Dao Companion to Chinese Buddhist Philosophy, 2018
This chapter discusses and examines the deconstructive practice of Tiantai contemplation from a p... more This chapter discusses and examines the deconstructive practice of Tiantai contemplation from a philosophical point of view. The scope of this examination embraces all the Tiantai doctrines that describe the dynamics and epistemological nature of ultimate realization, called “subtle awakening” (miaowu 妙悟), as well as all the relevant Buddhist sources based on which Tiantai master Zhiyi (智顗 538–597) developed this type of “contemplation” (guan 觀). According to the Tiantai view, epistemological and ontological issues coincide with one another, since contemplation entails our insight that “truth and falsehood are inseparable” concerning the way we relate to and exist in our world. Therefore, (1) the introduction deals with the question of the specific sense in which Tiantai contemplation must be grounded in deconstructive practice. The subsequent two sections, (2) and (3), elaborate the epistemological and soteriological implications of this Buddhist teaching; section (4) and (5) discuss its linguistic pragmatics; (6) and (7) highlight the ontological and hermeneutical issues, and (8) elaborates on the Tiantai philosophy of mind.
The following analyzes the linguistic strategy and rhetorical function of contradiction and ambig... more The following analyzes the linguistic strategy and rhetorical function of contradiction and ambiguity in Chinese Buddhist texts. These are compositional patterns designed to enhance and promote the soteriological intention of Mahayana Buddhism, which essentially aims at our detachment from falseness. Mahayana ”emptiness” (sunyatā) implies that attachments are not only obscured but also produced by conventional linguistic habits. Consequently, the verbal realization of this insight must-as the Chinese Buddhist thinker Seng Zhao (384-414) states-defy the conventions of a univocal form of articulation. The implicit ambiguity of Buddhist texts means they should not be understood as a manifestation of apodictic statements, for it rather functions in a practical way to undermine the reader's potential to become attached. Chinese Mahayana traditions, then, consider linguistic expression in an ambivalent way: on the one hand as a source of unwholesome attachments, on the other as a prec...
Although technical terms often represent unambiguous meanings, the crucial expression �emptiness&... more Although technical terms often represent unambiguous meanings, the crucial expression �emptiness' in Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions is likely to serve a soteriological function. The doctrine of emptiness seems to be intended to detach our linguistic expression from the unwholesome influence of illusory assumptions; assumptions of which we are not aware in our referential acts. Buddhist texts often reveal our linguistic habits as the very root of inverse views inflicting unwholesome results on our existence. On the other hand, Buddhists also believe that there is a mode of expression which initiates the transformation from the unwholesome into the wholesome. It is a mode of expression which causes us to become aware of the falseness inherent to linguistic expression. Consequently, Mahāyāna traditions treat and utilize linguistic expression in an ambiguous way; that is not only as the source of the unwholesome but also as the very impulse initiating its transformation into the oppos...
Page 1. Hans-Rudolf Kantor Die Heilslehre im Tiantai-Denken des Zhiyi (538-597) und der philosoph... more Page 1. Hans-Rudolf Kantor Die Heilslehre im Tiantai-Denken des Zhiyi (538-597) und der philosophische Begriff des ,Unendlichen6 bei Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) opera sinológica 5 Harrassowitz Verlag Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. Page 6. ...
This chapter discusses and examines the deconstructive practice of Tiantai contemplation from a p... more This chapter discusses and examines the deconstructive practice of Tiantai contemplation from a philosophical point of view. The scope of this examination embraces all the Tiantai doctrines that describe the dynamics and epistemological nature of ultimate realization, called “subtle awakening” (miaowu 妙悟), as well as all the relevant Buddhist sources based on which Tiantai master Zhiyi (智顗 538–597) developed this type of “contemplation” (guan 觀). According to the Tiantai view, epistemological and ontological issues coincide with one another, since contemplation entails our insight that “truth and falsehood are inseparable” concerning the way we relate to and exist in our world. Therefore, (1) the introduction deals with the question of the specific sense in which Tiantai contemplation must be grounded in deconstructive practice. The subsequent two sections, (2) and (3), elaborate the epistemological and soteriological implications of this Buddhist teaching; section (4) and (5) discu...
