Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Once, when I was in Song China, practicing on a long sitting platform, I observed the monks around me. At the beginning of zazen in the morning, they would hold up their kashayas, place them on their heads, and chant a verse quietly with palms together:

Great is the robe of liberation,
the robe beyond form, the field of benefaction!
I wear the Tathagata’s teaching 
to awaken countless beings.

This was the first time I had seen the kashaya held up in this way, and I rejoiced, tears wetting the collar of my robe. Although I had read this verse of veneration for the kashaya in the Agama Sutra, I had not known the procedure. Now, I saw it with my own eyes. In myjoy I also felt sorry that there had been no master to teach this to me and no good friend to recommend it in Japan. How sad that so much time had been wasted! But I also rejoiced in my wholesome past actions [that caused me to experience this]. If I had stayed in my land, how could I have sat side by side with the monks who had received and were wearing the buddha robe? My sadness and joy brought endless tears.

Then, I made a vow to myself: However unsuited I may be, I will become an authentic holder of the buddha dharma, receiving authentic transmission of the true dharma, and with compassion show the buddha ancestors’ authentically transmitted dharma robes to those in my land. I rejoice that the vow I made at that time has not been in vain, and that there have been many bodhisattvas, lay and ordained, who have received the kashaya in Japan. Those who maintain the kashaya should always venerate it day and night. This brings forth most excellent merit. To see or hear one line of the kashaya verse is not limited to seeing and hearing it as if we were trees and rocks, but pervades the nine realms of sentient beings.’ (Shobogenzo Kesa Kudoku)

We were reading this section on Monday in the Dogen study group – it is quite well-known, as it is one of the few times Dogen expresses emotion in his practice. As always, I had the Nishijima-Cross translation open alongside the Tanahashi version that we read from, and discovered, as we sometimes do, some elision going on: that a little phrase actually conceals a bigger story. I will post the story tomorrow!