[Buddha-l] japanese zen terms: honbun and shusho

[Vicente Gonzalez]

curt wrote:

c> And thanks for the link to the extremely relevant and interesting 
c> article by Muller! He also does not use these terms "honbun" and 
c> "shusho" or anything remotely resembling them. The primary term he uses
c> is "essence-function" aka "t'i-yung" or in Japanese "taiyu".

yes. It seems there are preferred words. Sometimes one can find more
information looking by words in definitions than pointing the word
itself. At least it is my experience.


c> I found it interesting that Muller was pretty hard on
c> "Platonic/Christian" "dualistic" "connotations" with respect to the
c> English word "essence" as a translation of "t'i". I strongly agree with
c> him - except to note that there is far more to Platonism than 
c> "Platonic/Christian dualism" which never really had very much to do with
c> Plato (or Aristotle or Socrates or Greek Philosophy at all). But that's
c> a topic for another day. I only mention it because I think that if one
c> abandons modern "analytical" as well as "Christianizing" versions of
c> Plato, then one has something that can indeed be "used" to approach such
c> concepts as "t'i". See, for example, the Phaedrus, the Symposium, the
c> Timaeus and the Philebus in which Plato reveals more of his 
c> "nondualistic" side.

I agree with that. Plato inheritance in Christianism can be more
directly attached to neoplatonics authors than to Plato and other
Greeks. Greeks still are a source of surprises many times, then also
noting our holes in supposed inheritance. I have read recently
"On the animals" of Plutarco. It is a brilliant defence of the animal
intelligence and against hunting them. It's surprising because his
modernity, and one can ask where is that inheritance in the
Christianism of past 1500 years. 

I know well about the Muller's bunker :)
Although I thought it was opened for scholars. I have an old CD but
truly it is very useful. Maybe shusho appears in recent updates, I
don't know. 


best regards,