ゲーリー・スナイダーと仏教　－資本主義への対抗原理としての空と憐れみの思想－

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(1)Title. ゲーリー・スナイダーと仏教 −資本主義への対抗原理としての空と憐れみの思想−. Author(s). 松岡, 信哉. Citation. 北海道教育大学紀要. 人文科学・社会科学編, 61(1): 25-37. Issue Date. 2010-08. URL. http://s-ir.sap.hokkyodai.ac.jp/dspace/handle/123456789/2265. Rights. Hokkaido University of Education.

(2) .. ? L % B R B % b R W (A2FJt.b ?t&FJt.bl) %6lf % 13 Journal of Hokkaido University of Education (Humanities and Social Sciences) Vol. 61, No.1. %E22F 8 8 August, 2010. Anti-capitalist Ideas of Emptiness and Compassion: Gary Snyder and Buddhism MATSUOKA Shinya Department of Anglo-American Literature, Kushiro Campus, Hokkaido University of Education. ABSTRACT. The aim of this paper is to clarify an American Beat poet Gary Snyder's understanding of the essentially Buddhist ideas of emptiness and compassion. I examine Snyder's poems and essays to understand how these ideas have been received in the United States since the 1950s. In the poem "February," a realization of the interrelatedness of all things dawns on the narrator when he is going about his daily monotonous chores. Completely engrossed in the tasks at hand, the narrator reaches an empty state of mind. In this poem, the narrator carries out monotonous chores with ritualistic sophistication. The empty state of mind that he achieves allows him to find his own embeddedness in an environment. Compassion toward others is then derived from this empty state of mind. When people understand the unity between themselves and other beings, they are able to sympathize and identify with them. I will clarify this issue by examining Snyder's epic poem Mountains and Rivers Without End. I will also examine his essay on the 9/11 attack in order to demonstrate the relevance of his Buddhist ideas at present. I propose that in this essay, Snyder promotes Buddhist non-violence as a means of resistance against the currently dominant cultural atmosphere, which has an anthropocentric nature. By examining his consistent treatment of emptiness and compassion, this paper attempts to understand how at one time (the 1950s-1960s period), anti-anthropocentric literature was enthusiastically accepted in the United States, but later, it was regarded as somewhat insignificant.. 1.. The Idea of Emptiness: A Realization of. Interrelatedness. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the essen-. tially Buddhist ideas of emptiness and compassion and explore the transition of their acceptance from the 1950s to the present through the works of Gary Snyder, an American Beat poet..

(3) In the 1950s and 1960s Beat writers tried to in-. his writings has changed according to the cultu-. corporate Buddhist ideas, which were applicable. ral c o n t e x t s of different eras. By examining. in and shed light on the Western cultural con-. Snyder's treatment of emptiness and compassion,. text, into their poems and writings, intending to. we will see how the anti-anthropocentric dis-. make essential changes in their lifestyles and. course provided in literature was accepted a t. views of life.' I would argue that the Buddhist. one time and was regarded a s insignificant a t. worldview and their idea of emptiness, in parti-. another time.. cular, helped writers like Snyder reexamine the. Emptying oneself means entering into a state. binary opposition of subjectivity and objectivity. of mind in which we spontaneously exit from the. that was rooted in the Western understanding of. self-centered self. This is an opportunity to re-. the world.2 Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums por-. consider modern life, in which we exploit nature. trays this cultural atmosphere through its main. for our own sake. Technology, understood as a. character, Ray Smith, who enthusiastically tries. tool w i t h which we exploit n a t u r e in i t s in-. to tell his family that "Everything is empty but. strumentality, will be questioned when we come. awake! Things are empty in time and space and. to see the interrelatedness of all beings and out-. mind" (121-22). T h e idea of emptiness was be-. er nature with the realization of emptiness. The. lieved t o help dethrone people from the sup-. idea of emptiness urges us to reconsider technol-. remacy of an imagined hierarchy of things in. ogy, and helps u s obtain a t r u e r vision of the. which human beings are "higher than pigs, walk. world in which t h e r e is no self a n d t h e r e a r e. proudly down country roads" (Big Sky Mind 35).. therefore no objects3 Regarding this concept, I. By emptying ourselves, we will see this anthro-. will examine two of Snyder's other essays in. pocentric view of t h e world a s just a "mind. order to show the relationship between the con-. movie," an illusion (35).. cept of emptiness and technology.. I n o r d e r t o look a t t h e Buddhist ideas of. Snyder's "February" represents this process of. emptiness a n d compassion a s embodied and. emptying oneself with the Zen idea of "samu ({F'. metamorphosed in the cultural context of the. %) ," which means an attention to the immediate. United S t a t e s in t h e 1950s a n d 1960s, Gary. t a s k s a t hand in daily work.4 With a concen-. Snyder's essays and poems will be examined in. trated engagement in repetitive daily handiwork,. the following discussion. My hypothesis is that. the conscious s t a t e of mind diminishes in the. the ideas of emptiness and compassion had sub-. perceived unity with things. By attempting to. versive value in the 1950s and 1960s, so that be-. sustain order among things by hand, we will be. lieving in these ideas was a powerfully political. able to find our right place in t h e network of. posture. In contrast, in the current social and. things, in which we a r e actually already en-. political context, we tend to see these ideas a s. closed. In this poem, we see that compassion to-. detached and impotent. I will examine the latter. ward other beings is naturally derived from this. opinion in the paper's fifth section, through an. realization of our embeddedness, which the nar-. essay t h a t Snyder wrote a s a response to the. rator attains through daily handiwork. I will talk. t e r r o r i s t a t t a c k on 9/11. Though S n y d e r h a s. about this in Section 3.. been consistent in his beliefs and philosophies,. Section 4 provides a closer focus on the re-. the social signification of Buddhist thoughts in. lationship between emptiness and compassion.

