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sandra a. wawrytko

SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AND : A BUDDHIST EXPANSION OF CONFUCIAN

Abstract

Li Zehou’s theory of sedimentation seeks to explain the uniqueness of the human species through its use of tools, both physical and cognitive, leading to cultures grounded in aesthetic taste and the prospect of suprabiological . However, the very sedimentation that constructs human culture can stagnate into obstructing sediment. offers an epistemology of desedi- mentation that avoids attachment to cultural sediment without summarily rejecting its potential usefulness. More specifically, Buddhist “wisdom embracing all species” allows us to recognize our interconnection (pratı¯tya-samutpa¯da) with by transcending anthropocentrism, and opening more effective strategies for dealing with ecological challenges.

I. Introduction

Thomé H. Fang (Fang Dongmei 方東美) (1899–1977) has declared that “Chinese are artists before they become thinkers.”1 While Amero-Eurocentric , wary of the link between the arts and the devalued phenomenal realm, have sought to transcend nature,2 Chinese philosophers have embraced artistic contributions to human of nature, Moism (Mojia 墨家) a glaring exception. As a resurgent Confucian philosophy enters the global arena, Zehou 李泽厚 has championed “the highly intuitive and inclusive Chinese aesthetics” that he sees as a replacement for reli- gion in “establishing this highest realm of human .”3 I argue that these Chinese cultural resources can be enhanced by incorporating Buddhist philosophy’s intertwining of epistemology and aesthetics. ’s “wisdom embracing all species” avoids the

SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO, Professor, Department of Philosophy, San Diego State University. Specialties: Buddhist and Daoist epistemology, comparative philosophy. E-mail: [email protected] Journal of Chinese Philosophy 40:3–4 (September–December 2013) 473–492 © 2014 Journal of Chinese Philosophy 474 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO

Confucian tendency toward anthropocentrism, thus allowing for an expansive approach to pressing contemporary issues. The role of the contemplative artist/artistic thinker has been exam- ined carefully in Li’s work, merging traditional Chinese thought with Kantian and Marxist theories. Li analyzes Marx’s theory of the excep- tional status of the human species in terms of “sedimentation” (jidian 積淀), “the accumulations and deposits of the social, rational, and historical in the individual through the process of humanizing nature,” which renders humans “relatively independent of the mate- rial world.”4 This “noumenal construction,” the creation of ideas, con- cepts, and values, delineates the human understanding of .5 Thus, the cultural sedimentation inherited from the and revitalized by Kong Zi 孔子 (551–479 bce) served as the founda- tion of early Confucian philosophy. Kant contributes the noumenal quest of consciousness, referred to by Li as a priori subjectivity. Our dual nature as both intuitively sensuous and rationally supra- sensuous beings allows us to become “suprabiological animals,” capable of transcending the constraints of natural instinct.6 The assumption that humans possess unique moral and aesthetic aspira- tions resonates with Confucian social and . Li further incorporates Marxist by identifying the making and use of tools as the crucial factor in human evolution. Viewing words as tools, we can interpret Wittgenstein’s “language-game” as a form of cultural sedimentation.7 While Li’s optimism concerning the “onward and upward” trajec- tory of the human species is both admirable and inspirational, it assumes that humans will inevitably “improve” on nature. In particu- lar he argues for the centrality of “the aesthetics of science and technology” in the next phase of human evolution.8 However an anthropocentric perspective cannot address the complex challenges we currently face in areas such as environmental sustainability. Phi- losophies such as Daoism and Buddhism that question the assump- tion of human superiority have been undervalued, their potential contributions to productive discourse dismissed or unrecognized. Nonetheless, certain themes in Li’s writings bode well for a productive merging of Confucian and Buddhist approaches. A common ground exists in Li’s adherence to “pragmatic ” and a “one-world view” that rejects a phenomenal/noumenal divide. Most importantly, Buddhist philosophy is uniquely equipped to confront suffering, which Li finds largely absent from traditional . Rather than wallowing in the suffering (duh· kha) inherent in the human con- dition, Buddhism offers constructive methods to address the mind’s contribution to the of life as suffering, thereby alleviating unnecessary suffering. SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY 475

To foster the possibility of philosophical synthesis, a Buddhist enrichment of sedimentation’s salutary role in evolution will be offered, with an emphasis on Chan. Kong Zi himself was aware that the li 裡 could be reduced to mere pretense. Accordingly, sedimenta- tion that results in sediment or counterproductive mire must be deconstructed, while a trans-human realization of Buddha-nature must be recognized beyond the confines of human self-cultivation. Beneath the competing priorities of sedimented Confucian culture (wen 文) and the pre-sedimented Daoist Uncarved Block ( 樸), the Middle Path (madhyama¯-pratipad)(zhong dao 中道) of Buddhism nondualistically sees through limiting views (dr·s·t·i), including the view of no view. For Channists even their own philosophical doctrines were barriers to awakening. A dynamic epistemological process can be traced from the sedimentation of “great faith” in the to “great doubt” that regards it as sediment, opening the way to the “great death” of delu- sion. Central to the process is recognition of the very “self” to be awakened as epistemological sediment. Examples of desedimentation abound in the Chan literature, most especially its poetry,underscoring Li’s description of Chan as simultaneously “poetic philosophy” and “philosophical poetry.”9 The rise of a reconstructed , bolstered by Marxist principles of construction, is a matter global significance. What might be the consequences of applying a materialist philosophy of suprabiological beings whose central mission is the survival of the human species? Can a philosophy such as Li Zehou’s effectively match the humanization of nature with the “naturalization of humans” ( ziranhua 人的自然化)? We have witnessed how natural disasters are exacerbated by acts of human hubris—such as locating urban centers on land below sea level prone to hurricanes and building nuclear power plants or mega dams in active earthquake zones. Anthropocentrism is a dysfunctional assumption that under- mines the survival of all species. To effectively engage with nature we must expand our vision to appreciate “the wisdom embracing all species.”10

