Thus you can attain to highest bliss through your conscious union with Buddha.  Nothing can disturb your peace, when you can enjoy peace in the midst of disturbances; nothing can cause you to suffer, when you welcome misfortunes and hardships in order to train and strengthen your character; nothing can tempt you to commit sin, when you are constantly ready to listen to the sermon given by everything around you; nothing can distress you, when you make the world the holy temple of Buddha.  This is the state of Nirvana which everyone believing in Buddha may secure.

16.  The Beatitude of Zen.

We are far from denying, as already shown in the foregoing chapters, the existence of troubles, pains, diseases, sorrows, deaths in life.  Our bliss consists in seeing the fragrant rose of Divine mercy among the thorns of worldly trouble, in finding the fair oasis of Buddha’s wisdom in the desert of misfortunes, in getting the wholesome balm of His love in the seeming poison of pain, in gathering the sweet honey of His spirit even in the sting of horrible death.

History testifies to the truth that it is misery that teaches men more than happiness, that it is poverty that strengthens them more than wealth, that it is adversity that moulds character more than prosperity, that it is disease and death that call forth the inner life more than health and long life.  At least, no one can be blind to the fact that good and evil have an equal share in forming the character and working out the destiny of man.  Even such a great pessimist as Schopenhauer says:  “As our bodily frame would burst asunder if the pressure of atmosphere were removed, so if the lives of men were relieved of all need, hardship, and adversity, if everything they took in hand were successful, they would be so swollen with arrogance . . . that they would present the spectacle of unbridled folly.  A ship without ballast is unstable, and will not go straight.”  Therefore let us make our ship of life go straight with its ballast of miseries and hardships, over which we gain control.

The believer in Buddha is thankful to him, not only for the sunshine of life, but also for its wind, rain, snow, thunder, and lightning, because He gives us nothing in vain.  Hisa-nobu (Ko-yama) was, perhaps, one of the happiest persons that Japan ever produced, simply because he was ever thankful to the Merciful One.  One day he went out without an umbrella and met with a shower.  Hurrying up to go home, he stumbled and fell, wounding both his legs.  As he rose up, he was overheard to say:  “Thank heaven.”  And being asked why he was so thankful, replied:  “I got both my legs hurt, but, thank heaven, they were not broken.”  On another occasion he lost consciousness, having been kicked violently by a wild horse.  When he came to himself, he exclaimed:  “Thank heaven,” in hearty joy.  Being asked the reason why he was so joyful, he answered:  “I have really given up my ghost, but, thank heaven, I have escaped death after all."[FN#279] A person in such a state of mind can do anything with heart and might.  Whatever he does is an act of thanks for the grace of Buddha, and he does it, not as his duty, but as the overflowing of his gratitude which lie himself cannot check.  Here exists the formation of character.  Here exist real happiness and joy.  Here exists the realization of Nirvana.