Western thinking has long been dominated by essence by a preoccupation with that which dwells
in itself and delimits itself from the other. By contrast Far Eastern thought is centred not
on essence but on absence. The fundamental topos of Far Eastern thinking is not being but 'the
way' (dao) which lacks the solidity and fixedness of essence. The difference between essence
and absence is the difference between being and path between dwelling and wandering. 'A Zen
monk should be without fixed abode like the clouds and without fixed support like water'
said the Japanese Zen master DMgen. Drawing on this fundamental distinction between essence and
absence Byung-Chul Han explores the differences between Western and Far Eastern philosophy
aesthetics architecture and art shedding fresh light on a culture of absence that may at
first sight appear strange and unfamiliar to those in the West whose ways of thinking have been
shaped for centuries by the preoccupation with essence.
