“If mind as well as external objects be unreal, who is it that knows they are so?  Again, if there be nothing real in the universe, what is it that causes unreal objects to appear?  We stand witness to the fact that there is no one of the unreal things on earth that is not made to appear by something real.  If there be no water of unchanging fluidity, how can there be the unreal and temporary forms of waves?  If there be no unchanging mirror, bright and clean, bow can there be the various images, unreal and temporary, reflected in it?  If mind as well as external objects be nothing at all, no one can tell what it is that causes these unreal appearances.  Therefore this doctrine (of the unreality of all things) can never clearly disclose spiritual Reality.  So that Mahabheri-harakaparivarta-sutra says:  " All the sutras that teach the unreality of things belong to the imperfect doctrine " (of the Shakya Muni).  Mahaprajnya-paramita-sutra says The doctrine of unreality is the entrance-gate of Mahayana.”

[FN#196] See the appendix, chap. ii., ’The Mahayana Doctrine of Nihilism.’

9.  Zen and Idealism.

Next Zen makes use of Idealism as explained by the Dharmalaksana School of Mahayana Buddhism.[FN#197] For instance, the Fourth Patriarch says:  “Hundreds and thousands of laws originate with mind.  Innumerable mysterious virtues proceed from the mental source.”  Niu Teu (Go-zu) also says:  “When mind arises, various things arise; when mind ceases to exist, various things cease to exist.”  Tsao Shan (So-zan) carried the point so far that he cried out, on hearing the bell:  “It hurts, it pains.”  Then an attendant of his asked “What is the matter?” “It is my mind,” said he, that is struck."[FN#198]

[FN#197] Appendix, chap. ii., ’The Mahayana Doctrine of Dharmalaksana.’

[FN#198] Zen-rin-rui-shu.

We acknowledge the truth of the following considerations:  There exists no colour, nor sound, nor odour in the objective world, but there are the vibrations of ether, or the undulations of the air, or the stimuli of the sensory nerves of smell.  Colour is nothing but the translation of the stimuli into sensation by the optical nerves, so also sounds by the auditory, and odours by the smelling.  Therefore nothing exists objectively exactly as it is perceived by the senses, but all are subjective.  Take electricity, for example, it appears as light when perceived through the eye; it appears as sound when perceived through the ear; it appears as taste when perceived through the tongue; but electricity in reality is not light, nor sound, nor taste.  Similarly, the mountain is not high nor low; the river is not deep nor shallow; the house is not large nor small; the day is not long nor short; but they seem so through comparison.  It is not objective reality that displays the phenomenal universe before us, but it is our mind that plays an important part.  Suppose that we have but one