ABSTRACT
Appearance and emptiness are the same; the relative and the absolute. With the disappearance of the distinction between nature and self has gone the distinction between the "is" and the "ought". In his egolessness, fact and value merge. To be moral is natural, and it is natural to be moral. A veneration for all things suffuses the man. The awareness of reality and the insight into the naturalness of morals are steps which the zen student takes in zazen. One philosophic problem is the metaphysical. From the Greek view of science as descriptive or representative of reality there has been a shift to the pragmatic or instrumental view. The philosophy of existentialism is an attempt to break out of it. The more common reaction is to follow Kant's advice. Thrasymachus's view makes it simple, by reducing morals to psychology and making a science of the matter.
