Existential Buddhism brings together the concepts of existential philosophy with the principles of Buddhism. Existentialism explains why Buddhism works. Buddhism provides for a practical application of Existential insights.
Existential Buddhism does not add or take away from the principles of traditional Buddhism. It does make Buddhism easier to understand and Enlightenment easier to achieve. It offers a modern understanding of traditional Buddhism.
Existential philosophy, or Existentialism, is most recognized as a cultural movement in Europe during the 1940s and 1950s. It is characterized by the experience of anguish in the face of the absurdity of human existence. Jean Paul Sartre (b.1905, d.1980) attributed this to the Nothingness of consciousness, which he succinctly expressed as “existence precedes essence.”
Nothingness is the very nature of human consciousness: a consciousness that is an absolute subjectivity.
Emmanuel Kant (b.1724, d.1804) was the first to understand that there is an empirical self that we recognize as our person. But he also determined the existence of a more fundamental awareness that unites all perceptions, including the empirical self. He writes in his Critique of Pure Reason:
No knowledge can take place in us, no connection or unity of one item of knowledge with another, without that unity of consciousness which precedes all data of intuitions. . . This pure, original and unchangeable consciousness I shall call transcendental apperception. (B144-A108)
This pure consciousness, this apperception, Sartre describes as an absolute subjectivity. It is also the basis, and culmination, of Buddhism.
Siddhartha Gautama (circa 400 BC) rigorously dedicated himself to finding a cure for human suffering. He discerned that the malady was due to craving physical existence. He then formulated the Eightfold Path as a method to free the mind from the chain of suffering. This is achieved through a process of meditation leading to a profound insight into the nature of the mind. It involves the recognition of the impermanence of physical existence, the consequence of actions, and the importance of morality.
But Gautama the Buddha’s most radical revelation was the Not-self doctrine. It is the Not-self Doctrine that distinguishes Buddhism from other religious ideologies:
Form is not-self. Were form self, then this form would not lead to affliction…
Feeling is not-self…
Perception is not-self…
Determinations are not-self…
Consciousness is not self. If consciousness were self, then this consciousness would not lead to affliction. One could have it of consciousness: let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus… (SN 22.59)
With much effort and dedication, the practice of Buddhism releases the mind from identification with the empirical self. This unbinding of the mind is the Enlightenment.
Unfortunately, the Not-self doctrine has often been misunderstood as a No-self doctrine. This is the idea that there is no individual or true being that exists. The human being is then only an accumulation of interdependent causes with an illusion of individual existence. This creates much confusion and obscurity as to the nature of liberation, or Enlightenment. If there is no individual being, then there is also no one who suffers, and no one to become Enlightened.
It is here where Existential insights are key to understanding the Not-self doctrine correctly. Correct understanding of this doctrine is essential to achieving Enlightenment.
The Buddha did not discuss what is realized after the self-idea is released with Enlightenment. This is because the very description would be another concept and not the realization itself. But he did leave a clue, which is well known but often misunderstood:
There is, monks, an unborn — unbecome — un-made — unfabricated. If there were not that un-born — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated, there would not be the case that emancipation from the born — become — made — fabricated would be discerned. But precisely because there is an un-born — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated, that emancipation from the born — become — made — fabricated is discerned. (Ud 8.3)
Here the Buddha is referring to an unconditioned consciousness. This is Kant’s transcendental apperception, and Sartre’s absolute subjective consciousness. The Not-self doctrine and the Nothingness point to this reality. I prefer to call this the Awareness.
Awareness is knowing and a simultaneous knowing (of) itself. It is human self-consciousness. It can also be understood as the true Self, or true Being, as different from the mundane self. This awareness is self- evident and indubitably individual.
Everything that we know, or experience, are objects of awareness. The mundane self is made of ideas and exists as an object of awareness. It is this self that is impermanent, the cause of suffering, and an illusion.
Human consciousness is Pure Awareness and at the same time Not-self and a Nothingness. This awareness is by nature peaceful and content. It becomes troubled when involved with the things of the world, trying to be a self. Buddhism is a method for the purification of Awareness.
Existential Buddhism attains a modern insight into the nature of human self-consciousness and Buddhism. It makes Enlightenment is easier to understand and achieve.
This website will explore these themes in greater detail, and many more.