Kumagusu's Criticism Of Science

Kumagusu expresses his criticism of science from quite an early stage in his correspondence with Hōryu, referring to the three aspects of the universe. He identified such three aspects as ‘heart-mind (kokoro, 心)’, ‘substance (mono, 物)’, and ‘event (koto, 事)’. According to his explanation, ‘event’ occurs when the ‘heart-mind’ and ‘substance’ interacts with each other, and ‘event’, too, has its own ‘causality’. When I refer to the ‘studies on the event (kotonogaku, 事の学)’ […] I am referring to the action (or effect) that occurs when the ‘heart-mind world (shinkai, 心界)’ and ‘substance world (bukkai, 物界)’ interferes (mixes, or interacts). […] ‘Event’ is known as it has its own causality (inga, 因果). (Dec. 21, 1893) Fig. 1

Kumagusu thinks

Through his argument on ‘event’ as a phenomenon, he is trying to point out that there are research objects, which cannot be thoroughly analysed by science and its method through objectifying the ‘heart-mind’ and ‘substance’. In other words, he points out that the science is yet to analyse the ‘world (or the sphere, kai, 界)’ of the research objects and its relationship. He indicates here of a huge void which is ignored and is outside of the modern science that focuses on the research object itself and ignores how the ‘world’ of the ‘heart-mind’ and ‘substance’ reacts to each other where actual ‘heart-mind’ and ‘substance’ reside. Although this argument sounds similar to the Cartesian duality of matter and mind, Kumagusu’s argument is different in the sense that it mentions of the ‘world’ beyond the cognition of the

From his reading of the Avatamsaka sutra (Flower Garland sutra, kegon kyo, 華厳経), he claims that for Mahavairocana (Dainichi nyorai, 大日如来) there exists only ‘present’, and there is neither ‘past’ nor ‘future’. By drawing a mesh-like figure (Fig.3) and neuron-like figure (Fig.4), which depicts “Indra’s jewel net”, he explains how the teachings of Shakyamuni spread out through time. His concept of time spreads out, weaves, unfolds and interacts like lacework between the present, past, and