{"id":845,"date":"2018-09-20T06:24:04","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T06:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/?p=845"},"modified":"2018-09-20T06:24:04","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T06:24:04","slug":"emanuele_davide_giglio_my_nichiren%ef%bc%9abackground_of_my_study_of_nichiren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/2018\/09\/20\/emanuele_davide_giglio_my_nichiren%ef%bc%9abackground_of_my_study_of_nichiren\/","title":{"rendered":"Emanuele Davide Giglio \u201cMy Nichiren\uff1aBackground of my study of Nichiren \u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I started my study of <em>Nichiren, <\/em>I was a student of Japanese language at University of Turin (Italy).\u00a0\u00a0 (<em>Nichiren<\/em>\uff1aJapanese Buddhist priest(1222-1283))<\/p>\n<p>When I asked myself where linguistic difference between Italian and Japanese language come from, I was conscious about \u201csomething deeper\u201d: the \u201cbackground of languages\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cLanguage\u201d is not only \u201cwords\u201d.\u00a0 Behind \u201clanguage\u201d, there is a factor of thought which has been formed by human psychology and its peculiarity.\u00a0 No matter how much I cram up vocabularies, I cannot be a good Japanese speaker without understanding Japanese thoughts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At that time, at the latter part of the 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, there was a scenario of crisis of Western culture.\u00a0 There is Christian ethics which do not allow at will to manipulate the world on earth which God has created.\u00a0 And, on the other hand, there was a philosophical thought which became staying inside only university life after a sterile crash with science which have manipulated the world.\u00a0 Christian ethics and Philosophical Thought became unable to cope with our daily ethical issues toward what Technology has revealed as possible one, and the debate reached to a deadlock.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My philosophy master, Doctor Umberto Garinberti, ex-Professor of the University of Venice, told us that Western culture has experienced three systems of ethics.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>System of ethics by Christianity\uff1aWestern legislation has been accomplished by Christianity ethics. We call it the \u201cEthic of the Intention\u201d. Decision or judgement is made inside our \u201cindividual interiority\u201d. People are judged by \u201cintentions\u201d which have resulted in some behaviors. Crime is judged and decided by an intension which is intentionally or un-intentionally. However, if we will search for only \u201cintention\u201d, it would become meaningless in \u201cthe time of technology\u201d. Dr. Enrico Fermi invented atomic bomb, but it is not so important what kind of intention he had when he invented. What is important is how his invention resulted in history.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201c<em>Kant<\/em> ethic (secular ethic)\u201d\uff1a(<em>Immanuel Kant<\/em>\uff1aGerman philosopher(1724-1804)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is summarized to a proposition that human beings should be handled as a purpose, nor as means\u201d.\u00a0 Kant ethics might function when the earth looks bigger, they have ample natural resources and population is small. However, how is the situation now?\u00a0 Population became bigger, the earth became smaller and natural resources became poorer. Is it correct to handle human beings as a purpose and handle everything, others than human beings, as means?\u00a0 Are air and water now just means?\u00a0 Are air and water purposes to be preserved?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ethic by <em>Max Wever<\/em> (German political scientist and economist(1864-1920))<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is an ethic about responsibility and results. He said \u201cHuman behavior should be judged only by results, not by intention behind their behavior.\u201d And he continued that it is limited to results which are possible to forecast. Science and technology are not proceeded on the assumption that they like to \u201cfind out\u201d. What scientific technology discover is a coincidental result in various working process. Such results cannot be forecasted from the beginning.\u00a0 For example, \u201cclone\u201d is not a result which was forecasted from the beginning.\u00a0 It was discovered accidentally in various working process. Basically, result of research is not possible to be forecasted.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As mentioned above, at \u201cthe period of technology\u201d, ethics which were known in the Western world are quite incompetent now. It will be necessary to revise new ethics. However, if we try to revise old ethics basing on old \u201cunchanging\u201d principle, I think it meaningless to try to find new ethics. \u201cUnchanging principle\u201d might function in the period when nature is thought to be unable to manipulate. I think it was the time when human being could not do anything toward nature.