Life Maintenance
An enlightened person still brushes their teeth. An enlightened person still scrapes their tongue. An enlightened person still cuts their fingernails. The only difference between the enlightened person and you is that they are so deeply integrated into reality that brushing their teeth is their practice. Scraping their tongue is their meditation. Cutting their nails is their reality. To them, the mundane is sacred.
This is the point that Zen Master Dogen illuminates in various fascicles of his culminative Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. Although they are easily overlooked, the pair of fascicles seven and eight reveal the essence of Dogen's Zen practice: realizing that there is no difference between you and the enlightened. Dogens approach first calls for one to first pay close attention to everything that they do, especially mundane acts, which are often done autonomously. After this greater awareness is developed, one repeatedly associates each action with the dharma while maintaining awareness—that is, they continually reinforce the concept of every action being enlightenment. Over time, this “nondistinction” will be automatic and thoughtless, and they will be enlightened.
By my rinsing the mouth and teeth,
may all beings
face the gate of pure dharma
and attain ultimate emancipation.
Life maintenance takes up the majority our day. We spend hours simply maintaining our body by eating, defecating, and cleaning. This is not to mention the third of our hours that we spend sleeping. Modern humans also spend a fair share of time checking emails and social media, both of which are almost required daily habits, and therefore life maintenance. Even after we work, we desire a period of relaxation, which could also be considered life maintenance. Although we try to keep these activities fresh by trying new foods, watching new shows, etc., they remain mundane. And since these acts are mundane, it is easy to complete them while thinking. In fact, you probably distract yourself with thoughts, music, or a podcast when you shower, eat, and brush your teeth. In this way, we are quite separated from a direct experience of reality for the majority of our lives.
From the traditional Buddhist viewpoint, the solution to this problem is to renounce worldly life and join a monastery. This is the Theravadin approach: to meditate for as much time as possible. Yet basic life maintenance cannot be escaped: food must be prepared or received from donations, the monastery must be cleaned, and even periodically renovated. So how can anyone become enlightened if they must complete participate in all this maintenance? They must make the maintenance their enlightenment. This is the Dogen's Zen approach.
From the traditional Buddhist viewpoint, the solution to this problem is to renounce worldly life and join a monastery. This is the Theravadin approach: to meditate for as much time as possible. Yet basic life maintenance cannot be escaped: food must be prepared or received from donations, the monastery must be cleaned, and even periodically renovated. So how can anyone become enlightened if they must complete participate in all this maintenance? They must make the maintenance their enlightenment. This is the Dogen's Zen approach.
In fascicle seven, “Cleansing,” Dogen lengthily expounds various customs for maintaining cleanliness, from trimming the nails to wash house guidelines. As a short example, “Be aware of whether the stick is clean or dirty. This stick is triangular [make of bamboo or wood], about eight sun long, and as thick as a thumb. Some sticks are lacquered...” Just the fact that there is content about such mundane things like this in the first place sends a message. Keep in mind that Dogen is revered as a Zen master, and his works remain prevalent today: he was no fool. He wasn't delivering lengthy sermons on cleanliness just because he wanted a cleaner monastery. He was delivering these sermons because once one pays such close attention to what was earlier called life maintenance, these autonomous acts stop being life maintenance and become meditation, a time to develop awareness. Additionally, Dogen's instructions are so detailed that one is forced to be mindful to obey them. All doubt is also taken out of these routines: everyone in the monastery does these repetitive tasks the same way. Again, it is impossible to get away from this life maintenance, enlightened or not. If an enlightened monk who has washed himself in the same way for years moved to a monastery with inferior external conditions and stopped washing himself, he would not become unenlightened. Dogen is therefore calling for one to completely focus their awareness on the mundane. This is just the first step: it is a means to an end (which is just a realization of what already is), not the end itself.
Once you harness your attention, the next step is to harness your intention. In fascicle eight, after Dogen cites a sutra that guides one how to use a hand towel, he states, “Guard and maintain your towel in this way.” Here Dogen makes the mundane sacred. By telling his followers to “guard” and “maintain” their towel, his monks will subconsciously generate a greater respect and attention to these mundane acts of life maintenance. This will make these acts more intentional and spiritual, which puts his monks yet another step closer to the dharma. Later in the same fascicle, “Chewing a willow twig I vow: / May all beings attain / a fang that subdues and / crushes all delusions.” Dogen calls for his followers to wish for all beings to crush their delusions every time they brush their teeth. This appears contradictory at first: isn't desire exactly what one is trying to get away from when pursuing enlightenment? Why would Dogen have his followers chant (and therefore think) while brushing their teeth? This thinking and desire, however, is of a different quality than the thinking and desire that Buddhism traditionally rejects. Here Dogen is helping his followers use thinking and desire to their advantage, to help them repeatedly cultivate the motivation and generosity necessary for enlightenment throughout the day. In this way, Dogen not only made his monks more attentive during life maintenance but helped them associate these acts with the dharma and therefore progress their spiritual state.
The final step doesn't lie in the two cleaning fascicles: it lies in Dogen's higher teachings. The first two steps can be seen as “preliminaries” to the third step. In step one, a monk cultivates greater awareness. In step two, a monk cultivates the intention and generosity necessary for enlightenment. All that is left is to fully integrate enlightenment, to “actualize the fundamental point”, as Dogen puts it in his third fascicle: “As all things are buddha dharma... myriad things are without an abiding self... the buddha way in essence, is leaping clear of abundance and lack... in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread.” For someone who has completed steps one and two, this will make sense. The famous Zen Koans1 will have answers. With your awareness developed and motivation for enlightenment cultivated from the first two steps, you are just one moment away from releasing all distinction. Soon enough, brushing your teeth will be your practice. Scraping your tongue will be your meditation. Cutting your nails will be your reality.
So next time you are brushing your teeth, whether with a willow twig or a Phillips Sonicare, take off your headphones and close your eyes. Observe yourself. What have you missed while you distracted yourself all this time? Dogen might respond “enlightenment.” But as you well know, you can't be enlightened by just words. You must realize enlightenment for yourself. Keep this quote from Zen Master Dahui in mind while you search: “It is not that there is no practice and no realization; it is just that they cannot be divided.”2
Dōgen. Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Shobo Genzo. Shambhala Publications, 2013.