Reviews the book The Buddhist Priest Myoe

·期刊原文
Reviews the book The Buddhist Priest Myoe: A Life of Dreams,
by Kawai Hayao,` translated and edited by Mark Unno.

Reviewed by Shigenori Nagatomo
Philosophy East & West Jul94,
Vol.44 Issue 3
Pp.582-586
Copyright by University of Hawaii Press

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.

Professor Kawai Hayao (ofKyoto University)is one of the
leading Jungian analysts in Japan, and is responsible for
guiding, almost single-handedly, the mainstream of Japanese
therapeutic professionals toward a Jungian approach in the
less than three decades of his practice. Although he is not
himself a Buddhologist, Kawai brings his expertise in dream
analysis to bear upon elucidating in this book the
individuation process or process of self-realization in the
case of Mybe (1173-1232), a prominent Buddhist monk of
medieval Japan. He offers an analysis and interpretation of
the latter's inner and outer life, by drawing
methodologically on Jung's depth psychology.

Kawai's choice for the subject of this study is most
appropriate, since Myoe meticulously kept his dream diary for
almost four decades of his life. The individuation process
requires a lifelong observation for it to be complete, and
Myoe's dream diary, unprecedented in "the spiritual legacy of
humanity" (p.19), proves an invaluable source in this regard.
Moreover, Myoe is known to have undergone the rigorous
selfcultivation practice characteristic of Shingon and Kegon
Buddhism, while strictly observing the Buddhist precepts, for
which he was later identified as "the purest priest of the
land." These points are important in the context of Kawai's
work because the ethical attitude one brings to one's
life-world, and hence to the individuation process in
particular, greatly influences its outcome. In this respect,
Kawai presents a nearly ideal, lived example of
individuation.

What is unique about Kawai's seasoned analysis of Mybe's
individuation process is the following fact. Jung formulated
his concept of individuation by observing pathological cases,
mostly psychoses, wherein he witnessed, in the process of
recovery, an impetus toward a wholeness of existence, that
is, toward becoming an indivisible whole as an expression of
natural healing (creative) power. However, his clinical
practice limited the scope of this concept to that of
bringing the subnormal to the normal, although he was
theoretically aware of a possibility that the Eastern
meditative traditions as seen in Yoga, Buddhism, and Daoism
may embrace a higher degree of wholeness.[1] By contrast,
Kawai's analysis of Myoe's image-experiences (bothvisual and
auditory)demonstrates that Myoe's concern was to bring the
normal to the supernormal,[2] in which process Kawai discerns
no pathological elements (p.7). In other words, Kawai's
treatment of Myoe's individuation instantiates in concrete
terms what was for Jung a mere theoretical possibility, that
is, a super-normal individuation process.

To make this point clear, I shall quote Kawai's own words:

The dreams he [Myoe] scrupulously recorded in his dairy
constitute a crucial part of his inner life, and
together with his waking life, form a single tapestry
of brilliant colors and scenes. (P.1; emphasis added)

Using Jung's language, Kawai interprets the "single tapestry
of brilliant colors and scenes" to mean that there was in
Myoe little discrepancy between the activities of
consciousness and the unconscious. Their competing forces
were dissolved to form a harmonious whole. To put it in
simpler terms, it means that Myoe lived his dream life in his
waking life, and vice versa. Parapsychology will interpret
this to mean that he had an access to paranormal phenomena,
such as clairvoyance and precognition, or to what Jung
preferred to call "synchronicity," a meaningful coincidence
between the mental and physical phenomena that disregards
temporal and spatial determinations. In the Eastern
religions, these phenomena are known to occur as by-products
of self-cultivation practice. In this regard, the culmination
of Myoe's practice is most clearly shown in his experience of
what he termed "body-mind crystallization" (shinshingyonen),
wherein the distinction between mind and body, and hence, by
implication, between spirit and matter, has disappeared. A
mode of awareness characteristic of this kind of experience
is a complete transparency without the consciousness of an
I.[3] It forms an experiential basis for the Kegon
understanding of the interfusion between a pattern of psychic
reality and its corresponding thing-event (rijimuge), where
the pattern remains for most of us an invisible reality.

