Quote:
Paul Sanderson-Cimino wrote:
satsujinken/katsujinken--I was especially curious if anyone could shed some light on the origin of this saying.
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I'm curious about that myself. I don't have a timeline for the following, but life giving/taking thing has been used as a--
1) metaphor for clarity/delusion in the Indian tradition (see Lishka, Zen and the Creative Process, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 1978, 5/2-3.)
2) way to describe taking or yielding intiative (Karl Friday's book, Legacies of the Sword).
3) metaphor for mercy (as above; see also, Suzuki's Zen and Japanese Culture for some great intellectual contortions on the subject and Sharf (as a tonic to Suzuki's ethnocentrism and distortions in the History of Religion (?)--a journal, sorry, don't have the reference on hand)