The following was presented to the assembly of the Kannondōri Kōshō Hōrin Monastery on the first day of winter, the first year of the Ninji Era. [Fukakusa, 1240].
The Power of the Robe
Bodhidharma, the high ancestor of Mt. Song, alone transmitted the correct teaching of the robe to China. He is the twenty-eighth-generation ancestor from Shākyamuni Buddha. In India twenty-eight generations of ancestors transmitted this teaching from heir to heir. The Twenty-eighth Ancestor entered China and became the First Ancestor there. After transmission of the teaching through five generations in China, Huineng became the thirty-third-generation ancestor. He is called the Sixth Chinese Ancestor.
Huineng, Zen Master Dijon, received a robe from Hongren at Mt. Huangmei and maintained it for the “rest of his life. This robe is still enshrined at the Baolin Monastery on Mt. Caoxi, where he taught.
Over the generations, one emperor after another requested that the robe be brought to the palace. When it was, people made offerings and bowed to it. Thus the robe has been worshiped as a sacred object. Emperors Zong, Su, and Dai of the Tang dynasty occasionally commanded that the robe be brought to the palace. Each time it was brought and each time it was returned, an imperial messenger accompanied it.
Once when Emperor Dai sent this buddha robe back to Mt. Caoxi, he proclaimed: “We order Liu Chongjing, the Nation’s Chief General, to transport the robe with great respect. We regard this robe as a national treasure. You should place it in the main temple with appropriate procedures. Make sure that the monks are notified of our command and protect the robe without failure.”
There is more merit in seeing the buddha robe, hearing the teaching of it, and making offerings to it than in presiding over the billion worlds. To be the king of a nation where the robe exists is an outstanding birth among innumerable births and deaths; it is indeed the most supreme birth.
In the billion worlds where the Buddha’s teaching reaches, is there any place there is no kashāya robe? Yet, Bodhidharma alone correctly transmitted the buddha kashāya face-to-face, heir to heir. Teachers who were not in this lineage were not given the buddha kashāya.
A transmission in the lineage of Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla, a descendant of the Twenty-seventh Ancestor, Prajnātāra, reached Dharma Teacher Sengzhao, but no buddha kashāya was transmitted to him. Daoxin, the Fourth Ancestor in China, guided Niutou, Zen Master Farong, but did not give him a buddha kashāya. Even for those who did not receive heir-to-heir transmission of kashāya, the power of the Tathāgata’s dharma is not lacking and its benefit is broad for thousands of years. But those who received correct heir-to-heir transmission of kashāya are not the same as those who didn’t. Therefore, when devas or humans receive a robe, they should receive a robe correctly transmitted by the buddha ancestors.
In India and China, even lay people received kashāya in the Ages of True Dharma and Imitation Dharma. Nowadays in the lands remote from India when the buddha-dharma is thin and declining, those who shave their heads and faces, calling themselves the Buddha’s disciples, do not maintain the kashāya. They do not believe, know, or understand that the kashāya is to be maintained. What a pity! How can they know its form, color, and measurement? How can they know the proper way to wear it?
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A Kashaya has been called the garment of emancipation. The hindrances of actions, defilements, and the effects of action are all liberated by it. If a dragon obtains a small piece of kashāya it can be cured of febrile diseases. If an ox touches a kashāya with one of its horns, its past wrongdoings disappear. When buddhas attain the way, they always “wear a kashāya. Know that its power is unsurpassable and most venerable.
It is regrettable that we have been born in a remote land in the Age of Declining Dharma. However, we have the joy of meeting the teaching of the robe transmitted from buddha to buddha, heir to heir. In what lineage has Shākyamuni’s teaching of the robe been transmitted as correctly as it has been in ours? Who would not revere and make offerings upon meeting the teaching of the robe? You should make such offerings just for one day, even if you need to give up immeasurable lives to do so. You should vow to meet, uphold, revere, and make offerings to the robe, birth after birth, generation after generation.
We are thousands of miles away from the land where the Buddha was born, beyond mountains and oceans. We are unable to go there, but due to the influence of our past good actions, we are no longer blocked by mountains and oceans nor excluded by our ignorance in this remote place. We have met the true teaching and are determined to “practice it day and night. We maintain, uphold, and guard the kashāya continuously.
Thus the power of the kashāya is actualized through our practice, not merely with one or two buddhas but with as many buddhas as the sands of the Ganges. Even if it is your own practice, you should revere it, rejoice in it, and wholeheartedly express gratitude for the profound gift transmitted by the ancestral teachers. Even animals repay kindness; how should humans not recognize their kind help? If we do not understand kindness, we are more foolish than animals.
The power of the buddha robe, the buddha-dharma, cannot be known and understood except by ancestors who transmit the Buddha’s true dharma. When you follow the path of buddhas, you should joyfully appreciate the buddha robe, the buddha-dharma. You should continue this correct transmission even for hundreds and thousands of future generations. This is buddha-dharma newly actualized.
Correct transmission is not like mixing water with milk, but rather like the crown prince being installed as king. You can use milk mixed with water if there is not enough milk. But don’t mix milk with oil, lacquer, or wine. If there is correct transmission, even an ordinary teacher of a mediocre lineage can be regarded as milk. How much more so with the correct transmission of buddhas and ancestors? It is like the installation of the crown prince. Even worldly kings say that they only wear the former king’s robe. How could a buddha’s child wear a robe other than the buddha robe?
