Buddha nature | The Dōgen Institute

Dōgen’s Chinese Poems (76)

A Hairy Turtle on Zhaozhou’s Single Staff
429. Dharma Hall Discourse

狗子佛性」 (Dog’s Buddha-nature)

龜毛兎角非同類　(龜毛兎角と同類に非ず。)
春日花明如月開 (春日、花明かにして月の開くが如し。)
業識性將諸佛性　(業識性と諸佛性と、)
趙州主杖一條來 (趙州の拄杖、一條に來る。)

A turtle with hair and a rabbit with a horn
are not of the same kind.
On a spring day a flower’s brightness
is like the moon opening.
The nature of karmic consciousness
together with all Buddha natures,
Zhaozhou’s single staff arrives.[1]

This is verse 75 in Kuchūgen, and the Dharma hall discourse (上堂, jōdō) 429 in Volume 6 of Eihei Kōroku. This was given between the 8^th day of the 4^th month and the 27th day of 5^th month in 1251. This verse in Manzan’s version is the same as Monkaku’s version.

A Hairy Turtle on Zhaozhou’s Single Staff
Dharma Hall Discourse

This is a short Dharma hall discourse given during the three-month summer practice period in 1251. Dōgen simply introduces the kōan of Zhaozhou’s dog and presents this poem.

To understand this poem, we need to understand Dōgen’s unique interpretation of this famous kōan story. To do so, it is helpful to investigate how this kōan had been understood before Dōgen. In the Recorded Saying of Zen Master Zhaozhou (趙州禅師語録, Jōshū Zenji Goroku), there are two dialogues regarding a dog’s buddha nature.

（１）
問、「狗子還有佛性也無。」
師云、「無。」
學云、「上至諸佛下至螘子。皆有佛性。狗子為什麼無」。
師云、「為伊有業識性在。」
A monk asked: “Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?”
The master said, “Not [mu]!”
The monk said, “Above to all the Buddhas, below to the crawling bugs, all have Buddha-nature. Why is it that the dog has not?”
The master said, “Because he has the nature of karmic delusions.”[2]

（２）
問、「狗子還有佛性也無」。
師云、「家家門前通長安」。
A monk asked, “Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?”
The master said, “The door of every house leads to the capital (Chan-an).”[3]

In the first dialogue, Zhaozhou said “Not (無, mu), and in the second dialogue, he said the dog has buddha-nature, because all roads lead to the capital. The name of the capital in the Tang dynasty was Chan-an (長安), meaning “eternal peace.”

It seems this kōan was developed in two ways. In the Song dynasty, the first case of the Mumonkan (無門関, Gateless Barrier), created within the Rinzai (Linji) tradition, took only the first part of the first dialogue:

問、「狗子還有佛性也無。」
師云、「無。」
A monk asked: “Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?”
The master said, “Not [Mu]!”[4]

This is the most well-known form of the dog’s buddha-nature kōan. Even today, this is one of the most important kōans for beginners in Hakuin’s kōan system. Zenkei Shibayama Rōshi said in his teishō on this kōan:

“The experience of the Buddha Nature is creatively expressed here by “Mu.” Although literally “Mu” means No, in this case it points to the incomparable satori which transcends both yes and no, to the religious experience of the Truth one can attain when he casts away his discriminating mind. It has nothing to do with the dualistic interpretation of yes and no, being and nonbeing. It is Truth itself, the Absolute itself.”[5]

In the Caodong (Sōtō) tradition, Hongzhi Zhengjue (宏智正覚, Wanshi Shokaku, 1091–1157) collected one hundred kōans and composed verses on each of them. Case 18 of his collected kōans is Zhaozhou’s Dog. It is longer than the Mumonkan version:

僧問趙州、「狗子還有佛性也無」。
州云、「有」。　
僧云、「既有、爲甚麼卻撞入這箇皮袋」。　
州云、「爲他知而故犯」。
又有僧問、「狗子還有佛性也無」。
州曰、「無」。
僧云、「一切衆生皆有佛性。狗子爲什麼卻無」。
州云、「爲伊有業識在」。
A monk asked Zhaozhou, “Does a dog have a buddha-nature or not?”
Zhaozhou said, “Yes.”
The monk said, “Since it has, why is it then in this skin bag?”
Zhaozhou said, “Because he knows yet deliberately transgresses.”
Another monk asked Zhaozhou, “Does a dog have a budhha-nature or not?”
Zhaozhou said, “No.”
The monk said, “All sentient beings have buddha-nature – why does a dog have none, then?”
Zhaozhou said, “Because he still has impulsive consciousness.”[6]

Hongzhi’s version added the first half about Zhaozhou’s answer “Yes (有, U).” Later, in the 13^th century, Wansong Xingxiu (万松行秀, 1166–1246) gave teishō on Wanshi’s collection of kōans and made the Book of Serenity (従容録, Shōyōroku). Wansong said in his instruction to this kōan, “A gourd floating on the water – push it down and it turns.” A dried gourd (bottle gourd) was used as water container. When we push a floating bottle gourd, it turns and shows a different part of itself. In this case “有, u” and “無, mu” are the way one floating gourd can be seen depending upon how we see it. Hongzhi interpreted that Zhaozhou offered “有, U” to the first monk because he might be a beginner, and to the second monk “無, Mu” because he might be mature enough. It was like Mazu’s skillful means—to give a yellow leaf to the crying baby saying that it was a coin, and after the baby stopped crying, to take it away.

