Uchiyama Roshi’s important point was to understand that all people, even Zen masters, are ordinary human beings. But as students we need to study Dharma from that person. In this case from the Book of Serenity, the Dharma we need to study is about buddha nature and karmic nature,. By Kosho Uchiyama Translated by Shohaku Okumura and Tom Wright Arcana, 1993. Seven Points of Practice – Uchiyama Offered in the last formal talk he gave at Antaiji, on February 23, 1975. Study and practice the Buddha-dharma only for the sake of the Buddha-dharma, not for the sake of human emotions and worldly ideas. Deepest Practice, Deepest Wisdom: Three Fascicles from Shobogenzo with Commentary by Kosho Uchiyama, Tom Wright and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at.

Mattias Johansson from Halmstad, Sweden / CC BY-SA

A monk asked Zhaozhou, “Does a dog have a buddha-nature or not?”
Zhaozhou said, “Yes.”
The monk said, “Since it has, why is it then in this skin bag?”
Zhaozhou said, “Because he knows yet deliberately transgresses.”
Another monk asked Zhaozhou, “Does a dog have a buddha-nature or not?”
Zhaozhou said, “No.”
The monk said, “All sentient beings have buddha-nature—why does a dog have none, then?”
Zhaozhou said, “Because he still has impulsive consciousness.”^[1]

The koan about Zhaozhou’s (Jp. Joshu’s) dog appears as Case 18 in the Shoyoroku (Book of Serenity). The main point of the interpretation of this koan in the Shoyoroku concerns Zhaozhou’s teaching method. In the first part of the koan, Zhaozhou offers buddha nature by saying “u,” indicating yes, a dog does have buddha nature. In other words, “Here it is, you have a buddha nature”– it’s a kind of encouragement. You have a precious jewel, so you have to take care of this and practice. In the second part of the koan, to the another monk, who has already matured in practice, and doesn’t rely on whether or not he has buddha nature, Zhaozhou removes this encouragement by saying “mu,” indicating that a dog does not have buddha nature. Zhaozhou says there’s no such thing called buddha nature.

First Zhaozhou gave buddha nature – here you are, you have buddha nature, so practice diligently, take care of it, become free from your delusion, and the beauty of this jewel reveals itself. That is a type of teaching for beginning students. To the mature student, Zhaozhou said there’s no such thing called buddha nature. It’s just an illusion. So he took it away, and he knew that student would be all right without that concept of buddha nature. For Zhaozhou himself, buddha nature is neither “u” nor “mu,” but he could say “u” or “mu” depending on the person’s need. That is basically the interpretation in Shoyoroku of the story of a dog’s buddha nature.

In a funny way, a teacher is always deceiving students, and the student neither perfectly nor completely trusts the teacher. That is a problem. If you are lucky, you meet the right teacher, but as a beginner we cannot really evaluate the teacher, so we cannot tell whether this teacher is trustworthy or not. This is a really difficult point, but this is what Uchiyama Roshi said – the teacher is just an ordinary human being. In this case, the teacher he was referring to was Sawaki Kodo Roshi – he was a really great teacher. But Uchiyama Roshi practiced very closely with Sawaki Roshi for twenty-five years, until his death, so he knew Sawaki Roshi was not a special person, but an ordinary human being. Uchiyama Roshi’s important point was to understand that all people, even Zen masters, are ordinary human beings. But as students we need to study Dharma from that person.

In this case from the Book of Serenity, the Dharma we need to study is about buddha nature and karmic nature, or karmic consciousness. Even a great teacher like Sawaki Roshi has both. Uchiyama Roshi said many people studying with Sawaki Roshi were attracted by his karmic features. Sawaki Roshi was a very strong, strict, and very attractive person, as a karmic being. Many people practiced with Sawaki Roshi because of that attraction. But that was not Sawaki Roshi’s Dharma, according to Uchiyama Roshi. What Sawaki Roshi did was just sitting. Not so many people sat like Sawaki Roshi, but they loved to listen to Sawaki Roshi talking. Uchiyama Roshi said that we as students need to study the person’s Dharma, not the person’s karma. Karma means karmic attribute – their good points and bad points, as they are the person’s – how can I say? – characters, or personalities. But as a beginner we cannot tell which is Dharma which is karma.

