When one practices supreme and perfect enlightenment, the most difficult task is to get a guide and teacher. That teacher is not in the form of a man or woman but rather will be a person of great resolve, will be just such a person. The teacher is not a person from the past nor a person from the present. More likely it will be a fox spirit who will be the good friend. This is the face of getting the marrow, your guide and benefactor. The teacher will not be in the dark about cause and effect; the teacher may be you or I or someone else.

After you have encountered a guide and teacher, you should cast off the myriad distractions and, without losing a moment, devote yourself energetically to pursuing the way. You should practice, be it by using the mind or by using no-mind, or by using half-mind.

Therefore you should learn to practice with the same sense of urgency that would drive you to put out a fire on top of your head or to stand with one leg raised [in order to pay homage to a buddha]. If you do this, you will not be assaulted by Mara's legions who will lead you to commit blasphemy. The ancestor who cut off his arm to get the marrow does not refer to another; the master who will teach you the sloughing off of body and mind is already within yourself.1

Getting the marrow and receiving the dharma always depend upon utmost sincerity and the believing mind. Sincere faith is not something that comes to you from the outside, nor is it something that moves to the outside from within you. It simply signifies prizing the dharma while making light of yourself. It is to flee the world and regard the way as your abode. If you think of yourself as being even only slightly more precious than the dharma, the dharma will not be passed on to you, nor will you attain it. There is not just one instance of a person who had the determination to regard the dharma as something precious. Although you need not turn to the teachings of others, I shall present just a few examples here.

To prize the dharma is to protect and preserve the great dharma, whether as a pillar, a lantern, all buddhas, a little fox, a demon, a man or a woman. If you have gotten my marrow, you will attend the buddhas for countless eons, employing your body and mind as a seat for them. Getting a body and mind is as easily accomplished as the spread of rice plants, hemp, bamboo, and reeds throughout the world. But to encounter the dharma is something rare indeed.

Sakyamuni Buddha said,

When you meet a teacher who speaks of supreme enlightenment, you must not consider the teacher’s caste; you must not look to see whether the features of the teacher’s face are pleasing; you must not scorn the teacher’s shortcomings; you must not think about the teacher’s behavior. It is precisely because you venerate and prize the teacher’s wisdom that you should let him or her eat food worth hundreds or thousands ounces of gold every day. You should make offerings by presenting the teacher with heavenly foods; you should make offerings by scattering heavenly flowers. You should do obeisance and respectfully pay homage to the teacher three times daily and not let feelings of disdain and weariness arise. When you behave in this way [toward your teacher], the path to enlightenment will surely appear. By having practiced in this fashion since I first set my mind [on realizing buddhahood], I have today attained supreme and perfect enlightenment.2

Thus you should request [the teachings] from trees and rocks; you should seek [the teachings] in the fields and villages. You should put your questions to a pillar and practice intensively with a wall. A long time ago the god Taishaku took a little fox as a teacher, to whom he did obeisance and put questions about the dharma. Taishaku consequently received the appellation “great bodhisattva,” which was a spiritual level that he did not attain simply as a result of his past karma.

However, those ignoramuses who do not listen to the teachings of the buddhas say: “I am a senior monk and should not do obeisance before a younger monk who has acquired the dharma; I am one who has practiced over a long period of time and should not do obeisance before one who began his studies late in life but has acquired the dharma; I have been assigned the title ‘master’ and should not do obeisance before one who does not have the title ‘master.’ I hold the office of superintendent of the monastery and should not do obeisance before other monks who have acquired the dharma; I hold the office of bishop and should not do obeisance before laymen and laywomen who have acquired the dharma; I have attained the three wisdom stages or the ten noble stages [on the bodhisattva path] and should not do obeisance before a nun even though she has acquired the dharma. I belong to the imperial lineage and should not do obeisance before those who are ministers of state or members of families that have produced prime ministers, even though they have attained the dharma.” Ignoramuses such as these neither see nor listen to the buddha dharma because they have left the land of their father to wander in vain along the roads of another land.

A long time ago, under the Tang dynasty, the great master Zhaozhou Zhenji, having set his mind [upon the dharma], undertook a journey by foot [in search of a teacher]. He declared on this occasion, “If I meet someone superior, even if only seven years old, I shall ask [the person about the dharma]. If, I meet someone inferior, even though a hundred years of age, I shall give instruction to the person.”3

When asking a seven-year old about the dharma, even an old man should do obeisance. This shows a determination rare and great; it is the mindset of an old buddha. When a nun who has attained the way and attained the dharma has appeared in the world, if a monk in search of the dharma, engaging in practice and study, should join her community, do obeisance, and ask her about the dharma, it is a wonderful achievement, like a thirsty person finding water.

