While working on a sermon the pastor heard a knock at his office door. "Come in," he invited. A sad-looking man in threadbare clothes came in, pulling a large pig on a rope. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" asked the ma... Read more of On Marriage: One-Liners at Free Jokes.ca

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The Mystery Of Life
Thus far we have pointed out the inevitable conflictions in l...

Sutras Used By Zen Masters
Ten Dai failed to explain away the discrepancies and contradi...

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

All The Worlds In Ten Directions Are Buddha's Holy Land
We are to resume this problem in the following chapter. Suff...

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

The Fifth And The Sixth Patriarchs
Tao Sin transmitted the Law to Hung Jan (Ko-nin), who being e...

The Parable Of The Monk And The Stupid Woman
The confused or unenlightened may be compared with a monk and...

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...

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...

The World Is In The Making
Our assertion is far from assuming that life is now complete,...

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

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

Decline Of Zen
The blooming prosperity of Zen was over towards the end of th...

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

The Establishment Of The Rin Zai School Of Zen In Japan
[FN#67] The Lin Tsi school was started by Nan Yoh, a pr...

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

The First Step In The Mental Training
Some of the old Zen masters are said to have attained to supr...

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

Man Is Bad-natured According To Siun Tsz
The weaknesses of Mencius's theory are fully exposed by anot...

The Progress And Hope Of Life

How many myriads of years have passed since the germs of life first
made appearance on earth none can tell; how many thousands of summers
and winters it has taken to develop itself into higher animals, no
scientist can calculate exactly. Slowly but steadily it has taken
its swerving course, and ascending stop by step the series of
evolution, has reached at length the plane of the rational animal.
We cannot tell how many billions of years it takes to develop
ourselves and become beings higher than man himself, yet we firmly
believe that it is possible for us to take the same unerring course
as the organic germs took in the past. Existing humanity is not the
same as primitive one. It is quite another race. Our desires and
hopes are entirely different from those of primitive man. What was
gold for them is now iron for us. Our thoughts and beliefs are what
they never dreamed of. Of our knowledge they had almost none. That
which they kept in veneration we trample under our feet. Things they
worshipped as deities now serve us as our slaves. Things that
troubled and tortured them we now turn into utilities. To say
nothing of the customs and manners and mode of living which underwent
extraordinary change, we are of a race in body and mind other than
the primitive forefathers of good old days.
In addition to this we have every reason to believe in the betterment
of life. Let us cast a glance to the existing state of the world.
While the Turco-Italian war was raising its ferocious outcry, the
Chinese revolution lifted its head before the trembling throne. Who
can tell whether another sanguinary affair will not break out before
the Bulgarian bloodshed comes to an end? Still we believe that, as
fire drives out fire, to borrow Shakespeare's phrase, so war is
driving out war. As an ocean, which separated two nations in the
past, serves to unite them now, so a war, which separated two people
in the past, brings them to unity now. It goes without saying, that
every nation groans under the burden of cannons and warships, and
heartily desires peace. No nation can willingly wage war against any
other nation. It is against the national conscience. It is no
exaggeration to say the world is wholly the ear to hear the news from
the goddess of peace. A time will surely come, if our purpose be
steady and our resolution firm, when universal peace will be
restored, and Shakya Muni's precept, 'not to kill,' will be realized
by all mankind.

Next: The Betterment Of Life
Previous: The World Is In The Making

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