: we should adorn this
Buddha World.
But that does not mean that the negative and criminal sides of the world
are not seen or are suppressed, because Buddhism is not a romantic religion,
but a realistic one. There is a special chapter about ethics and wrongdoing in
the Shôbôgenzô and Master Dôgen explains quite concretely what wrongdoing is in
our world. But these wrongdoings are not part of the nature of the universe
itself. They are just produced by human beings. So it is not useful to close
our eyes to the negative side of life and to try to explain away criminal
activity.
If we think about this, it is really strange that some people say Buddhism
is similar to nihilism and a negative religion. Maybe a lot of
missunderstanding is produced by the word of
emptiness, which is rather strange
and difficult to understand for western civilization. But emptiness does not
mean nihilism, it just refers to the fact that we are free of useless words,
ideas and strong emotions and that we can be in a balanced state, as Nishijima Roshi explained.
The bright pearl cannot be used as a symbol for a pessimistic
understanding of our life and the world and cannot be used for a sentence like “all life is suffering”, which is the
way some people characterize the Buddhist teaching/philosophy. The contrary is
true. Gautama Buddha developed a philosophy of life to overcome suffering and
to help people. So he is not a theoretical philosopher but rather a therapist
in the real world, helping people directly.
The bright pearl has a round form and in the Buddha Dharma this is a
symbol for a balanced life and a universe in harmony. The roundness is praised
because of its beauty.
There are no corners and edges. The roundness of the moon is a symbol of
beauty and harmony like the round pearl and it explains our beautiful and promising
life. In this way it can be understood as enlightenment. The pearl reflects everything which is around us, so it
is similar to a mirror, which reflects everything in front of it. A mirror is
very often a symbol in Buddhism of a clear and undisturbed view and a correct
understanding of the world.
The pearl is an object of many nice colors and extreme
beauty that reveal the reality.
