A Preliminary

Conception

Zen Social
Hakugen
A short poem "Adoring
-1927) runs as follows:

goes

by a Christian poet Jukichi Yagi (1897

bread,

Whole-rice

bread,

Fresh

steaming!

and

Whole-rice
Abread-seller

Ethics

Ichikawa

Naivety"
Rice

about

of

bread!

a"Non-acting"(Mu-i

akarma)path

singing

(1)
cries of wares, as if in ecstacy over his singing.
This
folks.
curd

verse

seems

In the early
dealers

voices.

days,

and

Mood,

king

relish,

from

is intuitive

the

Japanese

flavour

and atmosphere

carry

writes

rather

by crying
great

prof. Robert

evaluation

of

such as gold-fish
peddle

philosophy",

used

character

to

the aesthetic

and directed

aesthetic

peddlers,

seedling-peddlers

nese life. "Japanese

be separated

to suggest

Japanese

vendors,

in a Japa-

Schinzinger,

atmosphere,

bean-

in rythmical

weight

of words,....This

by mood,

the

"cannot

way
and

of thinemotion,

than by mere calculatingintellect." For most of our people, whose character is emotionalrather than intellectual,the problem"how to be or behave",

the problem

to think"

or "what

of attitude of life, is more important

to do".

way of Zen. Concerning

( ,

(1)

This is the same in a deep sense with

a well-known

literally,

than that of" what

Absolutely

the

thesis "Zettai-mu jun-no- jiko-doichi"

contradictory

self-identity)of

Ni-

(2)
Quoted from "Introduction"
Intelligibility and the Philisophy

by R. Schinzinger
of Nothingness",

in his translation:
1958.

"Nishida,

(3)
Japanese culture is culture of emotion where inward and outward is interpenetrative-as
in the case of a Japanese house of "wood and paper
subject slides over object and vice versa.
-359-

A Preliminary
shida's

philosophy,

Conception of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

Dr. D.T.Suzuki

states:

Nishida once said, I've heard through

somebody,

one must utter

"Zettai-mujun-no-jiko-doichi"

when chanting

Dai-moku (the Nichiren

laughter

heartily

diction?"
hell!

agreeing

"How

my philosophy,

without

hearing

possible?"

to Zen Buddhism,

stopping

"What

is contra-

Throw these concerns

the way of attaining

as

this, I burst into

is the absolute?"

Zettai-mujun-no-jiko-doichi",

(4)
the reality of life.
According

prayer) ......'On

of opposites

Devote yourself to uttering"

'To realize

at a breath

with him. "What

is oneness

(21)

into

and you'll grasp

the Reality

or of

seeing into the inmost Self, lies not in" how to think" (intellectual thinking)
"what to do" (moral doings), but in "how to be", in other words, how
toattain

astate

of

blem that Eugen

Archery"

No-mind

Herrigel

orselflessness.

(1884-1955),

It

the author

the

same

pro-

of "Zen in the Art of

(1953), came upon, when he became a pupil of Awa, an expert

archer. Instead

of beginning

to learn the technique

advised to master himself, to purify his mental

dualism

was

of

thinking,

gacarya) attitude:

and

to get

to

no-mind

of the art itself, he was

attitude,

to abandon

or non-striving

( anabh-

this was the same with Yagyu Tajimanokami

great fencing master of the Tokugawa

1645), a notorious 'Zen master

the

(died 1646), a

era, instructed by Takuan Soho (1573-

of the day. The most essential point in archery

as in other Japanesse arts, is to reach the state of the mindless, to delve deeply
into the Unconscious,

original nai vete where all dualistic doubts and tension

areextinguished.Tobenon-striving,non-attached(

sciously
of

conscious,

discrimination

or failure,
art

in

verse

( Vikalpa),

to transcend

Vikrisita

"Obeying

so to speak,

our
"Shinlinmei"

"we

are in accord
Without

(4)

( ,

appreciation

, Kokoro,

("The

such

free

says

with

is to release

volitional

( , play)
nature"

aea)oruncon-

as gain

or

tensions,
from

right

sort

of

Hsinhsinming,

literally,

wandering

of the Zen way

No.
-358-

freely,

of life and

5, 1960.

or

the bondage

wrong,

success

the "artless

constraint

( Sengtsan,

the Way,

Mind"),

loss,

from

and to realize

every

Sosan

ourselves

and

died
The

in

discipline,

restraint.

