One summer, in my wanderings with a knapsack, I was at luncheon in the room of a wayside inn in the western country, when the door opened and there entered an old rustic, who crossed close to my end of the table and sat himself down very quie... Read more of The Wood Of The Dead at Scary Stories.ca

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

Enlightenment Is Beyond Description And Analysis
In the foregoing chapters we have had several occasions to re...

Each Smile A Hymn Each Kindly Word A Prayer
The glorious sun of Buddha-nature shines in the zenith of Enl...

The Fifth And The Sixth Patriarchs
Tao Sin transmitted the Law to Hung Jan (Ko-nin), who being e...

Epicureanism And Life
There are a good many people always buoyant in spirit and mir...

Scripture Is No More Than Waste Paper
[FN#107] Zen is not based on any particular sutra, either of...

There Is No Mortal Who Is Non-moral Or Purely Immoral
The same is the case with the third and the fourth class of p...

Pessimistic View Of The Ancient Hindus
In addition to this, the new theory of matter has entirely ov...

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

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

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

Zen After The Restoration
After the Restoration of the Mei-ji (1867) the popularity of ...

Where Then Does The Error Lie?
Where, then, does the error lie in the four possible proposit...

The Spiritual Attainment Of The Sixth Patriarch
Some time before his death (in 675 A.D.) the Fifth Patriarch ...

The Five Ranks Of Merit
Thus far we have stated how to train our body and mind accord...

Zen Is Not Nihilistic
Zen judged from ancient Zen masters' aphorisms may seem, at t...

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

The Disciples Under The Sixth Patriarch
Some time after this the Sixth Patriarch settled himself down...

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

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

Life And Change

A peculiar phase of life is change which appears in the form of
growth and decay. Nobody can deny the transitoriness of life. One
of our friends humorously observed: Everything in the world may be
doubtful to you, but it can never be doubted that you will die.
Life is like a burning lamp. Every minute its flame dies out and is
renewed. Life is like a running stream. Every moment it pushes
onward. If there be anything constant in this world of change, it
should be change itself. Is it not just one step from rosy childhood
to snowy age? Is it not just one moment from the nuptial song to the
funeral-dirge? Who can live the same moment twice?
In comparison with an organism, inorganic matter appears to be
constant and changeless; but, in fact, it is equally subjected to
ceaseless alteration. Every morning, looking into the mirror, you
will find your visage reflected in it just as it was on the preceding
day; so also every morning, looking at the sun and the earth, you
will find them reflected in your retina just as they were on the
previous morning; but the sun and the earth are no less changeless
than you. Why do the sun and the earth seem changeless and constant
to you? Only because you yourself undergo change more quickly than
they. When you look at the clouds sweeping across the face of the
moon, they seem to be at rest, and the moon in rapid motion; but, in
fact, the clouds, as well as the moon, incessantly move on.

Science might maintain the quantitative constancy of matter, but the
so-called matter is mere abstraction. To say matter is changeless is
as much as to say 2 is always 2, changeless and constant, because the
arithmetical number is not more abstract than the physiological
matter. The moon appears standing still when you look at her only a
few moments. In like manner she seems to be free from change when
you look at her in your short span of life. Astronomers,
nevertheless, can tell you how she saw her better days, and is now in
her wrinkles and white hair.

Next: Pessimistic View Of The Ancient Hindus
Previous: Buddha The Universal Life

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