by Kikan Michael Howard

Updated March 1, 2026

On this page I provide notes and links to where Katagiri Roshi commented on Zen Master Dōgen’s Genjōkōan, or where he discussed key terms used in it. This document is a work in progress. I will update it as I transcribe talks and find additional references.

[SZ] indicates text from the Sōtōshū translation of Shōbōgenzō. [TC] indicates Thomas Cleary’s translation from Shōbōgenzō: Zen Essays by Dōgen, which Katagiri Roshi used in some talks in 1986 and 1987. [KR] indicates a translation which appears to be by Katagiri Roshi himself.

Title

現成公案
Genjōkōan

[SZ] The Realized Koan
[TC] The Issue at Hand

1
1.1

諸法の佛法なる時節、すなはち迷悟あり、修行あり、生あり、死あり、諸佛あり、衆生あり。

[SZ] At times when the dharmas are the buddha dharma, just then there are delusion and awakening; there is practice; there is birth; there is death; there are buddhas; there are living beings.

[TC] When all things are Buddha-teachings, then there is delusion and enlightenment, there is cultivation of practice, there is birth, there is death, there are Buddhas, there are sentient beings.

1.2

萬法ともにわれにあらざる時節、まどひなく、さとりなく、諸佛なく、衆生なく、生なく、滅なし。

[SZ] At times when all the myriad dharmas are not self, there is no delusion; there is no awakening; there are no buddhas; there are no living beings; there is no arising; there is no cessation.

[TC] When myriad things are all not self, there is no delusion, no enlightenment, no Buddhas, no sentient beings, no birth, no death.

1.3

佛道もとより豊倹より跳出せるゆえに、生滅あり、迷悟あり、生佛あり。

[SZ] Because, from the start, the way of the buddhas has jumped out from abundance and scarcity, there are arising and ceasing, there are delusion and awakening, there are living beings and buddhas.

[TC] Because the Buddha Way originally sprang forth from abundance and paucity, there is birth and death, delusion and enlightenment, sentient beings and Buddhas.

[KR] (paraphrasing) The Buddha Way is completely beyond the concept of being or not-being, that’s why there are human beings and buddhas, life and death, delusion and enlightenment.

1.4

しかもかくのごとくなりといへども、花は愛惜にちり、草は棄嫌におふるのみなり。

[SZ] And yet, while this may be so, it is simply “flowers falling when we cherish them, weeds growing when we despise them.”

[TC] Moreover, though this is so, flowers fall when we cling to them, and weeds only grow when we dislike them.

[KR] Nevertheless, flowers fall with human attachment, weeds grow with hatred.

2
2.1

[TC] Acting on and witnessing myriad things with the burden of oneself is “delusion.” Acting on and witnessing oneself in the advent of myriad things is enlightenment.

2.2

[TC] Great enlightenment about delusion is Buddhas; great delusion about enlightenment is sentient beings.

2.3

[TC] There are also those who attain enlightenment on top of enlightenment, and there are those who are further deluded in the midst of delusion.

2.4

[TC] When the Buddhas are indeed the Buddhas, there is no need to be self-conscious of being Buddhas; nevertheless it is realizing buddhahood — Buddhas go on realizing.

[KR] When Buddhas are genuinely Buddhas, there is no need for them to be conscious that they are Buddhas; yet they are realized Buddhas, and they continue to realize Buddhas.

3

[TC] In seeing forms with the whole body-mind, hearing sound with the whole body-mind, though one intimately understands, it isn’t like reflecting images in a mirror, it’s not like water and the moon – when you witness one side, one side is obscure.

4

[TC] Studying the Buddha Way is studying oneself. Studying oneself is forgetting oneself. Forgetting oneself is being enlightened by all things. Being enlightened by all things is causing the body-mind of oneself and the body-mind of others to be shed. There is ceasing the traces of enlightenment, which causes one to forever leave the traces of enlightenment which is cessation.

[KR] To study Buddhism is to learn the self. To learn the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be confirmed by all sentient beings …

  • The first three lines are, of course, one of the most well-known sayings in Buddhism. Katagiri Roshi usually says “learn the self” instead of “study the self” or “studying oneself.” References to the general concept are probably too numerous to cite, but here are some specific examples:
  • “Karmic Retribution in Present Life” after 0:00: “Buddhist teaching is always aiming at the original nature of human being, which is constantly free, and not belonging to a certain teaching…”
  • “Blue Cliff Record Case 25: The Hermit of Lotus Flower Peak Holds Up His Staff, Talk 2” at 39:10 : “‘To learn Buddhism is to learn the self’ is not the individual self. It is the universal self.”
  • “Gatha of Closing the Sutra” – a brief reference
  • “Kokyō: The Ancient Mirror – Talk 1” at 33:34 : “But in order to learn the self and your life, it’s very difficult to learn the essential nature of human existence in public, in the universe, because we have lots of prejudice … So, one by one, we have to take off those prejudices. ”
  • “Tiantai Buddhism: Outline of 4-Fold Teaching (2 of 2)”
  • “Platform Sutra – Talk 3” at 7:16 : “If […] you learn the self, [it] is to learn the world. If you learn the sublimity of human life, it is simultaneously to learn the sublimity of the trees, and the birds, all living beings. The one truth is all truth. Because it is universal; wisdom is characterized by maha: vastness, boundlessness.”
5
5.1

[TC] When people first seek the Teaching, they are far from the bounds of the Teaching. Once the Teaching is properly conveyed in oneself, already one is the original human being.

[KR] When the people first seek the dharma, they are far from the bounds of the dharma. Once the dharma is always conveyed in oneself, immediately original nature of the self is manifested.

