KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN

FACULTY OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES

The Emptiness of Non-Understanding

in Dogen’s Essay on Koan One Bright Pearl

Paper

East and West Perspectives in Philosophy

Prof. dr. Andrew Whitehead

Student Master Theologie en Religiewetenschappen

Kurt Lannau

2024
Forword

Until recently I was perfectly aware of the fact that there are Roman-Catholics in
Japan, I was even in the possibility to add some interesting facts. It wouldn’t be wrong
calling this kind of knowledge useful in a quiz or an exam, but in the beginning of
September I became buddy of a Japanese student, who converted to Roman-Catholicism.
Since then we had a few chats, mostly about practical issues, but I noticed that my
supposed knowledge had changed, without new facts or data being added. The intrinsic
relation influenced my knowledge, my view, me. Although I was aware that human
relations can have this effect, the living experience changed my mind1.

Dogen starts his One Bright Pearl, by taking us back to Chan Master Xuansha.
By doing so he pronounces a relation, the relation between a master and his pupil, one
that is defined and like other relations, is not static. But it isn’t a single or isolated relation,
it is a complex cluster of relations. They are never general occurrences, only in a personal
context can one speak of a relation. That is not the same as narrowing all relations to
highly intimate relations. The intimacy that is present leaves room for distance. Dogen’s
travels brought him to places, where he was instructed in the teachings of the residing
master. His path didn’t end there, he travelled on, being able to distance himself from the
intimacy with any Zen master. So to speak: ongoing intimacy at a distance. Master
Xuansha lived some centuries before Dogen and was known for his one teaching: One
Bright Pearl. By recalling Xuansha’s one teaching, Dogen connects to the chain of
Masters, atomizes2 the koan of that Master and proceeds his own way from there. In this
way the pupils can discern their way. Dogen constructs, deconstructs and produces.

1
Cf. Heine. Dogen: Japan's Original Zen Teacher. Boulder(CO), Shambhala, 2021, 169.
2
Heine, Koans in the Dogen Traditon: How and Why Dogen Does What He Does with Koans. in: Philosophy east &
west, 54/1, 2004, 5-6.

1
Bibliografie

Dogen. Shobogenzo: Zen Essays by Dogen. Translated by Thomas F. Cleary. Honolulu:

University of Hawaii press, 1991.

Dogen. The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo. Edited
by Kazuaki Tanahashi. London: Shambhala, 2012.

Dogen. How to Raise an Ox: Zen Practice as Taught in Zen Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo.
Translated by Francis Dojun Cook. Los Angeles: Center publications, 1978.

Davis, Bret W., ed. The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford
university press, 2022.

Heine, Steven. Dogen: Japan's Original Zen Teacher. Boulder(CO): Shambhala, 2021.

Heine, Steven. Koans in the Dogen Traditon: How and Why Dogen Does What He Does
with Koans. in: Philosophy east & west, 54/1, 2004, 1-20.

Heisig, James W., Thomas P. Kasulis, John C. Maraldo, James W. Heisig, Thomas P.
Kasulis, and John C. Maraldo. Japanese Philosophy : A Sourcebook. Edited by James W.
Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis, and John C. Maraldo. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
2011.

Vande Walle, Willy. Een geschiedenis van Japan, Van samurai tot soft power. Leuven/Den
Haag: Acco, 2007, 95-111.

Waddell, Norman, and Abe Masao. “‘One Bright Pearl’ Dogen’s ‘Shobogenzo Ikka
Myoju.’”. in: The Eastern Buddhist 4/2, 1971, 108–118.

2
Introduction

In the West knowledge, comprehension, analysis, synthesis are seen as standard

procedures to approach any given text or work, but when encountering a work that uses
different rules, like Zen texts and practices do, this form of understanding is pushed to its
limits. The texts and practices of Zen Master Dogen are no exception. In the first part I
will focus on Dogen’s path that developed into a Way, which became meaningful for so
many. Through practise and commentaries on koans of previous Masters, Dogen
conferred his approach on discerning the Way. In the second part I will make an exegetical
study on Dogen’s essay3 on koan One Bright Pearl4, in which ‘understanding’ has such a
prominent place and will highlight Dogen’s approach to Buddhistic Emptiness in it. My
third and final part concludes with a reflection on Dogen’s Emptiness of (Non-
)Understanding. For this paper I will use the translation of Kazuaki Tanahashi5.

3
Term used in Heisig, James W., Thomas P. Kasulis, John C. Maraldo, James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis, and John
C. Maraldo. Japanese Philosophy : A Sourcebook. Edited by James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis, and John C.
Maraldo. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2011, 141.
4
Known in Japanese as Ikka Myoju.
5
Dogen. The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo. Edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
London: Shambhala, 2012, 34-38.

