알라딘: 요가난다, 영혼의 자서전

알라딘: 요가난다, 영혼의 자서전



요가난다, 영혼의 자서전 - 궁극의 자유와 행복으로 이끄는 심오하고 풍요로운 영적 순례 

파라마한사 요가난다 (지은이),김정우 (옮긴이)

뜨란2014-08-12

원제 : Autobiography of a Yogi



양장본788쪽152*223mm (A5신)1418gISBN : 9788990840288



책소개

I will be thine always(작곡: 요가난다, 사진: Shiva Ryu)



스티브 잡스의 아이패드에 저장된 단 한 권의 책이 바로 <요가난다, 영혼의 자서전>이었다. 파라마한사 요가난는 평생 동안 진리의 길을 걸어간 인도의 영적 스승이다. 그의 전 생애가 담긴 <요가난다, 영혼의 자서전>은 한 진실한 구도자의 깨달음의 기록이자 인도의 요가 과학과 유구한 명상 전통에 대한 깊이 있는 안내서이다.



여기에는 삶과 죽음의 근본 문제, 편협한 에고의 허물을 벗고 진정한 자아를 찾는 법, 신과의 합일을 통해 궁극의 자유에 이르는 길 등 우리의 정신을 충만하게 채워주는 지혜들이 가득하다. 요가난다는 우리를 진리에 근거한 삶으로 이끈다. 그것은 인간 존재의 근원적인 불행이 제거되고 사랑, 행복, 기쁨, 환희, 평온으로 빛나는 삶이다.



감각적 욕망에 대한 집착을 끊고 영적으로 진일보하는 삶이다. 이런 삶을 살 때 비로소 우리 안의 신성을 경험할 수 있으며, 인간의 본질이 곧 신이고 우주 그 자체라는 진리를 깨닫게 된다고 요가난다는 말한다. 그리고 이 모든 것은 정신을 통제하는 인도의 요가와 명상 수행을 통해 얻을 수 있다고 가르친다. 20세기 최고의 영적도서로 선정된 책이다.



목차

옮긴이의 글_김정우

추천의 글_에반스 웬츠



01 부모님과 어린 시절

02 어머니의 죽음과 신비한 부적

03 두 개의 몸을 가진 성자

04 히말라야를 향한 열정이 좌절되다

05 향기를 만드는 성자

06 호랑이 스와미

07 공중에 뜨는 성자

08 인도의 위대한 과학자 보세

09 대사 마하사야와 우주적 로맨스

10 스승 스리 유크테스와르를 만나다

11 브린다반의 무일푼 두 소년

12 스승의 암자에서 보낸 나날

13 잠자지 않는 성자

14 우주의식의 체험

15 콜리플라워 도둑

16 별들의 메시지를 이해하다

17 스승의 예언과 세 개의 사파이어

18 신비로움을 행한 이슬람 도인

19 캘커타의 스승이 세람푸르에 나타나다

20 멀고 먼 히말라야

21 드디어 히말라야를 여행하다

22 석상의 미소

23 학사 학위를 받다

24 스와미 교단의 수도승이 되다

25 형 아난타와 여동생 날리니

26 영적 진화를 위한 크리야 요가

27 요가학교를 세우다

28 카시의 환생이 윤회를 실증하다

29 시성 타고르를 만나다

30 기적의 법칙

31 성스러운 어머니와의 면담

32 죽음에서 일어난 라마

33 현대 인도의 요기-그리스도, 바바지

34 히말라야에 황금 궁전을 실체화하다

35 라히리 마하사야의 생애

36 서양에 대한 바바지의 관심

37 미국으로 건너가다

38 장미 속의 성자 루터 버뱅크

39 테레제 성녀와 성흔의 기적

40 스승의 부름을 받고 인도로 돌아오다

41 남인도의 목가적 풍경

42 스승과 함께한 마지막 나날들

43 스리 유크테스와르의 부활

44 비폭력의 성자, 마하트마 간디와 함께

45 기쁨으로 충만한 성녀

46 56년간 금식한 여자 요기

47 다시 서양으로 돌아가다

48 캘리포니아 엔시니타스의 아슈람에서

49 과학의 시대를 넘어 영성의 시대로



찾아보기



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책속에서

첫문장

궁극의 진리를 추구하고, 그 과정에서 구르와 제자가 필연적으로 유대 관계를 맺는 것은 오랫동안 인도 문화의 특징적 면모를 이루어왔다.

P. 100 특별한 능력을 과시하는 행위는 성자들에게 비난의 대상이 된다. 언젠가 페르시아의 신비가 아부 사이드는, 물속에 잠길 수도 있고, 공중에 뜰 수도 있고, 동시에 여러 곳에 존재할 수 있는 기적을 자랑하는 어떤 파키르(이슬람 수도승)들을 비웃었다. 그는 점잖게 비꼬면서 지적했다. “개구리도 물속에 집을 짓고 산다! 까마귀와 독수리는 ... 더보기

P. 255~256 “스승님, 저는 언제쯤이나 신을 찾을 수 있을까요?”

“너는 이미 신을 찾았다.”

“저는 아직 찾지 못했습니다.”

구루는 웃고 계셨다.

“네가, 우주의 어느 순결한 장소에서 왕관을 쓰고 계신 숭엄한 인격체를 기대하는 게 아니라는 것쯤은 잘 안다. 하지만 너는 기적의 힘을 소유하는 것이 신을 찾은 증거라... 더보기

P. 265 모든 사념은 우주에서 영원히 진동한다. 깊은 명상을 통해 스승은 산 사람이나 죽은 사람의 생각을 뜻대로 탐지해내셨다. 생각은 개인에게 속한 것이 아니고 우주에 속해 있다. 진리는 창조되는 것이 아니라 그냥 인식되는 것이다. 인간의 잘못된 생각은 분별력이 불완전하기 때문에 나타나는 결과이다. 요가 과학의 목적은 마음을 고요하게 하여... 더보기

P. 368 요가는 생각이 자연적으로 격동하는 것을 억제하는 한 방법이다. 만일 격동적인 생각을 억제하지 않으면 모든 땅의 모든 사람이 자신에게 들어 있는 대영혼의 진정한 본성을 감지하지 못한다. 요가는 태양의 치유 광선처럼 동양과 서양의 모든 사람에게 똑같이 이롭다. 사람들은 대부분 침착하지 못하고 변덕스럽다. 여기에 요가의 명백한 필요성이... 더보기

P. 529 고대의 계시를 단지 읽는 데만 그치지 말고 온 마음을 다 바쳐 실현하고자 노력하는 자야말로 지혜로운 사람이다. 너희의 모든 문제는 명상을 통해서 해결해라. 쓸데없는 종교적 사색 대신 실제로 신과 만나도록 해라. 모든 독단적인 신학 나부랭이를 깨끗이 청소해버려라. 직접 지각이라는 신선한 치유의 물줄기가 마음속에 흐르게 해라. 내면의... 더보기

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추천글

영적인 구도의 길을 가는 사람들이 이 위대한 책에서 아무런 영향도 받지 않는다는 것은 상상하기 힘들다. 이 책은 요가와 명상은 물론 오늘까지도 지속되어온 자기탐구의 여정을 계속하도록 나를 채찍질해 주었다.

- 잭 캔필드 (《영혼을 위한 닭고기 수프》《마음을 열어주는 101가지 이야기》의 저자)

이처럼 매혹적인 세계를 들여다볼 수 있는 통찰력을 선사해준 데 대해 저자에게 감사드린다.

- 토마스 만 (소설가, 평론가)

<요가난다, 영혼의 자서전>은 현대 힌두 성자들의 비범한 생애와 능력을 직접 생생하게 목격한 이야기를 담고 있기 때문에, 한편으로 시의적절하면서도 또 한편으로는 시간을 초월한 중요성을 갖는다. 요가난다의 범상치 않은 일대기는 분명히 인도의 지성과 감성에 담긴 심오한 깊이와 인도가 가진 영적 풍요를 가장 잘 드러내주는 서양 출판물 중의 하나가 될 것이다.

- W. Y. 에반스 웬츠

보기 드물게 귀하고 진기한 책이다.

- 뉴욕 타임스

영적인 모험으로 가득 찬 삶이 이 책을 읽은 보답이다. - 유나이티드 프레스

독자를 즐겁게 하고, 독자에게 무언가를 가르쳐주고, 독자를 영적으로 고양시키는 세 가지 장점을 고루 갖춘 매우 드문 저서이다. - 인디아저널

힌두교든 불교든 이슬람교든 기독교든 유대교든, 인문학자든 과학자든, 초월론자든 선교사든 요가난다에게는 모두가 동일했다. 그의 매력적이고 합리적인 설명에 동의하며 다양한 학문 분야를 넘나드는 통찰력에 감탄하는 동안, 나는 모든 유물론적 편견을 의심하고 그가 말하는 ‘다른 세계의 주장’에 귀를 기울이지 않을 수 없었다.

- 리차드 피노 (심리학 박사)

이 책은 지금까지 출간된 그 어떤 책보다 흥미롭고 계몽적인 영적 저술의 하나임이 확실하다.

- 탐 버틀러-보드윈 (<50편의 영적 고전: 시간을 초월한 지혜>의 저자)

저자 및 역자소개

파라마한사 요가난다 (Paramahansa Yogananda) (지은이)



힌두교, 불교, 기독교, 이슬람교를 비롯하여 철학, 인문학, 과학, 예술 등 다양한 경계를 넘나들며 진리의 보편성을 설파한 요가난다는 1893년 인도의 고라크푸르에서 태어났다. 어린 시절부터 수차례 신비한 영적 체험을 했고, 구도자가 되려는 열망을 품은 채 여러 성자들을 찾아다녔다. 17세 때 운명적으로 만난 스승 스리 유크테스와르의 엄격한 가르침을 받으며 아슈람에서 명상과 요가 수련에 전념했다. 1915년 캘커타대학교를 졸업한 뒤 스와미 교단의 수도승으로서 세상의 행복을 위해 헌신하고자 서약했고, 마침내 삶과 죽음의 근본 문제, 생명의 실상 및 우주의 본질을 꿰뚫는 궁극의 깨달음을 이루었다.



1920년 보스턴에서 개최된 진보종교지도자국제대회에 인도 대표로 초청받은 것을 계기로 미국으로 건너갔다. 이후 30여 년간 미국에 거주하면서 종교, 이념, 인종, 문화를 초월한 무종파 수행단체 ‘자아실현협회Self-Realization Fellowship’와 명상센터들을 설립하여 요가와 명상 수행을 지도하는 한편, 지속적인 강연과 저술 활동을 펼쳤다.



요가난다는 신을 체험적으로 인식하는 심층 종교의 핵심을 전하며 심오한 정신 세계로 인도하는 안내자로서의 사명을 평생 실천했다. 이러한 노력으로 ‘인도의 요가 과학과 유구한 명상 수행 전통을 서양에 알린 가장 위대한 사절’이라는 찬사를 받았다.



그의 가르침은 자아의 벽을 허물어뜨리고 진정한 대자유를 찾으려는 사람들에게 큰 영향을 주었다. 간디나 타고르 같은 인류의 스승들과 교유하며 자신 또한 세계 평화의 작은 빛이 되기를 염원해온 요가난다는 1946년 <요가난다, 영혼의 자서전Autobiography of a Yogi>을 출간했다. 이 책은 20세기 최고의 영적 도서로 선정되었고, 현재까지 전세계 30여 개 언어로 번역 출판되어 600만 독자들의 관심을 모았다.



