Eastern philosophy

Summary
In this article the philosophy of the East is examined. Firstly attention will be paid to the geographical area covered, after which an outline will be given of the basic global understanding underlying practically all the traditional schools of thought of the area concerned. The boxes contain some single terms and ideas relevant to this article.

The term Hinduism does not refer to a single religion, but to many diverse traditions of the subcontinent of India. Hindu, which means Indian, is the name given by the Persians to the inhabitants of the Indus valley. Above, Hindus come to cleanse themselves in the waters of the holy river. Fotozone

As with the term religion, the word philosophy has its origin in the classic Western Philosophy as it evolved out of ancient Greek civilization. As such the philosophical school of thought is usually strongly connected to knowledge as obtained by way of logic and discussion. (See "Western Philosophy Timeline".) In contrast, the search for wisdom in most of the Eastern traditional schools of thought is mainly a search for religious knowledge - and a strong mystical and intuitive approach underlies this search. Nonetheless, we use the term according to its etymological meaning; consequently the Eastern traditions are pre-eminent expressions of a desire for knowledge. In the Eastern Philosophy the eventual goal of all knowledge is, after all, to unite man with the Ultimate Reality. The term "East" furthermore, strictly speaking, includes the entire region from the Middle East (where Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christendom and Islam would be born) through South and South East Asia up to East Asia. This article looks only at the most important characteristics of the traditions of the latter three regions. These include the philosophical traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as the traditional schools of thought of China as it manifested itself in especially Daoism. Although Hinduism as well as Buddhism originated in India, both had an enormous influence on the countries of Southeast and South Asia. Hinduism first spread via the trade routes as far as Indonesia and - short on its heels - Buddhism as far as the countries of East Asia, where it still has a strong influence, on Japan in particular. When reference is therefore made here to the "East," it refers to this geographically defined region - and when reference is made to their "philosophy," the essential difference between the nature of the Eastern traditions and those of the West is assumed.

Concept of reality
Although many differences naturally exist between the interpretations of said traditions (and although these traditions themselves moreover accommodate different traditions), all these schools of thought are heirs to a certain way in which reality is understood and experienced. The unity of the Eastern philosophies therefore lies in three aspects of their concept of reality, namely: 1. 2. 3. The monistic nature of reality. The unity of opposites. The dynamic nature of reality.

The origin of "philosophy"

The word "philosophy" consists of Philo (=love) and Sophia (= wisdom). Thus philosophy is literally the love of (or quest for) wisdom.

One of the most important features of the concept of reality of the Eastern philosophies - in sharp contrast to those of the classic traditions of Western Philosophy - is the experience of the basic "oneness" of reality. Within this idea all aspects of reality are seen as a dependent and indivisible part of a cosmic entity. The variety that we perceive in the visible world are merely different expressions of this Ultimate Reality. Everything that exists is united in this one, uncreated, indivisible and eternal Reality. This Reality shapes the essence underlying, but also transcending, everything. Although different traditions have different names for this, in all of them the nature of this Reality remains the same. In this way the Hindus call it Brahman, the Buddhists call it Dharmakaya and the Taoists call it the Tao: For most Hindu philosophers Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, is the soul or the inner essence of all things. This World Soul manifests itself in everything living as atman. In the Upanishads, the later writings of the Vedic period, Atman and Brahman - the individual and the Universal - are seen essentially the same way: 'That is what the essence is - the whole world has it as its soul. This is Reality. This is Atman, This is U [Brahman].' In Mahayana-Buddhism the Dharmakaya is the absolute, formless, unmentionable, true body of the Buddha, the Absolute Reality.

Tao literally means 'the Way', or 'the Process' of the Cosmos. This Way, the Daoists believe, is the Ultimate Reality that underlies and unites the variety that we perceive. The Confucianists would later expand the term to also include the 'Tao of Man' and the 'Tao of Society'. As such Confucianism is and was a very strong ethical system of individual and social rules. Whatever this Reality is called, each one of these traditions believes that all perceivable apparitions and occurrences are united herein at the deepest level. This Ultimate Reality transcends and evades all intellectual concepts and descriptions thereof. At the very moment you describe the essence of the Tao, the Taoists say, you lose the essence thereof. Moreover, central to the nature of the Ultimate Reality is that it manifests itself in a variety of forms that appear and disappear. The visible reality is transformed in a never-ending process of creation and recreation of variety and opposites. Because this visible world therefore conceals the basic unit of the reality, the main purpose of most of the Eastern traditions is to discover - by way of meditation - the true nature of reality. (The Sanskrit word for meditation, samadhi, means 'mental/spiritual equilibrium'. Meditation, therefore, is a condition in which the consciousness finds itself when it penetrates the true nature of reality and in this way experiences the oneness of everything.) At the moment when the intellect penetrates reality, the true, indivisible nature thereof comes to the fore and meditating man perceives the cosmic oneness of reality.

