Lieutenant Colonel Sugimoto Goro: Green Dragon Zen +^

[Chas.]

Toxic Zen Story #12: Green Dragon Zen: Imperial State Zen and the Ideal Zen Warrior Lieutenant Colonel Sugimoto Goro.

From the writings of Lieutenant Colonel Sugimoto Goro:

| 'When Shakyamuni sat in meditation beneath the
| Bodhi tree in order to see into his true nature,
| he had to fight with an army of innumerable
| demons. Those who rush forward to save the empire
| are truly great men as he was, pathfinders who
| sacrifice themselves for the emperor...'
|.
| 'Zen Master Dogen said, "To study the Buddha
| Dharma is to study the self. To study the self
| is to forget the self." To forget the self means
| to discard both body and mind. To discard beyond
| discarding, to discard until there is nothing
| left to discard.... This is called reaching the
| Great Way in which there is no doubt. This is the
| Great Law of the universe. In this way the great
| spirit of the highest righteousness and the
| purest purity manifests itself in the individual.
| This is the unity of the sovereign and his
| subjects, the origin of faith in the emperor...'
|.
| 'Warriors who sacrifice their lives for the
| emperor win not die. They will live forever.
| Truly, they should be called gods and Buddhas for
| whom there is no life or death.... Where there is
| absolute loyalty there is no life or death. Where
| there is life and death there is no absolute
| loyalty. When a person talks of his view of life
| and death, that person has not yet become pure in
| heart. He has not yet abandoned body and mind. In
| pure loyalty there is no life or death. Simply
| live in pure loyalty!'

____ Background for Toxic Zen Stories ____________________

https://groups.google.com/group/alt.zen/msg/b4ad0ce368728934?hl=en

____ Introduction ________________________________________

Dogen (1200-1253): The founder of the Japanese Soto school of Zen.
Dogen would quote the Lotus Sutra, but did not consider it any differently from other sutras of the Buddha, this in spite of the Buddha's own admonition to consider it higher than the previous (Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings and before) and following sutras (Nirvana Sutra and later). Hence, only provisional truth and partial enlightenment could be had from it by him. The kind of enlightenment that leads to compassionless domination of others ... as mere, empty extensions of one's own Solipsistic body.

Dogen was popular with the government, because his teachings removed the compassion from Samurai and Daimyo, rendering them fierce and merciless warriors, who would shun no tactic to win, no matter how vile.
________________________________________________

Before the Imperial Zen of World War II Japan there was Imperial Way Buddhism, that united all the Buddhisms in Japan under State Shinto, which was under the complete control of the Zen Bushido-following militarists and their fanatical sect of self-styled Samurai warriors.

Saeki Join, in a book entitled Nation Protecting Buddhism (Gokoku Bukkyo) writes in an essay:

| 'As expressed in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha
| in his compassion regards the three worlds as
| members of his family. That is to say, he doesn't
| think of his family as composed of just his blood
| relatives, or only the few members of his
| immediate family, or simply those in his local
| area.'
|.
| 'No, his family includes everyone in the whole
| world, in the entire universe. For him, everyone
| in the world is a member of his family. In fact,
| he does not limit his family members to human
| beings alone. Even animals and all living things
| are included.'
|.
| 'There is nothing that the Tathagata in his
| great compassion does not wish to save.'
|.
| 'There is no one who he does not consider to
| be his child.'
|.
| 'When this faith in the great compassion and
| mercy of the Tathagata is applied to the
| political world, there is not a single member of
| the Japanese nation who is not a child of the
| emperor.'
|.
| 'This expresses in the political realm the
| ideal of a system centered on the emperor.'

Dr. Shiio Benkyo, a Jodo priest, wrote in an essay, also in Nation Protecting Buddhism (Gokoku Bukkyo):

| 'The reason that Buddhism was able to develop
| in Japan was completely due to the imperial
| household, especially to the fact that each of
| the successive emperors personally believed in
| and guided Buddhism so that it could accomplish
| its task. Although it is true that Japanese
| Buddhism has developed through the power of
| devotion of illustrious priests and lay persons,
| the fact that such persons were able to believe
| and practice their faith was due to the imperial
| household and emperors who fostered its
| development through the continual issuance of
| imperial edicts and their own personal example.
| This is something that cannot be seen in other
| countries. It is for this reason it ought to be
| called imperial way Buddhism.'

