🧚 Morning Awakening After a Night’s Rest in a Temple, part 2

[38] Or “mind.”1 That is to say that we suffer only from the consequences of our own faults.—The demon-torturer in the Buddhist hell says to his victim:—“Blame not me!—I am only the creation of your own deeds and thoughts: you made me for this!”—Compare with No. 36.2

46.—_Kokoro no shi to wa naré; kokoro wo shi to sezaré.3 _ Be the teacher of your heart: do not allow your heart to become your teacher.4

47.—_Kono yo wa kari no yado.5 _ This world is only a resting-place.6 [39]7

[39] “This world is but a travellers’ inn,” would be an almost equally correct translation.8 _Yado_ literally means a lodging, shelter, inn; and the word is applied often to those wayside resting-houses at which Japanese travellers halt during a journey.9 _Kari_ signifies temporary, transient, fleeting,—as in the common Buddhist saying, _Kono yo kari no yo:_ “This world is a fleeting world.”10 Even Heaven and Hell represent to the Buddhist only halting places upon the journey to Nirvâna.11

48.—_Kori wo chiribamé; midzu ni égaku.12 _ To inlay ice; to paint upon water.13 [40]14

[40] Refers to the vanity of selfish effort for some merely temporary end.15

49.—_Korokoro to Naku wa yamada no Hototogisu, Chichi nitéya aran, Haha nitéya aran.16 _ The bird that cries _korokoro_ in the mountain rice-field I know to be a _hototogisu;_—yet it may have been my father; it may have been my mother.17 [41]18

[41] This verse-proverb is cited in the Buddhist work _Wōjō Yōshū_, with the following comment:—“Who knows whether the animal in the field, or the bird in the mountain-wood, has not been either his father or his mother in some former state of existence?”—The _hototogisu_ is a kind of cuckoo.19

50.—_Ko wa Sangai no kubikase.20 _ A child is a neck-shackle for the Three States of Existence.21 [42]22

[42] That is to say, The love of parents for their child may impede their spiritual progress—not only in this world, but through all their future states of being,—just as a _kubikasé_, or Japanese cangue, impedes the movements of the person upon whom it is placed.23 Parental affection, being the strongest of earthly attachments, is particularly apt to cause those whom it enslaves to commit wrongful acts in the hope of benefiting their offspring.—The term Sangai here signifies the three worlds of Desire, Form, and Formlessness,—all the states of existence below Nirvâna.24 But the word is sometimes used to signify the Past, the Present, and the Future.25

51.—_Kuchi wa wazawai no kado.26 _ The mouth is the front-gate of all misfortune.27 [43]28

[43] That is to say, The chief cause of trouble is unguarded speech.29 The word Kado means always the main entrance to a residence.30

52.—_Kwahō wa, nété maté.31 _ If you wish for good luck, sleep and wait.32 [44]33

[44] _Kwahō_, a purely Buddhist term, signifying good fortune as the result of good actions in a previous life, has come to mean in common parlance good fortune of any kind.34 The proverb is often used in a sense similar to that of the English saying: “Watched pot never boils.”35 In a strictly Buddhist sense it would mean, “Do not be too eager for the reward of good deeds.”36

53.—_Makanu tané wa haënu.37 _ Nothing will grow, if the seed be not sown.38 [45]39

[45] Do not expect harvest, unless you sow the seed.40 Without earnest effort no merit can be gained.41

54.—_Matéba, kanrō no hiyori.42 _ If you wait, ambrosial weather will come.43 [46]44

[46] _Kanrō_, the sweet dew of Heaven, or _amrita_.45 All good things come to him who waits.46

55.—_Meidō no michi ni Ō wa nashi.47 _ There is no King on the Road of Death.48 [47]49

[47] Literally, “on the Road of Meidō.”50 The _Meidō_ is the Japanese Hades,—the dark under-world to which all the dead must journey.51

56.—_Mekura hebi ni ojizu.52 _ The blind man does not fear the snake.53 [48]54

[48] The ignorant and the vicious, not understanding the law of cause-and-effect, do not fear the certain results of their folly.55

