[One Thousand Characters a Day] Hermann von Keyserling's 'The Wandering Philosopher' <3>

Editor's NoteHermann von Keyserling was quite critical of Western philosophy, especially Christianity, but was well-versed in and favorable toward Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism and Hinduism. He visited the sites of philosophies that have sustained the Eastern world for thousands of years, including Buddhist temples in Ceylon, Hindu temples in India, Confucian shrines in China, and Buddhist temples in Japan. There, he met ascetics, sages, residents, and thinkers. Sometimes he listened attentively to their words, and other times he engaged in heated debates with them, pondering alone how to accept this world full of conflict and coexistence, anxiety and chaos. In the process, he was able to transform the knowledge he had accumulated into a unique philosophical principle and embody it as a tool to understand the world he lived in and the people within it. Word count: 570 characters.

Scholars who are erudite and excellent in reasoning find Buddhist philosophy gratifying. It is understandable. Mach did not know if metaphysics was necessary and did not show religious sentiment. Therefore, he was satisfied with phenomenological relativism. In contrast, those who understand concepts similarly to Buddha and respect universality tend to aim for an absolute philosophy. Such people always keep an absolute being in mind in some form. Hindu sages who view phenomena with a concept of essence coincidentally similar to Buddha think the same way. The West was no different. Auguste Comte, who founded a kind of sect emphasizing emotions; William James, who thought of the divine as a "God living as a person" embodied in personality; and Herbert Spencer, who in his later years leaned toward "agnosticism," all shared this view.

Buddha founded a religion that can be called phenomenological. Buddha analyzed cognition in the form of a gospel. This is something Mach might have done. Buddha did such a thing. It is very paradoxical from a Westerner’s perspective. Because of this, Brahmin philosophers dismissed Buddhism. At first, I also found it strange, but now I finally understand. Given the physiological conditions related to people living in tropical regions, Buddhism indeed carries the meaning of a gospel.

- Hermann von Keyserling, , translated by Hong Moon-woo, Param Book, 32,000 KRW

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