Eight Great Realizations (Tanahashi then Nearman)

Tanahashi

1253

Eight Awakenings of Great Beings

ALL BUDDHAS ARE GREAT BEINGS. What great beings practice is called the eight awakenings. Practicing these awakenings is the basis for nirvāna. This is the last teaching of our original teacher Shākyamuni Buddha, which he gave on the night he entered pari-nirvāna. The first awakening is to have few desires. To refrain from widely coveting the objects of the five sense desires is called “few desires.”

The Buddha said, “Monks, know that people who have many desires intensely seek for fame and gain; therefore they suffer a great deal. Those who have few desires do not seek for fame and gain and are free from them, so they are without such troubles. Having few desires is itself worthwhile. It is even more so, as it creates various merits. Those who have few desires need not flatter to gain others’ favor. Those who have few desires are not pulled by their sense organs. They have a serene mind and do not worry, because they are satisfied with what they have and do not have a sense of lack. Those who have few desires experience nirvāna. This is called ‘few desires.’”

The second awakening is to know how much is enough. Even if you already have something, you set a limit for yourself for using it. So you should know how much is enough.

The Buddha said, “Monks, if you want to be free from suffering, you should contemplate knowing how much is enough. By knowing it you are in the place of enjoyment and peacefulness. If you know how much is enough, you are contented even when you sleep on the ground. If you don’t know it, you are discontented even when you are in heaven. You can feel poor even if you have much wealth. You may be constantly pulled by the five sense desires and pitied by those who know how much is enough. This is called ‘to know how much is enough.’”

The third awakening is to enjoy serenity. This is to be away from the crowds and stay alone in a quiet place. Thus it is called “to enjoy serenity in seclusion.”

The Buddha said, “Monks, if you want to have the joy of serene nondoing, you should be away from the crowds and stay alone in a quiet place. A still place is what Indra and other devas revere. By leaving behind your relations as well as others, and by living in a quiet place, you may remove the conditions of suffering. If you are attached to crowds, you will receive suffering, just like a tree that attracts a great many birds and gets killed by them. If you are bound by worldly matters, you will drown in troubles, just like an old elephant who is stuck in a swamp and cannot get out of it. This is called ‘to enjoy serenity in seclusion.’”

The fourth awakening is diligent effort. It is to engage ceaselessly in wholesome practices. That is why it is called “diligent effort.” It is refinement without mixing in other activities. You keep going forward without turning back. 

The Buddha said, “Monks, if you make diligent effort, nothing is too difficult. That’s why you should do so. It is like a thread of water piercing through a rock by constantly dripping. If your mind continues to slacken, it is like taking a break from hitting stones before they spark; you can’t get fire that way. What I am speaking of is ‘diligent effort.’”

The fifth awakening is “not to neglect mindfulness.” It is also called “to maintain right thought.” This helps you to guard the dharma so you won’t lose it. It is called “to maintain right thought” or “not to neglect mindfulness.”

The Buddha said, “Monks, for seeking a good teacher and good help, there is nothing like not neglecting mindfulness. If you practice this, robbers of desire cannot enter you. Therefore, you should always maintain mindfulness in yourself. If you lose it, you will lose all merits. When your mindfulness is solid, you will not be harmed even if you go into the midst of the robbers of the five sense desires. It is like wearing armor and going into a battlefield, so there is nothing to be afraid of. It is called ‘not to neglect mindfulness.”

The sixth awakening is to practice meditation. To abide in dharma without being confused is called “stability in meditation.”

The Buddha said, “Monks, if you gather your mind, it will abide in stability. Then you will understand the birth and death of all things in the world. You will continue to endeavor in practicing various aspects of meditation. When you have stability, your mind will not be scattered. It is like a well-roofed house or a well-built embankment, which will help you maintain the water of understanding and keep you from being drowned. This is called ‘stability in meditation.’” 

The seventh awakening is “to cultivate wisdom.” It is to listen, contemplate, practice, and have realization. 

The Buddha said, “Monks, if you have wisdom, you are free from greed. You will always reflect on yourself and avoid mistakes. Thus you will attain liberation in the dharma I am speaking of. If you don’t have wisdom, you will be neither a follower of the way nor a lay supporter of it, and there will be no name to describe you. Indeed, wisdom is a reliable vessel to bring you across the ocean of old age, sickness, and death. It is a bright lamp that brings light into the darkness of ignorance. It is an excellent medicine for all of you who are sick. It is a sharp ax to cut down the tree of delusion. Thus, you can deepen awakening through the wisdom of listening, contemplation, and practice. If you are illuminated by wisdom, even if you use your physical eyes, you will have clear insight. This is called ‘to cultivate wisdom.’”

