Uchiyama Gudō, "Letter to the Heimin Shinbun"

into the Source Note and retained the unresolved 的是 / 皆是 issue.

Uchiyama Gudō 内山愚童 (1904). “Letter to the Heimin Shinbun” (「予は如何にして社会主義者となりし乎」).

Translation

As a Buddhist preacher, I hold fast to these golden words: "All living beings possess Buddha-nature," "This Dharma is equal, without high or low," and "All living beings are my children." These are the golden words upon which my faith stands. However, I discovered that what socialism says completely coincides with these golden words, and thus I ultimately became a believer in socialism.

Notes

"All living beings possess Buddha-nature"

Original:   一切衆生悉有佛性

Source: Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (大般涅槃經), also known as the Nirvana Sutra (T0374n12, multiple occurrences of the phrase).

In early Mahāyāna Buddhism there was a fierce theological debate over whether everyone could achieve enlightenment. According to early Yogācāra, some beings (i.e., icchantikas) were permanently blocked from enlightenment due to bad karma. The Nirvana Sutra was written specifically to dismantle this hierarchical distinction. The entire trajectory of this massive text functions to prove that Buddha-nature is universal. It is an inherent, indestructible quality embedded within every single sentient being, no matter how corrupted or flawed they appear on the surface. In other words, the sutra argues for soteriological radical equality.

Uchiyama stretched this cosmic, spiritual/soteriological equality and applied it directly to the material, socio-economic world of Meiji Japan. However, it can be argued that this is not a radical break. If every laborer, peasant, and outcast possesses the exact same ultimate cosmic value (i.e., capability of achieving enlightenment) as the Emperor, then material hierarchy is a spiritual lie. Hence, Uchiyama did not break the sutra's logic — he just dragged it down from heaven to earth.

"This Dharma is equal, without high or low"

Uchiyama:

此法平等無高下