Mahayana Research Articles

La Fête-spectacle: Théâtre et rite au Nepal (review)

Reviewed by: La Fête-spectacle: Théâtre et rite au Nepal Kathy Foley La Fête-spectacle: Théâtre et rite au Nepal (The Festival Performance: Theatre and Ritual of Nepal). By Gèrard Toffin. Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l’hommes, 2010. Paper €21.85. This text mines the author’s ongoing anthropological fieldwork since the 1970s in Nepal on the Newari Indra Jatra, the most important festival of Katmandu. Toffin analyzes the festival’s roots in Hindu kingship, related to the Vedic god Indra. Toffin shows the ways in which other cults are woven into the event dedicated to Indra. This includes both the cult of Kumari (Devi, represented by the “living goddess,” a prepubescent girl of the Shakya clan) and Bhairava (an angry manifestation of Shiva, the most important deity of the Newars). These deities are interpolated into the older festival dedicated to Indra. Toffin maintains that the whole festival is “theatre” in the broad sense of the term. The events combine Vedic Hindu, Mahayana Buddhist, and colonial and postcolonial political features in this eight-day event. Early chapters review anthropological theories of ritual as theatre. Toffin sees links to Indian dramatic theory of the Natyasastra as well as patterns of South Indian rituals of kingship. Toffin relates the central event of the festival—setting up a pole dedicated to Indra—to the myth of the creation of [End Page 576] drama in the Natyasastra: the episode in which Indra beats back the demons with his banner staff. This archaic myth has, Toffin postulates, until recently, been reactivated in relation to Nepali royal power. He acknowledges that with the fall of the monarch in 2008 changes may take place. The author conceives of the whole city as the theatrical space/stage and notes how the ritual focuses on and culminates in front of the main palace of the Malla kings (twelfth to eighteenth century), whose very names often were variations on the name of Indra. Their rites were later perpetuated by the later dynasties that succeeded the Malla. The carts on which the Buddhist Kumari (living goddess) and representatives of other divine powers tour the city, Toffin compares to jatra, processional performances of Bengal. He sees a religiopolitical ideology embodied in the processional display. Throughout the book, the author points out correlations between Nepali practices that could be seen up to the twenty-first century and old Indian models. The patterns, not the particulars, are, he argues, the same. For scholars interested in theatre per se the most useful chapter is the sixth, which gives specific information on actual theatre display, including the use of masks and puppets in performances. For the time of performances, dancers are considered repositories of the divine power (see pp. 100ff.). Bhairava, Kumari, and Candi (Devi) are the major masks regularly presented. Discussion of jhyalinca or putali (marionettes) are also included. Data on what happens when and where for processions and ceremonies is given. Folklorization and touristification of these performances are more recent phenomena (see pp. 154ff). Though the author discusses these trends his focus is toward the past and ritual sources of the activities. Toffin’s attempt to link these rites to Greek Dionysian worship (pp. 118–119) remains conjectural. Readers will find this text useful for understanding Nepali royal history and the use of myth in reinforcing kingship. While the focus is on the rites and their political and social implications rather than on the specific performance(s), dancers, and theatre apparatus, this is a valuable resource for those interested in Nepali ritual theatre and will interest scholars of Sanskrit theatre and Indian ritual practices. Kathy Foley University of California, Santa Cruz Copyright © 2012 University of Hawai’i Press

Improving Revenue Adequacy by Indexing the Gas Tax to Indicators of Need

The current crisis in highway finance in the United States is mostly driven by greater vehicle fuel efficiency, substantial rises in construction costs and automobile use, and fixed per gallon fuel tax rates that do not increase with inflation. These factors give rise to questions about the adequacy of the gasoline tax (or gas tax) structure to generate sufficient revenue. We argue that the public will be more willing to increase the gas tax if it is restructured to be directly connected to measures of need and is adjusted upward in small, regular increments. We examine how state variable-rate fuel taxes, by incrementally adjusting the gas tax rate on a regular basis, would affect gas tax revenues. This is done by simulating gas tax revenues given different adjustment formulas for the gas tax rate (based on changes in construction costs, general inflation, and improvements in fuel efficiency), and comparing gas tax revenues to determine revenue-generating capacity of variable-rate approaches.

