Approaches To The Problem Of Dualism In Heidegger And Indian Yogacara Buddhism

Abstract

This chapter examines the approach of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger to the problem of dualism and explores the usefulness of his approach to comparative religion and philosophy in general and, more particularly, to the study of dualism in Buddhism. Analysis of the problem of dualism finds its clearest expression in Buddhism in the Yogacara school of Mahayana Buddhism, which analyses the human predicament and our entanglement in the cycle of ongoing unsatisfactoriness in terms of subject-object duality. The issue of dualism is not simply one of a number of possible points of comparison between Mahayana Buddhism and Heidegger. Heidegger has a double value in the present context. Firstly, in dealing with the dualist orientation of most Western metaphysics in he came up with formulations which resonate with Buddhist approaches to ontology and epistemology. The Buddhist path provides a way to move from delusion to awakened awareness. Keywords: Indian Yogacara Buddhism; Martin Heidegger; problem of dualism