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
Some philosophical pessimists undervalue life simply because it is
subject to limitation. They ascribe all evils to that condition,
forgetting that without limitation life is a mere blank. Suppose our
sight could see all things at once, then sight has no value nor use
for us, because it is life's purpose to choose to see one thing or
another out of many; and if all things be present at once before us
through sight, it is of no purpose. The same is true of intellect,
bearing, smell, touch, feeling, and will. If they be limitless, they
cease to be useful for us. Individuality necessarily implies
limitation, hence if there be no limitation in the world, then there
is no room for individuality. Life without death is no life at all.
Professor Hugo Munsterberg finds no value, so it seems to me, in
'such life as beginning with birth and ending with death.' He
says:[FN#223] "My life as a causal system of physical and
psychological processes, which lies spread out in time between the
dates of my birth and of my death, will come to an end with my last
breath; to continue it, to make it go on till the earth falls into
the sun, or a billion times longer, would be without any value, as
that kind of life which is nothing but the mechanical occurrence of
physiological and psychological phenomena had as such no ultimate
value for me or for you, or for anyone, at any time. But my real
life, as a system of interrelated-will-attitudes, has nothing before
or after because it is beyond time. It is independent of birth and
death because it cannot be related to biological events; it is not
born, and will not die; it is immortal; all possible thinkable time
is enclosed in it; it is eternal."
[FN#223] 'The Eternal Life,' p. 26.
Professor Munsterberg tries to distinguish sharply life as the causal
system of physiological and psychological processes, and life as a
system of interrelated-will-attitudes, and denounces the former as
fleeting and valueless, in order to prize the latter as eternal and
of absolute value. How could he, however, succeed in his task unless
he has two or three lives, as some animals are believed to have? Is
it not one and the same life that is treated on the one hand by
science as a system of physiological and psychological processes, and
is conceived on the other by the Professor himself as a system of
interrelated-will-attitudes? It is true that science treats of life
as it is observed in time, space, and causality, and it estimates it
of no value, since to estimate the value of things is no business of
science. The same life observed as a system of
interrelated-will-attitudes is independent of time, space, and
causality as he affirms. One and the same life includes both phases,
the difference being in the points of view of the observers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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