Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - "Wives and Daughters"

Juliet James - "Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts"

Arthur B. Reeve - "The Poisoned Pen"

Henry Seton Merriman - "Tomaso's Fortune and Other Stories"

The Religion of the Samurai

K >> Kaiten Nukariya >> The Religion of the Samurai




This doctrine tells us that (both) the body, that is formed of
matter, and the mind, that thinks and reflects, continually exist
from eternity to eternity, being destroyed and recreated by means of
direct or indirect causes, just as the water of a river glides
continually, or the flame of a lamp keeps burning constantly. Mind
and body unite themselves temporarily, and seem to be one and
changeless. The common people, ignorant of all this, are attached to
(the two combined) as being Atman.[FN#337]


[FN#337] Atman means ego, or self, on which individuality is based.


For the sake of this Atman, which they hold to be the most precious
thing (in the world), they are subject to the Three Poisons Of
lust,[FN#338] anger,[FN#339] and folly,[FN#340] which (in their turn)
give impulse to the will and bring forth Karma of all kinds through
speech and action. Karma being thus produced, no one can evade its
effects. Consequently all must be born[FN#341] in the Five States of
Existence either to suffer pain or to enjoy pleasure; some are born
in the higher places, while others in the lower of the Three
Worlds.[FN#342]


[FN#338] A. 'The passion that covets fame and gain to keep oneself
in prosperity.'

[FN#339] A. 'The passion against disagreeable things, for fear of
their inflicting injuries on oneself.'

[FN#340] A. 'Wrong thoughts and inferences.'

[FN#341] A. 'Different sorts of beings are born by virtue of the
individualizing Karma.'

[FN#342] A. 'Worlds are produced by virtue of the Karma common to
all beings that live in them.'


When born (in the future lives) they are attached again to the body
(and mind) as Atman, and become subject to lust and the other two
passions. Karma is again produced by them, and they have to receive
its inevitable results. (Thus) body undergoes birth, old age,
disease, death, and is reborn after death; while the world passes
through the stages of formation, existence, destruction, and
emptiness, and is re-formed again after emptiness. Kalpa after
Kalpa[FN#343] (passes by), life after life (comes on), and the circle
of continuous rebirths knows no beginning nor end, and resembles the
pulley for drawing water from the well.[FN#344]


[FN#343] Kalpa, a mundane cycle, is not reckoned by months and
years. lt is a period during which a physical universe is formed to
the moment when another is put into its place.

A. "The following verses describe how the world was first created in
the period of emptiness: A strong wind began to blow through empty
space. Its length and breadth were infinite. It was 16 lakhs thick,
and so strong that it could not be cut even with a diamond. Its name
was the world-supporting-wind. The golden clouds of Abhasvara heaven
(the sixth of eighteen heavens of the Rupa-loka) covered all the
skies of the Three Thousand Worlds. Down came the heavy rain, each
drop being as large as the axle of a waggon. The water stood on the
wind that checked its running down. It was 11 lakhs deep. The first
layer was made of adamant (by the congealing water). Gradually the
cloud poured down the rain and filled it. First the Brahma-raja
worlds, next the Yama-heaven (the third of six heavens of the Kama
loka), were made. The pure water rose up, driven by the wind, and
Sumeru, (the central mountain, or axis of the universe) and the seven
concentric circles of mountains, and so on, were formed. Out of
dirty sediments the mountains, the four continents, the hells,
oceans, and outer ring of mountains, were made. This is called the
formation of the universe. The time of one Increase and one Decrease
(human life is increased from 10 to 84,000 years, increasing by one
year at every one hundred years; then it is decreased from 84,000 to
10 years, decreasing by one year at every one hundred years) elapsed.
In short, those beings in the second region of Rupa-loka, whose good
Karma had spent its force, came down on the earth. At first there
were the 'earth bread' and the wild vine for them. Afterwards they
could not completely digest rice, and began to excrete and to
urinate. Thus men were differentiated from women. They divided the
cultivated land among them. Chiefs were elected; assistants and
subjects were sought out; hence different classes of people. A
period of nineteen Increases and Decreases elapsed. Added to the
above-mentioned period, it amounted to twenty Increases and
Decreases. This is called the Kalpa of the formation of the universe.

