空 : Part Three (Chinese śūnya, 無)

It might be that Chinese Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism, is not so much Buddhism as Chinese thought. It might be that we can say we call Chinese thought affected by Buddhism as Chinese Buddhism. I suppose I should explain about 無(mu, in Japanese) rather than 空(Kuu in Japanese, śūnya in Sanskrit).



Generally speaking 無 means "nothing" in Japanese and Chinese. And Chinese monks used this Kanji as a religious philosophical term. 無 is originally Taoism's term. 無 is a term seems to expressed situation that outlines are of obscurity and indistinct, and the term didn't referring to definite something. Therefore, Taoist didn't use this term as an opponent term of 有(being) but used as a supportive term of 有(being).



When Buddhism was introduced to China, Chinese understood Buddhism in the context of Taoism. Because Buddhism was a totally different culture from Chinese culture. Buddhism has a different train of thought from Chinese. It was a compelling reason. I can say this worked as a filter between central Asia and China.



When Chinese read Buddhist books(sutra), they found that Indians (central Asians too) were mentioning about truth with denying. Like human is not human, pot is not pot. It looked ambiguity. Then they thought śūnya is a similar concept to 無. Therefore, Taoism's 無 flew in Buddhism by itself. Early Chinese buddhists had a predilection to regard śūnya as 無. Chinese buddhists change their understanding through a clash of ideas between Chinese buddhism and Taoism.



Chinese buddhists realized that 無 is just a twinned idea of 有(being), but śūnya is the term which sublates 無 and 有(being) and is the term of a high order. And 無 came to used as a term which support and reinforce Buddhist philosophy. And, at last, 無 was embodied with śūnya.



sublate;



aufheben in German. A fundamental concept of Hegelian dialectic. Denying one thing, but preserving the thing as a momentum and using the thing as higher-level concept.



For a long period, 無 had been an auxiliary term. But it was changed to a central term of Buddhism by Zen monks. Zen buddhism is a acme of perfection of Chinese Buddhism. Perfecting means amalgamating with Chinese culture in this case. Especially, 無 become the most important word by 公案 (Kouan). 公案 is a kind of a question. One day 趙州(Jyoushuu) was asked by monks "A dog has the capability to become Buddha?" Jyoushuu answered "無". This discussion called 趙州無字(Jyoushuu Muji) was included in a Koan book, and 無 became very very famous term. This 無 Jyoushuu said is used as a term which transcends fundamental concept of existence or nonexistence, and which express the world of the buddha's enlightenment.



I took the photo near Takanodai station in Kodaira city, Tokyo.