Chapter 13 Chapter Eleven Self-cultivation
A culture of self-cultivation may seem meaningless to foreign observers.Self-cultivation skills are very clear, but why bother yourself so much?Why hang yourself on a hook?Why concentrate on Dantian?Why are you so self-sufficient that you spend nothing?Why concentrate on exercising only one austerity, while utterly demanding no restraint on certain impulses which the outsider considers really important and should be disciplined?Especially those observers who have never learned self-cultivation skills in their own countries are most likely to misunderstand when they come to countries with high reliance on self-cultivation skills.
In America the skills and traditions of self-cultivation are less developed.Americans believe that if a person finds a possible goal in his life, he will exercise himself when necessary to achieve his chosen goal.Whether to exercise depends on his ideals, conscience or what Veblen called "an instinct of workmanship".In order to be a football player, he can accept strict discipline; in order to become a musician or achieve professional success, he can give up all entertainment.His conscience renounces wickedness and indiscretion.
But in America self-cultivation, unlike arithmetic, can be learned as a technical exercise, without regard to its application to particular cases.If there are people in the United States who teach this kind of practice, it is taught by leaders of certain religious sects in Europe or Hindu priests (swamis) who teach Indian cultivation methods.Even the religious practice of meditation and prayer, as taught and practiced by the Christian Saint Theresa or Saint John, is nearly extinct in America.
But the Japanese believe that whether it is a boy taking a middle school exam, a person participating in a fencing competition, or just a person living in aristocratic life, he must cultivate himself in addition to learning the specific content necessary to cope with the exam.No matter how good your test scores are, how superb your fencing skills are, and no matter how thoughtful your manners are, you must put aside your books, bamboo knives, or social activities for special practice.Of course, not all Japanese accept the mystical practice.But even those Japanese who do not practice recognize the term self-cultivation and its place in practical life.Japanese of all classes judge themselves and others by the prevailing notions of self-restraint.
The concept of Japanese self-cultivation can be roughly divided into two categories, one is to cultivate ability, and the other is not only to cultivate ability, but also has higher requirements.This second category, I call "round cooked".In Japan there is a distinction between the two, aimed at different psychological effects, based on different grounds, and identified by different external signs.The first category, that is, the self-cultivation of ability, has been described in many cases in this book.For example, the army officer said about his soldiers' daily exercises that lasted 60 hours, with only ten minutes of naps in between: "They already know how to sleep, what needs to be trained is not to sleep." In our opinion, this requirement It is too extreme, and its purpose is only to cultivate a behavioral ability.He was speaking of an accepted principle, mind-dominance, that the will should master a body that can withstand almost all training, and they ignored the law that the body would suffer if health were neglected.The entire Japanese theory of "renqing" is based on the idea that the demands of the body must be subordinated to the events of life, regardless of whether health permits or not, and regardless of whether the body itself allows and has been cultivated.In short, one should promote the Japanese spirit at any cost of self-cultivation.
However, expressing the Japanese point of view in this way may be too arbitrary.Because, in American everyday language, "at the price of whatever self-discipline" often means "at the price of whatever self-sacrifice", and there are " at the expense of any self-restraint".The American theory of training is that both men and women need to be trained and socialized from an early age, whether this training is imposed from the outside or reflected in the training of internal consciousness, and whether it is actively accepted or imposed by authority .Training is a form of repression, and the trainee resents the restriction of his wishes.He had to make sacrifices, and inevitably aroused rebellion.This point of view is not only the opinion of many American psychologists, but also the philosophy of parents raising each generation in the family.Because of this, the psychologist's analysis does contain many truths for our own society.The children "must sleep" when the time comes, and he knows from the attitude of his parents that sleep is a kind of self-repression.In many homes, the children make a loud noise every night, expressing their displeasure.He is already a trained American child, knowing that one "must" sleep, but still resisting.His mother also stipulated what he "must" eat, here are oatmeal, spinach, bread, orange juice, etc., but American children learn to oppose those "must" foods; "Good" food just doesn't taste good.This kind of practice in the United States does not exist in Japan, and it cannot be seen in some European countries, such as Greece.In America, growing up means breaking free from food repression.Grown-ups can eat delicious food without having to talk about whether it is good for the body.