Oneness and doctrine of knowledge

This oneness that characterises reality can be compared to a web or network. Within this web the apparitions and occurrences of reality are placed in a network of relationships mutual to one another. The implications of this concept of the doctrine of knowledge within Eastern Philosophy are significant. In contrast to the subject-object dualism that today still avenges itself on the doctrine of knowledge of Western Philosophy, any possibility of true knowledge within the Eastern traditions includes man as conscious observer. In this perspective it is possible - as within classic Western thought - to procure knowledge by the process of objective observation. Within Eastern Philosophy the observer is also a participant. In other words, true knowledge (that is, knowledge of the Ultimate Reality) can only be achieved by the actual participation of the observer in the knowledge process. Man only comprehends once observer and observed, subject and object, merge in an indivisible whole. In a moment aspired to as a climax by Eastern mystics, subject and object merge in the wholeness of the same Reality. In this moment the individual's own identity is dissolved in the indivisible oneness of the All and the world of variety and opposites is transcended in the experience of a timeless, non-spatial oneness. At its deepest level, therefore, the knowledge categories of time and spatial concepts are - as believed by the Easter philosophers - created by man's intellect in order to understand the visible word.

Monism vs Dualism

Ontological monism can be best described by juxtaposing it with ontological dualism. The latter is the belief in two realities. This belief is especially clear in the religion of Zoroastrism, according to which there is a Good God (Ahura Mazda), who is responsible for all worldly 'good' and - from an ontologically opposed reality - an Evil Spirit (Angra Mainvu), who is responsible for all 'evil'.

Unity of opposites
The comprehension of reality as a web of mutual relationships holds further implications for the way in which Eastern philosophers interpret the phenomenon of opposites. Opposites, they believe, are not an essential feature of reality, but - as with the concepts of time and space - are created by the intellect in order to categorise the world so as to understand it. Put differently, opposites do not represent two essentially diverse realities, but rather the two sides of the same reality. When the visible and intellectual world is transcended, man becomes aware of the relative and polar relationship of all opposites. Then life and death, fair and ugly, good and bad no longer are the essence of opposite realities, but the two extreme sections of one whole. (It is important to indicate that in this regard good and bad are not referred to in the moral sense, but refers to the factual situation in which every person finds himself from day to day.) This unity of opposites is illustrated at best within the Chinese concept of the Yin and the Yang, as represented by the symbols of the t'ai chi t'u. (Yin/Yang originally meant "the shadow/sun side of a mountain".) T'ai chi t'u means 'The diagram of the Ultimate Supreme Being'. This diagram is a symmetrical division of the dark yin (dark, receptive, yielding) and the bright yang (light, strong, aggressive). It is important to realise that this division is not static, but dynamic. It therefore symbolises the eternal and

dynamic circle of movement. The two dots represent the yin in the yang and the yang in the yin. At the exact moment that the yin reaches a climax, the seed of the yang is already present. This symbolism states that the night at its darkest is already carrying within itself the seed of day; that in the deepest of winter the fruits of summer are in sight; and that the birth of anything already bears the vision of the moment of death. This is not a symbolising of only the complementary sides of the same whole, but also of the process in which reality enacts itself within the interchange between the powers of the Yin and the Yang. Within this concept "good", for example, is not the absolute opposite of "bad," but relative to the situation itself. In this perspective the reality appears to us via the process in which the two sides of reality continuously interchange.

Dynamic nature of reality

This concept of the nature of reality as a dynamic process indicates a clear difference between Eastern Philosophy and that of classic Western Philosophy. Although the nature of reality is singular, and everything that is and everything that happens are merely expressions of this one Ultimate Reality, the essence of this oneness is not static, but dynamic. Eastern Philosophy accentuates the continuous movement and change intrinsic to reality. This point of view is illustrated by the Yin/Yang symbolism of the Chinese concept of reality, but also by the Hinduistic concept of Brahman, which surmises growth and life. (Brahman is derived from the Sanskrit word brih, which means 'to grow'.) This concept of the dynamic, changeable nature of reality gave rise to the Buddhistic doctrine of the Anatman (or the doctrine of non-permanence). According to this, reality is seen as consisting of invisible particles. What we see in the visible reality is not the essence of things, but only the compression in one place at any given time of a number of these particles. These particles are furthermore in a continuous process of change. Centuries prior to the particle theory of Max Planck, which would lead to the birth of quantum physics, the Buddhists' philosophy already held the insight of the particle character of reality. For the Eastern philosophers life and reality therefore are not a cut-and-dried issue, but a dynamic process in which cycles of change play a prominent role.

Conclusion
Naturally not one of these three aspects can exhaust the complex and sophisticated nature of the different traditions within the Eastern Philosophy. Furthermore, it is very clear that we are not discussing three different aspects here, because - true to the nature of the Eastern concept of reality - all three consider the other essential. It is also clear that very interesting debates can be held between the different aspects of the Eastern and Western philosophies. The fact remains, however, that - in contrast to Western Philosophy - Eastern Philosophy is not interested in reasoning and logic, but in experiencing Reality. This experience, they believe, lies outside the boundaries of language.