1952년 3월 7일, 파라마한사 요가난다는 지상에서의 영적 순례를 마치고 의식적으로 육체를 버리는 ‘마하사마디’에 들었다. 접기

최근작 : <어느 요기의 자서전>,<요가난다, 영혼의 자서전>,<행복> … 총 6종 (모두보기)





김정우 (옮긴이)



한국외국어대학교 영어과를 졸업하고, 서울대학교 대학원 국어국문학과에서 문학석사와 문학박사 학위를 받았다. 국립국어연구원(현 국립국어원)을 거쳐 현재 경남대학교 국어국문학과 교수로 재직하고 있다.



지은 책으로는 <이솝우화와 함께 떠나는 번역 여행(1, 2, 3권)>, <영어 번역 ATOZ(종합편)>, <한국인이 꼭 알아야 할 국어어문규범 365> 등이 있다.

옮긴 책으로는 <깨달음이란 무엇인가>, <절벽 산책>, <한국어와 드라비다어의 비교 연구>, <신성한... 더보기

최근작 : <우리말 우리글 바로쓰기> … 총 3종 (모두보기)

출판사 소개

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출판사 제공 책소개



스티브 잡스의 아이패드에 저장된 단 한 권의 책

무한한 창조성의 세계를 열어주는 직관과 통찰의 지혜



스티브 잡스의 전기를 쓴 월터 아이작슨은 잡스의 아이패드를 보고 뜻밖의 인상을 받았다. 전 세계인을 열광시킨 아이패드를 만든 장본인의 기기에 책이 딱 한 권만 저장되어 있었기 때문이다. 잡스가 10대 시절 처음 읽고 20대 때 인도 여행에서 다시 만난 뒤 해마다 한 번씩 읽고 있다는 <요가난다, 영혼의 자서전Autobiography of a Yogi>이었다. 잡스는 이 책과 평생을 함께했다. 특히 명상을 통해 터득되는 직관과 통찰의 지혜는 그에게 커다란 영감을 불러일으켰다. 잡스의 인문학적 감각과 과학적 재능이 직관을 매개로 결합되자 세상을 바꾸는 혁신적인 제품들이 태어났다. 강렬한 집중에서 오는 직관, 본질을 꿰뚫는 통찰로 무한한 창조성의 세계를 이룩한 것이다.



궁극의 자유와 행복으로 이끄는 심오하고 풍요로운 영적 순례



파라마한사 요가난다Paramahansa Yogananda는 평생 동안 진리의 길을 걸어간 인도의 영적 스승이다. 그의 전 생애가 담긴 <요가난다, 영혼의 자서전>은 한 진실한 구도자의 깨달음의 기록이자 인도의 요가 과학과 유구한 명상 전통에 대한 깊이 있는 안내서이다.

여기에는 삶과 죽음의 근본 문제, 편협한 에고의 허물을 벗고 진정한 자아를 찾는 법, 신과의 합일을 통해 궁극의 자유에 이르는 길 등 우리의 정신을 충만하게 채워주는 지혜들이 가득하다. 요가난다는 우리를 진리에 근거한 삶으로 이끈다. 그것은 인간 존재의 근원적인 불행이 제거되고 사랑, 행복, 기쁨, 환희, 평온으로 빛나는 삶이다. 감각적 욕망에 대한 집착을 끊고 영적으로 진일보하는 삶이다. 이런 삶을 살 때 비로소 우리 안의 신성을 경험할 수 있으며, 인간의 본질이 곧 신이고 우주 그 자체라는 진리를 깨닫게 된다고 요가난다는 말한다. 그리고 이 모든 것은 정신을 통제하는 인도의 요가와 명상 수행을 통해 얻을 수 있다고 가르친다. 20세기 최고의 영적도서로 선정된 이 책은 어둠 속에 잠든 몽매한 영혼을 깨워 본질에 가까운 삶을 살고자 하는 모든 이들에게 밝은 등대가 될 것이다.



과학의 시대를 넘어 영성의 시대를 선도한 정신적 지도자

인도의 요가 과학과 유구한 명상 수행 전통을 서양에 알린 가장 위대한 사절



요가난다는 1893년 인도의 고라크푸르에서 출생했다. 어머니의 품에 안긴 그를 보고 어느 유명한 도인은 그가 요기가 되어 영적인 기관차의 엔진을 달고 수많은 영혼을 신의 왕국으로 데려갈 거라고 예언했다. 그 예언은 적중했다. 어린 시절부터 성자들을 찾아다니던 요가난다는 17세 때 운명적으로 만난 스승의 아슈람에서 명상과 요가 수행에 전념하며 본격적으로 구도의 길에 들어섰다. 그리고 5년간의 수련 생활 끝에 마침내 출가 수도승으로 살고자 했던 오랜 열망을 이룬다. 그는 소년들을 위한 요가학교를 세워 가르침을 펴던 중 27세 때 미국으로 건너간다. 인도의 요가 철학과 명상 수행법을 서양에 널리 알리고, 동서양의 영적 교류와 화합에 밑거름이 되기 위해서였다. 그에게는 숙명과도 같은 사명이었다.

아는 사람 하나 없는 낯선 서양 땅에서 요가난다는 놀라운 성과를 거뒀다. 자유로운 영혼을 꿈꾸는 수천 명의 미국인들이 그의 강연을 듣기 위해 강당을 가득 채웠고, 대규모 강연 요청이 줄을 이어 대륙횡단 강연 여행까지 이어졌다. 그의 가르침은 경제, 과학, 예술, 정치 등 다양한 분야의 인물들에게 지대한 영향을 끼쳤다. 백악관에 초청되어 특별 강연을 하기도 했으며, 주요 언론사들은 그의 활동을 흥미롭게 전했다. 수많은 사람들이 요가난다의 제자가 되어 인도 고대 요가 과학의 결정체인 크리야 요가를 전수받았다.

요가난다는 종교와 이념, 인종과 문화를 초월하는 무종파 수행단체 ‘자아실현협회’를 설립하고, 미국 주요 도시에 명상 센터를 세워 많은 사람들에게 내면의 깨달음으로 가는 문을 열어주었다. 그는 신을 체험적으로 인식하는 심층 종교의 핵심을 전하며 심오한 정신 세계로 인도하는 안내자로서의 사명을 평생 실천했다. 이러한 노력으로 ‘인도의 요가 과학과 유구한 명상 수행 전통을 서양에 알린 가장 위대한 사절’이라는 찬사를 받았다.

요가난다는 진리를 추구하는 과정에서 많은 위대한 스승들과 교유했다. 비폭력의 성자 마하트마 간디, 동방의 등불로 우리에게 잘 알려진 시성 타고르, 사랑의 염파가 식물 생장을 촉진하다는 사실을 과학적으로 입증한 미국의 원예학자 루터 버뱅크 등 모두 한 시대를 풍미한 세기의 영혼들이다. 요가난다는 이 걸출한 지성들과의 만남을 자양분 삼아 과학의 시대를 넘어 영성의 시대를 이끄는 정신적 지도자로 거듭났다.



20세기 최고의 요가수행자와 함께 걷는 진리의 길

“환영에서 벗어나 나 자신이 곧 진리이고 우주임을 자각하라”



요가난다에게 진리는 오직 하나, 즉 우리 각자가 신이며, 빛이며, 우주라는 깨달음이었다. 그는 모든 종교가 근본적으로 같은 진리 안에 있다고 믿었다. 그러므로 힌두교와 불교, 기독교와 이슬람교의 구별은 무의미했다. 인문학과 과학, 예술의 구분 또한 불필요했다. 우리 스스로 신을 자각하는 일이 중요했다. 나 자신이 곧 우주임을 인식하고 경험하는 일이다. 요가난다는 이를 위해 우선 우주의 환영에서 벗어나야 한다고 말한다. 육체가 나라는 착각, 요동치는 감정이 나의 것이라는 오해, 눈앞에 펼쳐진 이 세상이 실체라는 몽상. 이것이 환영이다. 요가와 명상 수행은 이러한 환영을 꿰뚫어보는 직관의 눈을 갖게 해준다. 마음을 고요히 하고 집중해서 명상하면 오감을 넘어서는 직관의 힘이 길러지고, 이를 통해 환영 이면의 본질을 꿰뚫는 능력을 갖추게 된다는 것이다. 허상과 실상, 거짓과 참을 구분할 줄 알면 집착에서 벗어나 궁극의 자유를 얻게 된다. 진정한 자아를 발견한 사람은 영적으로 진일보하는 삶을 살게 되며, 결국 신과 하나가 되는 지고의 행복에 도달한다고 가르친다.



과학적이고 명쾌한 언어로 본질의 과녁을 꿰뚫다



이 책에는 현대 인도 성자들의 비범한 생애와 신기한 능력에 관한 목격담도 생생하게 기록되어 있다. 그들은 두 곳 이상 동시에 몸을 나타내고, 죽은 사람을 부활시키고, 공중에서 음식을 뽑아내고, 물 한 모금 먹지 않은 채 56년을 산다. 히말라야 기슭에 황금궁전을 지었다가 한순간에 사라지게도 한다. 보통 사람들로서는 납득하기 힘든 이 놀라운 기적들도 요가난다의 과학적이고 친절한 해설을 통하면 거짓이나 신화처럼 들리지 않고 현실에서 충분히 가능한 이야기로 다가온다. 그만큼 요가난다의 언어는 명쾌하다. 아무리 심오한 내용도 흥미롭고 분명한 서술로 공감을 끌어낸다. 쉽게 상상하기 어려운 사후세계나 우주의식의 체험을 설명할 때조차 본질의 과녁을 꿰뚫고 설득력 있게 그려나간다.



법정 스님과 비틀즈의 철학자 조지 해리슨, 요가난다를 만나다

전 세계 600만 독자들의 삶에 지혜와 사랑의 불꽃을 일으킨 정신세계의 고전



<요가난다, 영혼의 자서전>은 구도자뿐 아니라 수많은 창조적 인물들의 삶에 지혜와 사랑의 불꽃을 일으켰다. 국내에는 1984년 정신세계사에서 <구도자 요가난다>라는 제목으로 처음 소개되었는데, 이번에 뜨란출판사에서 같은 역자의 새로운 번역으로 재출간하게 되었다.

법정 스님은 생전에 미국 캘리포니아에 갈 때마다 요가난다가 세운 명상 센터에 들렀다. 광활한 태평양을 마주하고 선 이 아슈람은 가파른 절벽에 마련된 명상 동굴, 장미 정원과 유칼립투스 숲, 빛나는 호수가 아름답게 어우러져서 방문하는 모든 이들이 저절로 명상에 젖어드는 특별한 분위기가 감도는 공간이다.

‘비틀즈의 철학자’ 조지 해리슨은 요가난다의 자서전을 집에 쌓아두었다가 찾아오는 사람들에게 한 권씩 나눠주었다. 사람들이 인생을 다시 설계하고자 할 때는 이 책을 읽어주었다. 여기에 모든 종교의 핵심을 꿰뚫는 진리가 들어 있다고 믿었기 때문이다.

1946년 초판 출간된 이 책은 20세기 최고의 영적 도서로 선정되었고, 전 세계 30여 개 언어로 번역, 출판되었으며, 100여 개가 넘는 세계 유수의 대학들이 인도철학 및 요가 강좌의 교재로 채택했다. 또 600만 부 이상 판매되어 현대의 고전으로 평가받는 동시에 오늘날까지도 정신세계 분야의 베스트셀러 목록에 이름을 올리고 있다. 접기

Harold Stewart Nagarjuna

Harold Stewart's Reflections on the Dharma


Harold Stewart

Nagarjuna



Nagarjuna flourished in India about the second to third centuries A.D. He was the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism and the pre-eminent exponent of its critical dialectic of the Middle Way, which negated all possible logical positions in order to arrive at Shunyata or Emptiness. As the Thirteenth Patriarch in direct line from Shakyamuni, Nagarjuna is regarded as the second founder of Buddhism; for just as Shakyamuni's sermons, preached during his lifetime and later recorded in the sutras, were called the First Turning of the Wheel of the Law, so Nagarjuna's initial formulation of the Mahayana doctrines came to be known as the Second Turning of the Wheel of the Law.

