Eihei Dōgen. It was written in the summer of 1238 at Dōgen's monastery Kōshōhōrin-ji in Kyoto. The essay marked the beginning of a period of high output of Shōbōgenzō books that lasted until 1246.[1] The book appears as the seventh book in both the 75 and 60 fascicle versions of the Shōbōgenzō, and it is ordered fourth in the later chronological 95 fascicle Honzan editions.[2] The essay is an extended commentary on the famous saying of the Tang dynasty monk Xuansha Shibei that "the ten-direction world is one bright jewel", which in turn references the Mani Jewel metaphors of earlier Buddhist scriptures.[1] Dōgen also discusses the "one bright jewel" and related concepts from the Shōbōgenzō essay in two of his formal Dharma Hall Discourses, namely numbers 107 and 445, as well as his Kōan commentaries 23 and 41, all of which are recorded in the Eihei Kōroku.[3]
The Mani Jewel
The title of the essay is often translated into English as One Bright Pearl instead of One Bright Jewel.
Buddhist texts. Because pearls are not transparent, and because the transparency is essential for the meaning of the essay, "pearl" is therefore incongruous with the context of the writing. Okumura further argues that a knowledge of the Mani Jewel as it appears in prior texts is essential for understanding the meaning of Dōgen's essay.[1]
“It was a beryl, pure, excellent, well-cut
into eight facets, clear, bright, unflawed,
perfect in every respect. The luster of this
Jewel-Treasure radiated for an entire yojana
round about.
The Mani Jewel in this text serves as the source of virtue and good governance for the king. Without it he would lose his throne.[1]
Later texts describe the Mani Jewel differently. One version is the
Avalokiteshvara sometimes show them holding this Cintamani, indicating their ability to fulfill the wishes of sentient beings.[1]
The Mani Jewel also appears as a water purifying jewel (清水摩尼) where it could be placed in muddy water by traveling monks, causing any cloudiness to settle out leaving the water clear and pure. This version of the jewel is mentioned in the
Abhidharma-kosa where it is used as a metaphor for faith as an agent capable of dispelling uncertainty.[1]
Yet another depiction of the jewel is in the metaphor of
Avatamsaka Sutra. It describes a net of infinite size with infinite knots, with each knot containing a Mani Jewel with infinite facets. Each individual Mani Jewel reflects every other Mani Jewel in the same way that any individual being or phenomenon is indistinguishable from the whole or noumenon due to their fundamental interconnectedness.[1]
Later, the Mani Jewel began to appear in texts produced by Zen Buddhists. An early example is found in
empty; the Hongzhou school would say that the blackness covering the Mani Jewel is the Jewel itself, and that its purity can never be seen; the Heze School (to which Guifeng belonged) would interpret the black color covering the jewel as an illusion that is in fact just a manifestation of its brightness such that the surface defilements and the purity of the Jewel interpenetrate one another.[1]
