Reviewed book: Buddhism and the Emerging World Civilization: Essays in Honor of Nolan Pliny Jacobson. Edited by Ramakrishna Puligandla and David Lee Miller. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996. Pp. 234. Hardcover $29.95.
In this anthology, Buddhism and the Emerging World Civilization: Essays in Honor of Nolan Pliny Jacobson, with four main sections, seventeen philosophers of the American and Buddhist traditions explore aspects of Nolan Pliny Jacobson's treatment of key issues in process philosophy, pragmatism, and Buddhism. Jacobson, after receiving his doctorate from the University of Chicago, taught at Winthrop College in South Carolina and published essays on Hume, Marxism, and the philosophy of religion.
Buddhism: The Religion of Analysis and Buddhism and the Contemporary World are two of the major inspirations for this anthology.
The first section's analytic essays explain some central concepts of Jacobson and Buddhism. Bart Gruzalski explores the logical possibilities of desirelessness. Ridding oneself of desires is a key component for the cessation of suffering and the attainment of Buddhist enlightenment. The development of the skill to act without desire is a fundamental characteristic of compassion (pp. 9-10). Gruzalski rightly identifies the consequence of desirelessness with Buddhist compassion, which functions as "a natural antidote to desire" (p. 11). Only enlightened persons, such as the Buddha, unfailingly apply this skill.
Cedric Lamberth Heppler outlines many of Jacobson's early ideas and identifies Jacobson's continual "commitment to a naturalistic worldview and the soteriological efficacy of the source of all human good, the creative event" (p. 22). The creative event drives individual and social growth. However, there are processes and institutions that threaten to annihilate such growth. To avoid this annihilation, Jacobson advocates the rational extension of "sympathy and fellow feeling" across the "biosocial basis of human existence" (p. 24).
Robert L. Greenwood's article provides snippets and pieces to argue that C. I. Lewis is a pragmatist and process philosopher. He then exploits Jacobson's philosophy in order to show the similarities of Lewis' ideas to Buddhism. Even though Greenwood admits that the Buddhist influence on Lewis is extremely tenuous at best, he nonetheless proceeds to outline Lewis' ideas on meaning, metaphysics, and the self (p. 28). This leads into an all-too-brief concluding discussion regarding dependent origination and emptiness (pp. 35-37).
David Lee Miller focuses on the richness and joyfulness of creativity inherent in the impermanence of experience. By realizing our immersion in the "unimpeded aesthetic flow of life," we can alleviate the sufferings caused by selfishness and social evils (p. 43). A philosophy based on creativity and its universally available self-corrective mechanism can contribute concretely to the development of a global community (p. 45).
The second section deals with Buddhism's central issues and important philosophical tenets. Hajime Nakamura's contribution recounts scriptural stories to explain the Buddha's message. The Buddha had realized that the various philosophical schools of ancient India were all vying for doctrinal supremacy. Not wishing to participate in their metaphysical disputes, the Buddha understood that "by detaching from philosophical conflicts, a person is able to grasp the truth and to attain inward peace" (p. 60). This explains Buddhism's rejection of metaphysical questions, for answers to them only perpetuate suffering.
Charles Hartshorne's essay follows this point by inquiring into the theological underpinnings of Buddhism. In attempting to ascertain the proper meaning of life, Hartshorne vainly provides an existential ground for universal love and compassion by appealing to the thought of Leibniz and the existence of God. His characterization of Buddhism as a "radically subjectivistic form of idealism" presents a perfunctory and superficial treatment of its tenets (p. 68).
Kenneth K. Inada, avoiding the implicit substantialist claims of Hartshorne, addresses the ontological and existential nature of creativity. Through understanding the emergence of experience in its essential relativity and momentariness, Buddhist reality (Buddha-dharma) and Jacobson's self-corrective society are realizable. We can then ride "the surging wave" of the "organismic flow of existence" and be released from suffering (pp. 78-79).
