Mystical Buddhism and the West

We don’t notice the luminous Mind energizing us; giving us life.  Nor do we recognize Mind to be the very substance from which our thoughts, feelings, passions, etc., are made.  We are just aware of phenomena both external and internal.  That’s all we know as ordinary, worldly beings.

To realize or awaken to the noumenal in the likeness of the luminous Mind, or the sphere of Dharma (dharmadhatu), is an occult or mystical process.  This is something the ordinary, worldly being cannot do because such a being is deeply attached to illusory phenomena never having yet questioned it or renounced it.  But now I must pause.  

I have said something very much hated by the modern West.  Yes, the West has a strong dislike of the idea of the occult, the mystical, and anything else that can’t be perceived and labeled by sensory consciousness.  We have to keep in mind that the West, for a long time, has made an unholy alliance with matter and the transitory such that anyone who might claim insight into the immaterial and the everlasting is, by implication, attacking the very foundation of Western civilization.  Not only that, they are attacking the very concept of God which, in reality, is only a personification of temporal man, his will, love, knowledge, consciousness, and even his evil ( I bring good and create evil; I, the Lord, do all these things [ Isaiah 45:7]).   

While the West has purged mysticism from its religious values going back as far as Gnosticism, mysticism has survived—but not in the West.  Indeed, it has long survived in Buddhism which never knew anything like an Inquisition.  Not only was Indian Buddhism mystical, but it has remained so in China, Tibet, Korea, Japan and other Asian countries.   Quoting Heinrich Dumoulin, “The mystical element is an essential part of Buddhism” (History of Zen Buddhism, 5).

The Asian soul, we could say, lacks the same attitude found in the Western soul which seems guided by a demonic urge to destroy all that it can’t fully understand and/or control.  This, I hasten to inject here, is plainly evident in how the West treats UFO phenomena and so-called close encounters.  The very idea of advanced humanoids who might be far wiser and kinder than we, and certainly more technologically advanced, is an abhorrent thought to the Western mind.  But in China, a Buddhist hermit living in the mountains of Chugnan will say that she had been taught mantras that had first been taught to mankind by “beings from outer space” (Porter, Road to Heaven, 111).  These are definitely not the words of a Westerner.

The West’s contempt towards the the mystical cannot be easily glossed over or explained.  It pushes the limits of even psychology to explain such a notably hostile reaction.  The only plausible explanation I have found is that temporal Western man greatly fears to behold his own finitude such that for him it would become almost a living death.  Instead, he prefers his fantasies.  Yet, it is hard to deny the enjoyed fruits of the mystical world from philosophy, mathematics to chemistry.  Evidence, too, seems to be wanting that realized mystics are an unhappy lot.  The Buddha spoke of nirvana as being blissful and immortal.  The great Gnostic Valentinus said, “Through Gnosis, then, is redeemed the inner, spiritual man: so that to us suffices the Gnosis of universal being: and this is the true redemption.”  

I hope that in the future, Buddhism will be the thin end of the wedge that will finally reintroduce mysticism to the West.  Presently, Buddhism is having to defend itself to the physical sciences, as if the physical sciences have not, generally, produced one failed theory after another, standing on no sure foundation. 

Comments

[deborah]

Any thoughts on this Buddhist Skateboarding Monk: A contradiction or product of the modern age? http://bit.ly/monk_skateboarding

[Frank]

"Cultures go through cycles of invention." Yet for Western man this "cycle" goes as far back as anyone can research or even reckon, and it continues to this moment: from the birth of empirical science (Greeks) to the landing of craft on Mars....Where will it end?

[Frank]

Even the Chinese have legends (backed up by recent discoveries) of pale, tall, redheads arriving and basically teaching them many of the aspects of civilization.

Aaaahhhh....Ancinet Chinese medicine, huh? Very intriguing, and there's probably something to it, but most (if not ALL) people would be a lot more comfortable heading to a "Western" hospital in a medical pinch. On the other hand, if we ate more like the Asians, we probably wouldn't NEED those hospitals so much. I realize there's a Yin and Yang to everyTHANG, but when it comes to comparing Western man to any other kind, in terms of science and the alleviation of physical suffering, there simply is no comparison. Trying to do so is really laughable--that is if one can see past much of the the "P.C." junk--which is really nothing short of approved hatred for Western Man. You have to think outside the box (the TV).

[NellaLou]

"...none were created by Asians."

There are numerous systems of medicine created by Asians including Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Unani and others many millenia ago. The validity of many of the practices in those systems has been tested and quite a number of procedures, substances etc. adopted and adapted by western pharmaceutical companies and others. Plant pharmacology for example has been well known in most cultures well before the Greeks.

The concept of zero was first identified in the east and came to function as a true zero, rather than a placeholder, in India centuries before the West had such a concept.

reference here:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=history-of-zero

Where would binary code have come from without this crucial concept?

The concept of "air conditioning" has been known in India for thousands of years as well-the generation of a breeze blowing over a water cooled curtain. The "modern" air conditioner is merely an adaptation of the same.

There are many other examples that could be cited of Eastern invention. Cultures go through cycles of invention and the "East" has had many from which the "West" has benefited enormously.

[Frank]

The physical sciences are lauded by the Dalai Lama because they, in most cases or when applied properly, alleviate suffering. As Buddha sought to lessen suffering, the best Western applications of the sciences do the same: heating, air-conditioning,medicine, computers and blogs like this one--none were created by Asians. The ancient Greeks either pioneered or popularized the idea of science as purely physical; this thought has led to the alleviation of much physical suffering for all of the races--including those that have been taught to only heap insult upon the Western man that made it possible--reverse karma, if you will...