Saint Ragorata
Sixteenth Zen Buddhist Awakening
There are a few jades running through a golden needle (celebrity standouts) in the line of 52 Soto Zen Buddhist Ancestors and Patriarchs. Although the remnants of most of the ancestors lives remain sketchy, there are three who remain well remembered today and whose writings are still extant: Nagyaarajunya (commonly referred to as Nagarjuna), Bodaidaruma and the Master Eihei Dogen, author of the Shobogenzo-Zuimonki and Moon in a Dewdrop, both profound Soto Zen Buddhist texts which remain studied in monasteries and by Buddhists the world over today.
Keizan Zenji
Born in Fukui Prefecture in 1267, Master Zenji entered a monastery – Eiheiji – and learned from Koun Ejyo and Tettsu Gikai. He became one of the greatest of the Soto Zen Ancestors and became Chief Abbot of Shogakuji in 1321 shortly thereafter renaming the temple Shogaku-zan Sojiji which later was made one of the two primary temples in Japan for the Soto Zen Church.
Zenji wrote many works including the Sankon-Zazen-Setsu, Denkoroku and most of the religious ceremonies used in the Soto Zen Tradition.
Denkoroku
The Denkoroku records the moment when the Way was transmitted from teacher to disciple for each of the fifty two patriarchs. In each story, there is a narrative of the moment the student received the Way, short biographical information and a set of verses summarizing that particular Patriarch’s teaching.
Saint Ragorata, The Sixteenth Ancestor
“Ragorata was attending on Kanadaiba when, upon hearing about karmic cause from a past life, he experienced his ORIGINAL NATURE . . . Kanadaiba replied, ‘Long ago your family gave alms to a monk but the monk vainly consumed the alms from the faithful without having succeeded in opening his Enlightenment-seeking Eye . . . Many of past and present, who have awakened to their enlightenment, have drawn upon what is happening in this story to admonish those who vainly enter the pure stream of monastic life whilst lacking a sense of shame or embarrassment when idly accepting almst from the faithful without any sense of awareness, or comprehension of what they are doing. The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light.
Kanadaiba went on to explain that monks have to give up their families to enter the Way, and therefore, wherever they may live, whatever they eat, whatever they wear . . . is not their own. When a monk enters into the Way, but does not open the Enlightenment-seeking Eye, he is then reborn to return the alms from the faithful. But if a monk does pierce to the PRINCIPLE, he is properly doing the job of a monk in seeking his ORIGINAL NATURE and the alms he utilizes are used faithfully and carry no karmic impetus.
Kanadaiba’s name meant ‘He Who Has Been Seized’ and was from Kapilavastu.
“How sad that his Enlightenment-seeking Eye
was not clear and bright!
Deluded as to TRUE SELF, he sought to repay others
and, in recompense, is ceaselessly born
again and again.”
Keizan Zenji summarizes the teaching of Ragorata
Sources: The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light – Keizan Zenji, Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery
Mount Shasta
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