his whole meaningful world falls apart, all things lose their certainty and importance
and become unreal (Nishitani 1982:7).^7
Questions such as ‘Why was I ever born?’ and ‘Where have I come from and where
am I going?’ play a role. These questions are not intellectual questions which can be
answered with speculative thinking. They open an emptiness in our being which is
not so easily reasoned away (Nishitani 1982:3). We become aware of the limits of
our existence (an awareness which was absent from the meaningful world where each
I was without limitation). The awareness of limitation shatters that self-consciousness
which never doubts the existence of the self. The being of the self is challenged and
becomes one huge question; existence turns into a problem (Nishitani 1982:16).
Continuing on the way; different phasesThe starting point of the path by Nishitani is the confrontation with death and
nihility, which shatters the central position of the I in the middle of the meaningful
world. The possibility of not-I creates a doubt which undermines every certainty.
The next phase which Nishitani describes is a doubt that increases to the point where
the whole person collapses.
DOUBT, GREAT DOUBT
Nishitani describes how in this process nihility becomes apparent as the hidden reality
in everything, both in the person and in all things. This casts everything into doubt.
No answers can be found. Finally, the doubt grows to the point where there is nothing
at all that is not doubted. Everything becomes subject to doubt. The person becomes
doubt through and through. This doubt emerges out of the ground of self-being and
of all things. When this doubt appears it is unavoidable and the person is at a loss as
to what to do about it.
Nishitani indicates that Zen Buddhism speaks of this radical doubt and calls it the
Great Death:
Zen refers to radical doubt as the Great Death. The Great Doubt comes to
light from the ground of our existence only when we press our doubts (What
am I? Why do I exist?) to their limits as conscious acts of the doubting self.
The Great Doubt represents not only the apex of the doubting self but also the
point of its ‘passing away’ and ceasing to be ‘self’.
(Nishitani 1982:21)A result of this profound experience of doubt is the fading away of the
‘person-centered’ way of being in the world. The person-centered way of being is
challenged by the exposure of the nothingness behind the person. This causes an
existential reversal; existence as it was is turned upside-down. The self as middle point
and the way of being and knowing which depends on this self fall away (Nishitani
1982:122).
188 CHRISTA W.ANBEEK AND PETER A.DE GROOT