In Shōbōgenzō Buddha-nature (佛性, Busshō), Dōgen discusses this kōan in a unique way, different from the Mumonkan and the Book of Serenity. He used Hongzhi’s version of the dialogue, but changed the order. To the first monk, Zhauzhou replied “無, Mu,” and to the second monk “有, U” . Therefore, Dōgen does not allow us to think that Zhaozhou first gave buddha-nature and then took it away.

In the beginning of the Busshō fascicle, Dōgen says that the entire-being of all living beings are buddha nature (悉有佛性, shitsuu busshō). Buddha-nature is not something like ātman (a permanent Self), owned by every sentient being but hidden. Therefore, the question “if a dog has buddha-nature or not” does not make sense to him. Buddha-nature is how all beings are, as true reality. Dōgen interprets the monk’s question as,

[The monk] is neither asking if [a dog] has buddha-nature, nor if [a dog] lacks buddha-nature. He is asking if an iron man also studies the way.[7]

An iron man is a strong, determined bodhisattva, thus the question means, “Does the dog, the determined bodhisattva, still practice?” And the answer is, of course, it does.

Shakyamuni Buddha taught the Middle Way avoiding two extremes, “the view of existing (有見, u-ken) and “the view of non-existing (無見, mu-ken),” that is, all beings are neither being (有, u) nor non-being (無, mu). In Mahāyāna Buddhism, this way of being is called the middle way, emptiness, and the “true reality of all beings (諸法実相, shohō jissō).” Dōgen named this way of all beings as buddha-nature. Negation of being (有, u) is hi-u (非有), that is mu (無), and negation of non-being (無) is hi-mu (非無), that is u (有). From one way of viewing it, each being is u (有) and from another way of viewing each being is mu (無). Being and non-being completely interpenetrate each other.

In the same logic, each thing is u-buddha-nature and at the same time mu-buddha-nature. That is what Dōgen discusses in Shōbōgenzō Buddha-nature. It can be also said that the dog is completely buddha-nature and at the same time, completely karmic-consciousness-nature. Buddha-nature and karmic-nature are not a dichotomy, not half and half. When the dog is karmic-nature, there is no buddha-nature; and when the dog is buddha-nature, there is no karmic-nature. The dog, the iron man, needs karmic consciousness to practice and walk with all beings in samsara, where all beings are.

The first bodhisattva vow is, “beings are numberless, I vow to free them.” If we are a bodhisattva, we vow to help all beings to cross over the river between this shore of samsara and the other shore of nirvāṇa. To work with all beings, we need to stay on this shore, because all beings are suffering on this shore of samsara. Bodhisattvas vow not to enter nirvāṇa until all living beings have entered nirvāṇa. To stay on this shore, bodhisattvas need karmic consciousness. According to Dōgen, Zhaozhou’s dog is an iron-man, a determined bodhisattva. The dog needs karmic consciousness to work in the world of dogs. Buddha-nature needs to enter the dog’s skin-bag and to use dog’s karmic-consciousness. Buddha-nature is intentionally born as a dog to work as a bodhisattva. This is the summary of what Dōgen says about the dog’s buddha-nature in the fascicle of Shōbōgenzō Buddha-nature.

A turtle with hair and a rabbit with a horn are not of the same kind.
On a spring day a flower’s brightness is like the moon opening.

The expression, “a turtle with hair and a rabbit with a horn (亀毛兎角) is from the Mahāyāna Nirvāṇa Sutra in which the Buddha said that living beings’ buddha-nature is not “being (有)” and is not “non-being (無)”：

The Buddha-Nature is “not-is,” but it is not as with the horn of a hare [i.e. it is not that it does not exist]. Why? Even with innumerable expedients, the hair of a tortoise and the horns of a hare cannot come about. The Buddha-Nature can come about. So, though “not-is,” it is not the same as the horn of a hare. So, the Buddha-Nature is neither “is” nor “not-is”; it is “is” and “not-is.”[8]

Buddha-nature is not like turtle’s hair or rabbit’s horn, which are only names. Buddha-nature is how turtle and rabbit are—as emptiness, middle way, or interdependent origination, neither being (有, u) nor non-being (無, mu).

