そこでBushidoを紐解いてみる。もちろん新渡戸の「武士道」はその後「和訳」されているわけだが、最終的に英文での原稿にしようとしているので、Bushido の記述を借りるほうが話が早い。ちょっと長いが引用しよう。第2章「Sources of Bushido 武士道の由来」の冒頭部分である。
I may begin with
Buddhism. It furnished a sense of calm trust in fate, a quiet
submission to the inevitable, that stoic composure in sight of danger or
calamity, that disdain of life and friendliness with death. A foremost
teacher of swordsmanship, when he saw his pupil master the utmost of his art,
told him, "Beyond this my instruction must give way to Zen teaching."
"Zen" is the Japanese equivalent for the Dhyâna, which "represents
human effort to reach through meditation zones of thought beyond the range of
verbal expression."Its method is contemplation, and its purport, so far
as I understand it, to be convinced of a principle that underlies all
phenomena, and, if it can, of the Absolute itself, and thus to put oneself in
harmony with this Absolute. Thus defined, the teaching was more than the dogma
of a sect, and whoever attains to the perception of the Absolute raises himself
above mundane things and awakes "to a new Heaven and a new Earth."
「新渡戸はそのBushidoの中で、武士道の由来は禅であるとしたうえでその武士道の精神を次のようにまとめる。それは運命を冷静に受け止め、避けられぬことに静かに服し、危険や悲惨な出来事に対して禁欲的に心を安定させ、生を軽蔑し、死を身近に感じることである。It furnished a sense of calm trust in Fate, a quiet submission to the inevitable, that stoic composure in sight of danger or calamity, that disdain of life and friendliness with death.
読んでいると心が洗われるようである。