"Now let us discuss this point. The Kalpa of Emptiness is what the
Taoist calls the Path of Emptiness. The Path or the Reality,
however, is not empty, but bright, transcendental, spiritual, and
omnipresent. Lao Tsz, led by his mistaken idea, called the Kalpa of
Emptiness the Path; otherwise he did so for the temporary purpose of
denouncing worldly desires. The wind in the empty space is what the
Taoist calls the undefinable Gas in the state of Chaos. Therefore
Lao Tsz said, 'The Path brings forth one.' The golden clouds, the
first of all physical objects, is (what the Confucianist calls) the
First Principle. The rain-water standing (on the wind) is the
production of the Negative Principle. The Positive, united with the
Negative, brought forth the phenomenal universe. The
Brahma-raja-loka, the Sumeru, and others, are what they call the
Heaven. The dirty waters and sediment are the Earth. So Lao Tsz
said, 'One produces two.' Those in the second region of the
Rupra-loka, whose good Karma had spent its force, came down upon the
earth and became human beings. Therefore Lao Tsz said, 'The two
produce three.' Thus the Three Powers were completed. The
earth-bread and different classes of people, and so on, are the
so-called 'production of thousands of things by the Three.' This was
the time when people lived in eaves or wandered in the wilderness,
and knew not the use of fire. As it belongs to the remote past of
the prehistoric age, previous to the reigns of the first three
Emperors, the traditions handed down to us are neither clear nor
certain. Many errors crept into them one generation after another,
and consequently no one of the statements given in the various works
of scholars agrees with another. Besides, when the Buddhist books
explain the formation of the Three Thousand Worlds, they do not
confine themselves merely within the limits of this country. Hence
their records are entirely different from those of the outsiders
(which are confined to China).

"'Existence' means the Kalpa of Existence that lasts twenty Increases
and Decreases. 'Destruction' means the Kalpa of Destruction that
lasts also twenty Increases and Decreases. During the first nineteen
Increases and Decreases living beings are destroyed; while in the
last worlds are demolished through the three periods of distress (1)
the period of water, (2) the period of fire, (3) the period of wind.
'Emptiness' means the Kalpa of Emptiness, during which no beings nor
worlds exist. This Kalpa also lasts twenty Increases and Decreases."

[FN#344] A. 'Taoists merely know that there was one Kalpa of
Emptiness before the formation of this present universe, and point
out the Emptiness, the Chaos, the primordial Gas, and the rest,
naming them as the first or the beginningless. But they do not know
that the universe had already gone through myriads of cycles of
Kalpas of formation, existence, destruction, and emptiness. Thus
even the most superficial of the Hinayana doctrines far excels the
most profound of the outside doctrines.'


All this is due to Ignorance which does not understand that no bodily
existence, by its very nature, can be Atman. The reason why it is
not Atman is this, that its formation is, after all, due to the union
of matter and mind. Now (let us) examine and analyze (mind and
body). Matter consists of the four elements of earth, water, fire,
and wind, while mind consists of the four aggregates of
perception,[FN#345] consciousness,[FN#346] conception,[FN#347] and
knowledge.[FN#348]


[FN#345] A. 'It receives both the agreeable and the disagreeable
impressions from without.' It is Yedana, the second of the five
Skandhas, or aggregates.

[FN#346] A. 'It perceives the forms of external objects.' It is
Samjnya, name, the third of the five aggregates.

[FN#347] A. 'It acts, one idea changing after another.' It is
Samskara, the fourth of the five aggregates.

[FN#348] A. 'It recognizes.' It is Vijnyana, the last of the five
aggregates.