From a broad perspective of classifying psychological
orientations, Kawai explains that Myoe's individuation
process is assisted more by the maternal principle than by
the paternal principle, reflecting an underlying, general
characteristic of Japanese culture.[4] The paternal
principle, Kawai points out, produces an ideology with the
bifurcating power of logos, whereas the maternal principle
generates a cosmology that embraces separation and
differentiation (pp.56 ff). As Kawai points out, neither
principle is better than the other, and each carries its own
particular pitfalls and dangers, especially when it is not
balanced by the presence of the other. In this respect,
Kawai's portrait of Myoe shows a counterbalance to the
culture of logos which has dominated, unnecessarily, the
Western intellectual world for centuries--"unnecessarily"
because the one-sidedness of anything according to Jung, is a
sign of the barbarian.[5]

To demonstrate that Mybe's individuation process is assisted
by the maternal principle, Kawai delves skillfully into the
inner dynamic involved in Mybe's appropriation of anima by
articulating his relation with women and his attitude toward
sexuality. Myoe's inner struggle was to fulfill his sexuality
as a male without violating the Buddhist precepts, or to use
Jung's terminology, to elevate the biological anima to a
spiritual anima by way of a romantic anima. To illuminate
this process, Kawai's analysis includes Myoe's dreams of his
wet nurse, sexual intercourse, a young maiden's assistance,
and reviving a petrified woman.

What forms a background to Myoe's elevation of anima is his
ardent aspiration toward a high spirituality, an aspiration
that requires the negation of incarnate existence, symbolized
by Myoe's amputation of his right ear. Yet, as Kawai notes,
such an attitude must be reconciled with incarnate, human
nature for the spirituality to become full-fledged and
meaningful. Myoe was compensated later, in his meditation, by
the appearance of the maternal Buddha-Eye, Buddha-Mother. He
was also taken, in several of his dreams, to the spiritual
height of climbing the fifty-two stages of the Bodhisattva
path (followingthe Kegon scheme) . Myoe's spiritual
achievement culminates in his meditative encounter with
Mahavairocana, a combined Buddha of cosmic creativity and
meditation, who is depicted in the mandalas of Shingon
Buddhism as the embodiment of both the maternal and paternal
principles. The lesson Kawai teaches us in depicting Myoe's
constellation of anima is that in order to go up, one must
come down, and vice versa.

A reflection on Kawai's book prompts me to raise some
questions for our future research agenda. Kawai's book
focuses on the analysis and interpretation of
image-experiences as they appear in dreams and meditation.
How, then, are the dream images related to the images
appearing in meditation? Should we make a distinction between
symbolic images and synchronistic or natural images? Symbolic
images appearing in dreams and meditation require
interpretation to be meaningful, while synchronistic images
do not. The latter have been formulated in Buddhism as
"seeing things as they are" (yathabhutam).Behind the task of
clarifying the meaning of images lies the question, what is
the nature and source of energy that gives rise to images?
This question is important, for example, in view of the
natural healing power which the practice of visualization (or
Jung's active imagination)brings to an individual. Kawai
mentions several instances of Myoe's dreams in which the
latter was cured from sickness thanks to the appearance of
certain images. For the sake of philosophical clarity,
image-experiences also have to be examined in comparison with
Zen's ideal "no thought, no image" (munenmuso). (Allthis will
probably lead us to the scientific and philosophical
investigation of ki energy in connection with
psycho-neuro-immunology.)

Now, a few words about the translation. Since the English
translation is edited by the translator, I shall refrain from
comparing it with the Japanese original. Overall, the
translation reads smoothly, a credit to the translator Mark
Unno, especially in light of the particular difficulty of
translating Kawai's vivacious book, which presupposes an
in-depth experiential understanding of both Jung's psychology
and Buddhism. What is most regrettable about the translation,
however, is that it should contain extensive footnotes on
Kawai's Buddhist terminology. Without such notes, the reader
who is unfamiliar with Buddhism might miss some of the
author's points. This problem becomes most critical when
Kawai mentions the names of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas in
connection with Myoe's experiential process of individuation,
for it lessens the impact and magnitude of Myoe's experience.
As for the translation itself, Mark Unno has successfully
produced a reliable English version of an important
contemporary Japanese work.

In conclusion, I want to single out one far-reaching
implication of this book. It concerns the reexamination of
human nature required by our postmodern search for new
paradigms in thinking. Kawai's book provides us with an
opportunity to question the realities and deeper
potentialities of human nature. The book is a shining marble.
To make it come alive, however, the reader must engage it
existentially. When the reader skillfully translates Myoe's
system of symbols into one appropriate and meaningful to
oneself, that reader has taken an initial step to a
difficult, yet rewarding path of supernormal individuation.

Notes

1 --The reader may remember, however, Jung's frequent
warning to the European man against engaging himself in
any Yoga practice of the East.

2 -- See Yuasa Yasuo, The Body, Self-Cultivation and Ki-Energy,
trans. Shigenori Nagatomo and Monte Hull (Albany,New
York: SUNY Press, 1993).

3 -- Ibid.

4 -- We may recall here that prajna is deified as a female
Bodhisattva in Tibetan Buddhism.

5 -- The ideal wholeness for Jung was to go beyond polarities
of any kind.