But these ideas about sleep and food are trivial and insignificant compared with the whole Western concept of self-sacrifice.Parents make great sacrifices for their children, wives sacrifice their careers for their husbands, and husbands sacrifice their freedom for the sake of the family. These are the standard beliefs of Westerners.A society that doesn't require self-sacrifice is miraculous to Americans.But there is such a society.In such a society it is said that parents naturally love their children, that women prefer married life to other life, and that the man who is the breadwinner of his family is doing what he loves, like being a hunter or a gardener.What kind of self-sacrifice can this be called?Society emphasizes such interpretations, people agree to live by such interpretations, and the concept of self-sacrifice is hardly acknowledged.
Anything that Americans consider a "sacrifice" for someone else is seen in other cultures as an exchange.It is either seen as an investment, which will be rewarded later; or it is an equivalent reward for what was previously received.In such kingdoms, even the relationship between father and son is like this.The father takes care of the son in his childhood, and the son should repay the father in his old age or after his death.Every relation in business is also a kind of civil contract, which often requires the guarantee of reciprocity, one party undertakes the duty of patronage, and the other party undertakes the duty of service.As long as it is beneficial to both parties, no one thinks that the obligation he undertakes is a kind of "sacrifice".
In Japan, the coercive force behind serving others is, of course, mutual. It requires both equality and complementary responsibilities in the hierarchical relationship.Thus, the moral status of self-sacrifice is very different from that in the United States.The Japanese have always been particularly hostile to the teachings of Christian missionaries on self-sacrifice.They urge that the virtuous man should not regard service to others as oppressing himself.A Japanese said to me: "When we do what you call self-sacrifice, we feel that we are willing to do it, or that it is right. We have no regrets. Whether we actually How much sacrifice is made for others, and we don't think it is to improve our spiritual state, or should be rewarded." Like the Japanese, social life is organized around the core of meticulous mutual obligations, regardless of what is in it. "Self-sacrifice".They demand extreme obligations from themselves, and the traditional coercive force of mutual obligations keeps them from feeling the "self-pity" and "self-righteousness" that are so apt to arise in a nation of individualistic competition.
Therefore, if Americans are to understand the Japanese habit of self-cultivation in general, they must perform a surgical operation on the American concept of "self-discipline" (Self-discipline) sacrifice) and “frustration” and other growths were cut off.In Japan, one has to cultivate oneself to be a good athlete, like playing bridge, without any awareness of the "sacrifice" of this activity.Of course the training is rigorous, but that's inherent in the thing itself.Although a newborn baby is very "happy", it does not have the ability to "experience life".Only through spiritual training (or "self-cultivation") can we live a rich life and gain the ability to "experience life".This statement is usually translated as "Only so he can enjoy life" (Only so he can enjoy life).Self-cultivation can exercise the dantian (the place of self-control), and make life more open.
The reason why Japan cultivates self-cultivation of "ability" is to improve his own ability to manage life.They say that at the beginning of the training one may find it unbearable, but this feeling will soon pass away, because he will enjoy it after all, or he will abandon the training.Apprentices must play an outstanding role in business, teenagers must learn "judo", and daughters-in-law must learn to adapt to the requirements of their mother-in-law.It is also understandable that in the initial stages of training, people who are not used to the new demands want to avoid this discipline.At this time, their father will teach and say: "What do you want? To experience life, you must accept some training; if you give up self-cultivation, you will definitely be unhappy in the future. If you fall into this situation and suffer from social criticism, I will I won't protect you." To use their common saying, self-cultivation is to wear off "the rust on the body".It turns a man into a sharp knife.This is of course what they want.
