近代日本における霊性論 : （３）鈴木大拙の霊性

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki(1870―1966) was a well-known figure associated with the introduction of Buddhism, including Zen, to the West. He arrived in the US at the age of 27 on the recommendation of Zen Old Master Shaku Sōen, engaging in editing work with Paul Carus at the Open Court.
The first work he did was translating Taō Te Ching by Lao Tzu into English, and then he devoted himself to express Zen Buddhism to the West.
His book, Japanese-Spirituality, in which he discussed the differences between “reisei” and “seishin” was published in 1944. In the preface to Japanese-Spirituality disclosed that the latter implies a political duality that divides spirit and material, whereas the former is a nondualistic, religious consciousness or intuition. Intuitive reisei, in his opnion, does not separate material from seishin; hence, the former is more inclusive and acts as the foundation of our innermost consciousness.
In ordinary daily life, most of us vaguely assume that there is a world of sense and intellect and a world of spirit. From a genuinely religious viewpoint, the world of sense is an intellectual or conceptual reconstruction of what is immediately revealed to the spirit. In that sense, the sriritual world, not the sensasuos world, is more real. Alternatively, the spiritual world corresponds to a world of non-distinction and non-discrimination. With this in mind, our search for truth eventually leads us to the spiritual world.
Suzuki made a clear statement on the logic of Soku-hi, that is , “Soku” means identity(oneness) and “hi” means the fundamental contradiction.