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RE: Why Western Society Needs Eastern Philosophy
I think Watts and the 60s was a pretty big wake-up call to Western philosophy and it pointed out the glaring holes in our ideologies. Looking at the rapid industrialization of Asian, I can't help but wonder if we're set to flip-flop with them over the next hundred years or so. That would be hilarious eh?
Well like it says in the I Ching:
Most Chinese philosophy preaches the “Middle Way” similar to Buddhism’s viewpoint, although the middle way taught in the I Ching for example pre-dates Buddhism by maybe 12 centuries!! China at present is so far away from being in the ‘middle’ much as I think much of the West is to varying degree.
While much of Confucianism should rightly be critiqued hard from a Western philosophical perspective, it holds some essential truths that could provide solutions to problems faced in the West. So too Taoist and Buddhist thought.
While I find it interesting, Hinduism is unpalatable to me, way too steeped in class bullshit — I find the caste system particularly abhorrent, which is why I think Buddhism has always been the antidote for that problem.
But if you examine all the philosophies from Asia — and here I would include some of the Islamic philosophies and Sufism — and their various different schools of thought, you do find something that each of them have in common, and it’s that which is missing (or at least unpopular, or not talked about in the West).
There were times when it appeared in Western history, but the reality is that Christianity would inevitably strike it down. As beautiful and profound as the teachings of Jesus were, the resulting institution that was built around them has been tyrannical, perverse, and the worst combination of Imperialism the world has seen.
DT Suzuki was also an important part of bringing Zen to the West, much like Wilhelm bringing the Tao.
See, Chinese Philosophy (particularly the Tao inspired schools) are deliberately and inherently syncretic — and that’s where we can find a model that is truly inclusive!
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I find it funny that Western society and business/military can hold Sun Tzu in such reverence, but I didn't hear about Lao Tzu until I was in my thirties and actively seeking at Eastern philosophies to learn about different ways of thinking and ideologies.
Like I said above, I can't blame Christianity for everything wrong with Western society, but I feel like it's the foundation that so much of the bullshit is built upon. It's kind of mind blowing to me that we can be this "technologically advanced" and still have a majority of the world personifying a god construct and worshiping it.
On a side note, Hinduism wasn't for me either, I'd say I probably resonate most closely with Buddhism as I tend to view it as an anti-religion, but like all things, there's wisdom hidden throughout all religions if we're willing to accept it. I think things like the Hindi Caste system or the governmental aspects of Christianity are mainly just tools for governing large masses of people and keeping them in fear.
Totally!!! Look at the language used in Christianity... it’s all about giving over personal sovereignty to a “Lord”.... there is nothing spiritual about that, but it is about controlling the masses.
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Very interesting thoughts. We might be missing the point here. In this case, searching for YOUR truth while looking to fit inside an EXISTING religious construct seems counterproductive. You could also pull from 10 different sources and come up with the most beautiful system invented, only to have it used by others to manipulate. I myself after searching, have found great happiness with Christianity but there are plenty of Christians I want nothing to do with. At the end of it all, we are all just people prone to the worst of human nature, no matter what teachings we follow.
I think there's wisdom in Christianity, I just don't really agree with the God construct personification parts, most of the Old testament... and of course all of the human manipulation that's occurred throughout the last ~2000 years. I tend to adopt that "taking inspiration from different sources approach," but in the end I suppose who we are and the type of person we are is usually pretty evident to the people that we interact with heavily throughout our lives and the labels we ascribe to ourselves are only as meaningful as we want to believe them to be. The human condition certainly seems to always win in the end.
I fully agree. I try and remain self aware and open-minded. Some of friends preach and some are Atheists. But what keeps my beliefs going isn't the magical sounding text. During a near car crash I had the cliche' "my life flashed before my eyes" moment. Each scene of my life had an associated feeling of pride or conviction/guilt. The odd part is, in the next instant I noticed the scenes were skewed to my left and was also being viewed by a huge figure standing behind me. Any-who, I'm a very logical person and can explain it away but that wouldn't feel right. If I never heard of organized religion and was raised in a cave, I'd still acknowledge that someone or something I must answer to after death. I'm glad steemit facilitates such discussions as I'm tired of Zuckerberg at FB having all my thoughts. Haha