5.2

[TC] When someone rides in a boat, as he looks at the shore he has the illusion that the shore is moving. When he looks at the boat under him, he realizes the boat is moving. In the same way, when one takes things for granted with confused ideas of body-mind, one has the illusion that one’s own mind and own nature are permanent; but if one pays close attention to one’s own actions, the truth that things are not self will be clear.

6

[TC] Kindling becomes ash, and cannot become kindling again. However, we should not see the ash as after and the kindling as before. Know that kindling abides in the normative state of kindling, and though it has a before and after, the realms of before and after are disconnected. Ash, in the normative state of ash, has before and after. Just as that kindling, after having become ash, does not again become kindling, so after dying a person does not become alive again. This being the case, not saying that life becomes death is an established custom in Buddhism—therefore it is called unborn. That death does not become life is an established teaching of the Buddha; therefore we say imperishable. Life is an individual temporal state, death is an individual temporal state. It is like winter and spring—we don’t think winter becomes spring, we don’t say spring becomes summer.

7

[TC] People’s attaining enlightenment is like the moon reflected in water. The moon does not get wet, the water isn’t broken. Though it is a vast expansive light, it rests in a little bit of water—even the whole moon, the whole sky, rests in a dewdrop on the grass, rests in even a single droplet of water. That enlightenment does not shatter people is like the moon not piercing the water. People’s not obstructing enlightenment is like the drop of dew not obstructing the moon in the sky. The depth is proportionate to the height. As for the length and brevity of time, examining the great and small bodies of water, you should discern the breadth and narrowness of the moon in the sky.

8

[TC] Before one has studied the Teaching fully in body and mind, one feels one is already sufficient in the Teaching. If the body and mind are replete with the Teaching, in one respect one senses insufficiency. For example, when one rides a boat out onto the ocean where there are no mountains and looks around, it only appears round, and one can see no other, different characteristics. However, this ocean is not round, nor is it square — the remaining qualities of the ocean are inexhaustible. It is like a palace, it is like ornaments, yet as far as our eyes can see, it only seems round. It is the same with all things — in the realms of matter, beyond conceptualization, they include many aspects, but we see and comprehend only what the power of our eye of contemplative study reaches. If we inquire into the “family ways” of myriad things, the qualities of seas and mountains, beyond seeming square or round, are endlessly numerous. We should realize there exist worlds everywhere. It’s not only thus in out of the way places—know that even a single drop right before us is also thus.

9

[TC] As a fish travels through water, there is no bound to the water no matter how far it goes; as a bird flies through the sky, there’s no bound to the sky no matter how far it flies. While this is so, the fish and birds have never been apart from the water and the sky—it’s just that when the need is large the use is large, and when the requirement is small the use is small. In this way, though the bounds are unfailingly reached everywhere and tread upon in every single place, the bird would instantly die if it left the sky and the fish would instantly die if it left the water. Obviously, water is life; obviously the sky is life. There is bird being life. There is fish being life. There is life being bird, there is life being fish. There must be progress beyond this—there is cultivation and realization, the existence of the living one being like this.

10

[TC] Under these circumstances, if there were birds or fish who attempted to traverse the waters or the sky after having found the limits of the water or sky, they wouldn’t find a path in the water or the sky — they won’t find any place. When one finds this place, this action accordingly manifests as the issue at hand; when one finds this path, this action accordingly manifests as the issue at hand. This path, this place, is not big or small, not self or other, not preexistent, not now appearing — therefore it exists in this way. In this way, if someone cultivates and realizes the Buddha Way, it is attaining a principle, mastering the principle; it is encountering a practice, cultivating the practice. In this there is a place where the path has been accomplished, hence the unknowability of the known boundary is born together and studies along with the thorough investigation of the Buddha Teaching of this knowing—therefore it is thus. Don’t get the idea that the attainment necessarily becomes one’s own knowledge and view, that it would be known by discursive knowledge. Though realizational comprehension already takes place, implicit being is not necessarily obvious — why necessarily is there obvious becoming?

11
11.1

[TC] Zen Master Hotetsu of Mt. Mayoku was using a fan. A monk asked him about this: ‘‘The nature of wind is eternal and all-pervasive —why then do you use a fan? The master said, “You only know the nature of wind is eternal, but do not yet know the principle of its omnipresence.” The monk asked, “What is the principle of its omnipresence?” The master just fanned. The monk bowed.

11.2

[TC] The experience of the Buddha Teaching, the living road of right transmission, is like this. To say that since (the nature of wind) is permanent one should not use a fan, and that one should feel the breeze even when not using a fan, is not knowing permanence and not knowing the nature of the wind either.

11.3

風性は常住なるがゆえに、佛家の風は、大地の黄金なるを現成せしめ、長河の蘇酪を参熟せり。

[TC] Because the nature of wind is eternal, the wind of Buddhism causes the manifestation of the earth’s being gold and by participation develops the long river into butter.

  • “The Goldenness of the Earth, the Sweet Milk of the Long River”: “The wind of Buddhism makes manifest the great earth’s goldenness, and makes ripen the sweet milk of the long rivers.” This is a short talk or part of a talk on this subject, presented as the culminating point of Genjōkōan, and indeed as the point of Buddhism.

  • “Genjōkōan: Talk 3” at 9:40: Katagiri Roshi begins his line-by-line discussion of Genjōkōan with the last line presented as the destination.

  • “The Need and Way of Repentance”: “Please dig up the human world and turn it into golden world”: “direct your karmic life toward that eternal target,” the “eternal child.”

  • It’s worth noting that the interpretation of the final line in the Sōtōshū translation of Shōbōgenzō differs from that presented here. The exploration of this is left as an excercise.