seeing being-sive-not-being or life-sive-death, Nishitani uses the expression ‘seeing
things from the field of emptiness.’
The non-duality of being and non-being has great consequences for the person.
Characteristic of the person was the central place occupied by the subject in the
experiential world. This central place was disputed by the confrontation of death and
nihility and the resulting experience of doubt. Even the process of doubt can be seen
as a form of consciousness which is still in the context of the I grasping itself. This is
why the process of doubt has to be carried through to its very end. When we go
through the doubt to the Great Doubt, which is the Great Death, we reach the
ultimate phase of transformation, the goal of the way.
THE GOAL
True insight demands a personal existential conversion. Not only is the nihility behind
the person then apparent, but the person himself is being-sive-not-being. That being
wherein the person safely dreamed was blasted by nihility, but this nihility is not the
only reality. One has to let go of this nothingness and only then can true subjectivity
be attained. Truly being oneself is being oneself without an I center. The I is
surrendered, the middle-point forgotten. The person is there, but is no longer
person-oriented anymore (Nishitani 1982:71).
From this perspective there is no distinction between the person and all other things
in the world. As being-sive-not-being the person is thoroughly himself or herself. This
being truly oneself rests not only in being but also in not-being. The coming together
of being and not-being establishes another way for us of self-identity. The way of
self-identity is overcome. The person is just as the person truly is in the midst of
things as they truly are.
That self which truly is not-self rests completely in the present moment. Our life
and our actions are without any ‘why’.
They are without aim or reason outside of themselves and become truly
autotelic and without cause or reason, a veritable Leben ohne Warum. At
bottom, at the point of their original, elemental source, our existence, behaviour
and life are not a means for anything else.
(Nishitani 1982:252)Nishitani describes how in Buddhism the transcendence of the cycle of life and death
(samsara) ends in nirvana. This means overcoming the burden of life; nirvana is
‘rebirth to true life’ (Nishitani 1982:177). True life must not be sought outside the
cycle of birth and death; the cycle of birth and death itself is the place where ‘the bliss
of nirvana’ is truly present (Nishitani 1982: 180). The cycle of life and death is
nirvana; samsara is nirvana and nirvana is nothing else than samsara. The coming
and going of each instant in their ‘thusness’ is the true life. Each moment is truly
absolute, bottomless reality; each moment is as it is. The liberation from life is not
beyond life but is life itself.
190 CHRISTA W.ANBEEK AND PETER A.DE GROOT