In the Far Eastern Traditions, theoretical doctrine was never divorced from practical method designed to lead to Enlightenment; so that, as Rene Guenon remarked, there was no philosophy east of Istanbul, nor any need ever felt for lack of it. But modern Occidental professors (and their Westernized Oriental colleagues) have appropriated such highly intellectual sages as Nagarjuna and, by abstracting the rational content from their doctrines, have tried to make them academically respectable ?philosophers? like themselves: in other words, sterile professional thinkers without spiritual realization or means for its attainment.

But Nagarjuna's doctrine of Emptiness was not merely the result of logical ratiocination: it grew out of his profound Metaphysical Insight, or prajna, which is a faculty that cannot be developed by passing university examinations or collecting higher degrees. For prajna is suprarational in that, while not contrary to reason, it transcends it and all its ingenious explanations. The dialectic method of the Madhyamaka was never intended to erect a logically consistent self-contained system of ideas cast in watertight verbal formulations, which the philosopher's successors could then examine critically so as to expose its fallacies. It was, on the contrary, devised to "tease the mind out of thought" by its paradoxical twists of negation and so to provide an antidote to the excessively logical and rational nature of the Indo-European languages and modes of thought. Thus its practical aim was to use rational thinking to transcend thought and so lead to Metaphysical Realization. All closed or self-sufficient systems of ideas are of necessity finite and limited and can never adequately describe or explain the Infinite and Limitless, which was what Nagarjuna, like the Buddha, refused to speak about but sought to make us realize by direct Insight.

In Japan, Nagarjuna is known as Ryuju and claimed as First Patriarch by no less than eight different sects, including the two Pure Land schools, Jodo-shu and Shinshu, because after his death he is said to have been reborn in the Western Paradise of Amida Buddha, where he was accorded the rank of a Bodhisattva of the tenth grade. His importance for Pure Land doctrine depends upon the Igyohon, the section on Easy Practice from the ninth chapter of book five of his work, Dalabhumikavibhasa-shastra (Japanese: Jujubibasharon). 

In this chapter, from which the above quotation is taken, Nagarjuna, for the first time in Buddhist thought, clearly distinguished between Igyodo, the Easy Way, and Nangyodo, the Difficult Path, of practice. The Easy Way is that of the Nembutsu, or Invocation of the Name of Amida Buddha with complete reliance on his infinite store of merit, which he accumulated during five kalpas of contemplation. Out of his boundless generosity and compassion, Amida has vowed to transfer this to all who call his Name, no matter how ignorant or defiled they may be. Amida's fulfilment of his Forty-eight Vows was to ensure the Rebirth of all who place unconditional trust in him, so that they can reach his Pure Land, Sukhavati, that Paradise in the Western Region of the Universe which he established as a state more propitious for the attainment of Nirvana than this Saha World of long-suffering. Nagarjuna contrasts this Invocation of the Sacred Name with the Difficult Path of Traditional Buddhist ascesis as laid down in the rules and restrictions of the Vinaya, or monastic discipline of the Sangha, the Order established by the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni.

Later, Tan Luan (476-542), known in Japanese as Donran, who was the First Chinese Patriarch of Ching-t'u (Japanese: Jodo), or the Pure Land school, identified the Easy Way with Tariki, or the Other Power of Amida Buddha, and the Difficult Path with Jiriki, or the self-power of the Zen and other sects of Buddhism. Tao-ch'o, the Second Chinese Patriarch (562-645), then equated them respectively with the Jodomon, or Pure Land Path, and the Shodomon, or Path of the Sages who seek to attain Enlightenment by individual effort.

Nagarjuna compares the Easy Way to a pleasant voyage by boat on the water, since in this method the devotee need only invoke with perfect confidence the Name of Amida, Namu Amida Butsu, which is easy for anyone, anywhere, and at any time to call and to hold in mind. But he likens the Hard Path to the arduous climbing of the mountain of meditation on foot.

Harold Stewart Christianity

Muryoko: Journal of Shin Buddhism



Harold Stewart

Christianity

By being adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire some sixteen hundred years ago, Christianity gained the ascendancy over its rivals and became the predominant Tradition of Europe. But after the decline of the Middle Ages, with the Renaissance and Reformation and increasingly during the past century or two, many Westerners have become disillusioned with their old religion, so that for more and more today it can no longer serve as a vessel to hold that water which alone can satisfy our spiritual thirst. Reacting against its institutions and tenets, both theological and moral, the overdeveloped ego of modern Occidental man demands a new method, one by which the individual can 'conquer happiness' by his own will power and enterprise, unaided by faith, prayer, ritual, or divine assistance. So devotional and invocatory practices are anathema to our self-sufficient contemporaries, who presumptuously assume that their scientially finite and conditioned minds can probe and comprehend the mysteries of the Infinite, when in truth they cannot even solve man's petty social and psychological problems on this minor planet.

Such popular disaffection for the Christian faith is less the result of any intellectual investigation and refutation of its theological doctrines than an emotionally charged reaction against its politics and an irrational belief that its teachings have been undermined and disproved by the current theories of secular science. In consequence, many defectors have taken the path of least resistance and surrendered to the mindless hedonism and hardened materialism of our times. Whether they consider themselves agnostic humanists or practising atheists, they credulously accept without question or criticism the latest tentative hypotheses (Greek for 'guesswork') popularized for laymen by the mouthpieces of Scientism, as though such suppositions were already proven truths.

Those adherents who still strive to practise an inherited religion no longer suited to their needs find to their dismay that their Church is desecrating its own liturgy and committing theological suicide in an attempt to adapt its traditions to the demands of modern secularism and to accommodate its doctrines to contemporary attitudes and opinions. As though the twentieth century constituted some timeless and unchanging criterion of absolute truth; and as if, already more than three-quarters elapsed, it had not proved itself to be as ephemeral as all the other centuries! So they have had to look elsewhere for a spiritual path. And where else to look but Eastward, since from that quarter in the past have come all the major extant Traditions? Ex Oriente lux, ex Occidente nox.

Reflections on the Dharma - Harold Stewart

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알라딘: 쇼펜하우어의 의지와 표상으로서의 세계 읽기

알라딘: 쇼펜하우어의 의지와 표상으로서의 세계 읽기



쇼펜하우어의 의지와 표상으로서의 세계 읽기  | 세창명저산책 17

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국내도서 > 인문학 > 서양철학 > 근대철학 > 쇼펜하우어

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10월 특별선물! 요가 매트, 아령 세트, 짐볼, 마사지볼(이벤트 도서 포함, 국내서.외서 5만원 이상)



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책소개세창 명저산책 제17권. 칸트가 ‘근대’의 완성자라면 쇼펜하우어는 ‘현대’의 프로듀서라고 할 수 있다. 쇼펜하우어의 철학에는 칸트의 현상, 플라톤의 가상, 베단타의 마야에 비견할 수 있는 ‘표상’의 개념과 칸트의 물자체, 플라톤의 이데아, 베단타의 삼신에 해당하는 ‘의지’의 개념이 상관적인 파노라마를 연출한다.

목차

머리말 · 5



제1장 쇼펜하우어의 삶과 사상 · 15

1. 쇼펜하우어의 생애 · 15

2. 쇼펜하우어의 사상 개요 · 22

3. 쇼펜하우어와 불교사상 · 27

4. 프로이트의 선구자로서의 쇼펜하우어 · 33



제2장 『의지와 표상으로서의 세계』의 「서문」과 ‘서론’ · 37

1. 쇼펜하우어의 「서문」: 이 책의 독서 요령에 대하여 · 37

2. 쇼펜하우어 고유 사상의 건축술적 요소들 · 46

3. 『충족근거율의 네 가지 뿌리에 대하여』 · 49



제3장 제1권 표상으로서의 세계 · 65

1. 개요: 경험과 학문의 대상 · 65

2. 표상으로서의 세계, 그리고 주관과 객관§§1-3 · 70

3. 인과성과 물질§4 · 78

4. 실재론과 관념론 비판, 그리고 세계의 양면으로서 표상과 의지§§5-7 · 83

5. 직관적 지식과 추상적 지식, 그리고 철학의 과제§§8-16 · 94



제4장 제2권 의지로서의 세계 · 109

1. 개요: 삶의 의지의 객관화로서의 세계 · 109

2. 수학, 자연과학, 철학§17 · 113

3. 신체와 의지의 객관화§§18-21) · 117

4. 의지로서의 물자체와 자연에서의 의지(§§22-25) · 121

5. 의지 객관화의 등급과 자연적 힘의 내적 본성§§26-27) · 126

6. 의지의 무시간성과 무근거성 §§28-29 · 137



제5장 제3권 표상으로서의 세계 · 143

1. 개요: 플라톤의 이데아, 그리고 예술의 대상 · 143

2. 플라톤과 칸트 §§30-35 · 148

3. 예술과 숭고미, 그리고 광기에 대하여 §§36-40 · 162

4. 미의 차원과 예술의 유형 §§41-52 · 178



제6장 제4권 의지로서의 세계 · 199

1. 개요: 윤리와 금욕주의 · 199

2. 자유 법칙의 모순과 의지의 자유 §§53-54 · 203

3. 결정론과 자유 §§55-60 · 209

4. 원초적 불화와 국가, 그리고 영원한 정의 §§61-64 · 228

5. 선과 악, 그리고 타자에 대한 동정과 자비 §§65-67 · 242

6. 삶에의 의지의 부정과 절대적 자유 §§68-71 · 252



참고문헌 · 274

색인 · 281

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독일 루어대학(Bochum)에서 리하르트 셰플러 교수의 지도를 받아 “칸트의 요청이론”으로 철학박사학위(1988)를 취득하고, 1989년부터 울산대학교 인문대학 철학과 교수로 재임 중이다. 한국칸트학회 회장과 대한철학회 회장을 역임하였고, 한국연구재단 인문학단장(2014~2016)으로 재직하는 동안 인문법 시행, 인문학 예산 증액, 한중인문학포럼 및 세계인문학포럼의 정상화를 위해 많은 노력을 하였으며, 교육부총리표창(2016), 울산대학교 ‘올해의 교수상’(2012), 울산광역시 문화상 학술부문(2000) 등을 수상하였다. 주요저서로는 『칸트의 요청이론Kants Postulatenlehre』(1988), 『철학의 현실문제들』(1994), 『역사철학』(1997), 『아펠과 철학의 변형』(1998), 『퓌지스와 존재사유』(2003), 『칸트와 불교』(2004), 『하느님의 길』(2005), 『에른스트 블로흐와 희망의 원리』(2006), 『처용설화의 해석학』(2007), 『종교란 무엇인가』(2008), 『현대철학자들』, 『하느님의 나라와 부처님의 나라』(2009), 『다석 류영모의 종교사상』(2012), 『콜버그의 도덕발달』, 『쇼펜하우어의 《의지와 표상으로서의 세계》 읽기』(2013), 『아산연구총서』, 『인생교과서 칸트』(2015) 등이 있다. 주요 연구 분야는 형이상학과 종교철학이며, 지금은 정치신학 및 희망철학 연구를 수행하고 있다. 현재 철학과 및 심리상담학전공에서 ‘형이상학’, ‘실존심리학’, ‘심리사상사’, ‘정신분석과 종교’, ‘로고테라피’ 등을 가르치고 있다. 접기

최근작 : <칸트와 종교>,<사람과 삶 (보급판)>,<아산, 그 새로운 울림 : 미래를 위한 성찰 세트 - 전4권 (보급판)> … 총 43종 (모두보기)

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칸트가 ‘근대’의 완성자라면 쇼펜하우어는 ‘현대’의 프로듀서라고 할 수 있다. 쇼펜하우어의 철학에는 칸트의 현상, 플라톤의 가상, 베단타의 마야에 비견할 수 있는 ‘표상’의 개념과 칸트의 물자체, 플라톤의 이데아, 베단타의 삼신에 해당하는 ‘의지’의 개념이 상관적인 파노라마를 연출한다. 따라서 쇼펜하우어의 표상존재론과 의지형이상학에서는 관념론과 실재론의 대립을 넘어섬으로써 프로이트 심리철학과 화이트헤드의 과정철학이 원융무애의 방식으로 넘나드는 전대미문의 우주쇼를 펼치고 있다. 쇼펜하우어는 칸트와 플라톤과 베단타로 그 자신의 ‘고유한 체계사상’을 기획하고 구축한 것이다.

