Four expectant fathers were in a Minneapolis hospital waiting room while their wives were in labor. The nurse arrived and proudly announced to the first man, "Congratulations, sir. You're the father of twins!" "What a coincidence! I work for the ... Read more of How many babies? at Free Jokes.ca

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Samurai

Zen Is Iconoclastic
For the followers of Bodhidharma, however, this conception of...

The Theory Of Buddha-nature Adequately Explains The Ethical States Of Man
This theory of Buddha-nature enables us to get an insight int...

Enlightened Consciousness
In addition to these considerations, which mainly depend on i...

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

Epicureanism And Life
There are a good many people always buoyant in spirit and mir...

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

Change As Seen By Zen
Zen, like Hinayanism, does not deny the doctrine of Transienc...

Zazen And The Forgetting Of Self
Zazen is a most effectual means of destroying selfishness, th...

The Manliness Of The Zen Monk And Of The Samurai
Thirdly, both the Zen monk and the Samurai were distinguished...

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

Zen Is Not Nihilistic
Zen judged from ancient Zen masters' aphorisms may seem, at t...

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

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

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

Zen And Supernatural Power
Yoga[FN#250] claims that various supernatural powers can be a...

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

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

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

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

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

Zen And Nirvana

The beatitude of Zen is Nirvana, not in the Hinayanistic sense of the
term, but in the sense peculiar to the faith. Nirvana literally
means extinction or annihilation; hence the extinction of life or the
annihilation of individuality. To Zen, however, it means the state
of extinction of pain and the annihilation of sin. Zen never looks
for the realization of its beatitude in a place like heaven, nor
believes in the realm of Reality transcendental of the phenomenal
universe, nor gives countenance to the superstition of Immortality,
nor does it hold the world is the best of all possible worlds, nor
conceives life simply as blessing. It is in this life, full of
shortcomings, misery, and sufferings, that Zen hopes to realize its
beatitude. It is in this world, imperfect, changing, and moving,
that Zen finds the Divine Light it worships. It is in this
phenomenal universe of limitation and relativity that Zen aims to
attain to highest Nirvana. We speak, says the author of
Vimalakirtti-nirdeca-sutra, of the transitoriness of body, but not
of the desire of the Nirvana or destruction of it. Paranirvana,
according to the author of Lankavatarasutra, is neither death nor
destruction, but bliss, freedom, and purity. Nirvana, says Kiai
Hwan,[FN#276] means the extinction of pain or the crossing over of
the sea of life and death. It denotes the real permanent state of
spiritual attainment. It does not signify destruction or
annihilation. It denotes the belief in the great root of life and
spirit. It is Nirvana of Zen to enjoy bliss for all sufferings of
life. It is Nirvana of Zen to be serene in mind for all disturbances
of actual existence. It is Nirvana of Zen to be in the conscious
union with Universal Life or Buddha through Enlightenment.

[FN#276] A commentator of Saddharma-pundarika-sutra.

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