Certainty in D aoism and in Japanese Buddhism
»It’s human nature to resist death. «l
»Hoiu do I know that loving life is not a delusion ? How do I know that in hating death I am not like a man ivho, having left home in his youth, has
forgotten the way backh?
How d id the Ja p an e se explain the p h en o m enon of death, which after all rem ains th e only realistic an d certain stance for anyone in the face of the future? T h e fu tu re itself, being deprived o f certainty, gave m any possibili
ties for speculation o n the land which is the best, because it is nonexistent.
As such it m ean t the h o p e for the Other, the chance to evade the paradigm s o f the p re se n t a n d already realized forms o f the community.
In J a p a n the c o n c ep t o f hell has b een elaborated in the m inutest de
tail, at least as far as the B uddhist universe is concerned, d u rin g the H eian p eriod, a n d G enshin has em phasized the necessity o f grasping the reality o f the »six paths« (rokudo) - the six lower states o f existence, i.e. hell, and the realm s o f hu n g ry spirits, anim als, asuras, m en and heavenly beings; or m odes o f existence p erm eating the world o f illusion, six levels to be ascended o n the way towards deliverance. T he six m odes belong to the world of illu
sion th ro u g h w hich all form s o f existence perpetually transm igrate unless, o f course, o n e en ters the »way o f the Buddha« and thereby opens up a fi
nite futu re, extinctio n , a goal to be reached through four further, succes
sive stages o f enlightenm ent. This vision of the future in »ten realms« (jikkai), which, o n a general level, also contain the advent of the B uddha M iroku, sets an optim istic n o te since it provides a prospect for escape from the eter
nal cycle o f transm igration.
1 Wei Jin g sh e n g . T h e C ourage to S tand A lone. In: The Free China Journal. July 5, 1997, p. 7.
2 W atson B.: The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. C olum bia University Press. New York 1968, p. 47.
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Kojiki and Nihonshoki, written in th e b eg in n in g o f 8th century, are the chronicles o f the time from the 4th cen tury on w hen the Yamato dynasty started to co n q u er various sm aller states. T h e m ythological elem ents in the chronicles act as justification for th e Yam ato subjugation o f all th e o th e r states; therefore the em p ero r is believed to have received th e pow er from the gods. Besides the Takama-ga-hara (T he Plain o f H igh H eaven, H igh Ce
lestial P lain ), the heavens far in the sky believed to be in h ab ited by the gods, an d the actual Ja p a n o f that time which was in th e m iddle, there was also the n o tio n of Ne-no-kuni (The R oot-L and), the place w here the d ead p e o ple were supposed to retire. In this well known p a n th e o n o f the Yamato dy
nasty, th e myth of h an d ing over the lan d is includ ed, as well as the im age o f an alien deity, n o t known am ong the heavenly a n d local deities - the arch i
tect and constructor of Japan, a small being which was believed to have com e from across the sea and to have retire d th ere as soon as the work h a d b een accom plished. With him is co n n ected the im age o f Tokoyo-no-kuni, the ever
lasting land. The land o f bliss, which existed once a n d was gone forever, is by som e explanations also the lan d o f rice, the paradise from w here the cereals were brought. A far away lan d over the sea, which is actually a pre- Yamato construct, was m ost probably related to D aoist elem ents an d beliefs
in eternal youth and immortality.
»If one divides people into ranks the lowest is he who values his head.
Those who endeavor only to amass as much knowledge as possible grow heads that become bigger and so they topple over easily, like a pyramid standing upside down. They excel in imitating others but neither origi
nality nor inventiveness nor any great work is theirs.
Next come those of middle rank. For them the chest is most important.
People with self-control, given to abstinence and asceticism belong to this type. These are the men with outward courage but without real strength.
Many of the so-called great men are in this category. Yet all this is not enough.
But those who regard the belly as the most important part and so have built the stronghold where the Divine can grow - these are the people of the highest rank. They have developed their minds as well as their bodies in the right way. Strength flows out from them and produces a spiritual condition of ease and equanimity. They do what seems good to them without violating any law. Those in the first category think that Science can rule Nature. Those in the second have apparent courage and discipline and they know how to fight. Those in the third know what reality is.«3
In Japanese intellectual tradition, various techniques, know n as gyo,
fo rm ed an im p o rta n t p art o f any real p h ilo so ph ical u n d e rta k in g , w hich
3 Sayings o f M aster O kada. In: K. G raf von D ürckheim : Hara. The Vital Center o f Man.
G eorge A llen and Unwin Ltd., L on d o n , 1971, p. 176.
aim ed at p u ttin g in to words the Absolute tru th , which in its essence is inex
pressible. The above quotation is ju st one in the vast tradition which has been reex am inin g th e n a tu re o f the intellect; by its nature it can n o t carry o ut its fu n ctio n if th e distinctions am ong things are n o t created and fixed so that they ap p e ar as in d e p e n d e n t entities which are divided am ong themselves.
