“There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.” ~ Chinese Proverb
It all seems so confusing. So many paths to choose from, so many “gurus”, so many instructional and experiential opportunities, so many “Flavors of the week !” …
If we were to forced to speculate on a single reason why all these choices have appeared in the West, we might conclude, in a word, that the pursuit of Happiness drew Americans East-ward.
As Stillness Speaks continues its efforts to create, aggregate and distribute authentic resources for those deeply interested in self inquiry, we hope to continue deepening our coverage of the Eastern Wisdom traditions (e.g., Nonduality/Advaita, Buddhism) while expanding into, and thus sharing, the great trove of non-dual, and other, Western philosophical, literary (poetry), scientific and art contributions.
Do you remember the sixties? Woodstock, the Vietnam War, The Black Panthers, The SDS (Students of Democratic Society) and The Weather Underground, the “Peace and Love Generation,” the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, The Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Six Day War, hippies, communes and….psychedelics?
In the late fifties and sixties, many Americans became disillusioned by the materialism, racism, colonialism, and the stress of Western culture. Looking for inner peace, they travelled to the East, primarily to India, Tibet, and Japan.
Tiger Woods may best answer the core reason Westerners became attached to Eastern Wisdom: “Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint….Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught.”
Some of the Eastern teachers and their Western students (upon return to the United States after their training) began to share views and practices which contrasted sharply with our material – centric, “consumptionist” culture {of duality}, thus further fueling the “east-ward” draw … which begs the question :
What was the secret promise held by the East that the West craved so deeply … ?
This is the key question we will explore through a series of upcoming posts, of which this is Part 1.
We hope you will join us as we survey this spiritual revolution, as part of which we will also explore how the core failure of “consumptionism” is a key reason many expect awakening to blossom in the West.
“You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.” ~ Eric Hoffer
To access all parts of this entire series, please click on the link below
Exploring Eastern Wisdom’s Relevance for the West: a 9-part series
First quote (Chinese proverb): World of Proverbs.
Last Quote (Eric Hoffer): Quote Garden.
Featured & First Post Image: Collage of 1) Ganesha Painting at a Temple in Bhadrachalam, Khammam district, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2) Fire Om, by Koltrein, CC0 Public Domain, 3) Tibetan Buddhist thangka painting of a mandala, by Anonymous Tibetan Artist, United States Public Domain, and 4) Buddha & Enso Images at Chris Hebard’s by Cherie Manifest.
Second Post Image: Trimurti, Elephanta Caves, by Christian Haugen, CC BY 2.0.
As the world continues to shrink–with nearly instantaneous information and communication available to more and more people–it must be inevitable that the good, the true, the healing wisdom, rises to the top of humanity’s consciousness. The Eastern traditions have the advantage of being provable in the truth-seeker’s own experience once the seeker gets beyond the cultural trappings and glamour of vivid art, strange gurus, and all those kind of distractions.
The Western spiritual traditions are waning because they are too dependent on faith instead of reason, tradition instead of exploration. The Eastern Wisdom [and thankfully in the nick of time] seems very much needed, effective, supremely true in a spiritual sense, and ultimately perfectly Freeing. Forget the gurus–experience the essence–it’s all one world and one human race now…and ‘That thou art.’
Both Eastern and Western traditions have insights to offer … each path has a draw for some 🙂 … indeed Thou art That!
A very good start to a new series of post : What was the secret promise held by the East that the West craved so deeply…
For us Easterners of the present age it could enlighten us about the best ideas that we offered to the world: a World Vision.
Thank you, Stillness Speaks
You are welcome Sudipto.
Only a start.
Yes Lauri … and more to follow shortly 🙂
Joyous reading. An evolution of understanding is taking place and I’m glad to watch it unfold in the west.
Alan,
Thanks for stopping by … glad you enjoyed it … we just posted Part 2 a few minutes ago.
Enjoy.
For a thinking man any ‘ism’ leads to further confusion. Please don’t divide further into east and west. Just live and love. Life will find its way.
Rohit,
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment.
We are an aggregator for multiple teachings .. here’s an excerpt from our vision page: we “… offer content from multiple traditions (paths), and teachers (luminaries), enabling our visitors to deeply explore the “many paths up the mountain:” from Christian to Sufi, from Zen to Hindu, Kabbalist to Kashmir Shaivism, Advaitic (Nondual) to Indigenous, from philosophical to atheist, from spiritual to scientific – the list is endless …”
Indeed “isms” tend to “bring in” duality and/or “division” … but one of the most common “methods” in the journey of self discovery tends to be intellectual pursuits and that naturally brings in such terms … and that’s the paradoxical nature of this wondrous journey.
In the end the essence of all traditions is the same : “There is only one truth, only men describe it in different ways.”
The post is doing a historical survey leading to the interest in Eastern wisdom … so “isms” are an organic part of the content … it’s an exploration of the collective journey with no intention to divide but to inform – of course, the “story” is weaved in subjective manner 🙂
Again, thanks for dropping by and sharing your perspective.