#Glossary — Sando Shinkyo

Contents

This dictionary is not a precise scholarly definition but a commentary for rolling words at the table of Konsei Reiyotan. For checks and values, see co.

#Introductory Fragment — Different Paths of the Same Character

The young scholar wrote the same sound on his scroll. Sen. The first master wrote that character as 禪 and pointed to a cushion. The second master wrote it as 仙 and pointed to a snow-covered mountain ridge.

"Both are read as Sen," said the scholar. "Then are they the same path?"

The Zen monk answered with his eyes closed. "Try sitting. When the word you have grasped falls away, then you will know the meaning of one character."

The hermit of the mountain laughed and pointed outside with his staff. "Try walking. When your feet leave the path of men, you will know the meaning of the other character."

The scholar looked at the two characters side by side with a troubled face. That day he learned that a dictionary gives no answer. A dictionary points to a door. Which door one enters is decided by the scene.

#The Broad Currents

Term	Hanja	Brief explanation	Konsei Reiyotan connection
Confucianism	儒教	The principle of human relations. It values loyalty, filial piety, rites, duty, and benevolence.	The core language of the Way of Rites (禮道). Strong with samurai, scholar, and official NPCs.
Buddhism	佛教	A religion that treats suffering, karma, transmigration, compassion, and liberation.	The core language of the Way of Emptiness (空道). Directly connected to the esoteric monk, Pure Land Monk, and shugenja.
Zen	禪宗	A current of Buddhism that values zazen and intuition. It values embodied attainment over words.	A current of practice within the Way of Emptiness. Contact with no-mind, Swordsmanship, the tea ceremony, and ronin RP.
xian thought	仙	A stratum of thought that speaks of longevity, seclusion, mountain practice, the Daoist view of nature, and a state beyond the human.	The core language of the Way of Mystery (玄道). Contact with feng shui master, onmyoji, shugenja, arahitogami, and wildlander RP.
Shinto	神道	The Japanese indigenous faith that treats kami and purification, divine precincts, and kegare.	An important foundation of the Way of Mystery (玄道). Connected to the arahitogami, wildlander, miko, and Shinto priest.
Onmyodo	陰陽道	A divination · Sorcery system mixing yin-yang and the five phases, Daoism, Shinto, and esoteric Buddhism.	The scholarly foundation of the onmyoji and feng shui master.
syncretism of kami and Buddha	神佛習合	The custom of worshipping kami and Buddhas together within the same world.	The basic scenery that explains the religious coexistence of Konsei Reiyotan.

#Confucian Terms

Term	Hanja	Explanation
loyalty	忠	Loyalty to lord, house, and order. Directly connected to the bright heart of the Way of Rites.
filial piety	孝	The principle owed to parents and ancestors. The core of house-centered narrative.
rites	禮	Bearing, ritual, the order of words, the order of status. It makes the surface of a Negotiation scene.
duty	義	Rightness. The word most often used when it collides with loyalty.
benevolence	仁	The kindness of treating a person as a person. The point within Confucianism where it meets the Way of Emptiness.
rightful standing	名分	Who is in which position, and under which name they act. The justifying language of politics and war.
Neo-Confucianism	朱子學	Order-centered learning based on Song-dynasty Confucianism. It fit well with the political language of the Edo bakufu.
Yangmingism	陽明學	A current of Confucian learning that values mind and practice. In Japan it tends to become the language of the acting intellectual.
the way of the warrior	武士道	The warrior ethic organized in later ages. Take care not to simply reduce the actual warrior ethic of the Sengoku and Edo to one.