That the Japanese place so much emphasis on self-cultivation for their own benefit does not mean that the extremes their moral law requires are not really serious repressions, and that such repressions do not lead to aggressive impulses.Americans understand this distinction in games and sports.A bridge player never complains about the self-sacrifice he must make in order to play well, never regards the time it takes to become an expert as "depressing."Still, doctors say there is a link between high levels of concentration and stomach ulcers and excessive physical tension when betting big money or chasing championships.The same thing happened to the Japanese.However, the coercive force of the idea of mutual obligation and the belief that self-cultivation is in one's own interest make the Japanese receptive to behavior that many Americans find unbearable.They pay far more attention to competent behavior than Americans do, and they do not make excuses for themselves, and do not blame others for life's dissatisfaction as often as we do.Nor do they often wallow in self-pity for not having what Americans call average happiness.They have been trained to be more aware of their "rust" than Americans.
"Mature" is a higher state of self-cultivation than cultivating "ability".This kind of self-cultivation skill is not easy for Westerners to understand only by reading related works written by Japanese, and Western scholars who specialize in this issue often don't pay much attention to it.They are sometimes called "quirks".In his writings, a French scholar considered it completely "disregarding common sense", saying that the most cultivated sect, Zen Buddhism, was "a collection of serious absurdities".However, what the Japanese are trying to achieve by this technique is by no means incomprehensible.Exploring this question will help us to shed light on Japanese spiritual mastery.
There are a series of words in Japanese to express the spiritual state of those who have reached "mellow" self-cultivation.Some of these words are used for actors, some for religious believers, some for swordsmen, and some for orators, painters, and tea masters.They generally have the same meaning.I will only cite one of them: "no self".It's a Zen term, popular among the upper classes.The state of "full familiarity" it expresses refers to the experience of "no barriers between will and action, and all hair is removed".Regardless of whether it is a secular experience or a religious experience, it is like an electric current flowing from the anode to the cathode.For those who have not reached the state of maturity, there seems to be an insulating board between will and action.The Japanese call this obstacle "watching me" and "obstructing me".After special training removes this obstacle, the "mellow" person is completely unaware of "what I am doing", as if the current flows freely in the circuit without exertion.This state is "one heart" or "one fate" (One-pointed), that is, the behavior is completely consistent with the image described in the actor's heart.
In Japan, very ordinary people have to strive to achieve this "mellow" state.Sir Charles Eliot, an English authority on Buddhism, said of a schoolgirl:
She came to the residence of a famous missionary in Tokyo and asked to become a Christian.The missionary asked her why, and she replied, because she wanted to fly.Asked her to talk about the relationship between airplanes and Christianity, she replied that she had heard that flying in an airplane requires a very calm and undisturbed mind, which can only be acquired through religious training.In her opinion, Christianity is probably the best religion among religions, so she came here for advice.
The Japanese not only associate Christianity with airplanes, they also associate "calmness and composure" with taking exams, giving speeches, and political careers.In their view, cultivating "one heart" and "one fate" is of indisputable benefit to any career.
Many civilizations have developed this technique of training, but the goals and techniques of Japanese training clearly have an entirely unique character.This is all the more interesting because many of the Japanese self-cultivation techniques come from the Indian school of yoga.Japanese techniques of self-hypnosis, concentration, and mastery of the five senses still show a kinship with Indian methods of practice.The Japanese also place great emphasis on xuling (not thinking in the mind), body stillness (not moving the body), and repeating the same sentence a thousand times over, concentrating on a chosen symbol.Even Japan uses Indian terms.But beyond these superficial generalities, the Japanese version of self-cultivation has little in common with India.
The Yoga school in India is a sect that worships asceticism extremely, and believes that this is a way to get rid of reincarnation.Apart from this kind of liberation (that is, "Nirvana"), there is no way to save people.The obstacle is human desire.Only through hunger, humiliation, and self-torture can human desire be eliminated.Through these methods, people can become holy, gain spirituality, and reach the realm of the unity of God and man.Yoga practice is a way to despise the carnal world, to escape the boundless sea of suffering in the world, and it is also a way to master spiritual abilities.The more ascetic you are, the shorter the distance to your goal.
