The Finger and the Moon: Language, Reality, and Interpretation in Zen Buddhism. In: Herat, Manel. Buddhism and Linguistics

Williams, Duane (2017) The Finger and the Moon: Language, Reality, and Interpretation in Zen Buddhism. In: Herat, Manel. Buddhism and Linguistics. In: The Finger and the Moon: Language, Reality, and Interpretation in Zen Buddhism. In: Herat, Manel. Buddhism and Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan. (Accepted for Publication)

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Abstract

This essay explores how certain Zen Buddhist sayings are understood to highlight a fundamental difference between mediated teachings on the one hand and immediate experience on the other. This difference is argued to exist because language as a limited tool cannot express the unlimited truth of reality. However, in order to challenge this view a different understanding of language and experience is formulated, chiefly through the phenomenological linguistics of Martin Heidegger. This in turn allows us to reinterpret the relation between language and reality in Zen, and thus see the significance of the sayings in a new light.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information and Comments:	Williams, Duane. (2017) The Finger and the Moon: Language, Reality, and Interpretation in Zen Buddhism. In: Herat, Manel, Buddhism and Linguistics Palgrave Macmillan reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. This extract is taken from the author's original manuscript and has not been edited. The definitive, published, version of record is available here http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/
Keywords:	Martin Heidegger, Zen Buddhism, Language, Reality, Interpretation, Finger, Moon
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities
Depositing User:	Lauren Whiston
Date Deposited:	23 Mar 2016 15:50
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2024 14:57
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/994

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