Question Five:

Q. [Someone] asks, “Among the three kinds oftraining [in the precepts, concentration and wisdom]there is training in [concentration], and among the six Paramitas [the Perfections of charity, keeping the precepts, patience, diligence, the practiceof meditation and wisdom] there is [included meditation], both of which allbodhisattvas learn from the outset and all bodhisattvas practice, regardless ofwhether they are clever or stupid. The zazen [that you are discussing] now issurely one of these [and already included]. Why do you say that the Tathagata’s[Buddha’s] right Dharma is concentrated in this [one practice of zazen]?”

A. I say: The question arises because this rightDharma-eye treasury, the supreme and great method, which is the one great matterof the Tathagata has been called the “Zen Sect.” Remember that thistitle”Zen Sect” was established in Chinaand the east; it is not heard in India. When Great Master Bodhidharmafirst stayed at Shaolin Temple in the Sung-shan mountainsand faced the wall for nine years, monks and laymen were still ignorant of theBuddha’s right Dharma, so they called [Master Bodhidharma] a Brahman man whomade a religion of zazen. Thereafter, the patriarchs of successive generationsall constantly devoted themselves to zazen. [Foolish] secular people who saw this,not knowing the reality, talked at random of a Zazen Sect. Nowadays, droppingthe word “Za”, they talk of just the Zen Sect. This interpretation is clear fromrecords of the patriarchs. [Zazen] should not be [considered to be theconcentration and meditation] in the six paramitas and the three kinds oftraining.

That this Buddha-Dharma is the legitimate intention ofthe one-to-one transmission has never been concealed through the ages. In theorder on Vulture Peak in ancient times, when the Tathagata gave the Dharma toVenerable Mahakasyapa, transmitting the right Dharma-eye treasury and the finemind of nirvana, the supreme and great method, only to him, the ceremony waswitnessed directly by beings among the celestial throng which are present inthe world above, so it must never be doubted. It is a universal rule that thosecelestial beings will guard and maintain the Buddha-Dharma eternally; theirefforts have never faded. Just remember that this [transmission of zazen] isthe whole truth [and complete path] of the Buddha’s Dharma; nothing can becompared with it.

From: Bendowa – A Talk about Pursuing the Truth  – Nishijima-Cross [with some amendments according to Uchiyama]