I hesitate to say anything on this since I know next to nothing about Buddhism. But I am interested in understanding why eastern religions have appealed to so many people in the modern west. That is not a question about the Truth of Buddhism but, rather, why this particular 'shape' of the truth should find such a wide reception at this juncture in time.
I vaguely recall Nietzsche writing disparagingly of Buddhism..the sense of an exhausted will in the late days. And there was this by Spengler:
It is strange when Islam is clearly more aligned to the Judaic-Christian heritage. Or is it precisely because it's so close to that heritage that it must be kept at arms length? Could it be that the interest in Sufism fits into this pattern? Any system of thought or way of living that asks serious political questions is obviously a dangerous thing. Does that, at least in part, explain the hostility and indifference?
And why is there such a focus on 'mindfulness' right now? Does it have anything to do with current concerns that our attention has become a commodity and is being put under extraordinary pressures? Or is it just another way for capitalism to tap into the non-economic realms of life in order to extract surplus? After all, mindfulness is only useful as long as it enhances productivity/creativity.
I vaguely recall Nietzsche writing disparagingly of Buddhism..the sense of an exhausted will in the late days. And there was this by Spengler:
It was the basic feeling of the Indian Civilization and as such both equivalent to and "contemporary" with Stoicism and Socialism. [...] Buddhism rejects all speculation about God and the cosmic problems; only self and the conduct of actual life are important to it. And it definitely did not recognize a soul. The standpoint of the Indian psychologist of early Buddhism was that of the Western psychologist and the Western "Socialist" of to-day, who reduce the inward man to a bundle of sensations and an aggregation of electrochemical energies.
It is strange when Islam is clearly more aligned to the Judaic-Christian heritage. Or is it precisely because it's so close to that heritage that it must be kept at arms length? Could it be that the interest in Sufism fits into this pattern? Any system of thought or way of living that asks serious political questions is obviously a dangerous thing. Does that, at least in part, explain the hostility and indifference?
And why is there such a focus on 'mindfulness' right now? Does it have anything to do with current concerns that our attention has become a commodity and is being put under extraordinary pressures? Or is it just another way for capitalism to tap into the non-economic realms of life in order to extract surplus? After all, mindfulness is only useful as long as it enhances productivity/creativity.
No comments:
Post a Comment