This philosophy cannot be seen in Japan.Although Japan is a large Buddhist country, the ideas of reincarnation and nirvana have never been part of the Buddhist beliefs of the Japanese people.Although a few monks accepted this teaching, it never affected folk thought and customs.In Japan, birds, beasts, fish and insects are not regarded as the reincarnation of human beings and are not allowed to kill. Funeral ceremonies and birth ceremonies are not influenced by reincarnation.Reincarnation is not a Japanese thought pattern, and neither is the thought of Nirvana. Not only do ordinary people not have this kind of thought, monks have also processed it to make it disappear.Learned monks asserted that the "enlightened" person had attained nirvana, that he could "see nirvana" in the here and now, among the pine trees and wild birds.The Japanese have never been interested in fantasies about the afterlife.Their myths are all about the gods, not about the dead.They even reject the Buddhist idea of karma after death.They believed that anyone, even the humblest peasant, could become a Buddha after death.The family spiritual seats offered by the Japanese on Buddhist altars are called "Buddhas".There is no second such term in Buddhist countries.It is understandable that such a nation would not pursue such a difficult goal as Nirvana by using such a bold honorific title for the general dead.Since a person can become a Buddha no matter what, there is no need to suffer the body all his life and strive to achieve the goal of absolute stillness.
Likewise, Japan has no doctrine of the incompatibility of the flesh and the spirit.Yoga practice is a way to eliminate desires, which are parasitic in the body.The Japanese, on the other hand, have no such teaching, and believe that "renqing" (troubles) are not evil, and that the enjoyment of the senses is part of the wisdom of life, provided that the senses are sacrificed to the great obligations of life.This creed is logically extended to extremes in the Japanese approach to yoga practice: not only does it exclude all masochistic asceticism, even in Japan the sect is not ascetic.Although their "enlightened ones" live a reclusive life and are called "hermits", they generally still live with their wives in beautiful places and lead a comfortable life.There is no contradiction between marrying a wife and raising children and becoming a saint.In the most popular sects of Buddhism, monks are perfectly free to marry wives and have children.Japan has never easily accepted the preaching of the incompatibility of the soul and the flesh.Those who suddenly "enlighten" and become holy are due to self-meditation and practice and simple life, not because of shabby clothes and abandoning sensual entertainment.Japanese sages recite poems, taste tea, watch flowers and moon all day long.Now Zen even instructs its followers to avoid the "three deficiencies": insufficient clothing, insufficient food and insufficient sleep.
The ultimate tenet of yoga philosophy is the practice of mysticism, which believes that practitioners can be led into a state of ecstasy and harmony between man and nature.This creed does not exist in Japan either.Whether they are primitive peoples, Islamic imams, Indian yogis or medieval Christians, despite their different beliefs, all those who practice mysticism say with one voice that they have achieved "the unity of man and nature" and experienced "the unity of man and nature". There is no "joy in the world."Japan also has mystic practices, but there is no mysticism.This is not to say that they will not enter meditation, they can also enter meditation, but they regard this state as a method of training "one mind" and "one fate", and do not call it "transcendent ecstasy".Mystics in other countries say that the five sense organs cease to function when entering the body.Believers in Zen do not say this. They say that entering meditation will make the "six sense organs" extremely sensitive.The sixth sense is located in the heart, and through training, the sixth sense can control the normal five senses.However, the senses of taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing require special training at the entrance.One of the exercises for Zen practitioners is to hear the sound of silent footsteps and track their footprints accurately; or to be able to discern tempting delicacies in the state of samadhi.Smelling, seeing, hearing, touching, and tasting are all "assisting the sixth sense organ", and people must learn to make "all sense organs sensitive" in this state.
