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Zen Master Dogen Meets a Thirteenth-century PostmodernistHakuin's Daruma

by Terry C. MuckProfessor of Comparative Religion at Austin (TX) Presbyterian Theological SeminaryJournal of Ecumenical Studies 1998, Vol. 35, Iss. 1Author's Abstract: 1998 Journal of Ecumenical StudiesZen Master Dogen anticipates a great deal of the modern controversy between academicscholars and confessional theologians about how best to go about understanding truth. In a storyhe tells in his classic work, Shobogenzo, Dogen sketches out the problems of each of theseapproaches, even anticipating the rise of the postmodernist critique, and, through his storytellingand commentary, offers the seeds of fruitful ideas for a way forward: beyond rationalism, withoutrancor, toward a true ecumenism of the human spirit.

Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253), the thirteenth-century Japanese Buddhist teacher,(1) tells astory in his monumental Shobogenzo(2) that anachronistically illustrates the differences betweenpostmodern philosophers and theologians. The story is about a brilliant scholar, Tokuzan (779-865), and an old, unnamed woman selling rice cakes.Tokuzan, the scholar, had a well-deserved reputation for being the unquestioned authority on theDiamond Sutra, one of the most important Mahayana Buddhist texts. He was known as the King

of the Diamond Sutra. The Diamond Sutra is the locus classicus for the pivotal Buddhist teachingthat the individual mind has no existence apart from the oneness of all Being. In the Buddhisttexts this teaching is often summed up in the phrase, "the mind cannot be grasped."(3) The storyin the Shobogenzo goes like this:(4)

Word came to the scholar Tokuzan that in the south of China an Enlightened Buddhist teacherhad realized a new truth about the Diamond Sutra. True scholar that Tokuzan was, he packed upall his books and commentaries on the Diamond Sutra (over 300 pounds of them) and leftimmediately to take the long journey to hear first-hand this new teaching. On the way he pausedat a wayside rest stop and fell into a conversation with an independent businesswoman sellingrice cakes.

He asked her, "What is your business?"

"I sell rice cakes," she replied."Will you sell me a rice cake?""What do you want to buy a rice cake for?" [She was an independent businesswoman.]"To refresh my mind," said Tokuzan.The old woman took a look at Tokuzan's 300-pound load of books. "What is all that you are

carrying?""Haven't you heard? I am the King of the Diamond Sutra. I have mastered the Diamond Sutra.

There is no part of it that I do not understand. This load I am carrying is commentaries on theDiamond Sutra."

"Could I ask you a question?""Of course.""I have heard it said in the Diamond Sutra that past mind cannot be grasped, present mind

cannot be grasped, and future mind cannot be grasped. Which mind do you now intend to refresh

with my rice cakes? If you can tell me, I will sell you a rice cake. If not, I will not sell you my ricecakes."Tokuzan was dumbfounded and could not find an appropriate response.

The Three Characters

As Dogen tells the story, three personae emerge in this mini-drama: The first is the scholarTokuzan. He has all the positive, admirable characteristics of a scholar, and it takes only a littleimagination to compare him and his approach to life with the scholars of today. He is thorough,


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having read and mastered all there is to know about his special field, the Diamond Sutra. He isdedicated - the minute he hears about a new approach to his specialty he makes a long, difficult

