Masao Abe

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Masao Abe bigraphy, stories - Japanese Buddhist, professor in religious studies

Masao Abe : biography

1915 – September 10, 2006

Life and career

Masao Abe was a Japanese academic in comparative religion (concluding as emeritus professor at Nara University), and a Buddhist philosopher.Fredericks, James. "In Memoriam: Masao Abe (1915-2006).", in (Univ.of Hawaii 2007) Issue 27, at 139-140. Accessed on August 24, 2007.In Japanese his name is Abe Masao. Abe has two syllables. His mature views were developed within the Kyoto School of philosophy founded by Kitaro Nishida. Hence his interest in, and ability to compare and contrast, Buddhism and Christianity. "Since the death of D. T. Suzuki in 1966, Masao Abe has served as the main representative of Zen Buddhism in Europe and North America."Christopher Ives, "Introduction" at xiii-xix, xiii, in The Emptying God. A Buddhist-Jewish-Christian Conversation (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books 1990), edited by John B. Cobb, Jr. and Christopher Ives."Masao Abe has been the leading philosophical exponent of Zen to the West since the death of D. T. Suzuki." John Hick, in his "Forward" at ix, to Masao Abe, Zen and Western Thought (Univ.of Hawaii 1975), edited by William R. LaFleur.

Training

Abe’s father was a medical doctor, his mother a practitioner of Pure Land Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism, from whom his early faith in Amida Buddha.Amitābha (Skt), Amida (Jpn), means boundless light. "One of the most important and popular buddhas of the Mahayana [school], unknown in early Buddhism." "Amitābha is at the center of worship" in Pure Land Buddhism. Access to liberation becomes possible by such worship (or even by Nembutsu (Jpn), calling out the name). "The veneration of Amitābha represents… a new path to salvation… owing to help from outside through the liberating will of… Amitābha." Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, Michael S. Diener, Lexikon der őstlichen Weisheitslehren (1986), translated as Shambala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen (1991), Amitābha entry, at 5-6. Such help from another or Tariki (Jpn) is often contrasted with Jiriki (Jpn), one’s own power (as generally in Zen). Yet this distinction may be seen as artificial, due to each one being endowed with Buddha-nature. Cf., Jiriki entry, at 104. Abe, however, experienced this distinction as a source of personal turbulence; this spiritual crisis eventually led him to his own buddha-nature, under the guidance of his teacher Hisamatsu. See text here below. Born in Osaka, Abe was the third of six children. His higher education began at Osaka Municipal University, where he studied Economics and Law. For four years during the late 1930s he worked in a business office at a private trading company in neighboring Kobe. Yet Abe was seriously troubled by an ongoing personal crisis, which stemmed from the perceived conflict: rationality versus faith in the Amida of Pure Land Buddhism. This conflict he thought he could conclusively resolve in favor of faith through the study of philosophy, by which he could overcome objections posed by reason.Christopher Ives, "Introduction" at xiii-xiv, in The Emptying God (Maryknoll: Orbis 1990).Jeff M. Shore, "The True Buddha is Formless: Masao Abe’s Religious Quest" at 3-9, 3-4, in Masao Abe. A Life of Dialogue (Rutland VT: Charles E. Tuttle 1998), edited by Donald W. Mitchell.

Abe entered Kyoto University in April 1942.In 1949 at Kyoto University, Abe would complete the graduate course (under the old Japanese system) in Buddhism and comparative religion. Donald W. Mitchell, "Preface" at xi-xxiv, xii, in Masao Abe. A Zen Life of Dialogue (1998). It was a courageous step, as he changed career direction in mid-stream, exceptional in Japanese life, yet even more so considering the current political situation. He studied Western philosophy under Hajime Tanabe. Also, Abe studied Zen under the direction of Shin’ichi Hisamatsu, a philosophy professor at Kyoto University and a lay practitioner of the Rinzai school. Guided by Hisamatsu, Abe worked with others to revitalize Buddhist youth organization at Kyoto University throughout the 1940s.Specifically, Gakudo-Dojo [Place for study of the Way], which was followed during the war by the formation of the F.A.S. Society [Formless self, All humankind, Supra-historical].Cf., Felix E. Prieto, "The F.A.S. Acronym in Masao Abe’s Life Trajectory" at 35-40, in Masao Abe. A Zen Life of Dialogue (1998).The wartime government in Japan generally favored an ultra-nationalist version of Shinto, although all religious groups were compelled to support the war. William K. Bunce, Religions in Japan (C I & E 1948; reprinted 1954 by Charles E. Tuttle, Rutland VT) at 37-42. Professor Hisamatsu challenged Abe’s quasi-theistic faith in Amida Buddha; instead Hisamatsu became for Abe a vital religious model, of a rigorous adherent of Sunyata (which may be called emptiness) as an ultimate reality. In consequence, Abe came to understand Amida Buddha as a sacred fiction.Christopher Ives, "Introduction" at xiv-xv, in The Emptying God (Maryknoll: Orbis 1990)."Part of the strength of Abe’s approach to Christianity is his uncompromising rejection of theism. … Abe himself grew up in a quasi-theistic form of Buddhism and was converted away from that to what he is convinced is the true and pure form. Hence he understands theism from within and hopes to liberate from it those who are still attached to it. The contrast to the biblical faiths thus becomes stark." John B. Cobb, Jr., "Preface" at ix-xi, xi, to The Emptying God (1990)