There was once a great king of England who was called Wil-liam the Con-quer-or, and he had three sons. One day King Wil-liam seemed to be thinking of something that made him feel very sad; and the wise men who were about him asked him w... Read more of THE SONS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR at Stories Poetry.com

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The Characteristics Of Do-gen The Founder Of The Japanese So To Sect
In the meantime seekers after a new truth gradually began to ...

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

Let Go Of Your Idle Thoughts
[FN#263] A famous Zenist, Mu-go-koku-shi, is said to ha...

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

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

The Next Step In The Mental Training
In the next place we have to strive to be the master of our b...

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

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

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

The Method Of Instruction Adopted By Zen Masters
Thus far we have described the doctrine of Zen inculcated by ...

Enlightenment Is Beyond Description And Analysis
In the foregoing chapters we have had several occasions to re...

Zen After The Downfall Of The Ho-jo Regency
Towards the end of the Ho-Jo period,[FN#90] and after the dow...

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

The Bad Are The Good In The Egg
This is not only the case with a robber or a murderer, but al...

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

Retribution In The Past The Present And The Future Life
Then a question suggests itself: If there be no soul that su...

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

Man Is Both Good-natured And Bad-natured According To Yan Hiung
According to Yang Hiung and his followers, good is no less re...

The Parable Of The Robber Kih

Chwang Tsz (So-shi) remarks in a humorous way to the following

effect: The followers of the great robber and murderer Kih asked him

saying: 'Has the robber also any moral principles in his

proceedings?' He replied: 'What profession is there which has not

its principles? That the robber comes to the conclusion without

mistake that there are valuable deposits in an apartment shows his

wisdom; that he is the first to enter it shows his bravery; that he

makes an equal division of the plunder shows his justice; that he

never betrays the fellow-robbers shows his faithfulness; and that he

is generous to the followers shows his benevolence. Without all

these five qualities no one in the world has ever attained to become

a great robber.' The parable clearly shows us Buddha-nature of the

robber and murderer expresses itself as wisdom, bravery, justice,

faithfulness, and benevolence in his society, and that if he did the

same outside it, he would not be a great robber but a great sage.

[FN#167] The parable is told for the purpose of undervaluing

Confucian doctrine, but the author thereby accidentally touches human

nature. We do not quote it here with the same purpose as the

author's.

Next: Wang Yang Ming (o-yo-mei) And A Thief
Previous: Man Is Not Good-natured Nor Bad-natured But Buddha-natured

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