Shakyamuni Buddha is reported to have awakened to the Way as he looked upon the morning star (The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light, By Master Keizan Zenji). After he had lived in the palace secluded from the hardships of the world during his childhood, it is said that he finally left the gates of the palace one day and found in the streets of the city illness, suffering and death. At that moment, he became obsessed with uncovering the remedy for this condition which was later generated as the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.
Master Dogen
In modern Zen Buddhist Monasteries today, including the Shasta Abbey Zen Buddhist Monastery which was home to the late Abbess Rev. Jiyu Kennett, the writings of another in the lineage of ancestors also bears great study. The Shobogenzo-zuimonki and Moon in a Dewdrop were written by the Fifty First Ancestor, the Great Reverend Master Eihei Dogen and are considered of equal importance in the studies of a Zen Buddhist monk or priest as the The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light.
Abbess Rev. Jiyu Kennett was a great scholar on the work of Master Dogen and her teachings have been preserved in recorded form for future generations. But it was the Fifty First Ancestor, Koun Ejo, who we owe the recording of Master Dogen’s lengthier teachings and dialogues with Koun Ejo in the Shobogenzo-zuimonki.
Zen Aphorisms and Master Dogen
It is in Moon in a Dewdrop where the shorter teachings of the Master Dogen are recorded as Zen Aphorisms, concise statements which hold within them volumes of truth. This similarity between Moon in a Dewdrop and The Denkoroku: The Record of the Tranmission of Light cannot go unnoticed. Because it is in the short exchange between Master and Disciple, past and future ancestors, that these Zen Aphorisms come to life and bear meaning.
Saint Eka, The Twenty Ninth Ancestor
“Whilst serving and training with Bodaidaruma, Eka one day told him, ‘I have by now severed all my karmic ties.’ Bodaidaruma said, ‘You are not denying the law of karma, are you?’ Eka answered, ‘No, I am not.’ Bodaidaruma asked him, ‘And how can you be sure of this?’ Eka replied, ‘Clearly, and beyond doubt, I have always known; words cannot approach IT.’ Bodaidaruma said, ‘This is the ORIGINAL NATURE which the Buddhas have apprehended; do not let yourself doubt IT ever again.’” The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light.
Eka’s name meant ‘He of the Light’ or ‘The Radiant One,’ and was from the Ki clan of the legendary Yellow Emperor. He was named such because his father prayed for a child because he and his wife were childless. One night, he saw a light overtake their bedroom illuminating the night in a strange way. His wife subsequently became pregnant.
“Empty yet resonant,
all earth-bound thoughts exhausted,
IT is, beyond doubt, alert and clear,
Always still and bright.”
Keizan Zenji summarizes the teaching of Eka
Sources: The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light – Keizan Zenji, Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery
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