Inquiring into the concept of "abiding" in zen buddhism from the perspective of phenomenological psychology: how does it happen and why does it happen?
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Authors
Suhara, Eiji
Issue Date
2000
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Consciousness
Alternative Title
Abstract
My intention is to gain insight into the question: "What does make me suffer and prevent my experiencing the state of enlightenment?"
In this paper, I will argue about the concept of "Zhu (Ju in Japanese)" as the key concept to ask above questions. Its meaning is, literally, "abiding" in English (Yampoisky, 1967). This concept was so important that it was repeatedly mentioned by many Zen masters in the past. In my view, "abiding of mind" is the biggest obstruction to experiencing enlightenment. But what did the Zen masters really mean by this concept of abiding? Since the teaching of Zen is simple, direct, and practical, it does not require philosophical investigation. However, in my sense, it will be not vague to investigate the concept of Zen in detail from a philosophical perspective even it can be against the Zen tradition. I may be able to have some insight in the process of investigation even though the completed paper as the collection of letters is not very important.