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Zen Encounters
In Zen Buddhism, encounters are of paramount importance. Richard DeMartino, the author of this book, was singularly fortunate to meet and converse with some of the most outstanding Zen teachers of the twentieth century.
The front cover photograph—taken in 1952 at the Reiun-in subtemple of Myoshinji monastery (Kyoto) in front of the philosopher Kitaro Nishida’s grave—shows Dr. DeMartino (leftmost) with two of his main Zen teachers, Shin’ichi Hisamatsu and D. T. Suzuki (second and third from right). Standing next to DeMartino is Mumon Yamada Roshi.
Along with essays on “Zen Communication” and “The Human Situation and Zen,” this book contains DeMartino’s account of meeting D.T. Suzuki and Shin’ichi Hisamatsu. Also included are reflections on the thought of influential Zen philosophers such as Keiji Nishitani and Masao Abe.
In this book, the fruit of a life-long quest, Richard DeMartino explains what makes us members of the species homo sapiens sapiens unique—namely, that we are conscious of being conscious. This reflective consciousness or self-consciousness forms the basis of our personhood, of our identity as an “I.” Irrespective of sex, nationality, race, age, etc., being a self-aware “I” or “self” is what makes us human.
But how is this related to the first Noble Truth that states that "all is suffering"? To be a self-aware subject-“I” implies facing objects—including myself—to which I am inextricably bound and yet from which I am alienated. Along with other religions and philosophies of Oriental origin (such as Advaita Vedanta), Zen Buddhism calls the human being’s constitutive subject-object matrix “duality,” and identifies this duality as man’s root problem.
This book focuses on the initial nature and the basic problem of the human person. The resolution to this problem—Non-duality or Awakening to the self-less Self—is a major theme of the companion volume Zen Encounters (ISBN 978-3-906000-22-0) containing Dr. DeMartino’s seminal essays and conversations.
Weight | 0.33 kg |
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Dimensions | 22 × 14 × 1.5 cm |
Book-author | Richard DeMartino |
Years | 2022 |