If all (these elements) be taken as Atman, there must be eight Atmans
(for each person). More than that! There are many different things,
even in the element of earth. Now, there are three hundred and sixty
bones, each one distinct from the other. No one is the same as any
other, either of the skin, hair, muscles, the liver, the heart, the
spleen, and the kidneys. Furthermore, there are a great many mental
qualities each different from the others. Sight is different from
hearing. Joy is not the same as anger. If we enumerate them, in
short, one after another, there are eighty thousand passions.[FN#349]


[FN#349] Eighty thousand simply means a great many.


As things are thus so innumerable, none can tell which of these
(without mistake) is to be taken as the Atman. In case all be taken
as the Atman, there must be hundreds and thousands of Atmans, among
which there would be as many conflicts and disturbances as there are
masters living in the one (house of) body. As there exists no body
nor mind separated from these things, one can never find the Atman,
even if he seeks for it over and over again.

Hereupon anyone understands that this life (of ours) is no more than
the temporary union of numerous elements (mental and physical).
Originally there is no Atman to distinguish one being from another.
For whose sake, then, should he be lustful or angry? For whose sake
should he take life,[FN#350] or commit theft, or give alms, or keep
precepts? (Thus thinking) at length he sets his mind free from the
virtues and vices subjected to the passions[FN#351] of the Three
Worlds, and abides in the discriminative insight into (the nature of)
the Anatman[FN#352] only.
By means of that discriminative insight he makes himself pure from
lust, and the other (two passions) puts an end to various sorts of
Karma, and realizes the Bhutatathata[FN#353] of Anatman. In brief,
he attains to the State of Arhat,[FN#354] has his body reduced to
ashes, his intelligence annihilated, and entirely gets rid of
sufferings.


[FN#350] A. 'He understands the truth of misery.' The truth of
Duhkha, or misery, is the first of the four Noble Satyas, or Truths,
that ought to be realized by the Hinayanists. According to the
Hinayana doctrine, misery is a necessary concomitant of sentient
life.'

[FN#351] A. 'He destroys Samudaya.' The truth of Samudaya, or
accumulation, the second of the four Satyas, means that misery is
accumulated or produced by passions. This truth should be realized
by the removal of passions.

[FN#352] A. 'This is the truth of Marga.' The truth of Marga, or
Path, is the fourth of the four Satyas. There are the eight right
Paths that lead to the extinction of passions; (1) Right view (to
discern truth), (2) right thought (or purity of will and thought),
(3) right speech (free from nonsense and errors), (4) right action,
(5) right diligence, (6) right meditation, (7) right memory, (8)
right livelihood.

[FN#353] A. 'This is the truth of Nirodha.' Nirodha, or destruction,
the third of the four Satyas, means the extinction of passions.
Bhutatathati of Anatman means the truth of the non existence of Atma
or soul, and is the aim and end of the Hinayanist philosophy.

[FN#354] Arhat, the Killer of thieves (i.e., passions), means one
who conquered his passions. It means, secondly, one who is exempted
from birth, or one who is free from transmigration. Thirdly, it
means one deserving worship. So the Arhat is the highest sage who has
attained to Nirvana by the destruction of all passions.


According to the doctrine of this school the two aggregates, material
and spiritual, together with lust, anger, and folly, are the origin
of ourselves and of the world in which we live. There exists nothing
else, either in the past or in the future, that can be regarded as
the origin.

Now let us say (a few words) by way of refutation. That which
(always) stands as the origin of life, birth after birth, generation
after generation, should exist by itself without cessation. Yet the
Five Vijnyanas[FN#355] cease to perform their functions when they
lack proper conditions, (while) the Mano-vijnyana[FN#356] is lost at
times (in unconsciousness). There are none of those four (material)
elements in the heavenly worlds of Arupa. How, then, is life
sustained there and kept up in continuous birth after birth?
Therefore we know that those who devote themselves to the study of
this doctrine also cannot trace life to its origin.


[FN#355] A. 'The conditions are the Indriyas and the Visayas, etc.'
Indriyas are organs of sense, and Visayas are objects on which the
sense acts. Five Vijnyanas are--(1) The sense of sight, (2) the
sense of hearing, (3) the sense of smell, (4) the sense of taste, (5)
the sense of touch.

