Beyond dualism : dialogue of gnosticism and Buddhism Zen in Czesław Miłosz’s poetry illustrated through the example of "Dalsze okolice"

This work is dedicated to the dialogue of two religious traditions in the work of Czesław Miłosz. It is an attempt to answer the question of relations between Gnosticism and Zen, and their role in Dalsze okolice, but also throughout Miłosz’s poetry. These two different types of spiritual experience, both reaching beyond the Christian view, are united in the work of Czesław Miłosz under the category of “internal dialogicality”, and - central to each - the issue of duality of subject and object of cognition. Milosz’s conflict between Gnosticism highlighting the problem of alienation in the world of nature and the Zen mind which is trying to cross this alienation, turns out to be an interesting example of dialogue between Western and Eastern philosophy. The dichotomous strucutre of this work allows the author to elaborate on the theoretical model of these relations, and then with the help of it, interpret the poetry of Czesław Miłosz.