Journeys into Emptiness: Dogen, Merton, Jung, and the Quest for Transformation (Jung and Spirituality Series) [Paperback]

Robert Jingen Gunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000 | Series: Jung and Spirituality Series

Here are the life journeys of three great seekers who, though separated by time and culture, had much in common. Dogen was the 13th-century Japanese founder of a School of Zen Buddhism, the Soto School, and a teacher of zazen, wordless meditation. Jung was a 20th-century Swiss psychiatrist who broke with psychoanalysis and saw the mind as having both male and female elements. Merton was a 20th-century American Trappist monk who through traditional Christianity eventually embraced a wider spirituality. Each of the three engaged in a search for personal transcendence, a search that was triggered by a private experience of emptiness. Requiring no previous knowledge of its subjects, this book looks at the tradition in which each man worked, the key events of his life, his particular experience of emptiness, and how he used the experience to be transformed. The book shows how to bring the wisdom of all three men into our lives today. It also shows how to bring meaning and understanding to emptiness, one of the most difficult problems of the psychospiritual journey. These side-by-side biographies summarize each life in a wonderfully cohesive way for anyone new to the particular man. They also shed fascinating new insight for those more familiar with either the man or his philosophy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A scholarly and detailed work. -- NAPRA ReView

A superb read. -- Spirit and Life

An intelligent and articulate joining of biography and the theme of emptiness. -- Shambhala Sun

This is a great comparative study, with relevance to many burning themes of modern existence. -- NAPRA ReView

This is an important book for a Western audience. -- Mystics Quarterly

Wise and compassionate portraits of these emblematic figures. -- Ecumenism

About the Author

Robert Jingen Gunn, Ph.D., has been a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City for the past twenty years. He is director of inter-religious dialogue of the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute in New York. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he has also been an adjunct professor at Union Theological Seminary and the Postgraduate Center for Mental health in the pastoral studies department. Dr. Gunn has been active in Zen meditation practice for several years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Paulist Pr (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809139332
• ISBN-13: 978-0809139330
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #611,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three lives laid bare, and loved., May 10, 2007

By 

M. Scott (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Journeys into Emptiness: Dogen, Merton, Jung, and the Quest for Transformation (Jung and Spirituality Series) (Paperback)

The gentlest and most humane treatment of three significant historical figures I have ever read. Gentleness breathes through the entire book. I found myself quieted as I read. This was holy ground we were walking on, the intimate stuff of people's lives laid bare, and loved.

I came to the book through my interest in things Jung and buddhism, though my knolwedge of zen buddhism was/is scant. I had heard of merton and have one of his books, which i have never read. I tried starting with dogen, but couldn't get into him, so tried Merton. Identified with him almost straight away. I could thne get into dogen, then Jung. I knew most (or thought I did) about Jung, but through the author's traetment, could relate to him as a frail human being, subject to mortality just like the rest of us. How easy it is to put such people on a pedestal, and thus out of reach to mere mortals. The image I had of Jung previously was a somewhat cynical caricature, compared to the sympathy and empathy I can feel for him now as a fellow creature. I feel the same way about about Merton and Dogen, though the latter was the most difficult because the detail provided was much less than the others, probably because of the historical and cultural distance and the lack of source documents.

The book shows well how the experience of emptiness in each of the subject's lives was seminal for what they made, or life made, of their experiences in the founding of Zen Buddhism, in the impact a Trappist hermit monk made and still makes on the modern world, and in the seminal perspective Analytical (Jungian) Psychology provides to the world.

Their experiences of emptiness were not "religous" experiences as such, but experiences most of us can identify with eg. Loss of parents while young, inadequate parenting, absence of parental presence (physical and emotional), psychotic or near psychotic episodes, betrayal, homelessness (in the sense of nowhere to call home or not feeling at home anywhere) and loneliness amongst others because of the incommunicability of what one was experiencing. I have no trouble with making the connection with these experiences and what later became their life's work and the way in which this relates to the Buddhist concept of Emptiness, Contingency, Sunyata and thus to 'enlightenment', however it may be named or experienced. They are all of a piece. It shows that such experiences need not spell the end of any hope for a meaningful life - in fact it suggests that they may bring great richness to oneself and to the world.

This book is a treasure. I came away greatly encouraged.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent copy and fast delivery, September 19, 2010

By 

James E. Hamilton - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Journeys into Emptiness: Dogen, Merton, Jung, and the Quest for Transformation (Jung and Spirituality Series) (Paperback)

If you are a Buddhist and want a well written review of the concept of emptiness this is a very good read. It also had some insightful and interesting information about C. G. Jung that I wasn't aware of prior to this reading. I also enjoyed the information about Thomas Merton. It has also encouraged me to read up on some of Dogen's Zen teachings.