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  • Essay / An Analysis of Zen Buddhism in Kokoro, a Novel by Natsume Sōseki

    In the book Kokoro, Zen Buddhism helped me understand the character K in various ways. K's background is influenced by this practice as his father is a Buddhist priest. When he is adopted by a family of doctors, he does not want to study medicine, but wants to continue practicing Zen Buddhism to find his path to enlightenment. When he moves in with Sensei, complications begin to arise when he begins to develop feelings for Ojosan. Say no to plagiarism. Getting a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Getting an original essayK coming from a Buddhist family was an important detail for me due to the fact that he has feelings for Ojosan. When he confessed his love for her to Sensei, I realized that Buddhists can't have a significant other and therefore he couldn't tell Ojosan how he felt. Unlike Sensei, K was a strong and bold boy since Sensei had feelings for Ojosan for a long time and never told anyone about it even before K moved in with them. This could be due to Sensei's distrust of humanity and the fact that he never spoke about his feelings. When Okusan informed K that Sensei and Ojosan were going to get married, I didn't think K would commit suicide because in Buddhist practice, suicide is looked down upon. His suicide is very similar to Sensei's because they both wanted to escape loneliness. However, unlike K's, Sensei's was not bloody for Shizu's sake. After applying Zen Buddhism by reading Kokoro, I now understand K and his actions towards Ojosan better. Additionally, I learned that in Japan, at least at the time of the book, suicide was not uncommon and was not necessarily an act of cowardice. K went against his practice by committing suicide, but he might have planned to abandon his path to enlightenment anyway until Sensei acted first and asked Okusan for his hand in marriage. daughter in marriage. Using what I learned about Buddhism makes me question K's intentions before committing suicide. I want to go back and reread part three to see if I notice any clues that perhaps K was willing to abandon his practice because of his feelings or if the author wanted us to draw our own conclusion..