Celestial Journey Far Eastern Ways of Thinking Toshihiko Izutsu In this gathering of essays on Buddhism, Taoism, Shamanism, and Confucianism, Toshihiko Izutsu masterfully describes and illuminates major philosophical and metaphysical themes in these Far Eastern schools of philosophy. The seven chapters of Celestial Journey cover such themes as Temporal and A-Temporal Dimensions of Reality in Confucian Metaphysics, the Celestial Journey of the Shaman, Buddhist Ontology, and the I Ching Mandala in Confucian Metaphysics. In Praise of Celestial Journey: "Prof. Izutsu is one of the very few authors of whom I can say: I try to read every word he writes. His thinking is that important to me." --Huston Smith

Mysticism / Comparative Religion Paperback List Price: $17 ISBN 1-883991-16-1

Excerpt from "Between Image and
No-Image" in Celestial Journey:

IT IS, INDEED, characteristic of the Far Eastern way of thinking in general with regard to the problem of mental images that they are attributed to a peculiar creative activity of the Image-less or No-Image itself. Images, in this view, ultimately originate in the No-Image. All images that emerge into the daylight brightness of consciousness are first incubated and formed in the darkness of the sphere of No-Image, whether the latter be psychological or metaphysical. They are, in other words, all self-expressions of the No-Image. And this, in fact, is the most basic form of thinking concerning the origination of images commonly shared by the major traditions of Far Eastern philosophy.

It is, indeed, characteristic of the Far Eastern way of thinking in general with regard to the problem of mental images that they are attributed to a peculiar creative activity of the Image-less or No-Image itself. Images, in this view, ultimately originate in the No-Image. All images that emerge into the daylight brightness of consciousness are first incubated and formed in the darkness of the sphere of No-Image, whether the latter be psychological or metaphysical. They are, in other words, all self-expressions of the No-Image. And this, in fact, is the most basic form of thinking concerning the origination of images commonly shared by the major traditions of Far Eastern philosophy.

It is, indeed, characteristic of the Far Eastern way of thinking in general with regard to the problem of mental images that they are attributed to a peculiar creative activity of the Image-less or No-Image itself. Images, in this view, ultimately originate in the No-Image. All images that emerge into the daylight brightness of consciousness are first incubated and formed in the darkness of the sphere of No-Image, whether the latter be psychological or metaphysical. They are, in other words, all self-expressions of the No-Image. And this, in fact, is the most basic form of thinking concerning the origination of images commonly shared by the major traditions of Far Eastern philosophy.

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