This study is about the differences between the Sōtō sect’s gokan no ge 五観偈 and that of the Rinzai, with considerations based on their historical transitions and how they were inherited down to the present day. The gokan no ge are the five verses recited before the meals in Zen institutions. The present study focuses on the third of the five in order to look at the differences in interpretation of the Sōtō and Rinzai sects. I focus on the basic version of the Chinese Nanshan 南山 Vinaya master 律宗 Daoxuan’s 道宣 gokan no ge. I clarify that the present day Sōtō understanding corresponds to that of Daoxuan, while the Rinzai does not.
Next I have examine two works composed by medieval Rinzai monks, the Chokushu hyakujō shingi Untō-shō 勅修百丈清規雲桃抄 and the Nichiyō shingi Shōun-shō 日用清規笑雲抄, both of which convey an understanding in line with the Sōtō interpretation. The present day Rinzai sect’s interpretation first appeared in the Shoekō shingishiki 諸回向清規式, published in the early Edo period, and this was accepted by the sect thereafter. However, Muchaku Dōchū 無著道忠 of the Myōshin-ji mentioned in his Shosōrin ryakushingi 小叢林略清規 interpretations quite similar to those of the present day Sōtō. Moreover, from the situations of Edo period Sōtō, both the interpretations of Dōgen and the Nichiyō shingi Shōun-shō seem to have become mixed, with no definite interpretations for the Third Passage. At least by the end of the Edo period, there was no definitive or sectarian interpretation of this text. It was only during the Meiji period that the different sectarian interpretations came to be accepted by the Sōtō and the Rinzai, and their respective different interpretations were developed gradually.