The Chan master Zhixian in the country of China was a venerable monk under Linji. Once, when Linji happened to see the master coming, he grabbed hold of him, whereupon the master said, “I understand.”

Linji released him, saying, “Well, I’ll spare you a blow.”

From this time, Zhixian became Linji’s descendant.

Zhixian subsequently left Linji and went to the nun Moshan, who asked him, “Where did you just come from?”Zhixian replied, “From the entrance to the road.”

Moshan said, “Why didn’t you come here after blocking it?”

Zhixian had no words. He immediately did obeisance and saluted her as a disciple acknowledges a teacher.

Zhixian in return put a question to Moshan, “What is Moshan?”

Moshan responded, “Its peak cannot be seen.”

Zhixian said, “What sort of person dwells in the mountain?”

Moshan said, “Not with forms such as a man or a woman.”

The master said, “Then why don’t you change yourself?”

Moshan replied, “I’m not a fox spirit; why would I want to change?”

Zhixian did obeisance.

Zhixian consequently set his mind [on achieving awakening] and for three full years served as the supervisor of a [monastery] vegetable patch. Later, when he assumed the position of a teacher, he said to the assembly, “I got half a ladle at Papa Linji’s place, and I got half a ladle at Mama Moshan’s place, which together made a full ladle. Since that time, after having fully digested this, I’ve been satisfied to the full.”4 Hearing these words and reflecting fondly on the footprints of these great teachers, we see that Moshan was Gaoan Dayu’s outstanding disciple, who possessed the power transmitted through the veins [of a lineage of teachers] to become the “mama” of Zhixian. Linji, the dharma heir of the Chan master Huangbo Yun, possessed the power transmitted through strenuous effort to become the “papa” of Zhixian.5 “Papa” means “father,” and “mama” means “mother.” That the Chan master Zhixian did obeisance to, and sought the dharma from, the Moshan nun Liaoran is a splendid realization of his determination [to become awakened]; it is an act of integrity that should become familiar to those who began their studies late. This is what should be called “attacking the barriers and breaking the knots.”

The nun Miaoxin was a disciple of Yangshan. When Yangshan was looking to choose a director of the monastery’s office for secular affairs, he asked around among the retired senior and junior officers, “Which person would be suitable to appoint?”

After an exchange of questions and answers, Yangshan at last said, “Although [Miao] Xin, the “kid” from the Huai [river region], is a woman, she has the determination of a person of great resolve. She is truly the one qualified to serve as the director of the office for secular affairs.”

All in the assembly agreed.

When, in the end, Miaoxin was appointed director of the office for secular affairs, the dragons and elephants among Yangshan’s disciples had no misgivings. Although this was not an important office, she was careful [in performing her duties] as befitting one who had been chosen [for this responsibility].

After [Miaoxin] had taken up her position and was residing in the office for secular affairs, seventeen monks from Shu banded together to go in search of a teacher to ask about the way. Thinking that they would climb Yangshan, at sunset they took lodgings in the office for secular affairs. During the evening lecture, while they were resting, someone brought up the story of Caoqi Gaozu’s words on the wind and the flag. But what each of the seventeen monks had to say was wide of the mark. At that time, Miaoxin, who was on the other side of the wall, heard the monks and said, “How lamentable, you seventeen blind donkeys! How many straw sandals have you wasted [in your futile search for the dharma]? The buddha dharma has not yet appeared even in your dreams!”

At that time there was a postulant who, having heard the disapproving remarks about these monks by Miaoxin, reported them to the seventeen monks. The seventeen monks did not resent Miaoxin’s disapproval. To the contrary, they were ashamed that their words were inadequate and so, comporting themselves in the proper fashion, they offered incense, did obeisance, and respectfully inquired [about the dharma].

Miaoxin then said, “Step forward!”

As the seventeen monks were walking toward her, Miaoxin said, “It’s not the wind moving, it’s not the flag moving, it’s not the mind moving .”

