Harrison Hagg
Buddhism and
Being and Time by Martin Heidegger
April 6, 2011

• Born in Baden, Germany in
September 1889
• Worked at Marburg University then
Freiburg University
• Main influences- Edmund Husserl,
Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Soren
Kierkegaard
• His major work is Being and Time and it is often considered one of the greatest philosophical texts in the 20 th century (if not all time)
• Influenced thinkers like Jean Paul
Satre, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques
Derrida, Bernard Stiegler, Michel
Foucault and many more
• Major influence on the movements of
Phenomenology and Existentialism
• Died in May of 1976 in Baden

• Martin Heidegger was a Nazi.
• He actively participated in rallies and acquiesced to Nazi requests to remove Jewish-German teachers and students from Freiburg University.
• Heidegger remained a Nazi until the end of the war.
• He neither renounced nor apologized for his Nazism during his life.

• Ontology is . Ontology IS the study of being , being as such, being qua being, existence, or reality.
• Ontology is considered a major branch of Metaphysics.
• Aristotle broke up being primarily into two distinctions: Existence
(that it is) and Essence (how or what it is“pulp”)
• “’Being’ is the most ‘universal’ concept… An understanding of being is always already contained in everything we apprehend in beings.”
(Heidegger, 2)
• “The concept of ‘being’ is indefinable.” (Heidegger, 2)
• “Being is a self-evident concept.” (Heidegger, 3)
• Heidegger’s language concerning ontology is complicated and confusing but there are basically two main categories.
• 1. The ontological- roughly, that which is; existence; being . Words to look for —ontology, existence, primordial, existential, equiprimordial, presupposed, phenomenological, and fundamental.
• 2. The ontic- roughly, manifestations of being made possible by the ontological (e.g. language made possible by discourse or depressed made possible by mood). Words to look for —ontic, essential, existentiel, categories, categories, and factuals.

• Heidegger seeks to retrieve the question of being and ontology. “It is said that ‘being’ is the most universal and emptiest concept. As such it resists every attempt at definition.” (Heidegger, 2)
• One must ask the right question in order to produce the right answer. Heidegger believes that the best place to start is to enquire about the nature of ourselves, or what he calls Da-sein (being-thethere or being-there).
• “The being that has the character of Da-sein has a relation to the question of being itself.” (Heidegger, 8)
• Thus, to enquire about being is to enquire about the nature and ontology of Da-sein. Da-sein is a privileged kind of being precisely because Da-sein is concerned about its being in a way that a rock, tree, or animal is not.
• What constitutes Da-sein may be split up between the ontological and the ontic.
• The ontological is what is necessary, presupposed, and gives rise to the possibilities of enquiry.

• Da-sein is what is already always presupposed and whenever human beings are in the world. We are in the world ontologically and ontically.
• The “whatness” of Da-sein may be answered in terms of the ontological structures always already present in Da-sein.
• 1. Da-sein is always already ‘in’ the world.
– Not a spatial relation, rather “to live… to dwell… I am used to, familiar with. I take care of something” (54).
– This is called “being-in-the-world.”
• 2. Being-in-the-world makes itself know through “handiness” and “athand”; this is the “care” structure
– Handiness—hammer example
– At-hand—when handiness breaks and it becomes Obtrusive
• 3. Da-sein is always already in relation to others, Mitda-sein or
“being-with”; this is the “concern” structure
– Always already with others as being-in-the-world
– Not only “in” spatial relationship (ontic) but “in” as to dwell with
(ontological”
• 4. Da-sein is always already in a “mood” and “attuned”
– Mood comes from being-in-the-world
– Special mood of “Angst” or “Anxiety” towards death

• Pivotal to the Buddhist understanding of being, the self, ego, or I is the idea of nothingness, especially Anatta.
• “…[T]he idea of an abiding, immortal substance in man, or outside, whether it is called Atman , ‘I’, Soul, Self, or Ego, is considered only a false belief, a mental projection. This is the Buddhist doctrine of Anatta , No-Soul or No-
Self.” (Rahula, 55) also, “no-selfness”
• “The correct position with regard to the question of Anatta is…to try and see things objectively as they are without… ‘I’ or ‘being’… [as] a combination of physical and mental aggregates.” (66)
• “The Buddha’s teaching on Anatta … should not be considered as negative or annihilistic. Like Nirvana, it is truth, reality.” (66)
• The apparent “self” and the “world” are made up of the Five Aggregates.
They are part of conventional truth.
– 1. Form/Matter- external physical world and material body
– 2. Sensation/Feeling- sensing an object
– 3. Perception- the registering of an object (e.g. sounds)
– 4. Mental formations- states of the mind (e.g. ideas)
– 5. Consciousness- cognizance or awareness
• “In brief the five Aggregates of Attachment are dukkha .” (25)
• Therefore, all of being is impermanent, subject to change, phenomena, and dukkha . Ultimate reality, real being is nothingness; it is Nirvana.
• Buddhism stresses a respectful and caring relationship with the world.

Being and Time
• Similarities
– Starts with a notion of “emptiness” as definitional of being
– Emphasizes being-in-the-world as always already there
– Phenomenological account
– Good relationship to nature
• Differences
– Everything that is is being
– Presupposed ontological qualities that make experience possible
– Da-sein is , it has real qualities
– Concept of self, Da-sein (beingthere)
– Being-in-the-world is reality
– Mitda-sein (being-with) is an ontological quality
– Care structure as our relationship to the world of objectively present things
• Similarities
Buddhism
– Starts with the notion of
“nothingness”
– Emphasizes a proper orientation to the world by caring for others
– Phenomenological account
– Good relationship to nature
• Differences
– Nothing is
– Experience, made possible by the five Aggregates, is not ultimately real
– Anatta has no qualities (neither positive nor annihilistic)
– Anatta—no selfness
– World only has conventional reality, not ultimate reality
– Relationship does not exist as ultimate reality, only as conventional reality

• Many other similarities and differences exist between Heidegger and Buddhism
• Comparison between “Angst” and “Dukkha”?
“Throwness”? “Falling-prey”?
• Views on Time? Death?
• Zen Buddhism and Heidegger?
• Role of “mood” and emotion as ontological structures?
• Metaphysical claim?
• Ontic categories of experience and the five
Aggregates?
• Many others…