If Religion is defined as the worship of God, ZEN(禅) Buddhism is definitely NOT a religion, but a pure philosophy. To begin with, Buddhism has NO God. The Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) is our (as I myself am a ZEN Buddhist…) mentor, who teaches us the philosophy and practice (meditation, mindfulness, minimalism, etc.) as our BEST model we aim at.
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| Katanas (Japanese Samurai swords) (source: the Metropolitan Museum of Art) |
“Bushido means to die.” — This is the famous declaration at the beginning of the book “Hagakure (葉隠; meaning ‘Hidden by Leaves’).” The “Hagakure” is one of the few books systematically expounding the Samurai’s code of conduct, written by a Samurai, Tsunetomo Yamamoto (山本 常朝; 1659-1719) in the Edo period as a spiritual and practical guidebook for Samurai.
Having said that, a Samurai was NOT mandated to give up his Life easily in vain. If so, a Samurai didn’t need to carry two Katanas (刀; Samurai swords) on his waist all the time to protect his own Life. Everyone, including you and me, is destined to die somehow at a moment in our lifetime, even though NO one knows When the end will come. NO human has ever lived without dying over millions of years without exception. So it’s the most important, How to die, and What for to die at any time when we MUST die anyhow.
ZEN 01 ZEN Philosophy of Death If Religion is defined as the worship of God , ZEN (禅) Buddhism is definitely NOT a religion, but a ...
