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A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack (review)

A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack (review) 4_133-201 9/3/03 7:31 AM Page 170 170 BOOK R EV I EWS Sutra.” These are well studied in an earlier Paulist Press volume, Self and Liberation: The Jung / Buddhism Dialogue, edited by Daniel Meckel and Robert Moore. A study of Jung’s writings on these texts reveals that Jung draws a very definite line as to the point beyond which he will not go in following the Buddhist analysis of emptiness and self-transformation. In his reading of “The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” for example, Jung dismisses its highest goal (the realization of the pure light of the dhar- makaya) as Eastern intuition overreaching itself. For Jung, complete letting go of the ego (complete emptying) and the resulting possibility of a direct experience of the dharmakaya is simply not possible! In Jung’s view, if ego has been transcended, then, to the extent that one is still alive, one is unconscious and a direct experience of the divine impossible. Like Merton, Jung is not able to let go of the necessity of having an “observer.” What the Buddhist proposal of the giving up or “killing of ego,” to use Dogen’s words, would amount to, says Jung, is the end of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Buddhist-Christian Studies University of Hawai'I Press

A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack (review)

Karafin, Brian.
Buddhist-Christian Studies , Volume 23 – Oct 29, 2003
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Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 The University of Hawai'i Press.
ISSN
1527-9472

Abstract

4_133-201 9/3/03 7:31 AM Page 170 170 BOOK R EV I EWS Sutra.” These are well studied in an earlier Paulist Press volume, Self and Liberation: The Jung / Buddhism Dialogue, edited by Daniel Meckel and Robert Moore. A study of Jung’s writings on these texts reveals that Jung draws a very definite line as to the point beyond which he will not go in following the Buddhist analysis of emptiness and self-transformation. In his reading of “The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” for example, Jung dismisses its highest goal (the realization of the pure light of the dhar- makaya) as Eastern intuition overreaching itself. For Jung, complete letting go of the ego (complete emptying) and the resulting possibility of a direct experience of the dharmakaya is simply not possible! In Jung’s view, if ego has been transcended, then, to the extent that one is still alive, one is unconscious and a direct experience of the divine impossible. Like Merton, Jung is not able to let go of the necessity of having an “observer.” What the Buddhist proposal of the giving up or “killing of ego,” to use Dogen’s words, would amount to, says Jung, is the end of

Journal

Buddhist-Christian Studies – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Oct 29, 2003

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