Saint Kumorata
Nineteenth Zen Buddhist Reverend Priest
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 Kumorata, The Nineteenth Ancestor
“Kayashyata pointed out the following to Kumorata,’Long ago the Woirld-honoured One Prophesied that, a thousand years after His entry into nirvana, a great scholar would appear in Tokhara who would pass on the Marvellous Transmission. Your meeting me at the present time fulfills this most propitiously.’ As a result of hearing this, Kumorata awakened his ability to see his former lives.” The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light.
Kumorata’s name means ‘The Youthful One’ and was from Tokhara, a Brahman family. A story is related of Kayashyata traveling through Tokhara while on a preaching tour of several towns. Noticing a distinct air about a Brahman’s abode, he approached. Kumorata asked from inside, “Who’s follower are you?” Kayashyata replied, “I am a disciple of the Buddha.” Kumorata slammed the door in fear at the mention of the Buddha’s name. Kayashyata knocked again and Kumorata shouted, “No one home!” To this, Kayahyata asked, “Who then is this that replied, ‘No one!’?” At these words, Kumorata opened his door to Kayshyata and began to remember his past lives.
“Clinging to a body from a past life
made ever so remote by the passage of time,
We suddenly meet face to face
With the ONE from ancient days.”
Keizan Zenji summarizes the teaching of Kumorata
Sources: The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light – Keizan Zenji, Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery
Mount Shasta
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