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Sufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts by Toshihiko IzutsuReview by: Michael ScottJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1987), pp. 399-400Published by: Cambridge University Press

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REVIEWS OF BOOKS 399tion and values between them needs a great deal more research. If popular culture was blackand central "High" culture was white, the existence of a very wide swathe of grey is confirmedby this book.From the erudite and thought-provoking introductory chapters, through the main body ofchapters on specific topics, to the concluding summary of "Problems and Prospects" this is awork of high scholarship and great interest. There is not a weak paper in the set and thepublisher has produced a book to match. It may not be cheap but itmost certainly is goodvalue.

Hugh D. R. Baker

SUFISM AND TAOISM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF KEY PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS. By TOSHIHIKOIzuTSU.pp. viii,493. Berkeley etc., University of California Press, 1984. ?23.00.

This important work, written when the author was teaching Islamic Philosophy at theInstitute of Islamic Studies of McGill University, was first published in two separate volumesin 1966-1967 by the Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, Keio University, Tokyo,entitled A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism: Ibn'Arabiand Lao-tz? - Chuang-tz?.Demand for another edition brought it into galley proofs by 1978 to be published inTehran.Iranian events delayed its appearance until the University of California Press produced theedition under review.To quote Seyyed Hossein Nasr: "Since this book appeared it has influenced every work onIbn 'Arab! and metaphysical Sufism . . . any cursory study of Sufism in the last fifteen yearswill reveal the extent of Izutsu's influence." Dr William C. Chittick, who published in autumn1975 and spring 1976 a translation of Ibn 'Arab?'s own summary of Fus?s al-Hikam (Naqsh

al-Fus?s), wrote "... for a good deal of the terminology employed in the translation I amindebted to T. Izutsu's brilliant study of Ibn 'Arab!, probably the best work in Europeanlanguages for explaining the intricacies of Ibn 'Arab?'s doctrine. . ." (Journal of the

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arab Society, vol. I, p. 33 and note 13, p. 32).For many of those whom it chiefly concerns, therefore, it will perhaps be enough toannounce that Izutsu's book is once more available, even if, however fittingly, as a pearl ofhigh price.The new volume still contains the two original books: each an analytical study of a distinctworld view, that of Muhyidd?n Ibn 'Arab? and that of ancient Taoism, separated by a millennium and a half as well as by linguistic and cultural barriers. The fundamental structure of eachworld view is laid bare rigorously and independently. A third part A Comparative Reflectiontakes up only five per cent of the whole book.Dr Izutsu's motive in this labour has been the desire to open a new vista in the domain ofcomparative philosophy and mysticism, convinced as he is, with Henry Corbin, that "a transhistorical dialogue"("un dialogue dans lam?tahistoire") is "something urgently needed in thepresent world situation". He believes "the philosophical drive of the human mind is, regardless of ages, places and nations ultimately and fundamentally one". Between the two poles(shared with other types of mysticism), the Absolute al-haqql tao and the Perfect Man al-insanal-kamillsh?ngj?n, extends a developed system of ontological thought.At the outset of the first part the author makes clear that this is not a philologicallyexhaustive study of Ibn 'Arab? but essentially an analysis of the major ontological conceptswhich Ibn 'Arab! develops in Fus?s al-Hikam, drawing also on 'Abd al-Razz?q al-Q?sh?nfscommentary and occasionally on those of Qaysari and J?m?.Izutsu finds that "the ontological core itself of Ibn 'Arab?'s entire philosophising is sur

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400 reviews of booksprisingly simple and solidly immovable; it is the different angles from which he considers itthat constantly move and change, revealing at each step a new aspect of the core". He alsorefers to "the unusual profundity and fecundity of his (Ibn Arab?'s) experience, which alwaysunderlies his thinking. The depth and richness of mystical experience demands, in his case,

multiplicity of expression".Ibn Arab! is explicit that Fus?s al-Hikam is a book that was not merely commissioned butalso received. This angle of Revelation ismatched when Dr Izutsu propounds the hypothesisof the shamanic origin of Taoism ["Taoism is a philosophical elaboration of the Far Easterntype of shamanism".]."The world view of Taoism and Sufism represents ... a vision of Existence peculiar to'abnormal' men", for an Ibn 'Arab!, a Lao-tz?, and a Chuang-Tzu it is a product of a purifiedspiritual state. "It is an ontology" holds Izutsu "because it is philosophised vision of Existence.But it is an extraordinary ontology, because the underlying vision of Existence is far frombeing an ordinary one". (Did not Pythagoras and Proclus keep themselves fit by inner disciplines to handle and transmit truths difficult of expression?) "Abnormal" may be an unsuitableword in this context, if perfect

man be the goal and idealnorm. In Islam are combined two

Truths: "the truth based on Intellection" and "the truth based on Revelation" - haqlqah andshan ah; and in this connection occurs Dr Osman Yahya's remark, quoted by Izutsu "le destina voulu placer Ibn Arab? ? la crois?e des chemins pour d?gager, en sa personne, la v?ritablevocation de l'Islam". (Histoire et classification de l'oeuvre dTbn Arabl, 2 vols. 1964, Damas,pp. 18-19.)It seems possible that, for another edition, a case exists for reviewing the uses to which areput the words "existence", "Existence", and "being" and "Being", in view of the difference inmeaning between "to exist" and "to be". Etymological dictionaries offer for "exist" themeanings: "emerge, appear, proceed, be visible, manifest, take up a position" (Oxford);"stand forth, to emerge" (Partridge Origins); "come forth, arise, be" (Skeat); "to appear,stand forth" (Klein). Awareness of this suggests that "exist, existence, existents" betterdescribe "the ten thousand things" or wan wu resulting from Sh?ng, and the mumkin?tresultant from tajalll; while "being" (or "Being" for pure Being or Being itself) is moreappropriate when tao and haqq are in question. Dr Izutsu does vary the use of "existence" by

writing "Existence" in some places where it is now being suggested he might consider thesubstitution of "Being".There are several passages on pages 482, 483, 486 where "Being" in lieu of "Existence"could perhaps be tried out: ". . .the Essence in the Unity of its unconditional simplicity is, inIbn Arab?'s view, nothing other than pure Existence, ... the Absolute is actus purus, the actitself of 'existing'." (p. 482)."The Reality called the 'Essence at the level of Unity' in its true nature is nothing other thanExistence pure and simple . . ." (p. 482).p. 483. "And Chuang-tzu

clarifies . . . that this transcendentNothing

is not apurelynegative 'nothing' in the usual sense of the word; that, on the contrary, it is a supra-plenitudeof Existence as the ultimate ontological ground of everything, as Something that lies at the

very source of all existents and makes them exist."p. 486. "Existence per se is thus absolutely inconceivable and inapproachable. Ibn Arab!refers to this aspect of Existence by the word ghayb, 'concealment' or 'invisibility' (sic). In theTaoist system, it is hs?an or Mystery that is the most proper word for referring to this

absolutely transcendent stage of Existence."Dr Izutsu has managed to present his difficult treatise most readably.Michael Scott

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