The study on the doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism and the popularization of Kanhwaseon

대승불교는 불법을 통하여 자비로 널리 중생을 이익 되게 하는 것을 목표로 한다. 이러한 사상 안에는 나와 중생을 둘이 아닌 하나로 보는 깊은 자비심과 불법의 가르침을 통하여 이익을 나누고자 하는 구체적인 개인적?사회적 실천정신이 늘 함께한다. 특히 선불교는 이러한 대승적인 정신을 ‘인간’이라는 活潑潑한 주체에 초점을 맞추고, 인간이 살아가는 ‘방식’을 ‘사회’와의 긴밀한 관계를 통하여 풀어가고자 수많은 노력을 기울여왔다.<BR> 대혜는 대승불교의 정신에 입각하여 “현실”이라는 구체적인 삶의 현장에서 진리 추구가 가능하다는 것을 강조하였다. 이러한 특징은 크게 세 가지로 나누어 살펴볼 수 있는데, 첫째는 진리 자체가 “진”과 “속”, “번뇌”와 “보리”, “중생”과 “부처”의 이원적 대립을 떠나있으며, 다시 그 떠난 무엇에도 속박되지 않는다는 점이다. 둘째는 이러한 진리의 특성에 비추어 본다면 “世間相”, “煩惱” 등을 떠나지 않고도 수행이 가능하다는 것이다. 셋째는 “眞俗不二”의 중도실상이 무차별만을 강조하여 수행을 부정하는 것이 아니라 오히려 수행을 부정하기 쉬운 오해와 결점을 “번뇌”에 즉하여 수행해 나갈 것을 유도하고 있다는 것이다.<BR> 간화선은 수행방법에 있어서 현실경계를 떠나 실상을 구하지 아니한다. 또한 서원, 발심, 자비심 등의 대승심은 “의정”을 일으키는 직접적요인으로 작용한다. 따라서 이것은 간화선 수행이 단순히 개인적 번뇌로부터의 해탈만을 추구하지 않는, 보다 깊고 넓은 자비심과 서원이 바탕이 되지 아니하면 수행자체가 힘들다는 것을 보여주고 있다고 할 수 있다. 그러나 이러한 간화선도 지금의 한국이라는 구체적인 현실세계를 직면하여 방편상의 변용과 수용의 문제를 고민하지 않을 수 없게 되었다. 이것은 곧 ‘간화선의 대중화’라는 말로 요약될 수 있는데, 특히 구체적인 수행방법에 있어서 간화선의 본질을 잃지 않으면서 대중화를 이루어낼 수 있는 보다 자세하고 체계적인 수행법으로의 전환이 필요할 것이다.<BR> 필자는 이와 관련하여 세 가지 내용을 제시하여 현대적 수용문제를 검토해 보았다. 첫째는 간화선 수행을 위한 數息, 念佛 등 예비 수행이 필요한가에 대한 것이며, 둘째는 화두를 드는데 있어서 좀 더 구체적 단계 즉 念話頭, 誦話頭, 問話頭, 參話頭 등이 제시될 수 있는가의 문제이며, 셋째는 깨달음 제일주의를 지향하지 않는 간화선이 가능한가에 대한 것이었다.<BR> 그러므로 이러한 대안이 지금 시대의 현실적 요구에 부합된다면 간화선의 대중화를 위한 방편으로서 충분히 고민되고 제시될 필요가 있을 것이다. 그리고 이것은 간화선 자체가 대혜종고가 처한 남송시대의 현실적 요구에 의하여 제창되었듯이, 현시대의 근기와 상황에 따라서 간화선의 수행방법을 창조적으로 변용하는 것은 꼭 필요한 시도라고 할 수 있다. 사물을 둘러싼 談論은 끊임없이 변해가듯 간화선의 본질을 버리지 않는 창조적 수용과 변용은 지금 한국불교가 직면한 또 다른 ‘화두’라고 할 수 있을 것이다.

Buddhist thought and nursing: a hermeneutic exploration

In this paper I lay out the ground for a creative dialogue between Buddhist thought and contemporary nursing. I start from the observation that in tracing an arc from the existential human experience of suffering to finding compassionate responses to suffering in everyday practice Buddhist thought already appears to present significant affinities with nursing as a practice discipline. I discuss some of the complexities of entering into a cross-cultural dialogue, which is already well under way in the working out of Western forms of Buddhism, and which is beginning to be reflected in nursing literature. I introduce philosophical hermeneutics as a useful framework for elaborating an open and constructive exchange. I then discuss key Mahayana Buddhist concepts of emptiness and two truths that lead to a dynamic and open way of understanding reality and responding in the world. I turn to examples of original texts to give a flavour of the varied and distinctive forms of literature in the Buddhist tradition. This is intended partly to keep the reader alert to cultural difference (from a Western standpoint, that is) while exploring the creative potential of Buddhist thought. Hermeneutics again provides a framework for interpretation. This paper establishes a philosophical ground for a critical and creative dialogue between Buddhist thought and nursing.