606)in

Believing

without

art".
his
Mind)

annoyance."
words

or

(22)

A Preliminary

acts

of the Zen master

be no wonder

Conception of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

will remain

Zen should

absurdity

and sophistication.

"cosmic

Nihilism,"

be called

So it may

"Arsenic

of life,"

Tranquilizerof the feudalJapan"and so on, by an outsiderlike Arthur

Koestler,

who

in a world

leads

of dualistic

hand,

Zen teaches

one's

nature

which
true

where

false,

lism, -not

the

are

relative.

knowing

neither

birth

which

samewith"

Subjectiess
Soseki

Every
words,

is

by

unattainable

right

( ,

Non.
as

or wrong,

nopalbhyate)

tnless bottom of our nature is identical

the dualism

Sosan,
from

,
,

of

the

its utmost

nopa-

Basho):

the

named

Murornachi

perio.

nature,
depth.

in other
The

botto-

with the nature of all things. Every

doing as well as every other thing in the universe, therefore,

in this unattainable

of duality

Nushinak-hokkai)

is of no fixed
ih

of dua-

separated

"Place"(

master

neither

says

attainment(

( ,
a Zen

no trace

absolute

into

Our nature,
evil,

Emptiness"

No

Nishida

dharma-dhatu"

of ours,

one

(sinyata),

( , 1275-1351),

doing

buy

"In

in seeing

nor

leaving

mentioned,

( ).

expressed

good

to do,"

On the other

dies away.

is neither

duality:

Emptiness

"what

culminating

nor, death,

above

distinguished"

It is one

to be",

of conceptualization
nature,

the ultimate

to think,"

base is the law of identity.

Buddha

not

of "how

of "how,

only the dualism

two

Muso

problem

the dualism

labhayate),

by

whose

than

and non-duality,
the

logic

the

is no other
nor

his life on the plane

is unblamable

Emptiness. Sinjinmei says:

When the mind is one, and nothing happens,

(6)
Everything in the world is unblamable.
,
In Emptiness,

every thing

is as it is, no more, no less, -a

willow

is green, a flower red: they are good as they are. Here, the cosmic Negation is identical
thus-ness),
again,

lation

(6)

and tathata

all beings

(5)

with the cosmic Affirmation:

are

A. Koestler,
by

T.

is sunyata:

( , apratihata),

A Stink of Zen, "Encounter",

is

(suchness,

subject is object and object subject. Here

interpenetrative

Takemoto

sunyata is tathata

givenin "Ronso"(

tr. by R. H. Blyth.
-357-

without

losing

their

Nov., 1960. An abridged trans"Dispute"),

July,

1962.

A Preliminary

Conception

peculiarity or individuality.
oneness or interpenetrability,
the great

compassion).

of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

The basis of the Buddhist ethics lies in this

egoless freedom or cosmic love (mahakaruna,

Karuna

lira jna (selfless intuitive

(non-worldly

intelligence)

selfless

love) flows out of

that. sees one in many and many in

one. When this freedom, intuitive insight or of non-attained

all our deeds are full of vital energy springing
naivety.
,

"Enzan-wadei-gassui-shu"
1327-1387)

in

the

(23)

out of the fundamental

( )
Tokugawa

era

reads

as

love is realized,

by

Bassui

Tokusho

follows:

True observance of moral precepts (sila) is seeing one's nature (Satori)......

