ABSTRACT
In this last chapter, I would like to explore the temporal dimension of the non-thetic modality of presencing and to examine the ramification of the Zen dictum of impermanence for the notion of personal identity. Among all the concepts Nishida and Dōgen employ to describe the non-dual paradigm (with varying degrees of success, I might add), I have chosen the term “presencing” because it combines the dynamic self-revealing aspect of Nishida’s expression with the temporal or, better, atemporally temporal dimension of Nishida’s non-relative present. It thus not only brings out the fundamental temporal dimension of personhood, but, furthermore, addresses the twofold predicament of synchronic identity and diachronic identity, which it replaces with the conception of synchronic and diachronic nonduality. In this chapter, I will thus develop the notion of presencing as the dialectic between the universal and individual dimensions of human existence from the philosophical texts of Dōgen and Nishida, applying this dialectic to the notions of impermanence and temporality as well as to the problem of personal identity.
