History of Buddhist Philosophy

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History of Buddhist Philosophy is a philosophical work by Volker Zotz that deals with the development of the traditions of Buddhist thought. With the work of Edward Conze , Erich Frauwallner and David J. Kalupahana, it is considered a fundamental work on the subject.

Origin and appearance

The work first appeared in 1996 in Rowohlt's German Encyclopedia founded by Ernesto Grassi . The Polish edition published in Warsaw in 2007 is considered to be the last and current version . The book was written in Kyoto , where Zotz had been doing research at the Institute for Buddhist Culture at Ryūkoku University since 1994 .

content

Overview

In contrast to the works on the history of Buddhist philosophy by Conze and Frauwallner, which are limited to the Indian region, and Kalupahana, which deals with individual developments such as Zen beyond Indian Buddhism , the history of Buddhist philosophy by Zotz examines the development of Buddhist thought in the whole area of South and East Asia . The book also looks at the reception of Buddhism in Europe and at the end asks about the significance that an encounter with the philosophy of Buddhism could have for Western culture.

structure

The book is divided into a two-part introduction and twelve chapters.

Introduction: Buddhist Philosophy?
The fundamental question that arises here is whether the concept of philosophy, which developed in Greece, can be meaningfully applied to Buddhism. Zotz thinks that “there is no way around using the term philosophy in a global sense. Behind his book for a cultural area with supposedly monolithic tradition often conceal ideologically motivated attempts, the separately as self-experienced and preserve pure. "The second part of the introduction will deal with the with language barriers and cultural differences problems Buddhism reception and criticizes to "the mostly vain certainty of having understood."
Chapter 1: The Beginnings
Indian thought before the emergence of Buddhism is dealt with here, with Zotz discussing Yajnavalkya and Mahavira in detail, to whose substantialist conception he then presents early Buddhist philosophy as a kind of antithesis .
Chapter 2: The Hinayana
This chapter deals with classical Buddhist schools in India such as the extinct schools of Mahasanghika , Pudgalavada , Sarvastivada and Sautrantika, as well as the Theravada school, which is still dominant in South Asia .
Chapter 3: The Sutras of Mahayana
Here the philosophical statements of classical texts like Prajnaparamita Sutras, Heart Sutra , Diamond Sutra , Lotus Sutra , Vimalakirti Sutra , Avatamsaka Sutra , Nirvana Sutra , Lankāvatāra Sutra are analyzed.
Chapter 4: On the practical philosophy of Indian Buddhism
Here the ethics and meditation of early Buddhism as well as the concepts of the gradual meditative and ethical progress of humans are presented.
Chapter 5: The Philosophical Schools of Mahayana
In this chapter Zotz deals in detail with the thinking of Nagarjuna and the various directions of Vijñānavāda .
Chapter 6: Late Madhyamaka and Tantrism
Here Tantra and Vajrayana as well as the philosophers Buddhapalita and Chandrakirti are mainly examined.
Chapter 7: Buddhist Thought in China
In this chapter, Zotz deals with philosophical schools such as Lüzong , Dilun zong , Jingtu zong , Chan zong , Tiantai zong , Huayan zong , Faxiang zong , Mizong , where he says: “How Buddhist Buddhism remained when it was received in China, asks legitimately against this background. "
Chapter 8: Japanese Buddhism
In addition to a presentation of the overall development of Japanese Buddhism, the teachings of Dōgen and Shinran in their relevance to philosophy are recognized.
Chapter 9: Buddhist Thought in Tibet
The chapter presents the further developments that Buddhism has taken in Tibet through the work of Gampopa and Tsongkhapa , among other things .
Chapter 10: Modern Trends
Here Zotz picks up on the ideas of newer Buddhist thinkers from India , Thailand , Sri Lanka and Japan, including Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar , KN Jayatilleke, Pridi Phanomyong and Manshi Kiyozawa.
Chapter 11: The Reception of Buddhism in Europe
Based on the assessment of Buddhism by Johann Gottfried Herder , Hegel and Schopenhauer , the emergence of the fundamental occidental judgments about Buddhism is shown here. Zotz also criticizes Georg Grimm and Paul Dahlke here .
Chapter 12: Leitmotifs of Buddhist Thought and the West
In the final chapter, Zotz confronts the Buddhist philosophy determined by Anatman with the main stream of Western thought, to which he attributes a tendency towards totalitarianism , which he sees as rooted in Greek metaphysics , Christian monotheism and “Roman imperialism”. Dealing with the thought of Buddhism appears against this background as an opportunity for a corrective.

