7/30/2019 Mystic Cognition in Zen Buddhism and in Christianity

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[This version: 22 July 1993]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Charles Callan SLIPPERJune 1984

Mystic Cognition in Zen Buddhism and in Christianity:a study of D. T. Suzuki and St. John of the Cross,

a thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. to the University of Lancaster,UK

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this thesis is to analyse and to compare mystic or highercognition in two figures who can be seen as representative of their traditions.In doing so the study hopes to attain an insight into the relationship betweenthe lived experience of Zen Buddhism and Christianity.

Apart from the Introduction and the General Conclusion, the body of the study

falls into three parts. The first (Chapters I-III) deals with how highercognition is attained, revealing that despite significant divergences theaccounts of both authors move, as it were, in a parallel direction. The secondpart (Chapters IV-V) considers the mode by which higher knowledge isappropriated. Here, while emphasizing the differences between the two accounts,it is seen that this appropriation is based on the same fundamental elements foreach. Finally, in the last part (Chapters VI-VII), the study looks at what isknown by higher cognition. This is seen to contain an area where there isprofound overlap, though one which also emphasizes the distinctness of eachsystem.

Throughout the discussion it becomes apparent that each account contains thebuilding blocks out of which the other could be constructed. The way in which

this is so, however, is not the same for both. Suzuki's Zen Buddhism, thus,could be said to indicate John's Christian position, but finally to deny it,while John's view of higher cognition points to a form of higher knowing thatincludes Suzuki's but which concentrates upon aspects of knowing denied bySuzuki. These contrasting attitudes can be described as 'exclusive' (for Suzuki)and 'inclusive' (for John) and are seen, ultimately, to be the outcome ofcontrasting views upon the relation between the knowing subject and the objectknown.

-----[A complete bibliography to this thesis is contained within thezen-and-christian-mysticism.txt document deposited from the ElectronicBuddhist Archives of this Coombspapers collection]

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