Aeterno Modo: the Expression of an Integral Consciousness in the Work of Kierkegaard and Dōgen

Abstract

The affinity between Kierkegaard’s thought and Japanese thought has often been commented on; but there has been less emphasis on how this affinity manifests itself historically. It is obviously not simply a matter of Japanese thought having discovered Kierkegaard since the Danish philosopher’s works appeared. The previous chapters in this book, along with the following two chapters on Hakuin and the samurai, show clearly that comparisons can be made with Japanese writers and traditions from well before Kierkegaard. In the preceding chapter James Giles drew comparisons between Kierkegaard’s idea of the purity of heart and Dōgen’s idea of the realization of things as they are. In this chapter I will also draw comparisons between Kierkegaard and Dōgen, although in a different way. My concern here is with Kierkegaard’s attempt to resolve the perceived duality of the personal life and the ethical life and the relation that this bears to Dōgen’s depiction of non-duality.