This is the exception in any religion that values extrasensory experience.Even in the state of meditation, the meditator does not want to detach himself from himself and "retain himself as he is, in the name of his own citizen" as Nietzsche described the ancient Greeks.There are many vivid expositions of this view in the speeches of the great Japanese Buddhist masters, most brilliantly by the eminent monk Dogen.He founded the Caodong sect in the thirteenth century, which is still the largest and most powerful sect in Zen.When he talked about his sudden enlightenment, he said: "I only know that the eyes are above the nose... (in the experience of Zen) there is no mystery. It is like the natural passage of time. The sun rises in the east and the moon sets in the west." Zen works also It does not admit that "entering concentration" can impart any other abilities besides cultivating self-cultivation ability.A Japanese Buddhist wrote: "The Yogis believe that meditation can give supernatural powers. Zen does not take such absurd claims."
This is how Japan completely obliterates the views that are the basis of the Indian school of yoga.The Japanese's love of "subtle and limited" is reminiscent of the ancient Greeks.They understand the practice method of the yoga school as a method of self-cultivation in order to improve oneself; a method of reaching the state of "mature", so that there is no separation between people and their actions.It's a form of self-reliance training.Its payoff is here and now, because it enables people to deal with any situation most effectively, with just the right amount of force; or inner excitement, will not lose composure.
Of course, this kind of training is not only beneficial to monks, but also to warriors.In fact, it was the samurai who adopted Zen as their religion.It is difficult to find anywhere in Japan that uses mystical practice to train samurai to fight alone, rather than relying on it to pursue mystical experience.This has been the case in Japan from the time when Zen Buddhism began to have an influence.In the twelfth century, Eisai, the founder of Zen Buddhism in Japan, wrote a great work called "Promoting Zen and Protecting the Country", and Zen trained samurai, statesmen, swordsmen and college students to achieve rather mundane goals.As Sir Charles Elliot has said, there is nothing in the history of Zen in China that would lead one to think that Zen would become a means of military training when it was brought to Japan. "Zen, like tea ceremony and Noh, has completely become Japanese culture. One can imagine that in the turbulent years of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it advocated direct experience from the heart instead of seeking truth from the classics. Mysterious teachings would be popular in monasteries escaping the disasters of the world. But it would not have been thought that the warrior class would accept it as a favorite standard of life, but the actual situation has become like this.”
Many sects in Japan, including Buddhism and Shinto, place special emphasis on the mystical methods of meditation, self-hypnosis and trance.Some of these denominations regard the fruits of this training as the grace of God.And make its philosophical foundation based on "other power", that is, relying on the help of others, relying on the divine power of benevolence.Some sects, especially Zen Buddhism, advocate relying on "self-reliance" and helping themselves.They teach that potential exists only within oneself and can only be enhanced by one's own efforts.The Japanese warriors found this teaching to be in keeping with their character.Whether as a monk, or as a statesman, an educator—they all do that kind of work—a simple individualism is reinforced by the practice of Zen.The teachings of Zen are very clear: "What Zen seeks is the light that can be found in oneself, and no obstacles are allowed. Eliminate all obstacles on the way... When you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha, meet the ancestors and destroy the ancestors, meet the saints and destroy the saints. Only this One way, you can be saved."
Those who seek the truth cannot accept anything second-hand.Whether it's the teachings of the Buddha, ancestral scriptures, or theology. "Three vehicles and twelve karma teachings are just a pile of waste paper." Although it can't be said that studying these is useless, it can't make a flash of light in one's mind. Only this flash of light can make people realize suddenly.There is a book on Zen dialogues that records that a disciple asked a Zen monk to explain the Lotus Sutra.The Zen monk spoke very well, but the disciple said disappointedly: "Why, I thought that the Zen monk despised the classics, theories and logical systems!" The Zen monk replied: "Zen is not ignorance, only the belief that true knowledge is beyond all classics. You are not here to seek knowledge , just to ask about the sutras.”
