The logic of unity : the discovery of zero and emptiness in Prajñāpāramitā thought
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The logic of unity : the discovery of zero and emptiness in Prajñāpāramitā thought
(SUNY series in Buddhist studies)
State University of New York Press, c1987
- pbk
- Other Title
-
一の論理
Ichi no ronri
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Note
Bibliography: p. 127-134
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This clear and elegant translation reveals how a modern Japanese thinker dared to show the basic flaw of Western epistemology. In unmasking this limitation, Matsuo presents an Eastern view of a unified experience, and provides an epistemological basis for comparative philosophy.
Matsuo notes that while early Greek thought began by focusing on the right counsel ("Know thyself"), since then Western thought has been influenced by empiricistic analysis fired by the rise of scientific philosophy. The author thus turns to Eastern epistemology, in particular Buddhist thought, for clues to the unified experience. The seminal idea of emptiness (śūnyatā) plays a distinct role in this discovery. The concept of emptiness encompasses the whole dimension of perception where there is no room for separation into mind and body and/or any other form of dichotomy.
Once it is known that the total dimension of perception—the logic of unity—functions in each and every person, then and only then can the field of comparative thought and philosophy be cleared of al preconceptions and move into a more fruitful exchange of ideas. Until such a time, Matsuo claims, we are hopelessly engaged in merely refining the epistemological process without ever being able to understand the very basis of intelligence.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Hajime Nakamura
Translator's Introduction
Kenneth K. Inada
Preface
Why Philosophy?
Why Comparative Philosophy?
Western and Eastern Philosophy
Chapter I Methodology of Comparative Philosophy
Realization of mind-base and intuitive unconsciousness
Locus of the Problem and Its Development
Definition and method
My methodology
On philosophizing
Diagram of the Mind-base in East-West Context
Space and Time as Modes of Intuition
Evidences of Intuitive Unconscious
Demonstration No. 1-1
Demonstration No. 1-2
Demonstration No. 1-3
Demonstration No. 1-4
Logic East and West
Recapitulation
Comparative philosophy and contrast of ideas
Realization: holistic man versus individual
Weakness of Western epistemology
Man is born twice
Philosophy as the foundation of all disciplines
What is man?
Chapter II The Logic of Unity
Discovery of zero and emptiness in prajñaparamita thought
The Reason for a Logic of Unity
Metaphysical Bias and True Human Orientation
The Limits of Religion and the Social Sciences
The Nature of Buddhism
Ten Articles on the Logic of Unity
The Kegon Ten Profound Gates
Conclusions
Further analysis of the ten articles
Holistic consciousness
Dialectic
Dialectical epistemology
Discovery of philosophical zero
Dialectic of religion and philosophy
Principle of dual truths
Unitary dialectic
Integrative dialectic
Dialectical historicism
Conception of life and world view
Chapter III The Truth in the Heart Sutra
The Heart Sutra (Prajñapramitahrdaya-sutra )
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva
Further on Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva
On Emptiness (Sunyata )
Instructions to Sariputra
Nature of the Various Dharmas
Nature of Emptiness (Sunyata )
Nature of Ignorance (Avidya )
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