[FN#356] Mano-vijnyana is the mind itself, and the last of the six
Vijnyanas of the Hinayana doctrine. A. '(For instance), in a state
of trance, in deep slumber, in Nirodha-samapatti (where no thought
exists), in Asamjnyi-samapatti (in which no consciousness exists),
and in Avrhaloka (the thirteenth of Brahmalokas).



3. The Mahayana Doctrine of Dharmalaksana.[FN#357]

This doctrine tells us that from time immemorial all sentient beings
naturally have eight different Vijnyanas[FN#358] and the eighth,
Alaya-vijnyana,[FN#359] is the origin of them. (That is), the Alaya
suddenly brings forth the 'seeds'[FN#360] of living beings and of the
world in which they live, and through transformation gives rise to
the seven Vijnyanas. Each of them causes external objects on which
it acts to take form and appear. In reality there is nothing
externally existent. How, then, does Alaya give rise to them through
transformation? Because, as this doctrine tells us, we habitually
form the erroneous idea that Atman and external objects exist in
reality, and it acts upon Alaya and leaves its impressions[FN#361]
there. Consequently, when Vijnyanas are awakened, these impressions
(or the seed-ideas) transform and present themselves (before the
mind's eye) Atman and external objects.


[FN#357] This school studies in the main the nature of things
(Dharma), and was so named. The doctrine is based on
Avatamsaka-sutra and Samdhi-nirmocana-sutra, and was systematized by
Asamga and Vasu-bandhu. The latter's book,
Vidyamatra-siddhi-castra-karika, is held to be the best authoritative
work of the school.

[FN#358] (1) The sense of sight; (2) the sense of hearing; (3) the
sense of smell; (4) the sense of taste; (5) the sense of touch; (6)
Mano-vijnyana (lit., mind-knowledge), or the perceptive faculty; (7)
Klista-mano-vijnyana (lit., soiled-mind-knowledge), or an
introspective faculty; (8) Alaya-vijnyana (lit.,
receptacle-knowledge), or ultimate-mind-substance.

[FN#359] The first seven Vijnyanas depend on the Alaya, which is
said to hold all the 'seeds' of physical and mental objects.

[FN#360] This school is an extreme form of Idealism, and maintains
that nothing separated from the Alaya can exist externally. The
mind-substance, from the first, holds the seed ideas of everything,
and they seem to the non-enlightened mind to be the external
universe, but are no other than the transformation of the seed-ideas.
The five senses, and the Mano-vijnyana acting on them, take them for
external objects really existent, while the seventh Vijnyana mistakes
the eighth for Atman.

[FN#361] The non-enlightened mind, habitually thinking that Atman
and external objects exist, leaves the impression of the seed-ideas
on its own Alaya.


Then the sixth and the seventh[FN#362] Vijnyana veiled with Avidya,
dwelling on them, mistake them for real Atman and the real external
objects. This (error) may be compared with one diseased[FN#363] in
the eye, who imagines that he sees various things (floating in the
air) on account of his illness; or with a dreamer[FN#364] whose
fanciful thoughts assume various forms of external objects, and
present themselves before him. While in the dream he fancies that
there exist external objects in reality, but on awakening he finds
that they are nothing other than the transformation of his dreaming
thoughts.


[FN#362] Avidya, or ignorance, which mistakes the illusory phenomena
for realities.

[FN#363] A. 'A person with a serious disease sees the vision of
strange colours, men, and things in his trance.'

[FN#364] A. 'That a dreamer fancies he sees things is well known to
everybody.'


So are our lives. They are no other than the transformation of the
Vijnyanas; but in consequence of illusion, we take them for the Atman
and external objects existing in reality. From these erroneous ideas
arise delusive thoughts that lead to the production of Karma; hence
the round-of rebirth to time without end.[FN#365] When we understand
these reasons, we can realize the fact that our lives are nothing but
transformations of the Vijnyanas, and that the (eighth) Vijnyana is
the origin.[FN#366]


[FN#365] A. 'As it was detailed above.'

