4   Heidegger's Being


relief Heidegger’s central notions and his life-long consideration of Parmenides and Heraclitus, Plato and Aristotle.1

Part II offers a translation of a delightful address given by the Japanese scholar Kōichi Tsujimura on the occasion of Heidegger’s 80th birthday celebration in 1969. His talk is in accord with a guiding theme of this volume that Heidegger’s thought unfolds a certain “spiritual” comportment toward all things, and Tsujimura attests to what he understands to be the close connection between Heidegger’s fundamental outlook and the ancient Zen Buddhist wisdom as exemplified by several Zen masters, including Dōgen. In addition, Heidegger’s brief “Reply in Appreciation” affords us an insight into how in the later work he came to understand Being as “the Nothing” (das Nichts) in a more existentially “whole” and “wholesome” manner than in the early writings. That is, for the later Heidegger, “the Nothing” is no longer anything “negative” at all, but rather the overflowing fullness from out of which all things arise, including ourselves.

In Part III, I offer a series of reflections and impressions that take their inspiration, in part, from Heidegger’s own engaging entries in his Black Notebooks. Each note in Part III makes a point but at the same time invites further consideration. I would like to think that these notes offer a short-form style of philosophical reflection that are pedagogically useful insofar as they give rise to one good insight or one good question. Several notes seek primarily to clarify and elucidate, while others trace parallels with other thinkers and poets, such as Alfred North Whitehead, C.G. Jung, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, and even the Persian poet Rumi; and some other notes offer a particular text that crystallizes in a striking way a central theme of Heidegger’s thinking. Despite the variety of topics, the reader will be able to discern the common thread that runs through all these reflections.

Thus the three parts of this book, taken together, offer an earnest effort on my part to convey once again the extraordinary reach and richness of Heidegger’s thinking. The book is intended not only for dedicated students of Heidegger’s work but also for all those who wish to come to a deeper appreciation of his distinctive understanding of Being and its implications. Above all,


Richard Capobianco - Heidegger's Way of Being