Part 6

In relation to the Absolute, no difference exists even between gods and men:--

“_The Golden Verse of the Jō-sho-sa-chi[45] says:--‘This doctrine is equal and alike for all; there is neither superior nor inferior, neither above nor below.’_”

Nay, according to a still more celebrated text, there is not even any difference of personality:--

JI TA HŌ KAI BYŌ DŌ RI YAKU.

“_The ‘I’ and the ‘Not-I’ are not different in the World of Law: both are favored alike._”[46]

And a still more wonderful text--(to my thinking, the most remarkable of all Buddhist texts)--declares that the world itself, phantom though it be, is yet not different from Mind:--

SŌ MOKU KOKU DŌ SHITSU KAI JŌ BUTSU.

“_Grass, trees, countries, the earth itself,--all these shall enter wholly into Buddhahood._”[47]

Literally, “shall become Buddha;” that is, they shall enter into Buddhahood or Nirvana. All that we term matter will be transmuted therefore into Mind,--Mind with the attributes of Infinite Sentiency, Infinite Vision, and Infinite Knowledge. As phenomenon, matter is unreal; but transcendentally it belongs by its ultimate nature to the Sole Reality.

Such a philosophical position is likely to puzzle the average reader. To call matter and mind but two aspects of the Ultimate Reality will not seem irrational to students of Herbert Spencer. But to say that matter is a phenomenon, an illusion, a dream, explains nothing;--as phenomenon it exists, and having a destiny attributed to it, must be considered objectively. Equally unsatisfying is the statement that phenomena are aggregates of Karma. What is the nature of the particles of the aggregate? Or, in plainest language, what is the illusion made of?

Not in the original Buddhist scriptures, and still less in the literature of Buddhist cemeteries, need the reply be sought. Such questions are dealt with in the sastras rather than in the sûtras;--also in various Japanese commentaries upon both. A friend has furnished me with some very curious and unfamiliar Shingon texts containing answers to the enigma.

The Shingon sect, I may observe, is a mystical sect, which especially proclaims the identity of mind and substance, and boldly carries out the doctrine to its furthest logical consequences. Its founder and father Kū-kai, better known as Kōbōdaishi, declared in his book _Hizōki_ that matter is not different in essence from spirit. “As to the doctrine of grass, trees, and things non-sentient becoming Buddhas” he writes, “I say that the refined forms [_ultimate nature_] of spiritual bodies consist of the Five Great Elements; that Ether[48] consists of the Five Great Elements; and that the refined forms of bodies spiritual, of ether, of plants, of trees, consequently pervade all space. This ether, these plants and trees, are themselves spiritual bodies. To the eye of flesh, plants and trees appear to be gross matter. But to the eye of the Buddha _they are composed of minute spiritual entities_. Therefore, even without any change in their substance, there can be no error or impropriety in our calling them Buddhas.”

The use of the term “non-sentient” in the foregoing would seem to involve a contradiction; but this is explained away by a dialogue in the book _Shi-man-gi_:--

Q.--Are not grass and trees sometimes called sentient?

A.--They can be so called.

Q.--But they have also been called non-sentient: how can they be called sentient?

A.--In all substance from the beginning exists the impress of the wisdom-nature of the Nyōrai (_Tathâgata_): therefore to call such things sentient is not error.

* * * * *

“Potentially sentient,” the reader might conclude; but this conclusion would be wrong. The Shingon thought is not of a potential sentiency, but of a latent sentiency which although to us non-apparent and non-imaginable, is nevertheless both real and actual. Commenting upon the words of Kōbōdaishi above cited, the great priest Yū-kai not only reiterates the opinion of his master, but asserts that it is absurd to deny that plants, trees, and what we call inanimate objects, can practise virtue! “Since Mind,” he declares, “pervades the whole World of Law, the grasses, plants, trees, and earth pervaded by it must all have mind, and must turn their mind to Buddhahood and practise virtue. Do not doubt the doctrine of our sect, regarding the Non-Duality of the Pervading and the Pervaded, merely because of the distinction made in common parlance between Matter and Mind.” As for _how_ plants or stones can practise virtue, the sûtras indeed have nothing to say. But that is because the sûtras, being intended for man, teach only what man should know and do.

The reader will now, perhaps, be better able to follow out the really startling Buddhist hypothesis of the nature of matter to its more than startling conclusion. (It must not be contemned because of the fantasy of five elements; for these are declared to be only modes of one ultimate.) All forms of what we call matter are really but aggregates of spiritual units; and all apparent differences of substance represent only differences of combination among these units. The differences of combination are caused by special tendencies and affinities of the units;--the tendency of each being the necessary result of its particular evolutional history--(using the term “evolutional” in a purely ethical sense). All integrations of apparent substance,--the million suns and planets of the universe,--represent only the affinities of such ghostly ultimates; and every human act or thought registers itself through enormous time by some knitting or loosening of forces working for good or evil.

