Mystical consciousness: Western perspectives and dialogue with Japanese thinkers

Description

This book offers a philosophical account of ordinary consciousness as a step toward understanding mystical consciousness. Presupposing a living interaction between meditation and thinking, the work draws on Western and Japanese thinkers to develop a philosophy of religion that is friendly to the experience of meditators and that can explore such themes as emptiness, nothingness, and the self. Western thinkers considered include Plotinus, Eckhart, Schleiermacher, Heidegger, Brentano, Husserl, Sartre, and Lonergan; and Japanese thinkers referenced include Nishitani, Hisamatsu, and Suzuki. All employed centering prayer, Zen, or other forms of mental concentration. Particular emphasis is placed on the work of twentieth-century Catholic philosopher Bernard Lonergan, whose wntings on consciousness can inform an understanding of mysticism. "It is the first intercultural philosophy to bring together the work of Bernard Lonergan on critical philosophy in the West and Japanese Zen thinkers. There is a wealth of WTA insights and the ramifications abound." (John P. Keenan, author of 'How Master Mou Removes Our Doubts: A Reader-Response Study and Translation of the Mou-tzu Li-huo lun') "In the fields of religious studies and theology thinkers have been engaged in debates about such constructs as ‘experience,’ ‘consciousness.’ and ‘mysticism,’ and such philosophical problems as the possibility of ‘pure. or unmediated (by concepts), experience, or consciousness. This book will make a significant contribution to those important debates." (Christopher Ives, author of 'Zen Awakening and Society') Louis Roy, O.P. is Professor of Theology at Boston College. He is the author of 'Self-Actualization and the Radical Gospel and Transcendent Experiences: Phenomenology and Critique'. Mystical Consciousness Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction PART I Western Philosophies of Consciousness Chapter 1. Major Contributions Brentano Husserl Sartre Lonergan Concluding Remarks Chapter 2. Complementary Contributions From Intentionality to Consciousness: Searle Degrees of Consciousness: Crosby Further Clarifications: Helminiak The Affective Side: Morelli Concluding Remarks Chapter 3. Accounts of Mystical Consciousness Forman on Pure Consciousness Events The Realm of Transcendence According to Lonergan Moore on the “How” of Consciousness Price on Bare Consciousness Granfield on the Mystical Difference Concluding Remarks PART II Three Classics Chapter 4. Plotinus: Consciousness beyond Consciousness A Grand Worldview Intellect’s Share in the Good Ordinary Consciousness What Happens beyond Consciousness? No Blackout and Yet No Self-Consciousness Ecstasy, or Enstasy? Concluding Remarks Chapter 5. Eckhart: When Human Consciousness Becomes Divine Consciousness The Emptiness of the Human Intellect No Awareness Nothingness A Detached Love without a Why Is the Soul Equated with God? The Soul’s Breakthrough to the Godhead Concluding Remarks Chapter 6. Schleiermacher: Consciousness as Feeling Feeling Prereflective and Reflective Consciousness Absolute Dependence Three Kinds of Consciousness Concluding Remarks PART II A Dialogue with Zen Philosophy Chapter 7. Western Views of the Self Arguing against the Self Arguing for the Self Transcending the Self Concluding Remarks Chapter 8. Japanese Views of the Self Suzuki Nishitani Concluding Remarks Chapter 9. Western Views of Nothingness Plotinus and Eckhart Heidegger Nishitani as Interpreter of Plotinus, Eckhart, and Heidegger Concluding Remarks Chapter 10. Japanese Views of Nothingness Nishitani’s Approach to Nihilism Nishitani’s Characterization of “Absolute Nothingness” Hisamatsu’s Characterization of “Oriental Nothingness” Concluding Remarks Conclusion Notes Glossary Bibliography Index