Wim, all
> Wim wrote 16/3 17:28 +0100:
> If so, propagating openness to real radical new ideas requires taking as
> starting point an intellectual pattern of values that is just lagging behind
> the "top dog", that consequently has taken battering from the dominant
> intellectual pattern of values on its core ideas and that is therefore more
> open to change of its core ideas. I'd bet on religion (rather than science) as
> a good starting point.
Keen observation. The adaptive nature of religions as they spread from
the individual to larger and larger groups and different cultures over
time, constantly being tempered by the battering fire of the dominant
values while still being able to maintain their core values and adapt
them to fit various cultures is indicative of highly developed survival qualities.
One value of Pirsig's work is that by pointing the Western mind at the
Buddhist tradition we can see the historic development of values, at
once very similar yet so alien to the Christian tradition, that these
adaptive traits can be more readily identified free from our own
inherent cultural filters.
A Zen classic like "A Book of Five Rings" The Classic Guide to Strategy,
by Miyamoto Musashi, the Japanese kensei or "sword-saint" "who by the
age of 30, had fought and won more that 60 contest by killing all his
opponents," is on the surface so far away from anything the Western
mind would deem "religious" as to be laughable.
Yet as he closes the book with the single page "book", "The Book of the
Void" and we read:
"Until you realise the true Way, whether in Buddhism or in common sense,
you may think that things are correct and in order. However, if we look
at things objectively, from the viewpoint of the laws of the world, we
see various doctrines that departing from the true Way..... .... In the
void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has
existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness."
The power of religious traditions to adapt, survive, and thrive in the
most dire of cultural circumstances makes a powerful case for Wim's
point.
3WD
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