Buddhism and Pessimisim Harold Stewart

Muryoko: Journal of Shin Buddhism

MURYOKO

'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
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Harold Stewart  Buddhism and Pessimisim

That 'Buddhism holds a pessimistic view of life' has, ever since Schopenhauer, been indelibly imprinted in the minds of Westerners as a standardized error. What this condemnation as 'Oriental fatalism' really means is that Buddhism does not share modern Western man's restless and aggressive attitude of self-assertion, an extraverted optimism scarcely supported by the actual conditions of worldly existence.

The truth is quite otherwise: Buddhism adopts neither of the sentimental attitudes of pessimism or optimism, which appertain to European and American cultures. Instead the Buddha regards universal existence with detached Wisdom and impartial Compassion. The aim of his teaching and method is Liberation from all such partial and illusory viewpoints, coloured by desire and aversion, into a state of peace and well-being. The Buddhist doctrine is not optimistic, because 'seeing things as they really are' includes 'a full look at the Worst', which reveals them as relative, limited, and finite and entails the realization that pain and suffering are endemic and incurable so long as one is identified with Samsara.

There is not one shred of historical evidence to substantiate the millenarian fiction that any society staffed by men is perfectible. All that we know of the past goes to prove the world's chronic corruptibility, at least so long as it is under human management. Its defects seem inbuilt by design, to prevent our permanent attachment to any of its forms of impermanence and to ensure its continued function as what Keats called 'a vale of soul-making'. The Buddha's ultimate affirmation after confronting all exigencies is thus at the opposite pole to the naive optimism of 'God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world' or 'All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds' or 'One truth is clear, whatever is, is right'. As Dickens pointedly remarked of Pope's line, it 'would be as final as it is lazy, did it not include the troublesome consequence that nothing that ever was, was wrong'.

But neither is the Buddha's teaching pessimistic, since in his analysis of human experience into its constituent elements, or dharmas, the pleasant far outnumber the painful. Yet for all that, they still prove to be a source of suffering, for even a life of unalloyed pleasure and comfort soon palls and passes away, leaving behind only regrets for lost happiness and the prospect of sickness, old age, and death. The Western misconception that Buddhist doctrine is pessimistic probably arose from the translation of the term duhkha as pain or suffering in the aphorism 'All existence is duhkha', when it carries the wider meaning of the finite limitations to which all existents are subject.

Its opposite is sukha, which signifies the smooth movement of the World-Axle in the nave of the Wheel of Existence. That empty hole in the hub, without which Samsara could not revolve, is known as kha, or zero, as A. K. Coomaraswamy explains, and aptly exemplifies the practical usefulness of the Void. From sukha is derived Sukhavati, the Western Paradise of Amida Buddha. Finally, the Middle Way taught by the Buddha transcends both extremes of pessimism and optimism and opens up an expedient path by which we can escape from our existential impasse.

The bare mention of escape is bound to call forth the stock criticism of those modern descendants of the Confucians, whose outlook is restricted to human society and its political and economic institutions as the sole reality. Despite its inspiring and formative influence on most of the Traditional civilizations of the Far East, Buddhism has long been accused of failure to face up to its social problems and responsibilities or, as it is called in the jargon, escapism. The twentieth century attaches a moral stigma to this term of opprobrium that suffices to disqualify and debar any subject to which it is applied. So Buddhism, the first Tradition to found many of those beneficent social institutions later adopted by secular states, is convicted of seeking to escape from the pain and suffering of this world - as if that were not the aim of all the healing arts !

Yet in some predicaments to escape may become a moral obligation, such as for the prisoner of war, whose military duty it is to try to regain his freedom. Buddhism likewise offers Liberation from Samsara to those unfortunates imprisoned by delusion, hatred, and greed. When social moralists inveigh against escapism, it is as well to recall C. S. Lewis's penetrating observation that 'Those most interested in preventing escape are gaolers'.

Reflections on the Dharma - Harold Stewart

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REFLECTIONS ON THE DHARMA

Harold Stewart

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Harold Stewart (1916-1995) is well-known as a highly-accomplished Australian poet even though he spent the last thirty years of his life in Japan. What is not as well known about him was his strong adherence to the Pure Land tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. His writings on this school of Buddhism (the most popular in Japan yet among the most misunderstood in the West) must rank as one of the most incisive and eloquent accounts of the Dharma ever written by a Western writer. In order to make his prose writings on Buddhism more accessible, a selection of passages from the commentary on his By the Old Walls of Kyoto (1981) have been reproduced on this website.

The photographs which accompany the text of Harold Stewart's writings on this site have been kindly provided by Mr Barry Leckenby of Melbourne. They were taken of the various sites in Kyoto referred to in Stewart's poetic work By the Old Walls of Kyoto.

• Please select articles by clicking on links to the left of this page.
• Before browsing Harold Stewart's articles, you may like to read two introductory works:
• Peter Kelly's biography of Harold Stewart
• Barry Leckenby's article entitled 'Keeping Faith: The Narrative and Metaphysical Poems of Harold Stewart.'

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Peter Kelly

HAROLD STEWART (1916-1995)

A vignette of his life and works

Harold Frederick Stewart was born in Drummoyne, Sydney, in December 1916. He came from a comfortable middle-class background and his father, who was a health inspector, had lived in India for many years. He attended Fort Street High School and, after a brief period studying music at the Sydney Conservatorium, went on to the University of Sydney in 1936. He began writing poetry at school and was editor of the school magazine. His early enthusiasms were for the French symbolist poets Mallarmé and Valéry, whom he translated, and for American modernists like Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens. Later, he reacted strongly against modernism and free verse, and used traditional English metres in all his surviving work.

He dropped out of university after a year and henceforth devoted himself to poetry and studying the art and philosophies of Asia. Carl Jung was an early influence and it was by way of Jung's commentaries on oriental texts that he discovered the 'Traditionalist' school of writers. He also immersed himself in Chinese art and poetry, and this determined the subject matter of his first published collection, Phoenix Wings: Poems 1940-46 (1948). A later volume, Orpheus and Other Poems (1956), was strongly influenced by Jungian ideas.

During the Second World War, he worked in Army Intelligence at the St.Kilda Road Barracks in Melbourne. It was at this time, in 1944, that he collaborated with James McAuley in perpetrating the famous 'Ern Malley Hoax' which aimed to expose the excesses of literary modernism. Stewart was associated with McAuley and A.D.Hope, belonging to a neo-classical movement in poetry, but his content was quite different from theirs.

Stewart never completed a university degree or took up a profession. He devoted all his time to writing and independent study, and supported himself by writing literary journalism and lecture notes on art and literature for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Council of Adult Education. As this proved to be a precarious livelihood, he took up a part-time appointment as a bookseller at the Norman Robb Bookshop in Little Collins Street, Melbourne, in 1950 and worked there until he left for Japan in 1966.

The period at Robb's Bookshop proved to be, intellectually, very important. It was here that he set up a study group which met every Friday night to discuss the oriental doctrines; in particular, the interpretation of them given by René Guénon, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Frithjof Schuon. The group met in the shop for about twelve years from 1951 to 1963. It started with members being interested solely in theory but after about 1957, several became interested in practice and in attaching themselves to a particular tradition. Influenced by Frithjof Schuon who was convinced that Shin Buddhism was the most appropriate form of Buddhism for Westerners to adopt, Stewart, together with Adrian Snodgrass and Rodney Timmins, went to Kyoto and studied at the Higashi-Hongwanji temple under the direction of Shojun Bando. Thus, from about 1963, Stewart became a practicing Shin Buddhist and remained one for the rest of his life.

During his time in Japan in 1963, he toured the country extensively and became enchanted with all things Japanese like Lafçadio Hearn before him. In 1966, he left Australia and settled in Kyoto, making his home in the Shirakuso Inn on the northern outskirts of the city. For the first few years, he lived very frugally, supporting himself by teaching English.

From the outset, he devoted himself to studying the doctrines of Shin Buddhism and to saturating himself in every aspect of traditional Japanese culture. He became an expert on the history of Kyoto and was intimately acquainted with its temples, gardens, palaces and works of art. He became fascinated with Japanese poetry and published two translations of haiku: A Net of Fireflies (1960) and A Chime of Windbells (1969) which proved popular with the reading public. The translation of haiku was instrumental in altering his poetic style which became at once more focused and more simple.

His major project in the 1970s was the writing of a sequence of poems, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, and an accompanying set of essays or prose commentaries which demonstrated his gifts as an exponent of the doctrines of Buddhism, Taoism and Shinto. To finish this work, he was assisted by grants from the Literature Board of the Australia Council and the Australia-Japan Foundation. The book, published by Weatherhill in 1981, was lavishly illustrated and produced, and the poetry demonstrates that Stewart had, at last, found his true voice and subject-matter. In 1982, he was awarded a Senior Emeritus Writers' Fellowship by the Literature Board and, for the first time in his life, enjoyed a small measure of financial security.

Although he lived a fairly reclusive life within the small expatriate community, he was by no means without company. Visitors from overseas were always made welcome and subjected to gruelling walking tours to see the beauties of the city. He kept up a voluminous correspondence: letters to Dorothy Green, the literary critic, and to Carmen Blacker, folklorist and Professor of Japanese at Cambridge University, demonstrate his wide range of enthusiasms.

Health was always a problem. In his last years, he was in and out of hospital, mainly for problems with angina. Despite this, he continued to study and to write prodigious amounts of verse. His magnum opus, a vast verse-epic called Autumn Landscape Roll, is over five thousand lines in length and occupied all his time after the completion of By the Old Walls of Kyoto. The poem, which remains unpublished, explores a different landscape altogether. It is a kind of guided tour of the heavens, hells and purgatories of the Buddhist after-life, and draws its sources of imagery from descriptions in the various Pure Land sutras and from paintings and scrolls.

He also devoted a great deal of time to collaborating with his teachers, Shojun Bando and Hisao Inagaki, in producing English versions of Japanese Buddhist classics such as the Three Pure Land Sutras and the Tannisho.

He died in Kyoto on 8 August 1995 after a short illness and a Shin Buddhist ceremony was conducted for him. He was mourned by many people - in Japan, Australia, the USA and Europe - and was a much loved and revered figure. His literary remains, including unpublished works, notebooks and letters are housed in a special manuscript collection at the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

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Barry Leckenby

Keeping the Faith:

The Narrative Metaphysical Poems of Harold Stewart

"Acceptance is all"

- Harold Stewart in By the Old Walls of Kyoto

Australian born poet and Buddhist scholar Harold Stewart loved Kyoto; it was his spiritual home. He lived in Japan's ancient capital for the last twenty-nine years of his life. During this time he collected Buddhist art, including the mandalas representing the Larger, the Smaller and the Contemplation Sutras. These mandalas are rare visual examples of the Mahayana Sutras chosen by Honen, the visionary priest who initiated Pure Land Buddhism, as the most important for that religion. To increase awareness of them outside Japan, Hisao Inagaki, in collaboration with Harold, wrote The Three Pure Land Sutras: a definitive source for those wishing to better understand their iconographical and symbolical significance. It is for this and other important scholarly contributions, which will be my major focus, that Harold has earned a special place in Pure Land Buddhism.

