.

P.357

      The aboriginal saving experience sought and celebrated
in  Buddhism,  particularly   Hua-yen   Buddhism,  has   been
expressed  in  the  strategies  of  Buddhist  philosophy   as
developed in an accumulating  tradition  centuries  old.  But
perhaps  not  well,  not  without  unnecessary  paradox,  not
without     misleading     speculations     and     practical
consequences.The   philosophical  strategies  of  Whitehead's
revolution  within  Western  philosophy  are more apt for the
presentation  of Buddhist experience, strange as it may seem.
Yet there otorious  difficulties  with Whitehead's  position,
particularly  with that part of his position dealing with the
theistic God. An attempt to do justice to Buddhist experience
leads  to a correction  of Whitehead's  theory.  And so a new
system developed from certain roots of process philosophy can
serve  as the  speculative  vehicle  for  an appreciation  of
Buddhist  experience.  Such  is the  thesis  of Steve  Odin's
Process Metaphysics  and Hua-yen Buddhism:A Critical Study of
Cumulative  Pentration  vs.  Interpenetratio  n, a  brilliant
first book by a young  scholar  whose synthesizing  erudition
and   speculative   imagination   are  unparalleled   in  his
generation, to my knowledge.(1)

      The  first  and most essential element of system is that
it  be able  to do  many  different  things, consistently, at
once.  Odin's tasks are to appreciate Buddhist experience and
philosophy, to express  them for his audience  pretty much in
Buddhist terms, then to reexpress  them in terms likely to be
familiar  to the  audience, and  relate  these  to the  first
expressions, to construct  a platform  for critical  analysis
that  respects  the  integrity  of Buddhism, to  exposit  and
criticize Whitehead's  philosophy  from a ion that allows for
selective  appropriation, to show  how reconstructed  process
philosophy  expresses Buddhist experience  and does so better
than equally abstract and categoreal Buddhist philosophy, and
to confirm  the worth of the whole enterprise  by showing how
it puts


P.358                      

many problematic elements into place. His book does this with
genius.

      Odin's first task as a Western scholar is to create a
recognizable  entry  into  the Buddhist  world.  There  is no
foolproof  way  to  do  this, since  any  Asian  scholar  who
disagrees  with  a Westerner's  opinion  can always  say  the
latter  suffers  from cultural  or linguistic  ignorance  for
which  there is never a sufficient  remedy.  Odin weaves  his
Buddhist  fabric  from  a wide  variety  of Asian  texts  and
traditions,  Indian,  Chinese,  and  Japanese,  Yogacara  and
Tantric as well as Hua-yen.  The cloth hangs together  withou
uring differences  and inconsistencies  (although  the latter
are not much  explored).Odin's  distinctive  contribution  to
Buddhist  expression, however, is the creative  use of Korean
Buddhism.  The book begins  with Odin's translation  from the
Chinese  of  the  "Ocean  Seal"  of  Uisang  (625-702), First
Patriarch  of Korean Hua-yen  Buddhism;the  "Ocean Seal" is a
compressed   epitome  of  Hua-yen  doctrine.   Uisang's   own
commentary on the seal is translated at the end of the volume
in an appendix.  Throughout  the book Korean figures  such as
Wonhyo  (617-686)  and  Chinul  (1150-1210) are  analyzed  as
primary interpreters of Buddhism, thus helping to make public
in the contemporary world the profound contribution of Korean
Buddhism.  (Odin's translations and interpretations of Korean
Buddhism were supervised  by Professor  Sung-bae Park to whom
the volume is dedicated. (2))
    
      The inner argument of Odin's book is in three main parts:
 (I) "The Hua-yen Round-Sudden Vehicle of Non-Obstructed
Interpenetration,"  (II)  "A Whiteheadian Process Critique of
Hua-yen Buddhism," and  (III)  "Theology of the Deep Unconscious:
A Reconstruction of Process Theology."


                          I.