(4) with a reference to the Japanese philosopher. philosophy was best represented by Buddhism. Keiji Nishitani, who cites a German theologian,. (especially Zen) as a vital means to raise doubts. Meister Eckhart. In the last section, to conclude. and objections against a dominant tendency in. my argument, I will examine Snyder's recent. contemporary society. With the help of the in-. essay which promotes non-violence a s a re-. formation provided by Snyder, those who read. sponse to the 9/11 attack. In the poem, the catas-. his works were able to form sounder judgments. trophic event is seen with Buddhist compassion-. of ~ u d d h i s mHis . ~ sincere attempt to assimilate. ate eyes that see the continuance of all things. into the East and occasional correspondences. after their deaths.. from remote places made him a mythological figure that embodied Eastern thinking through. 2.. Westernized Buddhist Ethics in the. 1950s:. A Way to Decentralize Us Gary Snyder was a leading figure of the Beat. actual practices. I t is often pointed out t h a t the dualism and anthropocentrism rooted in the Judeo-Christian Western civilization generated various social. generation, which radically opposed the Amer-. problems that we are facing even now."he. ican social system in the 1950s and 1960s. T h e. that human beings are entitled by God to change. American c u l t u r a l a t m o s p h e r e d u r i n g t h e. the world, exerting our superiority over other. 20-year period after the Second World War was. beings, encourages us to develop new technolo-. defined as "cold war paranoia" in which "the dis-. gical devices by which we dissociate ourselves. trust of the Asian Others" was in the air (Gray. from the traditional - therefore predictably. 21). In response to this "paranoia," writers and. stable and environmentally friendly. artists of the San Francisco Renaissance, includ-. ing. As Shrader-Frechette asserted, if "our crises. ing the Beat writers, tried to exemplify inter-. of pollution and resource depletion reflect pro-. c u l t u r a l citizenship t h r o u g h t h e i r a r t i s t i c. found difficulties with some of the most basic. creations.. principles in our accepted system of values," we. -. idea. way of liv-. From 1947 until 1951, Snyder studied a t Reed. are necessarily urged to examine our inner sel-. College, working toward an interdisciplinary ma-. ves in order "to discover a new framework for. jor in literature and anthropology. Since the. describing what it means to behave ethically or. course of study a t Reed somewhat frustrated. to be a moral person."1° For young Americans in. ~ n y d e rduring ,~ his subsequent graduate study. the 1950s and 1960s, Buddhism might have pro-. at Berkeley, he joined the Beat movement in San. vided an anti-anthropocentric principle with. Francisco; l a t e r , in 1956, he decided t o g o t o. which t h e y i n t e n d e d t o p r e v e n t t h e human. Japan to study Zen. He took part in Zen prac-. beings from heading toward catastrophe. They. tices first a t Shokokuji and later a t Daitokuji,. adopted the meditative method of Zen Buddhism. both in yo to.' With occasional trips to other. in order to decentralize human subjectivity and. Asian countries and to his home state of Califor-. to restructure the traditional framework through. nia, he stayed in Japan until 1968. He continued. which the world was seen. Kerouac's Dharma. writing letters and essays about Japan and its. Bums accurately depicts the cultural atmosphere. culture to his fellow Beats and for the general. in the U. S. in the late 1950s. In Buddhism, hu-. p ~ b l i cThese .~ writings confirmed that Eastern. man beings are regarded as a part of the world,.

