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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.
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ç¾æˆ 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]
‘Tosu‘ (Latrine) at Tofuku-ji Zen Temple, Kyoto (Muromachi Period, 16th? Century)
Designated ‘Important Cultural Property’
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