Zen no Kenkyu 1921. Translated as An Enquiry into the Good by Masao Abe and Christopher Ives. Newhaven CN: Yale University Press 1990.
"We do not intuit the past; to feel something is past is a feeling in the present.
"The law of causality is thus a habit of thinking that derives from changes in our phenomena of consciousness.
"When being is regarded as arising from nothingness in the physical world, the nothingness, as a fact of consciousness, is not true nothingness but a particular moment in the development of consciousness.
"What is immediate reality before we have added the fabrications of thinking?
"The present of pure experience is not the present in thought, for once one thinks about the present, it is no longer present.
"Reality is a succession of events that flow without stopping.
"Phenomena of consciousness are the sole reality.
"Subject and object do not exist separately, for they are the two relative sides of one reality.
"We can explain the relation between phenomenon and noumenon as the relation between two aspects of reality.
"Nature conceived of as an objective reality totally independent of our subjectivity is an abstract concept, not true reality. The noumenal aspect of nature is the fact of direct experience in which subject and object have not yet separated. . . . what we regard as true grass and trees are trees and grass with living colour and forms -- they are intuitive facts.
"Pure matter has no positive qualities that we can grasp . . . Like a mathematical concept, it is nothing more than an abstract concept. Matter is thought of as something that fills space and can be directly perceived, but the extension of things of which we can think concretely is simply a conscious phenomenon of touch and sight.
"Only one reality exists in the universe.
"Pure experience is the intuition of facts just as they are and it is devoid of meaning.
"Seen from the outside, conduct is the movement of the body.
"How does the will arise? The human body is fundamentally constructed so as to make movements appropriate for preserving and developing its own life.
"When we compare imagination and the will we discover that the goal of imagination is the imitation of nature and that the goal of the will is movement.
"In my analysis of conduct I have taken the will and action to be two different things, but their relationship is not one of cause and effect, for they are the two sides of one and the same thing. Action is the expression of the will, and that which is regarded from without as action can be regarded from within as the will.
"The kind of will described by those who argue for the freedom of the will -- a will that is totally without cause or reason -- does not exist. . . . Our spirit contains a law governing its activity, and when spirit functions in accordance with its own law, it is truly free. . . . Assuming that freedom means to function according to one's character, we see that amongst the countless things around us, nothing fails to function so. The flowing of water and the burning of fire are examples of this.
"Consciousness is in fact never controlled by other things, for it is always controlling them. . . . Conduct therefore is not generated from without, but from within.
"Consciousness is free not because it functions fortuitously beyond the laws of nature, but rather because it follows its own nature. . . . As our knowledge advances, we become freer people.
"The idea that humans seek only the pleasure of the self appears to be a penetrating truth, but it is actually far from the facts.
"Humans have an innate instinct for altruism. For this reason, loving others gives us unlimited satisfaction.
"The good must be articulated from the internal demands of consciousness, not from without.
"The self does not exist apart from the world that it sees. Heaven and earth grow from the same root, and the myriad things are one system.
"The centre of the self is not limited to the interior of the individual; the self of a mother is to be found in her child.
"Language, manners, customs, social systems, laws, religions, and literature are all phenomena of this social consciousness. Our individual consciousnesses emerge from and are nurtured by it, and they are single cells that constitute this great consciousness.
"We individuals are entities which have developed as cells of one society. The essence of the nation is the expression of the communal consciousness that constitutes the foundation of our minds.
"At present, the nation is the greatest expression of unified communal consciousness. But the expression of our personality cannot stop there -- it demands something greater: a social union that includes all human kind. This idea has already appeared in Paul's Christianity and in the thought of the Stoics, but it is not easily actualised. The present age is still one of armed peace. . . . the nation is not the final goal of humankind. A meaningful purpose runs consistently throughout the development of humankind.. . . Genuine universalism, however, does not require that each nation ceases to be. Rather, it means that each nation becomes increasingly stable, displays its distinctive characteristics, and contributes to the history of the world.
"As emphasised in basic Buddhist thought, the self and the universe share the same foundation; or rather, they are the same thing.
"Morality is not a matter of seeking something apart from the self -- it is simply the discovery of something within the self.
"In reality there is only one true good: to know the true self. Our true self is the ultimate reality of the universe, and if we know the true self we not only unite with the good of humankind in general but also fuse with the essence of the universe and unite with the will of God - and in this religion and morality are culminated.
"Religion is not to be sought for the sake of spiritual peace -- such peace is simply a by-product of religion. . . . Religion is a human being's goal, not a means to something else.
"As long as we set up a subjective self in opposition to the objective world and try to unify that world by means of it, then no matter how great this self becomes, the unity will remain inescapably relative. An absolute unity is only gained by discarding the subjective unity and merging with an objective unity.
"Objective reality does not exist apart from subjective consciousness for it is the culmination of the unification of consciousness.
"Religion seeks the deepest unity behind knowledge and volition.
"If we view God and the essential nature of reality as identical . . In Spinoza's philosophy, for example, the myriad things in this world are modes of God.
"The statement that we live in God is, then, not simply a metaphor but a fact.
"Faith is thus a unifying power that transcends knowledge. It is not that faith is supported by knowledge and the will, but that knowledge and the will are supported by faith.
"The universe is not a creation of God but a manifestation of God.
"What we call time, space, and material force are simply concepts established in order to organise these facts and to explain them. What physicists speak of as pure matter divorced from our individual nature is an abstract concept farthest removed from concrete facts.
"The most fundamental explanation necessarily comes back to the self, for the self is the key to explaining the universe
"We cannot know matter as an independent reality apart from our phenomena of consciousness.
"In the facts of direct experience, there is no opposition between subject and object and no distinction between mind and matter; matter in itself is mind and mind in itself is matter, and there is only one actuality.
"That which Newton and Kepler observed and took to be the order of natural phenomena is actually the order of our phenomena of consciousness.
"Matter is nothing more than the shallowest of abstract concepts, established for the sake of explaining things.
"The relation between God and the world is the relation between the unity of consciousness and its content
"Because time and space are established by the unity of consciousness, God transcends time and space, is eternal and indestructible, and exists everywhere.
"God is none other than the world and the world is none other than God
"Heaven and earth are merely one finger, and the myriad things and the self are of one body.
"The fall of humans occurred not only in the distant time of Adam and Eve but is taking place moment by moment in our minds.
"Sin, dissatisfaction, and anguish are necessary conditions for the spiritual advancement of humanity
"To know is to love and to love is to know
"Why is love the union of subject and object? To love something is to cast away the self and unite with that other.
"When we are absorbed in something the self loves . . . there is neither subject nor object, but only the true union of subject and object
"To love God is to know God, to love Buddha is to know Buddha
"Learning and morality are the glory of Buddha, and religion is the
culmination of knowledge and love.