Classical Japanese Solutions for Modern Neuroticism

Keywords

non-duality, idealism, aesthetic morality, zen, japan, psychology, philosophy, mythology, mental health

Abstract

This essay argues that the West’s spiritual, cultural, and psychological crisis can be healed by integrating Aesthetic Morality with Non-Dual Idealism. Drawing on Dōgen, Zen, Daoism, Japanese aesthetics, analytic idealism, Jungian depth psychology, and radical political philosophy, it proposes a framework in which beauty, consciousness, and ethical action converge in the Eternal Now—a non-linear temporality where each moment is complete and self-sufficient. By collapsing dualisms of essence/existence, subject/object, and self/world, non-duality reveals human beings as relational expressions of a single primordial consciousness. This shift restores meaning by replacing utilitarianism with creation, replacing alienation with embodied presence, and replacing spiritual absence with awakened participation in the cosmos. Politically, a state animated by aesthetic morality becomes a work of art rather than a mechanism. Psychologically, non-dual individuation unites conscious and unconscious, heals the ego’s fragmentation, and grounds empathy as the recognition of shared being. Ethically, Indra’s Net reframes humanity as a single mind learning to love itself through its many forms. The essay concludes that salvation for the modern West lies in embracing the Eternal Now, cultivating self-mastery, creating beauty, and awakening to the True Self—the infinite consciousness in which all beings arise, interpenetrate, and return.

Document Type

Class Project or Paper

Publication Date

2025-01-28

Language

English

College

Humanities

Department

History

University Standing at Time of Publication

Junior

Course

Premodern Japan

Additional Files
Part I (1).docx (36 kB)
Link to Full Text

Additional files available below

Share

COinS