TIMUR DAN BARAT DAN DIMANA KITA <renungan dari dusun kesenyapan>
non-dualitas vs dualitas. hakiki, atau gejalawi. pencerahan atau ritus. tao dan kejawen, atau lainnya ? dewasa, atau taman balita... mengenali diri : sumarah, sumeleh, merdiko! syalom itu namanya. DUDUKKAN EKONOMI DAN IPTEK DI PANGKUAN ALAM. Jadilah a Man/Woman for OTHERS (liyan/sesama), seperti Sang Guru. GO THE GREEN WAY. Keselamatan, bukan nafsu loba tamak rakus raksasa di hati egois. Terjerat di neraka kota. ------------------------------ Hello, I am auditing a class on Taoism and Western Ideals offered by Bill Garrett at John F. Kennedy University (Pleasant Hill, Californian). Some of you might be interested in the first assignment because it connects to our word constructs. My essay by the name "Taoism Contrasted with Western Outlooks", follows. Sincerely, Stephen ------------------------------ Stephen P. Smith PHR4902 Taoism Contrasted with Western Outlooks Greed is the single biggest quality that distinguishes the Taoist understanding from Western outlooks, in my view. In the west we struggle with greed in a way that is much different to the Taoist experiences of people wedded to nature's harmonies. I will look at this struggle in four areas: business affairs; religion and morality; science; and in our words. Despite Adam Smith being influenced by Tao there is a sleepiness that has overtaken the Western mind. Not knowing ourselves is not controlling our desires. Adam Smith finds himself subverted into a corruption where self interests are said to dominate, leaving mere competition as the ideal and cooperation as a lost cause. Attorneys will command $300 dollars per hour, and heaven help the man that requires ER attention in a hospital without health insurance. The narrow-minded accountant will ignore the qualitative issues and collapse all meaning into a single number called the bottom-line. The narrow focus is only one side of the Tao, and in the West this is the me side in heated competition for career advancement. Yet there is a simpler path found by following the Way, returning to nature with humble needs. In religion, it may be perceived that a dualistic God has separated himself from nature and the universe. Morality becomes a question of good triumphing over evil. God will reward the good and punish the bad. This activity of religion has been subverted by Western greed. Yet the simple Taoist finds the sacred in nature. And Sarah Allan has confused herself with her literalism that has excommunicated God from nature. She forgets that Hegel's God is not dualistic. Hegel's God is as much as the sacred that finds itself joined with nature, and while being Saint John's God that is not in conflict with Tao. Christ is the Logos, yet all we hear of is this strange war involving the dualistic God; forgetting that the conflict is only one of invention; forgetting Hegel's God. Yes, Bill Garrett, science is not immune to the Western struggle with greed. The Tao cannot be put into literal words. The Tao can only be described because something must escape; Hegel's spirit escapes by way of dialectical exchange. Yet greedy scientists must have reasons for everything. A hypothesis must be turned into a caricature, otherwise it cannot be subjected to Popper's falsification principle. The western scientist then confuses reality with the caricature, claiming more than what can be accounted for. The simple Taoist might warn about science, shaking is head and living to 100 years while celebrating the funeral of his long lost girl friend. Darwin can be subverted as badly as Adam Smith. The Tao signifies vitalism, and I challenge Richard Dawkins to embrace this vitalism that permeates life. The embrace demands no less the reconciliation of Darwinism with intelligent design; and the Tao did not evolve as it has no such scientific reason for its being. The Tao is merely felt, and it is no wonder that Lao Tzu, Heraclitus and Jesus Christ discovered it well before Darwin or Adam Smith. We struggle with greed with our Western words. Words are felt in metaphor, or words explain by literalism. Neither extreme is real in my view. What is real is the middle way that greed cannot find. Greed tries to collapse the metaphor into literalism. Sarah Allan attempted the collapse of the Tao into the principles of hydrology. She failed miserably, even being the best scholar of Tao. Nevertheless, postmodernism also fails in it attempted collapse of literalism into metaphor. We experience euphoria putting words to the magic that is felt directly. We use our critical eye in correction, and experience a felt irritation. The felt oscillation goes back and forth, but don't hang onto the spirit to tightly. It was meant to escape our most selfish plans. ANDA ? JANGAN LANJUTKAN MENJONGOS IBLIS KESERAKAHAN KIANAT MUNAFIKUS ?