[ [i] ] Galen Amstutz, Interpreting Amida: History and Orientalism in the study of Pure Land Buddhism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), p.86.

His writings are seminally important because at a time when few people outside Japan had taken any interest in Pure Land Buddhism, he was looking to spread the recitation of the Name in the West. Galen Amstutz in Interpreting Amida writes: 'While Zen exercised considerable influence on modern Western creative writers ranging from Jack Kerouac to Peter Mathiessen, the independent uptake of the Shin religious perspective has remained almost nil; an exception is Harold Stewart's little known By the Old Walls of Kyoto.'[[ i ]] American Beat writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were influenced by Zen from the 1950s. Harold was writing poetry influenced by Taoism and Zen some twenty years before Zen had beach headed on to the North American continent. Mahayana Buddhism influenced his poetry from the beginning of his poetic career in the 1930's and lasted a lifetime. His 'independent uptake' of Pure Land Buddhism began in earnest during the 1960s after he was drawn to Kyoto. The depth of his Buddhist knowledge gave him acute metaphysical insight, making him one of the most outstanding Eastern-influenced spiritual writers of the twentieth century.

By the Old Walls of Kyoto

The practical simplicity and democratic applicability of the Name was like a magnet for Harold. He had been searching for a less prescriptive spirituality that exiled nobody from the paradisiacal afterlife. His spiritual journey is poignantly recorded in By the Old Walls of Kyoto (hereafter referred to as Old Walls). He wrote Old Walls in celebration of Kyoto and Amida. It is the poetic soul's 'lonely planet' guide to Kyoto, providing a testament to how he overcomes his spiritual doubt. The thirteen narrative poems, each accompanied by an expositional essay, capture the essence of the Pure Land teachings, following the poet amongst the temples, through the quiet lanes at sunrise, up the mountains and across the fields of Kyoto in search of Amida's Pure Land - the land of ultimate happiness beyond this cycle of birth and death. In a fleeting moment of transcendence he briefly envisions such a paradise in the fields of Ohara: a farming district north of Kyoto, noted for its traditional Japanese thatched roofs and waterwheels. When witnessing the glory of the Pure Land here on earth he asks somewhat incredulously:

My dusty journey ends in joy today:

I see a hundred butterflies at play

About the vagrant flowers by fields of rice.

Can I have drunk the elixir by mistake,

And stumbled unawares on paradise?

As only two thousand copies of the book were ever published, it is not surprising that just a small number of people are familiar with the literary riches of Old Walls. It is difficult, but not impossible, to find a copy (try the Internet), and worthwhile tracking one down as it is an immaculate source of Buddhist wisdom filled with the sort of compassionate observation that goes straight to the heart of spiritual reckoning.

[ [ii] ] James Legge, Confucius: Confucian Analects, The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean, Chinese Test; translation with exegetical notes and Dictionary of all Characters (New York: Dover Publications, 1971), p.145.

Harold, like Old Walls, is not well known outside a small circle of friends. This lack of recognition is indicative of his private nature and not an adverse judgement of his work. He never overtly sought public attention but worked to cultivate the inner light and life of Amida as he maintained a global network of friends. The words of Confucius rightfully apply to him: 'I will not be afflicted at men's not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men.'[ [ii] ]

In Poem Six of Old Walls he looks back upon his life, grateful for anonymity, recognising that it gave him time to transmute youthful desires, burning as they did like a hostile sun, and acquire the saving tranquillity of the Name:

High summer's tyranny has loosed its hold;

From their hot zenith my desires descend

To genial afternoon. Though I grow old,

Autumnal ripeness comes before the cold.

The hostile sun, with whom I would contend,

Tempers his lustful fire, and as a friend

Inaugurates my evening years of gold.

I, who could not give up the world, go free:

This irreligious world renounces me.

Ignored in peace and decently neglected

Till I am safely dead, I lay no claim

To riches, privilege, prestige, degree,

Nor crave the flaring fraudulence of fame,

But work unknown, my only wealth the Name.

Harold is now 'safely dead,' passing during Obon in 1995 - the celebratory time in Japan when the spirits of the dead return to their living descendants. During his 'evening years of gold' in Kyoto he dedicated his life and poetry to the Name as he practiced the Dharma. Though as he alludes to with his declaration: 'This irreligious world renounces me,' the possibility of following a religious faith without ever transgressing its principles becomes increasingly difficult in a world that neglects spiritual possibilities for the more tangible and instant rewards of material pursuits.

[ [iii] ] Harold Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto: A years cycle of landscape poems with prose commentaries (Tokyo, New York: Weatherhill, 1981), p.210.

'One of the most cherished prejudices of the twentieth century,' he writes, 'has been that the benighted ages of faith are now happily outgrown with the childhood of the race and that, fully adult at last, we can take pride in living in a rationally enlightened period of disbelief.'[ [iii] ] It is commonly accepted today that Science has exposed religion as a superstitious folly. Sceptics argue that visions such as the Pure Land are mere castles in the air, nothing more than the deluded fabrications of the desperate: a persuasive argument enticing many to pray at the altar of Mammon. This 'clever ignorance' does not demonstrate the loss of faith, but rather it indicates that faith has been 'merely displaced' into the material pursuits of science, politics, and economics. He thinks that these pursuits are the 'false prophets of Progress,' treated like pseudo-religions and worshipped as quotidian gods.

[ [iv] ] The capitalisation of the word 'Faith' follows Harold Stewart's usage and indicates a Faith that comes directly from Amida and one that is beyond the trials of secular doubting.

He argues that this displacement does not give us cause to believe that Faith has been weakened, but rather it demonstrates how our capacity for faith manifests in many different forms. Our capacity for faith enamours us in the fight against radical or nihilistic doubt. In the final judgement, having battled to focus his spiritual energies, he jubilantly sacrifices his own doubting secular self because he finds Faith is blessingly freighted with the altruistic Other Power of Amida.[ [iv] ]

[ [v] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, pp.210-211.

Those who think religion lacks credibility have trouble placing faith in it and, more often than not, decide to place it in the false prophets of Progress. After being 'miseducated' into believing that the real Metaphysical principles and powers are now 'exploded fallacies,' modern man finds himself in an absurd existential position: 'if they [the Metaphysical principles and powers] had been, he and his entire world would at once have disappeared.'[ [v] ] This observation shows how one-eyed scepticism can be just as myopic as one-eyed faith, leaving nobody better off. It also demonstrates that radical doubt does not in any way disprove the central hypothesis of Metaphysics: the existence of a gracious spiritual influence. Having abandoned Metaphysical principles for the pseudo-religions, many people still find themselves troubled by radical doubt. This has resulted in, not Enlightenment or Liberation as was once hoped, but the wages of dismay, boredom and despair.

[ [vi] ] Marco Pallis, A Buddhist Spectrum (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1980), p.33.

In this despiritualized modern world Harold argues that even though contemporary views and standardized answers might not give credence to Metaphysics, there may be a more subtle mode of reality prevailing involving spiritual influence. 'Metaphysics,' as Harold applies it, means the sacred science of the transcendent unity of all the world Traditions. One of the fundamental realisations of his poetry is that the spiritual reality of Metaphysics is not separate from the world at large, not something outside the self or displaced from the material world, but is indeed the very essence of existence. We have to try to appreciate spiritual influence even in a world seemingly bent on dissipating its influence. Yet to keep spiritual influence as sentinel is easier said than done: it is constantly undermined by radical doubt. Marco Pallis believes: 'We are living through an age of doubt, if not of counter-faith.'[ [vi] ] Radical or counter-faith doubt is accepted as common currency and a suitable disposition to adopt in the face of a despiritualized modern world. The strength of Old Walls as spiritual testimony comes from the poet's steady approach as he overcomes doubt and keeps Faith. Amida's Eighteenth Vow promises the devotee that Faith will result in rebirth in the Pure Land. It is by keeping Faith, while honestly tackling doubt, that Harold feels the vivifying strength of Amida's Other Power.

In Poem Four Harold outlines how the workings of the spirit can subtly prevade our thoughts and clarify our spiritual equivocation. After suffering a long hot sleepless night in the stifling humidity of Kyoto's summer, tortured by his own existential doubts and trapped in the reductive dead-ends of subjectivity, he hears the solemn boom of the bell at the Honen-in:

Hours later: in the huge and sultry gloom

A temple bell has tolled with solemn boom:

Its lingering overtones profoundly steep

The distant stillness, where it still resounds.

Again the heavy pole is swung, and pounds

Its tongueless dome, whose bronze vibrations vie

In their sonorous hive, and humming deep

Pervade the hush that holds the earth and sky.

The damp air breathes, lifting the slightest sigh:

A little windbell, hung beneath my eaves,

Instantly rings its lightly trilled reply.

I wake at once out of a lifelong sleep:

My being's inmost solitude receives

A summons that dissolves its sombre spell,

The Heart's reverberations rise and swell

Till lips and tongue spontaneously exclaim:

'Amida Butsu!' - Buddha's sacred Name.

The lingering overtones of the temple bell 'steep the distant stillness' and their humming pervades 'the hush that holds the earth and sky.' At this profound meeting point the still damp air breathes: nature itself is resuscitated after a choking night of ignorance. A sudden breath of air rattles the poet's windbell, replying to the sonorous boom emanating from the Honen-in. This meeting of sounds at once delivers the blessing of Enlightenment. He awakens from 'a lifelong sleep' of doubting. His Heart rises as the sombre spell experienced by his 'inmost solitude' dissolves into joy and the Name is exclaimed. The poet's night of meditation is brought to perfect pitch by the beautiful chorus of bells. He gives thanks for Amida's blessing as he is filled with spontaneous joy.

A person lacking a Metaphysical framework is denied the chance to respond in this manner and would have to face the continued trials of counter-faith doubt. The hardened sceptic would call the meeting of sounds a coincidence, but the poet keeps Faith, now more spiritually articulate and at ease with himself. It is timely to remember that Science cannot explain everything away: mystery abounds where spiritual influence pervades. The appreciative and joyous, if not sleep-weary poet, exclaims the sacred Name and notes:

During this call our voices sound the same,

And yet I do not call on him, but he

By my response recalls himself through me.

The calling of the Name becomes a spontaneous act and the individual awakens to a call that flows from within him, as beautiful as Amida's own voice, but not unlike his own. On a doctrinal level the poet is informed by Shinran's celebrated distinction of Once-Calling by the Other Power. The boundary of distinction evaporates and all becomes one as the sombre spell of doubt gives way to the joy of the Name as Amida transfers Faith to the devotee. Harold writes:

My weakness feels the strange resistless strength

Of Faith flow in, that will prevail at length;

While all my restless questions are resigned,

And silence has absorbed the noisy mind.

The noisy mind of the secular self comes to rest in the profound silence of the Other Power and the flow of Faith strengthens him against doubt. The long hot summer night comes to an end and the poet looks out to the Eastern hills as the 'dark by gradual shades' is withdrawn, to leave a 'delicate-tinted transience of clouds above Japan':

Looking farther down

Each leafy lane and narrow avenue

To where they end in fields beyond the town.

The rounded Kyoto hills, abruptly blue,

Misty with conifers, close in the view.

He looks toward the vaulting conifers and 'abruptly blue' hills, left in rapturous wonder at the subtlety of the Other Power, his sight trailing off into the distance.

Harold's experience of Enlightenment is like the dawning light. Spiritual insight comes gradually as the shades of doubt recede, bringing the light of Amida's Pure Land. Patient meditation softens doubt; its waning allows for the keeping of Faith.

