Shobogenzo: Seul Bouddha connait Bouddha

·期刊原文
Shobogenzo: Seul Bouddha connait Bouddha [and] Vie-mort: Extrait de Shobogenzo de Dogen Zenji[,]...
Reviewed by Stambaugh, Joan

Philosophy East and West
Vol. 51, No. 2 (April 2001)
pp. 320-321

Copyright 2001 by University of Hawaii Press

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p.320

Shobogenzo: Yui Butsu yo Butsu [and] Shoji = [parallel French title:] Shobogenzo: Seul Bouddha connait Bouddha [and] Vie-mort: Extrait de Shobogenzo de Dogen Zenji[,] Maitre Zen de XII ieme Siecle = [parallel English title:] Shobogenzo: Only Buddha Knows Buddha [and] Life-death: Extract from Shobogenzo by Dogen Zenji[,] XIIth Century Zen Master. By Dogen. Traduit du japonais et annote par Eido Shimano Roshi et Charles Vacher = Translated from Japanese and annotated by Eido Shimano Roshi and Charles Vacher [trilingual edition]. La Versanne, France: Encre Marine, 1999. Pp.152.

Reviewed by Joan Stambaugh

Eido Shimano Roshi and Charles Vacher have completed their second effort at translating selections from Dogen's Sh6b6genz6 into English and French. Their first effort was a translation of Uji (Being-time), an early work. Now later works follow: Yui Butsu yo Butsu (Only Buddha knows Buddha) and Shoji (Life-death).

The most striking feature of the translation here of the "Yui Butsu yo Butsu" fascicle is a more meaningful rendering of the title. Whereas most other translations read "Only Buddha and Buddha"-which is at best enigmatic, if not

p.321

unintelligible-this translation has "Only Buddha knows Buddha," a distinct improvement. The fascicle deals with the ability to know and recognize other beings of the same kind: fish knowing the fishes' heart, birds finding the birds' trail. Fourlegged animals have no inkling of the birds' trail; it lies outside their ken. Similarly, an ordinary person, lacking the Buddha-eye, cannot recognize a buddha, able to see only the outside surface, only attributes and not the traces or trails. "Trace" or "trail" is intended here in the sense not of anything left over or behind-a kind of defilement-but rather of an indicator of where a buddha has gone.

The phrase immediately following "Only Buddha knows Buddha" and repeated throughout the fascicle much like a Leitmotif reads: naino gujin, complete combustion. These words are not to be found in the Sanskrit "original" text of the Lotus Sutra, but were formulated by Kumarajiva, the translator of the Lotus Sutra into Chinese. He was thus inspired to capture the gist of the Sutra: only Buddha knows Buddha: complete combustion. With these words the nonduality of the working and presenting of Buddha with that of the entire universe is given expression.

It is the particular merit of this translation to formulate "Only Buddha knows Buddha," in contrast to other translations that have a nearly meaningless "Only Buddha and Buddha," and to recapture Kumarajiva's brilliant interpretive words "complete combustion." The two are inseparable. When only Buddha knows Buddha, complete combustion, that is, penetration and presenting, takes place, the nonduality of samsara and nirvana.

To say that searching for the true self is the unavoidable fate of human beings (p. 79) sounds a bit deterministic. It would perhaps be preferable to say that it is the wish or desire of all human beings.

Shoji (life-death) has been used in China and Japan to translate samsara, the repeated cycles of birth and death. The brief fascicle "Shoji" emphasizes the nonduality of samsara and Buddha (nirvana). Buddha or awakening is to be found in samsara, nowhere else. The commonsense attitude is that life turns intobecomes-death. In contrast, Dogen states that life is a temporary condition with its before and after. Thus, life is beginningless. Death is a temporary condition with its before and after. Thus, death is deathless. If we crave life and abhor death, we lose the very life of the Buddha that is to be found nowhere else than in the midst of the whole of birth-life-death.

The fascicle concludes with the admonition to remain unattached, yet to have compassion for all beings.

This process of birth-life-death is not something that begins at physical birth and terminates with physical death, but is ongoing from moment to moment. Thus the supposed substantial continuity of our lives is sheer illusion. This lack of substantial continuity (sunyata, emptiness) constitutes the dynamic working of Buddha.

The translations here are lucid and written in such a way that they are accessible to the general public, and not just to scholars and specialists. The introduction and side notes are very helpful and illuminating, particularly with regard to the difficult issue of the relation of delusion and awakening.

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