Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook

Yuasa Yasuo

943 Yuasa Yasuo 湯浅泰雄 (1925–2005) After graduating from Tokyo University’s Department of Ethics in 1949, Yuasa Yasuo went on to complete higher degrees in ethics and economics. During his final years at university he studied under Watsuji Tetsurō*, whose thought and person left an indelible mark on his thinking. Yuasa taught for several years at Yamanashi University before moving to Ōsaka University in 1974 where he lectured in the new field of Japan Studies. In 1981 he was invited to Tsukuba University where he pursued his wide interests on the far reaches of philosophical thought. Yuasa was a multidisciplinary scholar of the kind rarely met in Japanese academia. He wrote extensively on ethics, religion, mysticism, psychology, and related fields. Although he began his work in the history of Japanese modern philosophy, as the final of the passages excerpted below will show, his concerns were always larger and more existential. Yuasa was also one of the first scholars to evaluate the importance of C.G. Jung’s analytical psychology in Japanese academia, which he sought to identify in terms of a “metapsychika” as opposed to a “metaphysika.” If the latter tries to go beyond external “nature” (physis), the former tries to delve into the ground of the human “soul” (psyche).” It is here that Yuasa established a bond between Jungian psychology and the traditions of the East. Inspired by Jungian psychology, Yuasa went further to argue that the body is the tangible unconscious through which we are able to integrate the consciousness and the unconscious, a view that he correlates to the theory and practice of self-cultivation in the East. [wm] Cultivation and theory Yuasa Yasuo 1977, 143–6 (25–8) What might we discover to be the philosophical uniqueness of eastern thought? One revealing characteristic is that personal cultivationž is presupposed in the philosophical foundation of the eastern theories. To put it simply, true knowledge cannot be obtained simply by means of theoretical thinking, but only through “bodily recognition or realization,” that is, through the utilization of one’s total mindž and body. Simply stated, this is to “learn with the body,” not the brain. Cultivation is a practice that attempts, so to speak, to achieve true knowledge by means of one’s total mind and body. Of course, there are various eastern philosophies. Roughly speaking, we find personal cultivation to be stressed in the schools of Buddhism and Hinduism, both of which originated in India, as well as in Chinese Daoism. A similar ten- 944 | t w e n t i e t h - c e n t u ry p h i l o s o p h y dency can be found, to a certain degree, in the Confucianism of the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. Buddhist and Hindu cultivation methods originate in what is called yoga. Yoga’s source can probably be traced to the Indus civilization prior to the Aryan invasion. It spread throughout India and developed various forms independent of the differences among the religious schools. Although Zen meditation is the best-known form of Buddhist cultivation, each Buddhist school originally had its own cultivation methods. Zen is merely one stream. In fact, since there is a great difference between India and China in their intellectual traditions, Indian cultivation forms could not really take hold in China. Indian yoga is most essentially a system of practical, technical methods for training the mind and body and maintaining health. Its training and meditation methods are very realistic, numerous, and complicated. Yet if we approach Indian philosophy with a purely philosophical interest, it is overwhelmingly metaphysical and theoretical. For this reason, we tend to think that Indian meditation must be separate from reality, but in actuality it is not. We must not fail to recognize that at the foundation of Indian meditation is a very practical and technical view of the mind and body supported and verified by radical experience . Consequently, there is a realistic view of humanity hidden within it. The Chinese intellectual tradition, on the other hand, does not emphasize such Indian metaphysical speculation and complicated theoretical analysis. The Chinese emphasis is the moral orientation represented by Confucianism and the spiritual attitude that attempts to grasp the essence of things straightforwardly and simply. Zen is a typical form of Buddhism influenced by the Chinese intellectual climate. Although Zen cultivation has not lost the realistic significance of training the mind and body, its goal is not technical but is the human pursuit of the...