#Buddhist Terms

Term	Hanja	Explanation
karma	業	The notion that actions accumulate and produce results. It becomes the language by which a character's choices change the heart.
transmigration	輪廻	The notion that life and death turn and turn. Connected to the narrative of yoma, onryo, and rebirth.
liberation	解脫	Escape from the cycle of suffering. The ultimate question of the Way of Emptiness.
emptiness	空	The Buddhist thought that all things have no fixed substance. It must not be confused with the void (虛).
compassion	慈悲	The heart that pities and helps a suffering being. Directly connected to the compassion (慈) of the bright heart of the Way of Emptiness.
bodhisattva	菩薩	A being who chose the deliverance of all beings over his own liberation alone. It fits well with a PC's self-sacrifice narrative.
the Pure Land	淨土	The paradise world of Amida Buddha. The language of the Pure Land Monk.
the nembutsu	念佛	The practice of calling the name of the Buddha. "Namu Amida Butsu" is the representative form.
esoteric Buddhism	密教	The Buddhism that manifests the power of the Buddha through mantra, mudra, mandala, and the goma fire. The foundation of the esoteric monk.
Shugendo	修驗道	Mountain practice. A practical faith mixing Shinto, Buddhism, and Daoism. The foundation of the shugenja.

#Zen Terms

Term	Hanja	Explanation
Zen	禪	The practice of stilling the mind and directly awakening. Here it is `禪`, not `仙`.
zazen	坐禪	The Zen practice done seated. Posture comes before words.
no-mind	無心	A mind in which attachment and calculation are cut off. It overlaps with the No Heart of `co` but is not completely the same.
koan	公案	A question that cannot be solved by logic. A tool that cuts off thought and opens intuition.
direct pointing	直指	The Zen attitude of pointing straight at the mind without passing through word and writing.
once in a lifetime	一期一會	The sense that one meeting is only once. It suits the sentiment of the tea ceremony and Zen.
wabi	侘び	The aesthetic feeling of lack, stillness, and plainness. It can be used as an aesthetic sense continued from before the Edo.
sabi	寂び	The trace of time, age, quiet loneliness. It suits scenes of a ruined temple, an old blade, an old teacup.

#Xian · Way of Mystery Terms

Term	Hanja	Explanation
xian	仙	The character of the xian, the recluse, the natural being beyond the human. In this volume it is distinguished from `禪`.
the divine xian	神仙	A being who attained longevity and the Way among mountains and clouds. Historically a Daoist imagination; in Konsei Reiyotan, an image of a Way-of-Mystery state.
the xian person	仙人	One who left the secular world and cultivated the Way. It can be used as a Daoist adept, a recluse, a mountain ascetic, an intermediary figure between yoma and human.
non-action	無爲	The attitude of not forcing creation but entrusting oneself to the flow. It is not laziness but the technique of not going against the grain of the world.
yin-yang and the five phases	陰陽五行	The interaction of yin-yang and wood · fire · earth · metal · water. The thought-skeleton of Onmyodo and feng shui.
spirit-vein	靈脈	The unseen energy that flows through land and mountain. A core prop of feng shui master and Way-of-Mystery scenes.
longevity	長生	The xian-like ideal of living long and preserving the body. Its direction differs from Buddhist liberation.

#Konsei Reiyotan Connective Terms

Term	Source	Use in this volume
Way of Rites	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	The way of Confucian order and loyalty-duty.
Way of Emptiness	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	The way of Buddhist compassion, emptiness, and liberation.
Way of Mystery	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	The way of Shinto, Daoism, natural spirituality, and xian thought. Different from the `禪` of Zen.
loyalty	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	Keeps order.
Hegemony	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	Forces order.
compassion	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	Embraces suffering.
emptiness	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	Releases all things.
truth	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	Becomes one with the world.
Demon	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	Follows instinct.
No Heart	`Three Ways and Six Hearts`	A state of not yet having set a way, or of having fallen off the way. It can overlap with Zen no-mind in a scene.

#Speech Reference

A Confucian figure speaks of "principle," "rightful standing," "obligation," "house," "lord," "rites."

A Buddhist figure speaks of "karma," "suffering," "compassion," "rebirth in the Pure Land," "emptiness," "karmic ties."

A Zen figure does not speak much. If he speaks, it is short. Words like "Sit," "Look," "Cut it off," "Set down that blade" suit him.

A xian figure speaks of "flow," "mountain," "star," "ki," "the right time," "the vessel," "emptying." He uses more metaphor than persuasion, and sees human order as a small matter within the long time of nature.

A term is not a door — it is the handle. Only when you grasp and open it does the world open.