Jhāna & Dōgen’s Samādhis
Introduction
The aim of this essay is to summarize a few observations about Dōgen’s teachings on samādhi in his opus, Shobogenzo (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye). This study emerges from a public dialogue with Richard Shankman regarding his book on the Pāli Buddhist traditions, The Experience of Samādhi. This dialogue gave rise to two distinct questions: what is the nature of samādhi in Dōgen’s teaching, and how does it relate to jhāna, specific forms of samādhi taught in the Pāli Nikāyas and the Visuddhimagga?
Considering Dōgen’s work, I identified three primary fascicles that discuss what I’m calling “named samādhis”. These fascicles are Kaiin zanmai (Ocean Seal Samādhi), Zanmai o zanmai (King of Samādhis Samādhi), and Bendowa (Talk on Pursuing the Way, which includes the section sometimes called Jijuyu zanmai, chanted at San Francisco Zen Center as, “Self-Receiving and Employing Samādhi”.)
Of course, Dōgen so often wrote about zazen, that there are other important fascicles to consider when investigating his teachings on samādhi. Perhaps the most famous could be Soto Zen’s classic zazen instructions, Fukanzazengi, plus, Zazen gi, which covers much of the same ground, and third, Zazenshin, which explores two important koans pertaining to zazen and a the poem by Hongzhi that provides the fascicle with its name.
I relied on the translations included in the recent publication, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō (2025)
translated by the Soto Zen Text Project (SZTP), edited by Carl Bielefeldt, while I also considered Kazuaki Tanahashi’s translations. Unless otherwise noted, quotes from the Shobogenzo are from the SZTP edition.
In brief, I find no support in these texts for a form of samādhi that corresponds to the jhānas of the Visuddhimagga. Two salient disqualifying features: in Dōgen’s descriptions of named samādhis, (1) the experience of the body and other sense phenomena is still present, and (2) the close observation of impermanence (Pāli: aniccā) is evident. However, I submit that there is room for an interpretation of Dōgen’s samādhis that is largely consistent with the jhānas as presented in the Pāli Nikāyas.
The Experience of Samādhi - Points of Reference
As a basis for comparison, Shankman’s findings regarding these two Pāli traditions are provided in the table below, comparing the jhānas of the suttas and those of the Visuddhimagga. Relevant categories for our discussion are: type of concentration, the presence/absence of body awareness and the experience of changing phenomena, and the capacity for insight practice within the state. [1]
Compared with the sutta form of jhāna, Dōgen’s samādhis, too, entail “unification of mind” (in contrast to a fixed concentration at the expense of other phenomena), include “heightened experience of and insight into the physical body and changing phenomena,” and do not exclude insight.
Additional comparison can be made with Shankman’s non-technical description of the jhānas:
“The four jhānas are distinctive meditative states of high concentration in which the mind becomes unified. These are remarkable states of extraordinary rapture, happiness, and peace, characterized by a steady mental clarity and a profound sense of well-being. The experience of jhāna is inspiring, as the concentrative potential of the mind comes to fruition. Upon attaining any of the four jhānas, progress seems effortless as meditation takes on a power and momentum of its own.” [2]
Third, a more specific comparison can be made between Dōgen’s named samādhis and the five requisite factors of the first jhāna, frequently called the five jhānas factors. Shankman’s translation of AN 9.36, cited on p. 34 of (Shankman 2008): “How many factors does the first jhāna have? The first jhāna has five factors… there occur thought, examination, rapture, pleasure, and unification of mind.” These five are renderings of their nuanced Pāli terms: vitakka, vicāra, pīti, sukha, ekaggatā, respectively.
A poetic description in Zanmai o zanmai strikes a similar chord as Shankman’s non-technical description while also evidencing the jhāna factors:
“Buddha Shakyamuni addressed the great assembly saying,
‘When sitting with legs crossed,
Body and mind realizing samādhi,
One’s majesty, the multitudes respect,
Like the sun illumining the world.
Removed, the lethargy clouding the mind,
The body light, without pain or fatigue;
The awareness similarly light and easy,
One sits calmly, like the dragon coiled.
King Māra is startled and fearful
On seeing depicted one sitting with legs crossed.