[FN#366] A. 'An imperfect doctrine, which is refuted later.'



4. Mahayana Doctrine of the Nihilists.

This doctrine disproves (both) the Mahayana and the Hinayana
doctrines above mentioned that adhere to Dharma-laksana, and
suggestively discloses the truth of Transcendental Reality which is
to be treated later.[FN#367] Let me state, first of all, what it
would say in the refutation of Dharma-laksana.


[FN#367] A. "The nihilistic doctrine is stated not only in the
various Prajnya-sutras (the books having Prajnya-paramita in their
titles), but also in almost all Mahayana sutras. The above-mentioned
three doctrines were preached (by the Buddha) in the three successive
periods. But this doctrine was not preached at any particular
period; it was intended to destroy at any time the attachment to the
phenomenal objects. Therefore Nagarjuna tells us that there are two
sorts of Prajnyas, the Common and the Special. The Çravakas (lit.,
hearers) and the Pratyekabuddhas (lit., singly enlightened ones), or
the Hinayanists, could hear and believe in, with the Bodhisattvas or
the Mahayanists, the Common Prajnya, as it was intended to destroy
their attachment to the external objects. Bodhisattvas alone could
understand the Special Prajnya, as it secretly revealed the Buddha
nature, or the Absolute. Each of the two great Indian teachers,
Çilabhadra and Jnyanaprabha, divided the whole teachings of the Buddha
into three periods. (According to Çilabhadra, A.D. 625, teacher of
Hiuen Tsang, the Buddha first preached the doctrine of 'existence' to
the effect that every living being is unreal, but things are real.
All the Hinayana sutras belong to this period. Next the Buddha
preached the doctrine of the middle path, in Samdhi-nirmocana-sutra
and others, to the effect that all the phenomenal universe is unreal,
but that the mental substance is real. According to Jnyanaprabha,
the Buddha first preached the doctrine of existence, next that of the
existence of mental substance, and lastly that of unreality.) One
says the doctrine of unreality was preached before that of
Dharma-laksana, while the others say it was preached after. Here I
adopt the latters' opinion."


If the external objects which are transformed are unreal, how can the
Vijnyana, the transformer, be real? If you say the latter is really
existent, but not the former,[FN#368] then (you assume that) the
dreaming mind (which is compared with Alaya-vijnyana) is entirely
different from the objects seen in the dream (which are compared with
external objects). If they are entirely different, you ought not to
identify the dream with the things dreamed, nor to identify the
things dreamed with the dream itself. In other words, they ought to
have separate existences. (And) when you awake your dream may
disappear, but the things dreamed would remain.


[FN#368] A. 'In the following sentences I refute it, making use of
the simile of the dream.'


Again, if (you say) that the things dreamed are not identical with
the dream, then they would be really existent things. If the dream
is not the same as the things dreamed, in what other form does it
appear to you? Therefore you must acknowledge that there is every
reason to believe that both the dreaming mind and the things dreamed
are equally unreal, and that nothing exists in reality, though it
seems to you as if there were a seer, and a seen, in a dream.

Thus those Vijnyanas also would be unreal, because all of them are
not self-existent realities, their existence being temporary, and
dependent upon various conditions.

"There is nothing," (the author of) Madhyamika-castra[FN#369] says,
"that ever came into existence without direct and indirect causes.
Therefore there is anything that is not unreal in the world." He
says again: "Things produced through direct and indirect causes I
declare to be the very things which are unreal." (The author of)
Craddhotdada-castra[FN#370] says: "All things in the universe present
themselves in different forms only on account of false ideas. If
separated from the (false) ideas and thoughts, no forms of those
external objects exist." "All the physical forms (ascribed to
Buddha)," says (the author of) a sutra,[FN#371] "are false and
unreal. The beings that transcend all forms are called
Buddhas."[FN#372] Consequently you must acknowledge that mind as
well as external objects are unreal. This is the eternal truth of
the Mahayana doctrine. We are driven to the conclusion that
unreality is the origin of life, if we trace it back according to
this doctrine.


