The Western Mind and the Eastern Mind
La mente occidental y la mente oriental
A discussion about the romanticization of Eastern spirituality and whether the integration of Western and Eastern approaches represents a healthier collective evolution.
The Western Mind and the Eastern Mind
A discussion about the romanticization of Eastern spirituality and whether the integration of Western and Eastern approaches represents a healthier collective evolution.
In the West, though, it seems different from the East.
If you go to the East, to countries that are strongly Hindu or Buddhist, it is not that different. The Western mind has taken over the world. In Buddhism, for example, there is no God. Yet go to Cambodia, go to a Buddhist temple, and see what they are doing. They are on their knees praying to Siddhartha as if he were Christ. The level of devotion to the entity Buddha is equivalent: fervent devotion. It is beautiful, and I am not criticizing it, but it is not what the scriptures and texts speak of. The texts speak of there not being a divine entity.
I think in the East there is also more understanding of karma yoga, the bhakti path, where they serve the form, but slowly it sinks in that the form is just there as a vehicle for truth.
I agree that this kind of work is more normalized in the East, and a lot of it originated there. But it is not as total as one would think.
Maybe I am just romanticizing, reading those books about Ramana Maharshi's ashram in the 1920s.
That is exactly what I am saying: it is romanticization. I have traveled extensively in the East, in multiple countries, and it is beautiful, but it is also very shocking. The level of fervent devotion, of divine exaltation of human entities, is intense. A lot of the spiritual texts and teachings, the real heart of them, have been very diluted and misinterpreted. You will find authentic practice more readily there, but it is not as complete and total as one would think.
So do you think it is almost going backwards for them? That the West might take over?
The crossover of East and West
I think it is an evolution, but there needs to be a transcendence, not a regression. This is more to do with interpretations of social and collective evolution, which is on the relative level and is not really what matters most here. But if we talk about it, I would say the Western mind is in a sense more evolved, and some of the truths of the Eastern mind need to go through the process of Westernization, transcend, and then the two minds integrate to a higher level of functioning and interpretation.
So the illusion of this "I" has to really be mature and evolve before it can be transcended.
It is not a requirement, but it is a better balance.
Waking up and growing up
This is what I speak about: there is waking up and there is growing up. Here we are talking about the growing up of social groups, the collective level. What I propose as a more grown-up version is when those two mindsets integrate and are transcended. That means somebody can be very awake yet also very functional, in full development of all their cognitive and personal abilities. Compare that to somebody who is awake but dysfunctional, which is very common in the East. Or the other extreme: very highly functional but not awake at all, which is very common in the West.
Eastern cultures are also socially dysfunctional in many ways. There is a lot of poverty, a lot of lack in the areas where the West excels. But those two qualities, those two intelligences, can be combined, integrated, and also transcended, so that one is not seen as better than the other. It is a balance.
The polarization and the integration
The West and the East have been very polarized. In the last century there has been a crossover. The Western mind has taken over China, has taken over India. At the same time, the deep non-Christian perennial wisdom has come to the West. It has not "taken over," because that is not the quality of that intelligence. Its quality is to seep in, to emerge, to nourish. This crossover is, I think, a very healthy thing for humanity: for these two to come together and integrate. That, to me, is a positive aspect of the growing up of society.
There are risks, of course. There are risks of the Western mind dominating too much in the East. But when things seem good, there are many groups appearing, many people waking up, and technology is enabling these teachings to reach interested people very easily.
That is beautiful how you describe it. It is like a dance. I did romanticize the East a bit more, but I see now how it all has its place.
It just takes traveling more extensively. I have spent perhaps a year and a half in total traveling through multiple countries in the East, at different periods, sometimes for many months. I went very deeply into the cultures, living with locals, going to their temples, staying with their families. So I have seen a great deal of it firsthand.