Wabi-Sabi and Kei

How Sen no Rikyū’s Zen-inspired ideas of human placedness and interpersonal respect enable a human-present world-harmonizing (Wa) within object-oriented ontology

Jason Morgan

Reitaku University

pp. 139-157

in: Laura Langone & Alexandra Ilieva (eds), Dynamic Encounters Between Buddhism and the West, East Asian Journal of Philosophy 3 (1), 2024.

Abstract

Timothy Morton is one of the best-known proponents of object-oriented ontology (OOO), which eschews privileged reference to human beings. In particular, Morton emphasizes the emptiness of all dharmas as a central theme of Western philosophy. OOO thus becomes a Buddhist awakening within the heart of the intellectual tradition of the West. However, in my view Morton’s OOO lacks a robust vision of how the human person can subsist in a deanthropocentrized ontological frame. In this paper, I suggest Zen philosopher and chanoyu (tea ceremony) practitioner Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591) as informative toward envisioning a patterning by which the human person can exist qua a human person even in an OOO world. I argue that Rikyū’s notion of kei (respect), contextualized by wabi-sabi (an Einfühlung toward objects), can help humans situate themselves, and enhance their regard for one another as well as for things (wa, human-present world-harmonizing), within an object-oriented ontology.