English.pd

Yôka Daishi says, "The great elephant does not loiter on the rabbit's path. Great
enlightenment is not concerned with details." The same holds for any enterprise or for
government. You have to grasp the matter at the source. Then, even if you make some
errors in details, it will not have any effect on the main matter. What's important is
grasping the root matter and seeing the essentials. This is of course true regarding
enlightenment as well. Grasping the essential matter is most important and then knowing
how to express it. We must be careful not to get excessively caught up in the literal
meaning of the words and miss the main point.
Don't belittle the sky by looking through a pipe. The Japanese expression
kanken [literally, looking through a bamboo pipe] found in this poem is still used today to
mean excessively narrow views. In Japan we also speak in terms of "looking at the sky
through a reed" to make the same point. Looking at the sky through a pipe, we fail to
notice how truly broad and limitless the sky actually is. Yôka Daishi warns us against
doing so and then concluding that the sky is narrow when we have never really experienced
the sky. Then comes the final line of the poem:
If you still don't understand, I will settle it for you. Throughout this poem, he
says, I have attempted to preach the basic matter in a detailed and careful manner. If you
still don't understand, you must come to me and I will settle the matter for you. Come to
me with any problem you have and I will cut off the problem at its root. Thus ends the
Shôdôka.
Having completed this series of teisho I am all the more in awe of Yôka Daishi's clarity of
vision and richness of expression. At the same time, I can't help admiring myself a little for
having been able to speak at length about this great work!.
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(translated by Paul SHPHERD)
Photo by HARA Akira