The eighth awakening is not to be engaged in hollow discussions. It is to experience realization and be free from discriminatory thinking, with thorough understanding of the true mark of all things. It is called “not to be engaged in hollow discussions.” 

The Buddha said, “Monks, if you get into hollow discussions, your mind will be scattered. Then, you will be unable to attain liberation even if you have left the household. So, you should immediately leave behind scattered mind and hollow discussions. If you wish to attain the joy of serenity, you need to cure the sickness of hollow discussions. This is called ‘not to be engaged in hollow discussions.’”

These are the eight awakenings. Each awakening contains all eight, thus there are sixty-four awakenings. When awakenings are practiced thoroughly, their number is countless. When they are practiced in summary, there are sixty-four.

These are the last words of Great Teacher Shākyamuni Buddha, the ultimate admonition of the Mahāyāna teaching. He said at midnight of the fifteenth day of the second month, “Monks, you should always endeavor wholeheartedly to search for the way of liberation. All things in the world, whether they are in motion or not, are insecure and bound to decay. Now, all of you be quiet and do not speak. Time is passing and I am going to cross over. This is my last admonition to you.” Without expounding dharma any further, the Buddha entered pari-nirvāna.

All disciples of the Buddha should study this teaching. Those who don’t learn or know about it are not his disciples. Indeed this is the Tathāgata’s treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvāna. However, there are many who do not know about this teaching, as there are few who have studied it. Many may have been confused by demons, and those who have few wholesome conditions from the past do not have the opportunity to see or hear about this teaching. In the Ages of True Dharma and Imitation Dharma, all disciples of the Buddha knew about this teaching and practiced it. But nowadays, less than one or two out of a thousand monks seem to know about it. How regrettable! The world has declined since those times. While the true dharma prevails in the billion worlds and the Buddha’s pure teaching is still intact, you should immediately practice it without negligence.

It is rare to encounter the buddha-dharma even in the span of countless eons. A human body is difficult to attain. A human body in the Three Continents of the world is preferable. A human body in the Southern Continent, Jambudvīpa, is particularly so, as one can have the chance to see the Buddha, hear the dharma, leave the household, and attain the way. But those who entered nirvāna and died before the pari-nirvāna of the Tathāgata could not learn and practice these eight awakenings of great beings. Now we can learn and practice these awakenings because of the merit of our wholesome conditions from the past. By practicing and nurturing these awakenings, you can certainly arrive at unsurpassable enlightenment and expound them to all beings, just as Shākyamuni Buddha did.

On the sixth day, the first month, the fifth year of the Kenchō Era
[1253]. Written at the Eihei Monastery.


Nearman  

On the Eight Realizations of a Great One (Hachi Dainingaku)

Translator’s introduction: According to the postscript, this text was the last that Dōgen prepared before his death. It consists mainly of passages from the Scripture of the Buddha’s Last Teachings. 

The term ‘a Great One’ refers not only to a Buddha, but also to virtuous monks and bodhisattvas. The term ‘realization’ refers not only to an intellectual understanding, but also to the act of putting the Teachings into practice, that is, making Them real. All Buddhas are enlightened people, and because of this, we call what They discern ‘the eight realizations of a Great One’. When someone discerns what this Dharma of Theirs is, It brings about nirvana, which is freedom from suffering. On the night when our Shakyamuni Buddha entered nirvana, He gave these eight realizations as part of His final Teaching.

The first is ‘having few desires’. What He called ‘having few desires’ means not chasing far and wide among those objects of the five senses which one has not yet experienced. As the Buddha said:

O you monks, recognize the person who has many cravings. His misery and troubles are many because he seeks for many benefits, gains, and advantages. The person of few cravings is free from seeking after things or yearning for them. Hence, he is free of such sufferings. He desires little, only esteeming what is fitting for his spiritual training and practice. By desiring little, so much more is he able to bring forth fine merits and virtues. The person of few desires is free of flattery and fawning when searching out the intentions of others. The heart of someone who behaves with few desires is, as a consequence, even-tempered and free from gloom, anxiety, sorrow, or fear. When coming in contact with things, he finds a surplus, for he knows no insufficiency. The one who has few desires experiences nirvana, for this is the name for ‘having few desires’.

