Masao Abe’s Early Spiritual Journey and his Later Philosophy

Abstract

Masao Abe was born in 1915 in Osaka, Japan. He was the third of six children, and his father was a physician. His mother was the only person in the family who practiced religion, namely, Jodo Shinshu or Shin Buddhism. As a university student, Abe attended what is now Osaka Municipal University, where he studied economics and law. While at the university, he read the Tannisho, a text by Shinran. Abe later said that he understood from that text that self-power was futile and the only hope for salvation was other-power faith in the grace of Amida Buddha. However, he also understood that this life of grace entailed the relinquishment of self-centered calculation. Abe felt that he was not able to set aside his ego-self and began for the first time in his life to experience the tension between Buddha and ego, or, in more Western terms, the duality of God and self. This concern led Abe into a very personal spiritual quest that would define his life and work. Given this concern, after graduation, Masao Abe wanted to attend Kyoto University to study Buddhism. Because of family issues, however, he took a position at a trading company in Kobe, where he worked for four years. Those years were marked by a sense of meaninglessness, and in the end Abe quit his job and entered Kyoto University, where he studied Western philosophy under Tanabe Hajime, who was himself influenced by Shin Buddhism. It was during that time that Abe met Hisamatsu Shin'ichi, an associate professor at Kyoto University and a well-known and committed practitioner of Zen Buddhism. At one point, Abe took his spiritual concerns about the tension he felt between his ego-centeredness and the religious life to Hisamatsu. He asked, I am nothing more than a lump of selfish passions. Yet, isn't it true that in Mahayana Buddhism one can be saved just as one is, selfish passions and all? Hisamatsu responded, The very thought that there are selfish passions is a selfish passion. Originally there is no such thing.' 1 Abe understood from Hisamatsu that there was a more fundamental ground below the dualism between Buddha and ego, a ground in which this dualism is overcome and salvation from any such dualistic struggle could be found. But Abe was not ready to surrender his Pure Land religiosity. In fact, it was during