Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘The ten thousand functions fully rest; the thousand sages do not take the lead. My father and mother are not my intimates; the buddhas are not on my path. Putting aside for now intimacy and the path, what is it that you call “mine”? Patch-robed monks in their fundamental form can arrive on the single vital path and stroll along. So it is said, although there is arising and perishing, there is no coming and going. Although there are classifications of stages, [such practitioners] are free of these discriminations. It is not that there is no practice-realization, only that it cannot be defiled. They turn their back on the dusts and join with awakening, opening the flower and bearing fruit. After thorough investigation, all buddhas and living beings are nothing other than the genuine appearance [of reality]. Already being this genuine appearance, why are all buddhas immeasurable and boundless, and living beings limitless and inexhaustible? Great assembly, do you want to clearly understand the point of this? 

After a pause Dogen said: It is not permitted to go in the nighttime; you must arrive in daylight.’ (Eihei Koroku)

If you think that Dogen concludes by riffing on the absolute and the relative, who am I to tell you that you are wrong?