Zen and Comparative Studies

By Masao Abe

Book Overview

Zen is not a religion of God. Nor a religion of faith. It is a religion of emptiness, a religion of absolute nothingness. However it is not nihilistic but dynamically positive. For Zen is based on self-awakening, awakening to the self. In this book, a sequel to Zen and Western Thought, the author tries to clarify the true meaning of Buddhist emptiness in comparison with Aristotelian notion of substance and Whiteheadron notion of process. He also emphasises that Buddhism completely defies and overcomes dualism, but it is not monistic, but rather nondualistic. What is Nondualism? This is one of the important themes of this book.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0333611993
• ISBN13: 9780333611999
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The most accessible of Abe's books (IMHO)

Having read all the rest of Masao Abe's books, I had begun to despair of ever truly feeling as if I'd understood any of them. His writing is certainly not kid stuff. It's very serious, very dense theology and philosophy from the buddhist perspective. If you are fluent with the works of Tillich, Heideger, Nietzche, and others than you are likely to get much more out of them than I did. Despite the fact that much of what I read was so incredibly far over my head, I still occasionally ran into ideas and thoughts that kept me exploring his work. This work (Zen and Comparative Studies), however, is written in such a way that even a philosophical-theological neophyte such as myself can understand all of it. And in addition, it is (in my opinion) much richer in insights then his other works. But who knows, maybe I only feel that way because for once I understood (I believe) what I was reading! Excellent work