Samurai

How To Worship Buddha
The author of Vimalakirtti-nirdeca-sutra well explains our at...

Zen And The Regent Generals Of The Ho-jo Period
No wonder, then, that the representatives of the Samurai clas...

Hinayanism And Its Doctrine
The doctrine of Transience was the first entrance gate of Hin...

Idealistic Scepticism Concerning Objective Reality
But extreme Idealism identifies 'to be' with 'to be known,' a...

Real Self
If there be no individual soul either in mind or body, where ...

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

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

Man Is Neither Good-natured Nor Bad-natured According To Su Shih
The difficulty may be avoided by a theory given by Su Shih ...

Zen In The Dark Age
The latter half of the Ashikaga period was the age of arms an...

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

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

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

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

Buddha Dwelling In The Individual Mind
Enlightened Consciousness in the individual mind acquires for...

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

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

Nature And Her Lesson
Nature offers us nectar and ambrosia every day, and everywher...

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

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

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

The Mystery Of Life

Thus far we have pointed out the inevitable conflictions in life in
order to prepare ourselves for an insight into the depth of life. We
are far from being pessimistic, for we believe that life consists in
confliction, but that confliction does not end in confliction, but in
a new form of harmony. Hope comes to conflict with fear, and is
often threatened with losing its hold on mind; then it renews its
life and takes root still deeper than before. Peace is often
disturbed with wars, but then it gains a still firmer ground than
ever. Happiness is driven out of mind by melancholy, then it is
re-enforced by favourable conditions and returns with double
strength. Spirit is dragged down by matter from its ideal heaven,
then, incited by shame, it tries a higher flight. Good is opposed by
evil, then it gathers more strength and vanquishes its foe. Truth is
clouded by falsehood, then it issues forth with its greater light.
Liberty is endangered by tyranny, then it overthrows it with a
splendid success.

Manifoldness stands out boldly against unity; difference against
agreement; particularity against generality; individuality against
society. Manifoldness, nevertheless, instead of annihilating,
enriches unity; difference, instead of destroying agreement, gives it
variety; particularities, instead of putting an end to generality,
increase its content; individuals, instead of breaking the harmony of
society, strengthen the power of it.

Thus 'Universal Life does not swallow up manifoldness nor extinguish
differences, but it is the only means of bringing to its full
development the detailed content of reality; in particular, it does
not abolish the great oppositions of life and world, but takes them
up into itself and brings them into fruitful relations with each
other.' Therefore 'our life is a mysterious blending of freedom and
necessity, power and limitation, caprice and law; yet these opposites
are constantly seeking and finding a mutual adjustment.'

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