Once upon a time there lived a king and queen, who had an only daughter. Her incomparable beauty, sweetness, and intelligence caused her to be named Graciosa. She was all her mother's joy. Every day she had given her a different dress, of gol... Read more of Graciosa And Percinet at Children Stories.ca

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Samurai

Poetical Intuition And Zen
Since Universal Life or Spirit permeates the universe, the po...

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

Nature And Her Lesson
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The Manliness Of The Zen Monk And Of The Samurai
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The Irrationality Of The Belief Of Immortality
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The Absolute And Reality Are But An Abstraction
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The Five Ranks Of Merit
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The Resemblance Of The Zen Monk To The Samurai
Let us point out in brief the similarities between Zen and Ja...

The Law Of Balance In Life
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Zen And Nirvana
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The Eternal Life As Taught By Professor Munsterberg
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Life Consists In Conflict
Life consists in conflict. So long as man remains a social a...

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

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

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

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

The Sermon Of The Inanimate
The Scripture of Zen is written with facts simple and familia...

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

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

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

The Ancient Buddhist Pantheon

The ancient Buddhist pantheon was full of deities or Buddhas,
3,000[FN#137] in number, or rather countless, and also of
Bodhisattvas no less than Buddhas. Nowadays, however, in every
church of Mahayanism one Buddha or another together with some
Bodhisattvas reigns supreme as the sole object of worship, while
other supernatural beings sink in oblivion. These Enlightened
Beings, regardless of their positions in the pantheon, were generally
regarded as persons who in their past lives cultivated virtues,
underwent austerities, and various sorts of penance, and at length
attained to a complete Enlightenment, by virtue of which they secured
not only peace and eternal bliss, but acquired divers supernatural
powers, such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, all-knowledge, and what
not. Therefore, it is natural that some Mahayanists[FN#138] came to
believe that, if they should go through the same course of discipline
and study, they could attain to the same Enlightenment and Bliss, or
the same Buddhahood, while other Mahayanists[FN#139] came to believe
in the doctrine that the believer is saved and led up to the eternal
state of bliss, without undergoing these hard disciplines, by the
power of a Buddha known as having boundless mercy and fathomless
wisdom whom he invokes.

[FN#137] Trikalpa-trisahasra-buddhanrama-sutra gives the names of
3,000 Buddhas, and Buddhabhisita-buddhanama-sutra enumerates Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas 11,093 in number. See Nanjo's Catalogue, Nos. 404,
405, 406, 407.

[FN#138] Those who believe in the doctrine of Holy Path. See 'A
History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects,' pp. 109-111.

[FN#139] Those who believe in the doctrine of the Pure Land.

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