[FN#369] The principal textbook of the Madhyamika School, by
Nagarjuna and Nilanetra, translated into Chinese (A.D. 409) by
Kumarajiva.

[FN#370] A well-known Mahayana book ascribed to Acvaghosa,
translated into Chinese by Paramartha. There exists an English
translation by D. Suzuki.

[FN#371] Vajracchedha-prajnya-paramita-sutra, of which there exist
three Chinese translations.

[FN#372] A. 'Similar passages are found in every book of the
Mahayana Tripitaka.'


Now let us say (a few words) to refute this doctrine also. If mind
as well as external objects be unreal, who is it that knows they are
so? Again, if there be nothing real in the universe, what is it that
causes unreal objects to appear? We stand witness to the fact there
is no one of the unreal things on earth that is not made to appear by
something real. If there be no water of unchanging fluidity,[FN#373]
how can there be the unreal and temporary forms of waves? If there
be no unchanging mirror, bright and clean, how can there be various
images, unreal and temporary, reflected in it? It is true in sooth
that the dreaming mind as well as the things dreamed, as said above,
are equally unreal, but does not that unreal dream necessarily
presuppose the existence of some (real) sleepers?


[FN#373] The Absolute is compared with the ocean, and the phenomenal
universe with the waves.


Now, if both mind and external objects, as declared above, be nothing
at all, no- one can tell what it is that causes these unreal
appearances. Therefore this doctrine, we know, simply serves to
refute the erroneous theory held by those who are passionately
attached to Dharma-laksana, but never clearly discloses spiritual
Reality. So that Mahabheri-harakaparivarta-sutra[FN#374] says as
follows: "All the sutras that teach the unreality of things belong to
an imperfect doctrine (of the Buddha).
Mahaprajnya-paramita-sutra[FN#375] says: "The doctrine of unreality
is the first entrance-gate to Mahayanism."


[FN#374] The book was translated into Chinese by Gunabhadra, A.D.
420-479.

[FN#375] This is not the direct quotation from the sutra translated
by Hiuen Tsang. The words are found in Mahaprajnya-paramita-sutra,
the commentary on the sutra by Nagarjuna.


When the above-mentioned four doctrines are compared with one another
in the order of succession, each is more profound than the preceding.
They are called the superficial, provided that the follower,
learning them a short while, knows them by himself to be imperfect;
(but) if he adheres to them as perfect, these same (doctrines) are
called incomplete. They are (thus) said to be superficial and
incomplete with regard to the follower.




CHAPTER III

THE DIRECT EXPLANATION OF THE REAL ORIGIN[FN#376]


5. The Ekayana Doctrine that Teaches the Ultimate Reality.

This doctrine teaches us that all sentient beings have the Real
Spirit[FN#377] of Original Enlightenment (within themselves). From
time immemorial it is unchanging and pure. It is eternally bright,
and clear, and conscious. It is also named the Buddha-nature, or
Tathagata-garbha.[FN#378] As it is, however, veiled by illusion from
time without beginning, (sentient beings) are not conscious of its
existence, and think that the nature within themselves are
degenerated. Consequently they are given to bodily pleasures, and
producing Karma, suffer from birth and death. The great Enlightened
One, having compassion on them, taught that everything in the
universe is unreal. He pointed out that the Real Spirit of
Mysterious Enlightenment (within them) is pure and exactly the same
as that of Buddha. Therefore he says in Avatamsaka-sutra[FN#379]:
"There are no sentient beings, the children of Buddha, who are not
endowed with wisdom of Tathagata;[FN#380] but they cannot attain to
Enlightenment simply because of illusion and attachment. When they
are free from illusion, the Universal Intelligence,[FN#381] the
Natural Intelligence,[FN#382] the Unimpeded Intelligence,[FN#383]
will be disclosed (in their minds)."

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