On second thought the considerations put forward previously could be quite mistaken both on an existential and historical-anthropological level. The golden chain in the West must indeed proceed from the East. But not through neoplatonism and certainly not through Origen, Eckhart and Heidegger. Rather it is in such figures as Sextus and Hume and Kant. There are true gems in the West but part of Western hubris is the great difficulty in coming to terms that its mainstream traditions are flawed and rotten to the core. They cannot be redeemed or purified or idealized or abstracted. The western religious spirit is so rotten than even in its own physicalist negation it propagates the same essence. Dasein is sakkayaditthi (cf. Merleau-Ponty). A detailed phenomenological analysis of an illusory limiting experience is no less illusory for that. But more brilliant is the Buddhist philosophical insight on how to overcome Dasein. Thus much of our work can be described as attempting to present some aspects of such a super-phenomenology. Atheism, in its genuine sense, is at the heart of Buddhism and is found in many priceless original sources in the West, and is humanity's fundamental step to individual and collective authenticity, progress and liberation.
"how to overcome Dasein"
ReplyDelete"under his master Lao Shang:
After I had served him for the space of three years, my mind
did not venture to reflect on right and wrong, my lips did not ven-
ture to speak of profit and loss. Then, for the first time, my master
bestowed one glance upon me—and that was all.
At the end of five years a change had taken place; my mind was
reflecting on right and wrong, and my lips were speaking of profit
and loss. Then, for the first time, my master relaxed his countenance
and smiled.
At the end of seven years, there was another change. I let my
mind reflect on what it would, but it no longer occupied itself with
right and wrong. I let my lips utter whatsoever they pleased, but
they no longer spoke of profit and loss. Then, at last, my master led
me in to sit on the mat beside him.
At the end of nine years, my mind gave free rein to its reflections,”
my mouth free passage to its speech. Of right and wrong, profit and
loss, I had no knowledge, either as touching myself or others.
Internal and external were blended into unity. After that,
there was no distinction between eye and ear, ear and nose, nose
and mouth: all were the same. My mind was frozen, my body in
dissolution, my flesh and bones all melted together. I was wholly
unconscious of what my body was resting on, or what was under
my feet. I was borne this way and that on the wind, like dry chaff
or leaves falling from a tree. In fact, I knew not whether the wind
was riding on me or I on the wind.? "