The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1308 page)

 
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Kokushi
:

see
KOKUTAI
.

 
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(Jap., ‘can of black paint’). The condition in Zen meditation of total darkness before the light suddenly breaks through.

 
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(Jap., ‘national polity’). Among nationalists of the late 19th and early 20th cents., a term referring to the Shinto-Confucian idealization of the Japanese nation-state. Japanese society was compared to a large family, with the emperor at the head as the benevolent guiding hand and patriarch. As such, the imperial throne served as the focus for the patriotic, nationalist fervour of the period prior to the Second World War.
Kokushi
(Chin.,
Kuo-shih
) ‘teacher of the nation’ is the title of a Buddhist who teaches the emperor, because the nation is summarized in his person.
Ben'en
was the first to receive the title in Japan (posthumously in 1312).

 
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(Heb., ‘everything within’). Jewish book of
halakhic
rulings.
Kol Bo
was probably composed at the end of the 13th cent. CE.

 
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(Aram., ‘all vows’). Prayer which begins the Jewish
Day of Atonement
evening service. The prayer is customarily repeated three times, and declares that all personal vows made rashly to God which have not been fulfilled are now cancelled. The prayer has frequently been misunderstood by gentiles who have argued that it demonstrates that Jewish promises are worthless, but in fact the
halakhah
imposes severe limitations on which vows can be cancelled.

 
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