A teacher of old said, “Chopping down is nothing other than chopping down. Moving about is just that. Mountains, rivers and earth are the entirely revealed body of the dharma king.”

A person of the present should study this phrase of the teacher of old. There is a dharma king who understands that the body of the dharma king is not different from chopping down, just as mountains are on earth and the earth is holding up mountains.

When you understand, a moment of no-understanding does not come and hinder understanding, and understanding does not break no-understanding. Instead, understanding and no-understanding are just like spring and autumn.

However, when you do not understand, the pervasive voice of the dharma does not reach your ears. In the midst of the voice, your ears dally about. But when you understand, the voice has already reached your ears, samadhi has emerged.

Know that no-understanding cannot be discerned by a self; the dharma king's understanding is just like this. In the dharma king's body, the eye is just like the body, and the mind is the same as the body. There is not the slightest gap between mind and body; everything is fully revealed.

A teacher of old said, “Chopping down is nothing other than chopping down. Moving about is just that. Mountains, rivers and earth are the entirely revealed body of the dharma king.” That is the beginning of this chapter of “Only Buddha and Buddha”. Dogen is here quoting another teacher who says, “Chopping down is nothing other than chopping down.” Nothing other. Or “Moving about is just that.”

“Nothing other” and “just that” are basically the meaning of “shikan” — just nothing but, nothing extra. Chopping down is nothing other than chopping down — just that single act, engaging fully body and mind, engaging the aliveness of this very moment, expressing itself as that single act of chopping down, as the single act of gassho, the single act of scratching our head. That single act of our whole body and heart reveals the body of the dharma king, says Dogen Zenji here. And that dharma king or queen sits zazen as the mountains, rivers, earth, completely revealed.

A person of the present should study this phrase of the teacher of old, continues our text. There is a dharma king who understands that the body of the dharma king is not different from chopping down, just as mountains are on earth and the earth is holding up mountains. The body of the dharma king is not different from chopping down, not different from the act itself. Even more, we can say the act is what brings forth the body of the dharma king. The body is the act. The mind is the act, the heart is the act. There we can say truly, “We, this food and our eating are empty”. The so-called Three Wheels — we, the food, our eating. Just the act of chopping down, just the act of breathing Mu, just the act of waking up to a moment of shikantaza. “The body of the dharma king is not different from chopping down.”

When you understand, a moment of no-understanding does not come and hinder understanding, says Dogen here. “When you understand.” Where is that “when”? That “when” is beyond time, and yet completely actual, completely alive, abiding into and as this fresh moment of Mu, this fresh moment of shikantaza. And at the same time, with deep roots into the timeless moment, beyond history, beyond even Shakyamuni Buddha himself, that timeless moment of the Seven Ancient Buddhas realising that all beings have the wisdom and compassion of the tathagata and have attained, at this very moment, the Way. That's when.

When we understand, a moment of no-understanding does not come and hinder understanding. That phrase, “no-understanding”, is a phrase that Dogen uses in other essays of the Shobogenzo, and has a special meaning. No-understanding, in Sino-Japanese, is ‘fue', and the definition of that is “neither apart from, nor separated by, subject/object dichotomy or duality”. Hence the meaning is “intimate understanding”. No-understanding, “fue”. Intimate understanding. So he is saying a moment of completely intimate understanding does not come and hinder understanding. That is the alive meeting of the mysteries, the meeting of understanding and intimate understanding itself, like two arrows meeting in the empty sky. Very interesting.

And understanding does not break no-understanding. Instead, understanding and intimate understanding are just like spring and autumn, he says. “Just as spring and autumn.” And elsewhere we find, “Do not suppose that what you realise becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness. Although actualised immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge.” Truly, indeed. Just as spring and autumn, just as the meeting of understanding and intimate understanding. Spring is in flower, autumn is in falling leaf. It doesn't matter when it really happens. The ripeness of time brings forth the flower and the falling leaf, and we can realise that this happens truly beyond time.

“Do not suppose that what you realise becomes your knowledge and it is grasped by your consciousness.” Its appearance is beyond our knowledge, just like spring and autumn. However, continues our text, when you do not understand, the pervasive voice of the dharma does not reach your ears. In the midst of the voice, your ears dally about. But when you understand, the voice has already reached your ears and samdhi has emerged, samdhi has emerged.

He says also, “When you paint spring, do not paint willows, do not paint plums, peaches or apricots. Just paint spring. Do not use other means, but let plum blossoms initiate spring.” If we are painting zazen, do not paint Mu, do not paint breathing, do not paint correct posture. Just let plum blossoms initiate spring. Just let intimacy initiate spring. Just let this alive moment wake up shikantaza. Samadhi has already emerged.

Know that no-understanding (intimate understanding) cannot be discerned by a self, he says. The dharma king's understanding is just like this. Intimate understanding cannot be discerned by a self. We meet in the Genjo Koan the following phrase: “When you see forms or hear sounds, fully engaging body and mind, you understand them intimately”. Fully engaging body, mind, heart, we understand intimately. There we find body and mind shedding off into intimacy, into the alive mystery that is the dharma gate of ease and joy. There is no self to find there. Just intimacy, abiding nowhere, coming forth, not clearing up the mystery but making the mystery clear, as Aitken Roshi has said elsewhere.

In the dharma king's body, the eye is just like the body, and the mind is the same as the body. There is not the slightest gap between mind and body; everything is fully revealed. The eye is just like the body. The mind is the same as the body. “There is only a Buddha 's single eye, which is itself the entire universe”, says Dogen elsewhere. That single eye, which is itself the entire universe, is just like the body.

“Everything that comes forth from the study of the Way is the true human body”, he also says. True human body. Everything that comes through study and practice of the Way, that is the body; and the mind is the same as the body, says Dogen here. There is not the slightest gap between mind and body. Everything is fully revealed, it says at the end our chapter here. There is not the slightest gap between mind and body.

That is the ground of Mu, true intimate Mu, beyond Mu. That is shikantaza beyond shikantaza. No-gap sitting, no-gap walking, no-gap breathing, as Mu, as shikantaza itself. There is not the slightest gap between mind and body, so everything is fully revealed. No gap. A bird flies like a bird, a fish swims like a fish. Each moment of zazen, each Mu, each shikantaza, is equally wholeness of practice, wholeness of realisation. There is no gap. The old plum tree suddenly opens and the world of blossoming flowers arises.