* * * * *

Grass, trees, earth, and all things seem to us what they are not, simply because the eye of flesh is blind. Life itself is a curtain hiding reality,--somewhat as the vast veil of day conceals from our sight the countless orbs of Space. But the texts of the cemeteries proclaim that the purified mind, even while prisoned within the body, may enter for moments of ecstasy into union with the Supreme:--

“_The One Bright Moon illuminates the mind in the meditation called Zenjō._”[49]

The “One Bright Moon” is the Supreme Buddha. By the pure of heart He may even be seen:--

“_Hail unto the Wondrous Law! By attaining to the state of single-mindedness we behold the Buddha._”[50]

Greater delight there is none:--

“_Incomparable the face of the Nyōrai,--surpassing all beauty in this world!_”[51]

But to see the face of one Buddha is to see all:--

“_The Dai-en-kyō-chi-kyō[52] says:--‘By entering deeply into the meditation Zenjō, one may see all the Buddhas of the Ten Directions of Space.’_”

“_The Golden Mouth has said:--‘He whose mind can discern the being of one Buddha, may easily behold three, four, five Buddhas,--nay, all the Buddhas of the Three Existences.’_”[53]

Which mystery is thus explained:--

“_The Myō-kwan-satsu-chi-kyō[54] has said:--‘The mind that detaches itself from all things becomes the very mind of Buddha.’_”[55]

Visitors to the older Buddhist temples of Japan can scarcely fail to notice the remarkable character of the gilded aureoles attached to certain images. These aureoles, representing circles, disks, or ovals of glory, contain numbers of little niches shaped like archings or whirls of fire, each enshrining a Buddha or a Bodhisattva. A verse of the Amitâyur-Dhyâna Sûtra might have suggested this symbolism to the Japanese sculptors:--“_In the halo of that Buddha there are Buddhas innumerable as the sands of the Ganga._”[56] Icon and verse alike express that doctrine of the One in Many suggested by the foregoing sotoba-texts; and the assurance that he who sees one Buddha can see all, may further be accepted as signifying that he who perceives one great truth fully, will be able to perceive countless truths.

But even to the spiritually blind the light must come at last. A host of cemetery texts proclaim the Infinite Love that watches all, and the certainty of ultimate and universal salvation:--

“_Possessing all the Virtues and all the Powers, the Eyes of the Infinite Compassion behold all living creatures._”[57]

“_The Kongō-takara-tō-mei[58] proclaims:--‘All living beings in the Six States of Existence[59] shall be delivered from the bonds of attachment; their minds and their bodies alike shall be freed from desire; and they shall obtain the Supreme Enlightenment.’_”

“_The Sûtra says:--‘Changing the hearts of all beings, I cause them to enter upon the Way of Buddhahood.’_”[60]

Yet the supreme conquest can be achieved only by self-effort:--

“_Through the destruction of the Three Poisons[61] one may rise above the Three States of Existence._”

The Three Existences signify time past, present, and future. To rise above--(more literally, to “emerge from”)--the Three Existences means therefore to pass beyond Space and Time,--to become one with the Infinite. The conquest of Time is indeed possible only for a Buddha; but all shall become Buddhas. Even a woman, while yet a woman, may reach Buddhahood, as this Nichiren text bears witness, inscribed above the grave of a girl:--

KAI YO KEN PI RYŌ-NYŌ JŌ BUTSU.

“_All beheld from afar the Dragon Maiden become a Buddha._”

The reference is to the beautiful legend of Sâgara, the daughter of the Nâga-king, in the _Myō-hō-rengé-kyō_.[62]

IV

Though not representing, nor even suggesting, the whole range of sotoba-literature, the foregoing texts will sufficiently indicate the quality of its philosophical interest. The inscriptions of the _haka_, or tombs, have another kind of interest; but before treating of these, a few words should be said about the tombs themselves. I cannot attempt detail, because any description of the various styles of such monuments would require a large and profusely illustrated volume; while the study of their sculptures belongs to the enormous subject of Buddhist iconography,--foreign to the purpose of this essay.

