Lieutenant Colonel Sugimoto Goro: Green Dragon Zen -*
Disappointing Zen Stories
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!'
____ Preface: Zen Founder _________________________________
Zen is the snake that bites its own tail. If you embrace the void and
acausality, you will find yourself later in the midst of catastrophic
emptiness saying "how'd that happen?".
Under Prajnatara (Perfect Wisdom Shining Star) of India, there was a
disciple named Bodhidharma (Buddha Law). Under these grandiose names,
they studied the Buddha's teachings, after Buddhism had traveled East
to China. The Buddha foretold that Buddhism would fall into a Hellish
path in India, after the Buddha's highest teachings had moved on.
Bodhidharma was a native of Conjeeveram, near Madras in India. He
traveled from India and arrived at Ching-Ling (now Nanking), or
perhaps at Guangzhou (Canton), perhaps both. There, Bodhidharma met
with the Emperor's emissary (some say Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty,
see footnote), where they discussed the Sutras.
As Bodhidharma (also called Da Mo, or Ta Mo in China, and Daruma in
Japan) believed in dhyana or meditation upon the nothingness at the
heart of life, and as the Lotus Sutra had been translated into
Chinese by Kumarajiva who traveled from India a century earlier and
had served the Liang Dynasty well, the lesser and distorted teaching
of dhyana/ch'an/zen was rejected by practitioners of the highest
teaching, and Bodhidharma was banished from Imperial territory.
As an icchantika, or incorrigible disbeliever in the Lotus Sutra, he
could not be allowed to spread his teachings in the Emperor's domain
(they wished to live happily, you see). But by banishing him, they
did not act as bodhisattvas, to thoroughly correct his errors and not
let him slip away to corrupt others, and thusly fall into the hell of
incessant sufferings (Aviichi Hell) for countless lifetimes. Out of
this single uncompassionate act, much of the suffering of the world
has come.
After he was banished, Bodhidharma went to the Shaolin Monastery at
Loyang, West of Kaifeng in the Henan (Honan) Province of Western
China, where the Huang He (Yangtze or Yellow River) tumbles out of the
break between Zhongtiao Shan (2367m) on the North and Quanbao Shan
(2094m) on the South, to flood the rest of China. At the Shaolin
Monastery, he widely disseminated his distorted views of Buddhism,
corrupting first the Shaolin Monks and ultimately the rest of the
world.
Bodhidharma's school was known as Dhyana (from the Mahayana source),
or as Ch'an in China, and eventually as Zen in Japan. It comes to
flower in many different forms, in many different places down through
the ages.
Bodhidharma's very existence is denied by the Zen community,
rendering the life of their founder as itself a void. This allows no
one to be responsible, and the Zen community to walk away from the
train wreck. So let's assume that the history is true, and hold
Bodhidharma and Zen accountable, just this once. There was surely a
founder who brought Dhyana from India, however many names he is
called.
Footnotes on Wu-Ti:
Concerning Emperor Wu: from "The Selection of the Time - Nichiren,
disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha", Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p.
544:
. 'Those concerned about their next life would
. do better to be common people in this, the Latter
. Day of the Law, than be mighty rulers during the
. two thousand years of the Former and Middle Days
. of the Law. Why won't people believe this? Rather
. than be the chief priest of the Tendai school, it
. is better to be a leper who chants Nam-myoho-
. renge-kyo! As Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty said
. in his vow, "I would rather be Devadatta and sink
. into the hell of incessant suffering than be the
. non-Buddhist sage Udraka Ramaputra."'
This reference is to a document in which Emperor Wu (464--549), the
first ruler of the Liang dynasty, pledged not to follow the way of
Taoism. It actually says that he would rather sink into the evil paths
for a long period of time for going against Buddhism (yet nevertheless
forming a bond with it) than be reborn in heaven by embracing the non-
Buddhist teachings. This story appears in The Annotations on "Great
Concentration and Insight." Udraka Ramaputra was a hermit and master
of yogic meditation, the second teacher under whom Shakyamuni
practiced. He is said to have been reborn in the highest of the four
realms in the world of formlessness.
From the Encyclopedia Britannica:
. Wu-Ti: Born 464 , China. Died 549 , China
.
. Pinyin Wudi (posthumous name, or shih), personal
. name (hsing-ming) Hsiao Yen , temple name (miao-
. hao) (nan-liang) Kao-tsu founder and first emperor
. of the Southern Liang dynasty (502-557), which
. briefly held sway over South China. A great patron
. of Buddhism , he helped establish that religion in
. the south of China.
.
. Wu-ti was a relative of the emperor of the
. Southern Ch'i dynasty (479-502), one of the
. numerous dynasties that existed in South China in
. the turbulent period between the Han (206 BC-AD
. 220) and T'ang (618-907) dynasties. He led a
. successful revolt against the Southern Ch'i after
. his elder brother was put to death by the emperor.