Soto Zen Chief Priest of Eiheiji, Hata Esho. wrote in a 1938 edition of Buddhist:

| 'Buddha Shakyamuni, during his religious
| practice in a former life, participated in a just
| war. Due to the merit he acquired as a result, he
| was able to appear in this world as a Buddha.
| Thus, it can be said that a just war is one task
| of Buddhism. Likewise, achieving the capitulation
| of the enemy country may also be counted as the
| religious practice of a Buddhist.'
|.
| 'I believe the brilliant fruits of battle that
| have been achieved to date are the result of the
| power of the people's religious faith.'
_________________________________________________

However, once the battle is joined, the distorted views of Imperial Way Buddhism are transformed into the battle logic of Imperial Zen and its most heartless weapon: Bushido, the Zen warrior's way.

As the Tripartite Pact was being celebrated in Berlin, Ambassador Kurusu Saburo said:

| 'The pillar of the Spirit of Japan is to be
| found in Bushido. Although Bushido employs the
| sword, its essence is not to kill people, but
| rather to use the sword that gives life to
| people. Using the spirit of this sword, we wish
| to contribute to world peace.'
_________________________________________________

Seki Seisetsu, the head of the Tenryuji branch of the Rinzai Zen Sect, and a military chaplain, wrote in The Promotion of Bushido (Bushido no Koyo) just after the successful Pearl Harbor attack:

| 'The true significance of military power is to
| transcend self-interest, to hope for peace. This
| is the ultimate goal of the military arts.
| Whatever the battle may be, that battle is
| necessarily fought in anticipation of peace. When
| one learns the art of cutting people down, it is
| always done with the goal of not having to cut
| people down. The true spirit of Bushido is to
| make people obey without drawing one's sword and
| to win without fighting. In Zen circles this is
| called the sword which gives life. Those who
| possess the sword that kills must, on the other
| hand, necessarily wield the sword which gives
| life.'

Does this not remind you of the current Pentagon theory of overwhelming force?
Does this not remind you of the terrorist's intent to subjugate the masses (as in Germany and France) by fear into being the spokesman for the terrorist at every turn in the hope that the next target will not be in 'my country'?

| 'From the Zen vantage point, where Manjushri
| [the bodhisattva of wisdom] has used his sharp
| sword to sever all ignorance and desire, there
| exists no enemy in the world. The very best of
| Bushido is to learn that there is no enemy in the
| world rather than to learn to conquer the enemy.
| Attaining this level, Zen and the sword become
| completely one, just as the Way of Zen and the
| Way of the Warrior [Bushido] unite. United in
| this way, they become the sublime leading spirit
| of society.'
|.
| 'At this moment, we are in the sixth year of
| the sacred war, having arrived at a critical
| juncture. All of you should obey imperial
| mandates, being loyal, brave, faithful, frugal,
| and virile. You should cultivate yourselves more
| and more both physically and spiritually in order
| that you don't bring shame on yourselves as
| imperial soldiers. You should acquire a bold
| spirit like the warriors of old, truly doing your
| duty for the development of East Asia and world
| peace. I cannot help asking this of you.'

____ Toxic Zen Story ______________________________

Colonel Sugimoto died in 1937 in Northern China. In death, he was the ideal Zen Warrior, precisely because he could not dishonor himself in any way, and thus could be held aloft with complete safety. He wrote much about his pursuit of the Zen ideal during his life, and it became a fine set of essays to promote the Imperial Zen view of the soldier's way and the value of his life:

