Zen and Western Thought [Paperback]

Masao Abe (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Three quarters of this collection of articles by an outstanding philosopher of the Kyoto school is devoted to elucidating Zen for the West. The level of treatment presupposes some experience in Zen meditation as well as a solid background in philosophy and religion. Readers possessing these will find Abe's expositions of Mu , nirvana, purity, Emptiness, Buddha-Nature in Dogen as well as comparisons with Nietzsche, Whitehead, Tillich, Christianity, and science very valuable. The final section, which urges the necessity of transcending nationalism in order to realize a true world community bound together in egoless compassion, is especially timely as well as accessible to educated nonspecialists. Highly recommended. Astrid M. O'Brien, Humanities Div., Fordham Univ., Coll. at Lincoln Ctr., New York
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press (March 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082481214X
• ISBN-13: 978-0824812140
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 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: #808,082 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a profound challenge and disorientation to one's own ego-identity, May 8, 2009

By 

john pitsch "john p." (sf bay area, ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zen and Western Thought (Paperback)

Abe's book presents a challenge for westerners who have grown up with the common secular notion that the ego is the non-negotiable center of one's existence and dualism is an essential value that is not to be questioned. Abe helped me begin to understand that dualism and non-dualism both have a place and legitimate function in human development, yet his emphasis is overwhelmingly on the practical explication and integration of a non-dual understanding of human existence. One of the most profound aspects of the book for me regards Abe's explanation that "Emptiness" itself is the true-self (as opposed to the idea that the true-self is emptiness) which has helped me better understand D. Loy's thesis that a human being's most fundamental fear is not death (e.g., E. Becker's), but rather the "fundamental ungroundedness of Being." Abe presents the idea of a "dehomocentric" nature of Buddhism, which has some compatibility with a Jungian notion of the need for the ego to subordinate itself to the Self, but more importantly suggests the fundemental existential ground for the realization of true community and the transformation of fundemental or normal narcissism. He states, "we find ourself equal, not as children of the one God, but in the common realization of egolessness or Emptiness [e.g., def. as "dynamic spontaneity"], which at the same time is the realization of the true Self. Realization of egolessness is not something negative, like losing one's self-identity, but rather is positive in that through this realization one overcomes one's ego-centeredness and awakens to Reality, that is, to one's own true Self as well as the true Self of others. It is in this awakening that one can live with others in true community, sharing the realization of the true Self" (p. 212). Abe emphasizes the importance of the experience of "spiritual death" (e.g., Christ's "kenosis" as a "self-emptying" of the narcissistic ego-identity) for this realization to be possible. Overall, this book is unique in its depth of analysis of western philosophy from a Zen Buddhist perspective, despite its recognizable absolutist strain and the metaphysical speculations that accompany the Zen Buddhist view.

15 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Increase your SAT score by 200 points, April 27, 2003

By 

latasha crowder (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zen and Western Thought (Paperback)

Fabulous book. I read it when I was sixteen and it was my second book on philosophy. I had to keep a dictionary beside me as I read it because the vocabulary was esoteric, but it made me want to read it more. It changed the way I thought about things and helped me see relationships between events and ideas that at first glance might seem unrelated. In seeking to understand this book, I exposed myself to a way of thinking very alien to my experience up until that point. It was very rewarding. I highly recommend it if you want to glimpse something greater of yourself. Doing nothing else unusual except reading 2/3 of this book and praying, my SAT scores leaped from 1150 to 1350. It is the best book of its kind. Truly. After reading it, most autobiographical works of modern WEstern Zen practitioners will seem flat and trite. If nothing else, you will better be able to discern what is crap in Zen literature.