Human Dwellings as Time Expressions: Dialogue Between Heidegger and D?gen

This essay introduces the problem of time by putting into dialogue the thought of Heidegger and Zen Master Dōgen. It proposes a continuum of three modes of human habitation, each corresponding to a way of interpreting time. The first mode, anthropocentric, interprets time as simple duration. The second, existential, understands time as finitude or relative impermanence. The third, numinous, under Dōgen's perspective, apprehends time as radical impermanence. The authors argue that deepening the comprehension of being human implies a corresponding deepening in how time is interpreted and apprehended more originally.

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Abstract

This essay is intended to present introductory contributions to the problem of time by putting into dialogue two thinkers: Heidegger and D?gen. The strategy for both will show a continuum of three modes of human habitation, taken as ways of being human, from three modes of possible interpretation of the time problem. The initial two are presented under the perspective of Heidegger's thought: the first one, the anthropocentric, is the one that is established from a first interpretation of time as a simple duration; the second, the existential, is time as finitude or relative impermanence. The third one, the numinous, under Zen Master D?gen's perspective of thought, is apprehended from time as radical impermanence. In this continuum of modes of dwelling would be a supposition that there is a deepening in the comprehension of the being of man that would imply, in turn, with a correspondent deepening in the way of interpreting the problem of time, in other words, of apprehending it more originally. Keywords: ontology, dwelling, time, permanence, finitude, impermanence.