There are hundreds,--probably thousands,--of different forms of Buddhist funeral monuments,--ranging from the unhewn boulder, with a few ideographs scratched on it, of the poorest village-graveyard, to the complicated turret (_kagé-kio_) enclosing a shrine with images, and surmounted with a spire of umbrella-shaped disks or parasols (Sanscrit: _tchâtras_),--possibly representing the old Chinese stûpa. The most common class of _haka_ are plain. A large number of the better class have lotos-designs chiselled upon some part of them:--either the pedestal is sculptured so as to represent lotos-petals; or a single blossom is cut in relief or intaglio on the face of the tablet; or--(but this is rare)--a whole lotos-plant, leaves and flowers, is designed in relief upon one or two sides of the monument. In the costly class of tombs symbolizing the Five Buddhist Elements, the eight-petalled lotos-symbol may be found repeated, with decorative variations, upon three or four portions of their elaborate structure. Occasionally we find beautiful reliefs upon tombstones,--images of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas; and not unfrequently a statue of Jizō may be seen erected beside a grave. But the sculptures of this class are mostly old;--the finest pieces in the Kobudera cemetery, for example, were executed between two and three hundred years ago. Finally I may observe that the family crest or _mon_ of the dead is cut upon the front of the tomb, and sometimes also upon the little stone tank set before it.

* * * * *

The inscriptions very seldom include any texts from the holy books. On the front of the monument, below the chiselled crest, the kaimyō is graven, together, perhaps, with a single mystical character--Sanscrit or Chinese; on the left side is usually placed the record of the date of death; and on the right, the name of the person or family erecting the tomb. Such is now, at least, the ordinary arrangement; but there are numerous exceptions; and as the characters are most often disposed in vertical columns, it is quite easy to put all the inscriptions upon the face of a very narrow monument. Occasionally the real name is also cut upon some part of the stone,--together, perhaps, with some brief record of the memorable actions of the dead. Excepting the kaimyō, and the sect-invocation often accompanying it, the inscriptions upon the ordinary class of tombs are secular in character; and the real interest of such epigraphy is limited to the kaimyō. By _kai_-myō (_sîla_-name) is meant the Buddhist name given to the spirit of the dead, according to the custom of all sects except the Ikkō or Shinshū. In a special sense the term _kai_, or sîla, refers to precepts of conduct[63]; in a general sense it might be rendered as “salvation by works.” But the Shinshū allows no _kai_ to any mortal; it does not admit the doctrine of immediate salvation by works, but only by faith in Amida; and the posthumous appellations which it bestows are therefore called not _kai_-myō, but _hō-myō_, or “Law-names.”

Before Meiji the social rank occupied by any one during life was suggested by the kaimyō. The use, with a kaimyō, of the two characters reading _in den_, and signifying “temple-dweller,” or “mansion-dweller,”--or of the more common single character _in_, signifying “temple” or “mansion,” was a privilege reserved to the nobility and gentry. Class-distinctions were further indicated by suffixes. _Koji_,--a term partly corresponding to our “lay-brother,”--and _Daishi_, “great elder-sister,” were honorifically attached to the kaimyō of the samurai and the aristocracy; while the simpler appellations of _Shinshi_ and _Shinnyo_, respectively signifying “faithful [believing] man,” “faithful woman,” followed the kaimyō of the humble. These forms are still used; but the distinctions they once maintained have mostly passed away, and the privilege of the knightly “_in den_,” and its accompaniments, is free to any one willing to pay for it. At all times the words _Dōji_ and _Dōnyo_ seem to have been attached to the kaimyō of children. _Dō_, alone, means a lad, but when combined with _ji_ or _nyo_ it means “child” in the adjectival sense;--so that we may render _Dōji_ as “Child-son,” and _Dōnyo_ as “Child-daughter.” Children are thus called who die before reaching their fifteenth year,--the majority-year by the old samurai code; a lad of fifteen being deemed fit for war-service. In the case of children who die within a year after birth, the terms _Gaini_ and _Gainyo_ occasionally replace _Dōji_ and _Dōnyo_. The syllable _Gai_ here represents a Chinese character meaning “suckling.”

Different Buddhists sects have different formulas for the composition of the kaimyō and its addenda;--but this subject would require a whole special treatise; and I shall mention only a few sectarian customs. The Shingon sect sometimes put a Sanscrit character--the symbol of a Buddha--before their kaimyō;--the Shin head theirs with an abbreviation of the holy name Sakyamuni;--the Nichiren often preface their inscriptions with the famous invocation, _Namu myō hō rengé kyō_ (“Hail to the Sutra of the Lotos of the Good Law!”),--sometimes followed by the words _Senzo daidai_ (“forefathers of the generations”);--the Jōdo, like the Ikkō, use an abbreviation of the name Sakyamuni, or, occasionally, the invocation _Namu Amida Butsu!_--and they compose their four-character kaimyō with the aid of two ideographs signifying “honour” or “fame;”--the Zen sect contrive that the first and the last character of the kaimyō, when read together, shall form a particular Buddhist term, or mystical phrase,--except when the kaimyō consists of only two characters.