Instructed in this fashion, all seventeen monks were awakened. They expressed their gratitude, establishing the formal relationship of teacher and disciple, and quickly returned to Western Shu. In the end, they never climbed Yangshan. Truly this [incident] was not something that could have been accomplished by even one on the three wisdom stages or the ten noble stages. It was the practice of the way in of the unbroken transmission from the buddhas and ancestors.6

And so, today too, when the position of abbot or head monastic falls vacant, a monastery may invite a nun who appears to have acquired the dharma to fill the vacancy. Of what use would it be if a monk of advanced age with many years of practice were invited if he had not acquired the dharma? Those who are the leaders of monastic communities should rely on their clear eye.

However, those [leaders] sunk into the body and mind of a villager are obstinate, and are frequently the object of derision by even lay people. How much less are they deserving of mention in the buddha dharma. And there will also certainly be some who have decided not to pay homage to dharma-transmitting teachers who are lay women and nuns. Because they know nothing and have not studied, they are close to animals and distant from the buddhas and the ancestors.7

When one makes it one’s goal from the depths of one’s being to throw body and mind fervently [into the practice of the buddha dharma], the buddha dharma will always have compassion for that person. Even ignorant men and gods have a turn of mind that responds to sincerity. How could the true dharma taught by all the buddhas lack the compassion that rewards [such sincerity]? Even the earth, stones, sand, and pebbles have a spiritual essence that responds to sincerity.

At the present time, in the Great Land of Song [China], there are nuns practicing in monasteries. If one of them has the reputation of having acquired the dharma, the court will grant an edict appointing her abbot of a nunnery. She will then immediately go up to the dharma hall in the monastery [to give a lecture]. From the abbot on down, all the monks will attend and, standing erect, they will listen to her expound the dharma. It is the monks who will put the questions. This has been the rule since ancient times.

Since a person who has attained the dharma is none other than a true old buddha, you must not wonder when you meet that person who he or she was in the past. When that [old buddha] sees you, he or she will treat you as if [the encounter] is something entirely new and special. And when you see [the old buddha], you should respond to him or her immediately on that very day. If a nun has received and holds the treasury of the eye of the true dharma, the arhats, the pratyeka-buddhas, and those on the three wisdom stages and ten noble stages [of the the bodhisattva path] will come, do obeisance, and question her about the dharma, and the nun will receive such obeisance. What is so exalted about a man? Space is space; the four elements are the four elements; the five aggregates are the five aggregates. For a woman it is the same thing. In acquiring the dharma, all acquire the dharma equally. All should pay homage to and hold in esteem one who has acquired the dharma. Do not make an issue of whether it is a man or a woman. This is the most wondrous law of the buddha dharma.Å@Furthermore, what is called a “layman” in Song Dynasty [China] is a young gentleman who has not yet left home. Some live in small huts with their wives; others live alone and remain chaste. Even though we must say that they are still in the dense forest of defilements, when one of them attains enlightenment, itinerant monks will gather to do obeisance and seek instruction, just as they would from a master who has left home. And so it should be whether it be a woman or an animal.

When someone has not yet seen the truth of the buddha dharma even in a dream, though such a person might be an old monk 100 years of age, he cannot reach the level of a lay man or lay woman who has acquired the dharma. He ought not to be reverenced but should be treated only according to the rules of etiquette governing the relationship between a guest and a host. But when someone practices the buddha dharma and expounds the buddha dharma, though such a person be a girl seven years of age, that person is a guide and teacher for the four groups and a compassionate father for all sentient beings. Such a person may be compared to the daughter of the Dragon King who attained buddhahood.8 Offerings should be made and respectful homage paid equal to that accorded to the buddhas and tathagatas. This is an ancient rule in the buddha dharma. Those who do not understood this, who have not received the single transmission, are to be pitied.

Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma,
Book 28
Written at the Kannon Dori Kosho Horinji,
on the day of the Seimei [festival], in the kanoe-ne year of the En’o [era].
[April 5, 1240 C.E.]

Furthermore, in both olden times and today in Japan and China, there have been women who held the rank of emperor. These emperors controlled all the land of their empires, and the people all became their subjects. They were venerated not as individuals but for their rank. Also with nuns, since olden times they have been venerated not as individuals: they are venerated solely for their having acquired the dharma.

Also, when there is a nun who has become an arhat, all the merit that accrues from the four stages of fruition will come to her, and that merit will continue to follow her. Who among humans or gods surpasses one at the fourth stage of fruition? Even the gods inhabiting the three realms do not reach her level. Yet the gods venerate her as one who has cast aside [worldly concerns]. Even more so is this the case with those who have received the transmission of the true dharma of the tathagatas and revealed their noble intention of becoming bodhisattvas! Who would not venerate them? Not venerating them is a personal offense. When one does not venerate supreme enlightenment, one is a fool who slanders the dharma.

