Shinshu Roberts
Editor’s Note: Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō fascicle Uji is one of his most important writings, containing his most direct presentation of his view of the relationship between being and time, a view that permeates many of his other fascicles. Wisdom Books has recently published what Carl Bielefeldt calls “A remarkable study of a remarkable text” : Shinshu Roberts’ Being-Time, A Practitioner’s Guide to Dōgen’s Shōbōgenz Uji. We present here the opening section of her study and encourage Ancient Way readers to read the full text.
The title of “Uji” translated as “Being-Time” essentially contains the totality of the text. Unpacking the meaning of this hyphenated word opens a vast interconnecting vista of practice. The two characters u-ji are usually translated as arutoki or “for the time being.” Dōgen separates the two characters (u meaning being, and ji meaning time) and reassembles them as one word uji, often translated in English as being-time or existence-time. 1 As Hee-Jin Kim writes:
Dōgen ….transforms such an everyday phrase as arutoki (“at a certain time,” “sometimes,” “there is a time,” “once”) into one of the most important notions in his Zen – uji (existence- time). This metamorphosis is executed by way of changing its two components – the aru and the toki -into u (“existence,” “being”) and ji (“time,” “occasion”), respectively, and recombining them as uji so that it unmistakably signals the nondual intimacy of existence and time. 2
This new word uji becomes a shorthand for bundling all aspects of reality into one word/thought: being-time. Being-time embraces many of the key teachings found in Dōgen’s writing. Among several words or phrases found in Uji which express these teachings are dharma position (jū-hōi): the fully embodied totality of myriad things/beings as a moment of being-time; continuous practice (gyōji): the completely realized activity and effort of each being’s -time as all being-time; fully expressing the Way (dōtoku): the enlightened expression of practice-realization; manifesting ultimate reality (genjōkōan) : the totality of the actualization of the fundamental point; penetrating exhaustively (gūjin): complete expression of a moment; practice-realization (shōju no shu); this very mind is Buddha (sokushin zebutsu); and buddha nature (busshō) : the totality of life’s activity; among others. Dōgen’s descriptions of practice, expression, mind, and reality are also designations of actualized being-time. These words are a rich mosaic illuminating our being-time, each aimed at helping us find deep awakening as we express our rich, intimate life.
An old Buddha 3 said:
For the time being, I stand astride the highest mountain peaks.
For the time being, I move on the deepest depths of the ocean floor.
For the time being, I’m three heads and eight arms.
For the time being, I’m eight feet or sixteen feet.
For the time being, I’m a staff or a whisk.
For the time being, I’m a pillar or a lantern.
For the time being, I’m Mr. Chang or Mr. Li.
For the time being, I’m the great earth and heavens above. 4
“Uji” begins with four couplets introducing the meaning of the text. The first two lines are attributed to Zen zaster Yaoshan Weiyen from a text called the Jingde chuandeng lu (Jingde era Record of the Transmission of the Lamp), a series of stories about Zen masters compiled in 1004 by Daoyuan. 5 The rest are thought to be Dōgen’s own composition.
There are two important elements in these opening verses: the repeated phrase “for the time being” and the unique moments, things, or events that it modifies. The individual moments, things, or events are call jū-hōi or “dharma positions.” A dharma position is a singular moment, state of being, or occurrence that has no fixed duration and about which we intuitively understand something of its particularity. Standing on the highest mountain peak, moving along the ocean floor, being a wrathful deity with three heads and eight arms or a golden buddha of eight or sixteen feet, a staff, a whisk, a pillar, a lantern, Mr.Chang or Mr. Li, the great earth, and the heavens above are all dharma positions.
In short, the four couplets opening the text depict unique, particular situations that are illustrative of being-time’s totality. Dōgen’s examples and their metaphoric meaning encompass reality as both particular and universal.
Being-Time
The translations of uji as “for the time being,” sometimes,” “at a certain time,” or “once” can be read as a kind of throwaway line, especially in English.6 Our tendency may be to skip over these words and move on to what seems to be the meat of each sentence. But for Dōgen, “for the time being” is the whole basis for his discussion of time’s relationship to being.
In conventional use, “for the time being” seems to indicate a specifically limited demarcation of time, as in “at the moment” or “just for now.” Dōgen’s use of the phrase, however, has a deeper meaning than “at this time.” Reading the two characters that comprise the phrase as the compound term uji rather than as an idiomatic phrase, yields the more universal reading ”being-time.”
Grammatically, the characters u and ji do not indicate singular or plural.7 We can read the compound “being-time” to mean either a being’s time, a time’s being, or all being-time. Understanding the multiplicity of meanings within the phrase “for the time being” reveals new depths in Dōgen’s opening lines. For Dōgen, “for the time being” encompasses all states of being-time. Rereading the opening line in light of this understanding, we find several meanings within each situation: “a particular time-being stands on the highest mountain peak,” “the time when one stands on the highest mountain peak,” “all being(s) time(s) stand on the highest peak,” or “all time’s being and/or all beings’ time is now standing on the highest peak.” We can read the remaining lines in the same ways. No single thing and no moment of time is left out of this very moment of being-time.
Notes:
1. For a discussion of the pros and cons of existence v. being, see Rein Raud’s “The Existential Moment: Rereading Dōgen’s Theory of Time,” in Philosophy East & West 62, no. 2 (April 2012) 158-59.
2. Hee-Jin Kim, Dōgen on Meditation and Thinking: A Reflection on his View of Zen, 70.
3. Other translations for “old” are “eternal,” “ancient,” or “the old buddhas say”
4. Waddell and Abe, “Uji” The Heart of Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō. 48. An alternative translation appears Nishijima and Cross, Master Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō, bk. 1 109-10
5. Kaz Tanahashi in his translation of “The Time-Being,Uji” in Moon in a Drop, Writings of Zen Master Dōgen, 246, n.2 , translates the source of these opening two lines: “Yaoshan Weiyan said: “if you want to know human endeavors, then purify this noble form, hold a jar, and carry a monk’s bowl. If you try to escape from falling into the lower realms, first of all you should stand on the highest peak and go to the bottom of the deepest ocean. This is not easy practice, but you will have some realization.” Yaoshan Hongdao (Yaoshan’s posthumous name) appears later in “Uji” when his meeting with Mazu is recounted.
6. I owe this insight to Norman Fisher.
7.Waddell and Abe, “Uji” The Heart of Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō, 48, n,2
excerpted from Chapter 1, “Uji is Being-Time”
BEING-TIME, A Practitioner’s Guide to Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō Uji, Wisdom Publications, 2018 pp. 35-38
Images:
Time: LetsgomusicStyle – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27330732
Mount Fuji: Alpsdake – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10683621
Ocean floor: Migael Hartzenberg – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56634396
Wrathful deity: Daderot – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45182675
Shinshu Roberts
Shinshu Roberts is a Dharma Heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman, abbot of Berkeley Zen Center and in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received her priest training at San Francisco Zen Center and from the North American branch of the Japanese Soto School. She has been appointed Kokusaifukyoshi (International Dharma Teacher) by the (Japanese Soto Administration). She co-founded Ocean Gate Zen Center in Capitola, CA with her spouse Jaku Kinst.
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