ABSTRACT
While others have sought to bring together Nietzsche and Buddhism, the two can easily give the appearance of being irreconcilable. Nietzsche can be read as the passionate “Yea sayer” to life in all of its suffering; and from this perspective he openly criticizes Buddhism for being nihilistic in what he perceives as its focus on a world denying (“nay saying”) compassion/pity. Moreover, Buddhism, particularly Zen, can be rightly seen as too often quietistic in its radical acceptance of reality as it is. This chapter explores three radical indeterminacies—self/other, pain/suffering, delusion/enlightenment—that characterize reality from the standpoint of Dōgen’s Zen. Appreciating these indeterminacies allows us to develop and invigorate a conception of the Buddhist Bodhisattva Ideal along passionate, Nietzschean lines. That is, we can develop a conception of a Nietzschean Bodhisattva that both challenges Nietzsche’s conception of Buddhism and which overcomes quietistic worries about Zen Buddhist practice and conceptions of enlightenment as a nonjudgmental state of mind that accepts without attachment all that is.
