JAPAN
have only subjective existence in the consciousness of the individual. The differences and distinctions observed by the ordinary man were imaginary and misleading; had no foundation in fact. In the eyes of the Buddha there was identity where the vulgar saw variety. To know the underlying sameness of all things; to understand the oneness of the perceiver and the perceived, — that was true wisdom. It followed that this world, so full of evils to mortal vision, did not differ from paradise in the Buddha's sight. To the enlightened all worlds were equally beautiful. "Hence, to proclaim the identity of this evil or phenomenal world with the glorious underlying reality, or noumenon; to point out the way to Buddhahood; to open the path of salvation; above all, to convince the people that one and all of them might become Buddhas, here and now, — that was the mission of the sect of Nichiren."[1]
The tenets of the sects thus far described may be said to represent the forms in which Buddhism appealed to the masses. Such doctrines did not find much vogue among the military class. The favourite creed of the latter was embodied in the dogmas of the Zen Sect, which, whether as a curious coincidence or as an outcome of the tendency of the time, had its origin in the thirteenth century and was therefore coeval with the establishment of military feudalism.
- ↑ See Appendix, note 50.
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