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I climbed from the bottom to the top of Mount Tsukuba, the famous mountain near Treeleaf (in Tsukuba, Japan) … sat some Zazen … then climbed back down again … A little custom of mine, a climb to no where step by step … Zazen to no where step by step … the scenery always…

( Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook – XVI) A chant heard daily in Zen temples is the “Sandokai“, the “Merging of Relative and Absolute“, by Sekito Kisen, the 8th Zen Ancestor in China. It includes images such as these, speaking of the “light” and the “dark” … conveying the relationship of this world of “relative”…

( Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook – XV) Uchiyama Roshi translates this section in a very nice way … It is vital that we clarify and harmonize our lives with our work, and not lose sight of either the absolute or the practical. Handle even a single leaf of a green in such a way…

When Dogen was in China, he heard this verse that we are all still chanting as we are about to put the Kesa on.  Vast is the robe of liberation  formless robe, field of happiness.  I wear the Tathagatha’s teaching  Liberating all sentient beings.    Dai sai ge dap pu ku,  Mu so fu ku…
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