As the narrative of Old Walls progresses the poet gets closer to his goal of Enlightenment. After visiting the Sanzen-in in Ohara, he steps along the path which is covered in autumn-leaves, and poetically captures the mood of the valley when dusk is falling; at the time of year when the temperature begins to get colder:

Earlier now the quiet nightfall chills

This blue primordial loneliness of hills.

In scattered villages the roof-vents choke

The valley with their lingering wreaths of smoke,

Where farm-house windows kindle, spark by spark,

And sprinkle silver through the gathering dark

As random stars to guide the labouring folk

Homeward to bath and evening rice and sleep.

A pale diaphanous damp begins to creep

Up from the river, stealthily dispersed

Until the misty hollows are immersed;

While over darkening stubble fields, a slow

Belated shadow flaps: one carking crow

Whose passing leaves the silence vast and deep.

The traditional patterns of rising before dawn, working in the fields during the day, and going home at sunset as the farm-house windows begin to light up like stars - 'spark by spark,' show nature and man coalescing. In this union the farmers gather significance by connecting to the seasonal patterns, which are subtly, if not intuitively, followed in daily practice; and life itself as they age toward 'autumnal ripeness.' The passing shadow of the crow, like the passing shadow of the day, cannot be seized: just as the cycle of nature cannot be stilled. Having reaped the harvest the farmers go home to enjoy an evening meal and a hot bath. The darkness ushers in the night and the creeping damp signals that autumn is giving way to winter, leaving the valley dormant with mist.

As the valley comes to nightfall the silence is left vast and deep by the sound of a carking crow. This shows how the dialectical elements of experience, in this case sound and silence, depend on each other for their very existence. Without sound there cannot be silence and vice versa. The idea of interdependence, as has been noted in the calling of the Name in Poem Four, is a characteristic of the foundational principle of dependent arising. Its importance for Buddhism cannot be overstated. The term dependent arising constitutes a middle way that avoids the theological assumption of a mysterious first cause and the ontological assertion of a permanent identity or soul. It argues for the conditionality of all physical and psychical phenomena.

Harold wishes to make this crucial point clearer for his Western readers, and after spending twenty-nine years in Kyoto he avoids what Edward W. Said makes apparent in Orientalism. Briefly summarized, Said's thesis argues that modern Orientalism, that is the image of the East in the West, is not derived from some sudden upsurge of objective knowledge about the Orient, but is knowledge surmised when an inherited prism of Western intellectual structures is applied to the East. This prism of intellectual structures is derived from what has been defined as Christian supernaturalism (or natural supernaturalism as M.H. Abrams originally termed it). In other words, the West has repackaged the East with values that were originally Christian in nature, such as the notions of Heaven and Hell; exile and reunion. These Christians values were secularized during the Romantic period of the eighteenth century when theology was reconstituted. Romantic writers tried to make these existential paradigms and cardinal values more intellectually acceptable in a world of eroding ancient Christian values. Harold does not try to repackage the East with the values of Christian supernaturalism, but instead presents Eastern religion in accordance with his long experience of it: that is as its own entity.

His understanding of the principle of karma is one example of him amending the ways of a miseducated West. In the West karma is often treated synonymously with the characteristic of interdependence; summed up with the common saying: 'What goes around comes around.' Unfortunately karma is largely misunderstood and its wider implications not fully appreciated because its meaning has been affected by the Christian idea of sin. As most would be familiar, the idea of sin sees merit placed on individual actions so that at the termination of life one either goes to Heaven or Hell. When the principle of karma is borrowed in the West its understanding becomes one where it is moralized so that someone who says or does something bad is judged as creating 'bad karma.' If it is deemed that you are the first cause in a chain of unfortunate events (what goes around), then eventually this will come back to haunt you (comes around). Westerners who think like this believe that all things are connected in a way that sees negative events attracting negative outcomes and positive events attracting positive outcomes. Even though this type of thinking displays the characteristic of interdependence, its application is faulted because of the moral value placed on individual events and outcomes. Each person attracts what they have caused, with the outcome given a positive or negative value, and so is judged, not by the idea of karma as it is known in the East, but more by the principle of retributive justice inherent in sin. The idea of karma is Westernised when a moral value is asserted.

[ [vii] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.155.

Harold does not fall into the trap of Westernising karma. He points out that karma is never individual but always collective, so that any suffering will ultimately be a burden we all bear - if not in this lifetime, then in lifetimes to come. The collective nature of karma means that it is neither good nor bad in an absolute sense. In a relative sense it is a combination of both. Harold points out: 'The law of karma, of equal and opposite action and reaction, is ineluctable and cannot be abrogated, even by a Buddha who, though omniscient and omnipresent, is not the Omnipotent Creator.'[ [vii] ] Karma is not omnipotent as the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, discovered. He devised a method of using karma to overcome karma, with his foundational belief in contemplative non-action, and was delivered to Nirvana. The world of experience presents karma 'inextricably mixed in a paradoxical dilemma,' making moral judgements impotent. The Buddha, going above good and bad as absolute moral positions, perceived karma as inevitable and something that can be overcome. Whereas the idea of sin bears an arbitrary and concatenate judgement based on moral worth, the principle of karma accepts the moral categorical imperatives as provisional positions which must be lived through and transcended. The poet's burgeoning acceptance of this concludes Poem One.

My heart accepts its karma. In the end

The loss, defeat, and failure time may send

Can clear the way within to Buddhahood,

Which from the start foresaw and understood

That all things as they are, with no rejection,

Before the mind can judge them bad or good,

Are even now the Land of Pure Perfection.

Individual thoughts, no matter what contour they might follow or what colour they may take, cannot jostle for precedence forever and in time we will understand 'all things as they are.' It is then that the meditative stillness of the Pure Land will be apparent. By adopting a provisional position to conceptual opposites, Buddhism sees no need for an absolute position. Nagarjuna, the pre-eminent Buddhist philosopher, said that Nirvana (Pure Land) is Samsara (everyday world) and Samsara is Nirvana. His assertion collapses this polar distinction as does the overcoming of karma. The Buddha understands all events, 'Before the mind can judge them good or bad.' This sort of forbearance makes possible the transcendence of apparent polar opposites. The idea of karma should promote

[ [viii] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.155.

the most masculine fortitude, generosity, and endurance; the most feminine patience, sympathy, and gentleness; the most childlike innocence, purity and spontaneity; in other words the supreme virtues of the Bodhisattva. Acceptance is all.[ [viii] ]

When the darkness of ignorance is banished, we are freed from the torment of karma and from spiritual darkness. The fundamental Buddhist position Harold's poetry holds is that for this emancipation to take place, the material and spiritual must been seen in their essential oneness.

After having a brief vision of the Pure Land in Poem Nine, where the poet glimpses the everlasting Western Paradise of Amida, he finds it possible to forge an outlook that transcends the polar opposites of life and death. In so doing he accepts that this world is fused with everlasting spirit. Walking in the late afternoon light of Ohara he observes:

These last warm days of autumn in decline

Draw in to wintry dusks, and so do mine.

If soon the earth and I must undergo

The hushed, the purifying death of snow,

Let the wind strip the ragged leaves that cling:

They go without regret. Though overnight

Our naked branches are attired in white,

Do we complain against the cold who know

That patient buds already wait to bring

The ever-faithful poignancy of spring?

Should we complain against the harsh cold, knowing that it nourishes the latent seed that brings the promise of new life? Are we to argue against the natural cycle of events? We would be foolish to do so, and regardless such complaint is futile in the face of the dynamic cosmic cycle unfolding endlessly. We must pass without regret as our wintry dusk closes in and experience 'the purifying death of snow.' The poet faces what might seem like a harsh reality with the strength of Amida's Other Power. He is emboldened in his quest by the fact that after having pierced the illusionary veil of duality he imagines the Pure Land here on earth.

All who are to go beyond mere birth and death on this cycle of existence and enter into the Pure Land must heed the realization that suffering exists - the Buddha's First Noble Truth. They cannot separate their suffering from anybody else's and must accept all suffering as their own. This is the Buddha's very own declaration. He will not rest in Nirvana until each and every person (not en masse but each of us alone) has overcome suffering. With wisdom tempered by compassion, which brings the blessing of Enlightenment, one can imagine other pure worlds beyond this imperfect one and understand the difficult lesson that the nature of suffering is the 'ever-faithful poignancy of spring.' Trying to stop time as one helplessly bemoans old age will not change the fact that after having enjoyed the spring of our childhood, we must now face the winter of our old age.

The poet understands that the road to wintry dusk is the unfolding of karmic elements where all things will penetrate each other, and apparent opposites will be seen in their essential and true oneness. As he writes in the essay accompanying Poem Eleven:

[ [ix] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.403.

Death is no longer what all men believe and so hate and fear but is gentle, compassionate, and kind. Pure Faith and the calling of the Divine Name are powerful enough to bring one safely through this trial. Thereafter one is ready to leave this world at any time or to stay on for any time, as the Other Power wills, for to live and to die are equally good.[ [ix] ]

[ [x] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.156.

A revelatory conviction, purged of doubt but not of humility, reverberates in the claim: 'Death . . . is gentle, compassionate, and kind.' His equanimity is based on the belief that 'to live and to die are equally good,' and has been accomplished by holding possible opposites in coincidence: that is by understanding the dependent arising of phenomena and therefore its nondual nature. Nonduality can only be realised after reaching perfect Enlightenment, which means reuniting the false subjective-objective dichotomy of Samsara and Nirvana. He writes: 'If only our setbacks could have been contemplated all along from the universally comprehensive viewpoint of the Buddha, it would have been possible to foresee and understand their necessary part in the whole developing pattern of our lives.'[ [x] ] In the rush to satisfy the circus of ever-multiplying desires, lurching from one extreme to another, it is all too easy to isolate oneself and create a schism between the spirit and self, between self and others, and ignore 'the whole developing pattern of our lives.'

[ [xi] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.199.

Although it should be granted it is difficult contemplating the Middle Way in a despiritualized and skeptical modern world where death is feared because it ends the only existence that has been given any credence: the existence of 'mindless hedonism and hardened materialism.'[ [xi] ] Harold's own journey as represented in Old Walls provides a great example of how to approach a spiritual quest, but it is not the only example he provides.

Autumn Landscape-Roll

Just days before his death in 1995, he told close friends that he had finally finished his second great epic poem Autumn Landscape-Roll: A Divine Panorama. It is little known even in the small circle of the people who read his poetry because it has never before been published, that is until now with its inaugural publication in The Pure Land. The narrative structure is similar to Old Walls, exploring how an individual can authentically place his faith in powers other than his own.

[ [xii] ] Harold Stewart, Autumn Landscape-Roll, from the Notes for the Prologue(unpublished manuscript,1995).

The main character of the poem is Wu Tao-tzu, the 'Divinely Inspired' painter of China's artistically rich T'ang Dynasty (618-906).[ [xii] ] This dynasty is considered to be the most glorious and golden of China's long dynastic history so we may well consider Wu as the best of the best, even though today no original examples of his work remain. Harold follows his journey after he miraculously steps out of this world into his landscape-roll to seek the ancient wisdom of the Way of Taoism.

[ [xiii] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.259.

[ [xiv] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.185.

In Autumn Landscape-Roll Harold broadens his religio-philosophical scope to include Taoism, as well as other forms of the Buddha's doctrine. His thematic scope remains consistent with that of Old Walls: the individual's struggle to overcome doubt and keep Faith. As Harold notes, there are strong links between the Madhyamaka of Nagarjuna, the First Patriarch of Pure Land Buddhism, the Yogacara school of Asanga and Vasubandhu, and Taoist Metaphysics.[ [xiii] ] They all practice a belief in Anatman or nonself, the very foundation of the original Buddha's teaching, 'which is the only doctrine among the many branches of Tradition that proceeds directly from Becoming to Non-Being, without the mediation of any changeless ontological principle or deity.'[ [xiv] ] Wu searches for nonself by emptying the secular self, discovering the nondual Universal perspective of the Buddha.