Furthermore, in our country there are daughters of emperors or daughters of ministers of state who have been appointed empresses in all but name, and there are empresses who have been given the title “cloistered.” Some have shaved their heads, and others have not. However, monk-like clergymen who court fame and seek advantage hasten to the gates of these women’s homes and bang their heads on the footgear [hoping to gain favor]. [The behavior of these clergymen] is more vile than that of an inferior [groveling before] his superior. And so much more so is this case with those who turn themselves into menservants and spend their years [catering to noblewomen]. How pathetic it is that, having been born in a small country that is a peripheral land, they do not realize that this is a corrupt custom that never existed in India or China but is found only in our country. By shaving the hair on the top and sides of their heads for their own selfish reasons, they destroy the true dharma of the tathagatas, which must be called a profoundly serious offense. It is to be deplored that they are bound as menservants to [their female patrons] entirely because they have forgotten that the world is a dream-like phantom or flowers in the sky. They behave in this fashion for the sake of a vain world. Why, then, in order to attain supreme enlightenment, will they not pay homage to one who has acquired the dharma and hence is deserving of veneration? This is because their intention to treat the dharma as important is shallow and their intention to seek the dharma is not all-embracing. When they covet riches, they do not think that they should not accept a woman’s riches. When they seek the dharma, this attitude should be even stronger. If it is, the grass, trees, and walls dispense the true dharma; the myriad things of heaven and earth likewise bestow the dharma. This is a truth you should certainly understand. When you do not seek the dharma with such intention, you will not receive any gain from the dharma water [that washes away defilements] even though you might encounter a true good friend. You should ponder and work on this carefully.

Moreover, profoundly ignorant people today, believing that women are lustful objects, view them thus and do not correct this way of thinking. Followers of the Buddha should not behave this way. If you despise women, believing them to be lustful objects, should not all men likewise be despised? [If it is a matter of] becoming a cause for [sexual impurity], men likewise may serve as objects [of sexual attraction], just as women may be objects. Those who are neither men nor women likewise may serve as objects; dream-like phantoms and flowers in sky also may serve as such objects. Sometimes impure acts have been committed because of an image reflected on the water. Sometimes impure acts have been committed because of the sun in the heavens. Gods may serve as objects [of sexual attraction] and demons may serve as such objects. It is impossible to count the number of causes [that might stimulate sexual lust]. Although there are said to be 84,000 objects [in the cosmos], are we to abandon all of these? Are we not to look at any of these?

In the Vinaya it is said, “With a man it is two places; with a woman it is three places. [Violation of these places constitutes] equally an unpardonable offense requiring expulsion.9

Since this is the case, if you despise people in the belief that they have become objects of sexual lust, then men and women will all have to despise one another, such that there will be no opportunity for anyone to cross [to the other shore]. The implications of this truth should be examined carefully.

Furthermore, some non-Buddhists do not take wives, but even though they have no wives, they are still non-Buddhists, harboring false views because they have not entered the buddha dharma. Even among the disciples of the buddha, there are husbands and wives within the two groups that comprise the laity. But since they are disciples of the Buddha, there are no others among humans or the gods in the heavens who can stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

Furthermore, in the country of Tang [China] there are ignorant monks who make a vow saying: “For a long time, from life to life and generation to generation, I will not look at a woman.” On which teachings is this based? Is it based on the teachings of the buddhas? Is it based on the teachings of the non-Buddhists? Is it based on the teachings of Mara? What offenses are women guilty of? What virtues are men endowed with? As for evil persons, these are found among men. As for good persons, these are found among women. The desire to hear the dharma and the search for emancipation certainly do not depend upon whether you are a man or a woman. When delusions have not yet been severed, whether it be a man or a woman, those delusions remain unsevered. When delusions are severed and one experiences the truth, no distinction exists as to whether it is a man or woman. Furthermore, if you vow never to look at a woman, must you then abandon women when you chant, “Beings are boundless, I vow to free them.”?10 If you abandon them, you are not a bodhisattva. Would you call this “the compassion of the buddhas”? Since [monks who vow not to look at a woman] are profoundly intoxicated by the wine of the sravaka, these are words of madness induced by drunkenness. Humans and gods ought not believe [such talk].

