13.  Universal Life is Universal Spirit.

These considerations naturally lead us to see that Universal Life is not a blind vital force, but Creative Spirit, or Mind, or Consciousness, which unfolds itself in myriads of ways.  Everything in the universe, according to Zen, lives and acts, and at the same time discloses its spirit.  To be alive is identically the same as to be spiritual.  As the poet has his song, so does the nightingale, so does the cricket, so does the rivulet.  As we are pleased or offended, so are horses, so are dogs, so are sparrows, ants, earthworms, and mushrooms.  Simpler the body, simpler its spirit; more complicated the body, more complicated its spirit.  ’Mind slumbers in the pebble, dreams in the plant, gathers energy in the animal, and awakens to self-conscious discovery in the soul of man.’

It is this Creative, Universal Spirit that sends forth Aurora to illuminate the sky, that makes Diana shed her benign rays and Æolus play on his harp, wreathes spring with flowers, that clothes autumn with gold, that induces plants to put forth blossoms, that incites animals to be energetic, and that awakens consciousness in man.  The author of Mahavaipulya-purnabuddha-sutra expressly states our idea when he says:  “Mountains, rivers, skies, the earth:  all these are embraced in the True Spirit, enlightened and mysterious.”  Rin-zai also says:  “Spirit is formless, but it penetrates through the world in the ten directions."[FN#149] The Sixth Patriarch expresses the same idea more explicitly:  “What creates the phenomena is Mind; what transcends all the phenomena is Buddha."[FN#150]

[FN#149] Rin-zai-roku.

[FN#150] Roku-so-dan-kyo.

14.  Poetical Intuition and Zen.

Since Universal Life or Spirit permeates the universe, the poetical intuition of man never fails to find it, and to delight in everything typical of that Spirit.  “The leaves of the plantain,” says a Zen poet, “unfold themselves, hearing the voice of thunder.  The flowers of the hollyhock turn towards the sun, looking at it all day long.”  Jesus could see in the lily the Unseen Being who clothed it so lovely.  Wordsworth found the most profound thing in all the world to be the universal spiritual life, which manifests itself most directly in nature, clothed in its own proper dignity and peace.  “Through every star,” says Carlyle, “through every grass blade, most through every soul, the glory of present God still beams.”

It is not only grandeur and sublimity that indicate Universal Life, but smallness and commonplace do the same.  A sage of old awakened to the faith[FN#151] when he heard a bell ring; another, when he looked at the peach blossom; another, when he heard the frogs croaking; and another, when he saw his own form reflected in a river.  The minutest particles of dust form a world.  The meanest grain of sand under our foot proclaims a divine law.  Therefore Teu Tsz Jo-shi), pointing to a stone in front of his temple, said:  “All the Buddhas of the past, the present, and the future are living therein."[FN#152]