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4 Abbreviations Nietzsche BGE: Beyond Good and Evil. trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random House, 1966 The Birth of Tragedy. trans. Walter Kaufmann, in The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner. New York: Random House, 1967 CW: Friedrich Nietzsche The Case of Wagner. trans. Walter Kaufmann, in The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner. New York: Random House, 1967 D: Friedrich Nietzsche Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality. trans. R. J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982 GM: Friedrich Nietzsche The Genealogy of Morals Cambridge: Cambridge University Press HATH: Friedrich Nietzsche Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits. trans. R. J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986 GS: Friedrich Nietzsche The Gay Science, with a Prelude of Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. tr. WalterKaufmann. New York: Random House, 1974 W: The Will to Power. trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random House, 1967 Z: Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra. trans. Walter Kaufmann, in The Portable Nietzsche. New York: Viking Press, 1968 Zen WD Kapleau, Philip, and Paterson Simons, eds. The Wheel of Death: A Collection of Writings from Zen Buddhist and Other Sources on Death, Rebirth, Dying. (Harper and Row, New York, 1971) WZ Alan Watts The Way of Zen (Vintage Books, New York, 1957) ZB D. T. Suzuki Essays in Zen 3 vols. (Rider and Co., 1949-53) ZNM D. T. Suzuki The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind ed. Christmas Humphreys. (Rider and Co., London, 1969)
5 INTRODUCTION Here I offer a summary of Nietzsche’s philosophical development and say something about what Zen is. There is something inherently paradoxical about trying to do either. Nietzsche’s philosophy and Zen are elusive, aphoristic and practical in ways that render any précis of them incomplete and misleading. Paradoxically, their essence is to have no essence. The only way to understand Nietzsche is to read him and think. The only way to understand Zen is to do it or, more accurately, be it. Who is Nietzsche? Nietzsche describes his own life phases as like masks. I suggest they are like the phases in the development of a Zen monk. Nietzsche is concerned with the efficacy of ideas, rather than establishing their realistic truth. Nietzsche is concerned to change people's lives rather than to refute or prove their beliefs and theories. He seeks to discredit and explain metaphysical and theological philosophy, he does not seek to refute it by deductive argument. A brilliant prose stylist, Nietzsche authored sharp philosophical interventions. He lived from 1844-1900 but went mad in January 1889 at the age of 44. It is possible to discern five main philosophical influences which motivate his thought. Firstly, Nietzsche was immersed in the literature and culture of ancient Greece as a student at the Universities of Bonn and then Leipzig from 1864, and then as professor of classical philology at the University of Basel at the age of twenty-four. Secondly, Nietzsche discerns the crisis of Western civilisation in the 'Death of God', that is, in atheism, and in 'the advent of nihilism' which implies that there is no theological foundation for ethics. His own philosophy may be understood as an attempt to overcome this crisis; to ‘go beyond’ nihilism and 'affirm life'. Nietzsche’s profound anti-Christianity is arguably also a reaction against the faith of his family. His father and maternal grandfather were both Lutheran ministers. His paternal grandfather was a Christian author. Thirdly, Nietzsche studied the major work of the German neo-Kantian idealist Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860); The World as Will and Representation, while a student at Leipzig. Nietzsche understood Schopenhauer as a pessimistic atheist whose thought encapsulates the problem of the Death of God. In Schopenhauer’s thought, the individual strives and suffers. Nietzsche aimed for a positive, or optimistic, solution to this suffering and the possibility of a point to this striving. Fourthly, through the personal and artistic influence of the German operatic composer and music theorist Richard Wagner (1813-1883) Nietzsche thought suffering could be transfigured though aesthetic creation. Finally, Nietzsche was steeped in contemporary scientific materialist philosophy, notably the then influential work of F.A. Lange: The History of Materialism (1865).
Page 1 and 2: Stephen Priest Page 1 05/12/2007 NI
Page 3: 3 CONTENTS Preface INTRODUCTION 5 W
Page 7 and 8: 7 'The habits of our senses have wo
Page 9 and 10: 9 The famous Soto Zen master Dōgen
Page 11 and 12: 11 Nietzsche would have urged us to
Page 13 and 14: 13 We repress the thought that deat
Page 15 and 16: 15 When you truly understand this f
Page 17 and 18: 17 happens. Viewed objectively, or
Page 19 and 20: 19 'How strange that this sole thin
Page 21 and 22: 21 They have not yet become men, th
Page 23 and 24: 23 In Zen terms, what is advised he
Page 25 and 26: 25 Nevertheless, some of Nietzsche'
Page 27 and 28: 27 about it, doing something when w
Page 29 and 30: 29 This is partly because, for Niet
Page 31 and 32: 31 'It is thus pride, and the custo
Page 33 and 34: 33 'speculative') even though both
Page 35 and 36: 35 goal of human life he replied:
Page 37 and 38: 37 is the totality of what is. The
Page 39 and 40: 39 hand, the thesis that our psycho
Page 41 and 42: 41 Subhutu replies: 'No, Blessed On
Page 43 and 44: 43 consciousness. Languages are pra
Page 45 and 46: 45 THE DOCTRINE OF NO-SELF The ques
Page 47 and 48: 47 '"Ego," sayest thou, and art pro
Page 49 and 50: 49 'It is fundamental to every scho
Page 51 and 52: 51 angoisse or 'anxiety'. In the wr
Page 53 and 54: 53 'Even in your folly and despisin
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55 'What is mushin (wu-hsin in Chin
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57 'would it be better to translate
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59 We do not understand ourselves b
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61 in the presence of others. Now,
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63 sensations arise and subside, bu
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65 What does this mean? Could it be
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67 needed of what makes a later par
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69 (4) implies the concept of an in
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71 'Everything breaketh, everything
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73 He feels the awesome responsibil
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75 One of the most salient asymmetr
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77 change: a self or agent. Because
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79 The Übermensch is solitary beca
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81 'There never was a Bodhi tree, N
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83 In Nietzsche and in Zen a metaph
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85 "Why then," asked Seng-ts'an, "s
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87 Nevertheless, some of Nietzsche'
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89 oneself. Nietzsche thinks nothin
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91 'Internal and external were blen
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93 ' [...] there was no distinction
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95 monks who are advancing towards
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97 The same could be said of a visi
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99 would normally perceive as a mou
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101 It is an unsolved philosophical
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103 is lived that is philosophicall
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105 the Zen monk in Satori and the
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107 Bibliography Nietzsche Nietzsch
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109 Came, Daniel, V. (ed.) (forthco
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111 Nehamas, Alexander, 1985, Nietz
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113 App, Urs. 1991. "The Making of
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115 Chang, Chung-yüan, transl. 196
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117 Dumoulin, Heinrich, S. J. 1953.
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119 Gimello, Robert M. 1983. "Early
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121 Jorgensen, John A. 1979. "The E
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123 McRae, John. 1992. "Encounter D
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125 Sørensen, Henrik H. 1983. "The
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127 Wayman, Alex. 1977. "Doctrinal
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