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

70.—_Onna wa Sangai ni iyé nashi.113 _ Women have no homes of their own in the Three States of Existence.114

71.—_Oya no ingwa ga ko ni mukuü.115 _ The karma of the parents is visited upon the child.116 [59]117

[59] Said of the parents of crippled or deformed children.118 But the popular idea here expressed is not altogether in accord with the teachings of the higher Buddhism.119

72.—_Rakkwa éda ni kaerazu.120 _ The fallen blossom never returns to the branch.121 [60]122

[60] That which has been done never can be undone: the past cannot be recalled.—This proverb is an abbreviation of the longer Buddhist text: _Rakkwa éda ni kaerazu; ha-kyō futatabi terasazu:_ “The fallen blossom never returns to the branch; the shattered mirror never again reflects.”123

73.—_Raku wa ku no tané; ku wa raku no tané.124 _ Pleasure is the seed of pain; pain is the seed of pleasure.125

74.—_Rokudō wa, mé no maë.126 _ The Six Roads are right before your eyes.127 [61]128

[61] That is to say, Your future life depends upon your conduct in this life; and you are thus free to choose for yourself the place of your next birth.129

75.—_Sangai mu-an.130 _ There is no rest within the Three States of Existence.131

76.—_Sangai ni kaki nashi;—Rokudō ni hotori nashi.132 _ There is no fence to the Three States of Existence;—there is no neighborhood to the Six Roads.133 [62]134

[62] Within the Three States (Sangai), or universes, of Desire, Form, and Formlessness; and within the Six Worlds, or conditions of being,—_Jigokudō_ (Hell), _Gakidō_ (Pretas), _Chikushōdō_ (Animal Life), _Shuradō_ (World of Fighting and Slaughter), _Ningendō_ (Mankind), _Tenjōdō_ (Heavenly Spirits)—all existence is included.135 Beyond there is only Nirvâna.136 “There is no fence,” “no neighborhood,”—that is to say, no limit beyond which to escape,—no middle-path between any two of these states.137 We shall be reborn into some one of them according to our karma.—Compare with No. 74.138

77.—_Sangé ni wa sannen no tsumi mo hōrobu.139 _ One confession effaces the sins of even three years.140

78.—_San nin yoréba, kugai.141 _ Where even three persons come together, there is a world of pain.142 [63]143

[63] _Kugai_ (lit.: “bitter world”) is a term often used to describe the life of a prostitute.144

79.—_San nin yoréba, Monjū no chié.145 _ Where three persons come together, there is the wisdom of _Monjū_.146 [64]147

[64] Monjū Bosatsu [_Mañdjus’ri Bodhisattva_] figures in Japanese Buddhism as a special divinity of wisdom.—The proverb signifies that three heads are better than one.148 A saying of like meaning is,_ Hiza to mo dankō:_ “Consult even with your own knee;” that is to say, Despise no advice, no matter how humble the source of it.149

80.—_Shaka ni sekkyō.150 _ Preaching to Sâkyamuni.151

81.—_Shami kara chōrō.152 _ To become an abbot one must begin as a novice.153

82.—_Shindaréba, koso ikitaré.154 _ Only by reason of having died does one enter into life.155 [65]156

[65] I never hear this singular proverb without being re-minded of a sentence in Huxley’s famous essay, _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_.”157

83.—_Shiranu ga, hotoké; minu ga, Gokuraku.158 _ Not to know is to be a Buddha; not to see is Paradise.159

84.—_Shōbo ni kidoku nashi.160 _ There is no miracle in true doctrine.161 [66]162

[66] Nothing can happen except as a result of eternal and irrevocable law.163

85.—_Shō-chié wa Bodai no samatagé.164 _ A little wisdom is a stumbling-block on the way to Buddhahood.165 [67]166

[67] _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.167

86.—_Shōshi no kukai hetori nashi.168 _ There is no shore to the bitter Sea of Birth and Death.169 [68]170