      Part I, in its first chapter, provides an historical
introduction  to Huayen Buddhism  as an attempt  to harmonize
all Mahayana  Buddhist  schools  of its time  within.its  own
doctrine of interpenetration;  Odin discusses Chinese, Korean
and Japanese deve'lopments of Hua-yen. Chapter Two focuses on
a   philosophical    analysis    of    intercau'sation    and
interpenetration,


P.359


dealing  most  particularly  with  Fa-tsang, the most  famous
teacher  of this school.  The center  of Odin'a  analysis  is
Hua-yen's  four-fold  dharmadhaatu: of shih  ("the  world  of
mutually  exclusive  particulars"), of Ii ("the  allembracing
universal   reality") ,  of  li  and  shih  ("the  unhindered
interfusion  of universal  with  particular"),and of shih and
shih  ("the  unhindered.   interfusion   of  particular  with
particular") which  is the  special  contribution  of Hua-yen
(pp.  18 ff).  This chapter introduces  a crucial conce ptual
tool   of   the   book,  the   ti-yung   or  essence-function
construction  according  to which each particular, being both
essence  and function, is a microcosm  of any larger unit, or
of the universe.(3) Chapter Three illustrates  the inmetrical
interpenetration  of all things through the linguistic device
of  the   interpenetration   of  all   meanings,  using   the
philosophical  strategies of linguistic analysis pioneered in
this field by Frederick J. Streng.(4) In the second and third
chapters  Odin  is careful  to point  out  that  the symmetry
required  of mutual penetration  may hold in "ideal"  affairs
such  as  language, but  may  not  hold  for  spatio-temporal
physical events.

      Chapter Four is presented as one of the main dialectical
engines  of the book.Its  point is to use the categories  and
insights of the Husserlian  and Heideggerian  phenomenologies
(with  an emphasis  on Gestalt  psychology) to explicate  the
character  of experience  in  Hua-yen.Unlike  most  Heidegger
commentators  who make him smaller  in order to be understood
in pre-accepted  terms, Odin  brilliantly  takes  Heidegger's
notions of phenomenology  as "enlightening"  or "lighting" or
opening  to the glow and radiation  of s as plainly reflected
in the radiant  Buddha  Buddha  worlds  of Mahayana.  Several
years  ago Thomas  J.  J.  Altizer  suggested  that Buddhism,
better  than the Western  tradition, supplies  the experience
that  Whitehead  explicates.(5) Now Odin  makes  a case  that
Buddhism  is plain  foundation  for Heidegger's  efforts.Odin
articulates certain Buddhist mental techniques as versions of
Husserlian   imaginative   variation,  and  argues  that  the
distinction  between  core  and  horizon  is central  to  the
Buddhist  experience.  In par ticular, Odin likens  prajna to
the noetic act which by practice  of alternating  one's focus
on core and horizon finally puts them in equilibrium; sunyate
is the noematic  pole at which  there  is an openness  to the
reality or irreality  of all things by virtue of the arbitary
dominance in any core-horizon structure. Odin writes:

P.360                     

      The Hua-yen Buddhist  enlightenment  experience  of li-
      shihwu-ai  can be phenomenologically  analyzed in terms
      of its noteic/noematic intentionality structure so that
      prajna  can be described  as a non-focal  or decentered
      act of perceptual  awareness  resulting  from a radical
      reversal in the noesis, i.e., a shift of attention from
      core  to  horizon,  this  being  what  Heidegger  terms
      Gelassenheit   or  "releasement  into  openness, "  and
      sunyata  is its noematic  correlate, namely, the region
      of openness, or the open-dimension  of the  perceptural
      field.(p.39)

This idea is heavily illustrated by Buddhi'st examples and is
developed in several dimensions.  One critical point needs to
be emphasized  in preparation  for a later point.  Throughout
the chapter  Odin  speaks  of the  gestalt  as "talue-laden."
Surely  our  own  experience  is value-laden, and  So  is the
radiant,  blissful  and  compassionate   peak  experience  of
Buddhism.   But  Husserlian  and  Heideggerian  phenomenology
cannot  admit  that  because,  for  both,  phenomenology   is
description  and, for the latter, interpretation.  The noetic
act of describing  reduces the noematic  object to a fact for
description.  Were  the  noematic  object  to  be a value  or
value-laden,   the   appropriate    moetic   act   would   be
appreciation.  Both Husserl and Heidegger, the former for the
sake of science and the latter in faithfulness  to Nietzsche,
reject  "values"  and their appreciation  as Romantic  if not
just Bourgeoise.  While  correct  in noting  that experience,
even  peak experience, is value-laden, Odin  is not sensitive
to  the  po  lemic  thrust  of  phenomenology  against  these
experiential  elements.  He struggles with this problem in an
attempt  to show that Heidegger's  notions of "care" and that
of the  "shepherd  of being"  give  rise  to ethics;  but the
struggle is unconvincing (pp 47-49).

