Franck Religion/Buddhism THE “Frederick Franck has done us all a wonderful service in culling the pages of The Eastern Buddhist for these gem-like essays by the profound thinkers of the Kyoto school … This book is a very UDDHA precious gift to us in that it allows us a sojourn in the Buddha eye … It T B is joyfully recommended to all.” —Robert Thurman, Columbia University, author of Essential HE Tibetan Buddhism EYE “Frederick Franck is one of a rare and precious breed—an authentic An Anthology of troubadour whose lyricism is pure in word and image. He quietly B roams our materialistic world and shows us that even here, even now, the Kyoto School there is hope for our soul.” UDDHA and Its Contemporaries —Jacob Needleman, San Francisco State University, author of The Heart of Philosophy Essays by “The juxtaposition of essays is provocative in eliciting a Western response. Some of the essays are already recognized as classics and some Abe Masao of the others should be.… This book provides a service to Western Hisamatsu Shin’ichi students of religion who wish to broaden their understanding of cross- Kiyozawa Manshi cultural religious and philosophical dialogue.” Kobori Sohaku Nanrei —The Eastern Buddhist Nishitani Keiji Soga Ryojin “Frederick Franck is that rarest of human beings, a true eclectic—in E touch with the perennial …” Suzuki Teitaro Daisetz —Robert Aitken Roshi, author of Taking the Path of Zen YE Takeuchi Yoshinori Ueda Shizuteru “Franck … looks deep into the human heart and what he finds there is the priceless treasure of the sacred reality: a discovery and message so Foreword by crucial to contemporary humanity.” —Georg Feuerstein, author of The Yoga Tradition Joan Stambaugh World Wisdom World Wisdom $ 19.95 Edited by FREDERICK FRANCK BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page 1 About this Book and the Editor “With the appearance of The Buddha Eye ... a new era in Buddhist thought has been launched.” —Taitetsu Unno, Jill Ker Conway Professor of Religion at Smith College “This anthology serves as an excellent introduction to the Suzuki version of Zen.” —Journal of Asian Studies “Dialogues with the spiritual masters of the East show us the possibility of a universal ecumenism that is rarely experienced.” —Matthew Fox, author of Original Blessing and One River, Many Wells “For the pilgrim in each of us who would journey into Eastern or Western spiritual traditions to chart a path in this troubled time.... ” —Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self “His words ... make us see the world as a place where, with more under- standing and tolerance, we could all live together in harmony.” —Rhena Schweitzer Miller, daughter of Albert Schweitzer “He simply sees things most people do not.... ” —Harvey Cox, author of The Secular City and Many Mansions “Frederick Franck’s exploration of what it means to be human and his moving artistic expression have been transnational, transcultural and transdisciplinary.” —Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, which awarded Franck a World Citizenship Award BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page 2 “The fact that, over ninety and recovering from a near-fatal automobile accident, Franck still finds hope and beauty in the world around him and can convey it with such simple force, is perhaps the most eloquent answer of all.” —Parabola magazine “Frederick Franck is an artist and author who believes in seeing everything around him.… [This] does not mean simply looking at, but instead active- ly realizing the importance of everything around him, especially other people.” —The Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution “Above all else, Franck is a bridge builder whose spirituality points to a new way of being in the twenty-first century.” —Spirituality and Health magazine BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page i World Wisdom The Library of Perennial Philosophy The Library of Perennial Philosophy is dedicated to the exposition of the time- less Truth underlying the diverse religions. This Truth, often referred to as the Sophia Perennis—or Perennial Wisdom—finds its expression in the revealed Scriptures as well as the writings of the great sages and the artistic creations of the traditional worlds. The Perennial Philosophy provides the intellectual principles capable of explaining both the formal contradictions and the transcendent unity of the great religions. Ranging from the writings of the great sages of the past, to the perennialist authors of our time, each series of our Library has a different focus. As a whole, they express the inner unanimity, transforming radiance, and irreplaceable values of the great spiritual traditions. The Buddha Eye: An Anthology of the Kyoto School and Its Contemporaries appears as one of our selections in the Spiritual Classics series. Spiritual Classics Series This series includes seminal, but