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普勸坐禪儀

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Text ID
KR6t0286
Date
1227–1233
Dynasty
日本

Pǔquàn zuòchán yí 普勸坐禪儀

Universal Recommendations for the Practice of Seated Meditation by 道元 Dōgen (撰)

About the work

A single-fascicle (one short shū 抄, ~1,300 characters) foundational manual of zazen practice by 道元 Dōgen (1200–1253), the founder of the Japanese Sōtō-Zen school. Composed almost immediately on Dōgen’s return from Sòng China in Antei 1 / 1227 (the surviving autograph fragment in Dōgen’s hand bears the date 7 / 15 of that year), the Fukan zazen-gi is the earliest of Dōgen’s signature compositions and the single most concise statement of his teaching on seated meditation. The Taishō recension is the kōroku (廣録) — expanded — version, lightly revised by Dōgen during his later teaching career at Eihei-ji.

Abstract

The opening lines establish the work’s argumentative frame:

“The Way is fundamentally complete and all-pervading: how could it depend on training and verification? The vehicle of the lineage is naturally free: what need is there for the labour of striving? Moreover, the whole substance is entirely beyond the dust of the world — who would credit the means of brushing-and-dusting? It does not depart from the very place — what need to use the foot of training-practice? Yet, if there is a hair’s-breadth of difference, heaven and earth are torn far apart; once compliance and resistance arise, in confusion the mind is lost. Even if one boasts of understanding and abundant realisation, gains a moment of insight-wisdom, attains the Way and clarifies the mind, raises a sky-piercing aspiring spirit, and roams freely in the borderlands of entry-point — still, the living road of stepping forth from the body is fundamentally deficient.”

The text then turns directly to practical instruction on zazen — the principal source for almost all subsequent Sōtō-Zen meditation pedagogy:

  • The place: a quiet room; moderation in food and drink; setting aside all conditions (shinjin datsuraku-no-hōmon) and resting from all affairs; not thinking good or evil, not concerning oneself with right and wrong.
  • The posture: thick mat with pukatama (zafu) cushion; full lotus (kekka-fūza) or half-lotus (hanka-fūza); precise placement of feet, hands (hōkaijōin — right hand on left foot, left palm on right palm, thumbs meeting); spine upright, ears aligned with shoulders, nose with navel; tongue against upper palate; lips and teeth shut; eyes open in soft gaze; breathing through the nose, soft and easy.
  • The discipline of mind: “Sit at ease — go-tsu go-tsu — and think of the non-thinking (shi-ryō-ko fu-shi-ryō-tei). How do you think non-thinking? — Non-thinking (hi-shi-ryō). This is the essential art of zazen.” This three-line exchange — between attendant and master Yáoshān Wéiyǎn — is the signature epistemological move of Dōgen’s zazen teaching.
  • The rising: gentle stretching and gradual rise; “by virtue of this power, those who transcend the ordinary and pass beyond the sage die seated and stand departing (zazatsu ryūbō) and are entrusted to it.”

The work’s argumentative shape — beginning from a recognition that “this very place” is fundamental, then prescribing precise practice — is the principal locus of the fundamental position of Sōtō-Zen: that zazen is not a technique for attaining enlightenment but is itself enlightenment (“shūshō ichi nyo 修證一如” — practice and verification are one).

The dating bracket is the standard scholarly bracket: composition c. 1227 (the autograph fragment in Dōgen’s hand survives) to the final form of the kōroku recension finalised by c. 1233 when Dōgen had completed his move to Kannon-dōri-Kōshōji 觀音導利興聖寺. The Taishō recension reproduces this revised form.

Translations and research

The Fukan zazen-gi is one of the most-translated texts in Japanese Buddhism. Principal English translations:

  • Carl Bielefeldt, Dōgen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation (Univ. of California Press, 1988) — the standard critical translation with extensive textual-historical apparatus (manuscript variants, the autograph fragment, the kōroku revisions). Contains both the Tenpuku (天福) and kōroku versions.
  • Norman Waddell and Masao Abe, The Heart of Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō (SUNY Press, 2002), appendix.
  • Kazuaki Tanahashi (ed.), Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dōgen (North Point Press, 1985).

For the textual history and the relation between Fukan zazen-gi and the Chán tradition’s zuò-chán-yí manuals (the Cì-běn fǎ-jīng-jì and the Chánmén guī-shì in particular), see Bielefeldt 1988, chs. 2–3.

Other points of interest

The text was composed in pure Chinese (kanbun) for circulation among Dōgen’s continental contacts; it is therefore one of the few Dōgen compositions that could be read in China. Bielefeldt’s textual analysis shows that the work is in significant part a rewriting of the Zuòchán yí 坐禪儀 attributed in the Chinese tradition to Chánglú Zōngzé 長蘆宗賾 (fl. 1100), but with substantial Dōgen-original modifications — notably the think-non-thinking exchange from Yáoshān, and the framing argument that zazen is not a means but is itself the realisation. The work is recited daily at every Sōtō-Zen temple before the morning zazen sit.

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