T h e ja p a n e se philosophical tradition, however, has been trying to overcome the one-dim ensionality o f rationality. It still can n o t be labeled as irrational as is often thought, b u t m ust rath er be considered as arrational, transrational o r on the o th e r side o f ex p erience and creativity.
B u d d h a M iroku4 is believed to descend from the B uddhist heaven in o rd e r to save th e people. A fter 552 A.D. when Buddhism was intro du ced to Ja p a n , it was a religion o f the ruling elite m ean t to p ro tect the land and the ru lin g class. O nly after all these aspects was it recognized as having a soter- iological function. In the 10th century rose the belief in the W estern para
dise w here A m ida, who was supposed to help any individual to salvation, ruled. T he five colored strings that lead from the fingers o f the dying per
son to A m ida’s statue were believed to help and direct one into A m ida’s Pure Land, W estern paradise, Öjö (birth in a B uddha or bodhisattva’s land, es
pecially A m ida’s Pure L a n d ), salvation, o r gokuraku - utm ost pleasure, that which possesses ease an d com fort. G ok u rak u jod o becam e a synonym for A m ida’s Pure L and o f U tm ost Bliss.
Jap an ese B uddhist philosophers, who will be dealt with in relation to C hinese D aoists’, in tro d u c e with their works essential changes in o ur dual- istically ed u c ate d m inds, since they confro n t us with a com pletely different way o f ex p erien cin g language a n d thought. W hat has in E uropean tradition b een u n d e rsto o d as certainty, standpoint, has been seen through in Sino- Jap anese tradition as the »illusory dust o f the world« (Zhuang Zi). T he em er
gence an d o c c u rre n ce o f th e voidness and the transcendence of Ego are inextricably c o n n e cte d with the question o f the inexpressible. As for Dao
ism, the q u o tatio n from th e concluding lines o f chapter 25 in Zhuang Zi is illustrative: »The p e rfectio n o f the Way and things - n e ith e r words n o r si-
4 Sk. M aitreya, »B enevolent«. T h e bodkisattva who will ap p ear in this world to becom e th e nex t B u d d h a after 5,670,000,000 years w hen he ends his life in the Tusita H eaven (T osotsuten). Inagaki H. A Dictionary of Japanese Buddhist Terms. Nagata B unshodo, Kyoto, 1985, p. 206.
5 Influences o f D aoism in J a p a n are im m ense, especially as th e concepts o f fate, after
life fu tu re a n d th e problem atisations o f certainty in Lao Zi an d Z huang Zi p en e trate d th e Ja p a n e s e way o f th in k in g . T h e re fo re it is im p o rta n t to discuss th e D aoist p h ilosophical credos in rela tio n to Buddhism .
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lence are worthy of expressing it. N ot to talk, n o t to be silent - this is the highest form of debate.«6
For a B uddhist philosopher o n this level o f ap proach , the question o f a venture which is akin to what the later W ittgenstein has called a »language- game« is raised. T he actual question w hich follows from these two is the position o f the critic o f language in th e B uddhist philosophical tradition. Is a nam e logically in d e p e n d e n t o f th e characteristics o f the th in g nam ed? If we try to illustrate this with the Daoists:
W hen Zhuang Zi poses an explicit d e m a n d o f »not to talk, n o t to be silent«, h e also brings into play the difference betw een conventional an d absolute knowledge. T he real certainty can be based only on th e absolute knowledge, on the level o f Absolute Truth. T h e re is a difference betw een knowledge as used in B uddhist an d Daoist texts a n d the n o tio n o f knowl
edge in the E uropean tradition. T he difference is illustrated with the de
m and »abandon knowledge« (Dao de jing). T h e D aoist nam ely is q u estion ing oneself abo ut the value o f knowledge an d n o t w h ether o r n o t we have it. The fact that we are supposed to ab an d o n knowledge constitutes the basis o f certainty an d the way to approach the Dao a n d voidness, b o th o f which are set in to the realm of Absolute T ruth a n d th ere fo re th e sp h ere o f the inexpressible. T he dependence on the logical an d discursive function of the language, which is supposed to express the absolute T ru th, is d en ied . In Zhuang Zi silence becom es the only real language o f voidness. Silence is the strongest expression of the void relations. It is n o t any silence, b u t Silence as such. It is n ot the silence o f ignorance, hostility, intim idation, b u t it is prajnä, the wisdom, which is indifferent to the fo rm ulation and the rejec
tion of form ulation.
