Abstract

The well-known Japanese thinker and orientalist, Tushihiku Izutsu, devoted a large part of his works to comparative studies. The method he adopted in doing so, Henri Corbin calls it, is meta-historical. In the historical method of traditional academic studies, all thoughts are subject to their time and place and, as a result, dominated by historical relativity. It was in opposition to this historical approach that phenomenology appeared on the stage of contemporary philosophy and paved the way for comparative studies. Izutsu embarked on comparing those philosophic systems, which share a common ground but differ in historical and sociological details. Izutsu’s Sufism and Tao’s Religion• was the outcome of the application of this very method.
Moreover, Izutsu also went beyond dialogue and comparative studies toward a state which, transcends dialogue, the state of mondo in. zen Buddhism or “sympathy” as it is called by great Sufis such as Molavi, where there is no intention of communicating thoughts or information. This article offers a discussion and analysis of the two mentioned states - meta-historical dialogue and meta-dialogue- as presented by Izutsu.

Keywords

• -