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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Uchiyama Gudō, postcard to Itō Shōshin}} | {{DISPLAYTITLE:Uchiyama Gudō, postcard to Itō Shōshin}} | ||
Revision as of 08:22, 29 September 2026
Postcard sent by Uchiyama Gudō to Itō Shōshin (伊藤証信), 2 November 1905. (Original Japanese here.)
- To: Itō Shōshin (伊藤証信)
- Date: Written November 2, Meiji 38 [1905]
I have respectfully read your announcement of withdrawal from the sect.[1] Anyone who, in the present age, sincerely seeks to work for the Way cannot endure the false Dharma of the head temple issuing from its den of demons.[2]
When I visited your home the other day, I myself thought of telling you what was on my mind. But on reconsidering the matter, I realized that this place where, through karmic circumstances, I have had the good fortune to become resident priest has been under the faith of the Sōtō school for two or three hundred years, and yet is populated by unfortunate people who know neither the character of our High Patriarch Dōgen nor even his name. If I were to abandon them and leave, there would be no one to plant the Buddha-seed in this place for ten million kalpas.[3] Therefore, until the head temple dismisses me from my position as resident priest, I am resolved to fight with all my might, taking the truth of selflessness as my sword.[4] At present, however, I hear the songs of Chu on every side, and I do not know when the castle will fall.[5] I will leave that to the natural course of events.
For my part, I would somehow like to visit Dainichidō about once a month, but my own small strength is defeated by the great circumstances surrounding me, and I am unable to fulfill that wish. I ask for your understanding. And to my fellow companions: my own place may not have a signboard proclaiming “Selfless Love,” but in reality that is surely what it is. So please come without hesitation, combining self-cultivation with propagation of the Way.[6]
Even the bleakness of bachelor life, for me, dwelling in Selfless Love, has nature's broad and long tongue as its companion, and I feel myself advancing day by day into a wondrous realm.[7]
Notes
- ↑ Dasshū-gō 脱宗号, literally an “announcement of withdrawal from the sect,” refers to Itō Shōshin's public break with institutional Shin Buddhism.
- ↑ Uchiyama uses the strongly polemical expressions gihō 偽法 (“false Dharma”) and makutsu 魔窟 (“den of demons”).
- ↑ Busshu 仏種, the “Buddha-seed,” is the potential or basis for attaining awakening. Uchiyama thus presents his decision to remain within the Sōtō institution as a Buddhist vocation rather than an endorsement of its institutional leadership.
- ↑ Muga no shinri 無我の真理, “the truth of selflessness.” The expression draws on the Buddhist doctrine of no-self (muga 無我) while also resonating with Itō's Selfless Love (Muga no Ai 無我の愛) movement.
- ↑ Shimen soka 四面楚歌 (“songs of Chu on all sides”) alludes to the final defeat of Xiang Yu 項羽, whose surrounded troops heard songs from their homeland of Chu being sung from the enemy camp and realized that their position was hopeless. The expression conventionally signifies being surrounded by enemies or allies having deserted one's cause. Uchiyama extends the military metaphor with rakujō 落城, “the fall of the castle.”
- ↑ Uchiyama writes shūyō to dendō 修養と伝道. Shūyō denotes moral or spiritual self-cultivation, while dendō literally means transmitting or propagating the Way or teaching.
- ↑ Kōchōzetsu 広長舌, literally “broad and long tongue,” is one of the traditional physical marks of a Buddha and an emblem of truthful proclamation. Uchiyama's expression “nature's broad and long tongue” (shizen no kōchōzetsu 自然の広長舌) poetically casts nature itself as proclaiming the Dharma. The original reads 伴として (“as [my] companion”). Myōkyō 妙境 denotes a “wondrous” or “marvelous realm/state.”
