Buddhism Man Is Bad-natured According To Siun Tsz Jun-shi
The weaknesses of Mencius's theory are fully exposed by anoth...
The Method Of Instruction Adopted By Zen Masters
Thus far we have described the doctrine of Zen inculcated by ...
Bodhidharma And The Emperor Wu
No sooner had Bodhidharma landed at Kwang Cheu in Southern Ch...
The Third Step In The Mental Training
To be the lord of mind is more essential to Enlightenment, wh...
The Resemblance Of The Zen Monk To The Samurai
Let us point out in brief the similarities between Zen and Ja...
Enlightenment Implies An Insight Into The Nature Of Self
We cannot pass over, however, this weighty problem without sa...
Do Thy Best And Leave The Rest To Providence
There is another point of view which enables us to enjoy life...
Zen And Nirvana
The beatitude of Zen is Nirvana, not in the Hinayanistic sens...
Difficulties Are No Match For The Optimist
How can we suppose that we, the children of Buddha, are put a...
The Parable Of A Drunkard
Now the question arises, If all human beings are endowed with...
No Need Of The Scriptural Authority For Zen
Some Occidental scholars erroneously identify Buddhism with t...
Life In The Concrete
Life in the concrete, which we are living, greatly differs fr...
Retribution In The Past The Present And The Future Life
Then a question suggests itself: If there be no soul that sur...
The Parable Of The Monk And The Stupid Woman
The confused or unenlightened may be compared with a monk and...
Decline Of Zen
The blooming prosperity of Zen was over towards the end of th...
The Breathing Exercise Of The Yogi
Breathing exercise is one of the practices of Yoga, and somew...
There Is No Mortal Who Is Purely Moral
By nature man should be either good or bad; or he should be g...
Where Does The Root Of The Illusion Lie?
Now let us examine where illusion lies hidden from the view o...
The Introduction Of The So-to School Of Zen
This school was started by Tsing-Yuen (Sei-gen), an emine...
Scripture Is No More Than Waste Paper
Zen is not based on any particular sutra, either of
Mahaya...
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Thing-in-itself Means Thing-knowerless
How, then, did philosophers come to consider reality to be unknowable
and hidden behind or beyond appearances? They investigated all the
possible presentations in different relationships, and put them all
aside as appearances, and brooded on the thing-in-itself, shut out
from all possible relationship, and declared it unknowable.
Thing-in-itself means thing cut off from all possible relationships.
To, put it in another way: thing-in-itself means thing deprived of
its relation to its knower--that is to say, thing-knower-less. So
that to declare thing-in-itself unknowable is as much as to declare
thing-unknowable unknowable; there is no doubt about it, but what
does it prove?
Deprive yourself of all the possible relationships, and see what you
are. Suppose you are not a son to your parents, nor the husband to
your wife, nor the father to your children, nor a relative to your
kindred, nor a friend to your acquaintances, nor a teacher to your
students, nor a citizen to your country, nor an individual member to
your society, nor a creature to your God, then you get
you-in-yourself. Now ask yourself what is you-in-yourself? You can
never answer the question. It is unknowable, just because it is cut
off from all knowable relations. Can you thus prove that
you-in-yourself exist beyond or behind you?
In like manner our universe appears to us human beings as the
phenomenal world or presentation. It might appear to other creatures
of a different mental constitution as something else. We cannot
ascertain how it might seem to Devas, to Asuras, to angels, and to
the Almighty, if there be such beings. However different it might
seem to these beings, it does not imply that the phenomenal world is
unreal, nor that the realm of reality is unknowable.
'Water,' the Indian tradition has it, 'seems to man as a drink, as
emerald to Devas, as bloody pus to Pretas, as houses to fishes.'
Water is not a whit less real because of its seeming as houses to
fishes, and fishes' houses are not less real because of its seeming
as emerald to Devas. There is nothing that proves the unreality of
it. It is a gross illusion to conceive reality as transcendental to
appearances. Reality exists as appearances, and appearances are
reality known to human beings. You cannot separate appearances from
reality, and hold out the latter as the object of aspiration at the
cost of the former. You must acknowledge that the so-called realm of
reality which you aspire after, and which you seek for outside or
behind the phenomenal universe, exists here on earth. Let Zen
teachers tell you that "the world of birth and death is the realm of
Nirvana"; "the earth is the pure land of Buddha."
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