A powerful and wealthy king, having lost his wife, was so inconsolable, that he shut himself up for eight entire days, in a little cabinet, where he spent his time in knocking his head against the wall, until the courtiers were afraid he woul... Read more of The Blue Bird at Children Stories.ca

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Samurai

Zen And Supernatural Power
Yoga[FN#250] claims that various supernatural powers can be a...

The Awakening Of The Innermost Wisdom
Having set ourselves free from the misconception of Self, nex...

The Great Person And Small Person
For these reasons Zen proposes to call man Buddha-natured or ...

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

Origin Of Zen In India
To-day Zen as a living faith can be found in its pure form on...

Missionary Activity Of The Sixth Patriarch
As we have seen above, the Sixth Patriarch was a great genius...

Zen Under The Toku-gana Shogunate
Peace was at last restored by Iye-yasu, the founder of the To...

The Betterment Of Life
Again, people nowadays seem to feel keenly the wound of the ...

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...

No Need Of The Scriptural Authority For Zen
Some Occidental scholars erroneously identify Buddhism with t...

Zazen And The Forgetting Of Self
Zazen is a most effectual means of destroying selfishness, th...

The Development Of The Southern And Of The Northern School Of Zen
After the death of the Fifth Patriarch the venerable Shang Si...

The Resemblance Of The Zen Monk To The Samurai
Let us point out in brief the similarities between Zen and Ja...

Nature Favours Nothing In Particular
There is another point of view of life, which gave the presen...

Man Is Not Good-natured Nor Bad-natured But Buddha-natured
We have had already occasion to observe that Zen teaches Bud...

Wang Yang Ming (o-yo-mei) And A Thief
One evening when Wang was giving a lecture to a number of stu...

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

Zen And Nirvana
The beatitude of Zen is Nirvana, not in the Hinayanistic sens...

The Theory Of Buddha-nature Adequately Explains The Ethical States Of Man
This theory of Buddha-nature enables us to get an insight int...

Calmness Of Mind
The Yogi breathing above mentioned is fit rather for physical...

Nature And Her Lesson

Nature offers us nectar and ambrosia every day, and everywhere we go
the rose and lily await us. Spring visits us men, says
Gu-do,[FN#277] her mercy is great. Every blossom holds out the
image of Tathagata. What is the spiritual body of Buddha who is
immortal and divine? asked a man to Ta Lun (Dai-ryu), who instantly
replied: The flowers cover the mountain with golden brocade. The
waters tinge the rivulets with heavenly blue. Universe is the
whole body of Tathagata; observed Do-gen. The worlds in ten
directions, the earth, grass, trees, walls, fences, tiles, pebbles-in
a word, all the animated and inanimate objects partake of the
Buddha-nature. Thereby, those who partake in the benefit of the Wind
and Water that rise out of them are, all of them, helped by the
mysterious influence of Buddha, and show forth Enlightenment.[FN#278]

[FN#277] One of the distinguished Zenists in the Tokugawa period,
who died in 1661.

[FN#278] Sho-bo gen-zo.

Thus you can attain to highest bliss through your conscious union
with Buddha. Nothing can disturb your peace, when you can enjoy
peace in the midst of disturbances; nothing can cause you to suffer,
when you welcome misfortunes and hardships in order to train and
strengthen your character; nothing can tempt you to commit sin, when
you are constantly ready to listen to the sermon given by everything
around you; nothing can distress you, when you make the world the
holy temple of Buddha. This is the state of Nirvana which everyone
believing in Buddha may secure.

Next: The Beatitude Of Zen
Previous: Zen And Nirvana

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