King from 871-901 A.D. The Danes were neighbors of the Norwegian Vikings, and like them were fond of the sea and piracy. They plundered the English coasts for more than a century; and most of northern and eastern England became for a ... Read more of Alfred the Great at Biographical.ca

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Buddha The Universal Life
Zen conceives Buddha as a Being, who moves, stirs, inspires, ...

The Third Step In The Mental Training
To be the lord of mind is more essential to Enlightenment, wh...

The First Step In The Mental Training
Some of the old Zen masters are said to have attained to supr...

Shakya Muni And The Prodigal Son
A great trouble with us is that we do not believe in half the...

Bodhidharma And His Successor The Second Patriarch
China was not, however, an uncultivated[FN#29] land for the s...

Thing-in-itself Means Thing-knowerless
How, then, did philosophers come to consider reality to be un...

The Ancient Buddhist Pantheon
The ancient Buddhist pantheon was full of deities or Buddhas,...

All The Worlds In Ten Directions Are Buddha's Holy Land
We are to resume this problem in the following chapter. Suff...

Great Men And Nature
All great men, whether they be poets or scientists or religio...

Do Thy Best And Leave The Rest To Providence
There is another point of view which enables us to enjoy life...

The Eternal Life As Taught By Professor Munsterberg
Some philosophical pessimists undervalue life simply because ...

The Progress And Hope Of Life
How many myriads of years have passed since the germs of life...

A Sutra Equal In Size To The Whole World
The holy writ that Zen masters admire is not one of parchment...

The Errors Of Philosophical Pessimists And Religious Optimists
Philosophical pessimists[FN#214] maintain that there are on e...

The Breathing Exercise Of The Yogi
Breathing exercise is one of the practices of Yoga, and somew...

There Is No Mortal Who Is Purely Moral
By nature man should be either good or bad; or he should be g...

Buddha Is Unnamable
Give a definite name to Deity, He would be no more than what ...

Life And Change
Transformation and change are the essential features of life;...

Introduction Of Zen Into China By Bodhidharma
An epoch-making event took place in the Buddhist history of C...

The Law Of Balance
Nature governs the world with her law of balance. She puts t...

Enlightened Consciousness

In addition to these considerations, which mainly depend on indirect
experience, we can have direct experience of life within us. In the
first place, we experience that our life is not a bare mechanical
motion or change, but is a spiritual, purposive, and self-directing
force. In the second place, we directly experience that it knows,
feels, and wills. In the third place, we experience that there
exists some power unifying the intellectual, emotional, and
volitional activities so as to make life uniform and rational.
Lastly, we experience that there lies deeply rooted within us
Enlightened Consciousness, which neither psychologists treat of nor
philosophers believe in, but which Zen teachers expound with strong
conviction. Enlightened Consciousness is, according to Zen, the
centre of spiritual life. It is the mind of minds, and the
consciousness of consciousness. It is the Universal Spirit awakened
in the human mind. It is not the mind that feels joy or sorrow; nor
is it the mind that reasons and infers; nor is it the mind that
fancies and dreams; nor is it the mind that hopes and fears; nor is
it the mind that distinguishes good from evil. It is Enlightened
Consciousness that holds communion with Universal Spirit or Buddha,
and realizes that individual lives are inseparably united, and of one
and the same nature with Universal Life. It is always bright as a
burnished mirror, and cannot be dimmed by doubt and ignorance. It is
ever pure as a lotus flower, and cannot be polluted by the mud of
evil and folly. Although all sentient beings are endowed with this
Enlightened Consciousness, they are not aware of its existence,
excepting men who can discover it by the practice of Meditation.
Enlightened consciousness is often called Buddha-nature, as it is the
real nature of Universal Spirit. Zen teachers compare it with a
precious stone ever fresh and pure, even if it be buried in the heaps
of dust. Its divine light can never be extinguished by doubt or
fear, just as the sunlight cannot be destroyed by mist and cloud.
Let us quote a Chinese Zen poet to see how Zen treats of it:[FN#153]

I have an image of Buddha,
The worldly people know it not.
It is not made of clay or cloth,
Nor is it carved out of wood,
Nor is it moulded of earth nor of ashes.
No artist can paint it;
No robber can steal it.
There it exists from dawn of time.
It's clean, although not swept and wiped.
Although it is but one,
Divides itself to a hundred thousand million forms.

[FN#153] See Zen-gaku-ho-ten.

Next: Buddha Dwelling In The Individual Mind
Previous: Poetical Intuition And Zen

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