[NondualitySalon] Jan/ Harsha's 1001 Enlightenment Stories

[Guest guest]

On 5/12/00 at 12:55 PM Harsha (Dr. Harsh K. Luthar) wrote:

 

¤Thanks Jan for your excellent commentary. I am glad people enjoyed the

¤story. Your commentary was a great icing on the cake!

¤

¤Harsha

¤

 

Thank you Harsha. In the East, the story is unlikely to happen whereas in

the West it did happen several times - even here, such a suicide sect is

present, be it closely watched by the police. It is often forgotten that

the backbone of Indian society still is dedication and devotion, so

apparent in its art and religion, whereas in the West that is entirely

lacking. Such a frame is a requirement for unfoldment and to me it isn't a

surprise that the West doesn't have the equivalent of Krishna, Sankara,

Buddha, to name a few.

 

The absence of such a societal backbone of dedication and devotion in the

West often is misinterpreted as a need for hostility towards self, creating

a duality where there isn't one as only the sense of "I" with its

associated "claiming" has to disappear. The fertile soil of dedication and

devotion in India enables the seed (the one awakening) to grow into a

mighty tree whereas in the West, without such a fertile soil, seeds will

only sprout... To those, who used to mock about India and holy cows, I used

to respond (and silence them) with the Dutch equivalent of "India is a

subcontinent with culture whereas Europe is a continent with sub - culture"

:-)

 

Jan

[Guest guest]

Hi Jan,

>.... It is often forgotten that

>the backbone of Indian society still is dedication and devotion, so

>apparent in its art and religion, whereas in the West that is entirely

>lacking. Such a frame is a requirement for unfoldment and to me it isn't a

>surprise that the West doesn't have the equivalent of Krishna, Sankara,

>Buddha, to name a few.

>

>The absence of such a societal backbone of dedication and devotion in the

>West often is misinterpreted as a need for hostility towards self, creating

>a duality where there isn't one as only the sense of "I" with its

>associated "claiming" has to disappear. The fertile soil of dedication and

>devotion in India enables the seed (the one awakening) to grow into a

>mighty tree whereas in the West, without such a fertile soil, seeds will

>only sprout...

 

My first thought was to object to this and to name some of the saints and

sages of the West... but on second thought, I remember that Joseph

Campbell spoke of this mighty tree that grows in the East... and of

another in the West.

 

In the Garden of Eden were two special trees, the Tree of the Knowledge of

Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. God told Adam and Eve not to eat of

the Tree of Knowledge, that they would die. But the Serpent told them it

wasn't true; they wouldn't die, they would become like gods.

 

When God walked in the garden in the cool of the evening, he could tell

that they had eaten of the tree. And he (and the divine name Elohim is a

plural form) said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good

and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of

life, and eat, and live for ever"... and he drove them out of the garden

and barred the way back.

 

Campbell said that the East had the Tree of Life, and the West had the Tree

of Knowledge. So the unfoldment of the West has seen such great men as

Aristotle, Galen, Pasteur, Newton, and Einstein, to name a few. And now,

with the stunningly rapid development of the means of travel and

communication, the world is becoming one. East and West are coming

together, and the common heritage of man, the two trees of Knowledge and of

Life, are becoming accessible to all.

 

Love,

Dharma

[Guest guest]

On 5/12/00 at 7:46 PM Dharma wrote:

 

[...]

¤Campbell said that the East had the Tree of Life, and the West had the

Tree

¤of Knowledge. So the unfoldment of the West has seen such great men as

¤Aristotle, Galen, Pasteur, Newton, and Einstein, to name a few. And

now,

¤with the stunningly rapid development of the means of travel and

¤communication, the world is becoming one. East and West are coming

¤together, and the common heritage of man, the two trees of Knowledge and

of

¤Life, are becoming accessible to all.

¤

¤Love,

¤Dharma

 

I don't have an idea how recent Campbell's statements are, I don't know him

but what I still know is the epilogue that C.G. Jung wrote for the book of

his late friend Heinrich Zimmer, on Ramana, "der Weg zum Selbst". Jung

states that the "inner man" in the East is rapidly being forgotten whereas

Western man has forgotten the "inner man" long ago. That was quite some

time ago and things didn't improve.

 

The previous century was the most violent one in recorded history and

ancient India split into two nations ready to fight each other with nuclear

weapons. East and West are coming together under the banner of

commercialism and commercialism is gaining ground - the amount of working

hours is increasing and Holland for instance now is ranked among countries

where two people per household must have a job in order to pay all bills,

whereas I could pay them all alone - working just 35 hours a week. Jung

certainly wouldn't have interpreted that as "progress". Apart from that,

science has lost its independence - it is commercialized, often starting at

university level.

 

Jan