(5) as one of the equal members of the community. seem to be nothing. With the "petition" to the. of all animate and inanimate things.'' A group of. mountain, he saw below him nothingness, which. young B e a t poets, including S n y d e r , w e r e. is a parallel to the Buddhist emptiness that rep-. attracted to Buddhism as long as it could be em-. resents the shared ground of self and others. All. ployed as a means to negate Western civiliza-. things a r e nothing and a r e therefore equal in. tion's infinite desire to modify the world accord-. front of nature. Technology deprives us of the. ing to people's pursuit of maximum comfort.. essential sense of unity between us and nature,. Danger on Peaks (2004) retrospectively shows. but it can be regained when we are in nature.. how Snyder has used Buddhist motifs such a s. "Atomic Dawn" dramatizes the moment in. emptiness and compassion in his writing. In its. which Snyder's lifelong resolution t o fight. first section, "Mount St. Helens," his mountain. against technology was made, on the August 14,. trekking experiences from age thirteen to the. 1945- the day after he first climbed Mount St.. present are reviewed both in poetic and prosaic. Helens and his heart became "still one with the. styles. I t is noted in "The Climb," which is in-. snowpeak mountain" (9). On the bulletin board. cluded in this section, t h a t when he climbs a. at a mountain lodge, he saw newspapers that re-. mountain, Snyder feels t h a t he is very small,. ported the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasa-. amounting to almost nothing in the overwhelm-. ki by the first and the second atomic bombs:. ing presence of nature; this reminds him of Issa's "Inch by inch / little snail / creep up Mt. Fuji". Horrified, blaming scientists and politicians. (7). Finally, this snail walk brought him to the. and the governments of the world, I swore a. top of the mountain. The sight from the smooth. vow to myself, something like, "By the pur-. and broad St. Helen's summit filled him with. ity and the beauty and permanence of Mt.. awe. Snyder wrote:. St. Helens, I will fight against this cruel destructive power and those who would seek to. -..snow peaks a r e always far higher than. use it, for all my life." (9). the highest airplanes ever get. I made my petition to the shapely mountain, "Please. Atomic bombs are a common symbol of the un-. help this life." When I tried to look over and. controllable modern technology that makes our. down to the world below - there was no-. life threateningly inhuman and unnatural. With. thing there. (8). hope that the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would not be repeated, Snyder swore to him-. This realization of nothingness occurs when a. self t h a t he would fight against this extreme. person's subjectivity is revealed as something. atrocity against human beings and modern civi-. t h a t penetrates into, or is penetrated by, na-. lization.. ture.12 When confronted with the overwhelming. I would like to point out that Snyder realized. scale of nature, Snyder knew that his life was. (1) that his chief opponent was technology and. almost nothing and his destiny was completely in. human beings' inclination to use it for egocentric. nature's hands. Also, with the great view spread. purposes, and (2) that what he should fight for. before his eyes, everything he could see down. was nature and our integration in it. Mountain. below, along with the man who sees that view,. climbing is associated with these attitudes be-.

(6) cause it brings us to a state of mind that can be. because the fixed procedures were historically. referred to as the Buddhist concept of emptiness,. proven to be efficient, but because the stylized. as a metaphor for the interpenetration between. procedure for each piece of work is established. a subject and the objective world.. to function well in the system of all chores within a regular day format. When Snyder proposed. 3.. Empty Mind at Work: Realizing the Interrelation?. an idea to do one chore more efficiently, a senior monk responded: "We don't want to do things any b e t t e r or a n y faster-..If we s p e e d up t h e. Besides mountain climbing, as seen in the pre-. work in the garden, you'll just have to spend. vious section, a devotion to the immediate work. that much more time sitting in the zendo, and. at hand lets us discover an empty state of mind. your l e g s will h u r t more" ( T R W 109). An. in Snyder's texts. Snyder often suggests that a. attempt to maximize the efficiency of accom-. continual engagement in handiwork helps us to. plishing one chore may destroy the balance that. have an affinity with the earth or an environ-. must be kept among all necessary chores done. ment. In one interview, he mentions the triple. in one day. T h e truthfulness of this monk's re-. alienation that happens when we avoid engaging. mark may also be applied to a societal or com-. in handiwork: "[Fl irst, you're trying to get out-. munal plane of human relations; t h a t is, if we. side energy sources/resources to do it for you;. highly prioritize the infinite desire to pursue con-. second, you no longer know w h a t your own. veniences and comforts and use our ingenuity. body can do, w h e r e your food or water come. and technology to change our circumstances, the. from; third, you lose the capacity to discover the. right balance between us and others. unity of mind and body via your work" (The. between us and the natural environment - will. Real Works (hereafter T R m 103). Here, Snyder. be severely flawed.. -. and also. points out that we tend to take no notice of our. All things a r e related to each other. This in-. unity with the world; however, through handiwork,. sight of interrelatedness encapsulates the very. we rediscover the interrelatedness of ourselves. essence of the s t a t e of mind t h a t one reaches. and the world "outside," along with the unity of. through handiwork. In Zen practices, an absorp-. mind and body.. tion in simple physical labors, called "samu,". Through Buddhist practices at Japanese Zen. meaning a concentration on an immediate task at. Buddhist monasteries, Snyder learned how to. hand, leads a practitioner to empty-mindedness.. discipline himself by maintaining a balance be-. "Samu" leads one to discard the will to dominate. tween him and other things via work. For the. objects, and then to gain insight into interre-. first few y e a r s a t Daitokuji in Kyoto, he was. latedness. In "February," the narrator's bodily. frustrated when he was asked to do daily chores. movements produce constant rhythms through. such as sweeping the garden, helping out with. cleaning the house and maintaining his motorbike,. firewood, and heating up the bath, because he. and these rhythms invite readers to sense the. had to follow established procedures taught by. texture of the actions as if we were feeling them. senior monks a n d masters.13 F o r monks a t a. together with the narrator. Readers are asked to. Japanese temple, adhering to the fixed proce-. put themselves in the narrator's mind in order to. dure of doing chores is important. This is so not. sense the unity of mind and body through the.