The second is ‘being content’. What He called ‘being content’ means limiting what you take to those things that you already have available to you. As the Buddha said:

O you monks, if you wish to be free from miseries and woes, look into contentment, which is synonymous with knowing what is enough. The Teaching of contentment is none other than the location of true wealth, ease, security, and peace. The person who is contented, though he sleeps upon the bare ground, is still at ease and satisfied. Someone who is discontented, even if he were ensconced in a celestial palace would still not find this tallying with his ideas and tastes. The one who is discontented, though rich, is poor. The person who is contented, though poor, is rich. The one who is discontented always does what his five desires latch onto. He does that which causes grief to, and arouses the compassionate pity of, one who is contented. This is what I mean by ‘being content’.

The third is ‘enjoying the tranquility of nirvana’. What He called ‘enjoying the tranquility of nirvana’ means leaving behind all the noise and hubbub for the solitude of the open country. As the Buddha said:

O you monks, if you seek to be tranquil and quiet, liberated from the insistence of the defiling passions, at ease and content, then you should part company with confusion and bustle, and dwell at your ease in some solitary place. The person who dwells in quietude continually forsakes what those in the heavens esteem so highly amongst themselves. Therefore, withdraw from those about you, as well as from other crowds and, in a place of solitude apart from them, reflect on the source of the eradication of suffering at your leisure. If you are one who enjoys the company of others, then you will take on the woes of their company, just as with a flock of birds that gather in some huge tree, there is the lament of dead branches breaking off under their weight. When the world binds itself around us, we drown in the suffering of such company just as an old elephant, sunk down in mire, is unable to drag himself out. This is what I call ‘distancing yourself from those about you’.

The fourth is ‘being devoted to progress’. He called this ‘being devoted to progress’ because of His ceaseless devotion to performing good acts—a devotion undiluted and a progression without regressing. As the Buddha said:
 
O you monks, if you are diligent in your devotion to progress, training will not be difficult for you. Therefore, be diligent and devote yourselves to progress, just as a small stream, ever flowing, can bore holes in rocks. If the mind of the trainee is often inattentive and remiss, it will be just the same as making a fire by friction and blowing on it before it is hot enough to catch fire. Although your desire to train can blaze up, the fires of training are hard to arrive at. This is what I call ‘being devoted to progress’.

The fifth is ‘not neglecting mindfulness’. He also called it ‘keeping to Right Mindfulness’. What He called ‘keeping to the Dharma without losing sight of It’ means keeping to Right Mindfulness. It is also called ‘not forgetting to be mindful’. As the Buddha said:

O you monks, seek fine understanding, search out good assistance, and do not neglect mindfulness. If you are one who does not neglect mindfulness, the thieves of passional defilement will not be able to enter. Therefore, you monks, always keep your minds alert, for the one who loses his mindfulness loses his merits and virtues. When the strength of your mindfulness is constant and vigorous, though the five desires would break in to rob you, they will do you no harm. You will be as one who puts on armor before entering a battle and will have nothing to fear. This is what I call ‘not neglecting mindfulness’.

The sixth is ‘doing meditation’. What He called ‘doing meditation’ means abiding in the Dharma undisturbed. As the Buddha said:

O you monks, when your mind is kept alert, then you are in meditation. Because your mind is in meditation, you are able to know the world, birth and death, as well as the characteristics of all things. Therefore, you monks should always study and practice the ways of meditation with finest diligence. When you achieve meditation, your heart is not in turmoil or your mind scattered. Just as a household that would be frugal with water arranges dikes and pond banks carefully, so a trainee does similarly. Therefore, for the sake of the water of discriminate wisdom, practice meditation well that you may prevent the loss of that water through leaks caused by the defiling passions. This is what I call ‘doing meditation’.

The seventh is employing ‘wise discernment’. What He called employing wise discernment means letting one’s hearing, thinking, and practice naturally arise from one’s realization of Truth. As the Buddha said:

O you monks, when you have wise discernment, you will not be attached to desires. By constant self-reflection and watching what you do, you will not bring about any loss through the defiling passions. Within My Teachings, this is what can bring you to liberation. If someone denies this, not only is he not a person of the Way, he is also not an ordinary, everyday person either. Indeed, there is no name for such a one. Genuine wise discernment is the sturdy craft that ferries others across the sea of old age, disease, and death. It is also a great, bright lamp for the darkness of ignorance, a wonderful curative for all disease and suffering. It is a sharp axe for felling the trees of defiling passions. Therefore, you monks should improve yourselves by means of this wise discernment, which you attain through hearing, thinking about, and putting into practice My Teachings. When someone has the radiance of this wisdom then, though he be blind, he will clearly see what people are. This is what ‘wise discernment’ is.

