[MD] The Intellectual Gauntlet

[David M]

Hi DMB

Where the west has over emphasised the outer has the east done the same with 
the inner?
So that the eastern mystic may be happy to sit meditating whilst the world 
goes to hell.
Here is perhaps where the west can ask if the east needs to think again in 
more
comprehensive way.

DM


> Marsha said:
> ...This is why it seems so silly to be battling over the exact definition 
> of the Social Level versus the Intellectual Level, or the individual 
> versus the collective.  It's the clinging to the static patterns that is 
> the cause of suffering.  When one begins to see what those patterns are, 
> and what they are not, they begin to die and there is a whole new 
> perspective available. To dismiss or undervalue the Eastern perpective 
> and/or Buddhist philosophy is missing something very valuable.
>
> dmb says:
> I think that definitions are essential when one is doing metaphysics and 
> that the differences between social and intellectual values can be 
> discussed in conventional terms, not least of all because the differences 
> themselves are conventional. What you say here seems true from a mystic's 
> perspective, but the conflicts between social and intellectual values are 
> legal, political, sociological, historical and military conflicts. Or, to 
> put it another way, the distinctions between the third and fourth levels 
> of static patterns are very different from the distinctions between static 
> quality and dynamic quality. If there is a way to discuss the 
> social/intellectual conflict from a mystical perspective, I sure would 
> like to hear about it.
>
> This reminds me of the story Pirsig tells about the Indian teacher who 
> claimed the bombing of Hiroshima was just an illusion. At the time, the 
> teacher's answer only angered Pirsig at the time. Even later, when he 
> understood things better, he still complained that the teacher should have 
> said he was making that statement from a non-conventional perspective. 
> We've all seen what that particular mushroom cloud accomplished, 
> understand something about the context in which it appeared and we all 
> know that thousands and thousand of these bombs are just waiting for the 
> day. On some level, this is all quite real and worth discussing, no? I 
> think that's why Pirsig explains the conflict between the top two levels 
> in political and historical terms.
>
> Drawing a line between the conventional and mystical ways of seeing serves 
> to put these debates in perspective, but I don't think one precludes the 
> other. 360 degrees and all that. You know, cause you're a net of jewels.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
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