. He proclaimed himself first emperor of the Liang
. dynasty in 502, and his reign proved to be longer
. and more stable than that of any other southern
. emperor in this period.
.
. A devout believer, Wu-ti diligently promoted
. Buddhism, preparing the first Chinese Tripitaka,
. or collection of all Buddhist scripts. In 527 and
. again in 529 he renounced the world and entered a
. monastery. He was persuaded to reassume office
. only with great difficulty. In 549 the capital was
. captured by a "barbarian" general, and Wu-ti died
. of starvation in a monastery.
____ Preface: Types of Zen _______________________________
There is a hierarchy of Zen, in power and toxicity. The lesser forms
of Zen pave the way in societies and cultures for the more powerful
forms. Once a society or culture is corrupted, in even the tiniest
way, by any form of Zen, the tendency will be to move inevitably
towards greater corruption by the more powerful and toxic variants. In
this way, Zen undermines everything that can be undermined in the
world, leaving only that which is incorruptible (the correct practice
of the Lotus Sutra). The hierarchy of Zen is as follows, in general
terms:
Physical Zen: All of the martial arts are based on Zen, starting
. with Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Karate, Aikido, JiuJitsu,
. Judo, Kendo, Bushido, Ninjitsu, etc. Tai Chi came from
. Shaolin Qigong, which also led to Acupuncture,
. Acupressure and Falun Gong. As the chaos in society
. grows, people need to feel they can protect themselves and
. their loved ones, and in this way they are corrupted further.
Christian Zen, Jewish Zen, Hindu Zen, Islamic Zen: These are
. basically mixtures, wherein the monotheist believer in a
. deity, feels they can practice Zen meditation without a
. problem, since it is not theistic. While this reasoning is true,
. it ignores the absolutely overwhelming corruption produced
. by Zen, which will ultimately undermine their belief system
. and every facet of their life, by bringing all of the negatives
. in the Zen adherent's's daily life and environment to the
. forefront, with increasing amplification and psychotic
. effect.
Nuremberg Zen: The widespread belief by a population, that
. the purpose of the Buddha's advent in the world was to
. teach Zen: that Zen is Buddhism. This is, of course, an
. absolutely distorted view of the Buddha's life and teachings.
. Shakyamuni made it transparently clear, at the very end of
. his life in the Nirvana Sutra, wherein he states that the Lotus
. Sutra is his highest teaching in the past, present and future,
. and is the purpose of his advent on this Earth, and that his
. followers should honestly discard provisional teachings
. (teachings other than the Lotus Sutra).
.
. Nuremberg Zen was promulgated first by D.T. Suzuki's
. work with Paul Carus, then by Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the
. Art of Archery (and the many who copies: Zen in the Art
. of Marketing, Sales, Bakery, etc.) and finally by Alan Watts,
. the Norman Vincent Peale of Zen. Nuremberg Zen creates
. the environment of chaos and widespread misery that are
. the preconditions for the spread of more toxic forms of
. Zen.
Stanford Zen: This is the Lay organization of Zen. It was
. developed in conjunction with the activities of Frederic
. Spiegelberg, a Lutheran who taught theology at the
. University of Dresden, and fleeing the effects of Nuremberg
. Zen in Germany, came to teach at Stanford, and founded
. the American Academy of Asian Studies with Alan Watts
. and others, which became the California Institute of Integral
. Studies, after it spawned Esalen with Richard Price and
. Michael Murphy. Esalen was the proving ground for the
. Large Group Awareness Therapy organizations, of which
. Werner Erhard's EST was most prominent. EST morphed
. into a business school executive training seminar
. organization called the Landmark Forum, or Landmark
. Education, which has now become the de facto Lay
. organization for Zen, projecting itself onto Wall Street and
. the Fortune 500.
Green Dragon Zen: In this category I place Soto, which is the
. parent of the Green Dragon Society, Rinzai, Fuke, Northern
. and Southern Chinese Ch'an sects, Vietnamese and Korean
. sects, and all the variant sects which practice the most toxic
. forms of Zen: those which actually use the Lotus Sutra as a
. means to promulgate their distorted views of Buddhism.
. This is the greatest slander of the Lotus Sutra which is
. possible. I lump them all under the Green Dragon banner
. (I'm sure they do not appreciate this, but that is not a
. concern), because Green Dragon has had a tradition of
. secret propagation, and penetration of new areas with the
. most aggressive intent to build a lasting foothold in every
. society it touches. All of the other sects in any locale, will
. orient themselves to the Green Dragon.
Nuremberg Zen, Physical Zen and the monotheist Zen mixtures will all
eventually pave the way for Stanford Zen and the Green Dragon, if they
are not themselves undercut by the king of sutras, the Lotus Sutra.
(Zen believers cannot resist the allure of greater power. When they
try the Lotus Sutra and find that it fills the void inside, they will
find they like it.)