Probably the word “mansion” in kaimyō-inscriptions would suggest to most Western readers the idea of heavenly mansions. But the fancy would be at fault. The word has no celestial signification; yet the history of its epitaphic use is curious enough. Anciently, at the death of any illustrious man, a temple was erected for the special services due to his spirit, and also for the conservation of relics or memorials of him. Confucianism introduced into Japan the _ihai_, or mortuary tablet, called by the Chinese _shin-shu_;[64] and a portion of the temple was set apart to serve as a chapel for the _ihai_, and the ancestral cult. Any such memorial temple was called _in_, or “mansion,”--doubtless because the august spirit was believed to occupy it at certain periods;--and the term yet survives in the names of many celebrated Buddhist temples,--such as the Chion-In, of Kyōtō. With the passing of time, this custom was necessarily modified; for as privileges were extended and aristocracies multiplied, the erection of a separate temple to each notable presently became impossible. Buddhism met the difficulty by conferring upon every individual of distinction the posthumous title of _in-den_,--and affixing to this title the name of an imaginary temple or “mansion.” So to-day, in the vast majority of kaimyō, the character _in_ refers only to the temple that would have been built had circumstance permitted, but now exists only in the pious desire of those who love and reverence the departed.

Nevertheless the poetry of these _in_-names does possess some real meaning. They are nearly all of them names such as would be given to real Buddhist temples,--names of virtues and sanctities and meditations,--names of ecstasies and powers and splendors and luminous immeasurable unfoldings,--names of all ways and means of escape from the Six States of Existence and the sorrow of “peopling the cemeteries again and again.”

* * * * *

The general character and arrangement of kaimyō can best be understood by the aid of a few typical specimens. The first example is from a beautiful tomb in the cemetery of Kobudera, which is sculptured with a relief representing the Bodhisattva Mahâsthâma (Seishi Bosatsu) meditating. All the text in this instance has been cut upon the face of the monument, to left and right of the icon. Transliterated into Romaji it reads thus:--

(Kaimyō.)

_Tei-Shō-In_, HŌ-SŌ MYŌ-SHIN, _Daishi_.

(Record.)

--Shōtoku Ni, Jin shin Shimotsuki, jiu-ku nichi.

[Translation:--

--_Great Elder-Sister_, WONDERFUL-REALITY-APPEARING-AT-THE-WINDOW-OF-LAW, _dwelling in the Mansion of the Pine of Chastity_.

--The nineteenth day of the Month of Frost,[65] second year of Shōtoku,[66]--the year being under the Dragon of Elder Water.]

For the sake of clearness, I have printed the posthumous name proper (_Hō-sō Myō-shin_) in small capitals, and the rest in italics. The first three characters of the inscription,--_Tei-Shō-In_,--form the name of the temple, or “mansion.” The pine, both in religious and secular poetry, is a symbol of changeless conditions of good, because it remains freshly-green in all seasons. The use of the term “Reality” in the kaimyō indicates the state of unity with the Absolute;--by “Window-of-Law” (Law here signifying the Buddha-state) must be understood that exercise of virtue through which even in this existence some perception of Infinite Truth may be obtained. I have already explained the final word, _Daishi_ (“great elder-sister”).

Less mystical, but not less beautiful, is this Nichiren kaimyō sculptured upon the grave of a young samurai:

_Ko-shin In, Ken-dō Nichi-ki, Koji._

[_Koji,--

Bright-Sun-on-the-Way-of-the-Wise, in the Mansion of Luminous Mind._][67]

On the same stone is carven the kaimyō of the wife:--

_Shin-kyō In, Myō-en Nichi-ko, Daishi._

[_Daishi,--

Spherically-Wondrous-Sunbeam, in the Mansion of the Mirror of the Heart._]

Perhaps the reader will now be able to find interest in the following selection of kaimyō, translated for me by Japanese scholars. The inscriptions are of various rites and epochs; but I have arranged them only by class and sex:--

[MASCULINE KAIMYŌ.]