Fan Bai: Chinese Buddhist Monastic Chants (review)

CHINESE BUDDHIST CHANT Fan Bai: Chinese Buddhist Monastic Chants. Edited by Pi-Yen Chen. (Recent Researches in Oral Traditions of Music, 8.) Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2010. [Figs., p. vii; CD tracks, p. viii; pref., p. ix-x; hist. & comment., p. 1-42; plates & transcriptions, p. 43-88; facsim., p. 88-154; notes, p. 155-57; glossaries, p. 158-62; bibliog. refs., p. 163-65. Compact disc. ISBN-10 0895796724, ISBN-13 9780895796721. $150.] Buddhism in China has a long history, dating back to around first century of Common Era. For over two millennia this foreign religion from India via Central Asia has laid down roots in its adopted land, and continuously evolved to develop into a uniquely Chinese Mahayana Buddhism that has infiltrated a wide spectrum of Chinese society up to present day. There no lack of historiography of Buddhism in China. Writings in English on music and ritual in Chinese Buddhism are, however, still sparse. Despite being an intrinsic part of religion, liturgy and its musical expression are often neglected or treated as peripheral to other aspects of Buddhism. Pi-Yen Chen's volume on monastic complete with a compact disc and musical transcriptions, therefore a welcome addition to limited body of studies in Chinese Buddhist music and ritual. The first half of volume consists of three chapters. The first a forage into history and background of Chinese Buddhist following development of contemporary liturgies and Buddhist music; this followed by discussions on types of and analysis of their musical styles; third chapter then focuses on an examination of daily liturgies in monastery. The book's second half consists of musical transcriptions in Western notation (presumably by Chen herself) of a selection of different categories of chant alongside their Chinese chant texts. A facsimile of complete liturgy of daily service follows transcriptions. The first three chapters and musical transcriptions should be of much interest to music scholars. The long history of religion's development in China makes it no easy task to present a full picture of evolution of Buddhist chants in its adopted land; it a subject that deserves a separate book altogether. Information on Chinese Buddhist liturgical chant and its performance can be gleaned from canonical Buddhist literature dating from around sixth to eighth centuries; references to origin of Chinese Buddhist fanbai (referring to singing of hymns and praises), descriptions of musically adept preachers and hymnodists, and accounts of and ceremonies can all be found. Chen's historical account in chapter 1 omits early history, focusing instead on development of chant within various Buddhist schools that emerged after Tang (618-907). The establishment of large public monasteries during Song (960-1279), she points out, was a watershed in development of Chinese Buddhist chants, noting that most monastic liturgies practised today were composed during and after Song dynasty (p. 1). Chen attributes continued prevalence of chant practice from Song period to the fact that public Chan (Zen) monasteries became major Buddhist institutions in China during Song dynasty, and their monastic regulations ensured perpetuation of fundamental rituals (p. 2). Two other schools of Buddhism singled out by Chen as having played important roles in shaping liturgies and chants extant today are Tiantai and Mi/Zhenyan Esoteric schools. The influence of Pure ( Jingtu) school, however, no less than other two schools; Chen fails to draw attention to this fact in this section but mentions it a few pages later when discussing nianfo practice (pp. 5-6), and also in chapter 3 (pp. 37-41) when discussing evening service, whose aim is to direct participants to Pure Land (p. …

Nangkha Nangdrik in the Land of the Thunder Dragon: Psychology, Religion and the Potential of Mediation in the Kingdom of Bhutan

This article will consider the role that Alternative Dispute Resolution (‘Dham Kha Chen Ki Khendum’ or ‘Nangkha Nangdrik’) currently plays in resolving legal conflict in Bhutan. With a Constitution that has committed to the pursuit of Gross National Happiness, non-adversarial dispute resolution processes that promote continuing relationships and goodwill assume greater importance. One difficulty for Bhutan is that alternative dispute resolution procedures such as mediation (Dhum Drik) are being referred to in enactments of the Bhutanese National Council and National Assembly (bicameral parliament), without a shared understanding as to the characteristics and functionality of these procedures. This article will focus particularly on the current practice of mediation in Bhutan and investigate whether particular models of mediation are more suited to the Bhutanese context, given the particularities of Bhutanese culture, the search for gross national happiness, psychological understandings of happiness and the omnipresent influence of Mahayana Buddhism.

