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In Ghostly Japan
have been my father; it may have been my mother.[1]
50.—Ko wa Sangai no kubikase.
A child is a neck-shackle for the Three States of Existence.[2]
51.—Kuchi wa wazawai no kado.
The mouth is the front-gate of all misfortune.[3]
- ↑ This verse-proverb is cited in the Buddhist work Wōjō Yōshū, with the following comment:—“Who knows whether the animal in the field, or the bird in the mountain-wood, has not been either his father or his mother in some former state of existence?”—The hototogisu is a kind of cuckoo.
- ↑ That is to say, The love of parents for their child may impede their spiritual progress—not only in this world, but through all their future states of being,—just as a kubikasé, or Japanese cangue, impedes the movements of the person upon whom it is placed. Parental affection, being the strongest of earthly attachments, is particularly apt to cause those whom it enslaves to commit wrongful acts in the hope of benefiting their offspring.—The term Sangai here signifies the three worlds of Desire, Form, and Formlessness,—all the states of existence below Nirvâna. But the word is sometimes used to signify the Past, the Present, and the Future.
- ↑ That is to say, The chief cause of trouble is unguarded speech. The word Kado means always the main entrance to a residence.