Furthermore, if you despise people because they have committed offenses in the past, then you should also despise bodhisattvas. If you despise people because they will likely commit offenses in the future, then you should also despise all bodhisattvas who have set their mind [on realizing Buddhahood]. If you despise people in this way, you will be forsaking everyone. How then will the buddha dharma be realized? Such words [as “I vow never to look at a woman”] are the crazy talk of ignoramuses who do not understand the buddha dharma. How sad! According to your vow, would Sakyamuni and all the bodhisattvas in the world be guilty of offense? Or would their mind [set on] enlightenment be shallower than yours? You should reflect on this quietly. Since this vow did not exist at the time of the ancestors who received transmission of the dharma and the bodhisattvas who were contemporaneous with the Buddha, you must think hard about whether it is something to be learned in the teaching of the Buddha. If you were to act in accordance with your vow, not only would you not be saving women, but when women who had acquired the dharma go forth in the world to preach the dharma for the benefit of humans and gods, would it not be the case that you could not to come to listen to them? If you do not come and listen to them, then you are not a bodhisattva; you are a non-Buddhist.

When we look at the great country of Song [China] today, [we see that] there are some monks who appear to have practiced over a long period of time while floating about in the sea of birth and death, vainly counting the grains of sand by the sea. [On the other hand] there are those who, though they are women, have gone to ask friends [about the dharma], and who, after having made strenuous efforts to pursue the way, are guides and teachers of humans and gods. There is [for example] the old woman who did not sell the pastry [to the master Deshan] but [instead] threw it away. How sad it is that although [Deshan] was a male monk, he had spent his time in vain, counting the grains of sand by the seashore without getting so much as a glimpse of the buddha dharma even in his dreams.11

When you see an object, you must learn to understand it clearly. If you learn to see it as something only to fear and flee from, you are following the teaching and practice of the Hinayana sravaka. If you try to flee the east and hide in the west, the west too is not without objects. Even though you might think that you have made good your escape, if you do not understand clearly, there are objects in distant places and objects in places close at hand. Running away from them is not the path to liberation. The further away the objects, the greater the attachment to them will become.

Furthermore, there is something laughable here in Japan: places called “restricted realms” or “training halls for the practice of Mahayana” that do not allow nuns or lay women to enter. This evil custom has been handed down over a long time, and no one has ever questioned it. Scholars of things past have not investigated it, and men of great accomplishment have given it no thought. It is said to be something established by transformed deities, or declared to be something bequeathed to us by our predecessors. That no has gone on to question this makes you laugh till you bust your gut. What is meant by a “transformed deity”? Is it a wise man or a sagely man, a god or a demon, someone on the ten noble stages or someone on the three wisdom stages, someone with virtual enlightenment or with wondrous enlightenment? Furthermore, if we should not change our old ways, should we then also not cast off our wandering through birth and death?

In addition, the great teacher Sakyamuni is one who has attained supreme and perfect enlightenment: all that he should understand he has understood; all that he should do, he has done: all that from which he should be liberated, he has been liberated from. Who today comes close to him? Yet, within the assembly of the Buddha during his lifetime there were, in all, four groups: monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. There was the group of eight; there was the group of thirty-seven; and there was the group of 84,000.12 Together they formed the realm of the Buddha that newly constituted the assembly of the Buddha. In what assembly were there no nuns, no women, no group of eight? We ought not seek to create a restricted realm superior to and purer than that of the assembly of the Buddha when the Tathagata was living in this world, for it would a realm of Mara. The conventions of a buddha assembly do not vary, whether in our realm or in other quarters, or among the 1,000 buddhas in the three time-periods [of past, present, and future]. We should realize that, if the rule varies, it is not a buddha assembly.

What is called “the fourth stage of fruition” [i.e., the rank of arhat] is the ultimate level. In neither Mahayana nor Hinayana is the merit of the ultimate level distinguished. Yet there are many examples of nuns who realized the fourth stage. Be it within the three realms or the buddha lands of the ten directions, is there any realm which they do not reach? Who could obstruct their acitvity?

Furthermore, wondrous enlightenment is the supreme level. Since women have attained buddhahood, what dharmas have they not exhaustively mastered?13 Who would think to obstruct them and prevent them from proceeding? Since they are already endowed with merit pervading and illuminating the ten directions, what could it mean to speak of boundaries [to exclude them]?

