Buddhism

Do Thy Best And Leave The Rest To Providence
There is another point of view which enables us to enjoy life...

The Law Of Balance In Life
It is also the case with human affairs. Social positions hig...

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

The Great Person And Small Person
For these reasons Zen proposes to call man Buddha-natured or ...

Difficulties Are No Match For The Optimist
How can we suppose that we, the children of Buddha, are put a...

Great Men And Nature
All great men, whether they be poets or scientists or religio...

The Breathing Exercise Of The Yogi
Breathing exercise is one of the practices of Yoga, and somew...

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

There Is No Mortal Who Is Purely Moral
By nature man should be either good or bad; or he should be g...

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

There Is No Mortal Who Is Non-moral Or Purely Immoral
The same is the case with the third and the fourth class of p...

Buddha The Universal Life
Zen conceives Buddha as a Being, who moves, stirs, inspires, ...

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

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

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

The Awakening Of The Innermost Wisdom
Having set ourselves free from the misconception of Self, nex...

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

Three Important Elements Of Zen
To understand how Zen developed during some four hundred year...

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

The Beatitude Of Zen
We are far from denying, as already shown in the foregoing ch...

Life And Change

A peculiar phase of life is change which appears in the form of
growth and decay. Nobody can deny the transitoriness of life. One
of our friends humorously observed: "Everything in the world may be
doubtful to you, but it can never be doubted that you will die."
Life is like a burning lamp. Every minute its flame dies out and is
renewed. Life is like a running stream. Every moment it pushes
onward. If there be anything constant in this world of change, it
should be change itself. Is it not just one step from rosy childhood
to snowy age? Is it not just one moment from the nuptial song to the
funeral-dirge? Who can live the same moment twice?
In comparison with an organism, inorganic matter appears to be
constant and changeless; but, in fact, it is equally subjected to
ceaseless alteration. Every morning, looking into the mirror, you
will find your visage reflected in it just as it was on the preceding
day; so also every morning, looking at the sun and the earth, you
will find them reflected in your retina just as they were on the
previous morning; but the sun and the earth are no less changeless
than you. Why do the sun and the earth seem changeless and constant
to you? Only because you yourself undergo change more quickly than
they. When you look at the clouds sweeping across the face of the
moon, they seem to be at rest, and the moon in rapid motion; but, in
fact, the clouds, as well as the moon, incessantly move on.

Science might maintain the quantitative constancy of matter, but the
so-called matter is mere abstraction. To say matter is changeless is
as much as to say 2 is always 2, changeless and constant, because the
arithmetical number is not more abstract than the physiological
matter. The moon appears standing still when you look at her only a
few moments. In like manner she seems to be free from change when
you look at her in your short span of life. Astronomers,
nevertheless, can tell you how she saw her better days, and is now in
her wrinkles and white hair.

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Previous: Buddha The Universal Life

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