The author of Vimalakirtti-nirdeca-sutra well explains our attitude towards Buddha when he says:  “We ask Buddha for nothing.  We ask Dharma for nothing.  We ask Samgha for nothing.”  Nothing we ask of Buddha.  No worldly success, no rewards in the future life, no special blessing.  Hwang Pah (O-baku) said:  “I simply worship Buddha.  I ask Buddha for nothing.  I ask Dharma for nothing.  I ask Samgha for nothing.”  Then a prince[FN#159] questioned him:  “You ask Buddha for nothing.  You ask Dharma for nothing.  You ask Samgha for nothing.  What, then, is the use of your worship?” The Prince earned a slap as an answer to his utilitarian question.[FN#160] This incident well illustrates that worship, as understood by Zen masters, is a pure act of thanksgiving, or the opening of the grateful heart; in other words, the disclosing of Enlightened Consciousness.  We are living the very life of Buddha, enjoying His blessing, and holding communion with Him through speech, thought, and action.  The earth is not ’the vale of tears,’ but the glorious creation of Universal Spirit; nor man ‘the poor miserable sinner’ but the living altar of Buddha Himself.  Whatever we do, we do with grateful heart and pure joy sanctioned by Enlightened Consciousness; eating, drinking, talking, walking, and every other work of our daily life are the worship and devotion.  We agree with Margaret Fuller when she says:  “Reverence the highest; have patience with the lowest; let this day’s performance of the meanest duty be thy religion.  Are the stars too distant?  Pick up the pebble that lies at thy feet, and from it learn all.”

[FN#159] Afterwards the Emperor Suen Tsung (Sen-so), of the Tang dynasty.

[FN#160] For the details, see Heki-gan-shu.

CHAPTER V

THE NATURE OF MAN

1.  Man is Good-natured according to Mencius.[FN#161]

Oriental scholars, especially the Chinese men of letters, seem to have taken so keen an interest in the study of human nature that they proposed all the possible opinions respecting the subject in question-namely, (1) man is good-natured; (2) man is bad-natured; (3) man is good-natured and bad-natured as well; (4) man is neither good-natured nor bad-natured.  The first of these opinions was proposed by a most reputed Confucianist scholar, Mencius, and his followers, and is still adhered to by the majority of the Japanese and the Chinese Confucianists.  Mencius thought it as natural for man to do good as it is for the grass to be green.  ’Suppose a person has happened,’ he would say, ’to find a child on the point of tumbling down into a deep well.  He would rescue it even at the risk of his life, no matter how morally degenerated he might be.  He would have no time to consider that his act might bring him some reward from its parents, or a good reputation among his friends and fellow-citizens.  He would do it barely out of his inborn good-nature.’  After enumerating some instances similar to this one, Mencius concludes that goodness is the fundamental nature of man, even if he is often carried away by his brutal disposition.