      The fifth chapter interprets Hua-yen by virtue of its
connection with meditation, specifically  Ch'an Buddhism.  In
the meditative  realm, as well  as the realms  of the gestalt
and the linguistic, the  symmetry  of interpenetration  makes
good sense.  Odin presents a fascinating  discussion  of the:
Korean  Buddhist  Chinul  who argued, somewhat  unorthodoxly,
that  sudden  enlightenment  is compatible  with and may even
require further


P.361

gradual   practice    for   the   attainment    of   ultimate
enlightenment.   Chinul's   theory  Of  "nature  origination"
presents a view of causation unmediated traditional  Buddhist
dependent origination, such that any person is in very nature
identical with Buddha. The point of Chinul's doctrine was not
to render an account of causation  within the material  world
but to stimulate salvation by an act of "nascent faith" which
realizes  both  identity  with  Buddha  and the necessity  of
further   growth.   By  limiting   Chinul's   claim   to  the
soteriological  realm, Odin  prescinds  from  t  he  question
whether it makes metaphysical sense;  thus he removes it from
any critical force in the Whiteheadian  attack on symmetrical
causation.  From soteriological  point of view there can be a
total interpenetration of nascent and fullfilled Buddhas.

      The upshot of Odin's Part I is a many-aspect presentation
of Huayen Buddhism which softens or removes any commitment to
claims  that  there  is total  interpenetration  of past  and
future in the temporal passage of the material world. Despite
the   fact   Hua-yen    Buddhism    asserts   such   temporal
interpenetration,its  basic  experience  is  about  something
else, namely the ideal world.

                          II.

      Part II of Odin's book is "A Whiteheadian Process Critique
of  Huayen  Buddhism."   There  are  many,  many  points   of
convergence  between Whitehead's  organic philosophy  and the
Buddhist  sensibility, and most people who know enough  about
both  to comment  have  stressed  these  convergences.In  one
fundamental  and  pervasive  point,however, there  is  direct
opposition.   Broadly   put,  Whitehead   and  most   process
philosophers, expecially  Hartshorne, argue that although  the
present contains the past it does not contain the future
 except in outline. Change, if it is real, consists in adding
or creating something  in addition  to past conditions, which
Whitehead  explains with his doctrine of creativity.  Most to
the point, moral  responsibility  depends  on the possibility
that action  in the present  makes a difference  to what will
occur, a difference  that would be missing If the future were
wholly determined by the past. In other terms, human


P.362


freedom  is possible  if and only if the present  can make  a
difference to the future when the past cannot.  Therefore the
future cannot wholly in.  terpenetrate  the past and present,
and there is an asymmetry  to causal  process.  To the extent
Hua-yen Buddhism asserts a total symmetry of temporal orders,
it cannot be right.

         The polemic here is that the Hua-yen Buddhist theory
      of total   non-obstructed.    interpenetration    and
      unhindered  mutual  containment   with  its  underlying
      symmetrical in. frastructure has accounted for complete
      ontological togetherness, cohesiveness  and solidarity,
      but  at the expense  of all  creativeness, novelty  and
      freedom.  Each dharma call be exhaustively  factored or
      reductively  analyzed  into  its causal  relations  and
      supportive conditions without remainder. By definition,
      total  determinism  is entailed  by such a view in that
      each  dharma  is simply  an effect  of its manifold  of
      causes: there is no creativity, freedom or novelty. (pp
      77 f)