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nature is now manipulated by scientific technology, not unchanging nature which Greek or Christian have thought. In short, nature is not \u201cbackground\u201d anymore. Not a \u201cmeasure\u201d (as we say &#8220;man as the measure of all things&#8221;) and not a \u201cstandard\u201d. As German philosopher, <em>Martin Heidigger<\/em> (1898-1976) said, our eyes toward nature changed into an utilitarianistic eye. When we see rivers, we think of electrical power. When we see a forest, we think of wood. And when we see ground, we think of mining resources. Nature, at present, has already changed to be usable and can be manipulated.\u00a0 We can say that it became impossible to revive new ethics on the \u201cbackground\u201d or \u201cmeasure\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Doctor Umberto Garinberti pointed out our (men of today or Westerners) standard is no more necessary and useful as far as we correspond to new the background: \u201cthe period of technology\u201d.\u00a0 It was the time when I started to change my interests toward other thoughts than the Western.\u00a0 If we do not have different nor new eyes adopting new thoughts, present Western culture, which have contributed to the world, would reach\u00a0 in a deadlock.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I thought Japanese and oriental cultures might have made our Western world fresh and given different eyes fundamentally.\u00a0 Existence of Buddhism, which is a religion and, at the same time, a system which has gigantic system of ideology, seems to me the most prominent. First of all, however, if I cannot make my research through the original text, I would be confined in the Western linguistic family and present ideology.\u00a0 And I attended a seminar \u201cReligions of East Asia and their Ideology\u201d of University of Turin.<\/p>\n<p>I began to wish my study in Japan thinking of access to many historical materials.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When we study \u201choly books\u201d, we have to read materials in the original text. By doing so, we have to overcome \u201cour time\u201d(now) and \u201courselves\u201d, both of which are linguistic and cultural identities. In other words, we have to enter into the world being retrospective to the original background of the people and their world view. At the seminar, I chose \u201cBuddhism in Japan\u201d naturally as a student of Japanese language. It was not so easy to read original materials (the Buddhist scriptures and its annotated editions) of <em>Nara <\/em>period (710-794) and <em>Heian<\/em> period (794-1185). It is said that original materials of <em>Kamakura<\/em> period (1185-1333) are easy to read and the Buddhism in <em>Kamakura<\/em> is said to be most authentically \u201cJapanese\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Among many Buddhist priests, three priests, <em>Shinran, Dogen<\/em> and <em>Nichiren <\/em>were prominent. I had a feeling that <em>Jodo<\/em> Buddhism by <em>Shinran <\/em>(1173-1263) was acceptable to me because it was close to Christianity in its spiritual foundation. But, because of this, on the contrary, I could not have any interest.<\/p>\n<p>About <em>Dogen<\/em> (1200-1253), I had a feeling of argumentativeness. It was similar to the Western philosophy.\u00a0 And I know studies about \u201c<em>Zen<\/em> Buddhism\u201d by <em>Dogen<\/em> were already popular in overseas.<\/p>\n<p>The last priest \u201c<em>Nichiren<\/em>\u201d was not so popular in overseas. His versatile or multilateral thoughts in his writings were difficult to be brought into a coherent composition.<\/p>\n<p>And his ideas were very unique for European. So, I thought I can overcome my European identity which I have succeeded from my cultural environment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Since then, I had an impression that <em>Nichiren<\/em> have guided me, as an European, to a different world view basically.\u00a0 I choose to study him freely beyond religious bodies, established by <em>Nichiren<\/em> as a progenitor and their conventional interpretations. I thought he could offer a lot of new point of view and could affect to the Western world which, I think, has been in a deadlock.\u00a0 This is my individual approach to \u201cStudy of <em>Nichiren<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I hope my approach would become useful for further researches in the same field.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/active\/sgra\/2018\/10280\/\">SGRA Kawaraban 561 in Japanese (Original)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>(Researcher in Oriental Culture Research Center, <em>Minobusan University<\/em>\uff09<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Translated by Kazuo Kawamura<\/p>\n<p>English checked by Mr. E. D. Giglio<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I started my study of Nichiren, I was a student of Japanese language at University of Turin (Italy).\u00a0\u00a0 (N [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kawaraban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aisf.or.jp\/sgra\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}