(7) done in t h e garden outside a zendo (practice. work that the narrator is experiencing.. hall). This complete engagement in an immediwater taps running, the sun part out. ate task situates a person in a concrete relation-. cleaning house. ship with objects, while in meditation one tem-. sweeping floor. knocking cobwebs off the shoji. pap pap. wiping the wood and the mats with a wet rag. -. lar indentation, as though imitating the flow of. make them a footwiper of. water that runs among valleys and mountains. Life in 1950s Kyoto was still premodern, so the. newspaper wash the motorcycle.. stances in order to reach an empty state of mind. The lines of the poem, as shown, have irregu-. hands and knees on the veranda cat-prints. porarily dissociates oneself from actual circum-. fold clothes. n a r r a t o r had t o s t a r t "a new fire under t h e. start a new fire under the kama.. kama" because at the time, environment-friendly. fill Mrs. Hosaka's kerosene stove tank,. fuels were used for heating or cooking.14 Thus,. get the cat hairs. basic daily chores involved patient repetitions of. out of the kotatsu.. simple tasks, making life more down-to-earth. take the sheets in from the bamboo poles. and creating an affinity toward nature. T h e. where they're drying. visual effect of the poem suits this motif of affin-. put away the poles. ity with nature because it imitates the natural. stand them up below the eaves and. flow of m a t t e r a n d e n e r g y with words. T h e. tie them with strings. (The Back Country 55). arrangement of words is also a representation of t h e down-to-earth life in which a close tie to. As is evident, the poem represents the state of. others, including both animate and inanimate ob-. mind that one experiences through the comple-. jects, is keenly felt. As we will see in the follow-. tion of repetitive chores at home. Complete devo-. ing passage, an egalitarian view of life on earth-. tion t o t h e simple immediate t a s k s a t hand. all the different animals are persons-casually. banishes diverging thoughts from the mind, so. appears in the narrator's mind when he is en-. that one becomes able to feel the interface of the. gaged in daily chores. The poem then concludes. bodily extension and the objects around one. The. with an image of charcoal glowing red in the. rhythm of domestic physical labor brings the. dark, leaving behind the "pure white" ash:. narrator to the calmness of mind in which the mind ceases to refer to itself and sees its place in. Nansen mews angrily because he feels so sick. an interrelationship with other things. This state. all the different animals are persons. of mind, called an empty state of mind, is often thought to be attained by meditation in the for-. what will I do about Liberation.. mal training of Zen practice, which involves sit-. 6 :30. ting for hours on end, looking deeply inside of. charcoal. black. the fire part red. oneself. However, this poem's uniqueness lies in. the ash pure white (55). bath. its emphasis on attaining an emptiness of mind amidst repetitive house chores; this can repre-. Advanced technologies help us t o complete. sent the "samu" aspect of Zen practice, which is. necessary tasks more easily; however, they may.

(8) close the circuit of the mind and the outer world. realization t h a t all animals a r e created equal. by doing the work for us, dissociating us from. t h e n occurs t o him. I would call this s t a t e of. d i r e c t contact with things. I n c o n t r a s t , t h e. mind compassion, whose basis lies in a sym-. realization that all animals are equal dawned on. pathetic understanding of other beings; t h a t. t h e narrator when he was so absorbed in his. s e n s e of compassion can be b e s t perceived. work t h a t he ceased t o think of himself. T h e. through an empty state of consciousness.. energy flow of the sun, which pierces all beings,. To conclude, the equality of all beings is grasped. is also recognized in this poem, as it begins with. within a serious attentiveness to handiwork that. the sun imparting its energy to beings on the. is done in a fixed way, like a ritual that has been. earth and ends with the pure white ash in where. practiced for centuries. Compassion toward other. the suns' parted energy had been used to heat. beings will arise based on an awareness of the. water.. emptiness attained through work. Regarding this. With the simple lifestyle described in "Feb-. sequential occurrence, Snyder wrote in T h e. ruary," which needs little help from modern. Mountains and Rivers Without End (hereafter. technology, our lives can become environmental-. MR WE) : "0,ah! / The awareness of empliness /. ly friendly; such a lifestyle asks us to engage in. brings forth a heart of compassion!" (149). We. repetitive physical work in order to maintain an. will examine this poem in detail in the next sec-. order in, and give discipline to, our lives. This. tion.. poem may imply, when we read it in the present time, that the use of technology should be regulated lest it go far beyond our intuitive understanding. Technology is not necessarily bad; for. 4 . "A chaotic universe where everything is in place"15. example, in this poem, t h e maintenance of a. S n y d e r envisioned t h e g e r m of MR WE on. motorbike is equated with more primitive daily. April 8, 1956 when he visited Japanese a r t i s t. chores, such as sweeping the floor, drying laun-. Saburo Hasegawa. He was ceremonially served a. dry, taking care of a sick cat, and so on. Motor-. powdered J a p a n e s e g r e e n t e a a n d w a s told. bike maintenance is not regarded as something. about the Japanese Zen monk painter Sesshu. unnatural as long as we do it with our hands and. (MR WE 154-55). I t took 40 years for Snyder to. with emotional involvement. Wherever repetitive. complete this epic poem, which can be compared. maintenance is needed, a stable relationship. to an ancient Chinese landscape painting done on. among things will be established, in which a hu-. a scroll that extends infinitely leftward. Since,. man being is incorporated a s merely a part of. theoretically, extra scrolls can always be added,. the whole. We cannot stop doing a task like eras-. the painting can encapsulate the continuous. ing the footprints of men on the genkan ("sweep. movement of time and space, without coercing. out the genkan footprints" (55) ) , once we begin. an artificial framework (like the scenography of. completing it as a daily obligation, as long as we. Western paintings), to create t h e reality of a. want those places to be kept without footprints.. natural landscape.. When the narrator is completely absorbed in the. MR WE is an attempt to understand the dura-. "immediate tasks a t hand" that we see in this. tion of time and the extension of space in the. poem, he loses his egocentric state of mind. The. natural world in one poem, in which even artifi-.

