Bulletin > Volume 50 The Figure and Ground of Time: Dōgen’s Uji, Heidegger’s Fourfold, and the Limits of Being and Time

Nukui, Takashi

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This article compares Dōgen’s conception of time in the “Uji” fascicle of the Shōbōgenzō with Heidegger’s early and later accounts of temporality. While previous comparative studies have concentrated on Being and Time, this article draws on recently published posthumous manuscripts to clarify the significance of Heidegger’s later thought. The distinction between the “figure” and “ground” of time provides a framework for examining two shared concerns: the temporal horizon within which individual moments become meaningful, and detachment from excessive concern with the present. I argue that Being and Time remains limited by its orientation toward Dasein’s finite existence and its projection of possibilities. Dōgen’s account of being-time (uji), by contrast, articulates a more radically non-anthropocentric and non-teleological temporal field. Heidegger’s later reflections on time-space, the fourfold, and the fourth dimension of time extend the temporal horizon beyond individual existence and challenge the subordination of time to human purposes. These developments bring Heidegger’s later conception of time closer to Dōgen’s and provide grounds for reconsidering claims of residual anthropocentrism in his later thought. The comparison reveals an affinity between Dōgen and later Heidegger in their understanding of time as a relational ground that exceeds human control and calls for receptivity, detachment, and awe. An earlier version of this article was presented on 8 March 2025 at the workshop “Japanese Philosophy and its Auseinandersetzung with Heidegger,” held at the NIRC.