Eisai Quotes on Knowledge
Myōan Eisai (1141–1215), the Japanese monk who introduced Linji (Rinzai) Chan from Song China into Japan and founded the Kennin-ji monastic complex at Kyoto in 1202, gave Kamakura-period Japanese Buddhism its founding Zen institutional presence. The Treatise on Letting Zen Flourish to Protect the State (Kōzen Gokokuron, 1198) defends the introduction of Zen against critics from the established Tendai and Shingon schools and frames Zen meditative practice as itself the proper fulfillment of the precepts and disciplines the older schools had taught. Eisai is also conventionally credited with having introduced powdered tea (matcha) culture into Japan from Song China.
Quotes
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Attributed to Eisai:
“Meditation is the gateway to enlightenment.”
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“In Phebus realm, in knowledge as in verse, All things are clear, the sun of Phoebus clear, Clear was his crystal, the Kastalian. What you cannot clearly say, you don’t know: To tongue of man his thought brings word: What’s said obscurely is what’s thought obscurely.”
Epilog vid Magisterpromotionen i Lund 1820". -
“Epilog vid Magisterpromotionen i Lund 1820".”
In Phebus realm, in knowledge as in verse, All things are clear, the sun of Phoebus clear, Clear was his crystal, the Kastalian. What you cannot clearly say, you don’t know: To tongue of man his thought brings word: What’s said obscurely is what’s thought obscurely. -
“A dead father's counsel, a wise son heedeth.”
Canto VIII. -
“A glimpse of Breidablick, whose walls are light As e'en the silver on the cliff it shone; Of dark blue steel its columns azure height And the big altar was one agate stone. It seemed as if the air upheld alone Its dome, unless supporting spirits bore it, Studded with stars Odin's spangled throne, A light inscrutable burned fiercely o'er it; In sky-blue mantles, Sat the gold-crowned gods before it.”
Canto XXIII, Stanza 13. -
“Canto XXIII, Stanza 13.”
A glimpse of Breidablick, whose walls are light As e'en the silver on the cliff it shone; Of dark blue steel its columns azure height And the big altar was one agate stone. It seemed as if the air upheld alone Its dome, unless supporting spirits bore it, Studded with stars Odin's spangled throne, A light inscrutable burned fiercely o'er it; In sky-blue mantles, Sat the gold-crowned gods before it.