Furthermore, would you obstruct a goddess and prevent her from proceeding? Would you obstruct a female deity and prevent her from proceeding? Both the goddesses and the female deities, having not yet severed their delusions, are still sentient beings subject to rebirth. When they commit offenses, they commit offenses; when they are without offenses, they are without offenses. Similarly with human females and animal females: when they commit offenses, they commit offenses; when they are without offenses, they are without offenses. Who would block the path of the gods or the path of the deities? Since they take part in the assemblies of the buddhas of the three periods, they have practiced and learned at the dwelling places of buddhas. If these were different from the dwelling places of the buddhas and the assemblies of the buddhas, who would believe that they are in accord with the buddha dharma? [Restricted realms that bar women] are the ultimate stupidity that deceives and confuses people in the world. [People who defend them] are even more stupid than the little fox who tries to prevent humans from violating his lair.

Furthermore, the categories of the disciples of the Buddha, whether they are bodhisattvas or whether they are sravaka, are monk, nun, layman, and laywoman, as already mentioned. These categories are known in the heavens and the human world, and their names have reverberated through the ages. The second category of disciples of the Buddha [the nuns] are superior even to Wheel-Turning Sage Kings and to Shakudaikan’in, and there is no place it cannot reach.14 It goes without saying that it is superior to the ssovereign and ministers of state of a small country [like Japan] that is a peripheral land. When we look at the training halls today that forbid entry to nuns, we see that men who work in the rice paddies, people who toil in the fields, farmers, and old woodcutters enter freely in disorderly fashion — not to mention the sovereign, ministers of state, high officials, and prime ministers. Who of these could not enter the training halls? If the men who work in the rice paddies, and the others were to debate with the nuns about learning and practicing the dharma or were to debate about reaching the various stages [leading to buddhahood], who, in the end, would have the superior understanding and who the inferior? Whether they were to debate from a secular standpoint or whether they were to debate from the standpoint of the buddha dharma, the men who work in the rice paddies and the people who toil in the fields would never be able to reach a nun’s level of attainment. In our extreme confusion, our small country was the first to bequeath to later generations this tradition [of excluding women from monasteries]. How sad that the eldest daughters of the compassionate father of the three realms, the Buddha, having come to our small country, discovered that there were places that obstructed them and did not let them enter.

Furthermore, the sort of fellows who live in those places called “restricted realms” have no fear of the ten evil deeds and in fact violate each of the ten major precepts.15Did they simply create a realm within which to commit offenses, and do they disdain those people who do not commit offenses? Worse still are the heinous offenses, which are regarded as the most serious. The fellows living in the places within a “restricted realm” have surely committed these heinous offenses.16 One should destroy Mara realms such as these; one should learn the teachings of the Buddha and enter the realm of the Buddha. This is how one repays one’s debt of gratitude to the Buddha. You predecessors who have behaved in this fashion! Have you understood the meaning of “restricted realm.” Whose dharma did you inherit? Whose seal of recognition did you receive?

Everything within the vast realms created by buddhas, whether buddhas and sentient beings or the immense earth and space, is free from the bonds of defilement and illusion and returns to its source in the wondrous dharma of the buddhas. Therefore, sentient beings who even once set foot in this realm receive the buddha merit just as they are. They are endowed with a kind of merit that does not misapprehend and distort; they are endowed with a kind of merit that has gained for them purity. When we restrict one direction, then the entire dharma-realm is restricted; when we restrict one level [of the ordination precints], then the entire dharma realm is restricted. There are realms restricted by water; there are restricted realms restricted by the mind; there are restricted realms restricted by space. There is always a lineage or transmission through which these are known.

What is more, when the ritual of fixing the boundaries of “restricted realms” is performed, after the ambrosia is sprinkled, there is a refuge ceremony and so on until, following the purification of the realm, there is the chanting of the verse: “This realm permeates the dharma realm, unconditioned and purified.”

Have [you] predecessors and old men who now always [prattle about] what you call “restricted realms” understood the meaning of this verse or not? I do not think you understand that the all-permeating dharma realm is restricted within the restricted realm. Intoxicated by the wine of the sravaka, you think your little realm is the vast realm. May you speedily awaken from your longstanding confusion and intoxication, so that you will not continue to misapprehend and distort the all-permeating realm that is the vast realm of the buddhas. And may all sentient beings receive the benefits of the transforming power of the buddhas, so that they might be delivered to the other shore and embraced by these buddhas. Let us do obeisance and respectfully reverence their merit. Who would not say that this is acquiring the marrow of the way?

Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma
Book 28
Getting the Marrow by Doing Obeisance
Written at Koshoji
on the day before the winter solstice in the kanoe-ne year, first year of the Ninji [era].
[December 1240 C.E.]