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Dōgen's 51st Fascicle in the Shobogenzo is centered around a conversation between an unnamed Minister and Master Kokaku. Mitsugo means "secret talk." The Case: > Great Master Kokaku of Ungo-zan mountain, the story goes, is served offerings by a government official, who asks, "The World-Honoured One has secret talk; for Mahākāśyapa nothing is concealed. What is the World-Honoured One's secret talk?" > > The Great Master calls out, "Minister!" > > The man responds. > > The Great Master says, "Do you understand or not?" > > The official says, "I do not understand." > > The Great Master says, "If you do not understand, it is the World-Honoured One's secret talk. If you understand, it is Mahākāśyapa's state of nothing being concealed." > > Gudo Nishijima & Chodo Cross. *Master Dogen's Shobogenzo: Book 3*. Windbell Publications, 1997.p. 79. Kokaku was a posthumous title. His name in Chinese is Yunju Daoying (雲居道膺) and he died in the very early 900s. Kokaku was a student of Dongshan Liangjie and is the thirty-ninth ancestor. Kokaku is adding more confusion here on purpose. He wants the Minister to take a leap. The Minister won't and does not. It's also important to understand that often (if not each time) there is a government official (minister) in these stories that there is a sort of mocking sense to the interaction. In old China, officials memorized Confucian ideology and wrote tests on it. 100% an intellectual exercise. They are always stumped in these koan dialogues with Masters and even by tea and bun sellers shilling hack-Zen on the road. While it may be tempting to take a position (side) here and think that not understanding is better than understanding or that understanding is better than not understanding. Don't. The tension between these two is the point and that point is to give it all up and jump off the cliff (metaphorically). Kokaku is pointing to the same type of not knowing that Dizang meant when he said, "Not knowing is most intimate" and equally he is pointing to something else that is going on with Mahākāśyapa. Mahākāśyapa was the first to receive transmission (of absolutely nothing at all) from Shakyamuni Buddha who twirled a flower, saw Mahākāśyapa break into a smile and gave him transmission. But what was transmitted and how? The word transmission is misleading. Simply, you can not receive (transmission) of something that you already possess, particularly if it is inherent. So, what is transmitted and why use that word? Dōgen goes on in more detail and has some cautions. I'd like to pick up the fascicle on page 82 where he says: > In sum, the World-Honoured One has secret talk, secret action, and secret experience. Stupid people, however, think that "secret" means other people do not know but the subject knows, and that there are initiated people and uninitiated people. > > ... > > Secret talk, secret will, secret action, and so on in the Buddha-Dharma are beyond reasoning. When we meet a human being, that is just when we hear secret talk and talk secret talk. We know ourselves, we know secret action. Moreover, a Buddhist [Sage] is able thoroughly to penetrate and to discern the secret will and the secret talk described previously. Remember, in the momentary state of a Buddhist [Sage], secret words and secret acts vie to be realized. What has been described as "secret" is the truth of immediacy. > > Gudo Nishijima & Chodo Cross. *Master Dogen's Shobogenzo: Book 3*. Windbell Publications, 1997. p. 82-83 (I replace Patriarch with [Sage] simply to ungender the text.) Taking up Zen as a practice, we sit upright with a straight back and listen to the cries of the world. Listening to the cries of the world is identical to hearing our True self. This listening is not limited to the ears. It is our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Those are our senses and they are the only means we have to understand the world. All the world, you included. Especially you. I once said to a friend: "When you practice like this, in no particular order: you uncover your own bullshit, have a laugh or a cry over it, merge with it, and see right through it. When you see through your own self, you see through all the others because they are one and the same. Not two." I've said too much here already and the point of practice is not to be given all the answers but to discover it for yourself. Please use your common sense to find ordinary Mind. Common sense and ordinary mind are not two. The flower is still twirling the Dharma is still twirling you. SP // DF