Paradoxicality of Institution, De-Institutionalization and the Counter-Institutional: A Case Study in Classical Chinese Chan Buddhist Thought

This article examines the issue of the paradoxicality of institution, de-institutionalization, or the counter-institutionalization in classical Chan thought by focusing on the texts of Hongzhou School. It first analyzes the problem of 20th century scholars in characterizing the Chan attitude toward institution as iconoclasts, and the problem of the recent tendency to return to images of the Chan masters as traditionalists, as opposed to iconoclasts. Both problems are examples of imposing an oppositional way of thinking on the Chan masters. The essay then introduces a new paradigm for interpreting the Chan attitude toward institution, the model of de-institutionalization, which borrows certain insights from Derrida’s idea of the counter-institutional. However, the new model is supported by the Chan heritage of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. This model can more consistently construe the Chan understanding of the paradoxicality of institution, the subtle Chan relationship of being “with and against” institution, and the Chan “middle way” to make institution remain open to its outside and to transformation.

大乗仏教在家起源説再考

大乗仏教在家起源説再考

Twilight of Utopias

The biologist Julian Huxley and his younger brother, the novelist Aldous Huxley, each presented a distinct approach to utopian thought in the twentieth century. Julian Huxley sketched a vision of ideal polity that was nothing less than global, calling for the creation of a uni?ed world culture, a new religion predicated on the methods and discoveries of evolutionary biology, and, ultimately, the emergence of a global government. Aldous Huxley’s vision of utopia was deliberately local, based on his view that the machinations of large states, however well intentioned, were a threat to human liberty. Island, Aldous Huxley’s utopian novel of 1962, depicts a small cooperative society, employing low-impact technologies while draw¬ing its worldview from a combination of modern science and Mahayana Buddhism. The distinct visions of the Huxley brothers did share one common trait which remains resonant today. Each identi?ed ecological sustainability as the primary foundation for any plausible utopia.

Huàifălúnzōng(壞法論宗) and Vaitulika ―Understanding of ‘Mahāyāna’ in Abhidharma-śāstra

Huàifălúnzōng(壞法論宗) and Vaitulika ―Understanding of ‘Mahāyāna’ in Abhidharma-śāstra

Dharmabhāṇakas in Early Mahāyāna

Dharmabhāṇakas in Early Mahāyāna

基における大乗二種姓解釈の特徴について

基における大乗二種姓解釈の特徴について

A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-first Century (review)

Reviewed by: A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-first Century James A. Anderson (bio) Charles Holcombe. A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-first Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. xxiv, 430 pp. Illustrations and maps. Hardcover $95.00, ISBN 978-0-521-51595-5. Paperback $32.99, ISBN 978-0-521-73164-5. Textbooks in an East Asian survey course can serve several different functions. Some texts are intended to create a context for an instructor’s lectures, providing necessary information about each country’s general history. This information is often accompanied by primary source excerpts, upon which supplementary class discussion may be focused. Rhoads Murphey’s East Asia: A New History, now in its fifth edition, fits well into this category. Some textbooks are intended to challenge accepted narratives, while still providing the topical coverage of earlier accounts. Pamela Kyle Crossley’s recent text on modern China The Wobbling Pivot, China since 1800: An Interpretive History would suit this category. Charles Holcombe’s ambitious A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-first Century fits somewhere between these approaches as a work that not only covers the bases but also manages to bring fresh historiographical insights to the classroom. Textbooks are not often known for innovation and originality, but Holcombe’s text significantly advances the area studies model of East Asian history first introduced by John King Fairbank, Albert Craig, and Edwin Reischauer in the field’s once dominant East Asia: Tradition and Transformation (1973). I congratulate the author on this achievement. Holcombe’s textbook draws from recent secondary literature that addresses the weaknesses in prevailing nationalist narratives of the modern East Asian nations. These nationalist histories, often products of postcolonial efforts to find [End Page 190] the essence of national identity in the distant past, emphasize the unique characteristics of individual nations over longstanding cultural and historical links with other nations in the region. Contentious relations between Korea and Japan in the modern era, for example, influenced domestic scholarship in both countries on the ancient cultural ties between settlements in the Korean peninsula and the inhabitants of the islands now composing southern Japan. Depending on the political inclinations of the scholars involved, scholarship outside of China sought to downplay the sustained regional impact of various imperial-period Chinese regimes, although the Chinese writing system, Chinese style bureaucratic institutions, Confucianism, and Mahayana Buddhism were all acknowledged as widespread influences. Holcombe’s account acknowledges the distinct historical origins of each modern East Asian state, while the underlying connections between the core societies of the region are properly acknowledged. Holcombe’s general approach in A History of East Asia is strongly interregional, and the text follows the author’s own earlier work and the current trend in the field to think cross-culturally, or transnationally, even in the period prior to the emergence of the nation-state.1 Holcombe notes the regional influence that Chinese culture, specifically the cultural norms developed in societies located on the North China plain, had on East Asia, but he reminds the reader that independent developments at the local level could be equally significant. Nonetheless, defining characteristics of social identity spread regionally, and East Asian elites had, at times, more in common with each other than they did with their own social subordinates. Holcombe does not, however, ascribe to the conventional notion that East Asian civilization developed in full on China’s central plains (zhongyuan) and, subsequently, flowed into other parts of East Asia. There were multiple cultural cores across modern-day China, East Asia, and even Eurasia that all contributed over time to various aspects of what is now deemed “Chinese” cultural practice. As Holcombe writes, “although [ancient] Chinese civilization did develop largely indigenously, it was never entirely a closed and isolated system” (p. 30). I have used the author’s earlier work Genesis of East Asia several times in the classroom for my lecture survey on the early imperial period, and I am happy to see many fine elements of that work included in his textbook. In A History of East Asia, the author...

