The doctrine of Transcience never drives us to the pessimistic view of life.  On the contrary, it gives us an inexhaustible source of pleasure and hope.  Let us ask you:  Are you satisfied with the present state of things?  Do you not sympathize with poverty-stricken millions living side by side with millionaires saturated with wealth?  Do you not shed tears over those hunger-bitten children who cower in the dark lanes of a great city?  Do you not wish to put down the stupendous oppressor—­Might-is-right?  Do you not want to do away with the so-called armoured peace among nations?  Do you not need to mitigate the struggle for existence more sanguine than the war of weapons?

Life changes and is changeable; consequently, has its future.  Hope is therefore possible.  Individual development, social betterment, international peace, reformation of mankind in general, can be hoped.  Our ideal, however unpractical it may seem at the first sight, can be realized.  Moreover, the world itself, too, is changing and changeable.  It reveals new phases from time to time, and can be moulded to subserve our purpose.  We must not take life or the world as completed and doomed as it is now.  No fact verifies the belief that the world was ever created by some other power and predestined to be as it is now.  It lives, acts, and changes.  It is transforming itself continually, just as we are changing and becoming.  Thus the doctrine of Transience supplies us with an inexhaustible source of hope and comfort, leads us into the living universe, and introduces us to the presence of Universal Life or Buddha.

The reader may easily understand how Zen conceives Buddha as the living principle from the following dialogues:  “Is it true, sir,” asked a monk of Teu tsz (To-shi), “that all the voices of Nature are those of Buddha?” “Yes, certainly,” replied Teu tsz.  “What is, reverend sir,” asked a man of Chao Cheu (Jo-shu), “the holy temple (of Buddha)?” “An innocent girl,” replied the teacher.  “Who is the master of the temple?” asked the other again.  “A baby in her womb,” was the answer.  “What is, sir,” asked a monk to Yen Kwan (Yen-kan), “the original body of Buddha Vairocana?"[FN#147] “Fetch me a pitcher with water,” said the teacher.  The monk did as he was ordered.  “Put it back in its place,” said Yen Kwan again.[FN#148]

[FN#147] Literally, All Illuminating Buddha, the highest of the Trikayas.  See Eitel, p. 192.

[FN#148] Zen-rin-rui-shu.

11.  Everything is Living according to Zen.

Everything alive has a strong innate tendency to preserve itself, to assert itself, to push itself forward, and to act on its environment, consciously or unconsciously.  The innate, strong tendency of the living is an undeveloped, but fundamental, nature of Spirit or Mind.  It shows itself first in inert matter as impenetrability, or affinity, or mechanical force.  Rock has a powerful tendency to preserve itself.  And it is hard to crush it.  Diamond has a robust tendency to assert itself.  And it permits nothing to destroy it.  Salt has the same strong tendency, for its particles act and react by themselves, and never cease till its crystals are formed.  Steam, too, should have the same, because it pushes aside everything in its way and goes where it will.