Strange Buddhas

Nietzsche's Critique of Schopenhauer from a Zen Perspective

Abstract

Nietzsche’s certainly did not consider himself a Buddhist, knew nothing about the East Asian Zen traditions, and feared the onset of a life enervating and nihilistic “European Buddhism”. Nonetheless, his own thinking resonates deeply with Zen practice. How is this possible? Nietzsche‘s understanding of Buddhism largely derives from Schopenhauer’s far reaching misunderstanding of Mahayana Buddhism and his critique of the latter follows from his critique of the former. Nietzsche’s own path of thought emerges from what Schopenhauer could not see and what, quite tellingly, is also what the Rinzai Zen Master Hakuin disparages as “emptiness sickness”.