How much more [on seeing] one who realizes the way,
Sitting calmly without stirring.’” [3]
Preceding these verses, a significant section of this fascicle includes a strong admonition to investigate experience, which can be understood as an encouragement for vittaka-vicāra. Correlations found in the verse: “Removed, the lethargy clouding the mind” and “awareness similarly light and easy” could indicate pīti (and an absence of the hindrance of sloth-and-torpor). “Body light, without pain” indicates sukha. “Sitting calmly without stirring,” could be interpreted as an indication of ekaggatā. A closer examination of Dōgen’s writing here, in the original language, could strengthen or weaken this interpretation. Nonetheless, Dōgen’s description of this samādhi is similar enough to the first jhāna of the suttas as to suggest further investigation.
We can look first at Zazen gi, which provides Dōgen’s meditation instructions in brief. Here we also see one of the primary objections raised concerning a correspondence of Dōgen’s samādhis with jhāna. Then, via his other fascicles, we can expand on the character of Dōgen’s named samādhis.
Zazen gi - Principles of Seated Meditation
“Studying Zen is seated meditation.”
Dōgen begins his instructions in Zen training with this one clear statement. After notes about how to properly set up one’s sitting environment, soon Dōgen names what a practitioner should set aside: “‘Cast aside the various involvements and discontinue the myriad affairs.’ Good is not thought of; evil is not thought of. It is not mind, mentation, or consciousness; it is not thoughts, ideas, or perceptions. Do not figure to make a buddha…” [4]
Also set aside here is the notion that “seated meditation” is equivalent to the practice of dhyāna (Sanskrit; Pāli: jhāna). “Seated meditation is not the practice of dhyāna. It is the dharma gate of great ease and joy. It is nondefiling practice and verification.” [5]
“Seated meditation is not the practice of dhyāna,” seems a straightforward statement. Following the threads of the footnotes in the SZTP edition, we find an entry for “practitioner of dhyāna” which includes an illuminating qualification. The editor notes that Dōgen here is quoting from Shimen’s Grove Record, a text recommended to him by his teacher, Rujing. The note is so rich that I will quote it in full, while adding bold to emphasize the relevant point:
practitioner of dhyāna (shuzen): One of the ten categories of Chinese Buddhist monk employed in the "biographies of eminent monks" (koso den 高僧傳)literature. There, the term denotes a monk who specializes in the practice of meditation (zen; S. dhyāna) or the explication of so-called "dhyāna sūtras" (zenkyo), as the latter were understood in early Chinese Buddhism. Other categories include sūtra translators (yakkyo), exegetes (gige 義解), vinaya experts (myoritsu 明律), and so on.
The glyphs (shuzen) are an abbreviation of the expression "to practice dhyana"(shuju zenna 修習禪那)and are also translated herein as "the practice of dhyana." In both the Indian and the East Asian contexts, the term "dhyāna" is used in two ways: 1) A narrower sense, in which it refers specifically to successive stages of mental absorption, or trance, known as the four dhyānas (shizen); and (2) a broader sense, in which it includes both the inducement of mental calm (S. śamatha) and the cultivation of insight (kan; S. vipaśyanā).
In the literature of Zen, "practitioner of dhyana" is a term of disparagement for monks who specialize in various forms of meditation theory and practice but do not understand that what Bodhidharma transmitted to China was not merely dhyāna concentration (zenjo), i.e., the fifth of the six perfections (roku haramitsu 六波羅蜜; S. ṣaḍ-pāramitā), but rather the awakening of Buddha Sākyamuni - the buddha mind (busshin) - itself. One of the most explicit expressions of the idea that the Zen lineage is not characterized by dhyana in the sense of "meditation" is found in Shimen's Grove Record (Shimen linjian lu石門林間錄, ZZ.148:590b7-12; X.1624.87:247c21-248a1), a work completed in 1107 by Huihong Juefan 慧洪覺範 (1071-1128), alias Shimen:
When Bodhidharma first went from Liang to Wei, he proceeded to the foot of Mount Song, where he rested his staff at Shaolin. There he just sat facing a wall. It was not the practice of dhyāna; but, after a while, others, unable to fathom what he was doing, made Bodhidharma a practitioner of dhyāna. Now, dhyāna is but one among various practices; how could it suffice to exhaust [the practice of] the sage? Nevertheless, people of the time took it in this way; and those who wrote histories followed this and recorded him among practitioners of dhyāna, thus making him a confederate of the partisans of dried-up trees and dead ashes. Although the sage does not stop at dhyāna, he does not oppose dhyāna.