After the tenth year of the Yongping Era [67 CE] of the Emperor Xiaoming of the Later Han Dynasty, monks and lay people often went back and forth between India and China. But none of them said that they had met an ancestor in India who had correct transmission from buddha ancestors. Thus there was no lineage of face-to-face transmission from the Tathāgata. These seekers only studied with masters of sūtras and treatises and brought back Sanskrit scriptures. They did not say they had met ancestors who had correctly inherited buddha-dharma. They did not say there were ancestors who had transmitted the buddha kashāya. Therefore, those people did not enter deeply into the chamber of buddha-dharma and clarify the meaning of the correct transmission of the buddha ancestors.
The Tathāgata Shākyamuni entrusted the treasury of the true dharma eye, the unsurpassable enlightenment, to Mahākāshyapa along with the kashāya which had been transmitted by his teacher, Kāshyapa Buddha. The robe was transmitted heir to heir for thirty-three generations, to Huineng. The shape, color, and measurements were intimately transmitted. After that, dharma descendants of Qingyuan and Nanyue, intimately transmitting the dharma, sewed and wore the ancestral dharma. The teaching of washing and maintaining the robe was not known except by those who studied in the chamber of a master who had transmitted this teaching face-to-face.
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There are three types of kashāya: a five-panel robe, a seven-panel robe, and a great robe such as a nine-panel robe. One who is engaged in authentic practice receives only such robes as these, which are enough to offer to the body, and does not keep other types of robes. For work and traveling far or near, a five-panel robe is worn. For conducting formal activities or joining the assembly, a seven-panel robe is worn. For guiding humans and devas and arousing their respect and trust, you should wear a great robe such as a nine-panel robe. A five-panel robe is worn indoors and a seven-panel robe is worn while with other monks. A great robe is worn when entering the palace or in town.
Also, a five-panel robe is worn when it is mild and a seven-panel robe is added on top of it when it is cold. A great robe is further added when it is severely cold. Long ago in midwinter, when it was so cold that the bamboo was cracking, the Tathāgata wore a five-panel robe in the early evening. Later at night it got colder so he added a seven-panel robe. At the end of the night when it became “even colder, he further added a great robe. The Buddha then thought, “In the future when the cold is severe, good monks can use these three robes to warm the body.”
THESE ARE WAYS to wear the kashāya: The most common way is to leave the right shoulder uncovered. There is also a way to cover both shoulders, which is customary for tathāgatas and elders. When both shoulders are covered, the chest is either covered or revealed. Both shoulders are covered when a formal kashāya of more than sixty panels is worn.
When you put on a kashāya, you start by placing both ends on your left shoulder and upper arm, hanging the ends over your left elbow. If you put on a formal kashāya, you start by bringing the ends over the left shoulder and letting them hang down in back. There are many other ways to put on a kashāya. You should study deeply and make inquiries of your teacher.
For hundreds of years during the Liang, Chen, Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties, a number of scholars of Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna gave up lecturing on “scripture, having learned that it was not the ultimate teaching. Intending to study the correctly transmitted dharma of buddha ancestors, they would invariably drop off their old robes and receive a correctly transmitted kashāya. This is departing from the limited and turning to the genuine.
The Tathāgata’s dharma is rooted in India, where teachers in the past and present have gone beyond the limited views of ordinary people. As the realms of buddhas and the realms of sentient beings are neither limited nor unlimited, the teaching, practice, practitioner, and essence of Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna cannot be contained by ordinary people’s views. However, in China practitioners often ignore teachings from India and regard recent interpretations of limited views as buddha-dharma, which is a mistake.
Those who arouse aspiration and wish to receive a kashāya should receive a correctly transmitted one. Do not receive a kashāya with a new design. What is called a correctly transmitted kashāya is what has been transmitted from Bodhidharma and Huineng, heir to heir, directly from the Tathāgata, without a generation’s gap. This is the correctly transmitted kashāya worn by dharma heirs and dharma descendants. Newly designed kashāyas in China are not appropriate. The kashāyas worn by monks from India in the past and present are all like the buddha ancestors’ correctly transmitted kashāyas. None of them wore kashāyas like those newly made by monks of the Precepts School in China. Those who are ignorant believe in the kashāyas of the Precepts School, but those who have clear understanding do not.
The power of the kashāya transmitted by buddha ancestors is clear and easy to accept. The correct transmission has been handed down person to person. The true form has been shown to us directly. It still exists, as this dharma has been inherited up to the present. The ancestors who received a kashāya are all teachers and students who merged their minds and received dharma. Therefore you should make a kashāya in the manner correctly transmitted by buddha ancestors.
As this is the correct transmission, ordinary people and sages, humans and devas, as well as dragon kings, all know it. To be born to the abundance of this dharma and to wear a kashāya even once and to maintain it for a moment is no other than wearing an amulet that assures the attainment of unsurpassable enlightenment.
When one phrase or one verse permeates your body and mind, it becomes a seed for illumination for limitless kalpas, and this brings you to unsurpassable enlightenment. When one dharma or one wholesome action permeates your body and mind, it is also like this. Moment by moment a thought appears and disappears without abiding. Moment by moment a body appears and disappears without abiding. Yet the power of practice always matures. A kashāya is neither made nor not made, neither abiding nor not abiding. It is the ultimate realm of buddha and buddha. A practitioner who receives it invariably attains its power.