Consideration of the View of Varna (caste) in Mahayana Buddhism

Consideration of the View of Varna (caste) in Mahayana Buddhism

The Awareness of the Natural World in Shinjin : Shinran's Concept of Jinen

attainment of shinjin and truth The primary issue regarding knowledge that Shinran (1173–1263) treats in his writings concerns the commonplace, “natural” presupposition that it is constituted by an ego-subject relating itself to stable objects in the world. From his stance within Buddhist tradition, Shinran identifies the crucial problem as the human tendency toward the reification of both sides of this dichotomy—resulting in an autonomous self and substantial things—with the consequent attachments fueling the afflictions (“blind passions”) of habitual pain and conflict for oneself and others. The focus of Shinran’s treatment of this basic Buddhist concern is the point of engagement with dharma or true reality. In this, he draws into the arena of religious faith the probing scrutiny of lingering attachments to self, even in the dedicated practitioner, that is fundamental to the critical attitude of Mahayana Buddhist tradition. My aim in taking up the issue of truth in my article “Shinran and Heidegger on Truth” in The Boundaries of Knowledge in Buddhism, Christianity, and Science 1 is to suggest a way of reading Shinran that both avoids a common pitfall that Shinran himself cautions against—an engagement with Pure Land teachings that adheres to the subject-object dichotomy of ordinary awareness—and opens up his vision to resonances with contemporary western thought, particularly continental philosophy. This latter concern is not to claim that Shinran adumbrates contemporary thought or is affirmed by resemblances, but rather seeks to cast light on compelling aspects of his thought not often treated in traditional Shin scholastics. There are, therefore, both therapeutic and constructive sides in my attempt to engage Martin Heidegger’s (1889–1976) thought from a perspective rooted in Shinran’s Buddhism. The pitfall in reading Shinran indicated in my article is crystallized in the assumption, prevalent in Western scholarship but also widely seen in Japan, that his Shin Buddhist path centers on a simple faith in the Pure Land teachings, with such faith understood as the subjective acceptance of the truth of doctrinal propositions. In

The female body in early Buddhist literature

In this paper the author presents Theravāda Buddhist perceptions of the female body and their impact on sexuality, gender equality and salvation. In doing so the author draws on a selection of texts from the Buddhist canonical literature, which are relevant to the Theravāda tradition. Early Buddhist literature reflects an understanding of the female body as being more closely connected to the material world and the cycle of reincarnation, due to its biological qualities. This has a severe impact on the woman’s status and her chances of attaining enlightenment. Considering the early teaching of individuals possessing equal capacities to attain liberation, no matter what sex or social background, Buddhism as it developed over time failed to translate the equality of the sexes into a social reality. In fact, the perception of a distinct female ‘nature’ which was deemed a hindrance could not easily be erased from the collective consciousness. It is, however, important to note that Buddhist countries are subject to diverse influences that affect attitudes towards the female body, sexuality and the status of women—thus one has to be very careful with generalizations regarding norms and practices. Over time the negative attitudes and restrictions have been questioned; social changes have given way to new interpretations and perspectives. Pondering religious and cultural implications of the Buddhist attitude towards the body and its sex while also considering, for example, modern Mahayana Buddhist interpretations—especially by Western Buddhists and Buddhist Feminists—can lead to an acknowledgement of its potential of interpreting anattā, selflessness and an equality of capacity to practice Dhamma in favour of a general sex and gender equality.

