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Beyond Personal Identity Curzon Studies in Asian Religion Beyond Personal Identity Curzon Studies in Asian Religion Series Editor: Sue Hamilton, King's College, London Editorial Advisory Board: Nick Allen, University of Oxford Catherine Despeux, INALCO, Paris Chris Minkowski, Cornell University Fabio Rambelli, Williams College, Massachusetts Andrew Rippin, University of Calgary Curzon Press publishes a Series specifically devoted to Asian Religion, considered from a variety of perspectives: those of theology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, history, politics and literature. The primary objects of study will be all the religious traditions of the Indian sub-continent, Tibet, China, Japan, South-East Asia, Central Asia, and the Near and Middle East. The methodology used in the works published in the Series is either comparative or one focused on (a feature of) a specific tradition. The level of readership ranges from undergraduates to specialist scholars. The type of book varies from the introductory textbook to the scholarly monograph. Tradition and Liberation The Hindu Tradition in the Indian Women's Movement Catherine A. Robinson Shinto in History Ways of the Kami John Breen and Mark Teeuwen Beyond Personal Identity Dagen, Nishida, and a Phenomenology of No-Self Gereon Kopf Proposal or scripts for the Series will be welcomed by the Series Editor or by Jonathan Price, Chief Editor, Curzon Press. Beyond Personal Identity Dagen, Nishida, and a Phenomenology of No-Self Gereon Kopf CURZON First Published in 2001 by Curzon Press Richmond, Surrey http://www.curzonpress.co.uk © 2001 Gereon Kopf Typeset in Horley Old Style by LaserScript Ltd, Mitcham, Surrey Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-7007-1217-8 ----It CONTENTS _,1------ Preface IX Introduction Xl Dagen Kigen Xli Nishida Kitara XIV Methodological Considerations XVlI PART ONE: Personal Identity Revisited CHAPTER ONE: The Problem of Personal Identity 3 Introduction 3 The concept ofpersonal identity 5 Three theories ofpersonal identity 8 introduction 8 personal identity qua substance 9 personal identity qua bodily continuity 15 personal identity qua psychological continuity 18 The concept ofpersonal identity revealed as a convenient fiction 22 personal identity as further fact 22 the indeterminacy of personal identity 24 personal identity is not "what matters" 25 The construction ofpersonal identity 28 personal identity and intentionality 28 the emergence of two selves 31 Summary 33 v CONTENTS PART TWO: Zen Buddhism and Phenomenology on Self-Awareness CHAPTER TWO: Selfhood 37 Introduction 37 outline of part two 37 the problem of selfhood 38 Cogito and self-consciousness: a phenomenology of the self 40 the conception of the cogito 40 cogito as intentional act 44 self-consciousness 46 the dual self 49 summary 52 "To study the self is to forget the self" - selfhood in Dogen 53 no-self in Buddhism 53 introduction to Dagen 55 Dagen's "self" as positional act 58 self-awareness in Dagen 63 somaticity and self-awareness 67 Nishida on selfhood 69 introduction 69 the dual self 70 non-positional awareness 73 self-awareness and internal negation 75 conclusion 79 Summary 80 CHAPTER THREE: Otherness 83 Introduction 83 Alterity and intersubjectivity 87 existential ambiguity of self and other 87 excursion: psychic synchronization and psychic entanglement in Jung 94 "To cast offselfand other" - alterity in Dogen 97 alterity in early Buddhism 97 Dagen and otherness 99 the moment of alterity 101 the paradox of alterity 103 intersubjectivity 105 I and Thou in Nishida 110 The interaction of I and Thou 111 VI CONTENTS the disappearance of the self 113 non-thetic awareness 117 the modality of expression 11 9 Summary 121 CHAPTER FOUR: Continuity of Experience 124 Introduction 124 The notion of continuity 125 No-self and continuity in Early Buddhism 132 impermanence and permanence 133 impermanence and continuity 137 the collapse of continuity 141 From dharma-position to dharma-position - continuity in Dogen 144 From the present to the present - continuity in Nishida 153 from the created to the creating 154 from the present to the present 157 Summary 161 CHAPTER FIVE: Temporality 164 Introduction 164 A phenomenology of time 165 abstract time 166 phenomenal time 170 lived time 173 temporality and the problem of free will 175 Existence-time - time in Dogen 177 time in early Buddhism 177 time in Dagen 178 inauthentic experience of time 179 authentic experience of time 182 the immediate now 184 The non-relative present - Nishida on time 187 introduction 187 linear time and circular time 188 the problem of repeatability 191 dialectical time 193 eternal present 195 Summary 197 Temporality and personal identity 200 Vll CO:\TE~TS PART THREE: Zen Conceptions of Identity CHAPTER SIX: A Zen Phenomenology of Experience 205 Introduction 