The discourse on epistemological, ontological, and linguistic issues in the Zhuangzi and in Guo X... more The discourse on epistemological, ontological, and linguistic issues in the Zhuangzi and in Guo Xiang’s (252–312) commentary influenced Sengzhao’s (374–414) reception and interpretation of Indian Madhyamaka thought introduced to the Chinese literati by Kumārajīva (343–413), the famous translator from the Wei Jin period and Sengzhao’s Buddhist master.
Transcendence, Immanence, and Intercultural Philosophy
This chapter deals with the denial of the ontological sense of transcendence from a Chinese Buddh... more This chapter deals with the denial of the ontological sense of transcendence from a Chinese Buddhist point of view. Buddhist sources usually emphasize that everything we encounter or experience in the world we inhabit comes to our attention as a referent of our own intentional acts. This implies that all things and events are compound phenomena, built upon a manifoldness of interrelated components. The technical term for this is called “conditioned co-arising” (Sanskrit: pratītya-samutpāda, Chinese: yuanqi 緣起) and it means that there is no thing which arises apart from a relation of mutual dependence between itself and other things.
A crucial feature of Tiantai (天台) Buddhist thought certainly is its elaboration on the hidden and... more A crucial feature of Tiantai (天台) Buddhist thought certainly is its elaboration on the hidden and visible, called “root and traces” (ben ji 本跡), as the concept of non-duality (bu er 不二) of these opposites is part of what constitutes the highest level of Buddhist doctrine in Tiantai doxography, called “round/ perfect teaching” (yuanjiao 圓教). Such elaboration is inextricably bound up with paradoxical discourse, which functions as a linguistic strategy in Tiantai practice of liberating the mind from its self-induced deceptions. Observation of paradoxes in the elaboration on the hidden and visible could be called practice qua doctrinal exegesis, because Tiantai masters try to integrate self-referential observation in mind-contemplation (guanxin 觀心) with interpretation of sūtra and śāstra. For Tiantai Buddhists, the ultimate meaning of the Buddhadharma (fofa 佛法) itself is independent from speech and script and only accessible to the liberated mind, yet it cannot fully be comprehended and...
This article reconstructs the Chinese “practice qua exegesis” which evolved out of the doxographi... more This article reconstructs the Chinese “practice qua exegesis” which evolved out of the doxographical appropriation of the Indian Buddhist catuṣkoṭi (four edges), a heuristic device for conceptual analysis and a method of assorting linguistic forms to which adherents of Madhyamaka ascribed ambiguous potential. It could conceptually clarify Buddhist doctrine, but also produce deceptive speech. According to the Chinese interpreters, conceptual and linguistic forms continue to be deceptive until the mind realizes that all it holds on or distinguishes itself from is its own fabrication. Liberation from such self-induced deceptions requires awareness of the paradox that the desire to leave them behind is itself a way of clinging to them. Chinese Sanlun and Tiantai masters tried to uncover this paradox and to disclose to practitioners how the application of the catuṣkoṭi, on the basis of such awareness, enables proper conceptual analysis in exegesis. From this approach followed the Chinese...
Dao Companion to Chinese Buddhist Philosophy, 2018
This chapter discusses and examines the deconstructive practice of Tiantai contemplation from a p... more This chapter discusses and examines the deconstructive practice of Tiantai contemplation from a philosophical point of view. The scope of this examination embraces all the Tiantai doctrines that describe the dynamics and epistemological nature of ultimate realization, called “subtle awakening” (miaowu 妙悟), as well as all the relevant Buddhist sources based on which Tiantai master Zhiyi (智顗 538–597) developed this type of “contemplation” (guan 觀). According to the Tiantai view, epistemological and ontological issues coincide with one another, since contemplation entails our insight that “truth and falsehood are inseparable” concerning the way we relate to and exist in our world. Therefore, (1) the introduction deals with the question of the specific sense in which Tiantai contemplation must be grounded in deconstructive practice. The subsequent two sections, (2) and (3), elaborate the epistemological and soteriological implications of this Buddhist teaching; section (4) and (5) discuss its linguistic pragmatics; (6) and (7) highlight the ontological and hermeneutical issues, and (8) elaborates on the Tiantai philosophy of mind.
