Yes. Totally!!! Unfortunately a lot of Western Philosophy over the last 1000 years is so unconsciously indoctrinated by monotheism that even when they nod to Classical philosophers it’s got underlying Judaeo-Christian presuppositions — Descartes for example chose to go back to first principles and ended up with something that looked remarkably similar to Catholicism, even as he was trying to move beyond it.
The thing I love about [ancient] Chinese philosophy in particular is that even though it seeks to find ways for ‘collective’ harmony, it’s continues to emphasise the individual’s unique nature within the whole. It balances the dual needs of individualism / collectivism.
When I look at both ‘western and eastern’ (which are kinda false polarities anyway), I find it to be like two sides of the same coin — yīnyáng if you will!
And some of the ‘eastern’ stuff has been creeping in to Western thought over the last 100 or so years, which is the root to some of the backlash at diversity and polyculturalism happening in the (White) Western Hemisphere...
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?
上火下澤睽君子以同而異 fire above, and water below [forms the image of] diversity; because of this the Superior Person is the same and yet different.
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!
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.
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
I agree with you, that looking East (and to Indigenous cultures) is important. The West is very egocentric and it's one of the reasons I don't wish to live in Australia or Europe at this point in time. I don't want want to get sucked back into that mindset of working to acquire more stuff to satisfy my ego.
LoL the irony of the fact I just got lost for nearly an hour dealing with emails/calls about a position I'm currently auditioning for and forgot to respond is not lost on me. Yet I am intentionally subjecting myself to it again...
Hello @clayboyn, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Oh the synchronicity :) Yesterday mom and I ate at a relatively new Indian restaurant and spent about a half an hour chatting with the young couple who runs it. They moved here from Punjab just under a year ago- and they practice a religion I am ashamed to say I've never heard of called Sikhism. I did some research on it when I got home, and it's sooo much healthier than Christianity.
However, not subscribing to any particular religion is what works best for me, because even with the best of them they have rules I don't agree with (In this case, covering the head- and more importantly no alcohol lol) What really fascinated me about it though is learning that 99% of people who wear turbans in the US are from the Sikh religion and not Islamic as most people assume. Apparently the poor dude was harassed at every airport on his way here- testing his hands for chemicals, of course forcing him to remove his turban etc.- because of that assumption. There is a big similarity in his looks to a Pakistani, but fuck off on the stereotypes America sheesh, even if were Pakistani. When will we evolve Clay? Sadly I don't know if I have any faith that the majority ever will.
(Speaking of Christianity, my mother is a Jesus freak so of course she had to talk to them about the love of Christ- smh- though I suppose it's fair enough as she did respectfully listen to what they had to say and responded to it kindly. She's much better than she once was with that stuff, I will give her that.)
I fear the direction our society is headed, the separatism and racism is only going to get worse at an institutional level. That being said, it feels very much like there's a shift in people, like you've noticed with your mom, and maybe as individuals we have to collectively get smarter before we can hope to change the institutions we sell our souls to for the illusion of security they promise. Ultimately though, like you, I don't ascribe to any of the labels even though by all accounts I seem to tick ever box for Buddhism, which I find hilarious as I don't even consider Buddhism a religion. Perhaps that's why it resonates so much with? Who knows...
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.
Yes. Totally!!! Unfortunately a lot of Western Philosophy over the last 1000 years is so unconsciously indoctrinated by monotheism that even when they nod to Classical philosophers it’s got underlying Judaeo-Christian presuppositions — Descartes for example chose to go back to first principles and ended up with something that looked remarkably similar to Catholicism, even as he was trying to move beyond it.
The thing I love about [ancient] Chinese philosophy in particular is that even though it seeks to find ways for ‘collective’ harmony, it’s continues to emphasise the individual’s unique nature within the whole. It balances the dual needs of individualism / collectivism.
When I look at both ‘western and eastern’ (which are kinda false polarities anyway), I find it to be like two sides of the same coin — yīnyáng if you will!
And some of the ‘eastern’ stuff has been creeping in to Western thought over the last 100 or so years, which is the root to some of the backlash at diversity and polyculturalism happening in the (White) Western Hemisphere...
Posted using Partiko iOS
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!
Posted using Partiko iOS
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.
Posted using Partiko iOS
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
I agree with you, that looking East (and to Indigenous cultures) is important. The West is very egocentric and it's one of the reasons I don't wish to live in Australia or Europe at this point in time. I don't want want to get sucked back into that mindset of working to acquire more stuff to satisfy my ego.
On a related note, I found this recently, which talks about all three philosophies, and I really like it.
https://chacruna.net/world-best-practices-integrating-ayahuasca/
LoL the irony of the fact I just got lost for nearly an hour dealing with emails/calls about a position I'm currently auditioning for and forgot to respond is not lost on me. Yet I am intentionally subjecting myself to it again...
Hello @clayboyn, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Thanks for the feature :)
Oh the synchronicity :) Yesterday mom and I ate at a relatively new Indian restaurant and spent about a half an hour chatting with the young couple who runs it. They moved here from Punjab just under a year ago- and they practice a religion I am ashamed to say I've never heard of called Sikhism. I did some research on it when I got home, and it's sooo much healthier than Christianity.
However, not subscribing to any particular religion is what works best for me, because even with the best of them they have rules I don't agree with (In this case, covering the head- and more importantly no alcohol lol) What really fascinated me about it though is learning that 99% of people who wear turbans in the US are from the Sikh religion and not Islamic as most people assume. Apparently the poor dude was harassed at every airport on his way here- testing his hands for chemicals, of course forcing him to remove his turban etc.- because of that assumption. There is a big similarity in his looks to a Pakistani, but fuck off on the stereotypes America sheesh, even if were Pakistani. When will we evolve Clay? Sadly I don't know if I have any faith that the majority ever will.
(Speaking of Christianity, my mother is a Jesus freak so of course she had to talk to them about the love of Christ- smh- though I suppose it's fair enough as she did respectfully listen to what they had to say and responded to it kindly. She's much better than she once was with that stuff, I will give her that.)
Awesome post, glad I dropped by! x
I fear the direction our society is headed, the separatism and racism is only going to get worse at an institutional level. That being said, it feels very much like there's a shift in people, like you've noticed with your mom, and maybe as individuals we have to collectively get smarter before we can hope to change the institutions we sell our souls to for the illusion of security they promise. Ultimately though, like you, I don't ascribe to any of the labels even though by all accounts I seem to tick ever box for Buddhism, which I find hilarious as I don't even consider Buddhism a religion. Perhaps that's why it resonates so much with? Who knows...
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.
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