205 A Mahayana Buddhist phenomenology ofexperience 208 The abstract world 213 The phenomenal world 216 The lived world 218 introduction 218 lived world as epistemic reorientation 21 9 lived world as activity 222 summary 224 The actual world 225 non-positional awareness 225 the dialectic of the actual world 228 The question of impermanence 232 CHAPTER SEVEN: Personhood as Presencing 235 Introduction 235 The concept ofpresencing 235 Dagen's stratification of presencing 235 the role of the universal 238 Synchronic non-duality 240 the dialectic of presencing in Dagen 240 the dialectic of presencing in Nishida 245 Diachronic non-duality 248 the non-dual structure of impermanence 248 presencing qua from the created to the creating 252 identity and non-duality 255 Postscript: presencing is "what matters" 256 Notes 262 Glossary of Japanese Terms 278 Key to Texts by Dagen and Nishida 284 Works Cited 286 Index 294 VIU -----t4 PREFACE _1--- When I took my first course in Buddhism eleven years ago at Temple University, I found myself perplexed and mystified by the writings of Dagen and the concepts of "no-self," "casting off body and mind," and "presencing" they espoused. This class sent me on a journey to understand these concepts within their own conceptual framework and thus into the field of comparative philosophy, Japanese language and culture, and the dialectical philosophy of NISHIDA Kitara. The tentative product of this journey is the present volume, which grew out ofa significant revision ofmy dissertation. It attempts to relate the Zen Buddhist notion of no-self as it is elaborated by Dagen and Nishida to the problem of personal identity and to the theories of self developed in twentieth century phenomenology and existentialism; in short, it presents a phenomenology of no-self. In this sense, it combines my two fundamental intellectual interests: on the one hand, the quest to understand selfhood with all its ethical, psychological, existential, and political ramifications, which are all reflected in the dilemma of reconciling change and a sense of constancy, and, on the other, the attempt to dialogue notions of selfhood as different as Leibniz' monadology, Parfit's rejection of personal identity, Merleau­ Ponty's phenomenology of habit-formation, Buddhist notions of selflessness, and Nishida's infinite dialectic. I hope that this work will reflect this quest and stimulate or nurture the comparative discourse on selfhood. This book could not have been finished if it had not been for a host of teachers, colleagues, friends, and sponsors. Much of my academic development lowe to Professor NAGATOMO Shigenori, whose insightful and perceptive criticism has served both as model of, and as inspiration for, my research. I would also like to thank IX PREFACE Professors J. N. Mohanty, Thomas Dean, YUASA Yasuo, and KIMURA Kiyotaka for their guidance and vote of confidence; Professors James Heisig, YUSA Michiko, Steven Heine, and Gen Reeves, for their collegial support and advice; my colleagues in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Luther College for their patience and support; Professors TATENO Masami, Jeff Shore, YAMABE Nobuyoshi, KURASAWA Yukihisa, WATANABE Manabu, Alfons Teipen, Terry Rey, Dr. ARAKAWA Naoya, and Dr. Douglas Berger for many conversations and their friendship; Dr. Samuel Brainard for innumerable discussions and insightful criticism; Professor Barbara Thornbury, and Ms. TAMURA Kyoko for introducing me to the Japanese language; Mr. Jonathan Price of Curzon Press for having faith in my proposal; Mr. Peter Spuit, Mr. Nathan Pralle, and Ms. Rebecca Meier for their help with the manuscript; Mr. Jack Kilcrease and Mr. Christian Salter for compiling the index; and the library staff at Luther College. I would like to thank Dr. Martin Srajek for his longstanding friendship and insightful comments which challenged me to look at the topic of personhood from a multitude of perspectives. Particularly, I thank Ms. Francesca Soans, who proofread the manuscript with precision and competency, for being a constant challenge to my ideas, and for simply being there. In addition, I would like to thank Luther College for supporting my research with the Ylvesaker Research Fund and a Faculty Development Grant and the Japan Foundation for its generous Fellowship, which enabled me to study and research for one year under Professor Yuasa, an experience which has been invaluable professionally as well as personally. I am further indebted to Professors Robert Schinzinger, David Dilworth, ABE Masao and Norman Waddell, TAMAKI Koshiro, and YUSA Michiko, whose translations of Dagen and Nishida have influenced me greatly insofar as my interest in Zen preceded my proficiency in Japanese. The process ofcompiling and writing this study has proven once more that interrelatedness in which we find ourselves.
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