The source of Huihong's ire was the fact that [“historians”, i.e., Zanning and] Daoxuan did not distinguish Bodhidharma in any fundamental way from the other eminent dhyāna masters that he treated in his Additional Biographies.
With an understanding that Dōgen borrowed heavily from Chinese sources when writing his meditation instructions, and that the Shimen’s Grove Record was recommended by his Dharma Transmission teacher, we could qualify Dōgen’s straightforward statement with Shimen’s. That is, “Seated meditation is not the practice of dhyāna” could be qualified by “Although the sage does not stop at dhyāna, he does not oppose dhyāna.” The point at issue for Shimen was not the experience of dhyāna, but the idea that dhyāna was all that Bodhidharma was transmitting. He contended that Bodhidharma should be set apart from other teachers as the Ancestor transmitting the Buddha’s mind. Dōgen’s writings strongly suggest that he would have agreed on this point. If the sage Bodhidharma [did] not stop at jhāna, and was not opposed to jhāna, there is room in the practice he transmitted to include jhāna, even while going beyond.
Bendowa - On the Endeavor of the Way & Kaiin zanmai - Ocean Seal Samādhi
Jhāna need not be avoided in zazen, the practice and verification of Buddha-mind. The experiences of jhāna may well arise unintentionally while practicing zazen, are not the end point of zazen, and they do not interfere with the mind seal transmitted by Bodhidharma and his Dharma heirs, including Dōgen. If Dōgen Zen includes and goes beyond jhāna (as the Pāli traditions do, too) what else is included?
In Bendowa, Dōgen provides a poetic, powerful introduction to zazen, his religious vision, and the role of samādhi.
All buddha tathāgatas, who directly transmit inconceivable dharma and actualize supreme, perfect enlightenment, have a wondrous way, unsurpassed and unconditioned. Only buddhas transmit it to buddhas without veering off; self-fulfilling samādhi is its standard. Sitting upright, practicing Zen, is the authentic gate to the unconfined realm of this samādhi. [6]
Here, it is a samādhi that is the standard of what Buddha transmits to Buddha. This standard is jijuyu zanmai, variously translated as “samādhi of self-enjoyment” (SZTP), “self-receiving and employing samādhi” (SFZC), and “self-fulfilling samādhi” (Tanahashi & Richmond). Employing evocative imagery, Dōgen expresses this samādhi’s transformative power: “When even for a moment you express the buddha’s seal in the three actions by sitting upright in samādhi, the whole phenomenal world becomes the buddha’s seal and the entire sky turns into enlightenment.” [7]
There is correspondence between jijuyu zanmai and another of Dōgen’s named samādhis, in that both are regarded as samādhis of the buddhas. As above, jijuyu zanmai is the standard by which inconceivable Dharma is transmitted Buddha-to-Buddha, so too, Ocean Seal Samādhi (kaiin zanmai) is where buddhas merge:
“To exist as the buddhas and ancestors do is invariably the ocean seal samādhi [kaiin zanmai]. As they swim in this samādhi, they have a time to teach, a time to verify, a time to practice. … While, of course, their previous acts of passing through the barriers and breaking down the sections were by the individual buddhas and ancestors, they are merged in the ocean seal samādhi.” [8]
The merging of buddhas, mind to mind, in the realm of samādhi, could certainly be considered “unification of mind”, in more than one sense. Also evident in Ocean Seal Samādhi, as in Shankman’s descriptions of jhāna in the Pāli suttas, is the “heightened experience of changing phenomena”, indicating a comprehensive, inclusive focus. Also explicit in Ocean Seal Samādhi is the perception of not-self, another of the classical insights in the Pāli tradition that would be evident in jhānas of the sutta style. Here, in the fascicle Kaiin zanmai, is a passage Dōgen puts into the mouth of the Buddha, (though according to the editor is from the teachings of Mazu, who himself is quoting and commenting on the Vimalakirti Sutra):