Once the opening of Satori is realized, all precepts are observed by their own
accord.
Here we find preceptless precepts, so' to speak. This reminds us of "shone
Seele"
ame"

of Germen

Romanticism

of J. J. Rousseau's

in the 18 th. century,

"Nouvelle

Heloise"

derived from "belle

(1761). In "Bekenntnisse

einer schonen Seele," W. v. Goethe (1749-1832) writes:

Ich erinnere mich kaum eines Gebotes, nichts erscheint mir in Gestalt eines
Gesetzes, es ist ein Trieb, der mich leitet and mich immer recht fuhret; ich folge
mit Freiheit meinen Gesinnungen and weiss so wenig von Einschrankung als von
Reue. Gott sei Dank, dass ich erkenne, wenn ich dieses Gluck schuldig bin, und,
dass ich an these Vorzuge nur mit Demut denken darf)!
Friedlich Schiller (1759-1805) tried in his notion of "Spieltrieb"
"schone Seele" to moder
ate the rigorism and to, enliven the formalism
the Kantian ethics of "reiner
a central conception

Wille"

by introducing

of the latter's "Kritik

defines Beauty as the harmonious

or
of

into the field of ethics

der Urteilskraft"

(1790), which

unity of reason (Vernunf t) and sensibility

(8)

(Sinnlichkeit).

Now, the Mahayana

ethics in its turn,

delving into the ori-

ginal naivete, created the ever-refreshing

vitality of spiritual freedom
breaking the yoke of thousands of "should-nots"
of the Hinayana precepts.
Thus a precept has become a formless

one, dharma

is now

non-dharma,

(7) Goethe, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Bd. VI (1796)

(8)
Schiller, Uber Anmut u. Wiirde (1793): Brief e fiber die asthetische
hung des Menschen. (1795).
356-

Erzie.

(24)

A Preliminary

Conception of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

no one is duty-bound, purity-bound, nor even Suyata-bound: today freely

and spontaneously, tomorrow spontaneously and freely, one leads one's life.
The Beautiful Soul, according to my view, will be more or less easily
realized by some cultured persons in the epoque organique (a period when
social contradictions don't yet clearly show themselves), to use A. Comte's
terminology, but in the epoque critique (when social conflicts become severe),
they couldn't but confine themselves in the narrower circle of their companions for fear of losing harmonious unity of their beautiful souls, keeping
aloof from the hard problems of the day, because by stepping forward to
remedy them with their simple minds, they would probably stumble against
unexpected obstacles or be puzzled without knowing what to do: vital
problems of the time are so complicated and fundamental that mere naivety
or moral intuition do not serve their purposes : even in those early days of
Jesus, the apostles were advised to "be wise as serpents" (St. Matthew.
X, 16). It may be reasonable that the Beautiful Soul was looked upon
with some contempt in later days in Europe. It was already criticized by
Hegel (1770-1831) in his "Panomenologie des Geistes "(1807). The same
might be said of the spiritual freedom in Buddhism hitherto pronounced.
As we have learned, selflessness or no-mindness seems to be everything
for the Mahayana Buddhists, though it isn't always so as we refer to later.
So here, the, stress is layed solely on "how to be", not on "what to do".
The question of "what to do" is considered to be answered easily once
the way of "how to be" cleared. On the Zen freedom, Dr, Suzuki writes:
He has

no self incased

prison.......One
master

man I call the

of infinite
what

of the

of himself

great

wherever

true

artist

possibilities.

you will".

in his......egocentric

This

Zen

master

he may

of the

be found

of life. His

Self has

He is "No-mind".
corresponds

alive

Be a dead

Tang

He
says:

he behaves
touched

is

man,

-355-

poem

gone

"With

truly

of Bunan,

the

out

"Love

of

his

a man who is

to himself".

the unconscious,

Says St. Augustine,

to the

17 th. century:
While

existence.

the

This
source

God and do

Zen master

of the

A Preliminary

Conception of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

Thoroughly
And

dead;

act as you will,

(9)
all is good.

