Uji 有時
Being-Time (Time of being, time to be)

Uji is a compound noun. It is not merely “the time of being.” U means “being” or “existence,” and ji means “time.” Thus Uji can be translated as “the time of existence,” “being-time,” or “Being-Time.”

In this chapter Dogen discusses time as it is presented in the Buddha-Dharma. The Buddha’s teaching deals with Dharma, Reality just as it is. According to Master Dogen, the present moment is the reality of time. In this reality, time is completely joined with our being and action. Existence and action are realized only here and now. The past and the future are constructed by thinking; our real being exists only in the present moment. Time is therefore realized only as being and action in the Now.

The eternal Buddha says:

There is a time to stand on the highest mountain. There is a time to go to the bottom of the ocean. There is a time of three heads and eight arms. There is a time of a sixteen-foot or eight-foot golden body. There is a time of a pilgrim’s staff and a feather whisk. There is a time of a pillar and a stone lantern. There is a time of the third son of Zhang and the fourth son of Li. And there is a time of the great earth and empty space.

This quotation is from Master Yakusan Igen in the Keitoku Dentoroku, chapter 18 of the Shobogenzo. “There is a time” is aru toki, written with the same characters as uji. The images represent human feelings, religious objects, ordinary objects, common names, and the idealized image of Buddha. Dogen often begins a chapter with a quotation from a master of the past.

In the words “there is a time,” time is already being, and all being is time. The golden body is time itself; because it is time, it has the radiance of time. The three heads and eight arms are also time. No one can measure exactly how long or short twelve hours are, and yet we call them twelve hours.

Time cannot be separated from concrete things and from the mental expressions of everyday life. Our subjective sense of time may differ from objective measurement. In difficult situations time seems to pass slowly, while in beautiful moments it may pass as quickly as a clap of the hands.

The direction and traces of time, coming and going, are clear enough that we do not doubt them. But not doubting does not mean understanding. Living beings naturally have doubts about things and realities they do not understand. Doubt itself is also time. We arrange ourselves in time and see ourselves as the whole universe. Each person and each thing is an individual moment of time, and no thing obstructs another thing.

Individual moments of time are expressed by terms such as zuzu (“each person”), butsubutsu (“each thing”), and jiji (“each moment of time”). The desire for truth, Buddhist practice, and realization are not merely ideas; they are real time because they are actually practiced.

We arrange ourselves in time and recognize ourselves. The truth of this is: WE OURSELVES ARE TIME. Because of this truth, hundreds of concrete things and thousands of phenomena exist in the world, and each thing and each phenomenon is itself the whole earth. This must be learned and experienced directly. It is the first step of practice.

Inmo no denchi, the field of the ineffable, means that there is one concrete thing and one concrete phenomenon here and now, beyond logical description in the act of practice. Description and classification come afterwards. An individual moment of time is one moment of all moments.

Let us pause and consider whether anything in all being and in the whole universe exists outside the present moment.

Ordinary people who do not study Buddha-Dharma nevertheless have their own views about time. When they hear the words “Being-Time,” they may think: “At one time I was three heads and eight arms; at another time I was the golden body.” They may imagine the past as far away, like a mountain and a river left behind. But the truth is not limited to that view.

If we see time linearly, from past to present, we are still time in the past, because the past is part of time here and now. In that moment the linearity of time disappears. Past and future are present as this moment, and this moment is the whole universe. We are completely free in this moment.

What a person recognizes today is his or her own subjective view together with the causes and conditions of that view. But this is not reality itself.

Reality is what determines a person’s causes and conditions in the present moment. Because a person may understand this time and this being as something other than reality, misunderstanding arises. To perfectly realize means to recognize and practice the true form of all Dharmas.

Being-Time is realized despite limitations and obstacles. The rulers and inhabitants of heaven appearing to our right and left are Being-Time in which we are now using our whole strength. Through our effort, activity, and practice, the whole world is realized as this time.

Stored at Kosho-horin Monastery on the first day of winter in the first year of the Ninji era [1240]. The copy was prepared during summer training in the first year of the Kangen era [1243]. — Ejo

How do you understand this?

Write me your opinion.

And I want to continue....

But you cannot understand this continuity of time from one moment to another as if something such as wind or rain were moving it east or west. The whole universe neither moves nor stands still (see chapter 4: Ikka no myoju) and it does not try to go forward or backward: it simply goes from one moment to another. In spring there are countless phenomena that we call “the flow of time.” You must experience and examine for yourself that time passes from one moment to another without the cooperation of some “thing” existing outside time.The passing of time from one moment to another proceeds perfectly by itself through spring. The flow of time is not “spring”, but because spring is the flow of time (IS-TIME), the time that has already passed has realized the truth of the spring season. You must examine this thoroughly by always grasping it and letting it go („sokushi rishi“).If you speak about the flow of present moments and believe that things and phenomena are separate from time, then this is never the study and experience of the Buddha’s way. The same applies when you think that something moves moment after moment, for hundreds and thousands of eons, through hundreds and thousands of worlds toward the east.

If we thought about the “flow of time” in spring conceptually, we might understand it as time, as a subject, flowing through spring as an object. But this does not apply to the real flow of time; in every single moment, time is always identical with spring itself.“The flow of time is not spring” means that spring is not an abstract construction of the period from March 21 to June 20. “Spring is the flow of time” means that spring is always concrete individual moments of time.In this last paragraph before the koan, Master Dogen summarizes his view of time: we do not look at time as something separate from things and phenomena. Time IS things and phenomena themselves, just as things and phenomena ARE time itself.In brief: time and reality are identical. A repeated call to action appears here: you must recognize this, experience it for yourself, and practice it. This is the Buddha’s way. To grasp and let go: sokushi rishi, coming and going, life and death.

Shobogenzo, Uji

Once the great Master Yakusan asked Zen Master Baso about the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West. Baso answered that there is a time when he raises his eyebrows and blinks, and a time when he does not. When Yakusan heard this, he experienced great awakening.

Once, the great Master Yakusan asked Zen Master Baso, taking up the prompting of Master Sekito: “I have basically understood the three vehicles and the twelve divisions of teaching. But what was the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?”

Zen Master Baso answered this question: „There is a time (Aru toki), which lets him (kare) raise his eyebrows and blink one eye, and there is a time that does not let him raise his eyebrows and blink one eye. There is a time when it is good to let him raise his eyebrows and blink one eye, and a time when it is not good to let him do so.“

When Yakusan heard this, he realized great awakening and said to Baso: “In the order of my master Sekito, I was like a single fly that defeated an iron ox.”

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