Although it was the Great Master Keizan Zenji who revived the stories of the transmission of the Way between Ancestors in 1300 in The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light, we owe our gratitude to the late Abbess Rev. Jiyu Kennett of the Shasta Abbey Zen Buddhist Monastery for making it available not only in English, but to lay men and women interested in the deeper mysteries of Zen. Kennett struggled with this decision to make a text that was previously only known to the monastic community available to the general public, but in the end decided that it would be useful even if not fully understood.
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 Shishobodai, The Twenty Fourth Ancestor
“Shishobodai asked Kakurokuna, ‘As I wish to Pursue the Way to enlightenment, how should I exert my mind in order to do it?’ Kakurokyuna answered, ‘If you would pursue the Way, there is no situation where you need to exert your mind.’ Shishobodai asked, ‘If I do not exert myself, who will perform the work of Buddha?’ Kakurokuna replied, ‘If you are involved in exerting, there will be no merit or virtue; if you do not make yourself perform, then that is the work of the Buddha.’ A Scripture says, ‘The merit and virtue in what I perform is due to there being no ego centri ‘I’’. When Shishibodai heard these words he entered the Buddha’s WISDOM.” The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light.
Shishobodai’s name meant ‘The Wisdom of the Lion’ and was a Brahman from Central India. Until he met Kakurokuna and obtained the wisdom of the Buddha, he was known for being a scholar in non-Buddhist teachings.
“If you want to manifest the ABSOLUTE,
do not conceal IT;
Indefinable in ITS emptiness, pure in ITS tranquility,
IT has been evident from the first.”
Keizan Zenji summarizes the teaching of Shishobodai
Sources: The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light – Keizan Zenji, Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery
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