The Fusion of Horizons in Buddhism's Theory of ‘Understanding’ and Heidegger's Existentialist ‘Hermeneutics’

Document Type : Original Article

Author

PhD Candidate, Advanced Art Studies, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran

10.48308/kj.2025.238605.1305

Abstract

The dialogue between Heidegger and Buddhist philosophy around the concept of “understanding’’ is studied in this article. Heidegger and the Buddhist schools agree that “man” is part of the phenomenal world. Encounters with Taoism and Zen Buddhism led Heidegger toward a space beyond the limits of understanding—a space that was not hermeneutical or phenomenological, but poetic and meditative. The results of the research indicate that, on the one hand, Heidegger's existentialist thought is in some way consistent with the fundamental doctrine of Prajñāpāramitā, that form is Śūnyatā and Śūnyatā is form. And it was essentially the affinity of this Mahāyāna doctrine with Heidegger's view that being and non-being are, in effect, “the same” that attracted the Kyoto School thinkers to Heidegger's thought. On the other hand, contemporary Indian philosophers, in agreement with Buddhist and Heideggerian philosophies, considered understanding to be the inherent nature of consciousness and regarded the most important element of achieving it to be the removal of obstacles created by conditioning. The research was conducted using a comparative approach, and its data were collected through library resources and analyzed using a descriptive-analytical method.

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References

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  • Receive Date: 01 February 2025
  • Accept Date: 13 February 2025

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