Those who have no wholesome past actions cannot see, wear, receive, and understand a kashāya even if they live for one, two, or innumerable lifetimes. When I look at practitioners in China and Japan, I see that there are those who are able to wear a kashāya and those who are not. Their ability to wear one does not depend on how noble or lowly they are, how wise or ignorant they are, but on their wholesome past actions. Therefore those who have received a kashāya should rejoice in their wholesome past actions, without doubting their accumulated merit. Those who have not received a kashāya should wish for one. Try to sow a seed for a kashāya immediately in this lifetime. Those who cannot receive one because of their hindrances should repent to buddha tathāgatas and the three treasures.
How strongly people in other countries wish to have the Tathā-gata’s correct transmission of the dharma of the robe in their countries, just as in China! How deep their regret is and how sorrowful they are that they do not have it! With what fortune we have encountered the correct transmission of the World-honored One’s robe dharma. This is due to the great power of our having nurtured prajnā in the past.
Now in this unwholesome time—the Age of Declining Dharma—people have no regret that they do not have correct transmission, but they are jealous that others do. They are like a gang of demons. What they believe and where they abide are not genuine, but only bound by their past actions. They should take refuge in the correctly transmitted buddha-dharma as the true place of return in studying the buddha way.
You should know that a kashāya is what all buddhas respect and take refuge in. It is the buddha body, the buddha mind. It is called the clothing of emancipation, the robe of the field of happiness, the robe of no form, the unsurpassable robe, the robe of patience, the Tathāgata’s robe, the robe of great love and great compassion, the robe as a victorious banner, and the robe of supreme, penetrating, perfect enlightenment. You should indeed “receive it with utmost respect. This is why you should not alter it.
Either silk or common cloth is used as the material for a robe, according to the situation. It is not necessarily true that common cloth is pure and silk is impure. On the other hand, it would be unreasonable and laughable to exclude common cloth and only choose silk. According to the usual practice of buddhas, a robe of discarded cloth is regarded as excellent.
There are ten types of discarded cloth, including burned cloth, cloth chewed by oxen, cloth chewed by rats, and cloth from corpses. People throughout India throw away such cloth on streets or fields, just as we do with excrement-cleaning cloth. So a robe of discarded cloth is actually called a robe of excrement-cleaning cloth. Practitioners pick up such cloths, wash and repair them for use. There can be pieces of silk and common cloth among them. You should give up discrimination between silk and common cloth and study the meaning of discarded cloth. Once when a monk washed such a “robe of discarded cloth in Anavatapta Lake, the dragon king rained down flowers in admiration and respect.
There are teachers in the Lesser Vehicles who say that threads are incarnated bodies of the tree god.1 Practitioners of the Great Vehicle should laugh about it. Which thread is not an incarnated body? Those who have ears to hear about incarnated bodies may not have the eyes to see them. You should know that among the cloths you pick up, there can be common cloth and silk. Because cloth is made differently in different regions, it is difficult to identify the materials. Eyes cannot see the difference. Do not discuss whether the material you pick up is silk or common cloth. Just call it discarded cloth.
Even if a human or a deva turns into discarded cloth, it is not sentient but just discarded cloth. Even if a pine or chrysanthemum turns into discarded cloth, it is not insentient but just discarded cloth. Discarded cloth is actualized only when you accept that discarded cloth is not silk or common cloth, not gold, silver, or a pearl. Discarded cloth is not yet dreamed of by those who have not yet dropped off discrimination between silk and common cloth.
Once a monk asked Old Buddha Huineng, “Is the robe you received at midnight at Mt. Huangmei common cloth or silk? In the end what is it?”
Huineng said, “Not common cloth, not silk.”
You should know that a kashāya is neither silk nor common cloth. This is the profound teaching of the buddha way.
Honorable Shanavasa is the third entrusted ancestor of the dharma storehouse. He was born wearing a lay person’s robe. The robe turned into a kashāya when he became a monk. Nun Pundarīka was born with a kashāya, birth after birth, as a result of offering a carpet to the Buddha.
When we meet Shākyamuni Buddha and leave the household, the lay clothing we acquire at birth immediately turns into a ka-shāya, just as Shānavāsa’s did. Thus a kashāya is neither silk nor common cloth. The power of buddha-dharma transforms body, mind, and all things in this way.”
“It is clear that our body, mind, and environs are immediately transformed when we leave the household and receive the precepts. But we often do not notice this because of our ignorance. This effect of buddha-dharma is not only applied to Shānavāsa and Nun Pundarīka but to us all. We should not doubt this great benefit. You should endeavor to clarify this point. The kashāya that covers the body of the one who has received the precepts is not limited to common cloth or silk. The Buddha’s transformation is beyond our comprehension. The pearl hidden inside the robe is beyond the understanding of those who count letters.
You should study the shape, color, and size of buddhas’ kashāyas. See whether they have size or are sizeless, whether they have form or are formless. This is what the ancestors in India and China, and present, have studied and correctly transmitted. Those who see and hear this original inheritance that has come from ancestor to ancestor and yet do not accept it cannot be excused. This is due to their ignorance and distrust. It is throwing away “the true and seeking for the false, giving up the essential and wishing for the trivial, making light of the Tathāgata.
