A comprehensive study of D. T. Suzuki's Zen philosophy and philosophical psychology in relation to his Buddhist understanding of the ""cosmic Unconscious.""
This book explores how the Japanese philosopher D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) developed an integral synthesis of Eastern and Western sources to establish a modern philosophical psychology of the ""cosmic Unconscious,"" which he in turn used as the basis to interpret every aspect of Zen art, meditation, and enlightenment. Beyond Freud's personal unconscious and Jung's collective unconscious, according to Suzuki, is the cosmic Unconscious of Zen, which as absolute nothingness is the fountain of inexhaustible creative potentialities and the source of all Zen-inspired arts. The book demonstrates that, like the Kyoto School of modern Japanese philosophy, Suzuki's Zen endeavors to overcome the existential problem of nihilism or relative nothingness by shifting to the openness of absolute nothingness wherein emptiness is fullness and all things are disclosed in the evanescent beauty of their suchness. Suzuki, however, formulates his scheme in terms of a depth psychology where the cosmic Unconscious is the encompassing locus of absolute nothingness. Ultimately, the book argues that, by integrating both Eastern and Western views of the unconscious psyche, including the different schools of Zen and Mahayana Buddhism, as well as American, French, and German theories of the unconscious, Suzuki's Zen concept of the cosmic Unconscious constitutes a significant original contribution to philosophical psychology.
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Cover Art Introduction Part One. The Unconscious in Zen Theory and Practice Chapter 1. Suzuki's Zen Doctrine of Cosmic Unconscious No-Mind as the Unconscious The Unconscious as Emptiness The Unconscious as Indra's Net The Unconscious as the Storehouse Consciousness The Unconscious as Ordinary Mind Suzuki's Zen Map of the Unconscious The Mu Koan and Other Zen Meditation Techniques for Accessing the Unconscious Chapter 2: The Unconscious in Suzuki's Zen Aestheticism Zen Aestheticism in Japanese Culture Suzuki and Nishida on Beauty as Muga or Ecstasy Chapter 3. The Unconscious in Zen and Bushidō: The Religio-Aesthetic Way of the Martial Arts The Art of Swordsmanship The Art of Archery Suzuki's ""Samurai Zen"" in Critical Perspective Chapter 4. The Unconscious in Zen and Geidō: The Religio-Aesthetic Way of the Fine Arts Sumie Ink Painting Tea Ceremony Haiku Poetry The Impact of Suzuki's Zen Aestheticism on the Avant-Garde Artworld Part Two: Zen and Western Models of the Unconscious Chapter 5. The Unconscious in Zen and American Thought Zen and William James Zen and A. N. Whitehead Chapter 6. The Unconscious in Zen and German Philosophy The Abyss in Jacob Boehme's Philosophical Mysticism The Monadology of G. W. F. Leibniz Obscure Representations in the Transcendental Idealism of Immanuel Kant The Unconscious in the Aesthetic Idealism of F. W. J. Schelling The Grand Synthesis in Eduard von Hartmann's Philosophy of the Unconscious Chapter 7. The Unconscious in Zen and German Psychology Zen and Freudian Psychoanalysis Erich Fromm on Zen and Psychoanalysis Zen and Jungian Psychology Zen, the Jungian Psychology of Kawai Hayao, and the Fiction of Murakami Haruki Chapter 8. The Unconscious in Zen and French Though Rancière and Suzuki on the Aesthetic Unconscious Zen, Derrida, and Lacan on the Unconscious as a Möbius Band Zen and Sartre on the Transparency of Consciousness Zen and the Rhizomatic Unconscious of Deleuze-Guattari Chapter 9. The Unconscious in Zen and Transpersonal Psychology Satori, Peak Experience, and the Unconscious in Zen and Abraham Maslow The Unconscious in Zen and Ken Wilber's Spectrum of Consciousness D. T. Suzuki, G. I. Gurdjieff, and the Zen Unconscious of Hubert Benoit Superconsciousness in Zen and Roberto Assagioli's Psychosynthesis Psychedelic Experience and Suzuki's Zen Critique of Drug-Induced Satori Epilogue: D. T. Suzuki and Jean Gebser on Zen Satori as a Shift to the Integral Structure of Consciousness as Openness, Radiance, and Transparency Abbreviations for the Works of D. T. Suzuki and Related Texts Notes Bibliography Indices
Steve Odin is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii. His previous books include The Social Self in Zen and American Pragmatism (also published by SUNY Press) and Tragic Beauty in Whitehead and Japanese Aesthetics.
Reviews for D. T. Suzuki on the Unconscious in Zen Art, Meditation, and Enlightenment
""This book presents a comprehensive study of D. T. Suzuki's Zen philosophy and philosophical psychology in relation to his Buddhist understanding of the unconscious. A major contribution to the field of Japanese philosophy, it gives a clear overview of Suzuki's central idea of Zen self-awareness while exploring its relativity to a number of great thinkers from the history of European philosophy."" — Takeshi Morisato, University of Edinburgh