“The Buddha said,
It is just the dharmas that combine to form this body. When they arise, it is simply the dharmas arising; when they cease, it is simply the dharmas ceasing. When these dharmas arise, they do not state, “I arise”’ when these dharmas cease, they do not state, “I cease.” [9]
To represent Dōgen’s further emphasis on the perception of impermanence (Pāli: aniccā), here in this fascicle he equates dharmas arising with “skin, flesh, bones, and marrow,” a phrase recalling the transmission from Bodhidharma to his direct heirs:
“‘When they arise, it is simply dharmas arising.’ This ‘dharmas arising’ never leaves behind arising.” [10] And further, “‘Arising’ is always when the time comes; for time is arising. What is ‘arising’? It should be ‘arisen!’ Since this is arising as time, it does not fail to expose the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.” [11]
Here, and in later passages, Dōgen makes much of the perception of aniccā in classical language: arising and ceasing. Ocean seal samādhi includes experience of aniccā: arising and ceasing. He seems to encourage this contemplation of arising and ceasing in a way that is free of asserting a self, and elevates this view as a “vital artery” (meimyaku): “‘...we should give ourselves over to it and confirm it. It causes the severance and continuation of ‘when arising and ceasing don’t stop’ as the vital artery of the buddha and ancestors.” [12]
Dōgen, with his dismantling discourse, takes care to break apart concepts, notions of arising and ceasing, seemingly to discourage proliferation about arising and ceasing during meditation. Though practitioners are discouraged from grasping notions, the observation of ceasing is encouraged, closely associated with the “not defiled” that characterized Nanyue’s realization. “... It is just this ‘not defiled’ that is ‘called the ocean seal samādhi.’” [13]
“‘Ceasing’ is the ceasing of the dharmas; though it is ceasing it must be the dharmas. Because it is the dharmas, it is not adventitious dust. Because it is not adventitious dust, it is ‘not defiled.’ Just this ‘not defiled’ is the ‘buddhas and ancestors.’” [14]
Ceasing, as dharmas, is not a hindrance, “not defiled” by “adventitious dust”. This echoes Fukanzazengi (“far beyond the world’s dust”), perhaps Dōgen’s most famous zazen instructions, which include a strong emphasis on seated meditation. We find this too in our third samādhi fascile, Zanmai o zanmai, King of Samādhis Samādhi.
Zanmai o zanmai - The King of Samādhis Samādhi
Much as the jhānas in the Pāli tradition, Dōgen’s named samādhis indicate transformative power, unification of mind, and the experience of changing phenomena. In Zanmai o zanmai, two other features of Dōgen’s samādhis are emphasized: inclusiveness and upright sitting. In jijuyu zanmai, “the entire sky turns into enlightenment” and in kaiin zanmai, all dharmas arise and cease. In zanmai o zanmai, samādhi includes the capacity to focus on innumerable dharmas.
According to the SZTP Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, this fascicle is informed by Nāgārjuna’s comments on the term “King of Samādhis Samādhi” in the Prajña Pāramitā in 25,000 Lines. The sutra passage: “At that time, the World-Honored One spread his lion seat and, sitting with legs crossed, straightening his body and binding his thoughts before him, entered into the king of samādhis samadhi, in which all samādhis are included.” Just as Bodhidharma was not opposed to dhyāna, it would seem that the World-Honored One, in this passage, includes all samādhis.
“The commentary on this line in the Treatise extols the spiritual advantages of cross-legged sitting and goes on to explain that this samādhi is first among samādhis because it is ‘freely able to take innumerable dharmas as its object.’” [15] Both of these points, i.e., the primacy of “sitting cross-legged” and the inclusion of innumerable dharmas are emphasized here by Dōgen.