Those who arouse the aspiration for enlightenment should without fail receive the authentic transmission of the ancestors. As dharma descendants we have not only encountered the rarely encountered buddha-dharma, but we have seen, studied, and received the correctly transmitted buddha kashāya. In this way we meet the Tathāgata, we hear the Buddha expound the dharma, we are illuminated by the Buddha, we enjoy the Buddha’s enjoyment, we receive the one-to-one transmission of the Buddha’s mind, and we attain the Buddha’s marrow. Thus we are intimately covered by the kashāya of Shākyamuni Buddha. We personally accompany the Buddha and receive this kashāya from the Buddha.
This is how to wash a kashāya: you put it unfolded into a clean wooden tub, cover it with thoroughly boiled water that has been purified by incense, and leave it for one hour [roughly two hours by the “modern way of counting]. Another way is to boil water mixed with pure ash and cover the kashāya until the water cools. Nowadays it is common to use ash water. It is called aku no yu in Japan.
When the ash water cools, rinse the kashāya with clear hot water many times. Do not scrub it with your hands or stamp on it. After thus removing sweat and oil stains, mix fragrant powder of sandalwood or aloeswood with cold water and rinse the kashāya in it.
Then hang it on a clean rod to dry. When it is completely dry, fold it, and put it on the altar. Then burn incense, spread flower petals on the altar, circumambulate the kashāya clockwise a few times, and bow to it. After three, six, or nine full bows, kneel and put your palms together; then hold up the kashāya with both hands, chant the kashāya verse, and put it on properly.
The World-Honored One, Shākyamuni Buddha, said to the great assembly: “Good assembly, long ago in my previous life when I was with Rātnakosha Buddha, I was called Mahākarunā Bodhisattva. Once in “front of the Rātnakosha Buddha the bodhisattva made these vows:
Rātnakosha Buddha, after I attain buddhahood, there may be those who, following my teaching, leave home and wear a kashāya and still break important precepts, hold wrong views, or ignore the three treasures. And there may be monks, nuns, laymen, or laywomen who commit serious wrongdoings but arouse respectful mind and honor the monk’s robe, revering the buddha, dharma, and sangha. I vow that there will not be even one such person in the Three Vehicles,* who misses receiving a prediction of enlightenment or turns away from my teaching. Otherwise this would contradict the vows of all buddhas who have been present for limitless eons in the worlds of the ten directions, and thus I would not attain unsurpassable, perfect enlightenment.
Rātnakosha Buddha, after I attain buddhahood if any devas, dragons, humans, or nonhumans revere, make offerings to, or admire one who wears the kashāya, I vow that such beings, holding even a small piece of kashāya, will practice in the three treasures without regressing.
If there are sentient beings overcome by hunger or thirst, poverty-stricken, or in a most humble position, as well as hungry ghosts, who obtain a piece of a kashāya no bigger than a hand, I vow that such beings will be satisfied with food and drink and that their wishes will be immediately realized.
If there are sentient beings who are in conflict, harbor grudges, and fight one another, or if there are devas, dragons, gandharvas,* asuras,* garudas,* kinnaras,* mahoragas,* kumbhāndas,* pishāchas,* humans, or nonhumans who fight one another, I vow that if such beings think of a kashāya, compassionate mind, gentle mind, generous mind, serene mind, wholesome mind will arouse them and they will attain purity.
If people who battle, quarrel, or are in legal conflict bring a patch of kashāya for self-protection and pay respect to it, they will always be victorious and will overcome difficulties, because others will not harm, confuse, or belittle them.
Rātnakosha Buddha, if my kashāya did not possess the above five sacred powers, I would be deceiving all buddhas who have been present for limitless eons in the worlds of the ten directions, and I would not achieve unsurpassable, perfect enlightenment for “conducting buddha activities in the future; thus I would be without wholesome dharma and would be unable to overcome those who are outside the way.
“Good assembly, then Rātnakosha Buddha extended his golden right arm, stroked Mahākarunā Bodhisattva on the head and said in admiration, ‘Splendid, splendid, courageous bodhisattva. Your vow is a rare treasure that expresses great wisdom. You will realize unsurpassable, perfect enlightenment and your kashāya robe will possess those five sacred powers and cause immeasurable benefit.’
“Good assembly, upon hearing Rātnakosha Buddha’s admiration, Mahākarunā Bodhisattva rejoiced and became exuberant. Then Rātnakosha Buddha extended his golden right arm, with long and slender fingers and his palm as soft as a feathery celestial robe. Rātnakosha Buddha stroked the bodhisattva on the head and turned him into a youth of twenty.
“Good assembly, all the devas, dragons, gandharvas, humans, and nonhumans folded their hands together and dedicated flowers and music to “Mahākarunā Bodhisattva. They admired and admired the bodhisattva and then sat still.
From the time when Shākyamuni Buddha was alive in this world up to the present, these five sacred powers of the kashāya have been described in sūtras and precept texts for bodhisattvas and shrāvakas. Indeed, the kashāya is a buddha robe of all buddhas of past, present, and future. Although the power of all kashāyas is unlimited, receiving a kashāya from the heritage of Shākyamuni Buddha is incomparable with receiving a kashāya from the heritage of other buddhas.
