Cologne, 21 June 1996
Friends of thinking,
"In the white room with black curtains at the station..."
M.D. Pennamacoor, penning some more, writes of the resounding of the room.
There is an interesting piece of acoustic art I heard recently on radio (and
taped) by the American sound artist Alvin Lucier called "I am sitting in a
room". It consists of the feedback from the resonances of the 'composer' sitting
in a room saying "I am sitting in a room...".
The hearing in the hearing of beyng is not an acoustic phenomenon, however.
We do not hear because we have ears, but we have ears because we hear (the
stillness of beyng).
Thinking that puts into images (vorstellendes Denken) is en-visaging thinking
that puts before... (the rational mind, the subject's consciousness...)
But what I'd like to draw your attention to is a book edited by Hartmut Buchner
and entitled "Japan und Heidegger" (Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1989).
For those who read German...
By the way, sitting in a room in Germany as I am, I do not have access to
English translations of Heidegger. My apologies.
Ryosuke Ohashi's article deals with the onset of the reception of Heidegger's
thinking (as guest?) in Japan. Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945) stands at the
beginning of Japanese philosophy (in the Western discursive sense). He was a
professor in Kyoto and the origin of the so-called Kyoto school. Relatively
little of the publications of this school, or of other Japanese philosophers who
let themselves in for Heidegger's thinking, has been published in European
languages. A pity.
Ohashi refers, among other things, to the work of one member of the Kyoto
school, Koichi Tsujimura, who published a book "Essays on Heidegger" which
the author himself describes as a "poor book that has to be given the number
nought on my list of publications". Tsujimura has not published anything further
after this book (as at 1989).
Ohashi comments: "The expression 'number nought on my list of publications'
betrays the philosophical torment that lies in the valley between the Western
and East-Asian mountain ranges of thought. At the same time, however, it points
to the locus of the point of nullity, starting from which perhaps both mountain
ranges could be seen simultaneously and climbed."
And later on, Ohashi summarizes and cites Tsujimura's "decisive insight": "The
'truth of beyng' is, so to speak, a shadow of the 'truth of Zen' and not the
'truth of Zen' itself. ... 'we have perhaps made clear to a certain extent that
finally and ultimately the locus reached by the question which moved Heidegger's
thinking at its foundations, that is, the question about truth, can be nothing
other than the viewing of truth (kensho) of Zen-Buddhist truth as the
self-awakening of absolute nothingness." Philosophical discussion in Japan,
according to Ohashi, continues to revolve around the problematic opened up by
Tsujimura.
I am sending this to the list to show that there can be no easy assimilation of
the thinking of being and East-Asian traditions, notably Zen. It is a matter of
"philosophical torment" rather than pointing out similarities.
It would be nice to hear from Japan on this.
Michael Eldred ° artefact text and translation \\\\\\ '''''''
artefact@xxxxxxxxxxx °°° made by art °°° (( C ~_} [ ° U ° ]
http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ (( < *( \_/ )*
vox: (++49 221) 9520 333 fax: (++49 221) 9520 334 | | / \
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
Friends of thinking,
"In the white room with black curtains at the station..."
M.D. Pennamacoor, penning some more, writes of the resounding of the room.
There is an interesting piece of acoustic art I heard recently on radio (and
taped) by the American sound artist Alvin Lucier called "I am sitting in a
room". It consists of the feedback from the resonances of the 'composer' sitting
in a room saying "I am sitting in a room...".
The hearing in the hearing of beyng is not an acoustic phenomenon, however.
We do not hear because we have ears, but we have ears because we hear (the
stillness of beyng).
Thinking that puts into images (vorstellendes Denken) is en-visaging thinking
that puts before... (the rational mind, the subject's consciousness...)
But what I'd like to draw your attention to is a book edited by Hartmut Buchner
and entitled "Japan und Heidegger" (Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1989).
For those who read German...
By the way, sitting in a room in Germany as I am, I do not have access to
English translations of Heidegger. My apologies.
Ryosuke Ohashi's article deals with the onset of the reception of Heidegger's
thinking (as guest?) in Japan. Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945) stands at the
beginning of Japanese philosophy (in the Western discursive sense). He was a
professor in Kyoto and the origin of the so-called Kyoto school. Relatively
little of the publications of this school, or of other Japanese philosophers who
let themselves in for Heidegger's thinking, has been published in European
languages. A pity.
Ohashi refers, among other things, to the work of one member of the Kyoto
school, Koichi Tsujimura, who published a book "Essays on Heidegger" which
the author himself describes as a "poor book that has to be given the number
nought on my list of publications". Tsujimura has not published anything further
after this book (as at 1989).
Ohashi comments: "The expression 'number nought on my list of publications'
betrays the philosophical torment that lies in the valley between the Western
and East-Asian mountain ranges of thought. At the same time, however, it points
to the locus of the point of nullity, starting from which perhaps both mountain
ranges could be seen simultaneously and climbed."
And later on, Ohashi summarizes and cites Tsujimura's "decisive insight": "The
'truth of beyng' is, so to speak, a shadow of the 'truth of Zen' and not the
'truth of Zen' itself. ... 'we have perhaps made clear to a certain extent that
finally and ultimately the locus reached by the question which moved Heidegger's
thinking at its foundations, that is, the question about truth, can be nothing
other than the viewing of truth (kensho) of Zen-Buddhist truth as the
self-awakening of absolute nothingness." Philosophical discussion in Japan,
according to Ohashi, continues to revolve around the problematic opened up by
Tsujimura.
I am sending this to the list to show that there can be no easy assimilation of
the thinking of being and East-Asian traditions, notably Zen. It is a matter of
"philosophical torment" rather than pointing out similarities.
It would be nice to hear from Japan on this.
Michael Eldred ° artefact text and translation \\\\\\ '''''''
artefact@xxxxxxxxxxx °°° made by art °°° (( C ~_} [ ° U ° ]
http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ (( < *( \_/ )*
vox: (++49 221) 9520 333 fax: (++49 221) 9520 334 | | / \
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---