_Koji,--

Law-Nature-Eternally-Complete, in the Mansion of the Mirror of Light._

_Koji,--

Lone-Moon-above-Snowy-Peak, in the Mansion of Quiet Light._

_Koji,--

Wonderful-Radiance-of-Luminous-Sound, in the Mansion of the Day-dawn of Mind._

_Koji,--

Pure-Lotos-bloom-of-the-Heart, in the Mansion of Shining Beginnings._

_Koji,--

Real-Earnestness-Self-sufficing-within, in the Mansion of Mystery-Penetration._

_Koji,--

Wonderful-Brightness-of-the-Clouds-of-Law, in the Mansion of Wisdom-Illumination._

_Koji,--

Law-Echo-proclaiming-Truth, in the Mansion of Real Zeal._

_Koji,--

Ocean-of-Reason-Calmly-Full, in the Mansion of Self-Nature._

_Koji,--

Effective-Benevolence-Hearing-with-Pure-Heart-the-Supplications-of- the-Poor,--dwelling in the Mansion of the Virtue of Pity._

_Koji,--

Perfect-Enlightenment-beaming-tranquil-Glory,--in the Mansion of Supreme Comprehension._

_Koji,--

Autumnal-Prospect-Clear-of-Cloud,--of the Household of Sakyamuni,--in the Mansion of the Obedient Heart._

_Koji,--

Illustrious-Brightness,--of the Household of the Buddha,--in the Mansion of Conspicuous Virtue._

_Koji,--

Daily-Peace-Home-Prospering, in the Mansion of Spherical Completeness._

* * * * *

_Shinshi,--

Prosperity-wide-shining-as-the-Moon-of-Autumn._

_Shinshi,--

Vow-abiding-wondrously-without-fault._

_Shinshi,--

Vernal-Mountain-bathed-in-the-Light-of-the-Law._

_Shinshi,--

Waking-to-Dhyâna-at-the-Bell-Peal-of-the-Wondrous-Dawn._

_Shinshi,--

Winter-Mountain-Chastity-Mind._[68]

[FEMININE KAIMYŌ]

_Daishi,--

Moon-Dawn-of-the-Mountain-of-Light, dwelling in the August Mansion of Self-witness._[69]

_Daishi,--

Wondrous-Lotos-of-Fleckless-Light, in the Mansion of the Moonlike Heart._

_Daishi,--

Wonderful-Chastity-Responding-with-Pure-Mind-to-the-Summons-of- Duty,--in the Mansion of the Great Sea of Compassion._

_Daishi,--

Lotos-Heart-of-Wondrous-Apparition,--in the Mansion of Luminous Perfume._

_Daishi,--

Clear-Light-of-the-Spotless-Moon, in the Mansion of Spring-time-Eve._

_Kaishi,--

Pure-Mind-as-a-Sun-of-Compassion, in the Mansion of Real Light._

_Daishi,--

Wondrous-Lotos-of-Fragrance-Etherial, in the Mansion of Law-Nature._

_Shinnyo,--

Rejoicing-in-the-Way-of-the-Infinite._

_Shinnyo,--

Excellent-Courage-to-follow-Wisdom-to-the-End._

_Shinnyo,--

Winter-Moon-shedding-purest-Light._

_Shinnyo,--

Luminous-Shadow-in-the-Plumflower-Chamber._

_Shinnyo,--

Virtue-fragrant-as-the-Odor-of-the-Lotos._

[CHILDREN’S KAIMYŌ.--MALE.]

_Dai-Dōji,[70]--

Instantly-Attaining-to-the-Perfect-Peace, dwelling in the August Mansion of Purity._

_Dai-Dōji,[71]--

Permeating-Lucidity-of-the-Pure-Grove, dwelling in the August Mansion of Blossom-Fragrance._

_Gaini,--

Frost-Glimmer._

_Dōji,--

Dewy-Light._

_Dōji,--

Dream-of-Spring._

_Dōji,--

Spring-Frost._

_Dōji,--

Ethereal-Nature._

_Dōji,--

Rain-of-the-Law-from-translucent-Clouds._

[CHILDREN’S KAIMYŌ.--FEMALE.]

_Dai-Dōnyo,[72]--

Bright-Shining-Height-of-Wisdom, dwelling in the August Mansion of Fragrant Trees._

_Gainyo,--

Snowy-Bubble._

_Gainyo,--

Shining-Phantasm._

_Dōnyo,--

Plumflower-Light._

_Dōnyo,--

Dream-Phantasm._

_Dōnyo,--

Chaste-Spring._

_Dōnyo,--

Wisdom-Mirror-of-Flawless-Appearing._

_Dōnyo,--

Wondrous-Excellence-of-Fragrant-Snow._

After having studied the sotoba-texts previously cited, the reader should be able to divine the meaning of most of the kaimyō above given. At all events he will understand such frequently-repeated terms as “Moon,” “Lotos,” “Law.” But he may be puzzled by other expressions; and some further explanation will, perhaps, not be unwelcome.