Poem attributed by Dogen to the Buddha in “On ‘The Meditative State That Bears the Seal of the Ocean’ (Kaiin Zammai)”¹

Consider a fish in the ocean. An ordinary, nothing-special fish (except, maybe, to itself). A fish not big and not small: not a gentle giant whale, nor a stealthy shark, nor a colorful angel fish. Just a fish. It’s part of a school of similar fish that wanders the ocean, doing what fish do: being born, eating, procreating and dying.

Now consider the fish in the broader context of the ocean. The ocean is the medium in which the fish lives and moves and has its being. We can say that although the fish in itself is not the ocean, there is nothing in it that is not of the ocean. That is, the basic elements of the fish–the minerals, the nutrients, and so on–come from the ocean and nowhere else. And when it dies, the elements dissolve back into the ocean to be recycled into other fish of various kinds, and plant life.

There is a nonmaterial, supramundane, immanent–transcendent, and eternal-in-time spiritual “Ocean” in which we human beings—all beings—move and act and experience our life, which we call Buddha Nature. And, as with the fish in the ocean and the ocean in the fish, we are not It and It is all of us. Yet It is so close to us, so integral a part of us, that we cannot see It and so remain ignorant of It. And being ignorant of something is the same as not having it at all, in that our actions do not reflect that knowledge. Therefore, realizing It, experiencing It, harmonizing with It, living according to its teaching…is the deeper purpose of our training and our life, which the mystics in every true spiritual tradition have realized.

What can we say about the qualities and characteristics of this spiritual Ocean and, therefore, ourselves since It is all of us? In Buddhism, the most accepted way is by speaking about what it is not—the apophatic way. This is expressed most concisely in the Udana Scripture, in which the Buddha says:

O monks, there is an Unborn, Undying, Uncreated, Unformed; Were It not, there could be no end to birth, decay, disease, and death.

The Scripture of Great Wisdom says of this “there is:”

Everything in the Ocean of Buddha Nature–including ourselves–is inherently and in essence pure. We simply take form from this Unformed Purity according to the nature of our inherited karma; as Rev. Master Jiyu put it in her lecture on Dogen’s essay: “Because of our past clinging, we have been ‘packaged,’ as it were, into what we presently look like: we are a bundle of elements that are packaged to look like me or you or the cat or the dog on the floor.” So, from the beginning we are one with the ocean of Buddha Nature: we are made of It. But as Rev. Master says, because of past clinging (karma) in our karmic stream, we take our particular form with our particular suite of inherited karmic tendencies.

Buddhism teaches that an aspect of our karmic makeup is the egocentric delusion of an independent self that is separate and outside the Ocean of Buddha Nature. This delusion of a separate self is sustained by actions of body, speech and thought grounded in greed, anger, and ignorance of our Oneness with Buddha Nature. This delusion of separation causes us suffering, and we long for a reunion with the Ocean of Buddha Nature when, ironically, we have never been separate from It. So we don’t have to acquire Buddha Nature—we already have It—we just have to realize It. And this realization is accomplished by clarifying our karmic distortions by means of pure meditation (zazen) and Preceptual living. Whatever karma hasn’t been clarified in this life returns to the Ocean of Buddha Nature to be reborn in yet another form for another try.

In her introduction to the Denkoruku, Rev. Master Jiyu writes:

When we know for certain that there is no separate self because we are one with the UNBORN, UNDYING, UNCREATED, UNCHANGING, then there is, indeed, no rebirth on the wheel of becoming…. When we understand our oneness with the UNBORN, UNDYING, UNCREATED, UNCHANGING, birth and death are merely positions in time as created by man; they are no longer of importance for to be one with the UNBORN, UNDYING, UNCREATED, UNCHANGING is to be in timelessness, eternity.

In her “Great Ocean of Meditation” lecture, Rev. Master Jiyu encourages us in this effort of understanding:

To live within the meditative state that bears the seal of the Ocean is the ultimate end of Zen training…. All Truth is at once reflected in this meditative state, just as all images are reflected in a quiet sea. It is, therefore, the highest form of insight.

We disport in this Great Spiritual Ocean when we sit still in pure meditation; when the actions of our life reflect the Precepts; when we live from a place of unitive consciousness and not one that chops the world into pieces with ideas and opinions and prejudices; when we live from a place of compassion and not selfishness. Then the opposites dissolve and there is no karmic barrier between ourselves and the Great Ocean of Meditation; there is no inside or outside and we are One with IT.

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Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett's account of the events and experiences of her extended and very deep meditation retreat in 1976 is recorded in her book HOW TO GROW A LOTUS BLOSSOM or How a Zen Buddhist Prepares for Death. It has been republished by Shasta Abbey Press and is available from Lulu.com or from Amazon.

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