Dogen Sangha Blog

  by Gudo NISHIJIMA

Japanese / German

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Gautama Buddha's personality (1)

Buddhism, that is Gautama Buddha's teachings, were established by Gautama Buddha in Ancient India about from 5th Century to 4th Century B.C. He was the first son of Suddhodana, who was the king of a district called Kapilavastu, and so Gautama Buddha was at a position to succeed his Father's position as the king. Just after Gautama Buddha's birth, his father showed his first son to a physiognomist, and then the physiognomist said that "If your son maintain his life in a secular societies, he will become a great king, who will govern the whole world of India, but if he become a monk, he will become a
very great thinker, who will save all people in the world. Therefore the king, who was the father of Gautama Buddha, wanted for his son to become the king of the whole India than becoming the great thinker, who will save all people in the world. Therefore the King gave three residences, which were very comfortable for Gautama Buddha to stay there for the four seasons, and he made his efforts for his son to maintain himself in his secular life without becoming the great thinker, who could have an ability to save the whole people in the world. However Gautama Buddha was a very clever boy, and at the same time he was a very sensitive one since his childhood. One day he was watching a farmer, who was cultivating the fields in the castle. At that time the farmer cut an earthworm in the ground. Just at the moment, a bird, which was flying in the sky, suddenly came down to the field, and picked up a piece of the earthworm to come back to the sky. And looking at the scene, Gautama Buddha was very shocked, and he noticed that all living beings have to kill other living beings for maintain their own lives without any exception.

4 Comments:

Blogger Smoggyrob said...

Master Nishijima:

Thank you for this look at the Buddha's life. I find myself waiting for each new post you write.

Would you be so kind as to speak more on Buddhism and Realism, or the Three Philosphies and One Reality?

And Mike, I couldn't find an email address for you, so forgive this public note. You deleted a post I really felt. Yeah man, I'll struggle with you, and so what if I liked Hardcore Zen?

I think the thing is, to stop struggling. So much easier said than done. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from you. Just probably not as much about AT as you would like. : )

Also, thank you for your work on Shobogenzo. Being as difficult to read as it is (I plan to finish volume one in 2007), I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to translate.

Buddhism is just realism. Man, I am missing /so/ much in that little sentence.

Rob Robbins

1:22 PM, December 17, 2005  
Blogger Smoggyrob said...

Master Nishijima:

On re-reading my post, I find it more abrupt than I intended. I'm looking forward eagerly to Gautama Buddha's personality (2), (3), as many as you care to write.

Eh, I don't know for a fact that Master Nishijima reads these comments.

I'll bow anyway.

Rob Robbins

1:45 PM, December 17, 2005  
Blogger Lone Wolf said...

Jundo Jim thanks for putting the first chapter of A Heart To Heart Chat On Buddhism With Old Master Gudo. I have been meaning to buy this book and now I really want to buy it.

3:47 PM, December 17, 2005  
Blogger GUDO NISHIJIMA said...

For SmoggyRob San

Thank you very much for your kindness to read my Dogen Sangha Blog. Of course I will continue it further until my death.

It is just the favorite job for me to post the blog nowadays.

I think, that Buddhism and Realism, or the Three Philosophies and One Reality, is the most important theme of the True Buddhist Philosophy.

On our translation of Shobogenzo into English, Mike Cross San insists that the translation has been completed by himself only, but such an insistense is completely wrong. Because before we published our English translation by me and Mike Cross San, I translated Shobogenzo into modern Japanese first, because of so much difficulty of the original text.
Then I translated the total volume of Shobogenzo into English by myself again, and after finishing it, I asked for him to polish my Japanese English into his fluent English. Fortunately he has also ability to read Japanese sentences, and so I guess that he has checked the original text directly, but before his polishing of my translation into English has existed already clearly, I think that it is very dishonest for him to insist that the translation has been accomplished by himself only, actually. Before reading his so unfair descriptions, I have had my so perfect confidence in his personality, but having exprienced such a kind of so immoral behavior, I have lost my confidence in him perfectly.

My strong insistence that "Buddhism is just Realism" comes from my so stupidly long and sincere efforts to pursue the Truth for more than 60 years.


For Smoggy Rob San (again)

Of course I will continue my blog until my death. Thank you very much for your kindness to read my blog.

I am very sorry that I have begun to read the many comments by readers recently because I was so busy before. Therefore I am following the many comments from the readers from the beginnig of my blog one by one for writing my comments.

Thank you very much again.


For Jundo Jim San

Thank you very much for your kind promotion of my book "A Heart To Heart Chat On Buddhism With Old Master Dudo."


For Lone Wolf San

Thank you very much.

6:26 PM, March 15, 2006  

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