3
1. Dogen’s path

Considered as one of the Great Masters of Zen and founder of Soto Zen in Japan,
many view Dogen’s path as special and unique. Born in Kyoto (1200 CE) during the early
Kamakura Era6, into an aristocratic family serving at the imperial court, he was educated
accordingly. As an adolescent he was formed in the Tendai School of the Mahayana
Tradition, but after a few years he sought another path. This brought him to Kennin-ji,
and the teachings of Master Esai, who is believed to have brought Zen to Japan7 and
establishing the Rinzai School8. Dogen received there a formation focused on meditation
technics9, mostly by Myozen, who had succeeded Esai, after Esai’s death.

Dogen joined Myozen, when he travels to China, but Dogen isn’t able to leave the
ship that brought them to China. Only after a few months Dogen can leave the ship and
by then he goes his own way. He starts visiting temples, but isn’t impressed, he is even
disappointed in his search for a more authentic Buddhism. He meets Master Rujing10,
who had a great influence on Dogen’s path. He ends up staying two years, regularly
having private meetings with Rujing, studying Koan literature and writing literature
himself. Rujing spoke of attaining ‘casting off casting off’, not by Za or sitting, but by
Zazen11. The casting of body and mind, by the practise of ‘just sitting’, will be introduced
by Dogen in Japan.

After four years in China he travels back to Japan12, returning to Kennin-ji,

“empty-handed and full-headed (with emptiness)”13. Many masters and pupils, before
him, had travelled to China, ‘to go back to the roots’ of Chan. Bringing sutra’s, relics,
rituals to Japan from China. Dogen begged to differ. Soon he founded his own community

6
After the Genpai War (1180-1185) the Minamoto clan, also called Genji, established a new shogunate in Kamakura,
coming slowly to an end by internal division. It leads in the 1330’s to Ashikaga Takauji switching sides and
establishing the Ashikaga Era. Generally the Kamakura Era is seen as a very creative period, also for Buddhism in
Japan. See: Vande Walle, Een geschiedenis van Japan, Van samurai tot soft power. Leuven/Den Haag: Acco, 2007,
95-111.
7
Esai went to China, brings from China Chan scriptures and green tea seeds and building the first Zen temple in Japan,
Shofuku-ji. Later building Kennin-ji tempel in Kyoto.
8
Rinzai is the Japanese Zen School, originating from the Linji Chan School in China.
9
Cf. Heine, Dogen: Japan's Original Zen Teacher. Boulder(CO), Shambhala, 2021, 61.
10
At Tiantong Mountain, a Caodong Chan school.
11
Heine. Dogen Casts Off "What": An Analysis of Shinjin Datsuraku. in: The Journal Of The International
Association Of Buddhist Studies, 9/1, 1986, xxx. Also JPSB 141.
12
After four years in China, of those he spends two years with Rujing. Cf. Heine, Dogen: Japan's Original Zen
Teacher. Boulder(CO), Shambhala, 2021, 118.
13
Heine, Koans in the Dogen Traditon: How and Why Dogen Does What He Does with Koans. in: Philosophy east &
west, 54/1, 2004, 1.

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in Koshos-ji, which became the place of promoting the practise of ‘just sitting’14.
Commentaries on hundreds of koan, using honkadori15, would see the daylight in this
period16. By relegating the teachings of the Masters and by doing so, he establishes his
own School, focused on the practise of ‘just sitting’, known as the Soto School of Zen17.
Dogen left an extensive legacy of writings and the essay on koan ‘One Bright Pearl’
comes from Shobogenzo. His path became a Way, followed by many, seen as relative
superior, but also partial and conventional18.

2. Dogen’s Essay on Koan ‘One Bright Pearl’

In his essay on koan ‘One Bright Pearl’, Dogen goes back to the koan of
Xuansha19, a Chan20 Master. He starts by explaining that Xuansha was once a
householder, who loved to fish and be on the water and tells about Xuansha, being no
longer a young man, leaving his home and the water after the golden-scaled fish came to
him without seeking it21. In doing what he loved and knew best, his daily practise,
Xuansha met the ‘fish, he isn’t seeking’. Meaning that without special efforts or focusing
on this goal, realization is already present. His life, his daily routine, his partiality flowed
through this existential moment and proceeded afterwards, lead him to the mountains
going the Buddha Way and later leading him to Master Xuefeng. Dogen gives us the name
by which the other monks called Xuansha: ‘Ascetic Bei’22 or ‘ascetic monk’,
characterizing the way he lived in their midst. One day Xuansha left to travel, but hit his
foot. In pain he returned to Xuefeng asking: where those this pain comes from, if this
body doesn’t exist?23. Xuefeng brings Xuansha to: by practising Chan or living an ascetic

