Nishida Kitarō as Buddhist Philosopher: Self-Cultivation, a Theory of the Body, and the Religious Worldview

Abstract

Studies of NISHIDA Kitarō (西田幾多郎) (1870–1945) in the field of philosophy often treat the Buddhist dimension of his work. There are plenty of literary works as well as abundant scholarly papers on this theme in Japanese that make this Buddhist aspect of Nishida distinctly evident. Outside of Japan, American academic circles, with their 60 years’ history of studies on Nishida’s philosophy, tend to regard his philosophy as Buddhist philosophy. Some scholars’ interpretations seem to place much emphasis on the identity of Nishida’s philosophy as Mahāyāna Buddhism, especially Zen 禅, as if to claim that his philosophy is simply what expresses Buddhist thought in philosophical language. But Nishida himself took precautions against this sort of viewpoint that regarded his philosophy solely as Zen. In this paper, I will restrict myself to the task of taking up Zen in relation to Nishida. However, the principal course of our reflection will focus on the “theory of the body” that Nishida earnestly formulated after the 1930s for the purpose of relating his experiences of self-cultivation, in particular sitting meditation, to his philosophical thinking. Nishida’s theory of the body explains the human body through his original concepts and expressions such as “active intuition” (J. kōiteki chokkan 行為的直観), “historical body” (J. rekishiteki shintai 歴史的身体), and “from the made to the making” (J. tsukurartea mono kara tsukuru mono e 作られたものから作るものへ). Here, the body is conceived of as a medium for the historical world as well as for the human being existing therein. The concepts of his later philosophy are characterized, on one hand, by this somatic vision, and, on the other hand, by the “absolutely contradictory self-identity” (J. zettaimujunteki jikodōitsu 絶対矛盾的自己同一), “inverse correlation” (J. gyakutaiō 逆対応) and “depth in the ordinary” (J. heijōtei 平常底), of which the latter two are crucial concepts of his final stage, that is, his philosophy of religion. My purpose will be to clarify any link between his theory of the body and other key concepts relative to his philosophy of religion. This question generally seems to have been put aside: how did Nishida as a Buddhist philosopher assimilate self-cultivation from his own life into his theory of the body and, furthermore, his philosophy of religion.