      But of course one must ask, why believe Whitehead rather
      than  Huayen  determinism? Odin  offers  two  kinds  of
      reasons.  The  minor  one  is that  the  soteriological
      interests   of  Buddhism   would  be  better  off  with
      Whitehead  than with its own categories.  For instance,
      even  though  the novice  recognizes  an identity  with
      Buddha, there  is still  more work  to be done to bring
      this  recognition  to complete  fulfillment;  otherwise
      there would be no point to the Bodhisattva's vows.  The
      asymmetrical  view of process  accoun  s for this well.
      The major reason to believe Whitehead, however, is that
      the view  is intrinsically  worth  adopting.  Here Odin
      introduces his own carefully wrought version of process
      philosophy, which  he  calls  a theory  of  "cumulative
      penetration."

      Chapter 6, the first in Part II, develops the theme of
"creative synthesis and emergent novelty"; this is contrasted
with the symmetries  of Buddhist  thinkers  such as Nagarjuna
and Nishida.

          In the final analysis, the basic discrepancy between
Huayen Buddhism and Whiteheadian process theory is this: the

P.363

      Hua-yen principle  of sunyata.or  universal  relativity
      accords a primacy to causal relatednesss  in terms of a
      dialectical in terpenetration  between the many and the
      one;  whereas  Whitehead's  Category  of  the  Ultimate
      (creativity-many-one)  accords   a   primacy   to   the
      principle  of  creativity, in  terms  of  a  cumulative
      penetration  of  manyness-into-oneness, such  that  the
      many become one and are increased by one. (p.81)

      Chapter 7 presents the process view in terms of the
transmission of feelings;  it constitutes one of the subtlest
expositions  of Whitehead  I have seen.  Odin introduces  the
notion  that  asymmetry  consists  in  a  movement  from  the
objectivity  of the past to the subjectivity  of the present.
Once the present moment is fmished it adds to the objects for
subsequent  feeling  Odin  carefully  relates  this  to  many
dimensions of Buddhist exrience, with interesting discussions
of  Dogen  and  Nishida.   He  derives  from  Whitehead   and
elaborates  with  great  force  a  fundamental   metaphysical
principle: actuality  requires limitation, Put conversely, if
everything  is  in  everything  else, nothing  is  definitely
actual.  The most brilliant  moment  of Odin's  bdok, from  a
metaphysical  standpoint, is the brief  six page  Chapter  8,
"Negative Prehensions." Not only does a present actual moment
exclude  the future, but it must select  among and grade  the
infinite   potentialities   presented   by  the  past.   Odin
introduces  this extraordinari  ly subtle and technical point
from Whitehead's  theory  with fine rhetorical  control.  The
discussion  recognizes the parallel Whiteheadian  point, that
value is the outcome of limitation, and that an actuality  is
in fact an embodiment of selective value.

      Whitehead's  theory of negative  prehensions  therefore
      stands as a brilliant effort to account for the precise
      manner in which some data is included and some excluded
      from the creative  process  of experiential  synthesis,
      thereby   presenting   a  scheme  adequate   enough  to
      interpret the exactitude and uniquencess of each moment
      of experience, each one having  its own novel intensity
      of emotional tone and qualitative immediacy. (p.110)


P.364


The most forceful  dialectical  payoff of Odin's argument  is
that the Buddhist  experience  of bliss requires  just such a
metaphysical  achievement  of value  as provided  by negative
prehensions.  He accounts for this with Whitehead's theory of
experience as a diploar rendering of objective contrasts into
unified subjective immediacy.

      In Chapter 9 Odin compares the attacks on ''substance"
philosophy   which  Buddhism  and  process  philosophy   make
respectively.The  former attack utilizes  the symmetricalview
of relations.  The latter consists  in rejecting  a notion of
"simple  location"  found  in  most  substance-theories,  but
employs  the  claim  that  each  actual  thing  has  its  own
creativity added to its conditions.  Buddhism would call such
creativity  an unacceptable  "own nature."  Does  Whitehead's
theory of actual occasions claim that physical process is the
only ontological  reality? Justus Buchler argued that it does
and that this is a mistake.(6) Odin  adopts  a view close  to
Buchler's in saying that while asymmetry  is the character of
the causal  order  of actual  events  there  are in fact many
other  orders  in which symmetry  of relations  might  be the
dominant character.

