Buddhism

The Establishment Of The Rin Zai School Of Zen In Japan
The Lin Tsi school was started by Nan Yoh, a prominent d...

The Fourth Patriarch And The Emperor Tai Tsung Tai-so
The Third Patriarch was succeeded by Tao Sin (Do-shin), who ...

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

Everything Is Living According To Zen
Everything alive has a strong innate tendency to preserve its...

Shakya Muni And The Prodigal Son
A great trouble with us is that we do not believe in half the...

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

The Resemblance Of The Zen Monk To The Samurai
Let us point out in brief the similarities between Zen and Ja...

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

The Betterment Of Life
Again, people nowadays seem to feel keenly the wound of the ...

Man Is Neither Good-natured Nor Bad-natured According To Su Shi
(So-shoku). The difficulty may be avoided by a theory given ...

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

Buddha Is Unnamable
Give a definite name to Deity, He would be no more than what ...

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

Life And Change
Transformation and change are the essential features of life;...

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

The Development Of The Southern And Of The Northern School Of Zen
After the death of the Fifth Patriarch the venerable Shang Si...

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

The Third Step In The Mental Training
To be the lord of mind is more essential to Enlightenment, wh...

Where Does The Root Of The Illusion Lie?
Now let us examine where illusion lies hidden from the view o...

Zen Under The Toku-gana Shogunate
Peace was at last restored by Iye-yasu, the founder of the To...

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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