(9) cially built structures, such as cities and cultural. No loss, no gain. So -. artifacts, are incorporated.16 Selby (2005) insists. nothing in the way!. that Snyder "privileges the gaze of a superior. -the. spectator" who can see, with a bird's eye view,. the sky is the ground,. the changes of seasons or the flow of time that. no place between, just. ground is the sky. are spread on a scroll paper, as on a screen. The problem is, he says, that this privileged subject. wind-whip breeze. guarantees a transcendent perspective from. tent-mouth leeward,. which the infinity of nature is surveyed. Accord-. time being here.. ing to Selby, this may become a sophisticated. We meet heart to heart,. variant of anthropocentrism. On the other hand,. leg hard-twined to leg,. Martin (2005) cites Dogen's Mountains a n d. w i t h a kiss t h a t goes t o t h e bone.. Waters S u t r a t o a s s e r t t h a t t h e l a s t poem in. (MR WE 151). MR WE depicts the disappearance of self in a direct experience (85). Martin's analysis is re-. In Snyder's poetic imagination, mountains and. lated to my argument regarding the disappear-. r i v e r s a r e m e t a p h o r s for t h e t w o principles. ance of self in physical tasks, as examined in the. based on which the world is established: accord-. previous section. In the following discussion, I. ing to his remarks, mountains a r e "the tough. will shed a different light on the controversy be-. spirit of willed self-discipline" and rivers "the. t w e e n t h e s e t w o scholars by examining t h e. generous loving spirit of concern for all beings". emptiness motif in h2X WE.. (h2X WE 155).17In short, they represent two dif-. In a poem entitled "Finding the Space in the. ferent principles that compose this world. It may. Heart," the narrator describes visits to "silvery. seem that with this metaphor Snyder retains a. flats t h a t curved over t h e edge," to which he. world view based on the binary oppositional. first came in the 1960s (149). He has returned. understanding of the world that is often seen in. there several times during the subsequent de-. sophisticated Western thought. However, on this. cades. Later in this poem, the narrator describes. occasion, when the narrator has an enlightening. a visit in the 1980s; standing with the view of the. vision, there are "no waters, no mountains" (151). wild flat in front of him, he reaches an enlighten-. in the wild flat, and the viewer's mind is sub-. ing vision of nothingness in which time itself. merged in a non-difference that paradoxically. emerges from inside. He felt "time being there". comprises all things. Only t h e "wind-whip. (151) somewhere between him and the wild:. breeze" sharply cuts through this empty place, uniting t h e objects in t h e place by piercing. all equal, far reaches, no bounds.. through them like the pulsation of a body. "We. Sound swallowed away,. meet heart to heart" (151) there when compas-. no waters, no mountains, no. sion toward others spontaneously comes from. bush no grass and. the unity of all things in the scene.. because no grass. The total abandonment of self-interested view-. no shade but your shadow.. points toward the world is discussed by some. No flatness because no not-flatness.. philosophers when they talk about religion. In.

