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 Tosu Gisei, The Forty Fourth Ancestor
“Gisei trained under Fuzan Enkan (C. Fu-Shan Yuan-chien) who had him look into the story about the non-Buddhist who said to the Buddha ‘Irrespective of whether there is a word for IT or not, What is IT?’ After three years had passed, Enkan asked one day, ‘Can you recall the story? Try to present what you have seen in it.’ Gisei was about to reply hwen Enkan covered Tosu’s mouth with his hand. Gisei opened up completely and was awakened to his TRUE SELF.” The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light.
Tosu Gisei’s name means ‘He Whose Faith Is Ever Green’ and he was from the Ri clan from the region of Seisha. He entered the monastery of Myosoji by the age of seven to study the scriptures and became a full monk at the age of fifteen.
Because Daiyo was advanced in years when Tosu Gisei was young, and Tosu Gisei was not ready to receive the transmission and pass it along, Daiyo left beyind a verse from which Tosu Gisei would about ten years later achieve enlightenment:
“The Trees and bushes
atop the sun-drenched mountain,
Relying on their lord,
await his developing their worth;
In the place where a variety of sprouts
grow in profusion,
Deep and hidden,
he strengthens their spiritual roots.”
The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light.
“A ridge of rocky hills so many miles high
that birds can scarcely pass over it,
A sword blad and thin ice – who can tread on them?”
Keizan Zenji summarizes the teaching of Tosu Gisei
Sources: The Denkoroku: The Record of the Transmission of Light – Keizan Zenji, Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monastery
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