14
Later, probably around 1243 CE, due to ongoing tensions with Rinzai and Tendai Schools, Dogen will found Eihei-
ji.
15
Style by which a text alludes to an older text.
16
Dogen is seen as the force of bringing koan to Japan.
17
The biggest of the three Zen Schools in Japan, the others being Rinzai and Obaku.
18
Not the one, only, big truth Westerners expect to attain, but a path between many others. Non-dual, so not about the
good and the bad choice, a path is always walked. The idea of not-choosing is also a choice. Living is walking,
always on a path, even a non-defined path.
19
Master Xuansha, Chan Master lived in 9th century China, with one teaching that of the One Bright Pearl and as
ascetic monk
20
Referring to China, when using ‘Chan’ and to Japan when using ‘Zen’.
21
Dogen. The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo. Edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
London: Shambhala, 2012, 34.
22
Cf. Ferguson, A. Zen's Chinese heritage: the masters and their teachings. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000, 297-
300. https://terebess.hu/zen/xuansha.html accessed 16.12.2023.
23
In realizing that detachment from the body, doesn’t mean that pain can’t occur anymore, even not by attaining an
ascetic life style. In returning to Xuefeng after leaving, he reinstates his master-pupil relation with Xuefeng, but in
the dialogue between them Xuefeng confirms that Xuansha is ready to leave. In answering to Xuefeng’s questions he

5
life, like Xuansha does, the body and mind doesn’t vanish. It isn’t about becoming a body
detached from all human discomforts or from time and place. By referring to old Masters,
Dogen lets them confirm that it is about here and now, practise in daily life and being
human and being awake24. For Dogen there is no dichotomy between koan and practise.
That is what Dogen’s Genjokoan stands for: the meaning of koan becomes clear in daily
life or practise and fundamental reality is in daily life or practise25. Describing, acting,
doing, living are more important than understanding and explaining.

Dogen speaks of the monk or pupil who asked Master Xuansha how to understand
Xuansha’s koan: “the entire world of the ten directions is one bright pearl”. In which
Xuansha replies: “what do you do with your understanding?”. The next day Xuansha
asked the monk: “the entire world of the ten directions is one bright pearl, how do you
understand this?” To this the monk replies: “the entire world of the ten directions is one
bright pearl, what do you do with your understanding?”. Leading to Xuansha saying: “I
see you worked out a way to get through the demon’s cave on the black mountain26”.
After this Dogen starts his commentary on Xuansha’s koan.

Xuansha’s dialogue with the monk has, like any koan, a natural and simple outlay.:
a poem. First you get the statement, that is followed by a question, than that statement is
repeated and the question is slightly altered. A day later the same text is repeated, but now
switched between the two participants. Followed by some kind of conclusion by the
Master. The slight alteration in the question, houses the shift, without drawing away the
attention to the statement. “What do you do with your understanding?” becomes “How
do you understand this?”27. Before focussing on Dogen’s commentary, perhaps mention
that every used word is connected to a broad universe of meaning28. For example the one

follows convention, but from the fact that Xuefeng is pleased with the answers, actually no real answers to what is
asked, is expressed that Xuefeng acknowledges that Xuansha is worthy in following his footsteps.
24
Xuansha gives Xuefeng an answer to the question why he wants to travel by denying that Boddhidharma did not go
to China, what did happen. Boddhidharma brought Chan Buddhism from India to China. In this was Huike was able
to meet Boddhidharma, learn Chan and become the Second Patriarch of Chan. Through travelling Chan was spread.
Dening it, but doing it, points that out. An awaken pupil figures that out.
25
Heine, Steven. Koans in the Dogen Traditon: How and Why Dogen Does What He Does with Koans.
in: Philosophy east & west, 54/1, 2004, 3.
26
Other translations speak of living in a ghost cave on the dark side of the mountain.
27
It is possible to see the shift from what to how, as an affirmation of Genjokoan: emphasis on practise or how, as
primordial to what.
28
Heine, Steven. Koans in the Dogen Tradition: How and Why Dogen Does What He Does with Koans.
in: Philosophy east & west, 54/1, 2004, 12: Steven Heine gives two ways of speaking about this pearl: a jewel in a
dusty samsaric world or the samsaric world as a quality jewel

6
bright pearl has a long standing tradition within Buddhistic Traditions. It can stand for a
wish-fulfilling gem, the luminous consciousness of the enlightened mind, unity29.

