
Shobogenzo Bussho continues:
Do not associate the words “buddha-nature is not big and not small. . .” with those of the common person or the two vehicles. To have thought, one-sidedly and stubbornly, that the buddha-nature must be wide and great, is to have been harboring a wrong idea. We should consider, as we hear it now, the truth which is restricted just in the moment of the present by the expression “Beyond big and beyond small.” For we are able to utilize [this] hearing as consideration.
Master Dogen asks us to utilise hearing the expression "Beyond big and beyond small": he seems to ask us to examine it from the point of view of considering it intellectually (as opposed to just letting the words come and go as a momentary event) as an example of how we might restrict the truth which is originally not restricted by our thinking: The "beyond big and beyond small" referred to is actually not a matter of intellectual consideration but is realised in 'dropping off' inherently limited relative values such as 'big' and 'small'.
Now let us listen to the poem preached by the Venerable One, in which he says, “My body manifests the roundness of the moon,/ By this means demonstrating the physique of the buddhas.” Because his “manifestation of a body” has already “by concrete means demonstrated the physique of the buddhas,” it is “the roundness of the moon.” So we should learn all length, shortness, squareness, and roundness as this “manifestation of a body.”
This suggests the undivided state of practice where there is no entity or aspect which manifests separately. Even so, things still manifest with diverse qualities ('length, shortness, squareness, roundness...')
Those who have become more and more unfamiliar with “body” and with its “manifestation” are not only ignorant of “the roundness of the moon,” but are also other than “the physique of the buddhas.” Stupid people think that what the Venerable One calls “the roundness of the moon” is the manifestation of a fantastically transformed body. This is the wrong idea of types who have not received the transmission of the Buddha’s truth. At what place and at what moment might there be another manifestation of a different body? Remember, at this time the Venerable One is simply seated upon his high seat. The manner in which his body manifests itself is just the same as in the case of any person seated here now.
Master Dogen denies a fantastical or magical interpretation of this story and emphasises the manifestation of real things as realised in zazen.
This body is just “the roundness of the moon” manifesting itself. “The body manifesting itself” is beyond square and round, beyond existence and nonexistence, beyond invisibility and visibility, and beyond the eighty four thousand skandhas: it is just the body manifesting itself.
This totally-inclusive-of-everything body of ours is ungraspable and constantly manifesting in the present as every aspect of existence.
Regards,
Harry.