The following analyzes the linguistic strategy and rhetorical function of contradiction and ambig... more The following analyzes the linguistic strategy and rhetorical function of contradiction and ambiguity in Chinese Buddhist texts. These are compositional patterns designed to enhance and promote the soteriological intention of Mahayana Buddhism, which essentially aims at our detachment from falseness. Mahayana ”emptiness” (sunyatā) implies that attachments are not only obscured but also produced by conventional linguistic habits. Consequently, the verbal realization of this insight must-as the Chinese Buddhist thinker Seng Zhao (384-414) states-defy the conventions of a univocal form of articulation. The implicit ambiguity of Buddhist texts means they should not be understood as a manifestation of apodictic statements, for it rather functions in a practical way to undermine the reader's potential to become attached. Chinese Mahayana traditions, then, consider linguistic expression in an ambivalent way: on the one hand as a source of unwholesome attachments, on the other as a prec...
Although technical terms often represent unambiguous meanings, the crucial expression �emptiness&... more Although technical terms often represent unambiguous meanings, the crucial expression �emptiness' in Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions is likely to serve a soteriological function. The doctrine of emptiness seems to be intended to detach our linguistic expression from the unwholesome influence of illusory assumptions; assumptions of which we are not aware in our referential acts. Buddhist texts often reveal our linguistic habits as the very root of inverse views inflicting unwholesome results on our existence. On the other hand, Buddhists also believe that there is a mode of expression which initiates the transformation from the unwholesome into the wholesome. It is a mode of expression which causes us to become aware of the falseness inherent to linguistic expression. Consequently, Mahāyāna traditions treat and utilize linguistic expression in an ambiguous way; that is not only as the source of the unwholesome but also as the very impulse initiating its transformation into the oppos...
Page 1. Hans-Rudolf Kantor Die Heilslehre im Tiantai-Denken des Zhiyi (538-597) und der philosoph... more Page 1. Hans-Rudolf Kantor Die Heilslehre im Tiantai-Denken des Zhiyi (538-597) und der philosophische Begriff des ,Unendlichen6 bei Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) opera sinológica 5 Harrassowitz Verlag Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. Page 6. ...
This chapter discusses and examines the deconstructive practice of Tiantai contemplation from a p... more This chapter discusses and examines the deconstructive practice of Tiantai contemplation from a philosophical point of view. The scope of this examination embraces all the Tiantai doctrines that describe the dynamics and epistemological nature of ultimate realization, called “subtle awakening” (miaowu 妙悟), as well as all the relevant Buddhist sources based on which Tiantai master Zhiyi (智顗 538–597) developed this type of “contemplation” (guan 觀). According to the Tiantai view, epistemological and ontological issues coincide with one another, since contemplation entails our insight that “truth and falsehood are inseparable” concerning the way we relate to and exist in our world. Therefore, (1) the introduction deals with the question of the specific sense in which Tiantai contemplation must be grounded in deconstructive practice. The subsequent two sections, (2) and (3), elaborate the epistemological and soteriological implications of this Buddhist teaching; section (4) and (5) discu...
The discourse on epistemological, ontological, and linguistic issues in the Zhuangzi and in Guo X... more The discourse on epistemological, ontological, and linguistic issues in the Zhuangzi and in Guo Xiang’s (252–312) commentary influenced Sengzhao’s (374–414) reception and interpretation of Indian Madhyamaka thought introduced to the Chinese literati by Kumārajīva (343–413), the famous translator from the Wei Jin period and Sengzhao’s Buddhist master.
