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10. Life, Change, and
Hope.
The doctrine of Transcience
never drives us to the pessimistic view of life. On the contrary, it gives us
an inexhaustible source of pleasure and hope. Let us ask you: Are you satisfied
with the present state of things? Do you not sympathize with poverty-stricken
millions living side by side with millionaires saturated with wealth? Do you
not shed tears over those hunger-bitten children who cower in the dark lanes of
a great city? Do you not wish to put down the stupendous oppressor --
Might-is-right? Do you not want to do away with the so-called armoured peace
among nations? Do you not need to mitigate the struggle for existence more
sanguine than the war of weapons?
Life changes and is
changeable; consequently, has its future. Hope is therefore possible.
Individual development, social betterment, international peace, reformation of
mankind in general, can be hoped. Our ideal, however unpractical it may seem at
the first sight, can be realized. Moreover, the world itself, too, is changing
and changeable. It reveals new phases from time to time, and can be moulded to
subserve our purpose. We must not take life or the world as completed and
doomed as it is now. No fact verifies the belief that the world was ever created
by some other power and predestined to be as it is now. It lives, acts, and
changes. It is transforming itself continually, just as we are changing and
becoming. Thus the doctrine of Transience supplies us with an inexhaustible
source of hope and comfort, leads us into the living universe, and introduces
us to the presence of Universal Life or Buddha.
The reader may easily
understand how Zen conceives Buddha as the living principle from the following
dialogues: "Is it true, sir," asked a monk of Teu tsz (To-shi),
"that all the voices of Nature are those of Buddha?" "Yes,
certainly," replied Teu tsz. "What is, reverend sir," asked a
man of Chao Cheu (Jo-shu), "the holy temple (of Buddha)?" "An
innocent girl," replied the teacher. "Who is the master of the temple?"
asked the other again. "A baby in her womb," was the answer.
"What is, sir," asked a monk to Yen Kwan (Yen-kan), "the
original body of Buddha Vairocana?"1 "Fetch me a pitcher with
water," said the teacher. The monk did as he was ordered. "Put it
back in its place," said Yen Kwan again.2
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