(10) such arguments it is often pointed out that a re-. Eckhart and Zen Buddhism proposes. I would. jection of the recognition of things as shapes and. like t o point o u t t h a t this u n d e r s t a n d i n g of. images is the key for the abandonment of self,. nothingness shared by Western and Eastern re-. because recognizing things a s shapes is sup-. ligious philosophers like Eckhart and Nishitani,. posed to be an outcome of the analytical function. respectively, epitomizes the Zen idea of compas-. of intelligence. A realization of nothingness. sionate disintegration of self in the world and has. occurs when a person liberates oneself from the. clearly influenced Snyder's poetic imagination.. world, discarding the shell that separates him or her from the world; when this liberation occurs, things and the self altogether lose their outlines, s o t h a t t h e y show t h e i r essential i n t e r r e -. 5.. Active Non-violence Against Terror: Com-. passion to the Immortal. latedness, their oneness. Nishitani Keiji, a philo-. So far, I have claimed that the Buddhist idea. sopher of the so-called Kyoto School, examines. of nothingness was employed by Snyder in order. Meister Eckhart's idea of the "breakthrough" of. to propose a radical objection t o t h e anthro-. Spirits, comparing i t with t h e Zen idea of. pocentric Western thought that is based on an. nothingness. Eckhart understands God as abso-. u n d e r s t a n d i n g of t h e world according t o. lute nothingness; this idea was called unorthodox. subject/object distinctions. This Western world. by the Christian Church because it radically de-. view has often been criticized by contemporary. thrones God a s the supreme entity t h a t gives. ecologists, whose standpoints Snyder mostly. cause for all things. Eckhart's philosophy is re-. shares, as a source of the destructive exploitation. garded as negative theology, and it shares sever-. of nature in the modern era. In the first section, I. al ideas with Eastern thought. Nishitani traces. examined Snyder's declaration that the human. Eckhart's argument about "breakthrough," in. inclination to use technology in a destructive. which both a human being a s a spirit and God. way was what he thought he should be fighting. present themselves as nothing, letting each other. against. Modern technology is the materialization. into themselves so t h a t the absolute oneness. of a will to pursue the maximum comfort in life,. underlying them consequently appears. A person. and Judeo-Christian anthropocentrism is often. invites God to break into herself/himself so that. blamed since it permits us to exploit nature for. God breaks her/his outer "forms." However, this. our benefits. Snyder in his early years seems to. should mean t h a t t h e person simultaneously. have found Eastern thought, best represented by. breaks the superficial forms that s/he lends to. Buddhism, a s a vital instrument to negate the. God as His appearance. Thus, both the self and. premises of Western civilization. As I explained. God, in their formal appearances, a r e simul-. in the preceding chapters, the Buddhist idea of. taneously negated, losing their visible forms,. emptiness is at the very heart of an attempted. thereby reaching back to their absolute nothing-. disintegration of subjectivity.. ness (Kami to Zettaimu 27-8). The above quote. I s Eastern philosophy a s significant in t h e. from MR WE seems to dramatize a scheme simi-. twenty-first century as it was to the countercul-. lar to Nishitani's summary of Eckhart's "break-. t u r e of t h e 1950s a n d 1960s? Now I have re-. through" because it describes a transformation. turned to the question that I posed in the intro-. of all forms into no form, which is something that. duction. At present, Buddhist thoughts seem to.

(11) be incorporated in ecological discourses t h a t. statues, meaningless idols, were blown away by. function as a modern version of counterculture,. fundamentalist Islamists? Neither those who des-. rebelling a g a i n s t t h e capitalist economy.. troyed nor that which was destroyed are worth. However, in the current cultural context, the. being paid attention. Snyder furiously pointed. Buddhist manner of social commitment does not. out t h a t this complete lack of respect for the. often seem politically active. These cultural con-. artworks of other cultures, which is often seen. texts may create differences between Snyder's. a s a typical, rationalized (though usually not. treatment of Buddhist ideas and their acceptance. overtly expressed) attitude that Western civi-. by the reading public from the 1950s onwards.. lization assumes, is likely to trigger a destructive. T o clarify this, l e t us examine another piece. abuse of power. Violent use of power will be car-. from Snyder's most recent publication, Danger. ried out, sometimes unconsciously, by the side of. on Peaks (2004). "After Bamiyan" is a work of. those who believe in the supremacy of their cul-. prose that provides some thoughts and episodes. ture, against other cultures that do not share the. on the bombing of Buddha statues in Ramiyan. premises of the former. "I doubt you would have. and also on 9/11, with a few poems inserted in it.. the nerve to call for launching a little missile at. The attack of September 11, 2001 frightened a. the Ka'aba. There are people who would put a. majority of people in Western countries, who. hit on you and you know it," writes Snyder to. w e r e told t h a t a f t e r t h e collapse of t h e com-. this person (102), as if it were already well pre-. munist countries t h a t successively occurred. dicted that Western civilization's indifferent arro-. around 1991, the capitalist social system would. gance and unconscious belligerence toward other. prevail all over the world. However, after 9/11. cultures would invite the catastrophic event,. they started to believe that after the so-called. which actually occurred soon after. I t was im-. Pax Americana of the 1990s, we once again en-. mediately after this mailed correspondence that. tered a politically and culturally unstable period,. we witnessed t h e 9/11 a t t a c k , a b o u t which. as Slavoy i i i e k pointed out with sarcasm (iiiek. Snyder wrote:. 34-5). Proposing non-violence, which is a typical Buddhist posture, might seem a weak political. September 2001. gesture when the world is facing the turmoil of retaliation for violence, but nevertheless this is. The men and women who. w h a t S n y d e r s u g g e s t s in "After Bamiyan.". died at the World Trade Center. Snyder wrote this poetical prose when he was inspired--or rather, enraged-by. an insincere. comment made by his acquaintance, who said that Western intellectuals' criticism of the Tali-. together with the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Take Refuge in the dust. (Danger on Peaks 102). ban's destruction of Afghan Buddha statues was too sentimental (102). We need "no divine sanc-. The resolution not to retaliate against those who. tion and priesthoodn anymore; rather, those pre-. aim to exert violence upon you and the Buddhist. modern remnants a r e obstacles in t h e age of. compassion for all things t h a t a r e empty and. reason and technology, this man said (102). He. therefore equal (in this poem, the equation of the. continued: so why do we feel sad if the Buddha. dead at the WTC and the destroyed Buddhas of.

