At the beginning of my studies in the Kobudera cemetery, I was not
less impressed by the quiet cheerfulness of the sotoba-texts, than by
their poetry and their philosophy. In none did I find even a shadow
of sadness: the greater number were utterances of a faith that seemed
to me wider and deeper than our own,--sublime proclamations of the
eternal and infinite nature of Thought, the unity of all mind, and the
certainty of universal salvation. And other surprises awaited me in
this strange literature. Texts or fragments of texts, that at first
rendering appeared of the simplest, would yield to learned commentary
profundities of significance absolutely startling. Phrases, seemingly
artless, would suddenly reveal a dual suggestiveness,--a two-fold
idealism,--a beauty at once exoteric and mystical. Of this latter
variety of inscription the following is a good example:--
“_The flower having bloomed last night, the World has become
fragrant._”[30]
In the language of the higher Buddhism, this means that through death
a spirit has been released from the darkness of illusion, even as
the perfume of a blossom is set free at the breaking of the bud, and
that the divine Absolute, or World of Law, is refreshed by the new
presence, as a whole garden might be made fragrant by the blooming of
some precious growth. But in the popular language of Buddhism, the same
words signify that in the Lotos-Lake of Paradise another magical flower
has opened for the Apparitional Rebirth into highest bliss of the being
loved and lost on earth, and that Heaven rejoices for the advent of
another Buddha.
* * * * *
But I desire rather to represent the general result of my studies, than
to point out the special beauties of this epitaphic literature: and my
purpose will be most easily attained by arranging and considering the
inscriptions in a certain doctrinal order.
A great variety of sotoba-texts refer, directly or indirectly, to the
Lotos-Flower Paradise of Amida,--or, as it is more often called, the
Paradise of the West. The following are typical:--
“_The Amida-Kyō says:--‘All who enter into that country enter
likewise into that state of virtue from which there can be no
turning back.’_”[31]
“_The Text of Gold proclaims:--‘In that world they receive
bliss only: therefore that world is called Gokuraku,--exceeding
bliss.’_”[32]
“_Hail unto the Lord Amida Buddha! The Golden Mouth has
said,--‘All living beings that fix their thoughts upon the Buddha
shall be received and welcomed into his Paradise;--never shall they
be forsaken.’_”[33]
But texts like these, though dear to popular faith, make no appeal to
the higher Buddhism, which admits heaven as a temporary condition only,
not to be desired by the wise. Indeed, the Mahâyâna texts, describing
Sukhâvatî, themselves suggest its essentially illusive character,--a
world of jewel-lakes and perfumed airs and magical birds, but a world
also in which the voices of winds and waters and singers perpetually
preach the unreality of self and the impermanency of all things. And
even the existence of this Western Paradise might seem to be denied in
other sotoba-texts of deeper significance,--such as this:--
“_Originally there is no East or West: where then can South or
North be?_”[34]
“Originally,”--that is to say, in relation to the Infinite. The
relations and the ideas of the Conditioned cease to exist for the
Unconditioned. Yet this truth does not really imply denial of other
worlds of relation,--states of bliss to which the strong may rise, and
states of pain to which the weak may descend. It is a reminder only. All
conditions are impermanent, and so, in the profounder sense, unreal.
The Absolute,--the Supreme Buddha,--is the sole Reality. This doctrine
appears in many sotoba-inscriptions:--
“_The Blue Mountain of itself remains eternally unmoved: the
White Clouds come of themselves and go._”[35]
By “the Blue Mountain” is meant the Sole Reality of Mind;--by “the White
Clouds,” the phenomenal universe. Yet the universe exists but as a dream
of Mind:--
“_If any one desire to obtain full knowledge of all the
Buddhas of the past, the present, and the future, let him learn
to comprehend the true nature of the World of Law. Then will he
perceive that all things are but the production of Mind._”[36]
“_By the learning and the practice of the True Doctrine, the
Non-Apparent becomes [for us] the only Reality._”[37]
The universe is a phantom, and a phantom likewise the body of man,
together with all emotions, ideas, and memories that make up the complex
of his sensuous Self. But is this evanescent Self the whole of man’s
inner being? Not so, proclaim the sotoba:--
“_All living beings have the nature of Buddha. The Nyōrai,[38]
eternally living, is alone unchangeable._”[39]
“_The Kegon-Kyō[40] declares:--‘In all living creatures there
exists, and has existed from the beginning, the Real-Law Nature: all
by their nature contain the original essence of Buddha.’_”
Sharing the nature of the Unchangeable, we share the Eternal Reality. In
the highest sense, man also is divine:--
“_The Mind becomes Buddha: the Mind itself is Buddha._”[41]
“_In the Engaku-Kyō[42] it is written: ‘Now for the first
time I perceive that all living beings have the original
Buddha-nature,--wherefore Birth and Death and Nirvana have become
for me as a dream of the night that is gone.’_”
Yet what of the Buddhas who successively melt into Nirvana, and
nevertheless “return in their order”? Are they, too, phantoms?--is
their individuality also unreal? Probably the question admits of many
different answers,--since there is a Buddhist Realism as well as a
Buddhist Idealism; but, for present purposes, the following famous text
is a sufficient reply:--