The traditional training taught by Zen masters is to teach students how to seek "true knowledge" in order to achieve sudden enlightenment.There are both physical and spiritual training, no matter what kind, the effect must be confirmed in the inner consciousness.The swordsman's Zen practice is a good example.Of course, he must often practice the basic stabbing, but this is only within the scope of "ability", and he must also learn "non-self".Initially, he was first ordered to stand on the floor, concentrating on the few square inches of floor beneath his feet that supported his body.This narrow floor gradually rose, and over time the swordsman learned that he could stand on a four-foot-high post as comfortably as in a garden.When he can stand on that pillar calmly, he will get "true knowledge" and suddenly "enlightenment".His heart has yielded to his own will, and there is no sense of dizziness or danger of falling.
This post-upright technique in Japan is a transformation of the well-known post-post asceticism of St. Simon's sect in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, making it a purposeful self-training, which is no longer asceticism.Whether it is meditation or many habits in the countryside, all kinds of physical training have undergone this transformation.Ascetic practices such as diving into icy water or standing under mountain waterfalls are practiced in many parts of the world.Some are for exercising the flesh, others for invoking God's mercy, and still others for entering a trance.The cold austerity favored by the Japanese is to stand or sit in a freezing waterfall before dawn, or to take a cold bath three times on a winter night, but the purpose is to exercise the conscious self until it is pain-free.The purpose of the aspirant is to train himself to continue meditating without interruption.When he is no longer aware of the coldness of the water, and his body does not tremble in the cold night and early morning, he is "mellow".Also, no benefits are sought.
Likewise, mental training must be self-contained.You can ask a teacher for advice, but the teacher will not "teach" you in the Western sense.Because it is impossible for disciples to learn meaningful things from outside themselves.Teachers can discuss with students.But he will not gently guide his disciples to a new level of wisdom.The harsher the teacher, the more helpful it was perceived to be.If the master catches off guard and knocks off the teacup that the disciple has just brought to his mouth, or throws the disciple down, or hits the disciple's knuckles with copper ruyi, the disciple will be enlightened like an electric current through the impact.Because, this will destroy his complacency.The Monks' Hadith is full of such stories.
One of the favorite methods of inducing disciples to strive for enlightenment is the koan, literally meaning "questions," of which there are said to be seventeen hundred.According to the anecdote of Zen monks, it is not uncommon for someone to spend seven years solving a koan. The purpose of "koan" is not to ask for a reasonable answer.For example: "Imagine being alone with one palm", or "Thinking about the mother who will give birth to a child"; Where to go" and so on.This kind of meditation was used in China before the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.When Japan introduced Zen Buddhism, it also introduced this method.However, "Kongan" has disappeared in China, but in Japan it has become the most important training method to achieve "mellowness".The introductory book of Zen attaches great importance to "koan". "The dilemma of life is hidden in the public case".They say that people who think about "koan" are like "rats driven into a desperate situation", or people who are "waiting for a red-hot iron ball", "mosquitoes who want to bite iron".He redoubled his efforts selflessly.Finally, the barrier of "observing self" between his mind and "koan" was broken, and as quickly as a bolt of lightning, his mind and "koan" merged into one, and he suddenly "enlightened".
After reading these descriptions of intense mental effort, you will be disappointed if you look in these books for the great truths to which they have labored.For example, Nan Yue spent eight years thinking about "Who is coming towards me?" Finally, he understood.His conclusion is: "If you say there is something here, you will lose it immediately." However, the revelation of Zen language also has a general pattern, which can be seen from the following questions and answers:
The monk asked: "How can we avoid the cycle of birth and death?"
The teacher replied: "Who bound you? (that is, who bound you to reincarnation?)"
They said that what they learned, to borrow a famous Chinese idiom, is "riding a cow to find a cow".What they want to learn is "not the nets, but the fish and animals that the nets are meant to catch."To borrow Western terminology, what they study is "two inferences", neither of which has anything to do with the topic.
