Translator’s note. The Japanese title of this chapter is Uji. 有 u means “to have” or “there is” — thus
it is often understood as Being. 時 ji means a moment — thus it is often understood as Time. Thus
Being-Time. The word uji can also be pronounced arutoki, in which case it means “sometimes.”
An old buddha speaking:
Oh gee, we’re standing on a high high peak,
oh gee, we walk in ocean depths,
oh gee, we have three heads and eight arms,
oh gee, we’re sixteen feet tall,
oh gee, we’re a staff and whisk,
oh gee, we’re a stone lantern,
oh gee, we’re Joe Schmo and Jane Doe,
oh gee, we’re the good earth and vast space.
“Oh” means having something, and “gee” means a moment. A moment already
has something, and there’s something every moment. Sometimes we
call this something-moment “being-time.” For the time being.
Our sixteen-foot golden body is a moment, so it has momentary resplendence
in the twenty-four moment-hours of the day. Our three heads and eight
arms are momentary, just like the twenty-four moment-hours. How long are
these twenty four? We can’t measure, so we call them “twenty four.”
We arrange ourselves, and all the worlds are made. Things and things,
moments and moments. Things don’t block things, nor moments moments.
Sometimes different things arise at the same moment. Sometimes different
moments arise in the same mind.
Our self is a moment. The moment I climb mountains and cross rivers,
I’m in a moment and a moment is in me. Since I already am, the moment
can’t get away. Since the moment has no past or future, the moment of mountain
climbing is Oh gee right now. Since the moment has a past and future,
Oh gee is in me right now.
This is Oh gee. It swallows whole the moment of the jeweled palace with
its crimson towers, it vomits it forth. This is a passage through our Oh gee.
Because it’s Oh Gee, it’s our Oh gee.
The activity of Oh gee is a passing through. From today to tomorrow, from
today to yesterday, from yesterday to today, from today to today, from tomorrow
to tomorrow. Passing through is an activity of moments. Thus past and
present moments don’t pile up on one another nor stand side by side in line.
Old buddhas are a moment, too. And self and other.
“But I’m not a sixteen-foot golden body!” This is also a bit of Oh gee, just
a bit.
Virgo is a moment, Scorpion is a moment, birth too, buddha too. This
moment confirms the sixteen-foot golden body as all the realms. Just use all
the realms to let all the realms be all the realms. This is Oh and gee.
All Oh realized as all Gee. Nothing left over. Thus half an Oh gee is realized
as half an Oh gee. This realization of Oh gee can’t be snared or stopped. Those
divinities on the left and right are just an Oh gee of our own potency. The Oh
gee of land and water deities is also a realization of our potency. Everything
whose Oh gee is light or dark passes through our potency — otherwise nothing
is realized at all.
This passing through is not the way wind and rain pass from west to east.
None of the realms are either still or moving — they’re a passing through.
Patriarch Horse describes himself to himself:
Oh gee, he has him blink.
Oh gee, he doesn’t have him blink.
Oh gee, having him blink is it.
Oh gee, having him blink isn’t it.
The spot where the patriarch grasps the teaching is not the same as other
people. His eyelid is the mountain and sea, because the mountain and sea
are his eyelid. His blink beholds a mountain and venerates the sea. His It is
well practiced, since he’s been beguiled by the teachings. His Not It is not the
same as his not blinking, nor is his not blinking the same as his Not It. All
this is Oh gee.
A mountain is a moment. A sea is a moment. If you don’t have a moment,
you don’t have a mountain or a sea. Don’t think there’s no moment in the
mountain and sea right now. If the moment collapses, the mountain and sea
also collapse. This is the appearance of the morning star, of the buddha, of
your eye, of picking up a flower. It is a moment. Without a moment there is
nothing.
Oh gee, an old master addresses the assembly:
Oh gee, the unborn is here but appearance isn’t.
Oh gee, appearance is here but the unborn isn’t.
Oh gee, both the unborn and appearance are here.
Oh gee, neither the unborn nor appearance are here.
The unborn and appearance are Oh gee. Here or not-here are also Oh gee.
The unborn is the servant, appearance is the royal display.
Here is snared by here but not by not-here. Not-here is snared by nothere
but not by here. In snaring the unborn, the unborn sees itself. In snaring
appearance, appearance sees itself. In snaring snares, snaring sees itself.
Snaring snares snaring. This is the moment. Snaring depends on an other,
but snaring has never snared an other.
I meet a man, a man meets a man, an I meets an I, an arising meets an
arising. Without a moment, none of this takes place.
Everything is coming, everything is going, everything is here, everything
is not here. The moment of Oh gee.