Effect: Holding a piece of rope, the magician places the ends of the rope into his hands and closes his fingers around the ends. The magician shakes the rope slightly, says a magic word, blows on his hands and drops one end of the rope. Magic! ... Read more of Rope Trick at Card Trick.ca

Privacy

Samurai

The Courage And The Composure Of Mind Of The Zen Monk And Of The Samurai
Fourthly, our Samurai encountered death, as is well known, wi...

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...

Bodhidharma And The Emperor Wu
No sooner had Bodhidharma landed at Kwang Cheu in Southern Ch...

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

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

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

Sutras Used By Zen Masters
Ten Dai failed to explain away the discrepancies and contradi...

The Parable Of A Drunkard
Now the question arises, If all human beings are endowed with...

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

Our Conception Of Buddha Is Not Final
Has, then, the divine nature of Universal Spirit been complet...

An Illusion Concerning Appearance And Reality
To get Enlightened we must next dispel an illusion respecting...

Man Is Bad-natured According To Siun Tsz
The weaknesses of Mencius's theory are fully exposed by anot...

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

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

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

Three Important Elements Of Zen
To understand how Zen developed during some four hundred year...

The Creative Force Of Nature And Humanity
The innate tendency of self-preservation, which manifests its...

The Application Of The Law Of Causation To Morals
Although it may be needless to state here the law of causatio...

The Social State Of Japan When Zen Was Established By Ei-sai And Do-gen
Now we have to observe the condition of the country when Zen ...

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

Man Is Not Good-natured Nor Bad-natured But Buddha-natured

We have had already occasion to observe that Zen teaches
Buddha-nature, which all sentient beings are endowed with. The term
'Buddha-nature,'[FN#165] as accepted generally by Buddhists, means a
latent and undeveloped nature, which enables its owner to become
Enlightened when it is developed and brought to actuality.[FN#166]
Therefore man, according to Zen, is not good-natured nor bad-natured
in the relative sense, as accepted generally by common sense, of
these terms, but Buddha-natured in the sense of non-duality. A good
person (of common sense) differs from a bad person (of common sense),
not in his inborn Buddha-nature, but in the extent of his expressing
it in deeds. Even if men are equally endowed with that nature, yet
their different states of development do not allow them to express it
to an equal extent in conduct. Buddha-nature may be compared with
the sun, and individual mind with the sky. Then an Enlightened mind
is like the sky in fair weather, when nothing prevents the beams of
the sun; while an ignorant mind is like the sky in cloudy weather,
when the sun sheds faint light; and an evil mind is like the sky in
stormy weather, when the sun seems to be out of existence. It comes
under our daily observation that even a robber or a murderer may
prove to be a good father and a loving husband to his wife and
children. He is an honest fellow when he remains at home. The sun
of Buddha-nature gives light within the wall of his house, but
without the house the darkness of foul crimes shrouds him.

[FN#165] For a detailed explanation of Buddha-nature, see the
chapter entitled Buddha-nature in Sho-bo-gen-zo.

[FN#166] Mahaparinirvana-sutra may be said to have been written for
the purpose of stating this idea.

Next: The Parable Of The Robber Kih
Previous: Where Then Does The Error Lie?

Report
Privacy

SHARE

BOOKMARK

Viewed 609