Thirty_Years_of_Buddhist_studies,Conze

32 Thirty Years of Buddhist Studies
ments. So far, however, the literature available on Sotd 1 seems
rather uninteresting and elusive. This may be because the sect
has so far not been able to mobilize any great literary talent,
and its books are usually badly written by persons none too
familiar with the English language. Or perhaps the Sotd monks
are really serious about their not theorizing and having no
thought, and confine themselves to sitting in Zazen, an activity
which has little entertainment value for onlookers. The future
will show.
This concludes the three articles in which I have described
to the best of my knowledge the progress made in Buddhist
studies during the last twenty years. Concentrating on essentials
and on publications of unimpeachable scholarship, I have
tried to indicate the extent to which our knowledge of Buddhist
history has been revolutionized since the end of the last war.
Through the devoted labours of scholars all over the world we
now have gained access to a very wide range of documents
representing the different lineages in which the holy doctrine
has been handed on. It is up to us to see to it that the rain which
has descended so abundantly from the Rain-cloud of the
dharma actually nourishes our spiritual faculties, and does not
just go down the drain of a mere intellectual curiosity.
1 R. Masunaga, The Sotd approach to Zen, 1958, contains on pp. 81-192
extracts from Dogen's writings. The only well written accounts are those
translated by R. T. Leggett in my Buddhist Scriptures, 1959. pp. 134—44.