Somehow I became attracted to Uchiyama Roshi’s way of life. At that time I knew nothing about Buddhism, or Zen. I didn’t know even what he was doing. But somehow what he wrote in his book and how he lived his own life was very attractive to me. So somehow I was sucked into that path. I was so fortunate that it was when I was seventeen years old; now I am sixty-five, so more than forty years I walked this path, only this path, and I have no regret. I think it’s really a rare thing. I know some people who have had some difficulty with their teachers and then quit their practice. There’s no one hundred percent safe way. Somehow we have to find our own path. It’s really difficult to make judgments about teachers. When we judge and evaluate teachers, then we can’t be really a true student. We have to accept everything the teacher can offer to be a real student. But we cannot tell if what the person is offering is really true Dharma or not, because we don’t know yet. So we need to go through a really difficult process to find out if this is really my teacher, and if I really want to be this person’s student. This is not an easy path. On the one hand we have to accept everything from the teacher, and at the same time, we have to doubt.

Dogen said in Shobogenzo Jisho zanmai that whether we study Dharma following the teacher or following the text, we’re studying the self – ourselves. So that means we have to – how can I say? – accept everything the teacher can offer, and yet we should not rely on that person. It’s kind of contradictory, but both are important. That means we need to walk on our own legs, our own feet.

That is another thing Uchiyama Roshi taught me. It was right on the day after I was ordained as a priest. For the ordination ceremony – I was twenty-two years old – my father came, and as a greeting to Uchiyama Roshi, my father asked him, “Please take care of my son.” The next day Uchiyama Roshi said to me, “Even though your father asked me to take care of you, I cannot take care of you. It’s not possible. You have to walk on your own legs.”

Uchiyama Roshi also said he never watches his students, but he is walking toward the path he needs to walk, toward the direction he needs to walk. That’s his own practice. If I want to be his disciple, I need to walk toward the same direction with my own legs. To me, this is a really interesting thing. Basically what he said is: “Don’t rely on me.” Therefore, I accept this teaching, and I try not to rely on him, except as an example of Dharma practice. And by doing this, I completely rely on him. So both are there. This teacher-student relationship I think is the same as the one between parents and children. The parents’ goal is to raise children to make them independent – “Don’t rely on me, or on us.” But to do so, the children need to rely on the parents. This is an interesting aspect of our life.

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^[1] Thomas Cleary, trans., Book of Serenity: One Hundred Zen Dialogues (Boston, Mass.: Shambhala, 2005), p. 76.

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Commentary by Shōhaku Okumura Roshi

The Dōgen Institute offers an occasional series of perspectives on koansfrom Okumura Roshi. This is the first of the series. These perspectives are taken from Okumura Roshi’s recorded lectures, and are lightly edited.

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For further study:

• • Read Book of Serenity

>Other posts on koans

Copyright 2020 Sanshin Zen Community

Kōshō Uchiyama

Kosho Uchiyama(内山 興正Uchiyama Kōshō, 1912—March 13, 1998) was a Sōtō priest, origami master, and abbot of Antai-ji near Kyoto, Japan.

Uchiyama was author of more than twenty books on Zen Buddhism and origami,^[1] of which Opening the Hand of Thought: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice is best known.

