One Bright Pearl, (Ikka-no-myoju,
Part 4)
It is said that Gensa realized the truth after some time and became a
Master and the successor of Seppo. He taught the fundamentals of Buddhism
with the words:
“The whole universe in ten
direction is one bright pearl.”
If a student who wanted to know how this sentence could be understood asked
Master Gensa, he answered: “What use is
understanding?”
So the whole universe is reality itself. Thinking and understanding might
be important for excellent philosophers and scientists, but for Buddhist truth
intellectual thinking is not the most important thing. And Nishijima adds:
“It seems that Master Gensa has been much more clever
then those so many excellent philosophers and so many excellent scientists
saying that `the whole universe in the ten directions is one bright
pearl.`"
The sentence about the bright pearl and the universe has to be
experienced by everybody in their own life as they travel along the Buddhist
path. Not even such a fundamental sentence can be realized just by thinking and
speaking. And it is not an abstract theory which can be learned by heart and
repeated from memory.
Once Master Gensa asked a monk who he had taught the day before that the
whole universe is a bright pearl:
“How do you understand (this)?”
And when the monk repeated literally just the same sentence, the Master
said:
“I see that you are struggling to get inside a demon´s
cave and black mountain.”
The meaning is that the student was trapped in a habit of thinking and
speculating and had no experience or practice of his own. Such intellectual
thinking is therefore “a demon´s cave in
a black mountain.” This is idealistic philosophy and not realism or direct
experience.
Master Dôgen is explaining that it is not sufficient to think that the
world is a materialistic formal area because this is just the exterior. Even
though it is a part of reality, it is not the whole. There are two alternative
philosophies for understanding the world. One is idealism and the other is
materialism. But both are not sufficient to enable us to experience reality,
because a true and balanced state is necessary, not only thinking and
calculating. And the balanced state can be experienced by the practice of
Zazen.
Words and ideas are important at the beginning of the learning process,
but some time they must be transcended if we are to reach reality itself. And
this is true for the Buddhist sutras and the teaching of a true Master. Words
are like the finger pointing to the moon, but they are not the moon itself,
which is reality and truth. Of course,
languages and ideas are very important for
human civilization and without language it is impossible to have a
dialogue and to understand each other on the level of words. But they are
limited and they are not truth itself. Ideas, in particular, are associated
with strong emotions like greed for fame and money. It is difficult to
transcend them and for that the practice of Zazen is so important and
effective.
True living and the true experience of reality exist at the present
moment. By that we open ourselves up to them. When we enter reality, we leave
our thought processes about the past and the future. Reality happens exactly at
the present moment and has nothing to do with remembering things from the past
or hoping for things in the future.
In the balanced state we transcend the idea of an isolated self and the
distinguishing of subject and object. This is the realized universe which
Master Dôgen explained in this fundamental chapter Genjo kôan. The fundamental error of the concept of an isolated Self like the Atman, found in
India before the time of Gautama Buddha, is the cause of so much suffering and
many misunderstandings in our lives. By practising Zazen we can transcend the
limitations of the isolated ego and
experience unity with other people, and with nature and the universe.
