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
Illusion being destroyed,[FN#387] the will to destroy it is also
removed, and at last there remains nothing to be done (except
complete peace and joy). This naturally results in Enlightenment,
whose practical uses are as innumerable as the grains of sand in the
Ganges. This state is called Buddhahood. We should know that the
illusory as well as the Enlightened are originally of one and the
same Real Spirit. How great, how excellent, is the doctrine that
traces man to such an origin![FN#388]
[FN#387] The passage occurs in Tao Teh King.
[FN#388] A. 'Although all of the above-mentioned five doctrines were
preached by the Buddha Himself, yet there are some that belong to the
Sudden, while others to the Gradual, Teachings. If there were
persons of the middle or the lowest grade of understanding, He first
taught the most superficial doctrine, then the less superficial, and
"Gradually" led them up to the profound. At the outset of His career
as a teacher He preached the first doctrine to enable them to give up
evil and abide by good; next He preached the second and the third
doctrine that they might remove the Pollution and attain to the
Purity; and, lastly, He preached the fourth and the fifth doctrine to
destroy their attachment to unreal forms, and to show the Ultimate
Reality. (Thus) He reduced (all) the temporary doctrines into the
eternal one, and taught them how to practise the Law according to the
eternal and attain to Buddhahood.
'If there is a person of the highest grade of understanding, he may
first of all learn the most profound, next the less profound, and,
lastly, the most superficial doctrine-that is, he may at the outset
come "Suddenly" to the understanding of the One Reality of True
Spirit, as it is taught in the fifth doctrine. When the Spiritual
Reality is disclosed before his mind's eye, he may naturally see that
it originally transcends all appearances which are unreal, and that
unrealities appear on account of illusion, their existence depending
on Reality. Then he must give up evil, practise good, put away
unrealities by the wisdom of Enlightenment, and reduce them to
Reality. When unrealities are all gone, and Reality alone remains
complete, he is called the Dharma-kaya-Buddha.'
CHAPTER IV
RECONCILIATION OF THE TEMPORARY WITH THE REAL DOCTRINE[FN#389]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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