..续本文上一页[laughs], smoking cigarettes [laughs, laughter], is Buddhism. “Oh, this is Buddhism. There is no—actually there is no such a tradition of Buddhism. This is Buddhism.” That”s not, you know, Buddhism. Those who practice—those who participate in cosmic self, self-use of cosmic existence, can deny Buddhism. For—for—for them—for us there is no Buddhism, no particular Buddhism. But for them there are Buddhists [laughs] because they have their own field of study, and Buddhism is something different from their understanding of their study or way of study. Did you understand

　　That is to go up and to go down. That is cosmic [laughs] symbol. Here we have cosmic circle. There is no Buddhism in this realm. So we say, “Just sit. There is no Buddha or no good or bad.”

　　Tonight we have discussion, and Bishop Sumi[13] will come on Saturday morning. He will join us from one o”clock. And he will give us lecture from one o”clock. So if you have question, please ask me before he comes.

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　　[1] The beginning of the lecture was not recorded on tape. The phrase in brackets was inserted by the transcribers.

　　[2] (Patrick) Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904): essayist, journalist, and teacher. Son of an Irish father and Greek mother, Hearn settled in Japan in 1890 after living in America for several years. In Japan he taught English and wrote extensively about the country, its myths, and its history. His essays became the West”s most popular source of information about the recently “opened” Japan.

　　[3] Yaizu, in Shizuoka Prefecture, is where Suzuki-rōshi”s temple Rinso-in is located. Yaizu is a fishing village facing the Pacific Ocean, southwest of Mishima on Honshū, the main island of Japan. From 1897 until his death in 1904, Hearn spent every summer at the seacoast in Yaizu, on the second floor of a fish shop owned by Yamaguchi Otokichi, whom Hearn regarded as “the most amiable Japanese he had ever known.” As Suzuki-rōshi was born in 1904, he may have bought fish from the very same Mr. Yamaguchi or passed by his shop. Hearn”s 1899 essay “At Yaidzu,” from In Ghostly Japan, describes a Bon festival in Yaizu.

　　[4] Matsue, in Shimane Prefecture, is a castle city near the Japan Sea, along the northern coast of Honshū. Hearn lived there briefly while teaching English at a local school. His impressions of Matsue are recorded in his 1894 essay “In a Japanese Garden,” from Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan.

　　[5] Hearn”s story “Miminashi Hōïchi” (“Earless Hōïchi”), from Kwaidan (1904), is an example of a literary work based on The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari), a famous epic about the rise and fall of the Heike (Taira) clan and the eventual victory of the Minamoto (Genji) clan.

　　[6] A biwa is a Japanese stringed instrument resembling a lute. Suzuki-rōshi is probably referring to a biwa-hōshi, one of the blind storytellers who memorized and recited (in a style similar to a Buddhist chant) The Tale of the Heike throughout Japan as they played the biwa in accompaniment.

　　[7] Dan-no-ura (also Dannoura): A beach along the Shimonoseki Straights, in the extreme southwest tip of Honshū, Japan, near which a critical naval battle was fought in 1185 when the Genji decisively defeated the Heike. This battle brought the Gempei war to an end and began the Kamakura Era of shōguns.

　　[8] The Heike (Taira, Reike, or Reiji) clan held great power during the 11th and 12th centuries. They engaged in a protracted struggle with the Genji (Minamoto) clan. The story cited by Suzuki-rōshi refers to the defeat of the warlord Taira Munemori (1147–1185) by Genji forces in 1185.

　　[9] The Minamoto (Genji) clan, from whom descended the three great shōgun families: Minamoto, Ashikaga, and Tokugawa.

　　[10] Inland Sea: the sea south of the Honshū mainland, between Honshū and the islands of Shikoku and Kyūshū. Dan-no-ura is at the extreme west end of the Inland Sea.

　　[11] Some Heike crabs (Heike-gani) have a shell that resembles the face of a scowling samurai—the vanquished samurai army of the Heike clan. Such crabs are considered sacred and are returned to the sea if caught by local fishermen. In that sea are also golden fish called Koheike, which are regarded as the embodiment of Heike women who drowned at Dan-no-ura.

　　[12] Hōïchi is the name of the biwa-hōshi in Hearn”s story “Miminashi Hōïchi” (“Earless Hōïchi”). He played the lute and “chanted the chant of the fight on the bitter sea” at Dan-no-ura for the samurai, royal, and other Taira ghosts of the battle.

　　[13] Bishop Sumi Togen: formerly an instructor of monks at Sōji-ji, in 1965 he succeeded Yamada Reirin as head of the Sōtō Zen School in America.

《Summer Sesshin Lecture: 1PM - July 29 1965 2nd Talk》全文阅读结束。