[ [xv] ] Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching in A Source Book In Chinese Philosophy, translated and complied by Wing-Tsit Chan (New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1963) p.156 and p.139.

It can be argued that words are not always helpful in promoting an understanding of the Way of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching stating: 'As soon as there are names, know that it is time to stop.' This central text describes the Way as 'The door of all subtleties' that leads to an understanding of the relationship between Heaven, Earth and Man.[ [xv] ] The work of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu traditionally represent the teachings of Taoism. Their doctrines are built upon the principle of eternal nonself and hold the idea of the Great One as fundamental. The understanding of the Tao in Lao Tzu's philosophy is still worldly, whereas with Chuang Tzu it becomes more transcendental. The idea of self-transformation takes on a central focus in Chuang Tzu, who presents life and reality as dynamic and ever-changing. Taoism concentrates on providing tranquillity by understanding the nature of this dynamic change and was formalised into a doctrine around 1 B.C., yet was in practice long before this date. Both men understand the Way as a natural cycle demonstrated when the Yang, or positive forces, interplay with the Yin, or negative forces, two apparently opposed but ultimately cooperative tendencies, creating the T'ai Chi, or Great Ultimate, most commonly known in the West by the black and white Yin-Yang symbol. Harold metaphorically describes this process when Wu sketches a pair of dragons in flight:

Their light and darkness would cooperate

By opposition in a cyclic chase,

And take by counterchange each other's place.

With great poetic economy he describes how the apparently conflicting dual forces cooperate to achieve the nondual Way of Taoism. The process of counterchange demonstrates how absolute positions are unnecessary in the matrix of change; the 'cyclic chase' demoting any notion of independence. In the course of this counterchange the Taoist is to follow Nature and in so doing fulfil his or her own nature. To achieve this the Taoist must search for the essence of all things. This essence contains the evidences of what is most real, only disclosed beyond the illusory veil of duality.

In the 'Prologue' Harold outlines the circumstances that led to Wu being titled the Prince of Painting. The Emperor Ming Huang, who is kindly disposed to the arts, proclaims that Wu and Li Ssu-hsun, his able opponent, will clash in artistic competition to decide who is the more accomplished artist. The differing personalities and backgrounds of the painters are reflected in their attitudes to art and life (yet there hardly seems a difference between art and life for the two men). Wu was born into humble circumstances

but orphaned while a boy and left forlorn

In poverty to make his way alone.

Li was born into privilege but is not a complete stranger to adversity. He had to flee to the north of China when the bloody usurper Empress Wu ordered his execution. She was the last ruler of the T'ang Dynasty who only obtained the throne by poisoning the rightful heir and imprisoning or exterminating rival claimants. He escaped her clutches to establish his Northern School of Art.

The different position each painter holds on what constitutes art is more than just an idle theoretical argument. The ability to create art is seen as an indication that the artist understands the natural forces of the Way. Li comments on Wu's style:

Your brushwork, brilliant but erratic too,

Which models forms with fluctuating line.

Wu replies:

Since you established, Li, the Northern School

You must obey your own restrictive rule.

Their argument becomes one between spontaneity and set design; between intuition or following the established rules. Wu, the iconoclast, thinks 'that measured drawing leaves the picture dead.' In Autumn Landscape-Roll no small detail should be discarded as what may seem like an incidental is in fact a hint of the Way. Harold hints that the Way is not to be pursued by set rule or measure but requires an spontaneity that goes with the flow of natural forces. A spontaneity beyond the manipulation of self, like that of the Way of Nature, is a necessary condition to understand the Way.

Ming Huang commands both artists should travel to the western province to capture its natural wonders in a sketch. On their return a separate hall is set aside so that the two artists can finish their masterpieces, 'nurtured by silence, stillness, solitude.' The industrious Li works hard; while the casual Wu entertains four old friends. Harold hints at the method behind Wu's apparent laziness when describing the importance that the colour white has for Wu:

To Wu ivory silk, pristinely bare

Of natural semblance, absent everywhere,

Would teem with numberless unpainted views.

For whiteness underlies the rainbow hues

Of all the imagined scenes that colour it,

Outstanding from its ground, which they omit;

As from the unmanifested Infinite

Emerge a myriad worlds, whose empty spacing

Defines the universe's stellar placing.

Li represents the world with plentiful, colourful and intricate details. Wu, on the other hand, believes that white, symbolising absence, underwrites all representation. The emptiness of space and the absence of detail defines the placement of the stars and thereby the structure of the universe; and thus the Way. Wu must understand the nature of this emptiness. This is also a necessary condition for understanding the Way.

The three months allowed to complete the landscapes elapses and the two men are brought before Ming Huang. Li's landscape is grand in design and scope and he tells the audience:

As we unroll each scene from left to right,

Ten thousand things pass by in time and space.

The Emperor is well pleased but marvels in silence at Wu's work, saying:

Wu's art is vitally inspired by Ch'i,

The circulating breath of Tao, the Norm

That resonates through every natural form

And gives it life, spontaneously free.

Wu's picture is judged to be the better, but to be fair to Li both men are given the royal title of Prince of Painting. As the court retires Wu is asked to stay behind by the Emperor. He questions the newly titled artist:

Your painting, Wu, has caught forever here

Autumn's perennial golden atmosphere.

Such art is more than human. Are your powers

Inherited from Heaven then, like ours?

Wu fails to answer the Emperor, wandering off into his landscape roll. Why does Wu do this at the height of his artistic success? Does he receive the Emperor's words:

caught forever

Autumn's perennial golden atmosphere,

with sense of irony? Has he realised that to 'catch forever' is just the beginning of never catching at all, as to still nature is to stop man?

The ebullient mood Wu displayed during the competition is now eclipsed by a sense that his life, like nature itself, is governed by an inexorable impermanence.

The year and I are dying out together:

The cold, the damp, descend on all our weather.

The long warm afternoons that would extend

So late into the west there seemed no end

To those the abundant summer held in store,

Have long outworn the golden tone they wore.

As he confronts the damp winter descending 'on all our weather,' he searches for a guide. He recalls that T'ao-ch'ien, a reclusive poet who follows the Way of Tao, lives in a farm-house near by. The old poet is not home so Wu is asked to wait in the study. To occupy himself he reads a book that has been left open on the desk. The Book of Chuang-tzu is opened at the page describing the time Chuang-tzu had dreamt he was a butterfly. Upon waking he could not distinguish if he was in fact a man or a butterfly. Chuang-tzu argues strongly that the pure man needs to become aware that the universal process of transformation equalizes all into oneness and this should be his eternal abode. His dream of metamorphosis rejects the distinction between subject and object by blurring the commonly accepted duality of a true waking reality and a false dreaming other world.

In the blank margin of the page T'ao-ch'ien has added in contemplative reply:

Our lives are dreams, but not our own; for we

Who dream have selves no less illusory.

This further complicates what is increasingly becoming a problematic reality. This is an important moment in Wu's spiritual journey as it is the first vital conceptual crossing-point. He is presented with an opportunity to expand his conception of consciousness. To conceptualise consciousness in its essential oneness means that it cannot be reduce or negated, but rather it must be enlarged to included all, every iota of experience, both good and bad. As Harold learned: 'Acceptance is all.'

The restriction that applies when we argue for a conceptualisation of consciousness based solely on the experience of the waking self is tested by the claim that 'our lives are dreams.' The further claim: 'but not our own,' unsettles any hardened resistance to expanding our concept of consciousness to include the baroque world of dreams. And finally the claim: 'but not our own' argues that we become someone else's dream. This means that the consciousness of self becomes twice removed from its point of conceptual origin in the waking self. Firstly, any declaration of origin arguing that consciousness is constituted by the waking self is voided by the claim that our lives are only dreams. And in the second place by the claim that these dreams have an origin beyond the waking self. T'ao ch'ien then writes:

for we who dream have selves no less illusory.

[ [xvi] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.273.

[ [xvii] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.299.

Having destabilized the confidence of the waking self to claim the origin of consciousness in the conceptual framework of self, the old poet goes on to say that the dreaming self is not an illusion but part of a larger dream involving the Cosmic Memory. The self, both waking and dreaming, belongs to this first and foremost, before any tendentious claims are made that characterise the origin of consciousness as something that is restricted to the narrow experience of the waking self. Harold thinks that our human consciousness is a 'basic and incontrovertible fact.'[ [xvi] ] Aligning human consciousness with the greater Universal Consciousness he notes: 'Buddhism is the Doctrine of Awakening, and its goal has always been recognized as Enlightenment, which is synonymous with the All-Knowing and Universal Consciousness of the Buddha.'[ [xvii] ]

Wu realises that his previously held view of human consciousness has restricted his understanding of the Way of Taoism. His view needs to be augmented by unconditionally accepting the Universal Consciousness of the Buddha. To do this he must see that his journey goes in two directions at once. It is simultaneously an expansion outward to appreciate the Universal Consciousness and a path inward to discover nonself. The trick is to realise that even though the directions of inner and outer might seem contrary, they are actually only the one way and the Way. Wu must invoke the Buddha's spiritual legacy by meditating upon the emptiness of nonself. This will unravel the accreted layers of self that have been wrought from experience and give him access to the spontaneous essence of everlasting life. In Pure Land Buddhism this requires the grace of Amida's Other Power; in Taoism the figure of influence is located in the natural forces of the Way.

[ [xviii] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p.184.

His faith in emptiness gives him a governing principle. His assumption that emptiness is the principle governing stellar placing can rightly be called a foundationless foundation in the sense that it does not provide a first cause like the concept of God does in the Judeo-Christian religions. These religions conceptualise emptiness by equating it with nihilism and diametrically opposing it to the plenitude of the paradisal garden of Eden. In the Eastern traditions, as Harold writes: 'Emptiness, the Void, Non-Being are negative only in verbal form, and since they negate all negations actually affirm the most positive though ineffable Reality.'[ [xviii] ] Buddhism does not argue for a first cause, but the conditionality of all causes, and sees emptiness as affirming the most positive Reality. Harold's most enduring literary accomplishment is the development of a poetics of emptiness relating to the conceptualisation of consciousness.

[ [xix] ] Stewart, By the Old Walls of Kyoto, p. 246.

Wu, still alone in the study, is riding a crescendo of doubt before he experiences the final break through when one 'arrives at the Great Doubt, the Doubt of doubts, when we must give up even doubting.'[ [xix] ] If all doubt is to be exhausted, then an emptiness free from the contrivances of self must be contemplated. With his solemn mood set in like the weather, he looks out of the study window onto the rain-soaked garden:

Out on the garden, which a rainy haze,

Veiling the trees and bushes, faintly greys,

But stains their trunks and branches black with wet.

Meshed in its evanescent silver net,

Its liquid spheres are hung from leaf and twig,

Reflecting all in each and each in all,

Till raindrops run together, swell too big,

And let translucent constellations fall

For single glistening instants everywhere,

As though a broken necklace were to spill

Its beads of crystals, sprinkled through the air

Some dripping here and now, then other there. . . .

The use of imagery compliments the theme of the Way invoked. The garden's 'liquid spheres,' 'Reflecting all in each and each in all,' is analogous to the Way. Its universal mesh of influence, an 'evanescent silver net,' momentarily grants the appearance of 'glistening instants everywhere' as the raindrops swell and hang on the branches. When the raindrops run together the liquid spheres spill like a broken necklace, scattering as though 'sprinkled through the air.' The same can be said of the Way when it is contained in a conceptual frame of reference: it too spills beyond the borders of conceptuality; beyond the measured ratio of words and into ineffable silence. Leaving the study to resume his journey he is more aware of the paradoxical direction of this journey; the enigmatic governing principle of emptiness that grounds the conceptualisation of consciousness; and the need to resist the ossification of thought by promoting the spontaneity of it. He notes:

Briskly the wind drives clouds away that dare

To shroud the heavenly altitudes of air,

And while it clears the sky, their counterchange

Patches the spacious day with blue and white,

Until their flock of shadows, put to flight

Across the valley toward the distant range,

Is routed by a solar burst of light.

