Kierkegaard and Japanese Thought Book

The author begins with a strong introduction underscoring the complexities of ego death and the need for a lucid treatise on the subject - and then immediately launches into the use of words like "obnubilation" and phrases such as "this-which-from-eternity-they-both-were", in a completely unironic manner.

There's also this, apparently insane, part:

"It is as it is. That is all you can say," and they are Maharshi's words.

Which means that there is no entity or object at all as such, not even ourselves, not even "I"?

Not even "Not-I"! How could there be? Think, man, think! Does not thought unite with intuition in this ultimate insight? How... could... there... be?

Ha-ha-ha!"


What a hoot.


But while the over-complexifications, random bits of French and Latin, and excessive use of hyphens are probably unnecessary, you get the sense that it doesn't have egoistic roots - only that the author enjoys this subject to such an extent that writing this book is a form a play for him and that he can't help with the occasional childlike flourishes of joy.

Anyways, I enjoyed reading this book. Ego death is the psychological process by which a person learns to de-identify with the ego. The basic idea is that because all concepts are fictions (although often quite useful fictions), and the "I" or the ego that we identify with is in fact a concept, the "I" that we think we are doesn't actually exist in any real sense. In other words, we aren't what we think we are, because we are unable to understand ourselves through any thought, or concept of self, in the same way that the concept of a "tree" doesn't capture the nature and infinite complexity of any given tree. Thoughts and concepts are all just models, which while useful, can never fully explain the true nature of ourself - which just is.

The actual understanding of ego death is said to not be able to be stated in words, as it is not an actual concept, but something beyond that - but it can be pointed to. One who has undergone ego death is said to go beyond good and bad, pain and pleasure, and all such dichotomies - because these concepts only exist when one believes oneself, and all selves, to be a separate and individual entities, rather than merely undifferentiatable parts of a unified whole.

"Envy, hatred and malice will be no more, vengeance will no longer seem desirable, we shall be invulnerable, and we know why - for we have said it again and again in the foregoing pages - and so there is no one to hurt any of "us". Love and hatred are replaced by universal benediction, manifested as kindliness and good nature towards the world around us which we now recognise as ourself."