W hen the differences am ong the ontological categories (being, non- being etc.) are denied, in regard to certainty new problem s as well as orig
inal solutions to the old problem s arise. T h e Daoist as well as B uddhist p h i
losophers d em an d a radical neg atio n as th e basis for the ach ievem ent o f certainty, Absolute Truth, which is beyond the b e g in n in g a n d the en d , be
ing and non-being, som ething and n othing. For the Daoists, bein g a n d non- being are ju s t two aspects of the inexpressible Dao. B uddhist voidness, on the o th er h an d , is a dynamic whole which evades distinctions. T he m eth o d o lo gy o f Köans an d paradox in Zen dem ands an intuitive structu re o f u n d e r
standing which assures m eaning in the com bination o f concepts which would otherwise be u n derstood as logically inconsistent. M etaphorical th ink ing in the Daoist a n d Buddhist philosophical trad itio n is n o t un d e rsto o d as som e
r’ Watson B.: The Complete Works of Chuans Tzu. C olum bia University Press. New York 1968, p. 293.
th in g in ferio r to co n cep tu al thinking, which is itself p u t into question, es
pecially at the u n d ertaking s, such as the p ath to certainty. In Japanese Bud
dhist philosophy, as well as in Daoism, the dem and for deontologisadon has b e e n strong. T h e n o tio n o f voidness, the central philosophical concept in Buddhism , is precisely the o n e which tests the n ature o f various attachm ents (to the Ego e tc .). T h erefo re the dem and for discovery o f the nature o f n o n attach m en t, which form s th e basis of certainty, is posed. Certainty, acquired in such away, opens up new perspectives of existence. W hen the enlightened on e, the o n e who has reach ed the basis o f certainty, sees everything in the light o f voidness, p ro tectio n against the appearance o f ontological entities is established, w hich th en opens up this astonishing realm of suchness of being. A lthough this m eans a tem ptation, the concept o f voidness can never be b ro u g h t to th e m etaphysical level o r red u ced to ontology. T he voidness th ere fo re is n o t th e antithesis to being n e ith e r is it the position betw een n o th in g n e ss a n d being. Voidness is tran scen den ce o f all standpoints an d positions. It provides the certainty which leads to the liberation from think
ing, an d from substantiating th e Self and the im prisonm ent in the Ego.
A m ong the a b u n d a n t Pure Land theoretical heritage, Genshin, with his basis o f am idist d o ctrin e an d th e öjöden texts, legends of a good death, is inter
esting w hen treating the p roblem o f certainty. T he obsession of having o n e ’s life a n d d eath u n d e r com plete control reached its peak with a new genre o f descriptions o f the peop le who were certain to have had a good death, i.e. have gone to the Pure L and o f Amida to be reb o rn there. In the imagi
native geography, o n e reaches the m odel death by passing over the sea of uncertainty, lan d in g in the P ure Land, which is conceptually beyond b oth hell a n d heaven. It is an illusion created a n d transferred beyond o n e ’s own d eath, a dream o f a certainty reach ed in a paradise far away in the West. T he m o m e n t o f d e a th becom es the sole possibility o f attain m en t of the certain
ty so u g h t for d u rin g th e e n tire lifetime.
W hen analyzing the Pure Land theories o f Heaven, we see that in m ost o f th em the tran scen d en tal voidness is present. The situation, described in the texts as H eaven, is the state of undifferentiated consciousness. Since the language is based in the differences, here the void space comes into play.
T he unusual vision, which m ight be a p ro d u ct of mystical experience, ap
pears in th e spiritual eyes as a vast, limitless space, where things exist in an am orphous, dream like m ode o f existence, always changing and flowing into each other. T h e Pure Land Heaven can therefore be nam ed as the highest p o in t o f uncertainty, w here everything flows in a dream like insecurity and in d ete rm in a tio n . T he bord ers and limits are fluid. It is only the veil o f illu-
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sion ( mäyä) which constitutes the form o f language. T h e prim al fu n ctio n o f the intellect is th at it holds to these m obile a n d flowing borders, a n d fixes them into quiet entities. As a result, clearly d efined an d rigidly fixed distinc
tions are form ed, however these do n o t co rre sp o n d to the paradisiacal ab
sence o f the form ation o f m eaning. T h e veil o f illusion form s the totality o f being an d m eaning by which in o u r m inds, the im age of so-called reality is form ed. This reality, however, is ju s t a surface reality, ju s t a p h e n o m e n o n , an appearance, a distorted reality o f a real unity o f reality, w hich lies at the deepest level, h idd en from the eyes o f a co m m o n h u m an being.
