MAN AND NATURE

Man's Relationship to Nature ?

	There is no division between man and nature. Nature is your friend or one of your comrades, or yourself who will become Buddha at last. Both of man and nature obey the Dharma(truth, or the universal norms). So man respects and loves nature. Nature sometimes teaches you the teachings of the Buddha as follows.
	Su Tung-po(1036-1101) became enlightened when hearing the sound of the mountain stream at night. He composed a poem, "The sounds of mountain stream are just as the teachings of the Buddha. The shape of the mountain is just as the body of the Buddha. I heard about 84,000 poems in praise of the Buddha throughout the night. ..." (by Dogen)
	When Zen-Master Hsiang-yen ( -898) was sweeping a road some day, he became enlightened suddenly at the instant of hearing a stone hitting bomboos. (by Dogen)

"How can you return the nature to you ?" "You cannot discuss the return because there is no opposition between man and nature. You are the nature. " (Buddism think that subjectivity and objectivity should not be distinguished. Child does not distinguish them. He can be a superman or Mickel. She can be the first lady or princess. As soon as he or she learned how to distinguish them and how to compare big and small thing, he or she dived into a illusion pond.)

"References" 1)Daisetsu Suzuki, Second series of Zen and Japanese culture, Daisetsu Suzuki's complete works Vol.11(in Japanese), Iwanami(1999). 2)Dogen, Shobogenzo Vol.9, Kei-sei-san-shiki(1240)


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