The Fifty-second of 108 Gates Of Dharma Illumination

[Shokai]

The Fifty-second Gate: The Body as an Abode of Mindfulness

The body* as an abode* of mindfulness is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] all dharmas are serene. (Nishijima/Cross)
The ground of mindfulness of the body is a gate of realizing dharma; it leads all things to serenity. (Tanahashi)

*[Body: the whole universe in ten directions is the real body Abode: a place in which a person resides]

Gate Gatha:
May we, together with all buddhas;
Relinquish our body to the home of mindfulness
That we may live intimately with its impurity.

Reflection Prompts:
1. How does mindfulness of our abode make dharmas serene?
2. Would you have realized Body as the whole universe in ten directions ?
3. write a new Gatha.

Capping Verse:
Knowing the whole world
As ourselves
We are always home

gassho,Shokai

[Hosai]

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_/\_
sat/ah
hōsai

[Choujou]

Reflection Prompts:
1. How does mindfulness of our abode make dharmas serene?
2. Would you have realized Body as the whole universe in ten directions ?
3. write a new Gatha.

1. Because when one is mindful in the abode, there are no dharmas to be disturbed…

2. Honestly, had it not been explained, I probably would have thought it was referencing the physical body… which in a way it is… and isn’t. All one in the same when mindful of the “body”

3. May we, together with all buddhas;
Embody the serenity of the absolute
While expressing the relative.

Gassho,
Choujou

sat/lah today

[Shokai]

Hosai;

Would you have realized Body as the whole universe in ten directions ?

gassho, Shokai

[Furyu]

The body as an expression of mindfulness is an expression of buddha and all dharma, nothing to disturb.

The first translation doesn't immediately make me think of body as the whole universe and everything - maybe something like " (seeing) the body as the abode of mindfulness" would work better for me. The second translation has "the ground of mindfulness of the body" which I like a lot. The ground of existence is itself mindfulness.

May we, together with all buddhas;
Perceive the ground of mindfulness
And express it with our bodies


Fūryū
satlah