The eighth is ‘not playing around with theories and opinions’. What He called ‘not playing around with theories and opinions’ means letting go of dualities and judgmentalism that one may experience. Fully realizing the True Nature of all things is what ‘not playing around with theories and opinions’ means. As the Buddha said:

O you monks, if your mind plays around with all kinds of theories and opinions, it will be confused and in disorder and, though you have left home to become a monk, you have still not realized liberation. Therefore, O monks, quickly abandon your disordered mind and your playing around with your theories and notions. If you wish to enjoy the pleasure that comes from calmness and the extinction of defiling passions, thoroughly eliminate the affliction of playing around in your head. This is what I mean by ‘not playing around with theories and opinions’.

These are the eight realizations of a Great One. Each and every Great One is equipped with all eight. When extended, they are immeasurable; when abbreviated they are sixty-four. They are our Great Master Shakyamui’s final voicing of the Dharma, His last instructions on the Great Course, His ultimate song in the middle of the night on the fifteenth of the second lunar month. After speaking the following, He did not give voice to the Dharma again, and at last, entered His parinirvana.

O you monks, with wholehearted devotion always seek to get back on the path. Everything in all worlds, both the movable and the immovable, works to defeat and destroy all signs of uncertainty. Cease for a moment and do not ask Me to say more, for the time is nigh when I would pass and I wish for my parinirvana. These are My last Teachings and instructions.

Therefore, disciples of the Tathagata, by all means, set yourself to study these instructions of His and do not neglect to study them, for if you do not know them, you are not a disciple of the Buddha. These are the very Treasure House of the Eye of the True Teaching, which is the Wondrous Heart of Nirvana.

Even so, there are many today who do not know them, for there are few who have encountered or heard of them. That they do not know them is due to devilish disturbances. Those who have planted few good spiritual roots have also not heard or encountered them. During the long past days of the genuine Dharma and the superficial Dharma, disciples of the Buddha knew them, studied them, and explored them through their training with their Master. Nowadays only one or two among a thousand monks know the “Eight Realizations of a Great One”. Sad to say, there is nothing to compare to the degeneration of the Dharma in these decadent times of ours. While the Tathagata’s True Dharma is still circulating in the great-thousandfold world and His immaculate Dharma has not yet disappeared, you should hasten to learn It. Do not be slack and neglect It. 

To encounter the Buddha’s Dharma is difficult even in immeasurable eons. To obtain a human body is also difficult. And even if you do obtain a human body, to obtain a human body on one of the three continents is better. Among these three, being a human on the southern continent is best, because there one can encounter Buddha, hear the Dharma, leave home life behind to become a monk, and realize the Way. Those who died prior to the Tathagata’s entering His parinirvana had not heard of the eight realizations of a Great One, much less studied them. That you now have encountered and heard of them, and are studying them, is due to the strength of the good roots you planted in the past. In your studying them now, in your developing them in life after life and thereby arriving, without fail, at the supreme awakening to Truth, and in your giving expression to them for the sake of sentient beings, you may well be the equal of Shakyamuni Buddha. May there be no difference between the two of you.

Written at Eihei-ji Temple on the sixth day of the first lunar month in the fifth year of the Kenchō era (February 5, 1253) 
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Now, on the day before the end of the summer retreat in the seventh year of the Kenchō era (August 3, 1255), I had my clerical officer Gien finish copying this text.5 At the same
time, I have proofed his copy.

This was our Master’s last discourse, drafted when he was already ill. Among other things, I heard him say that he wanted to rework all of the Shōbōgenzō that had previously been written in Japanese script 6 and also to include some new manuscripts, so that he would be able to compile a work consisting altogether of one hundred discourses.

This present discourse, which was a first draft, was to be the twelfth of the new ones. After this our Master’s illness worsened. As a result, he stopped working on such things as the drafts. Therefore, this draft is our late Master’s final teaching for us. Unfortunately, we will never see His full draft of the hundred chapters, which is something to be greatly regretted. Those who love and miss our late Master should, by all means, make copies of this twelfth chapter, and take care to preserve it. It contains the final instructions of our Venerable Shakyamuni and is the final legacy of our late Master’s Teaching. I, Ejō, have given this final account.