Dogen tributes Xuansha as the first to say: “the entire world of the ten directions
is one bright pearl”, a homage. He starts by pointing out that “the entire world of the ten
directions” is not to be understood in a dual way. It isn’t about size (vast or minute), shape
(square or round) and that also goes for other possible characteristics. Dogen submerges
us in a non-dual understanding: the whole universe or being cannot be comprehended or
described by ways that tend to abstract or make it doable or even feasible. Without a clear
beginning or ending, it is beginning and ending in that moment. All is interconnected as
one unity, without measures, undivided30. Only a partial view from being a part of a bigger
unity, by using the language of the context, acknowledging its inaptness. Being part of, is
taking part in it. In Dogen’s words: “Because you take initiative, you do more than
distantly see the essential matter31”. No separation between being and acting. Dogen
promotes by all means practise, specially Zazen practise, but not as a disconnected
activity, that stands alone or above every other act. Being is practising, not in
extraordinary time or place, but in every aspect of life, here and now.

To Dogen, the pearl is not merely an object, like the universe isn’t mere an
incomprehensible object. It is about understanding and when experienced encompasses
“ten thousand years32” in the here and now, in which past, present and future are united.
Without losing body or mind, they are cast off. In the here and now, within the limits of
our body and mind, there are no limits to our understanding. The complexity of being and
understanding brings the monk and also Dogen, in his commentary, to the question: “How
to understand?”33. Although the monk appears ignorant, there is a shift. Listening to
Xuansha, made the monk pose his question and by doing so he proceeded. He emerged
in understanding, even being ignorant. In this way the Way of the Buddha’s is shared. As

29
Heine, Steven. Dogen: Japan's Original Zen Teacher. Boulder(CO): Shambhala, 2021, 118.
30
That is why I find that the use of the word ‘pearl’ for example in the translation of Tanahashi more helpful. Some
translations speak of a gem or a jewel. A pearl is only pearl when viewed as a whole. What is a broken pearl?
31
Dogen. The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo. Edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
London: Shambhala, 2012, 36.
32
Ibid.
33
Ibid.

7
a master, Xuansha helps to come to (any) understanding and takes it to the next level the
next day.

The same sentences return, switched between Xuansha and the monk. The
‘answer’ of the monk pleases Xuansha and this is acknowledged in the words: “taking the
robber’s horse to chase the robber”34. Understanding is not about the one right answer.
Understanding and non-understanding are one, no duality. Correlation is the key35. The
partial way of the monk, without the difference of understanding or non-understanding,
as legitimate. Teachings and practises are plentiful36, as a result of this. Xuansha’ response
on the answer of the monk was the following: “I see that you have worked out a way to
get through the demon’s cave on the black mountain”. Steven Heine points out that
according to Zen tradition, the phrase: “the demon’s cave on the black mountain”, comes
from Shakyamuni37. Using this phrase, doesn’t mean that the master needs to refer to
Shakyamuni, to validate his teachings or confirm his knowledge of tradition38. The
relation between him and his pupil, is partial. Next to their partial relationship, there are
lots of other partial relationships acting in the same way and at the same moment, in which
both also partake. The teachings of Shakyamuni aren’t in a distant past, they are still
present through the entanglement of being. The Lotus Sutra tells how the Dharma was
passed on by Shakyamuni, not by words, but based on an intrinsic relation. Every master-
pupil relation, within Zen tradition, is partial to that relation. Not the idea of a long chain
of relations, going back to Shakyamuni, but one big relation, as contained in ‘one bright
pearl’. Dogen uses entanglement or katto to disentangle. The partial view is correlated
and can’t be seen apart, so katto can’t be ‘solved’ by abstracting, but by katto. Although
the entanglement of being can seem, from a Western point of view, ‘unfree’, it is
emptiness. Using a koan of a Master tends to take the weight of the shoulders. Nothing
new is happening. The pupil doesn’t enter ‘terra incognita’ or space where no one ever
was before. But a path that has been used before without big aspirations or enormous

34
Dogen. The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo. Edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
London: Shambhala, 2012, 37.
35
Correlation as being partial, using conventions of the context being part of, as from intrinsic relations.
36
Dogen. The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo. Edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi.
London: Shambhala, 2012, 37.
37
Heine, Steven. Dogen: Japan's Original Zen Teacher. Boulder(CO): Shambhala, 2021, 119.
38
Cf. Once Master Xuansha said to the assembly, “Nowadays all Zen successors say they have received the teaching
from Sakyamuni Buddha. I say that I practice together with Sakyamuni and the third son of Xie. You tell me, in
what assembly do we practice together?” in: https://terebess.hu/zen/xuansha.html accessed 19.12.2023.

