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
The body with which man is endowed, when traced step by step to its
origin, proves to be nothing but one primordial Gas in its
undeveloped state. And the mind with which man thinks, when traced
step by step to its source, proves to be nothing but the One Real
Spirit. To tell the truth, there exists nothing outside of Spirit,
and even the Primordial Gas is also a mode of it, for it is one of
the external objects projected by the above-stated Vijnyanas, and is
one of the mental images of Alaya, out of whose idea, when it is in
the state of Karma, come both the subject and the object. As the
subject developed itself, the feebler ideas grow stronger step by
step, and form erroneous beliefs that end in the production of
Karma.[FN#405] Similarly, the object increases in size, the finer
objects grow gradually grosser, and gives rise to unreal things that
end in the formation[FN#406] of Heaven and Earth. When Karma is ripe
enough, one is endowed by father and mother with sperm and ovum,
which, united with his consciousness under the influence of Karma,
completes a human form.
[FN#405] A. 'As above stated.'
[FN#406] A. "In the beginning, according to the outside school,
there was 'the great changeableness,' which underwent fivefold
evolutions, and brought out the Five Principles. Out of that
Principle, which they call the Great Path of Nature, came the two
subordinate principles of the Positive and the Negative. They seem
to explain the Ultimate Reality, but the Path, in fact, no more than
the 'perceiving division' of the Alaya. The so-called primordial Gas
seems to be the first idea in the awakening Alaya, but it is a mere
external object."
According to this view (of Dharmalaksana), things brought forth
through the transformations of Alaya and the other Vijnyanas are
divided into two parts; one part (remaining), united with Alaya and
the other Vijnyanas, becomes man, while the other, becoming separated
from them, becomes Heaven, Earth, mountains, rivers, countries, and
towns. (Thus) man is the outcome of the union of the two; this is
the reason why he alone of the Three Powers is spiritual. This was
taught by the Buddha[FN#407] himself when he stated that there
existed two different kinds of the four elements--the internal and
the external.
[FN#407] Ratnakuta-sutra (?), translated into Chinese by Jnyanagupta.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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