57.—_Mitsuréba, hakuru.56 _ Having waxed, wanes.57 [49]58

[49] No sooner has the moon waxed full than it begins to wane.59 So the height of prosperity is also the beginning of fortunes decline.60

58.—_Mon zen no kozō narawanu kyō wo yomu.61 _ The shop-boy in front of the temple-gate repeats the sutra which he never learned.62 [50]63

[50] _Kozō_ means “acolyte” as well as “shop-boy,”“errand-boy,” or “apprentice;” but in this case it refers to a boy employed in a shop situated near or before the gate of a Buddhist temple.64 By constantly hearing the sutra chanted in the temple, the boy learns to repeat the words.65 A proverb of kindred meaning is, _Kangaku-In no suzumé wa, Mōgyū wo sayézuru:_ “The sparrows of Kangaku-In [an ancient seat of learning] chirp the Mōgyū,”—a Chinese text formerly taught to young students.66 The teaching of either proverb is excellently expressed by a third:—_Narau yori wa naréro:_ “Rather than study [an art], get accustomed to it,”—that is to say, “keep constantly in contact with it.”67 Observation and practice are even better than study.68

59.—_Mujō no kazé wa, toki erabazu.69 _ The Wind of Impermanency does not choose a time.70 [51]71

[51] Death and Change do not conform their ways to human expectation.72

60.—_Neko mo Busshō ari.73 _ In even a cat the Buddha-nature exists.74 [52]75

[52] Notwithstanding the legend that only the cat and the _mamushi_ (a poisonous viper) failed to weep for the death of the Buddha.76

61.—_Néta ma ga Gokuraku.77 _ The interval of sleep is Paradise.78 [53]79

[53] Only during sleep can we sometimes cease to know the sorrow and pain of this world.80 (Compare with No. 83.)81

62.—_Nijiu-go Bosatsu mo soré-soré no yaku.82 _ Even each of the Twenty-five Bodhisattvas has his own particular duty to perform.83

63.—_Nin mité, hō toké.84 _ [First] see the person, [then] preach the doctrine.85 [54]86

[54] The teaching of Buddhist doctrine should always be adapted to the intelligence of the person to be instructed.87 There is another proverb of the same kind,—_Ki ni yorité, hō wo toké:_ “According to the understanding [of the person to be taught], preach the Law.”88

64.—_Ninshin ukégataku Buppoō aigatashi.89 _ It is not easy to be born among men, and to meet with [the good fortune of hearing the doctrine of] Buddhism.90 [55]91

[55] Popular Buddhism teaches that to be born in the world of mankind, and especially among a people professing Buddhism, is a very great privilege.92 However miserable human existence, it is at least a state in which some knowledge of divine truth may be obtained; whereas the beings in other and lower conditions of life are relatively incapable of spiritual progress.93

65.—_Oni mo jiu-hachi.94 _ Even a devil [is pretty] at eighteen.95 [56]96

[56] There are many curious sayings and proverbs about the oni, or Buddhist devil,—such as _Oni no mé ni mo namida_, “tears in even a devil’s eyes;”—Oni no kakuran, “devil’s cholera” (said of the unexpected sickness of some very strong and healthy person), etc., etc.—The class of demons called _Oni_, properly belong to the Buddhist hells, where they act as torturers and jailers.97 They are not to be confounded with the _Ma, Yasha, Kijin_, and other classes of evil spirits.98 In Buddhist art they are represented as beings of enormous strength, with the heads of bulls and of horses.99 The bull-headed demons are called _Go-zu;_ the horse-headed _Mé-zu_.100

66.—_Oni mo mi, narétaru ga yoshi.101 _ Even a devil, when you become accustomed to the sight of him, may prove a pleasant acquaintance.102

67.—_Oni ni kanabō.103 _ An iron club for a demon.104 [57]105

[57] Meaning that great power should be given only to the strong.106

68.—_Oni no nyōbo ni kijin.107 _ A devil takes a goblin to wife.108 [58]109

[58] Meaning that a wicked man usually marries a wicked woman.110

69.—_Onna no ké ni wa dai-zō mo tsunagaru.111 _ With one hair of a woman you can tether even a great elephant.112