The Religion of the Samurai: A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and JapanNukariya, Kaiten
Religion
The Religion of the Samurai: A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan
Nukariya, Kaiten
Buddhism -- China; Buddhism -- Japan; China -- Religion; Human beings -- Origin; Japan -- Religion; Zen Buddhism
Having set ourselves free from the misconception of Self, next we
must awaken our innermost wisdom, pure and divine, called the Mind of
Buddha,[FN#190] or Bodhi,[FN#191] or Prajnya[FN#192] by Zen masters.
It is the divine light, the inner heaven, the key to all moral
treasures, the centre of thought and consciousness, the source of all
influence and power, the seat of kindness, justice, sympathy,
impartial love, humanity, and mercy, the measure of all things. When
this innermost wisdom is fully awakened, we are able to realize that
each and everyone of us is identical in spirit, in essence, in nature
with the universal life or Buddha, that each ever lives face to face
with Buddha, that each is beset by the abundant grace of the Blessed
One, that He arouses his moral nature, that He opens his spiritual
eyes, that He unfolds his new capacity, that He appoints his mission,
and that life is not an ocean of birth, disease, old age, and death,
nor the vale of tears, but the holy temple of Buddha, the Pure
Land,[FN#193] where be can enjoy the bliss of Nirvana.
[FN#190] Zen is often called the Sect of Buddha-mind, as it lays
stress on the awakening of the Mind of Buddha. The words 'the Mind
of Buddha' were taken from a passage in Lankavatara-sutra.
[FN#191] That knowledge by which one becomes enlightened.
[FN#192] Supreme wisdom.
[FN#193] Sukhavati, or the land of bliss.
Then our minds go through an entire revolution. We are no more
troubled by anger and hatred, no more bitten by envy and ambition, no
more stung by sorrow and chagrin, no more overwhelmed by melancholy
and despair. Not that we become passionless or simply intellectual,
but that we have purified passions, which, instead of troubling us,
inspire us with noble aspirations, such as anger and hatred against
injustice, cruelty, and dishonesty, sorrow and lamentation for human
frailty, mirth and joy for the welfare of follow-beings, pity and
sympathy for suffering creatures. The same change purifies our
intellect. Scepticism and sophistry give way to firm conviction;
criticism and hypothesis to right judgment; and inference and
argument to realization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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