II. Li Zehou’s Reconstruction Project

In the Critique of Pure attempts a self-styled Copernican revolution in philosophy, using the model of Newtonian science to rehabilitate by clarifying epistemology. This entails a reassessment of the interaction between our assumed sources of : matters of fact and the relation of ideas, 476 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO phenomena and noumena, and . Kant’s goal, however, is to answer the question, “How are synthetic a priori judg- ments possible?” That is, how can we know that concepts we depend on, such as the principle of , are both rationally certain and empirically relevant? Li poses more fundamental questions, not only about how human knowledge is possible but how humankind is possible. While Kant regards human knowledge as the result of the interaction between sensibility and understanding, presumably sharing a common source, Li concludes that both human knowledge and the human species are possible due to our ability to make and use tools. His theory bridges the seeming gap between understanding and sense data, ideas and physicality that troubled Kant. Expanding Kantian epistemology, Li has coined the word subjectality (zhutixing 主體性), grounded in the physical body ( 體), to reflect both the absence of a rigid mind-body dualism in traditional and the materialism of . By moving beyond Kant’s focus on the subjectivity (zhuguanxing 主觀性) of idea (guan 觀)-centered human conscious- ness, embodied subjectality functions as the missing link between physical phenomena and abstract noumena.11 The body ideas as well as sense data. Tool use makes the emergence of humans as “suprabiological” beings possible as the sedimentation process—“the accumulation and condensation of the social, rational, and historical to become some- thing individualistic, sensuous, and intuitive”—humanizes nature.12 Conceptual tools evolve from physical tools, leading to the aesthetic products of advanced civilization. For Li, sedimentation is the source of Kant’s a priori intuitions such as causality, which function as “an internal ‘humanized nature,’”13 an experiential, a posteriori species heritage shared across cultures. Cultural and individual sedimenta- tions also arise, based on particular experiences.14 Consciousness itself is rooted in tool production and tool use. Li Zehou’s goal is “going ‘back to classical Marxism’ . . . not just a return to the old theory of productive forces, but also answering the call to create a new theory of subjectivity—a theory concerned with developing the ideas of a human ‘cultural-psychological formation’ or ‘sedimentation.’”15 The focus shifts from “class struggle” to the “pro- ductive forces” of science and technology, in contrast with ’s “practice” of “utopian ”—“voluntaristic actions taken to ‘change the world.’”16 For Li, aesthetics is “the highest achievement of this ‘humanization of nature.’”17 As symbols of “humanized nature,” works of art “are the deepest expression of human ‘cultural-psychological formation’” or sedimentation. Aesthetic pleasure has a physiological basis, yet SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY 477 transcends the sense organs; it allows for emotional as well as inten- tional cultivation and ethically elicits “pleasure experienced in lofty aspiration and moral integrity [that] helps man arise to a supra-moral, perceptual realm in human life.”18 Ultimately, the moral human being is “the highest artistic creation . . . a work of art,” reflecting Kant’s claim in the Critique of Judgment that humans are “the purpose of the whole of nature.”19

III. Li’s Depiction of Buddhism

Li tends to treat Buddhism as a catalyst for rather than a major component of Chinese philosophy. In The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese Aesthetics, the historical unfolding of Buddhism in is depicted as a tool of oppression and suppression wielded by those in power, mirroring Marxist denunciations of : “Religion, after all, was only an anesthetic and ‘heaven’ merely a reflection of the human world.”20 Harsh condemnation of Buddhist stories from India hinges on the theme of human self-sacrifice undertaken on behalf of other species, which Li interprets as means for the elite to promote self-sacrifice in the oppressed population, “a perfect example of counter-rational religious fanaticism.”21 Such an interpretation dis- torts the underlying message of trans-species compassion, a logical result of the wisdom that recognizes the Buddhist principle of inter- dependence and interconnectedness (pratı¯tya-samutpa¯da). Similarly, the Buddhist practice of meditation is dismissed by Li as “a great ordeal of suffering and duress.”22 In Li’s account Buddhism degenerated further into “a docile tool for the protection of the feudal system.” Its artistic accomplishment was only noteworthy once it had become sinicized in form and themes. Depictions of the Pure Land mirrored the Chinese court, yet offered only “the allurement of a happy life in heaven . . . a better tranquillizer,” “illusions of joy and happiness.” is portrayed as essentially a Chinese product, which discarded the offen- sive religious elements of previous schools. Although credited with a philosophy, Chan is denounced as “a new and unique narcotic, an integration of speculation and faith.”23 Only one Buddhist poem, by Wang Wei, is included in the discussion of this peak poetic period. Later expressions of Chan are deemed escapist, echoing the Daoist retreat to nature.24 A more balanced analysis of Buddhism is advanced in Li’s The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition. Nonetheless, a circumscribed view of Buddhist philosophy as intent on the “pursuit of metaphysical tran- scendence” belies Buddhist .While Arthur F.Wright ranks 478 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO

“the transformation of Chinese culture by Buddhism” among “the great themes in the history of Eastern Asia,”25 Li depicts Buddhism as launching “an unprecedented assault on traditional .”26 Even the aesthetic influences of sinicized Chan, he contends, eventu- ally were “subordinated under the rubric of Confucianism and Daoism.”27 Li does acknowledge Confucianism’s common ground with both Daoism and Buddhism: “After a process of arduous self-cultivation, a person may identify with the cosmos and attain the aesthetic experi- ence of pleasure in one’s lofty aspiration and moral integrity. This experience transcends the sensuous, as confirmed by the practice of Daoist and Buddhist practice of chan.”28 Other points of agreement also exist, such as the “one-world view” Li identifies as consummately Chinese, paralleling Buddhist nondualism in which “the profound realization of noumenal emptiness occurs by way of the ever-changing and transforming universe.”29 Hence, Buddhists apply the arts as a form of upa¯ya (skillful means) to escape the confines of linguistic sedimentation. Buddhist philosophers share some of the same epistemological concerns as Kant and Li, including the primacy of consciousness and the priority of engagement in the world.