      In Chapter 10 Odin summarizes his "metaphysics of
cumulative  penetration"  and  uses  it to treat  three  main
Buddhist  themes:Enlightenment,  Compassion, and  Bliss.  For
reasons  that will become  apparent  below, I will stress his
treatment of the third.  With a subtle discussion  of Tantric
elements  in  Buddhism, he describes  bliss  as the  ecstatic
enjoyment of the togetherness of all things.  Togetherness is
a symmetrical  order.  But  emotional  intensity  and'  value
consist  in embodying  contrasts  in  diploar  rela  ions, he
argues persuasively. Then,

      in a framework of interpenetration, there is a complete
      unobstructed  mutual  fusion and mutual  identification
      between  all  dialectical  opposites, such  as one  and
      many, subject  and object, or cause and effect, thereby
      establishing a condition of "same-ness"... As such, the
      irreduciable  dipolar contrasts are collapsed, which in
      turn precludes intensity of aestheticvalue  feeling and
      final   depth  of  satisfaction.   Hence   the  Tantric
      conception of ultimate reality as mahasukha or ecstatic
      pleasure and bliss which is generated by yuganaddha  or
      in-


P.365

      terpenetration  of opposites, is better interpreted  in
      terms  of  the  Whiteheadian   process  hermeneutic  as
      aesthetic-value  feeling  arising  out  of irreduciable
      dipolar  contrastswithin  a  frame-work  of  cumulative
      penetration. (p. 152)

                           III.

      Part III of Odin's book is a wholly original extension of
Whitehead, and  its brevity  here  augurs  future  systematic
work.Chapter    Il   argues   that   Whitehead's   categoreal
description  of God  is simply  mistaken  and  incoherent, as
several thinkers  have claimed.  Nevertheless, several of the
crucial  functions  Whitehead  assigns to God can instead  be
performed by a cummulative  collective  unconscious.Appealing
to Jung for the outlines of a theory of the unconscious, Odin
argues that unconscious archetypes supply patterns of eternal
objects that function as divine lures.  These archetypes  are
causually  effective  within process and account both for the
phenomena  of Whitehead's  God's  primordial  nature  and for
those  of the consequent  nature.  Those two natures  are but
abstractions  from  concrete  process, Odin  Brgues, and  one
avoids the philosophical  difficulties of separating God from
the world and creativity as Whitehead does.

      Chapter 12 focuses on the primordial divine nature in
the  collective  unconscious  and highlights  the symmetrical
relations  in archetypical  functioning, particularly  Jung's
notion.  of synchronicity.  Odin  concludes  with  a sweeping
flourish  across Buddhist schools, arguing that the principal
experience  in Tantric and Hua-yen traditions  is that of the
symmetrical  togetherness  of divine  possibilities.  And the
point of Buddhist practice is to achieve this experience.

      According  to  the  theology  of the  deep: unconscious
      then, Ocean-Seal-Samaadhi  is to be comprehended  as an
      atemporal  envisagement  of all possibilities.  It is a
      realization  of the synchronically  ordered  archetypal
      reality of the collective  unconscious, in an act which
      Platonic philosophy termed

P.366

      anamnesis  or  the  "recollection"   of  the  realm  of
      archetypes,which,according to the Jungian psychological
      hermeneutic,    means    precisely    the    archetypal
      imagination. Thus, the simultaneous interpenetration of
      all    times    and    spaces    and    the    infinite
      realms-embracing-reaIms       occuring      in      the
      Ocean-SealSamadhi  must  not be attributed  to physical
      actuality which is regulated by the principal of karmic
      inheritance  or  cause  and  effect, but  only  to  the
      synchronistic  archetypal  reality  of  the  archetypal
      imagination   as  empirically   manifested  in  dreams,
      interior visions and other spontaneous  expressions  of
      the collective unconscious. (p. 175 f)

                          IV.