(12) Bamiyan) are united in a quiet but indomitable. Snyder's attitude toward the inhabitants of the. posture. This posture helps us to stay calm and. world as inseparably interrelated; with compas-. avoid the vicious circle of retaliation that is in-. sionate understanding of the things around us,. cessantly reproduced between globalizing capita-. we discover the unity of all things, among which. list doctrines and those t h a t d a r e to give life. we are only a part of the whole.. against these doctrines. In the above quote, Snyder makes a difficult. Notes. proposal for non-violence, framing this quiet message within the Buddhist principles of im-. T h e influence of Buddhism on 17 Beat writers is dis-. permanence and reincarnation: all of the victims. cussed in Big Sky Mind. Although i t only focuses on. finally "take refuge in the dust" for rebirth (102).. poets and excludes novelists, Beneath a Single Moon is more comprehensive in the number of poets that it. The attitude that Snyder takes in this poem may. deals with. Moreover, Field's account is thorough in. remind some of u s t h a t t h e Dalai Lama con-. its description of the public acceptance of Zen in the. tinued to claim Tibet's autonomy within China,. twentieth century in the United States.. not independence from it, when the world saw. Daisetsu Suzuki m a d e a g r e a t contribution t o t h e spread of Zen Buddhism among American intellec-. the Tibetan unrest in 2008 and Western suppor-. tuals, attempting "to use Western psychological terms. ters demonstrated for the protection of human. to explain Zen Buddhism" (Halper, ed. 205).. rights. Non-violence activists were sometimes. I would like t o cite Martin Heidegger's a r g u m e n t. ridiculed because they seemed impotent and in-. about technology here. The nature of technology does not lie in our desire to exploit natural resources for. efficient when attempting to bring about a quick. utilitarian purposes, according to Heidegger. Rather,. solution to an urgent political issue (Deats 6);. man is called upon to make use of nature, responding. but only through an "inner demilitarization," if. to the possibilities that lie in nature. Nature urges it-. we use the Dalai Lama's phrase, can we make an attempt not to let what we do not want to hap-. self to be stored in a form of stocked energy. Heidegger calls this state "Reality" and. ". [tl he irony is that. in t h e p r o c e s s objectivity dissolves completely". pen "now here" t o happen a n y w h e r e else.''. (Smith 8). Strangely, this "Reality" in Heidegger's. Understanding the. sense is similar to the emptiness that I discuss in this. things-which,. interrelatedness. of. a s we have seen, is b r o u g h t. paper. In the introductory note to "The Berkeley Barb Inter-. about by realizing e m p t i n e s s a s t h e s h a r e d. view," Lampe gave this English translation of this Zen. ground of worldly things-helps. Buddhist idea (The Real Work 7).. us to t a k e a. stand against what is floating in the air of the political unconsciousness: something that makes. His f a v o r i t e f a c u l t y m e m b e r t h e n w a s Lloyd Reynolds, a calligrapher and an enthusiastic amateur Orientalist. I t is worth noting that his grades in litera-. u s forget t h a t we have compassion, and also. t u r e "averaged a bit lower than those in anthropo-. something that drives us to pursue materialistic. logy," possibly because t h e "curriculum w a s t h e n. values without end. Gary Snyder's poetic visions, which link them-. based on the assumption that...it was produced mainly by white males in Europe and the United States," says French (Halper 16). The reason that he was not. selves with Buddhist ideas, were sometimes wel-. very successful in college may be that his academic. comed, and sometimes regarded as too detached. interests were well beyond the cultural boundaries.. by the public, but they retained the consistent. In Daitokuji, he participated in the project of translat-. qualities that I have examined in this paper. The idea of e m p t i n e s s accurately s u m m a r i z e s. ing a Zen scripture into English. Under the guidance of Ruth Fuller Sasaki, the research group was orga-.