Instead of rational control, Confucianism emphasizes the mutual penetration and merging of sensuality and rationality, individuality and sociality, physiology and sociology, from consciousness to uncon- sciousness. It will not allow the dictatorship of the intellect over sensuality, nor allow the terrible exposure of blind, primitive emotion. The harmony of the whole psyche of Confucianism is in opposition to the alienation of rationality and the alienation of sensuality.30

Neo-Confucian critics admitted Buddhism’s rationality made it a for- midable rival. 程顥 (1032–1085) declares the Buddha is more dangerous than egoist 楊朱 (440–360 bce) or Univer- sal Love advocate 墨子 (ca. 470–391 bce) because his teaching is “somewhat reasonable.” Echoing Li’s critiques, Cheng contends that Buddhists possess “seriousness to straighten the internal life but no righteousness to square the external life. The Buddhists are funda- mentally afraid of life and death and are selfish....They devote themselves only to penetration on the transcendental level, not to learning on the empirical level.”31 Cheng Hao’s brother, Cheng 程頤 (1033–1107) is even more alarmist, asserting that merely inves- tigating Buddhist doctrines will make one a convert, while insisting that Buddhism offers no worthy new contributions:“We already have in our Way whatever is correct in them.”32 SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY 479

When Li laments Chinese philosophy’s failure to confront the fact of suffering, he can have no better, more experienced ally than the Buddhist . Li rejects the traditional Chinese focus on harmony for ignoring the reality of conflict. He also spurns the Chris- model that glorifies suffering as the price of passage to paradise. Instead he wants to deal with “the real sensuous and spiritual and bitterness inherent in actual experience.”33 Confronting human suf- fering or the sense of dysfunctionality in life (duh· kha) was the origi- nal motivation for Siddhartha’s quest. It led him to become the Buddha, the one who has awakened to the fourfold of the experience of duh· kha, its cause in tr·s·n· a¯, its elimination by eliminating tr·s·n· a¯, and the eightfold path that provides guidelines for accomplish- ing this. Significantly, the Buddha’s analysis applies not only to human beings, but to all sentient beings.

IV. Desedimentation: Rationale and Methodology

Recognition of limits is ingrained in Chinese philosophical tradition, beginning with the Classic of Change (or the Yijing 《易經》)in which Hexagram 60 focused on Limitation or Restraint (Jie 節). In the (or the Daxue 《大學》) the third of the eight threads involves a recognition of one’s emotional and limits. Kant expounds on the limits of reason in the first Critique, acknowl- edging that the noumena can be thought but not known (Preface). In Chapter 22, ’s 老子 (sixth century bce) Dao De 《道德經》wisely warns us that exceeding limits results in reversion to the opposite: Crookedness prefigures perfection; Bending prefigures straightness; Hollowness prefigures fullness; Wearing out prefigures renewal; Deficit prefigures gain; Plenitude prefigures perplexity.34 We might add “sedimentation prefigures desedimentation,” recogniz- ing the inherent limitations of sedimentation without needing to nullify it. Chung-ying Cheng astutely has noted sedimentation presupposes sediment, silt blocking the dynamic flow of . Recognizing the potential for sedimentation to become obstructive, Buddhist philosophy advises a timely use of when stagnation occurs. In Buddhism the consciousness that Li credits with allowing for what he takes to be the unique use of tools by humans is a construct, sedimentation. Self-consciousness, consciousness of the self as a self, 480 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO of ourselves as distinct and separate members of the human species, engenders discriminating mind, what Laozi refers to as “cunning intel- lect” ( 智). The cunning create new tools without anticipating their dangerous and unintended applications. Henry Ford never dreamed his signature invention would be a major factor in global warming. Nuclear power can power our cities, but can also engulf them in mass destruction. The inventers of cell phones never conceived that so many people would die due to the deadly distractions posed by their innovative devices. The character for culture, wen 文, depicting decorations made on a piece of wood, that is, human “improvements” on nature, is closely associated with the evolution of written language. The improvement process applied to human beings corresponds to Confucian self- cultivation, which presupposes that one is not born, but becomes, a human being in the fullest sense through education. Daxue commen- tary 3 compares “carving and burnishing” to learning and self- cultivation to “cutting and polishing.” 荀子 adopts a more aggressive posture, urging those in authority to forcefully straighten and steam the naturally warped wood of to make it conform to artificial standards (wei 為) in Chapter 23, the Xunzi 《荀子》. Whatever the chosen method, the projected end result seems to be what Li regards as the “highest artistic creation,” the moral human being. Presumably Xunzi would heartily approve of Li’s pronouncement that “The beauty of society displays itself in human struggles to conquer and control nature.”35 Although Buddhism is often characterized as the Middle Path (zhongdao 中道), Daoists and Confucians have lauded centrality in their own ways. In Chapter 5 of the Daodejing, Laozi advises us to “hold on to the middle (zhong 中),” as does the Doctrine of the Mean (or Zhong Yong 《中庸》). 莊子 speaks of “following the middle course between two paths” whereby the “harmonizes with both right and wrong and rests in natural balance.”36 Li refers to Daoism’s “naturalization of humans” as a counterpart to Confucian- ism’s “humanization of nature.” When interpreted as a dualistic choice, an innate rivalry is assumed to exist between Daoists and Confucians.37 The humanly enhanced wen constructed by sedimenta- tion seems to conflict with the Daoist’s reversion to pre-sedimented pu 樸. Although generally translated as the Uncarved Block, etymo- logically the character for pu evolved from the image of an unpruned shrub. Both renderings share the sense of something pristine, prior to the human embellishments of wen. The Buddhist Middle Path recognizes two roads only provisionally, as the twofold truth that is neither one nor two, although perceived or conceived as such by discriminating mind. In Buddhism there is SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY 481 no attachment to sedimentation, but also no attachment to the nonattachment of pre-sedimentation. Kenneth Inada describes the Buddhist Middle Path as much more than