      Odin's is a new. systematic vision which brings East and
West, abstract philosphy and concrete experience, to a common
meeting  ground.  I have summarized  extensively  in order to
give a sense  of the scope  and subtlety  of this view and to
stimulate  further  discussion.  I want  now  to  enter  that
discussion as a participant  (with a different though closely
related vision) by asking several questions.

     1. If value  and its embodiment in emotional intensity
are  the  outcomes  of  selective  limitation,'  as  Odin  so
beautifully  argues  (and  I agree), how can any ideal  order
with   symmetry   and  total   mutual   interpenetration   be
valuable?In the passage  quoted  above, Odin claims  that the
Tantric experience of bliss is better interpreted in terms of
cumulative     penetration     precisely     because    total
interpenetration collapses the contrast needed for value. But
then how can this Tantric  experience  be of the ideal, order
rather  than the real order? And if it be of the real  order,
need  not  the  vision  be  historical, that  is, related  to
concrete, limited actuality?

      Odin goes a long way toward answering this question by
claiming that the dipolar character of Whitehead's God exists
within   the  unconscious,  thus   combining   both  temporal
asymmetrical  limitation  and  atemporal,  symmetrical  total
interpenetration    within   the   "asymmetrical   perimeters
underscoring the metaphysics of cumulative penetration."


P.367


(p.159) But what is the relation between the two poles in the
unconscious that allows for both symmetrical and asymmetrical
orders without making the forme, the allegedly  infinite  set
of   eternal   objects   which   in   Whiteheadhiteejed   are
indistinguishable  from  one  another, to collapse  into  the
night in which all cows are black? To put the point  crudely,
if  Whitehead's  theory  o God  is incoherent  regarding  the
relation  between  primordial  and consend natures, how is it
an'adva;ice  to transfer  it to finite indivi duals? To frame
the question  with  the most  refined  abstraction, does  not
Odin's  project  depend  on  making  the  symmetrical   order
ontologically  dependent  on  the  asymmetrical  order  which
contains value?

      2.Is it methodologically wise to interpret diverse aspects
of Buddhism  into mutually  exclusive  Western  philosophies?
What does it say about Buddhism  if its emptiness  and wisdom
experiences  are  best  displayed  by phenomenology  and  its
soteriological  elements  of practice  and  bliss  by-process
philosophy?  Phenomenology   arose   from   a   philosophical
commitment  to the positive factuality of things,a factuality
open to description  undefiled by assertions  of existence or
value.Even  with its hermeneutical  development  by Heidegger
and his followers  pheriomenology  sets description  as basic
and valuation  as a function  of the subject  constituting  a
world.Merleau-Ponty   and   others   have   recognized   that
experience  is value-laden  but  have  not shifted  from  the
underlying positivistic  metaphysics, only from talking about
things  to talking  about  the experience  of things.  If the
Buddhist  experience  of emptiness  and wisdom  is mainly  an
ontological reversal of field and foreground as understood by
phenomeno   logy,  that   experience   cannot   include   the
valuational  elements involved in practice and the attainment
of  bliss.  Process  philosophy, on  the  other  hand, has  a
dialectical conception of reality in which definite actuality
requires negation in the form of negative prehensions.This is
the  source  of the selective  limitation  characteristic  of
value.  Like  phenomenology, process  philosophy  can  employ
distinctions  of core from horizon, but only in such a way as
to embody  a selected  valuation.  If Odin really means that
kind of core-horizon  distinction, it would be better  to say
so rather than force a value language on the phenomeno]ogists
for whom that has been anathema (with a few noted

P.368

exceptions such as Scheler).

      3.Given his overall systematic strategy,'how will Odin
address  the ontological  question? Phrased  in Western ways,
that  question  is what  is Being?,or Why  is there  anything
actual at all? Whitehead  addressed  that question  by saying
that God decides  on a vague  form for each  emergent  actual
entity  which  is prehended  by that  entity  and  used  as a
subjective  aim guiding its creativity.  Without this "divine
lure,"for Whitehead,there could be no principle  for reducing
the occasion's many antecedent conditions  ew unity.  I agree
completely with Odin that Whitehead's  solution is inadequate
but would suggest  that one needsto  acknowledge  a different
kind of divine creativity. Odin merely shifts Whitehead's God
to more mundance tasks.