And

"Good"

(25)

in this verse does not necessarily

mean "good"

in the objective

or general sense of the word, it isn't moral good in a usual meaning, but
"be true to oneself", or rather, "be free from annoyance",
"be in spiri tual peace".

Free

an individual
intuition"

from

self -centredness,

self lost, in intuition,

( )

in

itself.

The

a Buddhist

"self"

is still a self,

or, to use Nishida's

seat

of

term,

action-intuition

in

"actionhis

caseis

not Hajime Kawakami (1879-1946), Tadao Yanaibara (1893-1961), or any

one else, but is Nishida himself. There cannot
nobody, drifting

be any intuition

in the air. Intuition is in reality someone's

shida's intuition was not Kawakami's,

consequently

ascribed to
intuition.

their world-views

Ni.
were

greatly differed with each other. These three contemporaries had probably
thought and acted in the last war time according to their respective views.
The Nishida views and practises in relation to the national
toism and the "Holy

War",

morality,

Shin.

I suppose, were not always amply right, com

paring with those of the latter two. It follows that being good or true to
oneself is not always good or true, in a -usual sense, to others, to the
community

or to the people.

When SOsan writes in "Shinjinmei"

(9)
E. From, D. T. Suzuki,
(1960), p. 16.

(freedom)

found
,

in

bondages.

rte,

or

(a

(Sayings)

etc.
Rinzai's

It

in

indicates
is,

the one spiritual,

"Everything

R. d. Martino,
free

man)

T'ang
a

may

Zen Buddhism
be

dynasty,

state

therefore,

of

such

quite

in the world is unbla.

originally
as

(?)

(Vimukti)
diferent

& Psychoanalysis

released
from

J.P.

the

Zen

,
from

term

mental

Sartre's "libe.

the other existential-social.

(10) Kawakami, a Marxist economist. Resigned as Prof. of the Kyoto Imperial

University in 1928, joined the Nippon Communist Party, (1932), in jail (19331937).
(11) Yanaibara, a scholar of Colonial Policy, Prof. of the Tokyo Imperial Uni.
versity: a devout Christian, desciple of Kanzo Uchimura (1861-1893). Resigned
his post (1937) owing to his liberalism (antimilitalism).
-354-

(26)

A Preliminary

(12)
mable "and
thing

Bunan"

is good

state

of

pure

Browning

in

Conception of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

All

a moral

subjectivity

is good
sense.

"in

his

First

( ,

of

gocara):

poem,
all

they

"good"

it may

(1812-1889) when he says "All's

do
or

be

not

mean

every-

"unblamable"

the

well with

same

is a

with

Robert

the world".

The

SOsan's line above quoted was properly translated by Dr. Suzuki thus:
"Ten thousand things offer no offence" (italics, by the writer). "All is
good"
and "All is well" are nothing but the expressions of the peace of the minds
of the poets. Whether it is good or not in a moral sense is another question,
that appeals to close examinations
sincerity or spiritual

peace alone is not qualified for revealing moral truths.

Non-ego or super-self
society:

does not exist as mere non-ego or super-self in our

selfless self lives in reality as an individual self; likewise, formless

self, when it feels, thinks

certain

forms

connected
1)

and behaves

under certain

with practical,

Difficulty relating

in themselves

situations.

social morality

here

on earth,

cannot

but take

main

difficulties

Here arise three

in Zen Buddhism.

to the objects of moral judgement:

The world of experience

Las

rather than aesthetic intuitions. Subjective

in our time is divided by a gulf separating

and their images. In former times, people led their lives

in such small communities

that they were able to catch things or inf orma-

tion, for the most part, personally with their senses. Today, however, facts,
as data of our moral recognitions,
largely formed

are not facts themselves, but their images

by and attained through the masscommunication;

these ima-

ges are generally distorted or even reversed mainly by policies or principles

of editorial staffs closely linked with their leading powers.
The gulf thus formed

and its calamity,

together

hood shown below, has been revealed, on it's largest

with our own falsescale, through

the last

war experiences of our nation. To overcome this crack is a big and lasting
problem of our century. Social ethics of Buddhism
too, because the latter may be considered to relate,
the Buddhist way such as Right View (samma-dit-thi),

(12)

Translation

by Prof. R. H. Blyth.
-353-

is facing this problem,

at least indirectly, to
Right Thinking

(sam-

A Preliminary

Conception

of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

Ana-san.kappa) and Right Speech (samma-vacs).

found in the following
2)

Difficulty relating

of common people, thinks and acts on the

its moral

thes

a cloth,

in this

Purity"
( ),

consciousness

corresponding

to

its

It wears, so to speak, "clothes " of moral ideas and behaviors

undercertainsituations.WhenRinzai

wearing

may also be

to moral subjects:

plane according to

world-view.

This connection

matters.

A selfless self, like the "self"

ethical

(27)

case are the

( )
in

I go when

other

"clothes
words,

I want

means

to go,

of the

are

the

?-867)says

Zen instructions

of no-birth"
they

Lin-chi,

I sit when

( )
Buddhist

I want

"Freely

to sit",

clo-

such as "clothes

and "clothes
doctrines

of
as

the

of

Nirvana"
means

of

pointing Enlightenment. These clothes are, from the Zen viewpoint, no

more than mere nomina, for they are mere shadows of absolute subjectivity
transcending

a plane of denomination.

Besides these, however,

the Zen

priests as well as laymen wear in their daily life another kinds of clothes,
clothes of the so-called "ideologies",
namely, a certain moral ideas, value
consciousness,

social thoughts

and others.

These clothes,

unlike those of

pointing Satori, are not allowed to be changed wilfully, abruptly and momentarily. Ideology that plays an important role in our life and society has
to possess a certain immobility or impenetrability,

so to speak, as a leading

principle of life or society: for instance, we cannot be pro and con at the
same instant to the same war; to judge or to resolve here, is to select
either "Yes"

or "No"

about the matter,

not to determine

an attitude

is

also a kind of determination:

no "interpenetrability"
is allowed on this
(13)
point. The doctrine of "interpenetrability",
when preached, in a sphere of
social morality, to the common people, without regard to the contradictions
in social systems or situations

arising

from them, is likely to fall into an

(13) To speak loosely, pro & con do not interpenetrate

with each other horizontally or in two dimensions, so to speak, on the plane of the law of identity,
but vertically or in three dimensions as follows:
pro-con

plane of discrimination

con-pro

sphere
-352-

of non-discrimination

(28)

A Preliminary

utopianism
erations.

Conception

of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

or a false realism. Here lies a difficulty requiring

further

consid-

The Buddhist ethical thoughts in their concrete forms share, as a

whole, with the characters and conditions

of ideology in general.

On social

ideologies Karl Marx (1818-1883) declares:

Die Gedanken der herrschenden Klasse sind in jeder Epoche die herrschenden
Gedanken, d. h. die Klasse, welche die herrschende materi ell e Macht der Gesellschaft ist, ist zugleich ihre herrschende geistige

Macht. Die Klasse, die die

Mittel zur materiellen Produktion zu ihrer Verfuhgung hat, disponiert damit

zugleich im Durchschnitt die Gedanken derer, dener die Mittel zur geistigen
Produktion abgeben, unterworfen sind. Die herrschenden Gedanken sind weiter
(14)
nichts als der ideelle Ausdruck der herrschenden materiellen Verhaltisse......
Roughly speaking, the above estimation
tions, to the Zen social ideas:

some of them together

thoughts were already criticized

kami

in

3)
In

are

his

"Gokuch-zeigo"

to

advised

tained"

"to

get

to

intellectual

ego,

to

diea

means to exterminate
centricity,

Idle

Talks

in

by Hajime KawaPrison,

1947).

with "No-mind":

"genuine

eradicate

with other Buddhist

from such a viewpoint

( ,

Difficulty in connection
order

may be applied, with a few excep-

views"

the

false

( ,
"Great

thinking

and

( ,

thought

Wu-men-kuan),
Death"

hitherto

namely,

( ).

