# Good Engi "The engi is good" is one of my most favorite Japanese phrases. What is Engi? In its original meaning, Short answer: Pratityasamutpada. If you want to search. Long answer: "Engi" means "Innen Shouki". Which means everything happens according to In and En. There are no exceptions. In - Direct cause. En - Indirect causes. The kanji "En" is often pronounced as "Enishi" too. When used alone. "In" of a tree is its seed. "En" of a tree is soil, water, light, &c. You could call En environment. Though I don't like to call it like that. But I'll do it for convenience. The seed alone can't make a tree. It needs soil, water, light, &c. By its effects the tree changes the environment. The environment also changes things like how many seeds the tree will have. En is both causes and effects at the same time because of this. So everything is interconnected and can't be seperated. Since everything needs indirect causes that are also effects of everything else. Hence there is no absolute In in the end if you accept this. This is where Buddhism differs from Hinduism. It rejects Atman as the absolute In. (By the way if you want to know my opinion on this, I regard it as a matter of sulphur and mercury. I don't accept the superiority of mercury. The two must marry to create.) That was the original Buddhistic meaning. But then "The engi is good" is a nonsense. If you consider the original meaning. What does it mean? "Good fortune". Like "The weather is good". As an analogy, think of astrology in which planets symbolising cause and effects determine your fate. If planets are at good positions, they will give you good fortune. It is not accidental. It works as En. In Japan, Buddhism had been mixed with Shinto. Until the modernistic nationalists in Meiji Era forcefully seperated them. Though that was not completely successful. I really like when esoteric practices get strong theoretical foundations like this. I enjoy Proclus for similar reasons too. He tried to provide a strong logical foundation for Greek mythology.