Three Philosophies and One Reality & NHK Radio Talks

by Gudo Nishijima

This book is a collection of ten shorts talks on Buddhism by Japanese Zen Master Gudo Nishijima. In the first part, Master Nishijima talks about his theory of three philosophies and one reality - his interpretation of Gautama Buddha's Four Noble Truths. Each talk is followed by a lively discussion and questions and answers. The second part contains translations of three talks given by Master Nishijima on NHK Radio in Japan in 1994. The talks are Buddhism & Action, Action & Daily Life, and Buddhism & Zazen. "...If we look at the many Sutras written about the Buddha's realization we can conclude that he reached that viewpoint or state because he revered action. Action cannot exist at any other time or place than the present moment here and now. Another way of looking at this is in terms of past, present and no matter what mistakes we have made in the past, although we may regret them, we can never return to the past to put things right. At the same time, although we want to attain our dream or reach some aim in the future, we can never go into the future to reach our dream or aim. But if we look at life as centered on acting, we see that we can only really exist in the present. We can never return to the past, and we cannot go into the future. This is the essence of what Gautama Buddha taught-real existence is the present moment..."

Genres: Buddhism, Zen

122 pages, Paperback

First published August 24, 2009

About the author

西嶋愚道和夫

Reviews

[Natú · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of dharma talks by Nishijima. The crux of his talks is his novel fourfold conceptualization of Dōgen-zenji's Shōbōgenzō. He claims that Dōgen is not contradicting himself with his seemingly paradoxical assertions, but is rather presenting first an idealistic view of a topic, followed by a materialistic view, and a Buddhist philosophical view (which considers reality to be the momentary and dialectical/karmic field of contact between the material world and cognition; Nishijima calls this the philosophy of action), before finally asserting that the true nature of reality is ineffable and is only reached by superceding philosophy altogether and experiencing non-duality with the universe through zazen.

This argument at times feels a bit thin but other times feels quite compelling. Nishijima also superimposes this structure on the four noble truths, to interesting effect. The normal, linear understanding runs teleologically from the experience of suffering, to understanding the root of suffering, to grasping the potential of the end of suffering and finally to the prescription for eliminating suffering (the noble eightfold path). Nishijima gives a fascinating twist: the first noble truth represents a mind-only understanding of the world (idealism), the second represents a view which diagnoses the cause of suffering through investigative inquiry (materialism), the third represents our ability to change our actions and material conditions as a method of changing our individual experience of reality (philosophy of action), and finally, the noble eightfold path is the path to reality. This has interesting implications for just what the eightfold path represents, because by removing it from the teleological schema we are used to, it stops being a to-do list for eliminating suffering, but rather a descriptive list for non-dual - i.e. enlightened - existence. This meshes comfortably with the zen understanding of enlightenment as not something achieved and then maintained, that is, a permanent and qualitative change to the enlightened individual, but rather an innate quality of all people which is experienced momentarily and accessible to all through the practice of zazen.

The discussion sections where Nishijima answers student questions are sometimes interesting, but sometimes feel less than productive because Nishijima is forced to explain philosophical terminology to people who have only heard of things like idealism and materialism in the layman's sense. Also, while Nishijima discusses Marx as the principal exponent of living dialectical philosophy, the dialectical method he describes is more Hegelian than Marxist. Regardless, at under 200 pages this is easily worth reading for zen and other Buddhist practitioners and readers of Dōgen for its refreshing challenges to received wisdom.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of two sets of talks. I was surprised that the first series of talks seemed to be unedited and not entirely focused. One talk left me more confused than before I started and apparently I wasn't alone since he comes back to the subject with a different explanation at the beginning of the next talk. The second set of talks seems much more polished and more concise.

Still, I was very intrigued by the interpretation of the Four Noble Truths that the author presented. His views can sometimes be difficult to follow (in a Zen Master, imagine that!), but I finished with a deeper understanding of Buddhism (as viewed by the author) as well as a greater appreciation for the truths central to it.