刊行物
｜ ENGLISH ｜
Marc-Henri Deroche
MIND DOES MATTER. Following Socrates’ famous injunction “Know Thyself,” the quest for self-knowledge is at the heart of the humanities. This core principle of ancient Western philosophy has interesting parallels in Buddhism which describes wisdom as “to know one’s own mind as it truly is” (如實知自心, in Chinese translations of Sanskrit words Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra or Mahāvairocana-sūtra). In Buddhism, the mind (Sanskrit: citta, 心) is seen as the creator of our own world and destiny. Led by ignorance, the mind is afflicted by passions and suffering. Therefore, the mastery of one’s own mind is seen as the decisive key to freedom and true knowledge. Following this emphasis on the central importance of the mind and its philosophical training, the Idealist School (Vijñānavāda, 唯 識派) has even come to perceive the entire external world, including matter, as a projection of the mind. More simply, we may just acknowledge that our judgments strongly influence and shape our perception. Can we see things as they really are, if we ignore ourselves?
MAPPING THE MIND. Science and philosophy/religion seem to approach mind (including the whole range of sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts, reason and intuition) from very different angles. For example, neuroscience apprehends mind as a measurable object according to the examination of another subject’s brain. On the other hand, phenomenology and Buddhism are interested in one’s own subjective experience itself, explored through introspection, reflection, self-analysis or meditation. But could these approaches be seen as complementary, rather than opposite, in order to draw a more complete map of the mind? Inspired by the interdisciplinary spirit of the Hakubi Center, I have collaborated with Kyoto University’s Kokoro Research Center and the Mind & Life Institute (USA) to organize an interdisciplinary dialogue entitled “Mapping the Mind,” held in in Kyoto in April 2014, and featuring H. the 14th Dalai Lama, and distinguished scientists and scholars (the entire event can be seen from https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=kn93lKmaKgc).
Speakers and organizers of the international colloquium “Mapping the Mind”
MINDFULNESS. One salient outcome of such dialogues has been the scientific study of Buddhist meditative techniques. The Buddhist discipline of mind is intimately connected with the notion of sati in Pali or smṛti in Sanskrit: “mindfulness” (念), the capacity to deliberately focus the attention on a chosen object. With programs like “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction”, developed at the University of Massachusetts, mindfulness techniques are now increasingly being introduced in healthcare, education or management. The success of this trend of research and applications has also raised some questions. From the point of view of Buddhist studies, we may ask: is it possible to extract such techniques from the whole of Buddhism without denaturing them? Even if we do not consider more religious issues such as post-mortem destiny, Buddhist meditative techniques are traditionally understood within the threefold frame constituted by ethics (śīla, 戒), meditation (samādhi, 三昧) and wisdom (prajñā, 般若). They are based upon ethics and guided by philosophical insight. In order to examine further this East- West transfer, the analysis of the “technologies of the self” (Michel Foucault) or “spiritual exercises” (Pierre Hadot) in ancient Western philosophy, for example, may historically and culturally offer a wider perspective and show us a common ground: the central value of the conversion of the attention and its cultivation in the “quest for wisdom” (Greek: philo-sophia), conceived as a way of life. Undeniably, an important contribution of contemporary mindfulness studies has been to reconsider some of the relations between philosophy, psychology and medicine. Wasn’t the Buddha himself called the “Great Doctor”?
NEVER MIND. Buddhist sources analyze precisely how thoughts manifest in the mind, remain for a while, and then disappear. Mind itself cannot be defined as anything. The nature of mind is said to be “emptiness” (śūnyatā, 空 性), a decisive notion especially refined in the School of the Middle Way (Madhyamaka, 中観派). At this ultimate level of analysis, we reach a paradox: even the Buddha cannot see the mind. Eloquently, in Zen 禅 , the final state of mind training is called “no-mind” (無心, mushin). In this tradition, complete self-mastery is defined by the ability to remain in a state of open presence or choiceless awareness, all- including and spontaneous, beyond hopes and worries. In my Hakubi research project, I am investigating a similar yet unique doctrine of “pure awareness” (Tibetan: rig pa) with its other major cognitive characteristics such as clarity, lucidity, wakefulness, vividness, and expressivity, in the tradition of the “Great Perfection” (rdzogs chen), a remarkable synthesis preserved in the Himalayas (North India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet). While investigating pure awareness mainly through in-depth research on primary sources and in fieldwork, I have had exceptional opportunities to discuss its philosophical significance with scholars from the wide range of disciplines represented at our Hakubi Center and Kyoto University.
（マルク・ヘンリ デロッシュ）
