The Fukanzazengi

is designed for group exploration and discussion to uncover the Zen Master Dogen’s intent in his first teaching.

Zen Master Dōgen wrote the Fukanzazengi in 1227 shortly after his return to Japan from China, producing edited copies based on the original over the next twenty-five years. His intent was to provide a meditation manual for Zazen practitioners. The title is often translated as “The Universal Recommendation for the Practice of Zazen” or something similar.

This brief document summarizes the essence of what Dōgen learned in China and taught during his lifetime. He considered the practice and mastery of seated meditation, or Zazen, to be the authentic transmission of the Buddhadharma, passed down through the centuries from master to disciple in an unbroken stream of enlightenment. This manual of practice for Zazen has been used for over seven centuries to instruct and renew the efforts of his followers. It is recited daily in Soto Zen monasteries and centers as a continuing means of learning for monks and laity alike.

The translation that follows is arranged in fourteen paragraphs divided into four sections. The division is arbitrary, adopted to give a structure for ease of understanding, and is not supported by any independent scholarship.

Here a sample of the first section.

Section 1 Background Information

PARAGRAPH 1 Definitions of the Way followed by amplifying questions

The Way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The dharma-vehicle is free and untrammeled. What need is there for people’s concentrated effort? Indeed, the Whole Body is far beyond the world’s dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice?

This paragraph restates in four different ways Dōgen’s naturally arising koan of “If we are already Buddha, why do we have to practice?” Or put in other words, “If the Way is already perfect and we are never apart from it, why do we have to practice?” Dōgen ultimately contends that the transcendental knowledge we desperately seek is present from the very first time we engage in sitting. This knowledge is not divorced from the human world and arises within practice/realization.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
If the Way is basically perfect and all-pervading, why do we have such a tough time locating it?
Do you know your naturally arising koan?

PARAGRAPH 2 Cautionary statements that point out the difficulty of an accurate understanding

And yet, if there is the slightest discrepancy, the Way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the Mind is lost in confusion. Suppose one gains pride of understanding and inflates one’s own enlightenment, glimpsing the wisdom that runs through all things, attaining the Way and clarifying the Mind, raising an aspiration to escalade the very sky. One is making the initial, partial excursions about the frontiers, but is still somewhat deficient in the vital way of total emancipation.

If a gap arises between the Way and ourselves, then we need to evaluate our situation and recommit when necessary. Confusion and doubt present themselves endlessly. Humility and great patience contain the power and knowledge to keep centered on learning and applying the principles of Zen practice. Ultimately moral improvement results from diligent discipline.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Name a few possible discrepancies.
Do you have any thoughts about what total emancipation consists of?