Towards unmanned systems for dismounted operations in the Canadian Forces

Unmanned systems are designed to reduce risk and magnify the impact of manned forces. Expanding unmanned involvement in military operations will require greater vehicle autonomy and the adoption of new concepts of operations. This paper discusses the technical challenges of unmanned systems in support of dismounted operations and research efforts by Defence R&D Canada to support unmanned vehicles in this role. New projects have been formulated to address these technical challenges.

Symbolism of the Iconographical Attributes of Bodhisattva Avalokithesvara in Mahayana Buddhism

The worship of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara venerated for his limitless compassion towards the laity and the ability to serve those suffering in multiple ways is one of the major cult practices in Mahayana Buddhism. One of the major features of the worship of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara is the embodiment of the Buddha. Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara is therefore as much venerated as the Buddha. He has been the prominent figure among the vast array of Bodhisattvas in many East Asian countries that follow Mahayana Buddhism. The concept is popular in India and Sri Lanka and has continued through the ages combined with local religious traditions. The iconographical symbolism of his adoration is mostly depicted in Sanskrit and other versions of Sutra literature and significant number of images. This has cultivated a strong relationship between religion and art. The attention of this paper is focused on identifying and analyzing the nature of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara visualized in Buddhist iconography through various aspects of religion and art. Sri Lankan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Vol.1(2) Oct 2009

Sustaining the heart of education: finding space for wisdom and compassion

How is it possible for those of us involved in education to bring to life the language and ways of being together in schools that sustain the heart of education, cultivating wisdom and compassion in ourselves and those in our midst, while tending to our educational responsibilities associated with standards and assessment? This inquiry led us to educators, children and classrooms in the UK and US, in urban cities and small towns, where conversation and space is being held for the cultivation of wisdom and compassionate action. Primary data were gathered from interviews employing a semi‐structured interview protocol developed specifically for the wisdom‐and‐compassion research and derived from wisdom teachings as set out in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. Through observations and interviews we discovered examples that bring to life the ongoing cultivation of dynamic wisdom, mindful awareness and compassionate action in schools and classrooms today.

Philosophy of Nothingness and Process Theology

AbstractThis paper discusses the two representative philosophers of the Kyoto School, Kitaro Nishida and Hajime Tanabe from the perspective of process theology and the Buddhist-Christian dialogue in Japan.The first chapter explicates Nishida’s concept of “pure experience” in comparison with William James’ radical empiricism and with Kant’s dualism of sense and reason. Pure experience in Nishida’s sense is neither a passive reception of objective sense-data given before subjective mental operations, nor the raw material of experience which must be given “form” by experiencing subject. It is nothing but metaphysically ultimate activity from which both the experiencing subject and the whole range of the experienced objects from sense-perception to intellectual intuition emerge as its self-unfolding.The second and third chapters discuss the two key concepts of process theology, “concrescence” and “the extensive continuum” with a special reference to the Mahayana Buddhist concept of “emptiness (sunyata)” and “dependent arising (pratityasamutpada)”. Nishida’s tripartite concept of topos, i.e. a topos of relative being, a topos of relative nothingness, and the topos of absolute nothingness will be applied to process theology in order to explicate the relation of two ultimates in Whitehead’s metaphysics, i.e. the relation of God as the religious ultimate to creativity as the metaphysical ultimate.The fourth and fifth chapters discuss Hajime Tanabe as a critical successor of Nishida’s philosophy of Nothingness. Tanabe is more akin to Whitehead than to Nishida in that Tanabe reformulates Nishida’s concept of Nothingness from the temporal perspective of a finite human existence related essentially to “species” or “society” in the historical world. Tanabe transforms the unity of contradictories in the logic of topos into the contrasted opposites in the historical process of becoming, which involves novelty and discontinuous leaps at points of historical crisis. For him history has become “the overall Koan” in which the metaphysical topology of static being is to be superseded by the innovative principle of nothingness in the historical world.