• Education and career1
• Opening the Hand of Thought2
• Bibliography3
• Notes4
• References5
• External links6

Education and career

Uchiyama graduated from Waseda University with a masters degree in Western philosophy in 1937 and was ordained a priest in 1941 by his teacher Kōdō Sawaki.^[2] Throughout his life, Uchiyama lived with the damaging effects of tuberculosis.^[3]

Uchiyama became abbot of Antai-ji following Sawaki's death in 1965 until he retired in 1975 to Nokei-in, also near Kyoto, where he lived with his wife.^[1] Following the death of his teacher he led a forty-nine day sesshin in memorial of his teacher.^[2] In retirement he continued his writing, the majority of which consisted of poetry.^[3]

Opening the Hand of Thought

Opening the Hand of Thought was published in 2004 in English, translated and edited by Jishō Cary Warner and Thomas Wright (who helped with the book's earlier editions in 1973 and 1993),^[4] as well as Uchiyama's Dharma heir Shohaku Okumura. The book attempts to describe Zen and zazen. Uchiyama compares Buddhism and Christianity.^[5] His summary is:

'one zazen, two practices, three minds'^[6]

which refers to his own formula: two practices of 'vow' and 'repentance', and three minds: 'magnanimous mind, nurturing mind and joyful mind'.^[7] He says his book covers butsudō, the effort of an individual to actualize their universal self.^[8]

Bibliography

• Uchiyama, Kosho;
• Uchiyama, Kosho (2007). Shōbō genzō hachidainingaku o ajiwau. Tokyo: Daihōrinkaku.
• Uchiyama, Kosho; Jōichi Yamamoto (2005). Fukan zazengi o yomu : shūkyō to shiteno dōgenzen. Tokyo: Daihōrinkaku.
• Uchiyama, Kosho; Thomas Wright;
• Uchiyama, Kosho (2000). Uvolnit sevření mysli: cesta k zenu. Praha: DharmaGaia.
• The Zen Teaching of 'Homeless Kodo'Uchiyama Kōshō (1990):
• Uchiyama, Kosho (2000). The Zen Teaching of 'Homeless' Kôdô. Frankfurt am Main, Foockenstr: 5 Keller.
• Uchiyama, Kosho;
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1989). Shōbō genzō gyōbutsu igi o ajiwau. Tokyo: Hakujusha.
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1987). Shōbō genzō genjō kōan o ajiwau. Tokyo: Hakujusha.
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1987). Inochi no hataraki : Chiji shingi o ajiau : shinsōban. Tokyo: Hakujusha.
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1984). Shōbō genzō : uji shoaku makusa o ajiwau. Tōkyo: Hakujusha, Shōwa 59.
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1983). Refining Your Life: From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment. Weatherhill.
• Uchiyama, Kosho;
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1974). Réalité du Zen. Le chemin vers soi-même. Le Courrier du Livre.
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1973). Approach to Zen: The Reality of Zazen/Modern Civilization and Zen. Japan Publications.
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1973). Weg zum Selbst: Zen-wirklichkeit. Barth.
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1967). Modern Civilization and Zen: What Kind of Religion is Buddhism?. Administrative Office of Soto Sect.
• Uchiyama, Kosho (1962). Origami. Tokyo: Kokudosha.

Notes

1. ^ ^abUchiyama, 201
2. ^ ^abFord, 139
3. ^ ^abWright & Warner
4. ^Uchiyama 2004, p. 202.
5. ^Uchiyama 2004, pp. 110–111.
6. ^Uchiyama 2004, p. 158.
7. ^Uchiyama 2004, pp. 158–161.
8. ^Uchiyama 2004, pp. xxxv–xxxvi.

References

• Uchiyama, Kosho; Thomas Wright;
• Wright, Daitsu Tom;

Kosho Uchiyama Roshi

External links

• Seven chapters from Uchiyama's book 'The Zen Teaching of 'Homeless Kodo'
• Kosho Uchiyama: 'To you who are still dissatisfied with your zazen'
• Kosho Uchiyama: 'To you who has decided to become a Zen monk'
• http://www.zen.ite.pl/masters/kosho_uchiyama.html (Polish language)

Kosho Uchiyama Approach To Zen

Kosho Uchiyama Origami

Kosho Uchiyama Quotes