Zaterdag 1 september 2007 – Masao Abe: ‘Ik ben. Punt.’

Hoe duizendvoud vragen we. ‘Wie ben ik?’, ‘Waar is mijn ware ik?’. Een gevaarlijke vraag. Wat brengt je tot die vraag? Hoort deze vraag tot de nodige vragen? Wat is überhaupt de oorsprong van ons vragen en waarom kiezen we ervoor om een bepaalde vraag te volgen? Het lijkt me karakteristiek voor de lijdende mens om te vragen, de vragende mens. Hoe ligt het verband tussen lijden en vragen? Vandaag geen antwoord. Wel Abe revisited.

Net als Heidegger in zijn analyse van het Dasein, begint Sartre in 'L'Etre et le Néant' met een onderzoek naar de vragende mens; in de vragende houding verhoudt het subject zich immers bij uitstek tot het zijn van zichzelf en tot het zijn van de wereld: 'Bij elke vraag staan we tegenover een zijn dat we ondervragen. Elke vraag veronderstelt dus een zijn dat vraagt en een zijn waaraan een vraag wordt gesteld. Ook bij Plato zie je expliciete aandacht en prioriteit van de vraag.

De Sanskriet-term voor lijden is: dukkha is often translated as "suffering", its philosophical meaning is more complex. It also contains such deeper ideas as "imperfection", "unease", "anguish" and "unsatisfactoriness". "Suffering" is too narrow a translation and it is sometimes best to leave dukkha untranslated. The translation into "suffering" gives the impression that the Buddhist view is one of pessimism, but Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic.
Dukkha is the focus of the Four Noble Truths, which state its nature, its cause, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation.

Ask a question and you're a fool for three minutes; do not ask a question and you're a fool for the rest of your life. ~ Chinese Proverb

A distraught man approached the Zen master.
"Please, Master, I feel lost, desperate. I don't know who I am. Please, show me my true self!"
But the teacher just looked away without responding. The man began to plead and beg, but still the master gave no reply.
Finally giving up in frustration, the man turned to leave.
At that moment the master called out to him by name. "Yes!" the man said as he spun back around. "There it is!" exclaimed the master.

When one attains enlightenment in Zen Buddhism, at least two things are realized. First, one realizes that the deepest level of one’s life - what in Zen is called the "true self" - is always here-and-now. And second, one understands that this true self, even though here-and-now, is always changing.

One’s true self is whatever one is doing or undergoing, as one is doing or undergoing it.

Toch speelt ergens ook de biografische ernst van dood en leven mee. Masao Abe (1915 - 2006) zegt: ‘The fundamental aim is to attain emancipation from all bondage arising from the duality of life and death. Another word for this is saṃsāra, which is also linked to the dualities of right and wrong, good and evil, etc. Emancipation from saṃsāra by transcending the duality of birth and death is called nirvana, the goal of life.’

'Ik ben. Punt'
'Maar natuurlijk ben ik professor Abe! Ik ben Masao Abe en tegelijkertijd ben ik hem niet. Als je van de buitenkant naar mij kijkt, dan ben ik professor Masao Abe. En het is handig dat we daar aan vasthouden in ons gesprek.' Hij kijkt me lachend aan. 'Maar voor mijzelf, als ik van binnenuit kijk, dan zie ik mezelf niet als professor in de zenfilosofie. Ik ben. Punt. En nu wil ik van jou wel eens weten wie de echte Abe is. Die man die jij aanspreekt met professor of dat ondefinieerbare "Ik ben. Punt" dat ik ervaar?' Hij wacht even en beantwoordt dan zijn eigen vraag: 'We kunnen onszelf alleen van binnenuit vatten.' Het zenboeddhisme leert dat het beeld dat je van je zelf hebt, secundair is.

Masao Abe speaks of attachment in the sense of objectifying or substantializing. For example, overcoming attachment to the goal of achieving the true Self means reaching the point, totally and existentially, where the true Self is known to be unattainable - because empty and non-existent.

‘Both Emptiness, the negation of Oneness, and egolessness, the negation of everything’s self-centredness, are necessary for awakening. In the realization of Emptiness, which is another term for nirvana, all particular things are respectively just as they are and equal in their suchness.’

En elders:
‘... the ultimate reality for Buddhism is neither Being nor God, but Sunyata. Sunyata literally means "emptiness" or "voideness" and can imply "absolute nothingness.”.’

Biografie van Masao Abe.

Professor Masao Abe, a pioneer in the international dialogue among Christians and Buddhists, died in Kyoto, Japan, on 10 September. He was 91 years old. Professor Abe was given a quiet funeral service reserved to family and close friends, according to sources in Kyoto.

After the death of his mentor, D.T. Suzuki, Abe became a leading exponent of Zen in the West and a driving force in the encounter between Buddhism and Christianity. Abe must be credited with much of the intellectual vitality of this dialogue, as well as its relevance to contemporary social problems.

Abe was a tireless exponent of the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness as the standpoint for realizing the True Self, yet was also willing to place this basic Buddhist teaching in dialogue with Christianity. Rejecting the notion that Christianity and Buddhism were either fundamentally similar or completely different, Abe saw in inter-religious dialogue an opportunity for the mutual transformation of dialogue partners and pursued dialogue to help Buddhists and Christians in confronting the threat of nihilism of the modern world.

In the ruins of post-War Japan, Abe began his studies with Hajime Tanabe at the University of Kyoto, a prominent figure in the Kyoto school of contemporary Zen Buddhist philosophy in Japan. But it was his encounter with Shin¹ichi Hisamatsu, another philosopher of Zen at the University of Kyoto, that would be decisive for Abe¹s turn to Zen. In a series of Zen retreats with Hisamatsu at Myoshinji Temple in western Kyoto, Abe was forced to confront the reality of nihilism within himself and eventually resolve this problem by entering the Zen standpoint of emptiness, wherein the enlightened self arises.

At age 40, Abe left Kyoto for New York in order to study at Union Theological Seminary with two of the most prominent Christian theologians of his day, Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr. This began a distinguished career of teaching, writing and, above all, dialogue with leading Christian thinkers, including David Tracy, Langdon Gilkey, Rosemary Radford Reuther, Jurgen Multmann and Hans Kung. Abe served as visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Purdue, Claremont, Columbia, Princeton, the University of Hawaii and other schools. In Germany, Abe taught at
Heidelburg, Tubingen, and Munich.

In addition to his many Japanese publications, Abe wrote extensively in English. These works include Zen and Western Thought, an award-winning collection of essays and a ground-breaking reflection on Christian belief in Christ interpreted from a Buddhist perspective, ³Kenotic God and Dynamic Sunyata.² This essay appeared in conjunction with responses from several Christian and Jewish theologians, making the book itself a dialogue. Abe also engaged Jewish intellectuals with his Buddhist reflection on the Holocaust.

In 1984, Abe and John Cobb convened a group of Buddhist and Christian intellectuals from Japan, North America and Europe for dialogue in depth over a sustained period of time on a number of fundamental issues. He was also a guiding influence on the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies, which continues his work of dialogue today.

Masao Abe is survived by his wife, Ikuko Abe, his constant companion in a life of sojourn and dialogue in the West.