This fascicle expresses sitting cross-legged as supreme. “Abruptly transcending all the worlds, to be greatly honored within the house of the buddhas and ancestors — this is sitting with legs crossed.” [16] And, “We should realize that there is a vast difference between the worlds of sitting and all other worlds.” [17]
Not to be misunderstood as putting one’s legs into the lotus posture then doing nothing, “We should investigate: at the very moment of sitting, are all the worlds vertical? Are they horizontal? At the very moment we are sitting, what about that sitting? Is it a flip? Is it brisk and lively? Is it thinking? Is it not thinking? Is it making? Is it without making?... We should investigate one thousand points, ten thousand points such as these.” [18]
Throughout the text, Dōgen places a strong emphasis on sitting upright. Here, he provides a more complete description of a method, again in a teaching placed in the mouth of the Buddha, this one from the Dajidu lun (T.1509.25:111b22-29) [19]. Dōgen quotes (underlines added):
Buddha Sākyamuni addressed the great assembly, saying, Therefore, [the Buddha] sits with legs crossed. Further, the Thus Come One, the World-Honored One, instructs his disciples that they should sit like this. Followers of other paths seek the way while always keeping [one] leg raised, or seek the way while always standing, or seek the way with their legs on their shoulders. Thus, their minds are crazed, sinking in the sea of falsity, and their bodies are ill at ease. Therefore, the Buddha instructs his disciples to sit with legs crossed, to sit with mind upright. Why? Because, when the body is upright, the mind is easily corrected. When one's body is sitting upright, the mind will not slacken. With straightforward mind and correct attention, one fastens thought in front of one. If the mind wanders, if the body leans, one controls them and brings them back. Wishing to realize samādhi, wishing to enter samādhi, one collects the multiple wandering thoughts, the multiple distractions. Training in this way, one enters verification of the king of samādhis samādhi.
[Dōgen:] “It is clear from this that sitting with legs crossed is the king of samādhis samādhi, is entering verification. … is upright body, is upright mind, … is upright buddha and ancestor, is upright practice and realization; it is upright crown of the head, upright vital artery.” [20]
This “sitting with crossed legs” includes a method for approaching samādhi, and is equivalent to the “vital artery” also mentioned in kaiin zanmai.
For all the emphasis on sitting upright, other equivalencies with this samādhi show that it also includes even more than physically sitting with crossed legs. To list some of these equivalents of “sitting with crossed legs” (not exhaustive): turning the Dharma wheel, scrolls of teaching [sutras], “the mind seal directly transmitted by the seven buddhas”, “buddha meeting buddha”, “precisely the time when beings attain buddhahood.”[21] Taken as a whole, to me this text reads like a strong encouragement for the monks in Dōgen’s assembly who are sitting zazen.
And, it is here in Zanmai o zanmai that we find again our Dōgen passage that rings so much like jhāna:
“Buddha Shakyamuni addressed the great assembly saying,
‘When sitting with legs crossed,
Body and mind realizing samādhi,
One’s majesty, the multitudes respect,
Like the sun illumining the world.
Removed, the lethargy clouding the mind,
The body light, without pain or fatigue;
The awareness similarly light and easy,
One sits calmly, like the dragon coiled.
King Māra is startles and fearful
On seeing depicted one sitting with legs crossed.
How much more [on seeing] one who realizes the way,
Sitting calmly without stirring.’” [22]
Sitting Meditation, Sitting Buddha
As jijuyu zanmai, kaiin zanmai, and zanmai o zanmai, Dōgen’s samādhi is a vivid, contemplative, upright sitting that directly transmits the Buddha’s seal.
With a well-known case cited in Shobogenzo Zazen shin, Dōgen provides a pithy summation of his attitude toward samādhi. Commenting on Nanyue and Mazu’s encounter, Dōgen shows that “sitting meditation” and “sitting Buddha” are not two.
To abbreviate the encounter between Nanyue and his Dharma heir Mazu, as expressed in Zazen shin [23], famously Mazu is seated in meditation:
Nanyue: Most Virtuous One, what are you figuring to do, sitting there in meditation?
Mazu: I’m figuring to make a buddha.
(Nanyue took up a tile and began to rub it on a stone.)
M: Master, what are you making?
N: I’m polishing this to make a mirror.
M: How can you produce a mirror by polishing a tile?
N: How can you make a buddha by sitting in meditation.
M: So what is right?
