252 CHAPTER TENand now in order to exhaust the limits of thinking. When one sits in medita-
tion, for instance, Dagen recommends that one be involved in shikantaza ('just
sitting"). His analysis of what this entails, though, reveals that there are many
complex levels of thought that have to be dethought, many subtle presupposi-
tions that have to be dismantled, for a sitting to be "just sitting." He gives an
example of how thought might dethink in this case: "Do we sit in the sitting
or in our body and mind? Or do we sit dropping off sitting in the seated body
and mind, or is sitting still something else? We must investigate these and other
countless details in Zen-sitting .... There is sitting of the mind, which is
different from sitting of the body. There is sitting of the body, which is differ-
ent from sitting of the mind. There is sitting of dropping off the body and
mind, which is different from sitting of dropping off the body and mind ....
You must thoroughly investigate perception, intention, and consciousness"
(Shobogenzo: "Zanmai Ozanmai"). This passage provides an example ofwhy
the language of the Shobogenzo is so difficult, for much of the work is essen-
tially an example of dethinking thinking in action.
In other parts of the Shobogenzo, Dagen demonstrates how dethinking
thinking can be applied to classical kaans (in Chinese, k'ung-an) as well, but
he makes clear that the purpose of asking these questions from all possible
sides is not to come to any conclusive answers, but to become more and more
familiar with the dynamic of "beyond thinking" that enables one to do the
questioning of dethinking thinking here and now in the first place. Thus, full
familiarity with or authentication of Dharma-nature-the dropping away of
body and mind-is to be found in the process of cultivation itself, and is not
its end result.
True to his penchant for dethinking thinking, Dagen demolished both
sides of the question as to whether transmission outside of the texts was re-
lated to transmission in the texts. Still, especially in his later writings, he often
quoted not only from the Mahayana Sutras, but also from Hinayana works. As
did his teacher, he insisted that he was transmitting not a Zen or Ch' an school,
but simply the true Dharma-eye, the true Buddha Way. It is even possible to
see strong parallels between his thought and that of early Buddhism: Dethink-
ing thinking corresponds to the use of right view to go beyond views, and his
teaching that authentication is to be found in the process of cultivation paral-
lels the teaching that the realization of the Third Noble Truth is part of the
same process as the development of the Fourth (see Section 2.3.1).
Nevertheless, soon after his death, Dagen became regarded as the founder
of the Sata school of Zen. The Fourth Sata Patriarch, Keizan Jakin
(1268-1325), simplified the doctrine and practice of the school, dropping
Dagen's complex approach to kaan study in favor of a more quietistic, silent
illumination. At the same time, he added Shingon and kami ritual elements to
make the sect more popular with the peasant classes and rural aristocracy. His
program was so successful that Sata became known as "farmer's Zen." Al..:
though the school became one of the largest in Japan, it never gained popu..:
larity among the aristocratic elite, probably because it followed Dagen's stem
warnings not to combine Buddhist teachings with nee-Confucianism or to