often neglected, works of unique spiritu- al insight from leading religious authors of both the East and West. Ranging from books composed in ancient India to forgotten jewels of our time, these important classics feature new introductions which place them in the peren- nialist context. BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page ii World Wisdom wishes to express its gratitude to the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya, Japan, and to James W. Heisig, general Editor of their Nanzan Studies in Religion and Culture series, for their cooperation and assis- tance with this revised edition of The Buddha Eye. Please visit their website at http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN for more information on their projects and publications. Cover: Amida Nyorai, 11th century, Japan BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page iii The Buddha Eye An Anthology of the Kyoto School and Its Contemporaries Edited by Frederick Franck Foreword by Joan Stambaugh BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 2/8/2004 11:11 AM Page iv The Buddha Eye: An Anthology of the Kyoto School and Its Contemporaries © 2004 World Wisdom, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in critical articles and reviews. The Buddha Eye: An Anthology of the Kyoto School and Its Contemporaries is a revised edition of the 1982 edition which was originally published as The Buddha Eye: An Anthology of the Kyoto School, Crossroad, New York, 1982. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Buddha eye : an anthology of the Kyoto school and its contemporaries / edited by Frederick Franck ; foreword by Joan Stambaugh. p. cm. -- (The spiritual classics series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-941532-59-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Buddhism--Doctrines. 2. Philosophy, Buddhism. 3. Philosophy, Japanese--20th century. I. Franck, Frederick, 1909- II. Series: Spiritual classics (Bloomington, Ind.) BQ4165.B79 2004 294.3’420427--dc22 2004001541 Printed on acid-free paper in Canada For information address World Wisdom, Inc. P.O. Box 2682, Bloomington, Indiana 47402-2682 BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page v Pluck out the Buddha eye and sit in its hollow! DOGEN BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page vi BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page vii Table of Contents Publisher’s Note to the 2004 edition xi Foreword to the 2004 edition xiii JOAN STAMBAUGH Prologue xvii FREDERICK FRANCK Acknowledgments xxvii PART I. Essays on the Self 1. Self the Unattainable 3 SUZUKI TEITARš DAISETZ 2. The Awakening of Self in Buddhism 11 NISHITANI KEIJI 3. What Is the “I”? 21 SUZUKI TEITARš DAISETZ 4. The I-Thou Relation in Zen Buddhism 39 NISHITANI KEIJI 5. God, Emptiness, and the True Self 55 ABE MASAO 6. Ikky¥’s Skeletons 69 PART II. The Structure of Reality 7. The Buddhist Conception of Reality 83 SUZUKI TEITARš DAISETZ 8. Science and Zen 107 NISHITANI KEIJI 9. A Dialogue: A Discussion Between One and Zero 137 KOBORI SšHAKU NANREI 10. Man and Nature in Christianity and Buddhism 147 ABE MASAO BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page viii 11. “Nothingness” in Meister Eckhart and Zen Buddhism 157 UEDA SHIZUTERU 12. Zen as the Negation of Holiness 171 HISAMATSU SHIN’ICHI 13. The Philosophy of Nishida 183 TAKEUCHI YOSHINORI 14. Emptiness Is Suchness 209 ABE MASAO PART III. What is Shin Buddhism? 15. Apropos of Shin 217 SUZUKI TEITARš DAISETZ 16. Dharmþkara Bodhisattva 229 SOGA RYšJIN 17. The Great Path of Absolute Other-Power 241 KIYOZAWA MANSHI Biographical Notes 247 Index 249 BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page ix IKKYU’ S SKELETONS BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page x BuddhaEye_FINAL.qxd 1/7/2004 3:41 PM Page xi Publisher’s Note to the 2004 edition One of the defining notes in the history of twentieth century philo- sophical and religious thought is the encounter of East and West; and especially the enormous influence of Buddhism on many Western thinkers, artists, and spiritual seekers. Within the Buddhist tradition, Zen has achieved a level of prominence which has brought it so deeply into the public consciousness that in the last twenty years one has begun to hear this word used in connection with all manner of activity as a kind of mysterious informing intu- ition which allows us to transcend all “otherness” and harmonious- ly express the inward nature of things in the face of everyday life. But what exactly is Zen and why have so many people, across so many ranges of human endeavor, become interested in its teach- ings? This book, edited by the renowned artist and author Dr. Frederick Franck, offers a multi-faceted jewel of an answer to these questions. First published in l982, it continues to shed light and provide insights into Zen and is especially well-suited to Western readers.