Japan

famous analogy to describe Japanese religious practices (see Appendix D): • Shinto: the roots of a tree; imbedded in the very heart of the Japanese people • Confucianism: the trunk and branches; politics, morality, and education • Buddhism: the flowers; religious feelings bloom as flowers

refined action comes neither from your effort nor from someone else’s. If your effort were not supported by the universe as a whole, you could not make any real effort at all. Pure, refined action makes no distinction between self and others.

Japanese people have been excellent in perfecting technologies. The standard example was the way they improved on the Chinese abacus which has seven beads, two above, five below, rounded and noisy. The Japanese reduced the seven beads to five, one above, four below, with sharp edges, silent and fast. So too Japanese chopsticks. The pointed ends