N: When someone’s driving a cart, if the cart doesn’t go, is beating the cart right, or is beating the ox right? [training body or training mind]
Mazu had no reply, silence.
N: “Are you studying seated meditation, or are you studying seated buddha?”
Again, we’ve arrived at Bodhidharma including dhyāna, not stopping at dhyāna, but not opposing dhyāna. Taken without Dōgen’s comments and the background of our study, it sounds as if Nanyue is dismissing seated meditation. Dōgen’s comment clarifies that, in fact, studying seated meditation is itself studying seated buddha:
“Investigating these words, we should distinguish the essential function of the ancestors. Without knowing what “studying seated meditation” really is, we do know here that it is “studying seated buddha.” Who but a scion of direct descent could say that “studying seated meditation” is “studying seated buddha”? We should know indeed that the beginner’s “seated meditation” is the beginning “seated meditation” and … is the beginning “seated buddha.”
In this way, zazen includes “sitting meditation” as “sitting buddha.” Sitting meditation is not excluded. Nanyue finishes the exchange: “If you are studying seated buddha, buddha is no fixed mark. If you’re a seated buddha, this is killing buddha. If you grasp the mark of sitting, this is not reaching its principle.”
Dōgen adds his comments: “...in being a ‘seated buddha,’ we cannot fail to ‘grasp the mark of sitting.’ Since we cannot fail to ‘grasp the mark of sitting,’ though our ‘grasping the mark of sitting’ is crystal clear, we are ‘not reaching its principle.’ Such concentrated effort is called ‘sloughing off body and mind.’ Those who have never sat do not have these words…” [24]
Conclusion
In examining Dōgen’s named samādhis, what emerges is not a categorical rejection of jhāna, but a vision of practice that does not stop at jhāna even as it goes beyond. Dōgen’s descriptions of jijuyu zanmai, kaiin zanmai, and zanmai o zanmai consistently reveal samādhi as inclusive rather than exclusive, evidencing impermanence and the experience of body and phenomena. These qualities mark both their continuity with certain Pāli Nikāya descriptions of jhāna and their divergence from the jhānas of the Visuddhimagga.
In Dōgen’s samādhi fascicles, samādhi is not an attainment to be clung to, but the functioning of buddha-ancestors’ practice, constituting a “vital artery” from ancestor to ancestor. Seated meditation may contain experiences resonant with jhāna, or even jhāna itself, but Dōgen directs us beyond any grasping after these states, toward “studying seated buddha.” Just as Bodhidharma neither opposed nor stopped at dhyāna, Dōgen situates zazen as the site where samādhi is embodiment without fixation, where sitting upright itself is realization.
The conclusion, then, is not that Dōgen’s samādhis are equivalent to jhāna, nor that they are opposed. Rather, jhāna belongs to the continuous unfolding of the Dharma, in which meditation is not a technique but the buddhas’ seal transmitted through sitting.
Further development of these ideas might include an accounting of “practice-verification”, “no-gaining mind”, “shikantaza”, in Dōgen’s writings, along with a study of dhyāna as a pāramitā and as a state in Ch’an practice, among other key teachings.
—
[1] Shankman. The Experience of Samādhi, p. 103
[2] Shankman. The Experience of Samādhi, p. 32.
[3] Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, vol. 5, p. 88. (underlines added)
[4] Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, vol. 1, p. 282
[5] p. 286
[6] Tanahashi. Moon in a Dewdrop, p. 143.
[7] Ibid., p. 145.
[8] Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, vol. 1, pp. 331-2.
[9] Ibid., p. 334.
[10] Ibid., p. 334.
[11] Ibid., p. 335.
[12] Ibid., p. 337.
[13] Ibit., p. 341.
[14] Ibid., p. 338.
[15] Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, vol 5., p. 82
[16] Ibid., p. 84.
[17] Ibid., p. 85.
[18] Ibid., pp. 85-6.
[19] T.1509.25:111b22-29. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Zhidu_Lun
[20] Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, vol. 5, p. 89.
[21] Ibid., p. 90.
[22] Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, vol. 5, p. 88. (underlines added)
[23] Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, vol 1., pp. 292-327.
[24] Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, vol 1., pp. 310-11.