| 'The emperor is identical to the Great Goddess
| Amaterasu. He is the supreme and only God of the
| universe, the supreme sovereign of the universe.
| All of the many components including such things
| as its laws and constitution, its religion,
| ethics, learning, and art, are expedient means by
| which to promote unity with the emperor. That is
| to say, the greatest mission of these components
| is to promote an awareness of the nonexistence of
| the self and the absolute nature of the emperor.
| Because of the nonexistence of the self
| everything in the universe is a manifestation of
| the emperor ... including even the insect
| chirping in the hedge, or the gentle spring
| breeze.'
| .......
|.
| 'This great awareness will dearly manifest
| itself at the time you discard secular values and
| recognize that the emperor is the highest,
| supreme value for all eternity. If, on the other
| hand, your ultimate goal is eternal happiness for
| yourself and salvation of your soul, the emperor
| becomes a means to an end and is no longer the
| highest being. If there is a difference in the
| degree of your reverence for the emperor based on
| your learning, occupation, or social position,
| then you are a self-centered person. Seeking
| nothing at all, you should simply completely
| discard both body and mind, and unite with the
| emperor.'
| .......
|.
| 'When Shakyamuni sat in meditation beneath the
| Bodhi tree in order to see into his true nature,
| he had to fight with an army of innumerable
| demons. Those who rush forward to save the empire
| are truly great men as he was, pathfinders who
| sacrifice themselves for the emperor.'
| ........
|.
| 'Zen Master Dogen said, "To study the Buddha
| Dharma is to study the self. To study the self
| is to forget the self." To forget the self means
| to discard both body and mind. To discard beyond
| discarding, to discard until there is nothing
| left to discard.... This is called reaching the
| Great Way in which there is no doubt. This is the
| Great Law of the universe. In this way the great
| spirit of the highest righteousness and the
| purest purity manifests itself in the individual.
| This is the unity of the sovereign and his
| subjects, the origin of faith in the emperor.'
| .........
|.
| 'Warriors who sacrifice their lives for the
| emperor win not die. They will live forever.
| Truly, they should be called gods and Buddhas for
| whom there is no life or death.... Where there is
| absolute loyalty there is no life or death. Where
| there is life and death there is no absolute
| loyalty. When a person talks of his view of life
| and death, that person has not yet become pure in
| heart. He has not yet abandoned body and mind. In
| pure loyalty there is no life or death. Simply
| live in pure loyalty!'
| .........
|.
| 'The Zen that I do is not the Zen of the Zen
| sect. It is soldier Zen (gunjin Zen). The reason
| that Zen is important for soldiers is that all
| Japanese, especially soldiers, must live in the
| spirit of the unity of sovereign and subjects,
| eliminating their ego and getting rid of their
| self. It is exactly the awakening to the
| nothingness (mu) of Zen that is the fundamental
| spirit of the unity of sovereign and subjects.
| Through my practice of Zen I am able to get rid
| of my ego. In facilitating the accomplishment of
| this, Zen becomes, as it is, the true spirit of
| the imperial military.'
|.
| 'Within the military, officers must use this
| [Zen] spirit in the training of their troops. In
| the training of troops mere talk is not enough.
| If you don't set the example or put it into
| practice yourself, your training is a lie....
| What one hasn't seen for oneself cannot be taught
| to one's troops. As the senior, one must first be
| pure oneself. Otherwise, one cannot serve the
| state through extinguishing and discarding the
| ego.'

Here it is clear that Zen becomes something entirely different in the Martial Arts and especially in wartime. When the mind of great evil (War) arises in the life of a country, the Mind of Bodhidharma also arises. This is because they are not separate or distinct from each other, in any way.
_______________________________________________

After his death in 1937, Sugimoto's Zen Master, Yamazaki Ekiju, had this to say about him:

| 'As far as the power of his practice of the
| Way is concerned, I believe he reached the point
| where there was no difference between him and the
| chief abbot of this or that branch (Zen). I think
| that when a person esteems practice, respects the
| Way, and thoroughly penetrates the self as he
| did, he is qualified to be the teacher of other
| Zen practitioners. That is how accomplished he
| was. In my opinion his practice was complete.'
| .........
|.
| 'The essence of the unity of body and mind is
| to be found in egolessness. Japan is a country
| where the sovereign and the people are identical.
| When imperial subjects meld themselves into one
| with the august mind [of the emperor], their
| original countenance shines forth. The essence of
| the unity of the sovereign and the people is
| egolessness. Egolessness and self-extinction are
| most definitely not separate states. On the
| contrary, one comes to realize that they are
| identical.'
| .........
|.
| 'Altogether Sugimoto practiced Zen for nearly
| twenty years. Bodhidharma practiced facing the
| wall for nine years. Sugimoto's penetrating zazen
| was as excellent as that. He was thoroughly
| devoted to his unique imperial state Zen.'
| .........
|.
| 'I don't know what degree he had in the way of
| the sword, but it appears he was quite
| accomplished.... When he went to the battlefield
| it appears that he used the sword with
| consummate skill.... I believe he demonstrated
| the action that derives from the unity of Zen and
| the sword.'
| .........
|.
| 'Sugimoto asked, "Master, what kind of
| understanding should I have in going over
| there?"'
|.
| ' I answered, "You are strong, and your unit is
| strong. Thus I think you will not fear a strong
| enemy. However, in the event you face a small
| enemy, you must not despise them. You should read
| one part of the Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra
| every day. This will insure good fortune on the
| battlefield for the imperial military."'
| ..........
|.
| 'A grenade fragment hit him in the left
| shoulder. He seemed to have fallen down but then
| got up again. Although he was standing, one could
| not hear his commands. He was no longer able to
| issue commands with that husky voice of his....
| Yet he was still standing, holding his sword in
| one hand as a prop. Both legs were slightly bent,
| and he was facing in an easterly direction (the
| sunrise). It appeared that he had saluted though
| his hand was now lowered to about the level of
| his mouth. The blood flowing from his mouth
| covered his watch .... '
| ..........
|.
| 'From long ago, the true sign of a Zen priest
| has been his ability to pass away while doing
| zazen. Those who were completely and thoroughly
| enlightened, however... could die calmly in a
| standing position.... This was possible was due
| to samadhi power.'
| ...........
|.
| 'To the last second, Sugimoto was a man whose
| speech and actions were at one with each other.
| When he saluted and faced the east, there is no
| doubt that he also shouted, "May His Majesty, the
| emperor, live for ten thousand years!" It is for
| this reason that his was the radiant ending of an
| imperial soldier. Not only that, but his
| excellent example should be a model for future
| generations of someone who lived in Zen....'
|.
| 'Although it can be said that his life of
| thirty-eight years was all too short, for someone
| who has truly obtained samadhi power, long and
| short are not important. The great, true example
| of Sugimoto Goro was that of one who had united
| with emptiness, embodying total loyalty [to the
| emperor] and service to the state. I am convinced
| he is one of those who, should he be reborn seven
| times over, would reverently work to destroy the
| enemies of the emperor.'
____________________________________________________

