The Problem of Impermanence

Abstract This chapter argues that the problem of evil arises not only for traditional theists and non-theists in the Western tradition but also for followers of non-theistic Eastern traditions. It focuses on the Japanese literature in the Kamakura period (1185–1333), especially Kamo no Chōmei’s work Hōjōki (1212), which describes pain and suffering people experienced in catastrophes in Kyoto in that period and explains how the Japanese observed and reacted to them. The chapter argues that, contrary to initial appearances, pain and suffering in the midst of disasters are not the main concerns of Chōmei or other Japanese thinkers; their main concern is rather the ephemerality or transience of our existence, which leads us to the ‘problem of impermanence’. The chapter argues that this problem of impermanence is a version of the problem of systemic evil, even though it does not address the system of natural selection or evolution.