journey to its source, a scholar in another place a long way from Tokuzan's home. He is objectiveand rationalistic; he does not dismiss this new theory as some crackpot idea but is willing to takea good long look at it to see if it has merit when measured against the prevailing canons ofDiamond Sutra study. Finally, he is honest; when the rice-cake woman asks him a question towhich he does not know the answer - an embarrassing question, really - he does not try to blusterthrough with an answer but simply sits in humiliating silence.The second persona is the rice-cake woman, who represents the common-sense voice of themasses. She brings a certain skepticism to bear on her famous customer, a skepticism that seesonly the dark side of what we have just listed as Tokuzan's strengths. By calling attention to his300 pounds of books, she makes his thoroughness seem compulsive. A certain weariness withwhich she approaches him transforms his dedication, as witnessed by his arduous journey, into akind of touristy excessiveness. She turns out to understand the suprarationalism of the veryBuddhist philosophy being taught by the Diamond Sutra, or at least the implications of thatsuprarationalism, better than Tokuzan, the expert. Tokuzan's dedication to scholarly objectivityand rationalism makes him blind to the existential implications of the Diamond Sutra's truth, and ittakes an uneducated person to point that out. In short, the rice-cake woman punctures thecarefully crafted public posture of the scholar, as one set apart to study the difficult truths of life,not realizing he is part of the very life he is studying. Is this not precisely what the postmodernists

of our own day are trying to point out to us - Derrida's questioning of any independent meaning oftexts,(5) Foucault's revelations of the social constructs behind all worldviews,(6) Rorty's radicalquestioning of any and all intellectual foundations?(7) In her approach to the "text" of Tokuzan'slife, the rice-cake woman - and it takes only a little imagination to see her this way - is athirteenth-century postmodernist.The third persona is Dogen himself, the unseen narrator who tells the story but also evaluates thetwo characters after telling the tale. Largely because of this normative evaluation, we mightimagine Dogen's modern equivalent to be the theologian.(8) His criticism of Tokuzan and the rice-cake woman is not total rejection of either one. Although he lets the rice-cake woman implicitlycall into question all that the scholar stands for, the story still leaves one with a certain admirationfor and sympathy with the scholarly task. It is obvious that Dogen is not dismissing all thatTokuzan does. In fact, as Dogen tells it later in the Shobogenzo, Tokuzan eventually discovers acertain level of truth, apparently as a result of this experience - he summed up his enlightenment

in the saying, "A rice cake painted in a picture cannot kill hunger."(9) Similarly, Dogen does notneedlessly exalt the rice-cake woman, even though he does let her represent the role reversalthat the "low" of society all dream about when they come in contact with the "high." With aneconomy of words and effort she delivers the perfect riposte that, for the moment at least, showsthe scholar's feet of clay. No, Dogen does not dismiss either of his characters but tells the story toshow that neither of them goes far enough in his or her approach to life. Neither of them, alone, atleast, can accurately portray reality. This is precisely the theologian's role: to show that ultimatemeanings are ultimate exactly because they judge all else and that we all, Dogen included, canonly point the way to ultimate truth, showing that we are all companion journeyers on the path.

Implications

It takes only one final act of imagination to see that in a real sense these three personae mirror

the intellectual and religious playing field of today.(10) Rationalists, postmodernists, andtheologians are engaged in a cultural confrontation that has the potential to send us into either anincreasingly fragmented nihilism or one of the richest times of human religious history.Nihilism will be the result if we insist that one of these three approaches to reality - rationalism,postmodernism, or theology - must dominate and win the war, largely by discrediting the othertwo. It is true that each of the three uses a different strategy to ensure that its point of viewpredominates. The rationalists see themselves defeating the postmoderns and the theologians bymaking a more objective, rational case for truth. The postmoderns see themselves leveling the"truth," if whatever reality is can even be called truth - that is, can show that all claims to truth areculturally and historically conditioned, incorrigibly so. The theologians see themselves as


