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Silence and Words in Zen Buddhism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Shizuteru Ueda
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Extract

The topic of this article is the self-less self (selbst-lose Selbst) and more particularly this self in its connection with the problem of language. There exists a movement of the self-less self from itself toward itself. This movement also occurs as the liberation from language toward language; language reaches into the core of being self because our understanding of self and of the world is linguistically constituted. Similarly the fundamental conversion - as the occurence of the breakthrough (by means of the I-am-myself) to the truth of the self - is nothing else than an original word event. The self-less, the true self says at this moment: “I am myself by not being myself (Ich bin, indem ich nicht ich bin, ich).” In order to gain a better understanding we now start from the problem of language.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 43 , Issue 170 , June 1995 , pp. 1 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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Footnotes

*

Earlier versions of the first three articles of this issue were presented at the annual meeting of ERANOS at Ascona on 18-23 August 1993, which was devoted to the theme of the “Power of the Word.”

References

Notes

1. On the concept of the "self-less self" (selbst-lose Selbst), see my article "Die Bewegung nach oben und die Bewegung nach unten," in Eranos-Jahrbuch 50, 1981.

2. M. Merleau-Ponty, Phénoménologie de la perception, Paris, 1945, pp. 214f.

3. Hsiang-yen (Japanese transcription: Kyogen Chikan) was a Chinese grand mas ter from the second half of the 9th century. With reference to him see the 5th Example in "Mumonkan" (Die Schranke ohne Tor), transl. and commented by H. Dumoulin, Mainz, 1975.

4. R. Otto (Das Gefühl des Überweltlichen, Munich, 1932, p. 203) also refers to this Urlaut: "Die numinose Ergriffenheit bricht mit urkräftigem, rohem Urlaut wie als eine Selbstentladung aus."

5. M. Heidegger, Unterwegs zur Sprache, Pfullingen, 1959, p. 30.

6. The line is contained in a poem by R.M. Rilke (Frühe Gedichte, Leipzig, 1928, p. 103) which begins as follows: "Ich fürchte mich so vor der Menschen Wort./ Sie sprechen alles so deutlich aus;/ und dieses heisst Hund und jenes heisst Haus;/ und hier ist Beginn und das Ende dort./ … sie wissen alles was wird und war,/ kein Berg ist ihnen mehr wunderbar,/ …" Rilke then counters this with the line quoted in the text.

7. L. Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (transl. by D.F. Pears and B.F. McGuinness), London, 1961, p. 151.

8. Ibid., p. 3.

9. Ibid., p. 151.

10. On the problem of "In-der-Doppelerschlossenheit-sein" see my article "Der Ort des Menschen im No-Spiel," in Eranos-Jahrbuch 56, 1988.

11. M. Heidegger, "What Is Metaphysics?" (transl. by R.F.C. Hull and Alan Crick) in idem, Existence and Being, Chicago, 1949, p. 339.

12. Ibid., p.335.

13. See note 1 above. See also my article "Leere und Fülle," in Eranos-Jahrbuch 45, 1976. The original has been translated into German by K. Tsujimura and H. Buchner, Der Ochs und sein Hirte. Eine altchinesische Zen-Geschichte, Pfullingen, 1958.

14. See Sermon 37 in Meister Eckhart, Deutsche Predigten und Traktate (ed. and transl. by J. Quint), Munich, 1955.

15. See "Offene Weite - nichts von heilig" in the first example of Bi-Yaen-Lu (transl. and commented by W. Gundert), Munich, 1960. See also the poem in praise of the 8th image in Der Ochs und sein Hirte (note 13 above), p. 42.

16. This is a recurrent theme in Eckhart. See, for example, also Meister Eckhart, Deutsche Predigten und Traktate (note 14 above), p. 215: "Nimmt man eine Fliege in Gott, so ist die edler in Gott als der höchste Engel in sich selbst ist."

17. A. Silesius, Cherubinisher Wandersmann, Book I, p. 289.

18. Ibid., p. 108.

19. M. Heidegger, The Principle of Reason (transl. by R. Lilly), Bloomington, Ind., 1991, pp. 36f.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid., 35.

22. On the theme of "Zwiesprache" in Zen Buddhism see my articles in Eranos-Jahrbuch cited in notes 1, 10, and 13 above as well as my contribution "Die Zen buddhistische Erfahrung des Wahr-schönen," in Eranos-Jahrbuch 53, 1984.