The Sandōkai (Chinese: 參同契; pinyin: Cāntóngqì) is a poem by the eighth Chinese Zen ancestor Shitou Xiqian (Sekito Kisen, 700–790) and a fundamental text of the Sōtō school of Zen, chanted daily in temples throughout the world.
The Mind of the Great Sage of India
Flowed unseen from west to east.
And kept true to the source -- a clear stream unsullied.
By variables of wit and dullness:
The true way has no patriarch of south or north.
Born, we clutch at things
And later compound our delusion by following ideals.
Each sense gate and its object:
Dependence and nondependence --
Entering together into mutual relations
And yet standing apart in their own uniqueness.
Component things differing deeply in form and feel,
The voices -- soft and harsh in inherent isolation.
High and middle are words matching the darkness,
And light separates the murky phrase from the pure.
The characteristics of the four elements draw together
Like a child returning to its mother.
The heat of fire, the moving wind,
The water, wet, and the solid earth;
Eyes to see, sounds to hear, and smells --
The sour and salty taste on the tongue.
But in each related thing,
As leaves grow from roots,
End and beginning return to the source.
"High" and "low" are used respectively:
Within light there is darkness,
But you cannot explain it by one-sided darkness alone;
Within darkness there is light,
But you cannot understand it only by one-sided light.
Light and darkness go with each other
Like the sequence of steps in walking.
All things have inherent potentiality:
Both function and rest reside within.
With the actual comes the ideal
Like a box and its lid;
With the ideal comes the actual
Like two arrows meeting in mid-air.
Understand the basic truth from these words
And do not set up your own standards.
In sense experience, if you do not know the basic truth,
How can you find the right path no matter how much you walk?
As you walk further the distinction between near and far disappears,
And if you become lost, obstructing mountains and rivers arise.
This I offer to the seekers of truth: Waste no time.
The Big Deal About Absolute Versus Relative
Essentially, Sekito’s Sandokai deals with an issue of paramount importance in Zen: the relationship between the relative and absolute dimensions of reality. As I’ve already discussed at length in my episodes on Dogen’s Genjokoan and on the Heart Sutra, absolute and relative are terms that describe two profoundly different aspects of reality – the relative aspect, in which everything is defined by difference and particularity, and the absolute aspect, in which everything is part of a seamless whole. Both aspects are simultaneously true, even though they may appear contradictory, just as a finger is a thing unto itself, defined by its separateness from other fingers, but is also simply part of a hand.
The relationship between relative and absolute is a huge preoccupation of Zen. Why? Well, frankly, it’s also a preoccupation of many other spiritual traditions. To see this, all you have to do is look for the dualities about which people get very worked up: Divine (or Ineffable) versus human, pure versus impure, transcendent versus mundane, separate versus (re)united with God, ideal versus actual. This duality is so pervasive and recurring, ancient Chan masters adopted a special term for each side: Ji (or Shih) is the concrete, phenomenal (relative) aspect of existence, while Ri (or Li) is the absolute or ultimate aspect of existence.
The relationship between absolute and relative isn’t just a topic for philosophical debate, it’s something we human beings care about a great deal. We get a sense there’s a whole lot more to life than our ordinary, limited, self-centered perception of it. When meditating, praying, listening to wonderful music, hiking in the wilderness, or just drinking a cup of tea, we may perceive how everything is precious just as it is, how there’s order in the universe, how God is within, how all human beings are fundamentally the same and therefore naturally inclined to compassion, or how nothing is inherently separate from anything else. Oh, how inspiring and glorious! And then the moment passes and we’re back in the world of good and bad, right and wrong, dirty houses, afflictive emotions, passionate disagreements, and traffic jams – not to mention injustice, war, and environmental destruction. How are we supposed to reconcile these two aspects of reality? For many of us, the absolute aspect seems preferable but frustratingly elusive, setting up a sad tension in our spiritual lives.
The main teaching in Zen, therefore, emphasizes how the relative and absolute aspects of reality aren’t really separate. It’s not that our transcendent moments are glimpses into some kind of alternative reality where everything is great, and the rest of our life is an annoying interlude of imperfection. The absolute has no existence whatsoever apart from the relative, and vice versa. These two aspects are just the same reality perceived at different levels. Real enlightenment or awakening means not just having an experience of the absolute – although that’s important – it means comprehending how the two aspects of reality relate to each other. When we truly understand the identity – or the equivalence, congruence, or accord – of the absolute and relative dimensions of reality, we avoid getting overly identified with either one. This is very important: If we’re over-identified with the relative, we miss the absolute or perceive it as distant, elusive, inherently separate, or superior. We may feel trapped in a frustrating or hopeless mundane existence, unable to avail ourselves of the solace provided by a larger perspective. On the other hand, if we’re over-identified with the absolute, we lose touch with real life and fall into the delusion that our enlightenment’s complete when, in fact, it’s only partial. Giving priority to all things transcendent, we may reject everyday life or find it unnecessary to respond to the world with compassion or work to relieve real-life suffering.
True awakening, from a Zen point of view, requires us to learn from first-hand experience how to integrate our experience of the absolute and relative aspects of reality. This is actually very difficult – much more difficult than simply having an insight into the literal reality of the absolute. Our minds are naturally inclined toward dualism, and integration of the absolute and relative is only possible when we leap beyond dualism and wrestle directly with the multi-dimensional reality of life.