The reason for this is that Shākyamuni Buddha made these vows to initiate the power of the kashāya in his former life as Mahākarunā Bodhisattva, when he made five hundred vast vows to Rātnakosha Buddha. The power of the kashāya is unlimited and beyond thought. Thus, what transmits the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of the World-honored One is the kashāya robe. Ancestors who have transmitted the treasury of the true dharma eye have always correctly transmitted a kashāya.
Sentient beings who maintain and pay respect to a kashāya have always attained the way within two or three lifetimes. Even wearing the kashāya as a joke or for profit can lead to attainment of the way.
Ancestor Nagajuna said, “Home-leavers in buddha-dharma, you can resolve your crimes and attain liberation even if you break precepts and commit crimes, as mentioned in The Sūtra on the Former Birth of Nun Utpalavarnā:
At the time when the Buddha was in this world, Nun Utpalavarnā attained six miraculous powers* and became an arhat. She visited noble householders and talked about the life of home-leavers. She encouraged noble women to become nuns.
They said, “We are young and beautiful. It would be hard to keep the precepts.”
Utpalavarnā said, “It’s all right to break the precepts. Leave the household first.”
The women said, “If we break the precepts, we will fall into hell. How can we do that?”
“Utpalavarnā said, “Then go ahead and fall into hell.”
They laughed and said, “We would be punished in hell.”
Utpalavarnā said, “Reflecting on my former life, I was an entertainer, putting on various costumes and speaking memorized lines. Once I put on a nun’s clothes for a joke. As a result of this action, I was reborn as a nun at the time of Kāshyapa Buddha. Because of my high status and proper conduct, I grew arrogant and broke a precept. I fell into hell and experienced various punishments. In my next birth I met Shākyamuni Buddha, left the household, attained the six miraculous powers, and became an arhat. From this I know that if you leave the household and receive precepts, even if you break a precept, you can become an arhat because of the merit of the precepts you have received. But you cannot attain the way if you only create unwholesome deeds without receiving the precepts. I was once a criminal falling into hell and coming out of hell. If a mere criminal dies and enters hell, there is nothing to attain. So, you should know that even if you break a precept, you can attain the fruit of the way.”
“The cause of Nun Utpalavarnā becoming an arhat in this story is no other than putting on a kashāya for a joke. In her second birth, she became a nun at the time of Kāshyapa Buddha and in her third birth she became a great arhat at the time of Shākyamuni Buddha and accomplished the three types of knowledge* and six miraculous powers. The three types of knowledge are the celestial eye, insight into the future, and knowing how to remove misery. The six miraculous powers are the power of celestial activity, insight into others’ minds, the celestial eye, the celestial ear, knowing the past, and removing misery.
Indeed, a mere criminal dies in vain and enters hell. The criminal comes out of hell and becomes a criminal. As Utpalavarnā had a causal connection with the precepts, even though she broke a precept, she was able to attain the way. As a result of putting on a kashāya for a joke, she could attain the way even in her third birth. How much more likely you are to attain the way if you arouse a pure heart of faith and put on a kashāya for the sake of unsurpassable enlightenment! Can the merit not be complete? Even further, the merit of maintaining a kashāya with utmost respect throughout a lifetime is vast and boundless.
Those who arouse the aspiration for enlightenment should immediately receive a kashāya. To encounter this fortunate life and not to plant buddha seeds is regrettable. Having received a human body in this world, Jambudvīpa, you have a chance to meet Shākyamuni Buddha’s dharma, to share life with ancestors who are heirs of buddha-dharma and to receive a kashāya that has been directly transmitted from person to person. It would be a pity not to do this and to spend your life in vain.
In the transmission of kashāya, only transmission through the ancestors is correct heritage. Transmission through other teachers cannot compare with this. Even if you receive a kashāya from a teacher without transmission, the merit is profound. How much more merit there is in receiving a kashāya from a correct teacher of heir-to-heir, face-to-face transmission. Indeed, in this way you become a “dharma child and a dharma grandchild of the Tathāgata. This is truly to inherit the Tathāgata’s skin, flesh, bones, and marrow.
The kashāya is transmitted through buddhas of the ten directions in the past, present, and future without a break. Buddhas, bodhisattvas, shrāvakas, and pratyeka-buddhas of the ten directions in the past, present, and future maintain it.
For making a kashāya, coarse cloth is basic. When coarse cloth is not available, more finely woven cloth may be used. In case there is neither coarse cloth nor finely woven cloth, plain silk may be used. When none of these are available, patterned or open-weave silk may be used. This is permitted by the Tathāgata. When no cloth is available, the Tathāgata permits making a leather kashāya.
Kashāya materials should be dyed blue, yellow, red, black, or purple. The color should be subdued and indistinct. The Tathāgata always wore a kashāya of skin color. This is the original kashāya color.”
“The kashāya transmitted by Bodhidharma was bluish black. It was made of kārpāsaka [core] cotton from India, and is still kept at Mt. Caoxi. This kashāya was transmitted for twenty-eight generations in India and five generations in China to Huineng of Mt. Caoxi. Now disciples of Huineng maintain the tradition of this buddha robe. Monks of other lineages have nothing close to it.
There are three types of kashāya material: excrement-cleaning cloth, animal hair or bird feathers, and patched cloths. I have already mentioned that a robe usually consists of excrement-cleaning cloth. A robe made of animal hair or bird feathers is called a down robe. A robe made of patched cloths is made of old, worn-out cloth. Cloth that is desirable by worldly standards is not used.