striking a happy medium, a balance between self-torture and self- indulgence . . . not simply a refined balancing act. Its is the achievement of that insight which crushes all views (dr·s·t·i) that might become obstacles to the normal flow of life, whether of the two extremes or even of the middle itself . . . this is an extremely difficult path to tread but it is the Buddhist way to fulfillment of compassion and wisdom now. It is a middle way which has “no path,” where the goal is the fullest development of man, in which wisdom and com- passion ultimately become one and the same reality.38 Thus, when Li proclaims that the Buddhist “sees the world, things, and the self as illusory,” it is more precise to say that the views of world, things, and self are illusory.39 The Sanskrit term dr·s·t·i has been defined as “seeing, viewing, views, ideas, opinions; especially seeing the seeming as if real, therefore incorrect views, false opinions.”40 It is associated with dars´ana,“seeing [見], discerning, judgment, views, opinions; . . . thinking, reasoning, discriminating, selecting truth, including the whole process of deduc- ing conclusions from premises. It is commonly used in the sense of wrong or heterodox views or theories.”41 Deluded views may be cul- turally conditioned or arrived at individually. Inexplicably Buddhism has been misunderstood as engendering rather than diminishing delusions. Although Krishnamurti rejected all labels, his views resonate with the epistemological priorities of Buddhist philosophy. He incisively analyzed sedimentation as a barrier to truth: “Society’s function is to limit the individual, to hold him within the boundary of respectability . . . the man who is seeking truth and acting, however worthy and noble he may be, only creates further confusion and misery. He is like the reformer who is merely concerned with decorating the prison walls.”42 It is not merely a theoretical concern for Krishnamurti, but a matter of critical importance:

if you understand this whole problem of how the mind is conditioned by society, if you allow truth to act and do not act according to what you think is truth, then you will find that such action brings about its own culture, its own civilization, a new world that is not based on acquisitiveness, on sorrow, on strife, on . 43 Befitting “the wisdom that embraces all species,” Buddhism delves beneath human nature’s discriminating tendencies to access underly- ing Buddha-nature. Disruptive and deluded layers of sedimentation are peeled away to reveal reality as it is (suchness) (tatha¯ta or zhen ru 眞如). Kong Zi recognized the potential for degeneration in ritual 482 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO practice (li 禮), offering different evaluations of ritual practice (li 裡) that deconstructed one and upheld another. Regarding composition of a ritual cap, Kong Zi endorsed the more economical choice, although it violated traditional prescriptions. However, he firmly sup- ported the requisite bows, rejecting the popular practice to abandon them as arrogant. In the (the Lun Yu 《論語》), 9: 3, the insistence on a certain fabric for the ritual cap is mindlessly entrenched in physical superficialities; honoring the underlying meaning of the ritual requires an inner emotional state of humility, which cannot be reified. In a terse autobiographical statement,44 Kong Zi chronicles his evolution from a teenager intent on learning to a septuagenarian whose intuitive no longer required the order imposed by sedimentation. Like the Buddhists, Kong Zi questioned the efficacy of linguistic sedimentation, citing the wordless model of heaven.45

V. Chan: “Poetic Philosophy”/“Philosophical Poetry”

Like Kong Zi, Buddhist philosophers recognize that one’s under- standing evolves along with one’s own epistemological expansion. In Chan, this process is described as the movement from “great faith” to “great doubt,” culminating in the “great death” of delusion. Faith in sedimentation, such as the dharma, provides a comforting structure of guidelines for initiates. However, the human mind fixates on concepts, devoid of deeper comprehension, necessitating a skeptical rethinking of one’s views (dr·s·t·i). “Great doubt” frees us from the confines of sedimentation that has become obstructive. The “great death” of delusion brings creative engagement with reality, as Wing-tsit Chan explains: “The whole philosophy of the various methods [of Chan] is to broaden a person’s vision, sharpen his imagination, sensitize his mind so he can see and grasp truth instantly anytime and anywhere.”46 Similarly, Li truly great art can “break down habitual pat- terns of thinking and feeling (i.e., sedimentations) and free people to experience the world anew.”47 However, Li also claims that the poetic philosophy of Chan “does not involve itself with actual, physical nature or human affairs, but only with the construction of the psychological subject.”48 While some self-avowed Channists may fit Li’s depiction, it represents a flawed understanding of Buddhism as a philosophy. As to the first point, Li himself credits Chan with an “inherent practicality” that accepts “the perceptual world,” “sensuous human existence,” and “everyday life in the real world.”49 As for the self, Buddhism focuses on deconstruction rather than construction, especially the deconstruction of the self, SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY 483 an-a¯tman. Li’s description of “Chan sense” as “the mystical union of self and Buddha, the forgetting of self and things, and the dissolution of one’s spirit into the universe” disregards the fact that there is no self to be unified or forgotten, no spirit to be dissolved, and no Buddha as an other.50 Numerous examples of conceptual deconstruction appear in Chan literature, demonstrating the continuum between the phenomenal and the noumenal. Even the designation of oneness is a product of sedimentation, such that the Third Patriarch Sengcan 僧璨 advised, “Two comes from one,/Yet do not even keep the one.”51 Accordingly, Li’s claim that the “spiritual delight” of Chan “results from the height- ening of the senses and the profound sedimentation in them of ratio- nality” runs counter to many pronouncements by Chan practitioners regarding the need for desedimentation.52 Linji Yixuan 臨濟義玄 described how new students bait teachers by trotting out well-sedimented concepts. Linji understood “this is just a device, you grab it and throw it into a deep hole.”53 To expose it as silt the teacher may offer the contradictory responses Chan is so famous for, generating the doubt and confusion the student needs to see through conceptual pretense. If successful “the student responds, ‘This old baldy can’t tell good from bad himself,’ where- upon the teacher sighs with admiration, ‘Here is a true follower of the way!’”54 When Governor Wang inquired about the practices of monks at Linji’s temple, the master disavowed the use of su¯tras and meditational techniques. Instead, he asserted, “They are all in train- ing to become Patriarchs and Buddhas.”55 Grasping Linji’s point, Wang succinctly noted how sedimentation can degenerate into mere sediment even among Channists: “Gold dust may be valuable, but in the eye it can cause blindness.”56 Li recognizes the dangers of gold dust sediment in monastic training when he observes that “poems that are Chan in flavor are superior to those written by Chan practitioners.”57 Some of most serious challenges to cultural sedimentation are advanced by the disenfranchised, those who neither contribute to nor benefit from the constructs of civilization (wen). The Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng 慧能, famously derided as an illiterate barbarian, was among the most effective practitioners of deconstruction, beginning with the crucial poetry contest at his temple. The favored candidate for succession, Yuquan Shenxiu 玉泉神秀 (606?–706), fell into sedi- mentation’s trap of cognitive literalism by rhapsodizing about the body as the tree of awakening and the mind as a mirror. Hui-neng deftly deconstructed this silt using “great doubt”—he denied awak- ening is a tree, noting that, because the mirror-mind has no literal stand, there is no place for dust to settle. 484 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO

The eccentric Pang 龐 family deconstructed the sedimentation of the perfect Confucian family to reveal Buddhist . Having minds “without obstruction,” parents and children supported one another as the dharma companions on the path to awakening.58 The layman status of the presumed family head, Pang Yun 龐蘊 (740– 808), also defied monastic stereotypes, evoking parallels to the layman Vimalakiriti.59 Asked “What was the first word Bodhidharma spoke when he came from the West?” Layman Pang deconstructed a revered tradition by curtly exclaiming “Who remembers!”60 Yet having been mired in the social constructs of sedimentation, the layman had the greatest difficulty with his practice, comparing it to trying “to scatter ten measures of sesame seed all over a tree!” His wife declared her practice to be as easy as “touching your feet to the ground when you get out of bed.” The Pang daughter described her nondualistic practice as neither difficult nor easy, enabling her to discern the meaning of the Patriarchs on “the hundred grass-tips.”61 Wielding the weapon of desedimentation, female Channists chal- lenged sexist discrimination as antithetical to Buddhist philosophy. Governor Wang’s image of a valued social construct that is an impedi- ment is echoed by the twelfth-century nun Zheng-jue:“from the West came the wondrous meaning without words,/It may be gold dust, but don’t let it get in your eyes!”62 A one-eyed nun asks, “Male or female: why should one need to distinguish false and true?”; in regard to a bodhisattva, “Peeling away the bodhisattva’s skin would be of no use whatsoever/Were someone to ask if it were the body of a woman or that of a man.”63 Another speaks of having “kicked open heaven and earth” to be able to “rest my feet.”64 Once “the layered gates are shattered, any place is a place of tranquility” such that “Knocking on emptiness, extracting the marrow, becomes a way of life.”65 The Chan approach to sedimentation that is stagnated sediment may be sum- marized by the words of Korean So˘ n Master T’aego Bou 太古普愚 (1301–1382), who offers “the true imperative whole: in the universe of Great Peace, cutting down stubborn stupidity.”66 Challenges to authoritarian control and superficial hierarchies are consistent with the core insights of the historical Buddha. The nondiscriminating mind of the awakened sees through the socially sanctioned sedimentation that categorizes and constrains behavior and expectations. However, this only becomes possible when we question our sense of identity, the construct of self, a¯tman. Many contemporary philosophers have difficulty questioning the existence of the self as an ontological reality, having been conditioned and predisposed to assume they possess a unique and independent self-identity, now upgraded from simplistic a¯tman to sophisticated .67 SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY 485

Psychologists and evolutionary biologists have undertaken extensive research into the topic of the “symbolic self,” tracing the construction or sedimentation of the self as “an evolutionary adapta- tion.”68 In line with Li’s proposals, the symbolic self is yet another cognitive tool that contributes to the survival of the species. It serves as a prime mover in the subsequent sedimentation process by gener- ating key components of culture and civilization, such as religion (seeking to understand the death of the self) and philosophy (seeking self-understanding).69 The sediment of the deluded personal identity (a¯tman) generates . The sediment of deluded group ego gen- erates racism and sexism. The negative consequences of both sets of false views (dr·s·t·i) generally have been acknowledged. It is much more difficult for us to recognize as obstructing sediment our deluded species identity, anthropocentrism, which generates speciesism. Con- vinced that our sense of human superiority is both obvious and natural, few have dared to call it into question.

VI. A Confucian/Buddhist Synthesis beyond Anthropocentrism

At times Li seems to support Buddhism’s sweeping wisdom embrac- ing all species and at other times thwarts it. Discussing Chinese land- scape painting, Li states “it is significant that humans are depicted neither as masters of nature nor as its subjects,” noting that Chan- inspired landscape painting “communicates the unity of human expe- rience with nature, the unity of the humanization of nature and the naturalization of humans.”70 Li correctly describes the Buddhist as seeking “an ultimate truth that transcends society and time, mortality and change.”71 Disavowing the possibility of dominating or control- nature, he proposes a new way to conceive of “the unification of heaven and human beings.” Moreover, Li’s view of artistic genius mirrors Buddhist desedimentation as “‘a methodless method,’ unteachable, unlimited by any fixed rule . . . inexpressible in words.”72 Nonetheless, Li cites the “survival imperative” that makes “the absolute, supreme duty of any individual” maintaining the survival of the human species, which mandates anthropocentrism.73 Not content to live in the shadow of overarching nature, minute figures dwarfed by towering mountains and mist-filled valleys, our science and technol- ogy have driven us to the ambitious overreaching of a Dr. Franken- stein, such that our own creations threaten both human survival and the integrity of nature. The technological prowess of humans that Li so proudly proclaims has led to the stultifying sedimentation of addic- tion to fossil fuels that we are just beginning to deconstruct through a 486 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO turn to renewable energy sources.74 Concerns have been raised about the unforeseen ways in which cell phones, iPads, and social media are rewiring our brains. More is not necessarily better. Buddhism offers a middle way between a neo-Luddite rejection of technology and an uncritical embrace of any seeming advance.We can avoid the dependency that is the antithesis of Chan self-power as well as delusions of absolute control. The basis for and bias in favor of human exceptionalism is undermined by evidence that humans are not the only species that use tools.75 Supporting the Buddhist vision of a wisdom embracing all species, even the much-touted symbolic self may not be the sole prerogative of humans.76 The unrestrained proliferation of technology as today’s dominant form of “humanization of nature” is not the sole option, nor does it guarantee progress. The techno-savvy innovator Steve Jobs is an illu- minating case study. He focused his extraordinary career on the deconstruction of market sediment, heralded in a famous 1984 Super Bowl ad that introduced the Apple Macintosh. Against the backdrop of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four dystopia, a female runner symbolizing Apple hurled a hammer at a screen broadcasting the totalitarian message of “Big Brother.” Twenty years after its debut, Theodore Roszak offered an insightful retrospect:

Nothing did more to ruin the high hopes represented by Apple’s hammer-tossing woman than the dominance of Microsoft, soon to become the most ruthless monopoly since Standard Oil. The result has been inferior technology cleverly contrived to keep the public buying one mediocre and buggy program after another. . . . The PC was considered a people’s technology, a guerrilla technology, one of the last gasps of countercultural rebellion. . . . Apple’s idealism was marvelous, but how sadly misplaced. . . . We have watched high tech become the next wave in big-bucks global industrialism, the property of the crass and the cunning, who are no more interested in empow- ering the people than General Motors was. The computer has brought us convenience and amusement, but, like all technology, it’s a mixed blessing. Far from smashing Big Brother, computers have given him more control over our lives. They have been a blessing for snoops, con artists and market manipulators.77

Although Jobs was intent on and successful at questioning the traditional business model of his rival IBM, what he accomplished was only a paradigm shift. He then became attached to his paradigm, resulting in his own sedimentation process grounded in brand loyalty; Jobs became the high-tech guru who is to be both idolized and obeyed as the final arbiter.78 From the perspective of Buddhism his rebellion did not go far enough. Jobs advised, “Don’t be trapped by dogma— which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”79 SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY 487

However, despite Jobs’s exposure to Buddhism (through a Japa- nese master in America), he failed to question his own opinions, his own dr·s·t·i. His “great doubt” never arrived at the “great death” of delusion. While doubt is comparatively easy to instill, the addictive allure of sedimentation always beckons. As we evolve from “great faith” to “great doubt,” we must persevere until we realize the “great death” of our own delusions. The human species seems to be at a transi- tional moment with sweeping global consequences. The contentious either/or inherent in a dualistic worldview pits humans against the intimidating forces of nature. Echoing the “onward and upward” trajectory of Kant’s Enlightenment, Mao Zedong declared, “For the purpose of attaining freedom in the world of nature, man must use natural science to understand, conquer and change nature and thus attain freedom from nature.”80 The human conquest of nature became a prominent theme in what Kai-yu Hsu dubs “New Folk Songs” of revolutionary China:

A pole, three inches long, Carries dirt when we build a dike or dig a pond. Even a high mountain it can carry off; Even a huge river it can bend.81

Such human hubris, a prideful arrogance fueled by overweening con- fidence, eventually leads to a tragic fall. The engine of modernization/ westernization has spawned ecological degradation that cannot be ignored. Rather than looking for a simple technological fix, we must delve into the complex depths of the underlying philosophy respon- sible for the devastation. Responding to rampant air pollution, a People’s Daily editorial observed: “Only by forming a new cleaning and green spatial pattern, industrial structure, production process and living style, can we possess a harmonious and beautiful earth. The responsibility of protecting our clean air lies not only in the govern- ment, but also in every business and every member of society.”82 The cultural resources to address such crises are rooted in Chinese history. Chinese medicine emphasizes the need to rebalance the ( energies) within an individual’s body to restore health. The character zhi 治—to cure, heal, or govern—includes the water component, suggesting the cleansing, hence curative, action of flowing water in removing sediment. Yu the Great (Da Yu 大禹), legendary founder of the Xia 夏 Dynasty, marshaled the power of water when severe flooding plagued inhabitants around the Yellow River, “healing” the problem by having channels dug to allow the to return to their natural course (rather than imposing artificial barriers, such as dams). A similar healing strategy is found in the innovative 488 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO damn project designed by Li Bing 李冰 at Dujiangyan 都江堰.To facilitate natural flow, he recommended that they “dredge the sand deeper,” while to avoid stagnation he advised them to “build the dam lower,”83 words still inscribed on the walls of a temple dedicated to Li Bing. Primal Confucian philosophy embraces a healing process for the state in the seventh of the eight threads listed in the Daxue. In eco- nomic philosophy, principle is prioritized over profit because “The State profits not from profits, but from what is right.”84 A fifteenth- century Korean Buddhist monk, Kim Sisuˇ p (1435–1493), cites the Daxue in his essay “On Producing ,” emphasizing the “truism” we are only now beginning to take seriously: “there is a limit to the wealth and goods that the world can produce; therefore one must never waste.” Kim cites counterproductive and tragic cases of anthro- pocentric arrogance: “burning forests to hunt birds and draining ponds to catch fish.”85 Kim then invokes the Confucian of humanity and righteousness as the means for ensuring mutually sup- portive roots and branches.86 Paraphrasing Shakespeare’s Cassius,87the fault lies not in our envi- ronment but in ourselves. Fearing the loss of unrealistic privileges, the white supremacist resists racial integration, the male chauvinist impedes women’s empowerment, and homophobes demonize the gay community. Yet by “cutting down stubborn stupidity” of discrimina- tion they surrender nothing except their own habituated delusions. If we transcend anthropocentrism for an encompassing sense of intri- cate interconnections among life forms, the possibility for creative interaction replaces a human-imposed hierarchical isolation. Our inti- mate involvement in nature offers freedom (distinct from ) under Benedict Spinoza’s uniquely counterintuitive definition of acting by necessity, what Daoists might call 自然.88 Such movements are already under way. Rather than championing humans as “supra-biological animals,” Stephen Kellert argues “the natural world is the substrate on which we must build our existence. . . . [D]ependence on nature has shaped and continues to shape our capacities to feel, reason, think, master complexity, discover, create, heal, and be healthy.”89 William Myers describes the environmentally sensitive Bio Design movement as “the intersection of creative and technical fields [that] has enabled new aesthetic possibilities and may help address the growing urgency to build and manufacture using ecologically sound methods.”90 An alliance between Buddhism and Confucianism via Li’s recon- struction project may well realize his goal of the “integration of humans and the cosmos,” whereby “all of society and all of humanity are living in a harmonious state with nature.”91 Stagnant sediment SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY 489 remains subject to the constant cycle of renewal and (anitya) in which the human species is an unquestionable participant due to pratı¯tya-samutpa¯da, just as Li speaks of the “continual decon- struction and re-creation” that exists alongside “construction and sedimentation.”92 The wisdom to see our interconnectedness engen- ders the compassion to engage in the world beyond the confines of human sedimentation. In fact, Inada suggests that Buddhism’s Middle Way is “perhaps the noblest expression and status of .”93 By broadening the context of our discourse beyond the human species, Buddhism can address Li’s question,“How can we construct a healthy human and a healthy society of human beings?”94