T he B uddhist L and o f Suprem e Bliss7 has n o spatial form . A ccording to the A m itäbha Sütra, the land of Suprem e Bliss is a world located infinite
ly far away in the West, reached after passing over o n e thousand billion lands of Buddhas, and in it dwells the B u d d h a know n as A m itäbha, w ho c o n tin ues to preach the Law to this day. As seen in th e pre-buddhist n otions, the earthly paradise o f suprem e bliss is located in a fixed geographical position on a high m oun tain at the far e n d o r a t th e c e n te r of the w orld, or on an island far o u t in the ocean. It is a non-place, w hich does n o t allow for easy approach, su rro u n d ed by walls which can n o t be p e n e tra te d , walls o f ice, a p e rm an en t shroud of thick clouds, o r blazing flames. But as Sham bhala, this paradise, although situated on the sam e plane as o u r own world, it c a n n o t be found situated on any map. Why? It slips th ro u g h the grasp o f language.8 T he image of paradise, as well as th e paradisiacal dim ension itself, are form ed on the level o f consciousness so well describ ed in the Yoga Sütra. In contrast with o th er pre-Buddhist In d ian systems th at focused exclusively on the cultivation o f knowledge as th e m eans to lib eratio n , yoga, while n o t denying th e efficacy o f knowledge, advances several ancillary tech n iq u es.9
T he form ation o f the images o f paradise is therefo re co n n ected with altering th e state o f consciousness th ro u g h th e use o f various physical tech niques. It is the state th at transcends th e citta-vrtti-nirodha an d is th ere fo re indescribable. T he popu lar image o f the A m itäbha in the Pure L and doc
trine, as the one who dwells in the W estern L an d o f S uprem e Bliss a n d as
7 Milčinski M.: O n A pproaching Wabi-Sabi. In: Inde-Europe-Postmodemité. N oel B landin, Paris, 1993, p. 298.
8 Nakazawa S.: Gokuraku. In: Cibeto noMozuaruto. Seikaido. Tokyo, 1983.
IJ C happie C.: The U nseen Seer an d th e Field: C onsciousness in Säm khya a n d Yoga.
In: The Problem o f Pure Consciousness. (Ed. F orm an R .), pp. 62-3. W hile th e a u th o r presents th e five fluctuations (vrtti) o f th e m in d (citta) as describ ed in th e Yoga Sutra, h e com es to th e conclusion th a t »for th e yogi, th e goal is to tra n sc e n d all five by e n te rin g the state o f citta-vrtti-nirodha. H en ce, by defin itio n , th e p ra c titio n e r o f m editation is en terin g into a state o f b ein g th a t c a n n o t be d escribed in th e sam e way one w ould describe conventional sensory o r m en tal experience«.
th e saviour who will com e to rescue all living beings with his overabundance o f com passion, is reserved for the devotees th at are, due to the N em butsu10 practice, b o u n d to the w orld o f being an d the realm o f language.
T h e certain ty, how ever, is in Sino-Japanese p h ilo so p h ical c o n te x t form ed with the body, with the transform ation o f the body into a base for the form ation o f m eaning from which visions of the Pure Land arise, through th e use o f m en tal a n d physical techniques for the visualization of the Land o f Suprem e Bliss; the lan d situated in the farthest depths o f infinity.
From the early M iddle Ages onwards, accounts o f reb irth in the Land o f Sup rem e Bliss started to ap p e ar in the Japanese philosophical an d reli
gious texts. As we have seen, the theory of the Pure Land gives rise to a prob
lem o f lan g u age a n d th e m ind-body theory in Ja p an ese B uddhism . T he absence o f Ego, the selflessness an d the problem of inexpressible are the effects o f the transition to the level o f citta-vrtti-nirodha. This is the level of m an tra an d som e o f th e Köans th at slip th rough the clutches of silence and language - th e situation described by Zhuang Zi, and the one which origi
nates a n d derives from th e voidness, as the basis o f certainty an d prajnä or suprem e wisdom.