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representatives for the suprarational dimension; in this dichotomizing of the world into sacred andprofane, they see themselves carving out a place - call it Nirvana, heaven, or whatever - wherewe can all eventually stand together. Each of these three epistemological strategies has greatstrength; to separate them into mutually exclusive approaches to truth will lead us to nihilism.Nihilism, however, does not have to be the result of our current cultural conflicts. The road awayfrom nihilism and toward wisdom is paved with the macadam of a rich mix of all three. All threepoints of view must find their place in a unified approach to truth that recognizes the mutualcontributions of rationalists, postmoderns, and theologians. I am an optimist. I run from nihilism.Thus, I am putting my money on this latter option. I think we are on the verge of a glorious newchapter in the religious development of humankind.I think this optimism is warranted by the facts, because all three groups (or at least most personsin all three groups) agree on two very important principles. First, they agree that something iswrong with our current fragmentation and our approaches to it. Second, they agree that much ofthe fragmentation and conflict is exacerbated and in many cases created by an inability to talkproductively about our differences. These two major agreements that create this common groundare far more valuable than we usually allow ourselves to dream. It is a place to start as werecognize that our real differences lie in the strategies (based, perhaps, on our analysis of howthe fragmentation comes about in the first place) that we each propose in order to solve theproblem.

Dogen's Criticisms

With that in mind (which amounts to adding one final persona, myself, to the mix), I would like tosuggest that we can learn some important lessons about how to engage the current culturaldebates by observing especially three of the criticisms Dogen brings to bear in his commentaryon his pithy story in the Shobogenzo.First is his implicit criticism of Tokuzan. As important as the rational is, truth goes beyond it. Truththat does not recognize the action part, performative truth, is not truth at all, no matter howlogically consistent, useful, faithful to reality, or internally coherent. In the first place, Tokuzan failsby not realizing this important truth about "truth." His reaction to the rice-cake woman shows thathe has studied the Diamond Sutra all his life without seeing its challenge, claim, and wisdom forhim, the King of the Diamond Sutra. However, Dogen sees Tokuzan's failure going much deeper.He criticizes Tokuzan for not coming back at the rice-cake woman: "If Tokuzan were a stout

fellow, he might have the power to examine and defeat the old woman."(11) Dogen then createsdialogue for the way their confrontation might have gone had Tokuzan been a stout man, that is,someone truly willing to step outside the rational bounds he had set for his life and see that, asimportant as rationality is, it must be augmented, completed, gone beyond. Without this the life ofmind is a caricature. Dogen tells other stories of Tokuzan in the Shobogenzo, and it is clear that,although he makes progress under a later teacher, he is still something of a caricature used as ateaching model by Dogen.Second is Dogen's explicit criticism of the rice-cake woman. He expresses doubts that she wasthe genuine article. He is not particularly impressed that she challenged Tokuzan on his pridefulmisunderstandings, for two reasons. First, she did it in such a way that dumbfounded Tokuzanand silenced him. A real teacher, Dogen says, would raise questions in such a way that wouldencourage response, even from one "with horns on his head" (one who has a high opinion ofoneself).(12) Second, and much more importantly, the rice-cake woman did not offer a positive

view herself. She "swung her sleeves" (showing contempt)(13) and flounced away. As Dogensums it up, "She had questions, but she is without assertions."(14) Again, Dogen creates a might-have-been dialogue between the two, had Tokuzan been a stout fellow and the rice-cake womana genuine article. Neither was.In essence, what is Dogen's criticism of her? She was not an advocate. She was purely aproblematizer, calling everything and all meaning into question, with nothing to offer in the way ofguidance. This is counter to the Bodhisattva ideal, which Dogen represents and which fills thepages, lines, and between the lines of the Shobogenzo. The Shobogenzo is filled with advocacy,passionate concern that others see that there is a path to Enlightenment. In his chapter called"Bendowa" in the Shobogenzo, Dogen says, "At last I visited Zen Master Nyojo of Dai-byaku-ho


