The believer of Buddha is thankful even for death itself, the which is the sole means of conquering death.  If he be thankful even for death, how much more for the rest of things!  He can find a meaning in every form of life.  He can perceive a blessing in every change of fortune.  He can acknowledge a mission for every individual.  He can live in contentment and joy under any conditions.  Therefore Lin Tsi (Rin-zai) says:  “All the Buddhas might appear before me and I would not be glad.  All the Three Regions[FN#280] and Hells might suddenly present themselves before me, and I would not fear. . . .  He (an Enlightened person) might get into the fire, and it would not burn him.  He might get into water, and it would not drown him.  He might be born in Hell, and he would be happy as if he were in a fair garden.  He might be born among Pretas and beasts, and he would not suffer from pain.  How can he be so?  Because he can enjoy everything.’[FN#281]

[FN#280] (1) Naraka, or Hell; (2) Pretas, or hungry demons; (3) beasts.

[FN#281] Lin Tsi Luk (Rin-zai-roku).

APPENDIX

ORIGIN OF MAN

(Gen-nin-ron)

BY

KWEI FUNG TSUNG MIH

THE SEVENTH PATRIARCH OF THE KEGON SECT

TRANSLATED BY

KAITEN NUKARIYA

PREFACE

Tsung Mih (Shu-Mitsu, A.D. 774-841), the author of Yuen Jan Lun (’Origin of Man’), one of the greatest scholars that China ever produced, was born in a Confucianist family of the State of Kwo Cheu.  Having been converted by Tao Yuen (Do-yen), a noted priest of the Zen Sect, he was known at the age of twenty-nine as a prominent member of that sect, and became the Eleventh Patriarch after Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch of the sect, who had come over to China from India about A.D. 520.  Some years after he studied under Chino, Kwan (Cho-kwan) the philosophical doctrine of the Avatamsaka School, now known in Japan as the Kegon Sect, and distinguished himself as the Seventh Patriarch of that school.  In A.D. 835 he was received in audience by the Emperor Wan Tsung, who questioned him in a general way about the Buddhist doctrines, and bestowed upon him the honourable title of Great Virtuous Teacher, together with abundant gifts.  The author produced over ninety volumes of books, which include a commentary on Avatamsaka-sutra, one on Purnabuddha-sutra-prasannartha-sutra, and many others.  Yuen Jan Lun is one of the shortest of his essays, but it contains all the essential doctrines, respecting the origin of life and of the universe, which are found in Taoism, Confucianism, Hinayanism, and Mahayanism.  How important a position it holds among the Buddhist books can be well imagined