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Genjo Koan‘ is also the title of one of the most famous sections of Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo. The phrase has been translated many ways.

Nishijima Roshi rendered these words as “The Realized Universe.” Prof. Reiho Masunaga called it “the Koan expressed in daily life.” Shohaku Okamura Roshi wrote:

My understanding of the title “Genjo-koan” is genjo (reality actually and presently taking place) is koan (absolute truth and also a question from reality to us). And koan is nothing other than genjo (things actually happening in front of our eyes).
Every thing, every place, is ‘the universe realized’

What is called sitting-Zen is not learning Zen meditation. It is just a peaceful and effortless gate to reality. It is practice-and-experience which perfectly realizes the Buddha’s enlightenment. The Universe is realized [公案現成 Kôan genjô], untouched by restrictions or hindrances. To grasp this meaning is to be like a dragon that has found water, or like a tiger before a mountain stronghold. Remember, true reality is naturally manifesting itself before us, and gloom and distraction vanish at a stroke. [NISHIJIMA]

The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the koan realized; traps and snares can never reach it. If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that the true dharma appears of itself, so that from the start dullness and distraction are struck aside. [SZTP]

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Tosu‘ (Latrine) at Tofuku-ji Zen Temple, Kyoto (Muromachi Period, 16th? Century)
Designated ‘Important Cultural Property’

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