David L. Hall's highly metaphysical essay explores the cosmological and ontological questions that arise between Taoism and Buddhism. After identifying what he takes to be their similarities, Hall believes that the most important ontological difference between Taoism and Buddhism is illustrated by their mutual confusions and misconceptions about their respective experiential notions of "spontaneous arising" and "relational origination" (p. 93).
Frank Hoffman addresses various conceptions of the meaning of life with respect to Jacobson's and Buddhism's "concrete orientation to experience" (p. 96). After examining parts of Klemke's anthology The Meaning of Life, his conclusion identifies seven "conceptual reminders" that indicate that meaning is "open-textured" (p. 107). These are intended to help us understand the non-rational and non-totalizable nuances of life's meaning.
Tsung-I Dow's piece follows a thematic "twofold" structure (p. 116). He holds that the achievements of the physical-empirical sciences have validated the claims of Buddhism. Unfortunately, Dow tends to group the different schools of Buddhism into one singular ideology, thereby ignoring their idiosyncrasies. These schools would tend to reject his uncritical acceptance of scientific knowledge as the ultimate standard of truth.
Ramakrishna Puligandla's refreshing contribution initially recounts his relationship with Jacobson, and continues by exploring the temporal nature of dependent origination. He shows that Jacobson's notion of creativity stems directly from this doctrine. His analysis superbly supplements Inada's essay, and more than adequately describes the experiential nature of Buddhist emptiness as "omniconditionality" (p. 133).
The third section, dealing with international politics, includes essays by Paul F. Schmidt and Howard L. Parson. Schmidt explores the possible application of various Buddhist meditative practices toward resolving and avoiding international conflicts. Schmidt and Jacobson advocate, and not unreasonably, that political leaders ought to employ these techniques in order to attain "peace and freedom" for their countries and peoples (p. 139). Parson explains the intrinsic unities and interactions shared by human beings and other species. After a general account of the destructive forces that threaten our planet, he identifies four corrective actions designed to help us deal with these forces. By basing these actions on mutual respect among equals who recognize and accept the differences of others, trust and cooperation can become the basis for creating a global human community.
The last section concerns contemporary issues in Japanese Buddhist thought and culture. Hal W. French's article employs traditional stories, socioeconomic data, and personal anecdotes to explore the Zen understanding and contribution to the way of art. For him, Japan's character and culture have the open-ended capacities for becoming adept at what they adopt from others by adapting their adoptions to their own needs. This has culminated in a "techni-do" wherein work and industrial production "may be considered an art" (p. 177).
Morgan Gibson's critical essay questions Jacobson's account of the aesthetic nature of nirvana. This nature supposedly emerges from the qualitatively new and dynamically creative aspects of enlightened experience. However, Jacobson never adequately explicates his view of aesthetics. According to Gibson, Jacobson simply claims that the appropriation of this aesthetic will enable us to live self-correctively in order to perpetuate the survival of human civilization.
Stuart D. B. Picken views Jacobson's "ideas from a Japanese perspective" (p. 191). He takes Japan as the ideal model for future international developments due to its cultural "flexibility" (p. 202). In contrast to his largely negative characterization of Western religions and metaphysics, Picken holds that the themes of harmony, aesthetics, process, and spirituality, arising out of Japan's Buddhist and Shinto heritage, exemplify the requisite qualities for world civilization in the next century.
Seizo Ohe's article begins with an analysis of a koan verse and then briefly describes Buddhism's tolerance, compatibility with science, self-corrective creativity, and compassion. His last section recounts the historical changes of the twentieth century and how they seem to be leading to a "future world community of humankind" (p 208). The way to this ideal end is fraught with perils, but through the application of Buddhist tenets its realization is a real possibility.
This anthology is an insightful introduction to the main ideas of Nolan Pliny Jacobson. It is also an important contribution to the field of comparative philosophy. Despite the fact that the articles assume familiarity with process thought and the basics of Buddhism, I recommend this book for those working outside the comparative field. These essays point to the intellectual and experiential underpinnings of the future global community that are continually emerging from the interactions of the social, political, economic, and technological spheres of civilizations around the world.