I was reading through The Way of Zen by Alan Watts this weekend and he had a nice spiel on the Eastern way of thinking, and the fundamental differences between Western and Eastern style philosophy. I highly recommend the book and without going into a lengthy diatribe wanted to start a thread on it.
I'll try to sum it up:
So for those who have, or haven't read any Eastern philosophy, what do you think of those definitions? Are they bunk? Do they make sense?
I'll try to sum it up:
The Western style of thinking identifies the world as an object that needs to be rationalized and rigorously studied to reach a greater understanding about it. The Eastern way of thinking recognizes that treating the world as an object has no resolution, no end. By always working on your environment you become distinct from it and not interrelated with it as a whole. You understand how things work, but you lose the soul of things.
The Western style of thinking is purposeful, it always has some kind of aim. The Eastern style of thinking seeks to relieve itself of an aim or purpose and enter into a life of pure experience.
So for those who have, or haven't read any Eastern philosophy, what do you think of those definitions? Are they bunk? Do they make sense?
“Paradoxical as it may seem, the purposeful life has no content, no point. It hurries on and on, and misses everything. Not hurrying, the purposeless life misses nothing, for it is only when there is no goal and no rush that the human senses are fully open to receive the world.”