Teitaro Suzuki - Manual of Zen Buddhism

2. Symbol of emptiness ( sunyata ).

3. No extra property he has, for he knows that the desire to possess is the curse of human life.

1. Left to his disciples as his last words when he was about to pass away.

2. This is Dai-o Kokushi's own name, Dai-o being his posthumous honorary title.

1. In those monasteries which are connected in some way with the author of this admonition, it is read or rather chanted before a lecture or Teisho begins.

1. Muso Daishi is the honorific title posthumously given by an Emperor to Kwanzan Kokushi, the founder of Myoshinji, Kyoto, which is one of the most important Zen headquarters in Japan. All the Zen masters of the present day in Japan are his descendants. Some doubt is cherished about the genuineness of this Admonition as penned by Kwanzan himself, on the ground that the Content is too “grandmotherly”.

1. Respectively: April 8, December 8, and February 15.

1. The Training of the Zen Monk , p. 40.

1. See also my Training of the Zen Monk , p. 106.

2. Ibid., p. 44.

1. Fas. XXVII.

2. Introduction to Zen Buddhism, p. 58.

3. Zen Essays, III, Plates XIV and XV, with their accompanying explanations.

4. Ibid. Plates X and XVI, and also Second Series.