ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 27, 2020
Nothingness in the Heart of Empire: The Moral and Political Philosophy of the Kyoto School in Imperial Japan. By Harumi Osaki. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2019, xii+ 292 pp., ISBN 978-1-4384-7309-3 (hardback), $85.00.
Reviewed by Matteo Cestari
Thanks to the author for this dense review. This is not going to help, but here is what came to mind reading your remarks on the invention of traditions and the related debates.
You ask, “For example, it would be difficult to juxtapose invented and true traditions, given that technically all traditions are invented: does a non-artificial tradition exist ? Or a tradition not established by anyone ?” In the Nidanasamyutta (page 603 of Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation) the Buddha said, “So too, bhikkhus, I saw the ancient path, the ancient road travelled by the Perfectly Enlightened Ones of the past.” It seems to refer to a non-artificial tradition, a tradition not established by anyone, just revealed anew. “Not established by anyone” becomes ambiguous in this regard.
It is true that in Western thought (taking momentum in the nineteenth century especially) “historical awareness, … has put in motion the movement of criticism toward the past,” but in the mentioned quote, it seems that the Buddha (at least as reported by ancient tradition) had an historical awareness after all, bereft of criticism. But of course it is a very special case of, say, cosmic historical awareness. He also had another type of historical awareness, critical this time, related to the authority of the Vedas.