Senior monk Upali said to the World-honored One, “Great virtuous World-honored One, how many panels does a great robe have?”
The Buddha said, “There are nine kinds of robes. The number of panels may be nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-one, “twenty-three, or twenty-five. The first three kinds of great robes consist of panels of one short and two long pieces of cloth. The second three kinds of great robes consist of panels of one short and three long pieces of cloth. The last three kinds of great robes consist of panels of one short and four long pieces of cloth. A robe with more panels is not standard.”
Upāli said, “Great virtuous World-honored One, how many sizes of sanghātī robes [great robes] are there?”
The Buddha said, “There are three sizes: large, medium, and small. A large robe measures three hasta [length from elbow to middle fingertip] vertically and five hasta horizontally. A small robe measures two and one-half hasta vertically and four and one-half hasta horizontally. A medium robe measures between these two.”
Upāli said, “Great virtuous World-honored One, how many panels does an uttarāsangha robe [over-robe] have?”
“The Buddha said, “It has seven panels. Each panel consists of one short and two long pieces of cloth.”
Upāli said, “Great virtuous World-honored One, what are the sizes of an uttarāsangha robe?”
The Buddha said, “There are three sizes. A large robe measures three hasta vertically and five hasta horizontally. A small robe measures half a hasta less each way. A medium robe measures between these two.”
Upāli said, “Great virtuous World-honored One, how many panels does an antarvāsa robe [under-robe] have?”
The Buddha said, “It has five panels. Each panel consists of one short and one long piece of cloth.”
Upāli said, “Great virtuous World-honored One, what are the sizes of an antarvāsa robe?”
The Buddha said, “There are three sizes: large, medium, and small. A large antarvāsa robe measures three hasta vertically and five hasta horizontally. A small and a medium antarvāsa robe measure the same as for the uttarāsangha robe.” ”
“The Buddha also said, “There are two other types of antarvāsa robe. One measures two hasta vertically and five hasta horizontally. The other measures two hasta vertically and four hasta horizontally.”
The sanghāti robe is the outermost robe. The uttarāsangha robe is the outer robe. The antarvāsa robe is the inner robe. The sanghātī robe is also called the great robe. It is a robe for visiting a palace or expounding dharma. The uttarāsangha robe is a seven-panel robe. It is a less formal robe for joining the assembly. The antarvāsa is a five-panel robe, which is an informal robe for work. You should always maintain these three types of robes. Also there is a sixty-panel sanghātī robe. You should be aware of this.
Some sources say that the height of human bodies varies corresponding to their maximum life span, which ranges between eighty thousand years and one hundred years. Other sources say that the height of human bodies does not vary. It is a correct teaching to say it does not vary. But the height of a buddha’s body and that of a human body are differ“ent. Human bodies can be measured but the buddha’s body cannot. Thus, when Shākyamuni Buddha wore the past Kāshyapa Buddha’s robe, it was neither too long nor too wide. When the future Maitreya Buddha wears Shākyamuni Buddha’s robe, it will be neither too short nor too narrow. You should be aware that a buddha’s body is beyond long and short. Brahma, the king of gods who resides high in the form world,* could not see the top of the Buddha’s head. Maudgalyāyana, a disciple of the Buddha, traveled all the way to the Heaven of Shining Banner and still heard the Buddha’s voice. Thus the Buddha was seen and heard near and far. How marvelous it is! All the merits of the Tathāgata are like this. You should keep this in mind.
A KASHĀYA VARIES according to how it is sewn. It may be made of rectangular pieces sewn together, of narrow strips sewn in the same pattern onto one large piece, of one piece tucked and hemmed, or of one piece plain and flat. These are all authentic ways of sewing. You should choose the way of “sewing to suit the cloth you have received. The Buddha said, “The kashāyas of the buddhas of past, present, and future are always stitched.”
In acquiring materials, purity is of primary concern. What is called excrement-cleaning cloth is regarded as of utmost purity. Buddhas of past, present, and future all recognize its purity. Cloth that is donated by faithful lay people is pure. Cloth purchased in a marketplace with donated money is also pure. Although there are guidelines for the length of time to spend on sewing, we live in a remote land in a time of declining dharma; so the most important thing for you is to sew a kashāya when the faithful heart arises, and then receive it.
It is an essential characteristic of Mahāyāna that even a lay person, whether human or celestial, receives a kashāya. Kings Brahma and Shākyamuni both wore a kashāya. These are outstanding examples in the desire world and in the form world, and cannot be comprehended by ordinary human beings.
Lay bodhisattvas also wear kashāyas. In China, Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty both wore a kashāya. Emperors Dai and Su also wore a kashāya, studied with monks, and received the bodhisattva precepts. Other lay men and women of the past and present have also received a kashāya together with the Buddhist precepts.
In Japan, Prince Shōtoku wore a kashāya and expounded such sūtras as The Lotus Sūtra and The Shrimālā Devī Sūtra, when he perceived the marvel of celestial flowers raining down. Since then the buddha-dharma has spread widely in our country. Prince Shōtoku was not only Regent of the Nation, but also a guiding master of humans and devas. A messenger of the Buddha, he was both father and mother of sentient beings. Although the form, color, and measurements of a kashāya have not been transmitted accurately to us in Japan, still, because of Prince Shōtoku’s influence, we are able to see and hear about kashāyas. If he had not introduced the Buddha’s teaching, it would have been a great loss to us.