What a perfect robot can be produced by Zen. What dedication to absolute egolessness, teamwork and obedience can be obtained.

What seems like a quiet forest dwelling monk in peacetime, becomes a robotic killer with no compassion at the right circumstances. And fully controllable by the state, which stands in for the Zen Master who has subjugated the package, readying that package for deploying as a reliable killing unit.

And they can be cloned !!!

In April 1943, in the official publication of the Eiheiji Temple of Soto Zen, Takizawa Kanyu wrote:

| 'In the past, there were men like the "god of
| war," Lieutenant Colonel Sugimoto Goro. He never
| complained about his food. No matter how humble
| it was, he ate it gladly, treating it as a
| delicacy. Further, he was indifferent to what he
| wore, wearing tattered, though never soiled,
| clothing and hats. This is according to Zen
| master Yamazaki Ekiju's description of the
| Colonel as contained in the latter's posthumous
| book, Great Duty.'

But Sugimoto's work had it's greatest effect near the end of the war, as Okuno Takeo writes:

| 'By 1943 and 1944, the war situation in the
| Pacific War had gradually worsened. Middle school
| students began to read Sugimoto Gor6s Great Duty
| with great enthusiasm.... By word of mouth we got
| the message, "Read Great Duty, it's terrific! It
| teaches what true reverence for the emperor
| really is!" I was then attending Azabu middle
| school (Tokyo).
|.
| 'In 1943 my friends and I took turns reading a
| single copy of Great Duty that we had among us.
| As a result, we decided to form a student club we
| called the Bamboo-Mind Society (Chikushin Kai) to
| put into practice the spirit of Great Duty....'
|.
| 'We brought in instructors from the outside
| and held study meetings. The same kind of Great
| Duty study circles sprang up in all the middle
| schools in Tokyo. We then started to communicate
| among ourselves.... I later learned that in
| almost all middle schools throughout Japan Great
| Duty had been fervently read and student study
| societies created.'

With the ultimate outcome that Ienaga Saburo describes:

| 'Made responsible for filling the quotas,
| teachers pressured the children directly by
| saying, "Any Japanese boy who doesn't get into
| this 'holy war' will be shamed for life." The
| teachers would visit a student's home and get his
| parents' tearful approval. Many boys in their
| mid-teens became youth pilots and youth tankers,
| or "volunteered" for service in Manchuria and
| Mongolia. These rosy-cheeked teenagers were put
| in special attack units and blew themselves up
| crashing into enemy ships.

____ Epilog _______________________________________

The Buddha's highest teachings were the purpose of the Buddha's advent on this earth.

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to drain people's compassion with discussions of the emptiness and meaninglessness of life which is just a void.

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to teach people to live in such a narrow and momentary way, that there would be no context for self-examination and conscience.

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to possess people's minds with such illogic as to befuddle their ability to choose correctly between what is good and what is evil.

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to teach people how to commit atrocities and genocide, in the exploration of their "infinite possibilities", or "new states of being".

