To be balanced or not to be blanced - that is the question

Dear Master Gudo Wafu Nishijima,

thank you for all your precise and excellent answers! I am very sorry having lost some of
my own questions too! Here some new as follows.


Dear Dr. Siegfried Hohlfeld,

Thank you very much for your questions, and my answers are as follows.

Gudo Wafu Nishijima


Q1: Western Philosophy has such a problem getting away from dualistic thinking,getting
away from thinking and feeling at all, getting away from value, getting away from the habits
of good and bad and so on... What is the basic different procedure in Eastern Philosophy?

(Gudo) Among many Eastern Philosophies, I have only studied Buddhism, and so it is only possible for me to answer your question, which is related with Buddhism, but it is almost impossible for me to answer your quesions, which are related with philosophies other than Buddhism, I am afraid.

I think that Buddhism is a philosophy, which believes in only Reality itself. Therefore it has believed that idea is not real entity, and at the same time it has believed that sense stimuli, which we feel on our sense organs, are also not real entity. And I think that these facts suggest that Buddhism does not believe in idealism as the truth, and at the same time Buddhism does not believe in materialism as the truth. Because Gautama Buddha has thought that idea is just a kind of function in brain cells, and so it can not be Reality. And at the same time Gautama Buddha has thought that sense stimuli are only some kind of excitement of our sense organs, and so our sense stimuli on our sense organs can not be Reality too.

Therefore Gautama Buddha insisted that if we like to enter into Reality itself, it is necessary for us to act. And so he insists the necessity of Philosophy of Action. But I think that almost all philosophers in the world do not recognize the existence of Philosophy of Action, however, I think that if it is impossible for us to believe in the existence of Philosophy of Action, it might be completely impossible for us to believe in Buddhism.

In such situations Gautama Buddha has established the theory of four philosophies. First he has thought that idealism might be the first philosophy of human beings. But just after recognizing idealistic philosophy, Gautama Buddha inevitably notice the existence of materialism. Because it is necessary for us to recognize that we human beings have two kinds of mental and physical functions, the one is our mental consideration and the other is our physical perception. And relying upon such facts it is necessary for us to accept the two fundamental philosophies, that is, idealism and materialis.

Therefore we, human man beings, have been bothered so much because of existence of two so-called truths, which are called idealism and materialism for thousands of years since the Greco-Roman civilization. However Gautama Buddha has established his Realism relying upon his theory of four philosophies. Of course his Buddhist philosophy has been so difficult, that it hasn't been understood until 20th Century or 21st Century. However now we have begun to understand the true meaning of Buddhism, and so we, Dogen Sangha and Dogen Sangha International, have begun our efforts to explain the true meaning of Gautama Buddha's thoughts relying upon our blogs truoghout the World now.


Q2: Do you think some of the following guidelines can become important for DSI?

a) to keep the precepts and pure conduct.
b) to practice Zazen and improve the erect posture at least two times a day.
c) to rely on Reality and Reason.
d) to respect the strong will to the Truth.
e) to learn from the very exact Buddhist fundamental Philosophies (Dogen´s
Shobogenzo, Nagarjuna´s Mulamadhyamakakarika).
f) to transmitt Buddhist Principles by our sincere Action at the present moment
and our concrete Behavior in daily social life beyond fame and profit.
g) to use modern scientific knowledge and information technology.

What else might be absolutely necessary?

(Gudo) I think that the all guidelines from a) to g) are necessary, but among them I think that the two guidelines are especially impotant, that is, b) to practice Zazen and improve the erect posture at least two times a day, and the other one is e) to learn from the very exact Buddhist fundamental Philosophies (Dogen´s Shobogenzo, Nagarjuna´s Mulamadhyamakakarika).
Because without b) it is impossible for us to enter into the area of Action, and without e) it is impossible for us to grasp the Buddhist philosophical system exactly.


Thank you so much always
Siegfried Hohlfeld


Thank you very much for your excellent questions Gudo Wafu Nishijima