Dogen Sangha Blog

  by Gudo NISHIJIMA

Japanese / German

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Realism (4)

In the Euro-American civilizations, since the Ancient Greco-Roman Civilizations, even though the Idealism and Materialism have been maintained as the fundamental philosophies of human civilizations for thousands of years, in the case of Realism I think that it has been completely forgotten for thousands of years. And when I have thought the reason why I think so, I thought that it has come from the historical facts that in Euro-American Civilizations, the philosophy of Realism has been thought as only the scientific Realism, that is just Materialism, and another Realism is called the naive Realism. In other words I am afraid that in Euro-American Civilization, people usually think that Realism must be only the schientific Realism, and another Realism has been thought as Naive Realism, , which usually children have, and could not recognized as an affirmative Realism in philosophy until the 20th Century.

But in the 20th Centuries we, human beings, have got enormously developed psychology and physiology. In the psychology Sigmund Freud (1869~1939) has found the existence of the non-consciousness in our body and mind, and he has found some kind of enormously important facts, which has been keeping the cause of finding the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS.) later.

And relying upon the finding ANS in our human body and mind, we have begun to notice the existence of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the existence of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) in our human body and mind, and furthermore that we, human beings, have possibility to keep our ANS balanced.

We, human beings, should not necessary to become gods, but we, human beings, should never become animals. We, human beings, should just become human beings themselves. Therefore we can think that Buddhism is just a philosophy, which recommend us to become just human beings.

But how can we become human beings? To such a question Gautama Buddha answeres to us, "Please practice Zazen." By practicing Zazen we can make our ANS balanced. And if we make our ANS balanced, we can become human beings without using so long time. And if we continue such a habit everyday, we can keep our body and mind just the same as human beings everyday. Therefore we can think that Gautama Buddha has teached us to become human beings by practicing Zazen everyday, and we think that we, human beings, might be happy when we are realizing ourselves as human beings. I think that Gautama Buddha has recommended us to practice Zazen, because it might be that the most happy life might be just to live as human beings, and at the same time it might be human duty to live in their happy life as human beings.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Roshi,

Thank you very much for your great teachings.

I agree with you that will have a duty just as human beings to live happy lives, and help others live happy lives as much as possible.

Peace,
-Peter

11:25 AM, April 02, 2009  
Blogger GUDO NISHIJIMA said...

Dear Peteshreds San,

Thank you very much for your agreement with my idea. After living more than 89 years, I have clearly noticed that it is human duty to live longer, and so I am making my efforts to do so.

7:56 PM, April 02, 2009  

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