Resumen de The Contours of Ueda Shizuteru’s Philosophy of Zen
This chapter sketches the contours of Ueda Shizuteru’s philosophy of Zen. It begins by commenting on how Ueda inherits Nishida Kitarō’s and Nishitani Keiji’s endeavor to bring Zen thought and practice into dialogue with Western philosophy and religion. It then discusses Ueda’s interpretation of Meister Eckhart and Zen as paths of “non-mysticism” that go beyond a mystical union and back to the here and now of everyday reality. This path of non-mysticism is shown to be exemplified in Ueda’s illuminating interpretation of the Ten Oxherding Pictures. Treated next is Ueda’s account of the self as a dynamic movement of “I, in not being I, am I,” rather than as a static substance or simply self-identical subject. This self-negating movement of the self is shown to entail an empathetic openness to others. The chapter then examines Ueda’s account of language, which he argues entails a ceaseless dynamic of “exiting language and then exiting into language.” This dynamic takes place within what Ueda calls the “twofold world.” The chapter ends by commenting on how Ueda personally exemplified his philosophy of engagement in our meaningful worlds while maintaining an attunement of releasement (Gelassenheit) to the “infinite expanse” in which these worlds are situated.