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mountain, and there I was able to complete the great task of a lifetime of practice. After that, atthe beginning of the great Sung era of Shojo, I came home determined to spread the Dharma andto save living beings - it was as if a heavy burden had been placed on my shoulders. . . . I willleave this record to people who learn in practice and are easy in the truth, so that they can knowthe right Dharma of the Buddha's lineage. This may be a true mission."(15) Dogen saw himself,along with all the Buddhist patriarchs and bodhisattvas, as beings on a mission - to teach allsentient beings dharma. The rice-cake lady failed in this important test.Third is Dogen's self-critical stance. Although he does not apologize for his passionatecommitment to dharma, he is the most chaste of men about his ability to articulate that dharmaclearly in words. This can perhaps be seen most clearly in his methodology in writing the chaptersof the Shobogenzo. As Dogen scholar and translator Gudo Nishijima so succinctly shows us,Dogen adopted a dialectical method to teach the unteachable.(16) He shows us in his teaching a"not-this, not-that" method, to move us closer to the truth residing somewhere in the middle. Thetrue middle, the truth, of course cannot be put in words - it can only be pointed to by the teacher.The teacher must practice truth and be committed to truth but must never claim infallibility for hisor her teachings or descriptions of the truth. The story of Tokuzan and the rice-cake woman is afine example of this dialectical method; the truth lies neither with the rational explanations of it norwith the silence (or contempt) that expresses the emptiness of it. Truth resides only in the actionof the whole web of being at this time and at this moment. We may realize truth only by takingactive part in it from moment to moment. Dogen saw himself as a teacher, a very good one,

pointing the way to truth, but even his attempts fell short.Dogen shows us that these three characters demonstrate both the wrong way and the right wayto proceed. The wrong way is to isolate a method that does not have the wherewithal to go thewhole way: the rationality of the scholar, the skepticism of the postmodern thinker, theotherworldliness of the theologian. The right way, perhaps, is to recognize that all three of thesemethodologies are essential in the arduous task of getting sentient beings moving towardenlightenment.

Is Synthesis Possible?

Looking forward seven centuries from Dogen's time, we must wonder, then, what will bring thesethree together. If Dogen's great insight has positive application to our time, how can we begin tointegrate these three methodologies to then, ironically, go beyond all three of them? I think it will

take some kind of "methodology" devised solely as a mediating "language," similar, perhaps, to acomputer program designed to translate among various word-processing programs. Perhaps itwill be an already existing "program." Some have regularly trotted out the poets and artistsamong us as being the best candidates for this task. A particularly fine and inspiring analysis ofthis was written by Miguel Leon-Portilla in his intellectual history of ancient Aztec culture inMexico. Leon-Portilla's hypothesis is that the real powers of that flourishing culture were thepoets, those experts in "songs and flowers," the only way truly to capture the two-sidedambiguities of life.(17)Others have championed a renewed appreciation of metanarratives that take us beyond simplestory and dogma and point us to the ineffable, ongoing story of the beyond. By rediscovering andperhaps creating meaningful myths for our day and age, we can relate all types of knowledge andwisdom - seemingly incommensurable knowledge and wisdom - to a higher, ineffable truth. Stillothers point to those people in all fields of endeavor who discover this reality by rising to the

pinnacle of wisdom in their areas of expertise and then see that there is something still beyond.These are not just the famous, the great men and women of history, but unknowns who discoverthis truth in the course of living and learning.All of these are good possibilities. Perhaps it is the language/experience of contemplation andmeditation that will allow them all to "speak" to one another about the "truths" of life that turn outto be truth precisely because that of which they speak is uncapturable in everyday words andlanguage.Looking six centuries backward, we can only be thankful for Dogen's contribution to this process.He was one of those giants who went beyond to discover and then teach what he found with atenacious passion. In his advocacy of dharma he used the methodologies of the scholars, the


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skeptics, and the theologians, but then he went beyond. To use his own classic phrase, he went"beyond study, without intention," to point to truth. He went beyond the study of the scholars andthe rationalists, beyond the usually well-meaning intentionality of the theologians, to tie it alltogether in truth. May we follow his path.

