Philosophy of Being: Greek, Scholastic, Zen and Heideggerian Glimpses

Abstract

This article highlights the confrontation of the issue of philosophy of Being between the Catholic theology as encouraged by Pope John Paul II, and that of Martin Heidegger who considers western philosophy to be a history of the forgetfulness of Being.

The author deliberates also on the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas whose highly conceptualized thought on Being appears not to fall under the category directly criticized by Heidegger.

In an interview with Der Spiegel near the end of his life, Heidegger said enigmatically that “only a god can save us”. In response to his claim, the author ventures into a delicate discourse on oneness of Being between God and the Godhead. In so doing the author engages a dialogue between the mystical tradition of Master Eckhart and the Daoist tradition in the writing of Zhuangzi and two Zen hymns, the second being composed by Huineng the 6th Patriarch in the Chinese Zen lineage. This article ends the discussion with a few remarks by a Chinese scholastic theologist, John Wu.