      Buddhism does not address the ontological question the
way  the  West  does, and  for  a  reason  intrinsic  to  its
tradition. The ontological question arises in the West out of
a recognition  that,although  sheer  chaos has nothing  to be
explained, any kind of order or complexity does.  What is the
cause  of definiteness? If the world  has some  definiteness,
then the world needs to be explained.  The Buddhist tradition
is not so committed to the actual reality of definiteness. Of
course  definiteness  is often repre ented as the imaginative
creation of a Buddha, of which there are thousands, each with
its  Buddha-world.  This  line  of thinking  is*  central  to
Hua-yen. Odin's stroke of interpretive genius is to see these
multiple  Buddha-worlds  as alternate  potential  patterns of
possibilities.But  whereas Buddhists want to say that our own
world is just one of these multiple Buddha-worlds, Odin wants
to say ours  is actual  and the rest  are potential.  Whereas
some Buddhists  would  finesse  the ontological  question  by
asserting  the ontolo  gical parity of all Buddha-worlds  and
allowing  that  they  are  not really  different-a  chaos  of
Buddha-worldsOdin   must   fact   the  ontological   question
squarely.  To escape it he would have to abandon  the role of
limitation, selection, or negative  prehension  in cumulative
penetration.

      I do not ask these questions to suggest that Odin cannot
answer them but to spur him on to do so. His book contains
suggestions about how he might respond. Let me close with a
reinterpretation of what he


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has done.Although  bearing  the form of a comparative  study,
Process  Metaphysics  and  Hueyen  Buddhism  is an  orginal,'
large-sclae  systematic philosophy  which arises out of broad
knowledge  and reflection  on Indian, East Asian, and Western
philosophy  together.  This is an extraordinary  achievement.
Hegel  made a feeble  attempt'at  catholic  paideia  with his
chapter  on Lamaism  in his History  of Philosophy  lectures.
Schopenhauer and Emerson attempted to take Eastern philosophy
more seriously.Whitehead  and Northop  responded  well to its
claim upon our philosophical  attention  in the 20th century,
and recent  writers  such as Chungying  Cheng, David Hall, Tu
Wei-ming and myself have attempted systematic  philsophy like
Odin with reference  points in diverse world traditions.  But
none  of us, in my bpinion, has combined  catholic  scholarly
depth  with speculative  originality  to the degree  Odin has
achieved  in his first book.The book will be challenged  both
for its scholarship and f or its speculative ideas.Because of
its quality, however, that  challenge  will  have  to be on a
higher plan than has usually characterized the discussion.

  STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT STONY BROOK

                  NOTES

      1. Pvocess Metaphysics and Hua-yen Buddhism:A  Critical
Study of Cumulative Penetration vs.Interpenetration. (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1982).  Xxi, 242 pp. Page
references  in the  text  are  to this  book.  My enthusi-asm
should be put in the context of my personal association  with
the  book  which  I  first  saw  in  an  early  draft   as  a
dissertation, then in a later draft as a manuscript  accepted
into my Series  in Systematic  philosophy  at SUNY Press, and
now in its greatly expanded  and improved  published  version
which i have been asked to review,despite my protestations of
prior bias. To finish this personal parenthesis and partially
redeem my objectivity, I can say that Odin's is a system that
can stand by itself, and this review shall attempt  to let it
do so.

      2. Odin is heavily influenced by Park's pioneering book,
Buddhist  Faith  and  Sudden  Enlightenment   (Albany:  State
University  of  New  York  Press,  1983)  which  sets  Korean
Buddhasm  off over against the Japanese  Buddhist  revival of
the Kyoto


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School.

3. The source for this point in Odin is Park,ibid.,Chapter 4.

4. Compare Frederick J. Streng, Emptiness: A Study in 
   Religious Meaning (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1967).

5. Thomas J.J.Altizer,"The Buddhist Ground of the
   Whiteheadian God,'' Process Studies 5/4 (Winter 1975).

6. Justus Buchler,"On a Strain of Arbitrariness in
   Whitehead's System," Journal of Philosophy 66/1. 9
   (October 1969),