the master pt 2
The text I had written during my little volunteer pilgrimage in 2007 was a kind of “pre-phenomenological” critical reflection that had addressed both the problematic we face and the inherent contradictions of spiritual liberation, in order to arrive at a reinterpretation of one of the cardinal models of Buddhism: the Four Noble Truths. For my Master’s thesis, I then tried to reformulate these statements in a philosophical framework.
Through this work I discovered that there is already a rich philosophical tradition of phenomenology and many comparative studies that have taken various positions between phenomenology and Buddhist thought. In the dissertation I argued that there is a strong similarity between the process of phenomenological reduction, epoche, with Edumund Husserl and the praxis of Buddhist meditation. Even if phenomenological thinkers do not always see a transcendent horizon, their work can be contextualised within such a framework as the elaboration of the relative aspect experience that, at the same time, can give rise to a spiritual dimension of transcendence. For me it is with Zen Buddhism where this comparative gesture seems most fruitful.
Here is the link to download the dissertation.