Reception of the book

The history of Buddhist philosophy found an echo in scientific as well as Buddhist circles. Thomas Immoos considered it important that Zotz "begins his remarks with a question mark as to whether the term" philosophy ", which arose in a specific situation in Greece, is actually used here." Immoos also considers it important that Zotz Development of Buddhism from the previous intellectual history of India emphasizes: The fact that “Buddhism has its roots in Indian thought of earlier epochs is made clear by the excellent chapter on prehistory, which deals with the economic and social changes after the Aryan immigration, according to which this Subject as the life, existence and death of the individual comes into the center of thought. "Immoos judges:" This demanding work serves as an excellent 'raft to cross the river' for the well-informed reader. "

In the history of Buddhist philosophy, Zotz questions the widespread understanding of Buddhist teachings such as karma and rebirth . As Ulrich Dehn showed, Zotz doubted whether “the thought of rebirth, which is due to a combination of karmic thinking and the teaching of Pratityasamutpada , is really indispensable for the concerns of Buddhism.” In addition, Dehn stated: “The teachings of Anatman and conditional arising , Zotz apparently regards as self-evident from the experience of knowing the meditative path here and now. Remembering previous lives can be one of the realizations, but it does not necessarily have to come about. "

For the Buddhist reviewer Regine Leisner at the time , it was important that Zotz presented Buddhism as an inner unit in this book. “In doing so, he succeeds in not defining and delimiting the individual schools and directions dryly and boringly from one another, but rather to show the dynamics and inner logic according to which they have developed in dependence on one another by repeatedly taking up the thought processes and emphases of Buddha's teaching , thought through and formulated, linked with each other and mutually answered. "

With the history of Buddhist philosophy began a discussion called the Euromasochism Debate . This assumed that in the final chapter Zotz criticized the history and current situation of Europe as not very pluralistic and latently totalitarian. This was contradicted by Jens Heise , who, despite the appreciation of Zotz's achievements in researching Buddhist philosophy, feared "that Western thinking is simply downgraded to the contrast to Buddhist thinking and only appears as totalitarianism." Elisabeth Endres judged similarly to Heise : "An objection. As correctly as Volker Zotz classifies the merits and deficits of the European reception of Buddhism, he gets lost in a [...] Euromasochism. Everything that is derived from Christian monotheism is for him totalitarian, dangerous and morally inferior. " According to Ludger Lütkehaus , Zotz “does everything to earn his reputation as a 'Euromasochist' without simply becoming a Buddhophile.” Zotz contradicted such interpretations of the final chapter of the history of Buddhist philosophy in a work published in 2000: “Every intercultural learning, like all learning, requires awareness of its own weak points. [...] Partially I mention the shortcomings of Europe and the strengths of Asia. I am mainly interested in my own mistakes and other advantages - an important requirement if I want to learn, instead of just describing them 'objectively'. "

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Edward Conze : Buddhist Thought. Three phases of Buddhist philosophy in India. Insel, Frankfurt am Main (Ffm.) And Leipzig 1988, 2nd edition Suhrkamp (st 1772), Ffm. 1994, ISBN 3-518-38272-1 , Insel (it 3248), Ffm. 1st edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-458-34948-8
  2. ↑ Erich Frauwallner : The Philosophy of Buddhism , 5th Edition - Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2010. ISBN 978-3-05-004531-3
  3. ↑ David J. Kalupahana (1994), A History of Buddhist Philosophy , Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
  4. ↑ Volker Zotz: History of Buddhist Philosophy. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 1996 ISBN 3-499-55537-9
  5. ↑ Volker Zotz: Historia filozofii buddyjskiej , Wydawnictwo WAM, 2007, ISBN 978-83-7318-878-5
  6. ↑ Volker Zotz: History of Buddhist Philosophy. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 1996, ISBN 3-499-55537-9 , p. 2
  7. ^ History of Buddhist Philosophy , p. 12
  8. ↑ History of Buddhist Philosophy , p. 28
  9. ^ History of Buddhist Philosophy , p. 176
  10. ↑ Thomas Immoos in OAG Notes ( German Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia , Tokyo) 4/1998, pp. 26–27.
  11. ↑ Ulrich Dehn : "Secularization and Buddhism." In: Christina von Braun , Wilhelm Gräb , Johannes Zachhuber : Secularization: Balance and Perspectives of a Controversial Thesis. Berlin 2007 ( ISBN 978-3-8258-0150-2 ), p. 164
  12. ↑ Ulrich Dehn: "Secularization and Buddhism", p. 164
  13. ↑ Regine Leisner in Lotus Blätter 1/1997, p. 52
  14. ↑ Jens Heise in News of the Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia. Journal of the Culture and History of East and Southeast Asia 161-162, 1997
  15. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 11, 1997
  16. ^ Ludger Lütkehaus : Neue Zürcher Zeitung of March 8, 2001
  17. ↑ Volker Zotz: On the blissful islands. Buddhism in German culture. Berlin 2000, p. 360