SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

The Basic Thought of Buddhism 17but Christ.Ó The Chinese Buddhist monk S‡j‡ (C. Seng-chao,384Ð414) writes, ÒThe true saint neither has a self nor has not aself.Ó If we can discard a thing as small as our self, then we canexperience a thing as large as the universe.We can arrive at selflessness only by robust faith. Desirefor personal gain is nothing more than the dictates of our lustfulself. Selflessness, on the other hand, does away with thedistinction between oneself and others and achieves a fundamentalunity rich in all-embracing compassion which makes usvow to accept all beings, rejecting none. This vow is truly amanifestation of the heart of Buddha. At the same time that theBuddha transcends us, he is embracing us.The laws Buddhism teaches are all organically related toeach other. Each of the three fundamental ideas that Òall thingsare impermanent,Ó Òall things arise from causation,Ó and Òallthings are without self, (Skt. tman),Ó contains the other twoideas within itself. Therefore, although Buddhism teachesthese three ideas, we can say that in reality there is but one basicidea expressed in three different ways. When we deeply experiencethese laws with our mind as well as body, then we shallachieve the quiet of nirvana. This quiet is describable as anabsolutely peaceful state of mind which is arrived at throughenlightenment which conquers ignorance and extinguishes theflames of lust, thereby developing within us a compassionatepersonality abounding in wisdom. We are enlightened as to