(13) nized to prepare an English translation of Lin-chi Lu. god of the mountains" (Myths and Texts 23). Accord-. (Rinzairoke). See Yampolsky (Halper, ed. 60-69).. ing to Snyder's remark a s stated above, mountains. He also p u b l i s h e d t w o e s s a y s i n w h i c h h e w r o t e. represent "willed discipline" and are rather masculine. about his first months in Japan: "Letter from Kyoto". in nature. The poem was finished in early 1956 when. in a 1957 issue of the Evergreen Review, and "Spring. he was about to leave for Japan to study Zen, whose. Sessin a t Shokoku-ji" in a 1958 issue of the Chicago Review. T h e l a t t e r w a s r e p r i n t e d in Earth House Hold. Added to this, millions read Kerouac's Dharma Bums (19591, whose heroically hip Buddhist, Japhy Ryder, supposedly modeled on Snyder, became a symbolic figure who "combines the rugged individualism of the American West with the ascetic selflessness of a Buddhist adept" (Gray 156). Kalland reviewed several studies that show how the Judeo-Christian world view i s seen to be a cause of today's worldwide ecological crisis. (145-46) lo Cited in Sponsel & Natadecha-Sponsel (75) l1 A table that enumerates distinctive traits of Eastern and Western religions is a useful quick guide to see basic comparisons between Buddhism and Judaism/Christianity. (Monk et al. 1987:49. Reprinted. practices seem to emphasize a masculine will to disci-. in Sponsel & Natadecha-Sponsel 79). Is. T h e Dalai L a m a s a y s , "I often m e n t i o n i n n e r disarmament and external disarmament, meaning inner demilitarization. Whenever we confront some problems, then we should not think how to counter them by violence, but through dialogue and finding some mutually acceptable solutions. T h a t i s t h e ethos of non-violence. W e n e e d i n n e r d i s a r m a m e n t , l e s s hatred, less ill feeling and respect for the other side and their interest." (Dagmar "An Interview with Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama." 116). REFERENCES Bernstorff, Dagmar. "An Interview with Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama." Exile as Challenge: The. Mao touches on two of Snyder's poems that. Tibetan Diaspora. Hyderabad Orient Longman, 2004. 107-21.. he thinks describe a moment of Satori, an enlighten-. D e a t s , Richard. " T h e Global S p r e a d of A c t i v e Non-. ing occasion when a person achieves a new perspec-. violence." Fellowship July/August 1996. 23 June 2009. tive on the relationship between self and the world. In. <http://www.nonviolenceworks.net/NVWSite.htm/. l2Nathan. "Mid-August a t Sourdough Mountain Lookout," t h e narrator of the poem is on the top of a mountain look-. about.htm/GlobalSpreadNV.pdf) . Fields, Rick. How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narra-. i n g d o w n f o r miles a s h e w o r k s a s a m o u n t a i n. tive History of Buddhism in America. Boston: Sham-. lookout, and he attains illumination (Mao 126).. bhala Publications, 1992.. Fields (208-24) regarding Snyder's experi-. Gray, Timothy. Gary Snyder and the Pacific Rim: Cros-. ence in Kyoto in relation to Mrs. Fuller Sasaki's Zen. sing Countercultural Community. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2006. Halper, Jon, ed. Gary Snyder: Dimensions of a Life. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991. Johnson, Kent and Craig Paulenich, eds. Beneath a Single Moon: Buddhism in Contemporary Amem'can Poetry. Introduction by Gary Snyder. 1st ed. Shambhala, 1991. Kalland Arne. "Holism and Sustainability: Lessons from. l3 Consult. Institute. l4Watson. provides a good report about life in Kyoto in. the '50s in Dimensions of a Life (53-59) . l51MR W E 16. pline the self as well.. (153). Related to this, for example, Snyder says, "Science, technology, and the economic uses of nature need not be antithetical to celebration" ("Blue Mountains Constantly Walking" in The Practice of the Wild 113). In this context, "celebration" means a ritual by which human beings express their awe of wild nature. When. Japan." Worldvzkws. 6. 2 (2002) : 145-58. Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums. London: Penguin Books, 2000.. he wrote this essay, Snyder had already come to be-. Mao, Nathan. "The Influence of Zen Buddhism on Gary. [tl he line between...objectification and. Snyder." Tamkang Review: A Journal Mainly Devoted. celebration, i s fine indeed" (1131, although when he. to Comparative Studies between Chinese and Foreign Literatures. 5. 2 (1974) : 125-33. M a r t i n , Julia. " S e e i n g a C o r n e r of t h e S k y i n G a r y Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End." Western. lieve t h a t. ". w a s young he seemed more directly to be anti-scientific. l7I n. an earlier poem, Snyder said, "I am a child of the.

(14) American Literature 40. 1 (2005) : 55-87. Nishitani, Keiji. "Kami t o Zettaimu." Nishitani Keiji. Chossakusyu. 7. Tokyo: Sobunsya, 1987. Selby, Nick."'Created Space': Mapping America as Poem in Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End a n d Susan Howe's S e c r e t History of t h e Dividing Line." Journal of American Studies 39. 1 (2005) : 41-64. Snyder, Gary. The Back Country. New York: New Directions Publishing, 1968. -------. Earth House Hold: Technical Notes & Queries. to Fellow Dharma Revolutionaries. New York: New Directions Pub. Corp., 1969. -------Myths & Texts. New York: New Directions Pub.. Corp., 1978. -------. The Real Work: Interviews and Talks, 1964-. 1979. Ed. Wm. Scott McLean. New York: New Directions Pub. Corp., 1980. -------. Mountains and Rivers Without End. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1997. -------. The Practice of the Wild: Essays. Washington,. D.C.: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004 -------. Danger on Peaks: Poems. Emeryville: Shoemaker. & Hoard, 2005. Smith, Gregory B. "Heidegger, Technology and Postmodernity." The Social Science Journal. 28. 3 (1991) : 369-89. Sponsel, Leslie E. and Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel. "The Potential Contribution of Buddhism in Developing an E n v i r o n m e n t a l E t h i c f o r t h e C o n s e r v a t i o n of Biodiversity." Ethics, Religion and Biodiversity: Re-. lations between Conservation and Cultural Values. Ed. Lawrence S. Hamilton with Helen F. Takeuchi. Cambridge: White Horse, 1993. 75-97. Tonkinson, Carole, ed. Big Sky Mind: Buddhism and the. Beat Generation. New York: Riverhead Books, 1995. Welcome to the Desert of the Real: Five ~ i i e kSlavoj. , Essays on September 11and Related Dates. London: Verso. 2002..

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ゲーリー・スナイダーと仏教 －資本主義への対抗原理としての空と憐れみの思想－

ゲーリー・スナイダーと仏教　－資本主義への対抗原理としての空と憐れみの思想－