In th e m o m e n t o f loss o f philosophical centrality, we are facing a rad
ical critique o f the long lived dream to attain a foundation o f knowledge, certainty a n d an absolute basis for Truth. T he topics discussed above from the B uddhist philosophical schools call the rational argum entation itself into question. T he obsession ab o u t w hether or n ot som ething could be subsumed u n d e r th e co n cep t o f T ruth becom es irrelevant. One o f the challenges that we face w hen a p p ro a c h in g the B uddhist (and Daoist) texts is the problem o f language, o f the status o f words, and o f the spheres of silent language and the language o f silence. Language as the indispensable tool o f intellect helps to create th e distinctions o f everything and the borders am ong the myriad things, which from the view point o f the citta-vrtti-nirodha are unseparate- bly c o n n e cte d in O ne. T h e w ord on the o th er h a n d is a symbol, a sign o f som eth ing th at has b een in the thoughts. T he m eaning itself is, on the o th e r h a n d , th e symbol o f som ething which is beyond the grasp o f logos and is indescribable, inexpressible, certain, since it manifests itself in everything.
H ere we deal with two levels: T he surface one, in which reality manifests itself in the form o f the ten th o usan d , myriad things; and the o th e r one, beyond
1(1 N em butsu: »T hinking o f o r m editating on B uddha«, »buddhänusm riti in skrt. It also m eans »uttering B u d d h a ’s Name«. In Amidist tradition it m eans u tterance o f A m ida’s N a m e , i.e, »N am u-A m ida-B utsu«. See also: The Tanni Sho. N o tes L a m e n tin g D ifferences. R yukoku University, Kyoto, 1990, p. 15.
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it, the certain one, which is spoken o f (or k e p t silent about) in the sense of the first ch ap ter o f the Dao dejing.11
T he Japanese mind-body c o n c ep t is b ased o n radical tran sform atio n o f subjectivity an d with it the n o tio n o f rationality. T h e n o tio n o f H eaven, as und ersto o d a n d described in the way o f transform ation o f consciousness, dem ands th e opening up o f the established g overning positions o f E u ro p e an metaphysics to d e e p er dim ensions o f tru th , o ften related to the trans- rational an d trans-linguistic experiences u p o n w hich any kind o f certainty is groun d ed . The q u oted division o f the p eo p le into ranks w here the lowest is the on e who values o n e ’s head has im plications for the p h ilo so p h e r’s in
terest. Namely, how to read the au to n o m ou s philosophical pro d u ctio n s of C hina a n d ja p a n from the standp o in t o f the tradition which has b een called philosophia, the love of wisdom, a discipline th a t in its developm ent so u g h t in the nam e of Truth a »pure« starting point, a foundation o f Absolute Truth, the gro u n d o f certainty. Such un d ertak in gs have also in the B uddhist co n
text been b ro u g h t close to the p o n d e rin g o f Z huang Zi:
»The Great Way is not named; Great Discriminations are not spoken; Great Benevolence is not benevolence; Great Modesty is not humble; Great Daring does not attack. If the Way is made clear, it is not the Way. If dis
criminations are put into words, they do not suffice. If benevolence has a constant object, it cannot be universal. If modesty is fastidious, it cannot be trusted. If daring attacks, it cannot be complete. These five are all round, but they tend toward the square. (All are originally perfect, but may be
come »squared«, i.e., impaired, by the misuses mentioned.)
Therefore understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest. Who can understand discriminations that are not spoken, the Way that is not a way? If he can understand this, he may be called the Reser
voir of Heaven. Pour into it and it is never full, dip from it and it never runs dry, and yet it does not know where the supply comes from. This is called the Precious Light.«12
Daoism and Buddhism, two o f the Asian deontological philosophical traditions, which m enaged to ask an d answer vital philosophical questions, n u rtu re d the principle of becom ing a n d co n stan t change. In the horizon, where nothing is perm anent and there is no such thing as substance, the words, concepts, theories o r knowledge are transient, as well. T he idea o f truth, cer
tainty an d causality, the inquiring into being an d substance - the nom inal world - was therefore n o t seen as relevant philosophical preoccupation.
11 »As fo r th e Way, th e Way th at can be spoken o f is n o t th e c o n stan t Way.« In: Lao-Tzu:
Te-Tao Ching. Translated by H enricks R. B allantine Books. New York, 1989, p. 188.
12 Watson B.: The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. C olum bia U niversity Press. New York 1968, pp. 44-5.
