view which holds mind and body as one and the same reality.  Mind, according to this view, is reality experienced inwardly by introspection, and body is the selfsame reality observed outwardly by senses.  They are one reality and one life.  There also exist other persons and other beings belonging to the same life and reality; consequently all things share in one reality, and life in common with each other.  This reality or life is not transcendental to mind and body, or to spirit and matter, but is the unity of them.  In other words, this phenomenal world of ours is the realm of reality.  This view was held by the Avatamsaka School of Mahayanism, and is still held by Zenists.  Thus Zen is not materialistic, nor idealistic, nor nihilistic, but realistic and monistic in its view of the world.

[FN#201] Shi-rya-ken in Japanese, the classification mostly made use of by masters of the Rin Zai School of Zen.  For the details, see Ki-gai-kwan, by K. Watanabe.

There are some scholars that erroneously maintain that Zen is based on the doctrine of unreality of all things expounded by Kumarajiva and his followers.  Ko-ben,[FN#202] known as Myo-ye Sho-nin, said 600 years ago:  “Yang Shan (Kyo-zan) asked Wei Shan (I-san):  ’What shall we do when hundreds, thousands, and millions of things beset us all at once?’ ‘The blue are not the yellow,’ replied Wei Shan, ’the long are not the short.  Everything is in its own place.  It has no business with you.’  Wei Shan was a great Zen master.  He did not teach the unreality of all things.  Who can say that Zen is nihilistic?”

[FN#202] A well-known scholar (1173-1232) of the Anatamsaka School of Mahayanism.

Besides the Four Alternatives, Zen uses the Five Categories[FN#203] in order to explain the relation between reality and phenomena.  The first is ‘Relativity in Absolute,’ which means that the universe appears to be consisting in relativities, owing to our relative knowledge; but these relativities are based on absolute reality.  The second is ‘Absolute in Relativity,’ which means Absolute Reality does not remain inactive, but manifests itself as relative phenomena.  The third is ‘Relativity out of Absolute,’ which means Absolute Reality is all in all, and relative phenomena come out of it as its secondary and subordinate forms.  The fourth is ‘Absolute up to Relativity,’ which means relative phenomena always play an important part on the stage of the world; it is through these phenomena that Absolute Reality comes to be understood.  The fifth is the ’Union of both Absolute and Relativity,’ which means Absolute Reality is not fundamental or essential to relative phenomena, nor relative phenomena subordinate or secondary to Absolute Reality—­that is to say, they are one and the same cosmic life, Absolute Reality being that life experienced inwardly by intuition, while relative phenomena are the same life outwardly observed by senses.  The first four Categories are taught to prepare the student’s mind for the acceptance of the last one, which reveals the most profound truth.