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In Ghostly Japan
82.—Shindaréba, koso ikitaré.
Only by reason of having died does one enter into life.[1]
83.—Shiranu ga, hotoké; minu ga, Gokuraku.
Not to know is to be a Buddha; not to see is Paradise.
84.—Shōbo ni kidoku nashi.
There is no miracle in true doctrine.[2]
85.—Shō-chié wa Bodai no samatagé.
A little wisdom is a stumbling-block on the way to Buddhahood.[3]
- ↑ I never hear this singular proverb without being reminded of a sentence in Huxley’s famous assay, On the Physical Basis of Life:—“The living protoplasm not only ultimately dies and is resolved into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is always dying, and, strange as the paradox may sound, could not live unless it died.”
- ↑ Nothing can happen except as a result of eternal and irrevocable law.
- ↑ Bodai is the same word as the Sanscrit Bodhi, signifying the supreme enlightenment,—the knowledge that leads to Buddhahood; but it is often used by Japanese Buddhists in the sense of divine bliss, or the Buddha-state itself.
