Abstract
In 1923 Rudolf Otto gathered a number of appendices in Das
Heilige (1917) in one of which he connected Zen Buddhism and
the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart. The common denominator
was life, as it lives without reason, lives because it lives, likewise
the righteous man works for the sake of working and only then is
genuinely free. When, in 1965 Shizuteru Ueda published his
doctoral dissertation on Eckhart, he included a comparison with
Zen returning to that topic. In light of the dichotomy actioncontemplation
in the Western tradition, we examine the
similarities and differences between Eckhart and Zen pointed
out by Ueda in this regard and its meaning for contemporary
thought. In both cases the projection beyond God results in a
new way of being and acting in the world : who has experienced
this emptiness does not ask why, does not seek anymore, and
therefore has found.
This