www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Lifestyle
Home / Lifestyle / Health

Tapping Eastern wisdom to discover my self

By Haydn James Fogel | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2023-08-18 07:58
Share
Share - WeChat

In 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche stated that "god is dead". The era that followed could be described as a collective philosophical panic attack in the West. It led to attempts to understand and experience the self and find meaning through logic, reasoning and mathematics. These methods weren't exactly aberrations; Socrates and Plato made similar attempts millennia before. Modern philosophers were standing on tried and tested lines of thinking in order to address the largest philosophical questions. Still, theirs were not the only paths toward enlightenment. After all, the Beatles found Buddha.

Eastern religions and philosophies have been tackling material existence for longer and, in this writer's humble opinion, more successfully. As a budding existentialist, I find many wonderful similarities between that broad field of philosophy and Buddhism. Both seem to emphasize that suffering is at the very essence of existence, and that the work of being involves striving to understand that suffering. Both seek to define the self and its relationship with the material world, though not all through the same lens. Making these sorts of connections reminds me that the experience of existence — if not, at least, the illusion of it — is shared.

From a Buddhist perspective, the "individual self" and its surroundings are one and the same; any attempt to separate them would be an illusion. This reminds me of the British moral philosopher Derek Parfit, who argued that people don't exist apart from their components. In his view, the brain, the body and the identity are entirely inseparable. In fact, he also claimed that his views would align well with Buddhism. So I was delighted to learn that he was born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, in 1942, showing me once again that there is not so much distance between Western and Eastern cultures after all.

My first awareness of this fact came when I was in my teens, upon discovering that my quaint hometown of Chino Valley in Arizona, with a humble population of around 10,000, had its very own Buddhist temple just a brief 30-minute drive away. Today, I would not be so surprised. There is a stickiness to Buddhist philosophy that attracts Western audiences, from its notable influence on The Beatles to its growing uses in psychotherapy. In his book, Why Buddhism Is True, Robert Wright details how modern secular philosophy, psychology and neuroscience are uncovering secrets about our identity that Buddha already uncovered long ago, albeit with different terminology. He argues that through meditation and mindfulness, Buddhist practitioners developed an awareness of the self, and the language to describe it. The book is a New York Times Bestseller.

The roots of Buddhist philosophy exist in my life, and I expect that they will continue to deepen. I've only begun to explore my "self" and to attempt to develop meditation and mindfulness. They are, after all, lifelong journeys. I am reminded of an expression I came across when visiting the Big Buddha in Hong Kong: "The greatest journey is one in which you don't travel at all." Whether it be through Western or Eastern philosophy, let us seek inward for the greatest peace.

Haydn James Fogel

Most Popular
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
 
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产国语在线播放视频 | 国产成人免费视频精品一区二区 | 亚洲 欧美 手机 在线观看 | 日韩精品特黄毛片免费看 | 草草影院ccyycom | 久久亚洲精品无码观看不卡 | 草草影院ccyy国产日本欧美 | 成人精品一级毛片 | 美女很黄很黄 | 久久3| 91亚洲在线 | 中文字幕日韩有码 | www成人国产在线观看网站 | 久久免费播放视频 | 欧美视频一区在线 | 日本高清色本在线www游戏 | 国产日韩欧美综合在线 | 成年日韩片av在线网站 | 波多野结衣免费免费视频一区 | 日韩美女一区 | 秋霞手机入口二日韩区 | 国产一区二区日韩欧美在线 | 国产黄色一级网站 | 欧美jizzhd精品欧美另类 | 日本理论片免费高清影视在线观看 | 国产男女乱淫真视频全程播放 | 欧美精品黄页免费高清在线 | 在线观看91精品国产入口 | 日韩欧美久久一区二区 | 欧美成人伊人十综合色 | 国产成人久久综合热 | 欧美精品午夜 | 天天看夜夜 | 热99re久久精品2久久久 | 日韩成人免费在线视频 | 免费欧洲毛片a级视频 | 亚洲七七久久精品中文国产 | 视频在线一区二区 | 九九九在线视频 | 久久国产网| 97视频在线免费观看 |