[68] Or, “the Pain-Sea of Life and Death.”171

87.—_Sodé no furi-awasé mo tashō no en.172 _ Even the touching of sleeves in passing is caused by some relation in a former life.173

88.—_Sun zen; shaku ma.174 _ An inch of virtue; a foot of demon.175 [69]176

[69] _Ma_ (Sanscrit, _Mârakâyikas_) is the name given to a particular class of spirits who tempt men to evil.177 But in Japanese folklore the _Ma_ have a part much resembling that occupied in Western popular superstition by goblins and fairies.178

89.—_Tanoshimi wa hanasimi no motoi.179 _ All joy is the source of sorrow.180

90.—_Tondé hi ni iru natsu no mushi.181 _ So the insects of summer fly to the flame.182 [70]183

[70] Said especially in reference to the result of sensual indulgence.184

91.—_Tsuchi-botoké no midzu-asobi.185 _ Clay-Buddha’s water-playing.186 [71]187

[71] That is to say, “As dangerous as for a clay Buddha to play with water.”188 Children often amuse themselves by making little Buddhist images of mud, which melt into shapelessness, of course, if placed in water.189

92.—_Tsuki ni murakumo, hana ni kazé.190 _ Cloud-wrack to the moon; wind to flowers.191 [72]192

[72] The beauty of the moon is obscured by masses of clouds; the trees no sooner blossom than their flowers are scattered by the wind.193 All beauty is evanescent.194

93.—_Tsuyu no inochi.195 _ Human life is like the dew of morning.196

94.—_U-ki wa, kokoro ni ari.197 _ Joy and sorrow exist only in the mind.198

95.—_Uri no tsuru ni nasubi wa naranu.199 _ Egg-plants do not grow upon melon-vines.200

96.—_Uso mo hōben.201 _ Even an untruth may serve as a device.202 [73]203

[73] That is, a pious device for effecting conversion.204 Such a device is justified especially by the famous parable of the third chapter of the _Saddharma Pundarîka_.205

97.—_Waga ya no hotoké tattoshi.206 _ My family ancestors were all excellent Buddhas.207 [74]208

[74] Meaning that one most reveres the _hotoké_—the spirits of the dead regarded as Buddhas—in one’s own household-shrine.209 There is an ironical play upon the word _hotoké_, which may mean either a dead person simply, or a Buddha.210 Perhaps the spirit of this proverb may be better explained by the help of another: _Nigéta sakana ni chisai wa nai; shinda kodomo ni warui ko wa nai_—“Fish that escaped was never small; child that died was never bad.”211

98.—_Yuki no haté wa, Nehan.212 _ The end of snow is Nirvâna.213 [75]214

[75] This curious saying is the only one in my collection containing the word _Nehan_ (Nirvâna), and is here inserted chiefly for that reason.215 The common people seldom speak of _Nehan_, and have little knowledge of those profound doctrines to which the term is related.216 The above phrase, as might be inferred, is not a popular expression: it is rather an artistic and poetical reference to the aspect of a landscape covered with snow to the horizon-line,—so that beyond the snow-circle there is only the great void of the sky.217

99.—_Zen ni wa zen no mukui; aku ni wa aku no mukui.218 _ Goodness [or, virtue] is the return for goodness; evil is the return for evil.219 [76]220

[76] Not so commonplace a proverb as might appear at first sight; for it refers especially to the Buddhist belief that every kindness shown to us in this life is a return of kindness done to others in a former life, and that every wrong inflicted upon us is the reflex of some injustice which we committed in a previous birth.221

100.—_Zensé no yakusoku-goto.222 _ Promised [or, destined] from a former birth.223 [77]224

[77] A very common saying,—often uttered as a comment upon the unhappiness of separation, upon sudden misfortune, upon sudden death, etc. It is used especially in relation to _shinjū_, or lovers’ suicide.225 Such suicide is popularly thought to be a result of cruelty in some previous state of being, or the consequence of having broken, in a former life, the mutual promise to become husband and wife.226