Toward a Philosophy of Zen Buddhism

by IZUTSU, TOSHIHIKO

• ISBN13: 9781570626982
• ISBN10: 1570626987
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-04
• Publisher: Shambhala

Summary

Zen experience defies all thinking and linguistic description and simply affirms what is evidently real: "The ordinary way-that preciselyisthe Way." After questioning the nature of reality, the Zen student discovers that what remains is whatis.Although it seems that Zen would not lend itself to philosophical discussion, that all conceptualization would dissolve in light of this empiricism, in this volume, the author demonstrates that the "silence" of Zen is in fact pregnant with words. A variety of topics are discussed: the experience of satori, ego and egolessness, Zen sense and nonsense, koan practice, the influence of Zen on Japanese painting and calligraphy and much more.

Author Biography

Toshihiko Izutsu is Professor Emeritus at Keio University of Japan. He has been active in promoting transcultural dialogue in philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
The True Man Without Any Rank
Zen and the Problem of Man	3	(5)
The Functional Relationship between Subject and Object	8	(7)
Consciousness and Supra-Consciousness	15	(3)
The Structure of the Empirical Ego	18	(8)
`The Whole is One Single Mind'	26	(19)
The Field Structure of Ultimate Reality	45	(5)
The Zen Image of Man	50	(15)
Notes	58	(7)
Two Dimensions of Ego Consciousness
The First Person Pronoun `I'	65	(6)
Zen Theory of Consciousness	71	(7)
The Ego-less Ego	78	(9)
Notes	82	(5)
Sense and Nonsense in Zen Buddhism
Zen Nonsense	87	(5)
Meaningful or Meaningless?	92	(4)
Speech and Language in a Zen Context	96	(7)
The Ontology of Meaning in Mahayana Buddhism	103	(4)
The Problem of Semantic Articulation	107	(16)
Notes	117	(6)
The Philosophical Problem of Articulation
The Problem of Articulation	123	(2)
Articulation as a Dynamic Process	125	(4)
Language and Articulation	129	(6)
Absolute Freedom of Articulation	135	(12)
Notes	142	(5)
Thinking and A-thinking Through Koan
Mistrust in Thinking	147	(4)
Elimination of Discursive Thinking	151	(6)
The A-thinking Thinking	157	(4)
Soto Zen and Rinzai Zen	161	(6)
Koan	167	(16)
Notes	178	(5)
The Interior and Exterior in Zen
Painting and Calligraphy in the Far East	183	(7)
Pseudo-Problems in Zen	190	(7)
Experience of Satori	197	(8)
The Externalization of the Internal	205	(5)
The Internalization of the External	210	(11)
Notes	216	(5)
The Elimination of Color in Far Eastern Art and Philosophy
The Colorful and the Colorless World	221	(13)
The Black-and-White Art	234	(21)
Notes	251	(4)
Index	255