Finally, there is the enabling group for all of the worst religious
and social movements in history:
Fellowship of Evil Friends: This loosely collected group of
. Occultists,Theology professors and educators, is at the
. branching point for most of corrupt religious movements
. of the world. This grandfather of this group is the occultist
. Meister Eckart, and it includes: Dietrich Eckart (Thule
. Society), Paul Carus (Open Court Publishing), Frederic
. Spiegelberg (Stanford, AAAS), Michael Murphy (Esalen),
. and a host of powerful media people, pundits, gurus and
. self-help authors. They are all quite happy to connect you
. up with some form of evil, but step back from
. commitment themselves, always stopping at the door, as
. you foolishly, trustingly pass through. In this way they
. catalyze the evil transformation, but survive its effects to
. spread further evil, later on.
____ Preface: Powers of Zen ______________________________
Variations upon Zen which have evolved into new strains and then major
branches of Zen, have increased their toxic power by piling slander
upon slander over hundreds of years. The greatest slanders are
attached to the most powerfully evil forms of Zen, which are those
that have attacked the Lotus Sutra directly or the votaries (devotees)
of the Lotus Sutra, the Sangha, directly. One can think of this with
the mathematical analogy of a powers of a variable, that Zen becomes
exponentially more powerful and evil as slanders are piled upon
slanders ...
[Zen] Bodhidharma discards the Lotus Sutra, seeking wisdom that is
from transmissions outside the sutras, transmitted from person to
person (ishin denshin). The families of Chinese Zen under
Bodhidharma's influence include: Dhyana, Ch'an, Western Ch'an, Qigong,
Tai-Chi, Acupuncture, and the Chinese and Korean Martial Arts up to
1200 CE.
[Zen Squared] Dogen uses the Lotus Sutra as a means to teach and
propagate Zen. The families of Japanese Zen under Dogen's influence
are: Soto Zen, Rinzai Zen, Green Dragon Zen, Bushido and the Japanese
Martial Arts up to 1500 CE.
[Zen Cubed] Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and the Tokugawa Shogunate use various
Samurai and Daimyo tactics, which are based on Zen, to subjugate and
crush Nichiren Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra in the 1500s and 1600s. The
families of Japanese Zen under the Tokugawa influence are: Soto Zen,
Rinzai Zen, Green Dragon Zen, Bushido and the Japanese Martial Arts up
to 1867 CE.
[Zen Squared Squared] After the Meiji regime's overthrow of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, the militarization and buildup of Japanese society
into an armed camp, forces all of Buddhism under Shinto, and Zen
becomes Imperial Way Zen. This ultimately leads to the crushing of the
Lay organization of Nikko's School of Nichiren Buddhism, the Soka
Kyoiku Gakkai and the imprisonment of their leaders during the war,
and the death of their President Tsunesaburo Makiguchi. The families
of Imperial Way Zen are: Soto Zen, Rinzai Zen, Green Dragon Zen,
Bushido and the Japanese Martial Arts up to 1945 CE.
[Zen to the 5th] American Lay Zen from George Leonard's [Esalen]
influence: the Large Group Awareness Therapy or Training sessions,
Werner Erhard's EST, Landmark Forum, Landmark Education Seminars.
____ Preface: Zen Offends the Law ________________________
There is a principle which is central to the Buddhism of the Lotus
Sutra: Oneness of Person and Law, known as Nimpo-ikka in Japanese.
It is eternally true that the Law and the Buddha are fused, to make
life as we know it.
Since, according to Nichiren in the Ongi Kuden (The Oral Teachings, or
class notes from his lectures on the Lotus Sutra, taken by Nikko), one
meaning of "Myoho" is that delusion and enlightenment are fused (this
is also explained in the essential teachings of the Lotus Sutra, in
the Juryo or Life Span chapter) ...
This means that even for deluded mortals, there is always a condition
of oneness of person and Law.
The implication of this, is that wherever there is a slander of the
Law, then nearby and coincident with it, there is a slander of
humanity, by the principle of the simultaneity of cause and effect.
Hence, wherever Zen is propagated widely, there will be in each and
every instance, Toxic Zen Stories to tell.
What follows is one of these ...
____ 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 !!!
.
. Nichiren Daishonin's Gosho and the
. SGI Dictionary of Buddhism are located at:
.
http://www.sgilibrary.org/writings.php
http://www.sgilibrary.org/dict.html
.
. The full 28 Chapters of the Lotus Sutra (and many other
. wonderful things) are online at the SGI website:
.
http://sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/Buddhism/LotusSutra/
.
. To find an SGI Community Center:
.
http://sgi-usa.org/thesgiusa/findus/
__________________________________
LS Chap. 2
If when I encounter living beings
I were in all cases to teach them the Buddha way,
those without wisdom would become confused
and in their bewilderment would fail to accept my teachings.
I know that such living beings have never in the past cultivated good
roots
but have stubbornly clung to the five desires,
and their folly and craving have given rise to affliction.
Their desires are the cause
whereby they fall into the three evil paths,
revolving wheel-like through the six realms of existence
and undergoing every sort of suffering and pain.
This anthology: