Somebody asked Joshu, “Buddha is the enlightened one and teacher of us all. He is naturally entirely free of all the passions (klesa), is he not?” Jo… - D. T. Suzuki

Tennyson’s plucking the flower and holding it in his hand, “root and all,” and looking at it, perhaps intently. It is very likely he had a feeling somewhat akin to that of Basho who discovered a nazuna flower by the roadside hedge. But the difference between the two poets is: Basho does not pluck the flower. He just looks at it. He is absorbed in thought. He feels something in his mind, but he docs not express it. He lets an exclamation mark say everything he wishes to say. For he has no words to utter; his feeling is too full, too deep, and he has no desire to conceptualize it. As to Tennyson, he is active and analytical. He first plucks the flower from the place where it grows. He separates it from the ground where it belongs. Quite differently from the Oriental poet, he does not leave the flower alone. He must tear it away from the crannied wall, ”root and all,” which means that the plant must die.

Western people often wonder why the Chinese people have not developed many more sciences and mechanical contriv¬ ances. This is strange, they say, when the Chinese are noted for their discoveries and inventions such as the magnet, gun¬ powder, the wheel, paper, and other things. The principal reason is that the Chinese and other Asiatic peoples love life as it is lived and do not wish to turn it into a means of accomplish¬ ing something else, which would divert the course of living to quite a different channel.

The inflexibility of karma is more than poor mortal can endure.