The purpose is to make people realize: as long as the mind is opened, the existing means can achieve the goal.Everything is possible without the help of others, but of ourselves.
The significance of koan lies not in the truths discovered by these truth-seekers (which are the same as the truths of mystics all over the world), but in how the Japanese think about seeking truth.
Koan is called "stepping stone". The "doors" are built around the walls of ignorant human nature, which is always worried about the sufficiency of existing means, and has the illusion that many people are staring at it and are ready to praise or criticize.This wall is the "shame" that the Japanese feel very much.Once the door is smashed open with a brick, people will enter the world of freedom, and the brick will be useless, and they will no longer solve the public case.The homework is finished, and the moral dilemma of the Japanese is relieved.They desperately drilled into dead ends, and "for the sake of cultivation" became "mosquitoes biting iron bulls". At the end of the drill, they suddenly realized that there was no dead end at all. There are no dead ends between "duty" and "giri", between "giri" and "human feelings", and between "justice" and "giri".They found a way out, they were free, and they could "taste" life to the fullest.They have reached the state of "no-self".Their "training" succeeded in reaching the goal of "mellowness".
Suzuki (Da Zhuo), the master of Zen research, interpreted "no self" as "the state of samadhi of inaction consciousness", "no effort, no intention", "watching me" disappeared, and people "lost themselves", that is, they no longer Bystanders of their own actions.According to Suzuki, "Once the consciousness is awakened, the will is divided into two: the actor and the spectator, and the two inevitably conflict. Because the actor (I) demands to be freed from the constraints (I of the spectator)".And when "enlightenment", the disciple finds that there is neither "self-watcher" nor "spiritual body as an ignorant or unknowable quantity", only the goal and the action to achieve the goal, and nothing else exists.Scholars of human behavior can point to the specificity of Japanese culture more specifically by changing the way they phrase it.A person, like a child, is strictly trained to observe his own behavior, to pay attention to the comments of others and judge his own behavior accordingly.As an ego-watcher, he is very vulnerable, and once he has sublimated into the samadhi of the soul, he eliminates this vulnerable ego, and he no longer realizes that "he is doing something."At this time, he felt that his xinxing had been successfully cultivated, just like a swordsman who can stand on a four-foot-high pillar without fear.
Painters, poets, orators, and warriors all used this training in order to achieve "selflessness."What they learn is not "infinity", but a clear, undisturbed feeling of limited beauty; in other words, they learn to adjust means and goals, and use appropriate efforts, no more, no less, just to achieve the goal.
Even the totally untrained person has an experience of "no-self".When people who appreciate Noh and Kabuki are intoxicated by the plot and completely forget themselves, it can also be said that they have lost "watching me".His palms were covered with sweat, which he felt was "the sweat of no-self."Bomber pilots also ooze "sweat of selflessness" before approaching their targets to drop their bombs. "He is not aware that he is doing it", there is no spectating self in his consciousness.When the anti-aircraft gunner concentrates on reconnaissance of enemy planes, the world around him disappears, and he also suffers from "sweating of selflessness" and loses "observation of himself".Anyone who is in such a situation and reaches this state has entered the highest state.This is the Japanese concept.
The above concept is eloquent proof of how much pressure the Japanese make of self-surveillance and self-policing.Once that bondage is gone, they say, they feel free and productive.Americans believe that the so-called "watching me" or "self-monitoring" is the principle of rationality in one's own heart.As a result, he was able to take pride in being fearless and "remaining tactful" in the face of danger.The Japanese have to rely on sublimation to the state of soul samadhi and forget the shackles of self-monitoring before they can feel free from the stone shackles on their necks.What we see is that Japanese culture repeatedly instills prudence in the soul; and the Japanese try to justify this and assert that when such psychological burdens are removed, human consciousness enters a more effective state.
