Re:Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase...
by cutler on Monday May 09, 2022 @06:41PM
(#31320825)
Maybe "western world" was an oversimplification but what I'm getting at is the contemplative, reclusive life is the privilege of a few. How can anyone retreat entirely, for example, if they have committed to a job and a family? Life is about activity. Without drive, passion and activity in the world we would be nowhere as a race. A little retreat from time to time is probably a good thing but as a life-path it can only be for the few and is therefore irrelevant to most of us. Listening to someone drone-on about their spiritual path is like watching paint dry. Give me a cricket match any day. That's my kinda Zen.
This ethos to which you attribute the greatness of the West, in the 1500s was seen by the East as a barbaric, dirty way of life. Civilizations like those of the Middle East, China, and even the MesoAmericas were far more advanced in technological and societal arrangements than the “West” up until the 17th century.
Detachment proposed by Eastern traditions is not equal to “lack of emotional involvement”; rather it is the lack self-identification with the transient aspects of life. It’s the breaking of the illusion of that same ego that propelled many civilizations (Western and Eastern alike) to cause atrocities in name of a so-called progress, industrial achievements and sophisticated products.