This

Linchi-lu)

to

we

main-

"kill"

annihilation

our

or Death

the dichotomy of our thinking and to destroy our self-

to get mindlessness

(sunyata);

in other words

to eradicate false

thinking and thought in this case is not to examine and rectify our thoughts
or mode of thinking, because an attempt

of this kind is still an intellectual

reasoning on the plane of dualism of concept ualizatian.

"True

views"

are

those obtaind through absolute negation of thinking and thought, not through
test and analysis of them. When Rinzai says"

the true is the place where

I am

with

standing"

( ),

this

truth

is identical

Zen master, and not with objective "truth"

thinking

and thought

Ideologie.

-351-

subjectivity

of

the

-in our empirical world. "False"

is not antonym of "true"

(14) Marx: Engels, Die Deutche

Bd. 29, S. 44.)

pure

thinking and thought here.

(Bucherei

des Marxismus-Lenismus.

A Preliminary

To attain "no-mind"

Conception

of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

or to original

naivete

one's own ideology is another. Subjective

as absolute subjectivity,
thinking-by

does not

"erroneous

fantasy, discrimination)

thinking"

master
Seven

found

protect

mean,

to be directed

from Vikalpa is not always freedom

once said, relating

Buddhas"

though it maybe defined

to a famous

us from

of course,

in the Buddhist terminology.

honest and sincere, are

Freedom

is one thing, and to examine

naivete,

necessarily
Idon't

(29)

erroneous

Vikalpa

( ,

Not a few Buddhists,

by conventional

thinking.

from false ideologies. A Zen

precept

"The

teaching

of

the

( ):

Any child three years old may know it (to practise what is good and to avoid
what is evil), but even an old man of eighty years finds it difficult to practise
it.
This is true indeed, but to know what is good and what is(15)evil is not
always easier than practising

or avoiding it in a field of social morality,

especially in the critical epoch of our century. Moral intuition, which formerly
played a leading part among us, has decreased its validity in our social ethics
where

positive

three main
above,

and rational

investigation

difficulties connecting

interrelate

modern industrial

one another

is of cardinal

The
out

and are the products,

civilization,-these

ition or subjective sincerity

importance.

with the Zen social ethics pointed

to some extent,

of

difficulties cannot be overcome by intu-

alone, but chiefly by consistent

researches

and

practises through direct and indirect co-operation of our fellowmen. In

his "Common Faith "(1934) John Dewey (1859-1952) distinguished "the
religious"

from"

a religion"

that contains, he thought,

he was a Marxist, admitting"

showed above, "religion"

and accepted the former instead of the latter

many forms of prejudices. H. Kawakami, though

the religious truth",

as "the

criticized,

opium of the people"

in his book

that formed itself

by putting false or superstitious clothing on "the religious truth":

he writes,
"the religious truth turns into a rel
igion by combinning itself with a belief
(15) On "good"
and "evil" a fundamental
difference is found between the
Hinyana and the Mahayana views, but so far as our present issue is concerned,
the difference may be passed over.
-350-

(30)

A Preliminary

Conception

of Zen Social Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

in God." Generally speaking, I agree with them, though the former

gious" seems to me not the truth
latter reasoning is too simple.
To attain

"before

Abraham",

the unconscious or transcendental

of vital importance

"reli-

so to speak, and the

origin of good and evil is

for us all. However, to bring out our unconscious

fal-

lacies (settled through all sorts of prejudices, illusions or false educations, in

our unconscious depth

ever since our childhood),

none the less important

for the establishment

and to examine

them is

of the social ethics in Buddhism.

