Mystical Consciousness: Western Perspectives and Dialogue with Japanese Thinkers

The book is organized into three major parts. The first examines modern Western philosophies of consciousness through major figures such as Brentano, Husserl, Sartre, Lonergan, Searle, Crosby, Helminiak, Morelli, Forman, Moore, Price, and Granfield, establishing a philosophical framework for understanding ordinary and mystical consciousness. The second analyzes three classical thinkers—Plotinus, Meister Eckhart, and Schleiermacher—to explore consciousness beyond ordinary self-awareness and the relationship between mysticism and transcendence. The final part develops a dialogue with Japanese philosophy by comparing Western and Zen perspectives on the self and nothingness, focusing especially on D. T. Suzuki, Nishitani Keiji, and Hisamatsu Shin'ichi. Through this comparative approach, the book offers a coherent philosophical account of mystical consciousness as a bridge between Western and Eastern intellectual traditions.