Not thinking good and bad, not entertaining right and wrong

Hello,

Hashimoto Roshi's discussion of this phrase begins on p. 80 (thumbnail 81) of his commentary. I've included a short reflection based on it below.

--Erin

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Not thinking good and bad, not entertaining right and wrong

In recent weeks I’ve been re-reading Eko Hashimoto’s commentary on the Fukanzazgi and offering brief summaries here to give a flavor of the text. Historically, the commentary is interesting, because it provides an example of how the text was taught at a certain time and place, at least by one person. It’s pretty technical, both philosophically and linguistically, which maybe highlights an irony in this tradition, in that both the original text and the commentary use words, sometimes a lot of them, to describe zazen, which is itself beyond words and concepts. This phrase is the one that comes next as I’ve been going along here:

Not thinking good and bad, not entertaining right and wrong.

Hashimoto Roshi refers to the previous phrase in the Fukanzazengi — “Abandon all relations and put all concerns to rest” — and links it to this one. He says, “If we make zazen alone the matters and relations, and completely contain all matters and relations within it, there is no way to engage in good and bad and right and wrong. Good and bad or right and wrong are relational thoughts and language.” He expands upon this idea of relativity in Buddhism and in the wider society and then, over the course of several pages, he speaks about the precepts — the three pure precepts (departing from evil, giving birth to goodness, and benefitting beings), and the sixteen precepts that, along with the okesa, are received at jukai. Quoting from Dogen’s fascicle on Receiving the Precepts in the Shobogenzo, he shows how the precepts are both the foundation of zazen and its outcome.