_(In the Chapel)_ The appointed lot has come upon me, mother, The mournful ending of my years of strife, This changing world I leave, and to another In blood and terror goes my spirit's life. But thou, grief-smitten, cease thy mortal... Read more of Farewell To My Mother at Martin Luther King.ca

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Samurai

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

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

Life In The Concrete
Life in the concrete, which we are living, greatly differs fr...

Difficulties Are No Match For The Optimist
How can we suppose that we, the children of Buddha, are put a...

The Second And The Third Patriarchs
After the death of the First Patriarch, in A.D. 528, Hwui Ko ...

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

The Fourth Patriarch And The Emperor Tai Tsung (tai-so)
The Third[FN#40] Patriarch was succeeded by Tao Sin (Do-shin)...

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

Man Is Good-natured According To Mencius
Oriental scholars, especially the Chinese men of letters, se...

The Buddha Of Mercy
Milton says: Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt; Surp...

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

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

Life Change And Hope
The doctrine of Transcience never drives us to the pessimisti...

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

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

Zen And Idealism
Next Zen makes use of Idealism as explained by the Dharmalaks...

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

The Absolute And Reality Are But An Abstraction
A grain of sand you, trample upon has a deeper significance t...

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

Nature Is The Mother Of All Things

Furthermore, man has come into existence out of Nature. He is her
child. She provided him food, raiment, and shelter. She nourishes
him, strengthens him, and vitalizes him. At the same time she
disciplines, punishes, and instructs him. His body is of her own
formation, his knowledge is of her own laws, and his activities are
the responses to her own addresses to him. Modern civilization is
said by some to be the conquest of man over Nature; but, in fact, it
is his faithful obedience to her. Bacon truly said, says
Eucken,[FN#187] that to rule nature man must first serve her. He
forgot to add that, as her ruler, he is still destined to go on
serving her. She can never be attacked by any being unless he acts
in strict conformity to her laws. To accomplish anything against her
law is as impossible as to catch fishes in a forest, or to make bread
of rock. How many species of animals have perished owing to their
inability to follow her steps! How immense fortunes have been lost
in vain from man's ignorance of her order! How many human beings
disappeared on earth from their disobedience to her unbending will!
She is, nevertheless, true to those who obey her rules. Has not
science proved that she is truthful? Has not art found that she is
beautiful?

[FN#187] Eucken's 'Philosophy of Life,' by W. R. Royce Gibbon, p. 51.

Has not philosophy announced that she is spiritual? Has not religion
proclaimed that she is good? At all events, she is the mother of all
beings. She lives in all things and they live in her. All that she
possesses is theirs, and all that they want she supplies. Her life
is the same vitality that stirs all sentient beings. Chwang
Tsz[FN#188] (So-shi) is right when he says: Heaven, Earth, and I
were produced together, and all things and I are one. And again:
If all things be regarded with love, Heaven and Earth are one with
me. Sang Chao (So-jo) also says: Heaven and Earth are of the same
root as we. All things in the world are of one substance with
Me.[FN#189]

[FN#188] Chwang Tsz, vol. i., p. 20.

[FN#189] This is a favourite subject of discussion by Zenists.

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Previous: The Examination Of The Notion Of Self

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