According to Dōgen, Buddha-nature is not something hidden somewhere in the five aggregates, our body and mind. As he wrote in Tenzo Kyōkun, it is not hidden, and it is always revealed as clear as the brightness of a flower on a spring day, or like the moon revealed when clouds disperse in the autumn night.

The nature of karmic consciousness together with all Buddha natures,
Zhaozhou’s single staff arrives.

The third line shows karmic-nature and Buddha-nature as two names of the same thing. Even when I arouse bodhi-mind, take the bodhisattva vows, and receive the bodhisattva precepts, my karmic nature as “Shohaku” who was born in 1948 in Japan, three years after the world War II cannot be deleted. While I was growing up, I could not reject the influences from my family, neighbors, friends, or from the way people lived and worked in Japanese society; all those things happening around me became elements of my personality. After I became a teenager, I wanted to make myself in the way I wished, but it was not possible beyond a certain degree. When I became a Buddhist priest, the only thing I could use was what I had studied and experienced from my circumstances since my babyhood. By studying Buddhist teachings and practicing Buddhism, my way of thinking, making decisions, and acting might be changed certain degree, but still, the karmic-nature of the boy who grew up in Osaka, Japan is there. This is the only thing I can use for the sake of the Dharma.

“Zhaozhou’s single staff arrives” came from Zhaozhou’s poem at the end of the Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Zhaozhou, entitled “Song of the Twelve Hours of the Day.” In this long poem, Zhaozhou describe his day-to-day simple life with neighboring people as an aged monk at a poor village temple. In the last line of “Sun down. The ninth hour of the day,” Zhaozhou wrote:

一條拄杖麤棘藜,不但登山兼打狗。（一條の拄杖、麤棘藜、但だ山に登るのみならず、兼ねて狗を打つ。）
A staff of rough bramble wood;
It’s not just for mountain climbing but also to chase off dogs.[9]

Zhaozhou used rough bramble wood as his staff. He used the staff not only for climbing the mountain of the Buddhadharma of ultimate truth, but also to chase off dogs’ duality of u and mu in the day-to-day affairs of ordinary living. Citing this usage of a staff from Zhaoshou’s poem and his simple way of life, Dōgen says that Zhaozhou used one staff to show the non-duality of the dog’s karmic-nature and the dog’s buddha-nature.

It is interesting that, following Zhaozhou, Dōgen composed his own Verses for the Twelve Hours and included it at the end of Dōgen’s Extensive Record (永平広録, Eihei Kōroku). In Dōgen’s verse, he describes the monks’ practice in the monks’ hall during twelve hours.

In the verse on Twilight; Hour of the Dog [about 7–9 P.M.], Dōgen mentions dog’s nature:

How could a dog not have dog nature?
A frog’s whole body is like a frog.
A barefoot Chinaman learns Chinese walking,
Persians from the southern ocean offer ivory.[10]

Twilight in the monks’ hall is the time for evening zazen. To practice zazen is to be peacefully settled down in our own nature; that is, buddha-nature is karmic-nature; karmic-nature is buddha-nature; buddha-nature is nothing other than buddha-nature, karmic-nature is nothing other than karmic-nature.

[1] (Dōgen’s Extensive Record volume 6, Dharma hall discourse 429, p. 381–382) © 2010 Taigen Dan Leighton and Shohaku Okumura, Dōgen’s Extensive Record. Reprinted by arrangement with Wisdom Publications, Inc., www.wisdompubs.org.
[2] The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Joshu (by James Green, Shambhala,1998) #132, p.53. “Crawling bugs” (螘 Jp. ari) refers to ants.
[3] Ibid., # 363, p. 116.
There is another dialogue regarding buddha-nature, but it is not about a dog’s buddha-nature, but about an oak tree’s buddha-nature. A monk asked, “Does the oak tree have Buddha-nature or not?” The master said, “It does.” The monk said, “When will it become Buddha?” The master said, “When the sky falls to the ground.” The monk said, “When will the sky fall to the ground?” The master said, “When the oak tree becomes Buddha.” (#305, p.101)
[4] James Green’s translation. Another translation is in Zen Comments on the Mumonkan: The authoritative translation, with commentary, of a basic Zen text. (Zenkei Shibayama, translated by Sumiko Kudo, Harper & Row, 1974), p.19.
[5] Ibid., p.21–22.
[6] Translation by Thomas Cleary in Book of Serenity (Lindisfarne Press, 1990), p.76. “Impulsive consciousness” is a translation of gosshiki (業識), literally “karmic consciousness.”
[7] Okumura’s translation. Another translation is in Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō Vol. I (Sōtōshū Shūmuchō, 2023), p.108.
[8] Nirvana Sutra: A Translation of Dharmakshema’s Northern Version (translated by Kosho Yamamoto), p.313.
[9] Okumura’s unpublished translation.
[10] Dōgen’s Extensive Record (Wisdom Publications), p. 645.