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY San Diego, California

Endnotes

Acknowledgment of Intellectual Credits and Rights: A rudimentary version of this paper was presented under the title “Li Zehou’s Sedimentation in Chinese Aesthetics: Confu- cian and Buddhist Perspectives” at a session on Confucian and Phenomenology of Mind sponsored by the International Society for Chinese Philosophy at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting in San Diego, April 22, 2011. I am greatly indebted to Professor Chung-ying Cheng for the opportunity to participate in this panel, as well as for his insightful comments on my presentation. His encouragement inspired me to expand my research into this topic.Thanks also are due to the reviewers for their thoughtful suggestions, as well as Managing Editor Linyu Gu and Assistant Editor Timothy Connolly for their diligent oversight and unflagging support throughout the publication process. 1. Thomé H. Fang, The Chinese View of Life: The Philosophy of Comprehensive Harmony (Hong Kong: The Union Press, 1971), 68. 2. “Nature, considered in an aesthetical judgment as might that has no dominion over us, is dynamically sublime . . .” in Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment, trans. John Henry Bernard (New York: Hafner, 1961), 99. “Fine art . . . only achieves its highest task when it has taken its place in the same sphere with religion and philosophy, and has become simply a mode of revealing consciousness and bringing to utterance the Divine Nature, the deepest interests of humanity, and the most comprehensive of the mind”; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics, in Philosophers on Art from Kant to the Postmodernists, ed. Christopher Kul-Want (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 43. 3. Li Zehou, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, trans. Maija Bell Samei (Honolulu: Uni- versity of Hawaii Press, 2009), 221, 189. 4. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 94; Li Zehou, “Subjectivity and ‘Subjectality’: A Response,” Philosophy East and West 49, no. 2 (1999): 179. 5. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 224. 6. Ibid., 94. 7. , Philosophical Investigations, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe (New York: Macmillan, 1958), 5e. 8. Li, “Subjectivity and ‘Subjectality,’” 181. 9. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 174. 10. Multiple references to “the wisdom embracing all species” are found in Maha¯ya¯na texts, most especially the Lotus Su¯tra. 490 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO

11. Li, “Subjectivity and ‘Subjectality,’” 174. 12. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, xi. 13. Li, “Subjectivity and ‘Subjectality,’” 179. 14. Jane Cauvel, “The Transformative Power of Art: Li Zehou’s Aesthetic Theory,” Phi- losophy East and West 49, no. 2 (1999): 158. 15. Li, “Subjectivity and ‘Subjectality,’” 179. 16. Ibid., 178. 17. Ibid., 177. 18. Cauvel, “The Transformative Power of Art,” 163. 19. Li, “Subjectivity and ‘Subjectality,’” 182. 20. Li Zehou, The Path of Beauty:A Study of Chinese Aesthetics, trans. Song Lizeng (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1994), 107. 21. Ibid., 110. 22. Ibid., 113. 23. Ibid., 126. 24. Ibid., 183. 25. Arthur F. Wright, Buddhism in Chinese History (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959), 3. Erik Zürcher goes even further in his provocatively entitled volume, The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China (Leiden: Brill, 1972). 26. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 161. 27. Ibid., 192. 28. Li Zehou and Jane Cauvel, Four Essays on Aesthetics: Toward a Global View (New York: Lexington Books, 2006), 122. 29. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 165. 30. Li Zehou, “Modernization and the Confucian World,” paper presented at Colorado College’s 125th Anniversary Symposium,“Cultures in the 21st Century: Conflicts and Convergences,” Colorado Springs, February 5, 1999. 31. Wing-tsit Chan, trans., Reflections on Things at Hand: The Neo-Confucian Anthology (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 278–82. 32. Chan, Reflections on Things at Hand, 285. 33. Li and Cauvel, Four Essays on Aesthetics, 122. 34. Charles Wei-hsun Fu and Sandra A. Wawrytko, trans., “The Daoist (Taoist) School” in Chinese Philosophy in Cultural Context: Selected Readings from Essential Sources, ed. Sandra A. Wawrytko (San Diego: Montezuma Publishing, 2007), 111. 35. Li and Cauvel, Four Essays on Aesthetics,4. 36. Zhuangzi, Chapter 2, trans. Charles Wei-hsun Fu (unpublished manuscript). Charac- terizing this view as “the nondifferentiation of self and world, life and death, gain and loss, truth and illusion,” Li is skeptical of its general practicality; Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 90. 37. A deadly political competition arose in the Period of Disunity (220–589) when a self-styled “moral majority” of conformists in the (Ming Jiao 名教) assumed the Confucian mantle, while the dissenting voices of the Daoist-leaning Naturalists (Ziran Xuepai 自然學派) reflected Daoism’s evolution from philosophy to religion via the Dark Learning (Xuan Xue 玄學) movement. 38. Kenneth K. Inada, “Some Basic Misconceptions of Buddhism,” International Philo- sophical Quarterly 9, no. 1 (1969): 116–7. 39. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Traditions, 168. 40. William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous, A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Company, 1934), 415a. 41. Ibid., 243b. An affirmative use of dr·s·t·i occurs in the first element of the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Understanding or Views (samyag-dr·s·t·i, Pa¯li samma¯-dit·t·hi). 42. Jiddu Krishnamurti, Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti (San Francisco: Harper, 1996), 184. 43. Ibid., 184. 44. Analects,2:4. 45. Ibid., 17: 19. SEDIMENTATION IN CHINESE AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY 491

