The body: toward an Eastern mind-mody theory

Description

This book explores mind-body philosophy from an Asian perspective. It sheds new light on a problem central in modern Western thought. Yuasa shows that Eastern philosophy has generally formulated its view of mind-body unity as an achievement a state to be acquired—rather than as essential or innate. Depending on the individual’s own developmental state, the mind-body connection can vary from near dissociation to almost perfect integration. Whereas Western mind-body theories have typically asked what the mind-body is, Yuasa asks how the mind-body relation varies on a spectrum from the psychotic to the yogi, from the debilitated to the athletic, from the awkward novice to the master musician. Yuasa first examines various Asian texts dealing with Buddhist meditation, kundalini yoga, acupuncture, ethics, and epistemology, developing a concept of the “dark consciousness” (not identical with the psychoanalytic unconscious) as a vehicle for explaining their basic view. He shows that the mind-body image found in those texts has a striking correlation to themes in contemporary French phenomenology, Jungian psychoanalysis, psychomatic medicine, and neurophysiology.The book clears the ground for a provocative meeting between East and West, establishing a philosophical region on which science and religion can be mutually illuminating. Editor's Introduction Author's Preface and Acknowledgements (from Japanese edition) Author's Introduction to the English Edition PART I: VIEWS OF THE BODY IN MODERN JAPANESE THOUGHT Editor's Summary CHAPTER ONE WATSUJI Tetsuro's View of the Body Space and body in intersubjectivity 37; Differences between East and West in understanding spatial-temporal experience 41 Unity of body-mind 46 CHAPTER TWO NISHIDA Kitaro's View of the Body The body's ambiguity in acting intuition 50; Time-consctousness and space-consciousness in relation to the body 52; The basho [place] vis-a-vis being and vis-d-vis nothing 56; Dual-layered consciousness 60; Practical apodicticity in experience qua basho 63 The dual structure in acting intuition 65, Problematics in Nishida's method 72 CHAPTER THREE Method and Attitude in Studying Eastern Thought The need for methodological reflection 75; Depth psychology and Eastern metaphysics 76 PART II: CULTIVATION AND THE BODY Editor's Summary 81 CHAPTER FOUR What Is Cultivation [shugyo]? 85 Kairitsu /precepts and canonical law] in Indian Buddhism 85 Kairitsu in China and Japan 89; Kairitsu and cultivation in Japanese Buddhism 93; The meaning of cultivation 98 CHAPTER FIVE Theories of Artistry [geido] 99 Cultivation and training in the waka theory of poetry 99; The waka-dharani 101; Performance and mind in Zeami 104; No-mind and body-mind oneness 107 CHAPTER SIX Dogen 111 Zen's practical character 111; Cultivation's reversal of the ordinary understanding of being 114; The body-mind relation in seated meditation 118; Molting the ordinary dimension 122 CHAPTER SEVEN Kakai 125 Chinese Buddhism and the Indian character of tantric Buddhism 126; Cultivation and the ten stages of mind 130; The body and sexuality 133; Sublimation of eros in the mandala 136; Comparison with meditation in Kundalini Yoga 143; The body-mind relation as sokushinj6butsu 1/48; Overcoming the body's ambiguity through cultivation 153 PART III: THE CONTEMPORARY SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTERN MIND-BODY THEORIES Editor's Summary 157 CHAPTER EIGHT Contemporary Philosophical Mind-Body Theories 161 Bergson's Motor Scheme: Beneath the permeation of perception and memory 162; Brain function and the body's motor-scheme 165; Merleau-Ponty's Somatic Scheme: The sensory-motor circuit and The somatic scheme 167; Internal perception 170; The existential intentional arc in the habitual body 171; General assessment of Merleau-Ponty's theory of the body 174; Emotions: The base of the sensory-motor circuit 175; Two directions in emotion 178 CHAPTER NINE Dual Structure of the Mind-Body Relationship 181 Surface and base structures: Dual psychophysiological structures of body and mind 181; Psychophysiological research and Eastern thought 187; Philosophical significance of body-mind research 191 Reversing our ordinary understanding of the mind-body relation: Reevaluation of Bergson 193; Intuition and the unconscious 199 CHAPTER TEN Eastem Meditation 203 Psychotherapy and cultivation: Disease and cure in psychosomatic medicine 203; Psychotherapy and meditative cultivation 207; The body-mind relation in Indian meditation 210; Metaphysics and the mind-body theory: Body-mind and Eastern metaphysics (metapsychics) 216; The body in Indian and Chinese medicine 219 Intuition and humanness 223; Paranormal knowledge 229 Author's Conclusion to the English Edition 233 Notes 241 Index 253