The most extreme way the Japanese express this credo (at least to Western ears) is their high admiration for those who "just die and live".If it is literally translated into Western languages, it may be "living corpses (walking dead)", but in any Western language, this sentence is disgusting.When we say this, we mean that a person has died, leaving only a body in this world, without vitality.When the Japanese say "live as if you were dead", it means that this person has reached the state of "full maturity".They often use this phrase in their daily exhortation and encouragement.Encouraging a boy who is agonizing over his school-leaving exams, they will say, "Just as if you were dead, and it will be easier to pass." So, too, a friend who encourages a large business transaction, will say, "Just be Dead, keep going.” When a person falls into serious mental distress and cannot see a ray of hope, he often lives with the determination to “be dead”.Ka Chuan (Toyohiko), a Christian leader who was elected to the House of Lords after the defeat, said in his autobiographical novel: "Like a man haunted by a devil, he hid in his room every day and wept. His explosive sobbing Bordering on hysteria. Suffering for a month and a half, but life prevails. …I want to live with the power of death in this body. …He wants to go into battle as if dead. …He is determined to be a Christian 。”战争期间，日本军人喜欢说：“我决心就当死了，以报答皇恩。”这句话包含着一系列行动，如在出征前为自己举行葬礼，发誓把自己的身体“变成硫黄岛上的一抔土”，决心“与缅甸的鲜花一起凋落”等等。
以“无我”为根基的哲学也潜在于“就当已死地活着”的态度。人在这种状态中就消除了一切自我监视，也消除了一切恐惧和戒心。他已经是死人了，也就是说无须再为行为恰当与否而思虑了。死者不用再报“恩”，他们自由了。因此，“我要就当已死地活着”，这句话意味着最终摆脱一切矛盾和冲突，意味着：“我的活动力和注意力不受任何束缚，可以勇往直前地去实现目标。观我及其一切恐惧的重荷已经不再横隔于我和我的奋斗目标之间了。过去在我奋力追求时，一直烦扰我的紧张感和消沉倾向也随之消失。现在，我可以为所欲为了。”
按照西方人的说法，日本人在“无我”和“就当已死”的习惯中排除了意识。他们所谓的“观我”、“妨我”是判断一个人行为的监督者。这生动地指明了西方人与东方人的心理差异。我们讲到一个没有良心的美国人，是指他在干坏事时不再有罪恶感。而日本人在使用同类词时，却是指这个人不再紧张、不再受妨碍。同一个词，美国是指坏人；日本则指好人、有修养的人、能最大限度地发挥其能力的人，是指能够完成最困难工作、致力于无私行为的人。要求美国人行善的强大制约力是罪恶感，如果一个人的良心麻痹，就不再有罪恶感而变成反社会的人。日本人对这个问题的分析则不同。按照他们的哲学，人的心灵深处存在着善，如果内心冲动能直接表现为行动，他就会很自然地实践德行。于是，他想努力修行，以求“圆熟”，消灭自我监视的“羞耻感”。只有达到这种境界，第六官的障碍才能消除，才是彻底摆脱自我意识和矛盾冲突。
当你考察日本人这种自我修养的哲学时，一旦脱离其日本文化中的个人生活经验，就只能成为魔咒式的不解之谜。如前文所述，他们那种归之于“观我”的“羞耻感”该是日本人身上多么沉重的压力。他们的精神驾驭术，其哲学的真正意义，如果不讲日本人的育儿方式就说不清楚。任何文化，其道德规范总要代代相传，不仅通过语言，而且通过长者对其子女的态度来传递。局外人如果不研究一国的育儿方式，就很难理解该国生活中的重大问题。截至本章，我们只从成人方面描述日本民族对人生的各种观点。日本人的育儿方式将使我们对这些观点有更清楚的了解。
Notes: 、《扎拉图斯特拉如是说》、《善恶的彼岸》等。 - translator
Notes: 、《扎拉图斯特拉如是说》、《善恶的彼岸》等。 - translator