Mississippi Federal Writers Slave Autobiographies Smith Hodges, Ex-Slave, Pike County FEC Mrs. W.F. Holmes [FANNY SMITH HODGES Berglundtown, Mississippi] Fanny Smith Hodges lives in Berglundtown, in the northern part of town, in the ... Read more of Fanny Smith Hodges at Martin Luther King.ca

Privacy

Samurai

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

Change As Seen By Zen
Zen, like Hinayanism, does not deny the doctrine of Transienc...

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

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

The World Is In The Making
Our assertion is far from assuming that life is now complete,...

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

Zen In The Dark Age
The latter half of the Ashikaga period was the age of arms an...

Zazen Or The Sitting In Meditation
Habit comes out of practice, and forms character by degrees, ...

The Bad Are The Good In The Egg
This is not only the case with a robber or a murderer, but al...

Zen And The Regent Generals Of The Ho-jo Period
No wonder, then, that the representatives of the Samurai clas...

Universal Life Is Universal Spirit
These considerations naturally lead us to see that Universal ...

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

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

The Examination Of The Notion Of Self
The belief in immortality is based on the strong instinct of ...

The Four Alternatives And The Five Categories
There are, according to Zen, the four classes of religious an...

The Establishment Of The Rin Zai School Of Zen In Japan
[FN#67] The Lin Tsi school was started by Nan Yoh, a pr...

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

Buddha Dwelling In The Individual Mind
Enlightened Consciousness in the individual mind acquires for...

Buddha-nature Is The Common Source Of Morals
Furthermore, Buddha-nature or real self, being the seat of lo...

Everything Is Living According To Zen
Everything alive has a strong innate tendency to preserve its...

Enlightenment Is Beyond Description And Analysis

In the foregoing chapters we have had several occasions to refer to
the central problem of Zen or Enlightenment, whose content it is
futile to attempt to explain or analyze. We must not explain or
analyze it, because by doing so we cannot but mislead the reader. We
can as well represent Enlightenment by means of explanation or
analysis as we do personality by snapshots or by anatomical
operations. As our inner life, directly experienced within us, is
anything but the shape of the head, or the features of the face, or
the posture of the body, so Enlightenment experienced by Zenists at
the moment of their highest Samadhi[FN#178] is anything but the
psychological analysis of mental process, or the epistemological
explanation of cognition, or the philosophical generalization of
concepts. Enlightenment can be realized only by the Enlightened, and
baffles every attempt to describe it, even by the Enlightened
themselves. The effort of the confused to guess at Enlightenment is
often likened by the Zenists to the effort of the blind who feel an
elephant to know what it looks like. Some of them who happen to feel
the trunk would declare it is like a rope, but those who happen to
feel the belly would declare it is like a huge drum; while those who
happen to feel the feet would declare it is like the trunk of a tree.
But none of these conjectures can approach the living elephant.

[FN#178] Abstract Contemplation, which the Zenists distinguish from
Samadhi, practised by the Brahmins. The author of 'An Outline of
Buddhist Sects' points out the distinction, saying: Contemplation of
outside religionists is practised with the heterodox view that the
lower worlds (the worlds for men, beasts, etc.) are disgusting, but
the upper worlds (the worlds for Devas) are desirable; Contemplation
of common people (ordinary lay believers of Buddhism) is practised
with the belief in the law of Karma, and also with disgust (for the
lower worlds) and desire (for the upper worlds); Contemplation of
Hinayana is practised with an insight into the truth of Anatman
(non-soul); Contemplation of Mahayana is practised with an insight of
Unreality of Atman (soul) as well as of Dharma (thing); Contemplation
of the highest perfection is practised with the view that Mind is
pure in its nature, it is endowed with unpolluted wisdom, free from
passion, and it is no other than Buddha himself.

Next: Enlightenment Implies An Insight Into The Nature Of Self
Previous: The Buddha Of Mercy

Report
Privacy

SHARE

BOOKMARK

Viewed 606