English

Common Sense, How to Exercise It

LibriVox recording of Common Sense, How to Exercise It by Yoritomo Tashi. (Translated by Lily Berthelot De La Boileverie.) Read in English by Thomas Rose One of three seminal philosophical works by the twelfth century Japanese Shogun, Yoritomo-Tashi. (From the Preface) He knows how to clothe his teachings in fable and appealing legend, and his exotic soul, so near and yet so far, reminds one of a flower, whose familiar aspect is transmuted into rare perfume. By him the sternest questions are stripped of their hostile aspects and present themselves in the alluring form of the simplest allegories of striking poetic intensity. When reading his works, one recalls unconsciously the orations of the ancient philosophers, delivered in those dazzling gardens, luxuriant in sunlight and fragrant with flowers. In this far-away past, one sees also the silhouette of a majestic figure, whose school of philosophy became a religion, which interested the world because it spoke both of love and goodness. But in spite of this fact, the doctrines of Yoritomo are of an imaginative type. His kingdom belongs to this world, and his theories seek less the joys of the hereafter than of that tangible happines

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