46. Wing-tsit Chan, ed. and trans., Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton: Prince- ton University Press, 1963), 429. 47. Li and Cauvel, Four Essays on Aesthetics,8. 48. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 174. 49. Ibid., 161. 50. Although Li discusses the poems of Wang Wei 王維 (699–759) as illustrations of “Chan sense” (The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 164–5), Chan Master Sheng Yen 聖嚴 (1930–2009) suggests that Wang Wei’s work indicates only “an artist’s enlightenment.” The lingering trace of a self implies that “the experience is grounded in existence, not emptiness.” Sheng Yen, Zen Wisdom: Knowing and Doing (Elmhurst: Dharma Drum Publications, 1993), 312. 51. Sheng-yen, Faith in Mind (Elmhurst: Dharma Drum Publications, 1987), 57. 52. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 166. 53. Stephen Addiss, ed., Zen Sourcebook:Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2008), 50. 54. Ibid. 55. Ibid., 51. 56. Ibid. 57. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 164. 58. Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshita Iriya, and Dana R. Fraser, trans., The Recorded Sayings of Layman P’ang: A Ninth Century Zen Classic (New York: Weatherhill, 1971), 79. 59. Sasaki et al., The Recorded Sayings of Layman P’ang, 43. 60. Ibid., 64. 61. Ibid., 74. 62. Addiss, “Selected Poems by Chinese Nuns,” Zen Sourcebook, 63. 63. Ibid., 65. 64. Ibid., 66. 65. Ibid., 67. 66. Jonathan Christopher Cleary, trans., A Buddha from Korea: The Zen Teachings of T’aego (Boston: Shambhala, 1988), 66. 67. Notable exceptions among philosophers include Derek Parfit ( and Persons, 1986) and Thomas Metzinger (Mark R. Leary and June Price Tangney, eds., Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity, New York: Guilford Press, 2012). Scien- tists have been less hesitant to broach this topic. See Nobel laureate Francis Crick (The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, 1994) and Daniel C. Dennett (Consciousness Explained, 1991). Li himself declares “each person’s indi- vidual sensuous existence, each person’s ‘being,’ is completely and utterly unique”; Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 224. 68. Constantine Sedikides and John J. Skowronski, “Evolution of the Symbolic Self: Issues and Prospects,” in Handbook of Self and Identity, 594. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~crsi/evololutionofthesymbolicself.pdf. 69. See the work of cognitive anthropologist and psychologist Scott Atran, In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). 70. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 191–2. 71. Ibid., 162. 72. Cauvel, “The Transformative Power of Art,” 162. 73. Li, “Subjectivity and ‘Subjectality,’” 176. 74. For more detailed examples of human overreach, see Sandra A. Wawrytko, “The Viability (Dao) and Virtuosity (De) of Daoist Ecology: Reversion (Fu) as Renewal,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 32, no. 2 (2005): 89–103. 75. The use of tools, in some cases even language, has been documented among nonhu- man species, ranging from mammals and birds to insects and fish. 76. Sedikides and Skowronski, “Evolution of the Symbolic Self,” 595. 77. Theodore Roszak, “Raging against the Machine,” Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2004. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jan/28/ opinion/oe-roszak28. 492 SANDRA A. WAWRYTKO

78. For example, he rejected focus groups because “people don’t know what they want until you show it to them”; interview with Business Week, May 25, 1998. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from http://www.businessweek.com/1998/21/b3579165.htm. 79. Steve Jobs, Commencement address, June 12, 2005, Stanford Report, June 14, 2005. Retrieved December 12, 2013, from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs -061505.html. 80. See Immanuel Kant,“An Old Question Raised Again: Is the Human Race Constantly Progressing?” (1798) On History (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963); like Li, Kant answers this question in the affirmative. Mao Zedong, 1944 speech to the inaugural meeting of the Natural Science Research Society of the Border Region, included in Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung (Beijing: Waiwen Chubanshe, 1972), 204–5. 81. The Songs of the Red Flag, in Kai-yu Hsu, trans., Twentieth Century Chinese Poetry (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1970), 410. 82. “Beautiful China Starts from Healthy Breath,” People’s Daily Online, 14:14, January 14, 2013. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/ 8091247.html. 83. An irrigation project constructed in China’s Sichuan province in the third century bce, which continues to function in harmony with the environment. 84. Chapter 10 of the Daxue commentary; Charles Wei-hsun Fu and Sandra A.Wawrytko, trans., in Wawrytko, Chinese Philosophy in Cultural Context, 228. Readings with introductory materials, compiler/editor (San Diego: Montezuma Publishing, 2007), 228. 85. Kim Sisuˇ p, “On Producing Wealth,” in Sourcebook of Korean Civilization: Volume I From Early Times to the Sixteenth Century, ed. Peter H. Lee (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 588. 86. Daxue,7. 87. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,/But in ourselves, that we are underlings”; William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 1: 2: 140–1. 88. “That thing is called free, which exists solely by the necessity of its own nature, and of which the action is determined by itself alone. On the other hand, that thing is necessary, or rather constrained, which is determined by something external to itself to a fixed and definite method of existence or action.” Benedict Spinoza, Ethics,I, trans. Robert Harvey Monro Elwes, in The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol. I (New York: Dover Publications, 1955), 46. Paralleling Buddhism’s nondualism, Spinoza assumes there is nothing external to the reality he identifies as Substance. 89. Stephen Kellert, Birthright: People and Nature in the Modern World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012); excerpt available at http://www.npr.org/books/titles/ 169521814/birthright-people-and-nature-in-the-modern-world?tab=excerpt#excerpt. Kellert has proposed an International Institute for Biophilic Studies at Yale Univer- sity’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, whose mission is “to understand and promote the role of the natural environment in human physical and mental health, productivity and wellbeing” (http://www.stephenrkellert.net/biophilic-studies .html). 90. William Myers, course description for “Nature Design: From Inspiration to Integra- tion” at MoMA, fall 2012; http://william-myers.com/. Myers recently published Biodesign: Nature Science Creativity (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2012). 91. Li and Cauvel, Four Essays on Aesthetics, 66. 92. Li, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, 224. 93. Inada, “Some Basic Misconceptions of Buddhism,” 117. 94. Li and Cauvel, Four Essays on Aesthetics, 182.