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(There are) different kinds of trees, each of distinct hue and splendour, around which are enclosed gemmy balustrades. In the sky there are hung numberless jewels and strings of bells. Each bell sounds, and propounds the highest spiritual voice, 38 BUDDHISM IN ENGLISH It showers down ornaments of flowers, garments and hountiful fragrances that scent everywhere. The Buddha’s wisdom, bright and serene, is ( shining like ) the sun to clear up the darkness of worldly ignorance. The sacred name (of the land, causing ) deep and profound spiritual awakening, is heard minutely in the ten quarters. (This land is) well presided over and supported by the perfectly enlightened Amita(-ayus), the King of the Law. The fair and serene beings of the Tathagata are miracu- lously born of the flowers of His perfect wisdom. They enjoy the relish of the Buddha’s law, and make their own food of Dhyana and Samadhi. For evermore it is free from physical or mental pain; and receiving pleasure is always without interval. In this good-qualified world of Mahayana, even and equitable, there is no such word as disgust. Females, deformities and Dwiyanas are not to be born. All that the living being wishes to enjoy shall be satis- factorily fulfilled. I therefore desire to be born in the land of Amitayus Buddha. The great king of innumerable treasures ( is seated ) on an exquisite lotus-throne. WISHING FOR THE WESTERN PARADISE 39 His halo extends a fathom, and His colour and stature are superior among all that live.. The Tathagata’s super- fine voice in holy sound is heard in the ten quarters. Like earth, water, fire, or sky, has He no discrimi- nation. Devas and men confirmed ( in belief) are born of the ocean of His pure wisdom. As the mountain-king, Sumeru, His supremacy has no competitor. Devas, men and Purusas are paying homage and turning round Him with reverence. To observe the power of the Buddha’s Original Prayer, no one who comes in contact with it can pass by in vain. Everybody shall be instantly fulfilled with an immense stock of merits or virtues. In the Land of Bliss, pure and serene, there is set always in motion the stainless (law-)wheel. The manifested Buddha or Bodhisattvas (who manage it) are like the sun or the Sumeru who over-rules ( the world ). Their solemn immaculate light shines every moment or instant upon all Buddha assemblies, and (thus ) gives benefit to sentient beings. They shower heavenly music, flowers, garments, and wonderful perfumes, etc. in order to pay homage and 40 BUDDHISM IN ENGLISH praise the excellences of all Buddhas. They have no thought of discrimination. Whatever. countries where there is not the meritorious treasure of Buddhism, the Bodhisattvas pray to be born in and reveal the Buddha's law like the Buddha Himself. Iam composing this hymn and going to write a discourse, as I devoutly hope to see Amitayus Buddha and to be born in the Land of Bliss together with all the living beings. —N.U., “The Discourse on Buddhist Paradise” — THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS PART III DOCTORINAL CHAPTER XI THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS The First Truth is of Sorrow. Be not mocked! Life which ye prize is long-drawn agony: Only its pains abide; its pleasures are As birds which light and fly. Ache of the birth, ache of the helpless days, Ache of hot youth and ache of manhood’s prime; Ache of the chill gray years and choking death, These ‘fill your piteous time. Sweet is fond Love, but funeral-flames must kiss The breasts which pillow and the lips which cling; Gallant is warlike Might, but vultures pick The joints of chief and King. Beauteous is Earth, but all its forest-broods Plot mutual slaughter, hungering to live; Of sapphire are the skies, but when men cry 42 BUDDHISM IN ENGLISH Famished, no drops they give. Ask of the sick, the mourners, ask of him Who tottereth on his staff, lone and forlorn, “Liketh thee life ?”— these say the babe is wise That weepeth, being born. The Second Truth is Sorrow’s Cause. What grief Springs of itself and springs not of Desire? Senses and things perceived mingle and light Passion’s quick spark of fire: So flameth Trisna, lust and thirst of things. Eager ye cleave to shadows, dote on dreams; A false Self in the midst ye plant, and make A world around which seems ; Blind to the heights beyond, deaf to the sound Of sweet airs breathed from far past Indra’s sky; Dumb to the summons of the true life kept For him who false puts by. So grow the strifes and lusts which make earth’s war, a So grieve poor cheated hearts and flow salt tears; So wax the passions, envies, angers, hates; So years chase blood-stained years With wild red feet. So, where the grain should grow, THE FOR NOBLE TRUTHS Spreads the biran-weed with its evil root And poisonous blossoms; hardly good seeds find