East and the West

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The West represents the male mind, aggressive intellect.

 

The East represents the female mind, receptive intuition. East and West are not

just arbitrary -- the division is very very significant and profound.

 

And you should not forget Rudyard Kipling: what he said has significance, has

meaning. He says East and West shall never meet. There is a fragment of truth in

it, because the meeting seems to be impossible; the ways of their working are so

diametrically opposite.

 

The West is aggressive, scientific, ready to conquer nature. The East is

non-aggressive, receptive -- ready to be conquered by nature. The West is eager

to know. The East is patient. The West takes every initiative to reach into the

mysteries of life and existence; it tries to unlock the doors. And the East

simply waits in profound trust: "Whenever I am worthy, the truth will be

revealed to me."

 

The West is concentration of the mind: the East is meditation of the mind. The

West is thinking: the East is non-thinking. The West is mind: the East is

no-mind. And Kipling seems to be logically right, that it seems impossible that

East and West could ever meet.

 

And "the East and the West" does not only represent the earth being divided in

two hemispheres: it represents your mind too, your brain too. Your brain is also

divided in two hemispheres just like the earth. Your brain has an East in it and

a West in it. The left-side hemisphere of your brain is the West; it is

connected with the right hand. And the right-side hemisphere of your brain is

the East; it is connected with the left hand.

 

The West is rightist. The East is leftist. And the processes of both are so

different.... The left hemisphere of your mind calculates, thinks, is logical.

All science is produced by it. And the right hemisphere of your brain is a poet,

is a mystic. It intuits, it feels. It is vague, cloudy, misty. Nothing is clear.

Everything is a kind of chaos, but that chaos has its beauty. There is great

poetry in that chaos, there is great song in that chaos. It is very juicy.

 

The calculative mind is a desert-like phenomenon. And the non-calculative mind

is a garden. Birds sing there and flowers bloom... it is a totally different

world.

 

Pythagoras was the first man to try the impossible, and he succeeded! In him,

East and West became one. In him, yin and yang became one. In him, male and

female became one. He was an ardhanarishwar -- a total unity of the polar

opposites. Shiva and Shakti together: intellect of the highest caliber and

intuition of the deepest caliber. Pythagoras is a peak, a sunlit peak, and a

deep, dark valley too. It is a very rare combination.

 

But his whole life's effort was destroyed by the stupid people, by the mediocre

masses. These few verses are the only contribution left. These verses can be

written on one postcard. This is all that is left of that great man's effort,

endeavor. And this too is not written by his own hand; it seems all that he had

written was destroyed.

 

Osho, Philosophia Perennis, Volume 1

 

 

 

 

 

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