Water is Life; Water is Alive, A Japanese Way of Thinking

Speaker：Thomas Kasulis (Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University)
Date：17:00-18:30, Monday, November 6, 2017
Venue：Seminar Room, 2nd Floor, Building 101, Komaba Campus, University of Tokyo
Language: English

Abstract：
This talk is designed as a thought experiment. It begins with some notions about the interdependence between nature and human being that have played a central role in the early development of the Japanese cultural-spiritual world view. For example, human beings and nature are not externally, but internally, related such that each is an inseparable part of the other. Our challenge then is not to understand how we should relate to nature, but rather to rediscover and work with the relations that are already and have always been there. Such an orientation dates back to animistic ideas of kami (神) that allowed the ancient Japanese to recognize and participate in a common ground sustaining both the human and natural. Furthermore, from the Heian and Kamakura periods Japanese Buddhists have stressed that the grasses and trees realize themselves as buddhas (sōmoku jōbutsu草木成仏) and that even the mountains and waters of the landscape teach us the truth (sansuikyō山水経). From the Chinese tradition, the Japanese added the importance of balancing opposing aspects (yinyang陰陽)　as the way to preserving harmony and addressing disharmony.

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主催：UTCP
後援：公益財団法人　西原育英文化事業団「水の思想」