Koan: There is No Self

Genjo Koan Section X, Part I

"A person riding along on a boat looks around, sees the shore, and mistakenly thinks that the bank is moving. But if looking directly at the boat, one discovers that it is the boat, not the bank, that is moving.

"Likewise, with confused thoughts about body and mind, holding to discrimination of myriad phenomena (dharmas), one mistakenly thinks one's own mind and nature are permanent.

"If intimately engaged in daily activities, one returns to right here, the principle that the myriad phenomena have no self is clear."

From here Dogen Zenji warns us against the view that the mind is permanent and only phenomenal appearances perish. He points out the fact that myriad phenomena [form, feelings, perceptions, volitions, and consciousness] are without self.

The view of permanence of the mind and the perishing of phenomenal appearances, to state it simply, is the view that the body changes and passes away, but the spirit eternally abides unchanging. It is a view that is generally easy for those of a simple faith to fall into.

The metaphor "a person riding along on a boat" means just what it says and can be understood by anybody.

"With confused thoughts about body and mind, holding to discrimination of the various dharmas, one mistakenly thinks one's own mind and nature are permanent."

An unenlightened person is completely confused about body and mind. As long as one has not clearly seen that the five conditions (materiality, sensation, conception, discrimination, and awareness) are all empty.

No matter how great a scholar one may be, one is confused about body and mind. As a result one falls either into a view of permanence or a view of annihilation. Many people of a simplistic faith fall into a view of permanence. Many second-rate scientists fall into a view of annihilation.

Here Dogen Zenji warns particularly against a view of permanence. A view of permanence is considering there to be a single, permanent, guiding self. It is considering there to be a fixed, unchanging "soul." It is thinking that the "self" actually exists.

Unenlightened people have the karmic illness of considering whatever they attach themselves to as having a self [an identity, a persisting or unchanging entity riding or guiding the phenomenal process]]. If they make a group, they consider the group to have a self [a persisting reality or identity independent of its parts].

If they attach themselves to a nation, they consider the nation to have a self. One would hardly think that there was a self in the planet, but if the world were to become completely unified and there were such a thing as a world-state, perhaps they would come to believe in a world-self.

"The Buddha Way is no-self." The one who thoroughly realized that all things are without self [are impersonal or devoid of self] was Shakyamuni Buddha.

"The myriad teachings return to the one" is also fine. But if Buddhism compromises with religions that have a false belief in the "self" or "soul" or "atman," it is no longer Buddhism at all.

But then if religions other than Buddhism return to no-self, the bases of those religions will disappear, and those religions will be changed into something completely different.

However, since there can only be one truth, I think that when the wisdom of human beings advances, one way or another they'll become one.

In recent times the ones who, comparatively speaking, are least inclined toward a false belief in the "soul" or "self" are the scientists, particularly physicists and psychologists. But I'm quite afraid that if they make one false step, they will fall into a view of nihilism.

By no means do scientists think that body and mind exist separately. But they are liable to regard the body as important and neglect the mind. Western [allopathic] medicine up until now has been treating people from that standpoint.

In contrast, it seems that the Eastern medical tradition has emphasized the mind since long ago. The expression, "Illness originates in the spirit (ki or chi)" is a common one. Even the word for sickness (byoki) means illness (byo) of the spirit (ki)." [Ki can also be taken to mean the energetic body, mood or mentality influencing the body.] But even Western medicine has lately come to regard the mind as quite important.

Of course, it is confused thinking to consider mind and body as existing separately. But attaching greater or lesser importance to the mind or the body is also confused thinking. So if one thinks that a fixed body or mind exists for even one minute, this is also confused thinking. [All is in flux, moving, shifting, processing, not "being" but becoming.]

When one thinks about everything with this kind of confused thinking as the basis, one makes the mistake of thinking that only the body changes, arises, and passes away. One mentally depicts something like a spirit or a self that is eternally abiding and unchanging. This is the way ordinary people think.

From there, the theory of the undying soul emerges. On the one hand, in fact Buddhism stresses that there is no [creator] God [responsible for all things] and no soul. On the other hand, people think that Buddhism is something that believes in an unchanging soul.