Transcendence, Immanence, and Intercultural Philosophy
This chapter deals with the denial of the ontological sense of transcendence from a Chinese Buddh... more This chapter deals with the denial of the ontological sense of transcendence from a Chinese Buddhist point of view. Buddhist sources usually emphasize that everything we encounter or experience in the world we inhabit comes to our attention as a referent of our own intentional acts. This implies that all things and events are compound phenomena, built upon a manifoldness of interrelated components. The technical term for this is called “conditioned co-arising” (Sanskrit: pratītya-samutpāda, Chinese: yuanqi 緣起) and it means that there is no thing which arises apart from a relation of mutual dependence between itself and other things.
A crucial feature of Tiantai (天台) Buddhist thought certainly is its elaboration on the hidden and... more A crucial feature of Tiantai (天台) Buddhist thought certainly is its elaboration on the hidden and visible, called “root and traces” (ben ji 本跡), as the concept of non-duality (bu er 不二) of these opposites is part of what constitutes the highest level of Buddhist doctrine in Tiantai doxography, called “round/ perfect teaching” (yuanjiao 圓教). Such elaboration is inextricably bound up with paradoxical discourse, which functions as a linguistic strategy in Tiantai practice of liberating the mind from its self-induced deceptions. Observation of paradoxes in the elaboration on the hidden and visible could be called practice qua doctrinal exegesis, because Tiantai masters try to integrate self-referential observation in mind-contemplation (guanxin 觀心) with interpretation of sūtra and śāstra. For Tiantai Buddhists, the ultimate meaning of the Buddhadharma (fofa 佛法) itself is independent from speech and script and only accessible to the liberated mind, yet it cannot fully be comprehended and...
This article reconstructs the Chinese “practice qua exegesis” which evolved out of the doxographi... more This article reconstructs the Chinese “practice qua exegesis” which evolved out of the doxographical appropriation of the Indian Buddhist catuṣkoṭi (four edges), a heuristic device for conceptual analysis and a method of assorting linguistic forms to which adherents of Madhyamaka ascribed ambiguous potential. It could conceptually clarify Buddhist doctrine, but also produce deceptive speech. According to the Chinese interpreters, conceptual and linguistic forms continue to be deceptive until the mind realizes that all it holds on or distinguishes itself from is its own fabrication. Liberation from such self-induced deceptions requires awareness of the paradox that the desire to leave them behind is itself a way of clinging to them. Chinese Sanlun and Tiantai masters tried to uncover this paradox and to disclose to practitioners how the application of the catuṣkoṭi, on the basis of such awareness, enables proper conceptual analysis in exegesis. From this approach followed the Chinese...
APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies, Vol. 19, No. 1, Fall 2019. Newark: The American Philosophical Association.
This issue on Buddhist Philosophy Today: Theories and Forms and the previous issue on Buddhist Ph... more This issue on Buddhist Philosophy Today: Theories and Forms and the previous issue on Buddhist Philosophy Worldwide: Perspectives and Programs are two special issues of the APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies which I was invited to guest edit. They are designed to include descriptive and prescriptive/evaluative elements: On the one hand, scholars working on Buddhist philosophy throughout the world provide a descriptive snapshot of the state of the field in their geographical/disciplinary area; on the other, they proffer an evaluative appraisal of how Buddhist philosophy has been carried out and/or a prescriptive programme of how they feel it should be carried out. This collection of articles by experts of the widest possible spectrum of classical, modern, and contemporary Buddhist philosophical schools working in universities throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America thus comprises both an informed survey of the current state of research and a manifesto for the field. As such, it constitutes an important contribution to the ongoing project by scholars of ‘less commonly taught philosophies’ (including but not limited to Chinese, Indian, Islamic, Africana, and Feminist philosophies) to expand the ambit of professional philosophy beyond the narrow confines of the Western canon. Contributions study Buddhist philosophy based on authorial experience in Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Poland, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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