“Later, Emperor Shōmu also received a kashāya and the bodhisattva precepts. In this way even those who are on a throne or those who are retainers can receive a kashāya and the bodhisattva precepts. There is no wholesome fortune for humans that excels this.
Some sources say that the kashāya worn by lay people is called a single stitch robe or a lay robe, and that double stitching is not used for that robe. Other sources say that when lay people go to the practice place they wear three types of dharma robes and use tooth cleaning twigs, rinsing water, eating utensils, and sitting mats to engage in pure practice just as monks do. These are words of ancient masters. However, in the direct transmission of buddha ancestors, the kashāya given to kings, ministers, lay practitioners, and warriors is invariably double stitched. Laborer Lu [Huineng] did receive the buddha kashāya when he was a layman, which is an excellent precedent.”
The kashāya is a banner of the Buddha’s disciple. When you have received a kashāya, wear it respectfully every day.
First put it on top of your head, place your palms together, and recite this verse:
Great is the robe of liberation,
the robe of no form, the field of happiness!
I wear the Tathāgata’s teaching
to awaken countless beings.
Then put it on. Visualize your teacher, or visualize a stūpa in the kashāya. Also recite this verse when you put on the kashāya after washing it.
The Buddha said, “When you shave your head and wear a kashāya, you are protected by all buddhas. Having left the household, you are given offerings by celestial beings.”
From this we clearly know that as soon as you shave your head and wear a kashāya, you are guarded by all buddhas. With this protection, you realize unsurpassable enlightenment. Thus you are given offerings by humans and devas.”
“The World-honored One said to Monk Jnānaprabha, “The dharma robe brings forth the ten victories: It covers your body, providing modesty, and the practice of wholesome conduct. It protects you from cold, heat, insects, beasts, and snakes and provides comfort in the practice of the way. It manifests the form of a mendicant home-leaver and arouses joy in those who see it, relieving them of ill intentions. It is a sacred banner of humans and devas. Revering it and bowing to it will cause you to be born in the heaven of purity. By wearing it you arouse the thought of a sacred banner, avert wrongdoing, and bring forth happiness. It has been dyed with subdued color to help you become free from the five desires, undefiled by greed and attachment. It is the Buddha’s pure robe that cuts off delusion and creates a wholesome field of happiness. When you wear it your unwholesome actions will disappear and the path of the ten wholesome actions* will increase moment by moment. It is like an excellent rice field as it nurtures the bodhisattva “mind. It is like armor that protects you from the poison arrows of delusion.”
Thus Monk Jnānaprabha understood that, thanks to these ten victories, all buddhas in the past, present, and future, all pratyeka-buddhas, shramanas,* and pure home-leavers wear the kashāya while they sit on the sacred platform of emancipation, holding the sword of wisdom to subdue the demon of delusion, and together they enter nirvāna.
Then the World-honored One said in a verse:
Listen carefully, Jnānaprabha.
The great happiness-field robe has ten victorious qualities:
While worldly clothes increase defilement,
the dharma robe of the Tathāgata does not.
The dharma robe provides modesty, completes repentance,
and creates the rice field of happiness.
It protects you from cold, heat, and poisonous creatures
and strengthens your way-seeking mind for attaining ultimate understanding.
Manifesting the form of a mendicant home-leaver,
it frees people from greed and desire, cuts off five wrong views,
and helps you to hold correct practice.
By revering and bowing to the sacred banner kashāya,
you will have the happiness of King Brahma.
When a Buddha child wears the kashāya a vision of a stūpa arises,
creating happiness, eliminating unwholesomeness,
and joining humans and devas.
The noble form of the kashāya arouses respect
in a true seeker who is free from worldly dust.
All buddhas praise it as an excellent field
most beneficial to sentient beings.
The inconceivable miraculous power of the kashāya
nurtures practice for enlightenment.”
“The sprout of practice grows in the spring field,
the splendid fruit of enlightenment is like a harvest in autumn.
The kashāya is true armor, impenetrable as diamond,
the deadly arrows of delusion cannot pierce it.
I have now recited the ten excellent merits of kashāya.
For eons, more comments could be made, but I’ll say this:
A dragon who wears even a shred of kashāya
can’t be devoured by a gold-winged garuda.
A person who holds a kashāya while crossing the ocean
will not fear dragons, fish, or harmful beings.
Lightning and thunder, heaven’s wrath,
will not frighten a monk who wears a kashāya.
When a lay person carries a kashāya with respect,
no evil spirits draw near.
When one arouses the beginner’s mind,”
“leaves home and worldly affairs to practice the way,
demon palaces in the ten directions will tremble
and such a person will immediately realize the dharma king’s body.
These ten victorious qualities encompass the wide-ranging merits of the buddha way. Understand clearly the merits expounded in these prose and verse lines. Do not put them aside after reading, but continue to study them phrase by phrase. These victorious qualities come from the power of the kashāya, not from the power of a practitioner’s vigorous effort or long practice.