8
expectations cf. Enlightenment as a sudden intense moment, surpassing everything and
anything. Dogen’s focus on the practise of day-to-day life, makes clear that everyone in
whatever way is Buddha. Practise as walking, standing, sitting and lying are Buddha. For
Dogen, there are no extraordinary activities or growing or becoming. To follow this ‘new’
convention, breaks restraints and shows emptiness as an open way. All living beings have
Buddha Nature, don’t have to become Enlightened, but are Enlightened. Practising daily
life opens to awareness of this.

The sun and the moon don’t switch places. Things are the way they are. Nothing
special to expect. In the height of summer, it is hot. What else to expect? Everything that
is and everything that happens, is part of that one bright pearl, no other pearls. The True
Dharma Eye is that one pearl. All is part of that pearl, also our body and mind.
Entanglement in the one being, that is here and now. Nothing else to obstruct the one
bright pearl. Dogen speaks about the pearl being hanged or sewn in a robe and expresses
this way that the universe does what it does and is what it is. When hanged it can’t be also
sewn in a robe. The universe is complete in the actual present, no need to turn it all upside
down expecting to find something special. The pearl is valuable and seen as a gift between
friends. When someone is unable to take care of the pearl cf. drunk, the gifted pearl is
sewn into a robe of the friend. In that way the valuable gift is still with the friend, even
when (temporarily) unable to value it. No possibility of being separate of the Oneness, of
the pearl.

The universe is one bright pearl and everything is part of it. So everything is the
one bright pearl. No doubt, says Dogen. Any doubt is unnecessary, but perfectly normal.
He makes clear that doubt comes from limited vision and that is not to be seen as a disease,
but is part of being or partiality, so quite normal. What would be a limitless view39? All
views are limited. The bits and pieces of the one pearl, all express the beauty and
brightness of the pearl. You don’t need a limitless or overall view of the pearl. Many
things about the pearl can be said and many things can’t be said. Reason (in cause and
effect) can be applied, but not reason alone.

39
To speak of limit and limitless would be dual.

9
 Coming back to ‘the demon’s cave on the black mountain’. Even the darkness of
the cave is part of the one bright pearl. Those who speak from within the dark cave and
some may judge the spoken words as non-sense, they are part of the one bright pearl.
Perhaps the brightness of the pearl becomes even more clearer in the darkness?40 Steven
Heine notices that Xuansha may have known living in a cave41. This directs us to
convention42 and correlation43. The cave isn’t just part of tradition, but part of the teaching
of any Master, pointing to many directions of meaning, in any underlying koan.

3. Dogen’s emptiness of non-understanding

When everything is part of one undividable unity, there is no outside. Duality is

gone. Every understanding is non-understanding and every non-understanding is
understanding. Coming to a full understanding of everything, would mean to be no longer
part of it. Being outside, would make us an observer, no longer a participant. The partial
view is the only possible view. The completeness of the actual present that is expressed
in the one bright pearl, is not something to obtain, like partiality can’t be transformed to
absoluteness. The one bright pearl is complete, it isn’t still becoming. Past, present and
future are by that way irrelevant. The here and now is complete, but no single part fills it
complete. Words and actions use conventions, because of the intrinsic relation everyone
and everything share. Language comes from being related. In this way talking about self,
as fully autonomous subjects, also would mean being an outsider, an observer and unable
to act. By this denying the self.

Knowing, understanding as being partial, is non-dual. It is not about all or nothing.

It is all and nothing, and in that way it is empty. Using the koan One Bright Pearl of
Xuansha, Dogen brings into mind that all is emptiness. The pearl is everything, but no-
thing is the full pearl. This ‘liberates’, without being apart from. The emptiness is
possibility. We are part of it, don’t have to worry about being no-part and acknowledging
the possibilities that arise from it, is engaging in the openness of everything. Dogen’s life

40
Heine, Steven. Dogen: Japan's Original Zen Teacher. Boulder(CO): Shambhala, 2021, 119.
41 Heine, Steven. Koans in the Dogen Traditon: How and Why Dogen Does What He Does with Koans.
in: Philosophy east & west, 54/1, 2004, 11-12.
42
Convention as using words or images you know.
43
Correlation as non-dual, not from an outside point.

10
weren’t about just sitting, but to engage in every possible activity in life with the
emptiness in it, as ‘just sitting’.

11