Soil where to fall and shoot; And, drugged with poisonous drink, the soul departs, And, fierce with thirst to drink, Karma returns ; Sense-struck again the sodden Self begins. And new deceits it earns. The Third is Sorrow’s Ceasing. This is peace To conquer love of self and lust of life, To tear deep-rooted passion from the breast, To still the inward strife ; For love to clasp Eternal Beauty close ; For glory to be Lord of self; for pleasure To live beyond the gods; for countless wealth To lay up lasting treasure Of perfect service rendered, duties done In charity, soft speech, and stainless days: These riches shall not fade away in life, Nor any death dispraise. Then Sorrow ends, for Life and Death have ceased; How should lamps flicker when their oil is spent? The old sad count is clear, the new is clean; Thus hath a man content. 44 BUDDHISM IN ENGLISH The Fourth Truth is Zre Way. It openeth wide, Plain for all feet to tread, easy and near, The Woble Eightfold Path; it goeth straight To peace and refuge. Hear! Manifold tracks lead to yon sister-peaks Around whose snows the gilded clouds are curled; By steep and gentle slopes the climber comes Where breaks that other world. Strong limbs may dare the rugged road which storms, Soaring and perilous, the mountain’s breast; The weak must wind from slower ledge to ledge, With many a place of rest. So is the Eightfold Path which brings to peace; By lower or by upper heights it goes. The firm soul hastes, the feeble tarries. All Will reach the sunlit snows. —E£, Arnold, “The Light of Asia’ — CHAPTER XIl DHYANA, BUDDHIST MEDITATION Dhyana is essentially Hindu or, rather broadly speaking, DHYANA, BUDDHIST MEDITATION 45 Oriental in its origin as well as in its significance, In this “we can trace one of the many characteristics which lend a peculiarly charming color to Oriental culture. The Oriental mind ever strives after the One and is so idealistic in ail its tendencies as sometimes altogether toignore the external world. It shuts out all the impressions the senses may bring in from without, thus endeavoring to realize the aspiration after unity and eternality. It does not care so much for the subjugation of natural forces to its own will as for the deliverance of self from its illusory imprisonment. It does not antagonize the world in which it lives, but calmly con- templates it, reviewing its vagaries or vicissitudes, or what- ever they may be termed, It dwelleth not in the many- ness of things, but in their oneness, for its ultimate abode is in the region of the absolute and not in the phenomenal realm. A mind like this naturally takes more to contem- plation than to the strenuous life; it thinks more and acts less; it appreciates instead of criticizing; it synthesizes instead of analyzing. The practice of dhyana, therefore, was the most natural thing for the Oriental people. The Western people were not altogether unfamiliar with dhyana, as we can judge from the life of a mystic or a medieval Christian monk. But their so-called contem- plation or meditation was not as systematic and did not necessarily form a part of their religious discipline. The Hebrews were too fanatically religious to allow them- selves the time to reflect. The Greeks were rather scientific and intellectual, while the Komans were pre-eminently 46 BUDDHISM IN ENGLISH practical. The German mystics perhaps were more or less after the Hindu type in their general mental constitution, but they seem not to have made the practice of dhyana a prominent feature of their doctrine. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that bhyana is an Oriental production. What is dhyana, then? Dhyana literally means, in Sanskrit, pacification, equilibration,or tranquillization, but as religious discipline it is rather self-examination or in- trospection. It is not necessarily to cogitate on the deep subjects of metaphysics, nor is it to contemplate on the virtues of a deity, or on the transitoriness of mundane life. To define its import in Buddhism, roughly and practically, it is the habit of withdrawing occassionally from the tur- bulence of worldliness and of devoting some time to a quiet inspection of one’s own consciousness. When this habit is thoroughly established, a man can keep serenity of mind and cheerfulness of disposition eyen in the midst of his whirlwind-like course of daily life. Dhyana is then a discipline in tranquillization. It aims at giving to a mind the time for deliberation and saving it from running wild; it directs the vain and vulgar to the path of the earnestness and reality; it makes us feel interest in higher things which are above the senses; it discovers the pre- sence in us of a spiritual faculty which bridges the chasm between the finite and the infinite; and it finally delivers us from the bondage and torture of ignorance, safely leading us to the other shore of Nirvana.