Buddhist Existentialism: from anxiety to authenticity and freedom - Softcover

Miller, Dr Robert

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9780980502206: Buddhist Existentialism: from anxiety to authenticity and freedom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0980502209 ISBN 13: 9780980502206

Publisher: Shogam Publications, 2008

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This book provides an outline of the Buddhist shunyata principle (the inherent emptiness of all phenomena), and presents a Western philosophical base by which to logically support its integration into the western mindset. Buddhim and Western philosophy are surprisingly compatible. Buddhist Existentialism outlines the influence of existentialists, such as Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, and introduces us to the ideas of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist thought.

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About the Author:

Dr. Robert Miller has an MA in Philosophy from Edinburgh University. He did postgraduate research at Cambridge University for a Cambridge M.Litt. on themes in existentialism and Zen Buddhism, and also practiced Buddhism at the San Francisco Zen center. He came to Monash University on a scholarship to do a Ph.D on themes in the philosophy of Kant, religion, and ethics. Since 1990 he has been teaching Philosophy full-time at RMIT.

Review:

Robert Miller, who has over the years taken a great interest in synthesizing eastern and western philosophical thought, has presented an interesting and intriguing work on the interface between Buddhism and existentialism. In my own writings, I have made an attempt to locate the existentialist call to awaken people to the human condition within the Buddha s analysis of suffering and the way out of the human predicament of existential pain and anguish: the quest for meaning, the search for identity, the struggle to be authentic, existential challenges of tragedy, alienation and anxiety, as well as the assertion of human self-awareness and freedom (de Silva, 2007, Explorers of Inner Space: The Buddha, Krishnamurti and Kierkegaard). Against the background of my personal philosophical interest in east-west comparative philosophy, I found Robert Millers study a very rewarding venture from the perspectives of a number of facets of his study of Buddhism and existentialism. Robert Miller locates existentialism within the doctrine of shunyata and the philosophy of Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna is a philosopher who is associated with the use of the dialectical method . Nagarjuna makes the nature of conflicting theories of reality the focus of his analysis. Nagarjuna analyses each theory and its standpoints and by exhibiting its inner flaw, and he claims to dissolve each theory without any residue. He considers the criticism of such theories as a deliverance from all entanglements and passions. Miller rejects the transcendentalist interpretation of Madhyamika teachings. The key experience according to the Madhyamika teaching is not something mystical and transcendental. It is more simply the ordinary and everyday conceptualized experience of life, where we now have direct critical insight into the voidable nature of this conceptualized or linguistically interpreted reality, and consequently become emotionally addicted to it...We void it. Nothing clings. There is letting go. (Miller, 2008, 13). Miller accepts the interpretation of Nagarjuna by Frederick Streng who focuses on the suchness of experience over any transcendental version of emptiness. In discussing the seven central themes of existentialism he refers to the existentialist Sartre s presentation of nothingness and Heidegger on nothingness. In this manner he sees the existentialist dimension of Nagarjuna s philosophy. But he goes beyond seeing parallels between Nagarjuna and the existentialists and develops a philosophy of Buddhist existentialism through mostly the Zen tradition: The central tenets of Buddhist existentialism are as follows: notion of existence precedes essence has a focus on present experience; rejection of intellectual systems for describing and explaining reality; the experience of nothingness is pivotal to both; the rejection of inauthenticity, the focus on anxiety, and the viewing of nothingness as a positive experience that brings peace and joy. Concluding thoughts: I enjoyed reading the book and found it very stimulating, both on existentialism and on Pyrrhonism and therapy, and also the re-enchantment of existentialism; I found that he has a clear understanding of existentialism and the Madhyamika philosophies; I also commend the author for his clarity and intelligibility and recommend the book to potential readers. I have always been interested in the interface between Buddhism and existentialism and this book makes a valuable contribution for integrating an existentialist perspective to Buddhism or a Buddhist perspective to existentialism. In conclusion, I may summarize-- perhaps Miller would agree with me, that real emptiness is fullness . --Dr Padmasiri de Silva, Faculty of Historical Studies & The Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Monash University, Australia

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