東洋思想と人間形成

井筒俊彦の理論地平から

抄録

The so-called Postmodern philosophy is the philosophy of de-construction wherein the ontological basis of the modern human sciences has been destroyed. We have to look for a new perspective of Life Cycle. This paper tries to find a new framework from Eastern philosophy. Eastern philosophy is a philosophy of de-construction, but it is a philosophy of re-construction as well. The category of “Eastern philosophy” in this paper is strictly limited to the wording of Toshihiko lzutsu. In a word, this paper intends to re-construct the way we perceive child development from the perspective of Eastern philosophy as structured by lzutsu.
In order to simplify my discussion, I made a chart which illustrates three processes;
Process A is the way to construction, or the way of child development, in which he/she establishes the ego, acquires the language, and makes boundaries through the grid of language. (Izutsu called this grid “semantic articulation”).
Process B is the way to de-construction, or “Oh-so (往相) in Buddhism. This is the way in which one leaves from the ego, loses boundaries through dissolving the grid of language, and becomes more subtle and fluid.
Process C is the way to re-construction, or” Gen-so (還相) in Buddhism. This is the way in which one returns to the world of ordinary consciousness, but in “a double perception”. Through this process individual phenomenal beings are recovered. But those who have once experienced the state of no-boundary are so radically transformed that they never forget a viewpoint of no-boundary. In this sense, the perspective of Eastern philosophers can be called 'a double perception'.
Eastern philosophers (the sages who have once experienced “Non-Being” and came back to the ordinary consciousness) open for us a possibility to see children in two different dimensions, i.e., as those determined by our ordinary boundaries, and as those completely free from all boundaries. What kind of image of children do Eastern philosophers suggest to us in their 'double perception'? What do they teach us about the different phases of child development which we cannot recognize within our ordinary 'single perception'? This is the starting point to read anew Eastern philosophers' texts from the viewpoint of child development or Life Cycle.