Volume 1, 2010
Selected Essays from Asia and Pacific
Abe Jun
Pages 113-136
To the Field of Life
A Comparison of Husserlian Phenomenology and the Yogācāra Buddhism
The main aim of this paper is to compare Husserlian phenomenology and Yogācāra Buddhism in the discussion of living matter, particularly hylē in the former and ādāna consciousness in the latter. While they not only share the same interest which is the constitution of phenomena, i.e., for consciousness itself, but also the enigma of such living matter, they approach these subjects using a different methodology. This comparative study might open the field of life which Husserlian phenomenology failed to describe, and might unite, just like yogā means “union” in English, Western and Eastern philosophy which have been strictly separated.