7.  The Awakening of the Innermost Wisdom.

Having set ourselves free from the misconception of Self, next we must awaken our innermost wisdom, pure and divine, called the Mind of Buddha,[FN#190] or Bodhi,[FN#191] or Prajnya[FN#192] by Zen masters.  It is the divine light, the inner heaven, the key to all moral treasures, the centre of thought and consciousness, the source of all influence and power, the seat of kindness, justice, sympathy, impartial love, humanity, and mercy, the measure of all things.  When this innermost wisdom is fully awakened, we are able to realize that each and everyone of us is identical in spirit, in essence, in nature with the universal life or Buddha, that each ever lives face to face with Buddha, that each is beset by the abundant grace of the Blessed One, that He arouses his moral nature, that He opens his spiritual eyes, that He unfolds his new capacity, that He appoints his mission, and that life is not an ocean of birth, disease, old age, and death, nor the vale of tears, but the holy temple of Buddha, the Pure Land,[FN#193] where be can enjoy the bliss of Nirvana.

[FN#190] Zen is often called the Sect of Buddha-mind, as it lays stress on the awakening of the Mind of Buddha.  The words ’the Mind of Buddha’ were taken from a passage in Lankavatara-sutra.

[FN#191] That knowledge by which one becomes enlightened.

[FN#192] Supreme wisdom.

[FN#193] Sukhavati, or the land of bliss.

Then our minds go through an entire revolution.  We are no more troubled by anger and hatred, no more bitten by envy and ambition, no more stung by sorrow and chagrin, no more overwhelmed by melancholy and despair.  Not that we become passionless or simply intellectual, but that we have purified passions, which, instead of troubling us, inspire us with noble aspirations, such as anger and hatred against injustice, cruelty, and dishonesty, sorrow and lamentation for human frailty, mirth and joy for the welfare of follow-beings, pity and sympathy for suffering creatures.  The same change purifies our intellect.  Scepticism and sophistry give way to firm conviction; criticism and hypothesis to right judgment; and inference and argument to realization.

What we merely observed before we now touch with heart as well.  What we knew in relation of difference before we now understand in relation of unity as well.  How things happen was our chief concern before, but now we consider as well bow much value they have.  What was outside us before now comes within us.  What was dead and indifferent before grows now alive and lovable to us.  What was insignificant and empty before becomes now important, and has profound meaning.  Wherever we go we find beauty; whomever we meet we find good; whatever we get we receive with gratitude.  This is the reason why the Zenists not only regarded all their fellow-beings as their benefactors, but felt gratitude even towards fuel and