Hearn opens with a village that deifies the man who burned his rice-fields to save it from a tidal wave, then wanders Kyoto and Osaka among toy-shops, newspaper offices and faces in Japanese art. Later chapters collect Buddhist allusions in folk-song, set Nirvana beside Herbert Spencer's evolution, and translate the case of the boy Katsugoro who remembers a past life.
Books mentioned in Gleanings in Buddha-Fields: Studies of Hand and Soul in the Far East (14)
Classical Poetry of the Japanese by Basil Hall Chamberlain: “If you care to know how difficult the subject is, just study the chapter on prosody in Aston's Grammar of the Japanese Written Language, or the introduction to Professor Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese.”
Kojiki by O no Yasumaro: “He had a palace on the same hill where his shrine now stands; and this site--whence a fine view of the city can be obtained--is the scene of a pleasing legend preserved in the Kojiki:”
Elsie Venner by Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I looked through its stained pages for old friends, and found them,--all anonymous in 1865, many world-famous in 1895. There were installments of "Elsie Venner," under the title of "The Professor's Story;" chapters of "Roba di Roma;"”
Roba di Roma by William Wetmore Story: “I looked through its stained pages for old friends, and found them,--all anonymous in 1865, many world-famous in 1895. There were installments of "Elsie Venner," under the title of "The Professor's Story;" chapters of "Roba di Roma;"”
Le Costume historique by Auguste Racinet: “To illustrate Mr. Morse's work so as to interpret the colorific charm would be a dearer and a more difficult feat than the production of Racinet's "Costumes Historique."”
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan by Lafcadio Hearn: “For detailed information on this subject see, in my Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, the chapter, "Of Women's Hair."”
Diamond Sutra: “And I cannot but think that out of the certain future union of Western knowledge with Eastern thought there must eventually proceed a Neo-Buddhism inheriting all the strength of Science, yet spiritually able to recompense the seeker after truth with the recompense foretold in the twelfth chapter of the Sutra of the Diamond-Cutter.”
Lotus Sutra: “There are some very remarkable texts on this subject in the Sutra of the Lotos of the Good Law:”
The Book of the Great Decease: “Perhaps the Sutra of the Great Decease furnishes the most remarkable evidence contained in the "Sacred Books of the East."”
Sutra of the Great King of Glory: “Perhaps the most vivid exposition of the duty of the winner of happiness is that given in the Sutra of the Great King of Glory.”
Avatamsaka Sutra: “Wherefore it is written in the Kegon-Kyō (Avatamsaka-Sutra): "Child of Buddha, there is not even one living being that has not the wisdom of the Tathâgata. It is only because of their vain thoughts and affections that all beings are not conscious of this....”
Questions of King Milinda: “The expression "infinite bliss" as synonymous with Nirvana is taken from the Questions of King Milinda.”
The Principles of Psychology by Herbert Spencer: “"Equanimity may be compared to white light, which, though composed of numerous colors, is colorless; while pleasurable and painful moods of mind may be compared to the modifications of light that result from increasing the proportions of some rays, and decreasing the proportions of others."--Principles of Psychology.”
Bukkyō-hyakkwa-zenshō: “Various authors appear to have made use of these documents: especially the compiler of the curious collection of Buddhist stories entitled Bukkyō-hyakkwa-zenshō, to whom they furnished the material of the twenty-sixth narrative in that work.”