To see into our nature is, as we have noticed, not to investigate

our views and

ideas; these two practises are quite different things on different dimensions:
truth in Zen belongs not to dualism of the true and the false. And defining
the, Zen truth
into another
endlessly.

in this manner,

in the negation

of dualism,

dualism, dualism of duality and non-duality,

Break

this

chain

( ,

sarhsara),

and

perfect

we already fell

which renews itself

peace

itself on the spot; the cutter, is pra jna abiding nowhere

sunyata
a certain

presents itself in a certain

corresponding

mind

activity, which

form as .a self-determining

to the situations there.

reveals

and yet everywhere.

Out of Sunyata where infinite possibilities dwell, nonabiding

is also prajna,

of

act of

The seat of this activity in

form is an individual self with a certain career. The original act

which directs this activity toward such and such a form, may be termed
"original choice,
"ori
ginal", because it is not a concrete and conscious choice taking a particular form, but an unconscious disposition that
directs the former (concrete and conscious choice) toward such and such a
form. This original choice comes out of an "attitude-system"
that constitutes
-though
not of immobile quality-in
part, a character of an individual self.
And here, in one's attitude-system
in the opapue,

unconscious

abides one's unconscious falsehood settled

depth. When some ideas or behaviors occur as

concrete and conscious choices directed

by the original

liable to fall into inertia:

this inertia

it is through

one, this process is

or Vasana,, MR, habit-

energy that unconscious fallacies may reveal themselves. On this crucial point,
awakens

the humble and open mind of inquiry, an intellectual

self-realizin

form of Selflessness. And here is found or shaped the turning point of Tat-349-

A Preliminary

Conception

tva jnana seeing into non-duality

the laws and constructions

or

vertical
)

of

"origin"
axis

the

and
world;

"revolution"

( ),to

use

point

on

(31)

of Nature and Upaya jnana researching into

The Buddhist,

Upayajnana
this

Ethics (H. Ichikawa)

of the world (the definition

my personal interpretation).
point

of Zen Social

bung

horizontal
also"

is

we may say, stand at the cross

mathematical

of these terms

term,
one

oneness

of
of

of
the

Tattvajnana

on

co-ordinates

opposites"

where

the

of man himself and that of society or the world is started in

the form of "oneness of opposites", in other words, the reformation of the

world is set about in the form of "coincidentia oppositorum" of the world
and the "Pure Land".
Now, how shall we think, what shall we do in order to practise the socalled "Middle Way" morals, "super-class" morality, or to create "superhistorical" history? Are the ideas and activities, for instance, of the "Moral-Rearmament "the super-class way of super-historical history ? What is
"The Third Way "or" Middle Way "in the field of social ethics? Further
investigations are required to these questions. After all, the way of naivety,
subjective sincerity or moral intuitionalism may leave room in a domain of
social ethics for criticism by an A. Koestler who points out the poverty of
Zen social morality; for instance, Zen that repels quietism and teaches how
to create inward calmnes in the midst of the present-day noises might be
criticized as a sort of "Tranquilizer "when it leaves the noises and tumults
alone and advises to adapt oneself to them closing eyes to the "fact that such
morbid stimuli are being produced mainly through competitions of every
sort and kind at the full maturity of the capitalist civilization.
To die a "Great

Death"

signifies, in my view, not merely to eradicate

our dichotomy of reasoning, but to awaken our humble and open minds of
inquiry,
mankind.

aiming at the establishment

An idealistic attitude

of peaceful and blissful world for all

as well as a rational mode of thinking once

denied by pra jna is now restored, by the same pra jna, with deep serenity
on an entirely new foundation.
declared once a great

"No

Zen master.

-348-

shadow of Buddha-dharma

is here."