Notes1 Thomas Cleary, in his Rational Zen: The Mind of Dogen Zenji (Boston: Shambala, 1993), atranslation of a few selections from the Shobogenzo and Dogen's other great work, the EiheiKoroku, called Dogen "the greatest Japanese thinker in history" and called the Shobogenzo "thefirst and only major Buddhist philosophical text ever composed in the Japanese language . . .unmatched in its rational elucidation of Zen learning" (p. 36).2 I am using Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross's translation, Master Dogen's Shobogenzo(Surrey: Windbell Publications, 1994). The translators give an excellent history of the Japanesetext in the "Notes on the Translation" (pp. xi-xiv) and an appendix, "Bibliographies" (pp. 351-358).Other translations of various portions of the Shobogenzo have appeared, including Francis Cook,How to Raise an Ox: Zen Practice as Taught in Zen Master Dogen's Shobogenzo (Los Angeles:Center Publications, 1979); and Kazuaki Tanahusi, ed., Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of ZenMaster Dogen (San Francisco, CA: North Point Press, 1985). See also translations of variouschapters by Norman Wadell and Masao Abe in various issues of the Eastern Buddhist from 1971to 1976.

3 The name of the chapter in the Shobogenzo from which this story is taken is "Mind Cannot BeGrasped" (Shin-Fukatoku). It has been a bedrock of Western rationality since Descartes that wecan identify and objectify our own minds, thus implying that our minds exist substantially.Buddhists do not have confidence, however, that the mind exists and cannot support thatteaching. Actually, there are two chapters in the Shobogenzo called "Mind Cannot Be Grasped,"both of which include this story. The first is shorter and appears to be a transcription of Dogen'snotes for a lecture, the second being a perhaps longer transcription of the lecture itself (seeNishijima and Cross. Shobogenzo, pp. 221-238).4 I have edited the story somewhat.5 There is no easy Derrida work to recommend as an introduction. The best collection of hiswritings that appears to have religious implications is Jacques Derrida, The Gift of Death, tr.David Wills (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).6 Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language, tr. A. M.

Sheridan Smith (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972).7 Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1989).8 I will use the Western, Christian term "theologian" to denote the scholarly insider in anyreligious tradition.9 Nishijima and Cross, Shobogenzo, p. 223.10 I am aware of all the cultural transitions and permutations that must be accommodated inorder for the following series of analogies to work. I am convinced that the general point holds, atleast for heuristic purposes, in spite of the cultural bridging that must be done.11 Nishijima and Cross, Shobogenzo, p. 224.12 Ibid., n. 14.13 Ibid., p. 223, n. 10.14 Ibid., p. 224.

15 Ibid., pp. 2-3. Dogen, better than anyone else, captured the paradoxical teaching of MahayanaBuddhism (and especially the Wisdom Sutras) that bodhisattvas are dedicated to leading allsentient beings to dharma even as they realize that no one can be so "led."16 Ibid., pp. ix-x.17 Miguel Leon-Portilla, Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind, tr. JackEmory Davis (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990 [orig., 1963]).Terry C. Muck (Presbyterian Church [U.S.A.]) is professor of comparative religion at Austin (TX)Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where he has taught since 1990, following his editorship ofChristianity Today magazine (1980-90) and earlier teaching positions at Northwestern Universityand Bethel College. He holds a B.A. from Bethel College, St. Paul, MN; an M.Div. from Bethel


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Theological Seminary; and a Ph.D. in the history of religion (1977) from Northwestern University,with study of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka on a 1976-77 Fulbright-Hayes Research Grant.Ordained in 1974 by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), he is a member of Tres Rios Presbytery,whose theological commission he chairs. He is active in the National Conference [of Christiansand Jews], is an editor of Buddhist-Christian Studies, and represents the Presbyterians on theCommission on Interfaith Relations of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.He frequently lectures and preaches for schools, civic groups, and churches. His eight booksinclude Evangelism and Interreligious Dialogue (Baker, 1996), Ministry and Theology in GlobalPerspective (Eerdmans, 1996), The Mysterious Beyond: A Guide to Studying Religion (Baker,1992), and Those Other Religions in Your Neighborhood (Zondervan, 1992). Over 150 of hisarticles have appeared in professional and popular journals, and he is editor of the LeadershipLibrary and the NIV Application Commentary.home

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