Before the Great Master Keizan Zenji began recording the transmission of the Way in 1300 in a book entitled The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light, Soto Zen had remained in only a few isolated monasteries in Japan. Because of the Great Master Keizan Zenji’s work in revitalizing the line of the Ancestors in the Zen Tradition, it eventually became the largest Buddhist church in Japan and other Asian countries. Later in the twentieth century when Master Jiyu Kennett came to the task of translating the work into English, she made the difficult decision to release the work from behind monastery walls and allow the general public to read some of Zen Buddhism’s most sacred writings. Shakyamuni Buddha originated the line when he became enlightened and passed the transmission of his own great awakening to Makakoshyo, the First Ancestor.
Keizan Zenji and Reverend Master Abbess Jiyu Kennett
When Shasta Abbey Zen Buddhist Monastery decided to undertake the task of translating The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light recorded by the Great Master Keizan Zenji in the 1300’s, they assumed the average person would not understand it. It was initially intended for members of the Zen Buddhist priesthood engaging in serious and intensive training of the mind. It was understood that some of these Zen Aphorisms would make no sense to a Western born reader. It would require a penetration of sorts into the true core of what Zen is.
Master Keizan Zenji, born in Fukui Prefecture in 1267, would probably have been surprised to find his work administered in many languages to a lay population. The Sankon-Zazen-Setsu, Denkoroku are just two of the great works attributed to the Master Zenji. Most of the religious ceremonies still used today in Soto Zen tradition were penned by him.
The Moment of Enlightenment
The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light has the profound task of keeping for all eternity the records of the moment between Master and Disciple wherein the Master and current ancestor prepares the new disciple to take the torch of the Way to the next generation. Each moment is unique and profound.
Saint Kabimora, The Thirteenth Ancestor
“One day Anabotei was speaking about the OCEAN OF BUDDHA NATURE, saying ‘Mountains, rivers and the great earth all arise in accordance with IT; the three forms of clarity and the six spiritual powers manifest themselves by proceeding from IT.’ Kabimora, upon hearing this, awoke to the TRUTH. The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light.
Kabimora’s name means ‘He Who Is as the Bodily Excretions of a Monkey,’ and was from Patna. No reason is given in the histories for the unusual meaning of his name, but it is known that he was a non-Buddhist teacher of profoundly scholarly credentials in non Buddhist doctrines with well over 3,000 disciples before he came to be a Buddhist Master. Whether or not this has anything to do with his unusual name is unclear.
He became the thirteenth ancestor when the twelfth ancestor, Anabotei, exclaimed in Kabimora’s presence, “This is no common, ordinary person for there is certaintly something different about him.”
“Upon the vast expanse of water
the billowing waves are set free
to dash up and meet the sky;
Always immaculate
Is the water of this OCEAN!
How can IT ever possibly change?”
Keizan Zenji summarizes the teaching of Kabimora
Sources: The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light – Keizan Zenji, Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery
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