But on this path, where lingering puddles lie,

A fallen wu-t'ung leaf can still retain,

With russet palm upturned, a pool of rain

Holding a glimpse of that reflected sky

Whose scraps of blue and white are scudding by.

The ever-changing face of nature, so exactingly caught in the image of the clouds in the sky glimpsed as 'scraps of blue and white' scudding by in the 'pool of rain,' confirms the need for spontaneity if he is to harness the natural forces of the Way. This image demonstrates Chuang-tzu's philosophy of the universal process of transformation where the high white clouds in the sky and the low pool, poles apart it would seem, are caught together in a reflection. The reflection is a harbinger of all things being equalized into an essential oneness. The fallen leaf, a symbol of both death and rebirth, is a reminder that death touches all in the universal process of change. Yet it is not a reductive death as the essence of the leaf flows back into life's everlasting store of nature. Someday Wu will be compost for the earth and like the leaf return to the everlasting life of nature's Way. His death presages a rebirth. If he is able to overcome his karma by understanding the nature of suffering he will be reborn beyond suffering; and so beyond this imperfect world. The stark fact of death, harsh only if one moralizes about life and death, can deliver the most profound and intimate knowledge that increases the circle of influence assumed by human consciousness.

When Wu meets an old fisherman his understanding of emptiness begins to crystallise. He asks the old man why he has retired from the world:

Here cares and creditors no more infest

The house of mind: Poverty brings it rest.

Possessing nothing, I am not possessed.

And he adds:

I fled not from the world, but into it.

His answer is concise and delivered without evasiveness; its premise refuses to accept a division between the material and spiritual world realms: 'not from' 'but into' the world. In his state of poverty he declares to know the true nature and worth of material possessions: 'Possessing nothing, I am not possessed.' With this realization a freedom is granted, a freedom to spontaneously experience the natural forces of the Way, without being limited by perspective or constrained by theory. Wu must undergo the same type of kenosis to still the 'house of mind.' He will then know the true freedom and wonder of the Way.

Harold's poetic ability to describe natural phenomena, tuned as it is with fifty years of craftsmanship, reaches its apotheosis in Autumn Landscape-Roll. At the end of the day when the elegiac light is mournfully harmonised with the season's bereavement, the autumn leaves all but a memory on the earth's floor, the poet's words unfold as colourful images, painting a grand scene that integrates the sublimity of the spiritual dimension with nature's melancholic finitude.

Into infinite distance, sad and clear,

Recede the miles of autumn atmosphere:

With pale citron tone, the watery light

That shines out after rain washes their height.

The autumn mountain, swept as neat and clean

As the tidy winds can, reclines serene:

No twig is out of place, no leaf is seen

Of all that tarnished ruin of gold which lay

So densely underfoot till yesterday,

Claimed by the earth as tribute for decay.

Upon its sides the naked forests brood,

Locked in a crystalline disquietude,

And looped with sleeping vines and beards of moss,

Despair for want of leaves, the season's loss.

Each tall gauntly calligraphic tree,

Forked against the light's sour clarity,

Soars with static branches, sparse and bare,

In that remote and disappointed air.

An empty vast, the autumn waters lie,

Merging into the open sea of sky.

Slowly the ebb goes out, and from the height

Drains away the westering tide of light.

The image of

Each tall gauntly calligraphic tree,

Forked against the light's sour clarity

haunts both the season and the draining 'westering tide of light' as a reminder of their own inevitable and ghostly desolation.

Night falls and Wu needs to find a place to rest.

The mountain's secret presence at this hour

Yields a serene and sanctifying power

To heal the exhausted spirit,

and with this invigorating power, having found a temple to rest in, Wu concentrates his spiritual energies. The peace and silence of the temple favours meditation:

His breathing is hushed and held, his posture still,

Unheeded on the cushion, long he kneels

Aware of Emptiness alone. . . . .

Wu begins his meditation upon Kuan Yin, the Buddha of Compassion. Unrivalled in the Western poetic Canon, Harold delivers a poetic tour de force, distilling the essence of compassion: the essential nature of this impressive Buddha. Wu's prayer breaks off because of an external disturbance. The uproar signals the entrance of Hui-Neng, the Sixth Patriarch of the Southern Line of Ch'an. The old monk provides the main humour of the poem with his seemingly sacrilegious ways. He says:

Such scribblings are absurd:

Your feet already wander from the Way

Who seek Enlightenment in what they say;

And so, as Ch'an discards the written word,

To Hell with all your sutras!

Burning old Buddhas and using sutras-scrolls as kindling he sends the indignant audience into a frenzy of shock. As one Buddha burns, his lips appear to murmur in the melting heat and Shakyamuni, transfigured in flame, preaches a new Fire Sermon:

O monks, all sentient beings are on fire

In worlds on worlds, the universal pyre.

This holy crucible, which only moments before had been considered a heathen's madness, fuses the collective experience of those gathered, leaving them in silent awe and readied for a journey to Hell.

Shakyamuni opens the ground beneath him and Ti Tsang, the Guide of the Dead, appears. Descending into the underworld, Ti Tsang tours the grief of this forlorn realm, wandering amongst the lost, tormented, and unrepentant souls who are trying to recover from their fallen state as their minds are led 'from darkness up to light.' Here are the people who cannot conquer their desire:

Grandly imagined riches fade and fray

To rags in their impoverished consciousness;

Remembered wealth, which they no more possess,

Dwindles and dims: the stingy cling in vain

To lives misspent on monetary gain,

Dragged down by habit's gravity, the grey

Niggardly stint that squandered every day.

Exhausted by this spiritual drain,

Their stale obsession forces them to fast

On orts raked up from that penurious past

Whose destitute desires alone remain.

The Hell Cantos graphically depict those who have an impoverished consciousness, 'Dragged down by habit's gravity,' suffering a fate far worse than a simple final extinguishment of consciousness. Their death signals the beginning of a state of infernal suffering until they repent and overcome their desire, which is the root cause of their suffering.

As this sad journey ends Shan Tao appears, the Third of the Pure Land Patriarchs, and the glory of the Pure Land is described. The poem continues with appearances from Vajrabodhi, the famed Tantric Buddhist and Fa Tsang the Hua-Yen master. They expound the virtues of the Buddha's Doctrine to wake the seeds of Buddhahood present in all sentient beings. This is the spiritual climax of the poem. When the Buddhist masters are finished Wu remains alone and 'Once more the hall is silent, empty and still.' A solitary spiritual journeyman who stands before the spent fire, having sought the ancient Way of Tao, Wu has overcome his earthly desire and now understands the true nature of suffering. He has emptied self and is filled with the serene silence of Enlightenment. By invoking the Buddha's Doctrine of nonself he has reached Enlightenment.

To conclude the poem the Ming Huang, still standing before the landscape-roll, watches as it is 'all at once erased.' Wu leaves nothing behind, not a trace, not one burning desire, as everything he will ever need is right before him in Buddha's Pure Land.

Listening to the music: In summary

Harold spiritual journey is truly original in scope and provides an understanding of the Buddha's Middle Way rarely, if ever, matched in the Western poetic Canon. The thematic development of doubt and emptiness are articulated to show the flawed symmetry of dualistic thinking and thereby demonstrate how the realisation of nonduality is Enlightenment. The metaphysical challenge of accepting the nondual relationship of the material and the spiritual is given cohesion by assuming human consciousness is beyond negation and connected to the Cosmic Consciousness of the Buddha.

His poetry is valuable for its immense Buddhist erudition and the way in which his learning is applied in an accessible and straightforward fashion. The grand themes of Metaphysics can often isolate the humble individual, but his poetry always remains on a human scale by overcoming doubt and keeping Faith. At no time does the task overwhelm him nor do his personal emotions foreshorten, or overextend, his perspective. By keeping Faith he brings Eastern Metaphysics closer to the Western sphere of understanding. His meditation upon emptiness, especially as it relates to the conceptualisation of consciousness, remains to be fully appreciated. His work prefigures, or runs parallel with, the attempts many Western writers and philosophers have made in the twentieth century (Martin Heidegger and the American Beat writers to mention just a few) to use the Eastern philosophical approach to better understand the interfacing between the ontological and existential realms.

His poetry is notable for its precise word usage that does not forfeit its steady metre or force common speech into unusual and unfamiliar patterns; the integration of its dense pictorial imagery and thematic content; and above all else, its calm and consummated humility, matured by wisdom and graced with compassion. The metrical craftsmanship creates a peaceful and poetic music, with suffering as its undersong and emptiness as its melodic touchstone. Autumn Landscape-Roll continues the spiritual tenor established in Old Walls and delivers the same messages of peace and hope for those keeping Faith.

leckenby

Leckenby, Barry: A Ph.D. student at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. His dissertation traces the metaphysical journey of Harold Stewart. Barry spent one year in Kyoto during 1998/9 photographing the major scenes in By the Old Walls of Kyoto, as well as talking to many people who knew Harold. This is Barry's first published article.

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REFLECTIONS ON THE DHARMA

Introduction
Nagarjuna
Mahayana and Theravada
Difficulty in Accepting the Name
Non-retrogressive stage
Non-interference
Good and Evil
Buddhism and Pessimism
Escape from Samsara
Karma and Determinism
Transience
Non-duality
Being and Non-being
Buddhism and Nihilism
The Five Aggregates
Decline of the Dharma
Initiation and Purification
Politics and Psychoanalysis
Pseudo-religion
Christianity
Zen
Misconceptions of Pure Land Doctrine
Limitations of Zazen
Wisdom and Compassion
Alchemy of the Name
Modernity and the "Three Poisons"
First Encounters with Japanese Buddhism
Passion
Three Ages of the Dharma
Permissiveness
Who Is Amida?
The Futility of Self Power
Amida as Buddha-Nature
Saying the Name
Dharmakara Bodhisattva
The Call of Amida
The Meaning of Nembutsu
Amida's Transfer of Faith
What is Faith?
Nama-Japa
Once-calling and Many-calling
The Differences Between Buddhism and Protestantism
The Non-retrogressive State
The Consolation of the Name
Gratitude
The Differences between Jodo and Shin
The Name of Names
Problems of Doubt
The Symbolism of the Pure Land
Morality and Goodness
Antinomianism
Foretaste of the Pure Land
Rennyo Shonin
Metanoia
Altruism
Maitreya Bodhisattva
Mahayana
Materialism
Modes of Knowing
Mindfulness
Ippen
Distractions
Surrendering the Will
Amida's 'Fragrance'
The Doctrine of 'Consciousness Only'
Jung
Reflections of The Moon
Detachment
Heaven and Hell
Amida's Transfer of Merit
The Gift of Tears
The Six-Fold Rebirth
The Promise of Transcendence
Salvation
The Crosswise Leap
The Transformed Pure Land
Transformation of Nature
Birthlessness
Action and Contemplation
Birth in the Borderland
Proper Estimation of the Body
Great Compassion
Mount Sumeru
Kannon
The Great Physician
Two Rivers and A White Path
Awakening to One's True Personality
Eternity
Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva
Birds of Paradise
Transcending our Humanity
Worlds of Form and Formlessness
Rebirth
Mundus Imaginalis
Spiritual Pollution
Translucency of the Physical World
Death
The Immortal Phoenix
Genso-Eko
The Language of the Birds
Universal Existence
Pitfalls of Progress