The Buddha did not appear on this earth to teach people how to maim and kill with their hands efficiently, quietly, loudly, with increased terror inflicted, or to maximize their subjugation to control the public sentiments for political ends.

These are all profoundly evil distortions of the Buddha's true teachings, which introduce infinities in the variables holding good and evil, removing all shades of gray in the propositional calculus of value.

Simply stated, the Buddha made his advent on this earth with the purpose of teaching the compassionate way of the bodhisattva, which is at the heart of the true entity of all phenomena, which is the eternal Buddha at one with the eternal Law. Which is how to navigate the sea of sufferings of birth, aging, sickness and death. He originally set out on his path, because of his observation of the sufferings of common people and wanting to understand the source of those sufferings (enlightened wisdom) and how to transform those sufferings into unshakable happiness (enlightened action).

When you embrace the void, your initial intent to bring prosperity and security to your country doesn't matter ... the result is always the same: chaos and misery. And when you kill a Zen-corrupted despot (read this as Saddam Hussein) be prepared to receive his demons and become the same universally hated despot (read this as George W. Bush).

But things don't have to be that way ...
___________________________________________________

Nichiren Daishonin writes (Encouragement to a Sick Person, WND p. 78):

. "During the Former and Middle Days of the Law, the
. five impurities began to appear, and in the Latter
. Day, they are rampant. They give rise to the great
. waves of a gale, which not only beat against the
. shore, but strike each other. The impurity of
. thought has been such that, as the Former and
. Middle Days of the Law gradually passed, people
. transmitted insignificant erroneous teachings
. while destroying the unfathomable correct
. teaching. It therefore appears that more people
. have fallen into the evil paths because of errors
. with respect to Buddhism than because of secular
. misdeeds."

Because Bodhidharma discarded the Buddha's highest teaching (the Lotus Sutra), and due to his lazy nature turned to shortcuts to enlightenment, he came to the distorted view that life is acausal and empty, that the true entity is the void.

This erroneous view really comes from a misunderstanding of the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings, where the True Entity is described by negation (the only way it can be): "... neither square, nor round, neither short, nor long, ..."

The description of the True Entity is logically voidal, but the True Entity itself is not. Bodhidharma was simply confused, due to the slander of negligence (laziness), and false confidence. The truth of life is that at the heart of the True Entity is the compassion of a bodhisattva for others.

Non-substantiality does not mean empty. Life has value. Humans are respectworthy. There is a purpose to everything. And every cause has an effect, so we are responsible for our thoughts, words and deeds. Zen is acausal. Zen is the greatest poison, which compares to the even greater medicine of the Lotus Sutra.

Suffice it to say: the purpose of Zen in the world is to corrupt and undermine everything that is not based upon the truth and the true teaching. All religions, disciplines, institutions and organizations which are undermined by Zen will eventually fall after glaring revelation of their worst defects, sooner rather than later.

If there is some good in your family, locality, society and culture, or country that you would like to retain, then cease the Zen, and begin to apply the medicine of the Lotus Sutra to heal the Zen wound in your life.

"Zen is the work of devilish minds." - Nichiren

-Chas.

. a prescription for the poisoned ones:
.
. The only antidote for the toxic effects of Zen in your life ...
.
. be that from Zen meditation, or the variant forms: physical
. Zen in the martial arts, Qigong, Acupuncture, Falun Gong,
. Copenhagen Convention of Quantum Mechanics, EST,
. Landmark Education, Nazism, Bushido, the Jesuits,
. Al Qaeda, or merely from having the distorted view that life
. is acausal, and that the true entity of all phenomena
. is the void ...
.
. with the effects of the loss of loved ones, detachment,
. isolation or various forms of emptiness in your life ...
.
. is the Lotus Sutra: chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo
. at least 3 times, twice a day, for the rest of your life,
. in at least a whisper ...
.
. and if you can, chant abundantly in a resonant voice !!!
.
. The full 28 Chapters of the Lotus Sutra,
. Nichiren Daishonin's Gosho volumes I and II,
. the Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings
. (Gosho Zenshu, including the Ongi Kuden) and the
. SGI Dictionary of Buddhism are located at:
.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/
.
. To find an SGI Community Center:
.
http://www.sgi-usa.org/sgilocations/
__________________________________

Quoting from "The Entity of the Mystic Law", Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 418 ...

The Complete and Final Teaching on Perfect Enlightenment Sutra declares, "The beginningless illusions and ignorance that beset all living beings are all produced by the perfectly enlightened mind of the Thus Come Ones."