The Buddha said, “The miraculous power of the kashāya is beyond thought.” It is not something ordinary people or wise sages can comprehend. When the dharma king’s body is immediately actualized, the kashāya is invariably worn. Those who do not wear a kashāya have never actualized the dharma king’s body.”
The robe of utmost purity is one made of excrement-cleaning cloth. Its merits are clearly and extensively stated in sūtras and commentaries of the Great and Lesser Vehicles, which you should inquire into and study broadly. You should also study other sources about materials for robes. Buddha ancestors who have always understood and transmitted the robe of excrement-cleaning cloth cannot be compared with those who have not.
The Madhyamāgama Sūtra says, “Venerable assembly: Suppose there is someone whose practice is pure in body, but not pure in speech and mind. If you see this person and feel disgust, the disgust needs to be removed.
“Venerable assembly: Suppose there is someone whose practice is not pure in body, but pure in speech and mind. If you see this person and feel disgust, the disgust needs to be removed. How is this removed?
“Venerable assembly: It is like a monk who practices outdoors and finds stained cloth. When he sees cloth discarded in the toilet which is stained “with excrement, urine, mucus, or other impurities, he picks it up with his left hand, opens it with his right hand, and tears it up and saves the parts that are not stained or damaged.
“Venerable assembly: Suppose there is someone whose practice is not pure in body, but pure in speech and mind. Do not think of this practice as impure in body, but just think of this practice as pure in speech and mind. If you see the impurity and feel disgust, the disgust needs to be removed.”
This is the way for a monk who practices outdoors and collects discarded cloths. There are four types as well as ten types of discarded cloths. When you collect cloths, you should save pieces without holes. Also, the parts heavily stained with urine and excrement are not taken. Save the pieces that can be washed clean.
The ten types of discarded cloths are those that have been chewed by cows, gnawed by rats, burned, stained by menstrual blood, stained during childbirth, used as a shrine robe, found in a cemetery, used as an offering with a prayer, given by royalty, “and used as a shroud.2 These cloths are abandoned by people, and not ordinarily used any more. You pick them up and turn them into pure material for the kashāya.
This is what buddhas in the past, present, and future admire and use. Thus discarded cloths have been respected and guarded by humans, devas, and dragons. You should pick up such discarded cloths, the material of utmost purity, to create a kashāya. There is no robe like this in Japan now. Even if you look for one, you won’t encounter it. How sorrowful! Even if you search, you won’t find one in this small remote country.
To make a kashāya, you should use pure material given by donors, offered by humans or devas, or purchased with the earnings from pure livelihood. Discarded cloth, as well as cloth obtained by pure livelihood, is neither silk, cotton, gold, silver, jade, nor brocade; it is nothing other than discarded cloth. It is used not for making tattered or elegant clothes, but just for the sake of buddha-dharma. To wear this cloth is to transmit the skin, flesh, bones, “and marrow of buddhas of past, present, and future, to transmit the treasury of the true dharma eye. Do not ask humans and devas about the power of the robe. Just study it with buddha ancestors.
Postscript
Once when I was in Song China, practicing on a long sitting-platform, I observed the monks around me. At the beginning of zazen in the morning, they would hold up their kashāyas, set them on their heads, and chant a verse quietly with palms together:
Great is the robe of liberation,
the robe of no form, the field of happiness!
I wear the Tathāgata’s teaching
to awaken countless beings.
This was the first time I had seen the putting on of the kashāya in this way and I rejoiced, tears wetting the lapel of my robe. Although I had read this “verse of veneration for the kashāya in The Āgama Sūtra, I had not known the procedure. Now I saw it with my own eyes. In my joy I also felt sorry that there had been no master to teach this to me and no good friend to recommend it in Japan. How sad that so much time had been wasted! But I also rejoiced in my wholesome past actions. If I had stayed in my land, how could I have sat side by side with the monks who had received and were wearing the buddha robe? My sadness and joy brought endless tears.
Then I made a vow to myself: However unsuited I am, I will become an authentic holder of the buddha-dharma, receiving correct transmission of the true dharma, and with compassion show the buddha ancestors’ correctly transmitted dharma robes to those in my land. I rejoice that the vow I made at that time has not been in vain, and that there have been many bodhisattvas, lay and ordained, who have received the kashāya in Japan. Those who maintain the kashāya should always venerate it day and night. This brings forth most excellent merit.
To see or hear one line of the kashāya verse is not limited to seeing and hearing it as if we were trees and rocks, but pervades the nine realms of sentient beings.*
In the tenth month of the seventeenth year of the Jiading Era of Song China [1224], two Korean monks visited Qingyuan Prefecture. One was named Zhixuan, and the other Jingyun. They were men of letters who often discussed the meaning of sūtras, but just like lay people they did not have kashāyas or bowls. What a pity! They had shaven heads but not the manners of monks. This was perhaps because they had come from a small country in a remote land. When some monks from Japan visit other countries, they might be like Zhixuan and his company.
During the twelve years of his practice before attaining the way, Shākyamuni Buddha venerated the kashāya without putting it aside. As a remote descendant, you should keep this in mind. Turn your head away from worshiping heaven, gods, kings, and retainers for the sake of name and gain, “and joyfully dedicate yourself to venerating the buddha robe.
- An attempt to explain that the silk for kashāya was not produced by killing silkworms.
- Cloth given by royalty: viewed as polluted because it may have been stained by the former owner’s desire for fame and pride.”
