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Our Thinking

Our FollyBy Sachin Nandha, DeMontfort University, 2006

Eastern Philosophy and Spirituality, or as they say in the ivory towers mysticism, is incredibly relevant in

2006, because the worlds cultures are being globalised. That is not to say that they are becoming

homogenised, but rather we as a human race are coming to terms with the interwoven-ness of our planet.

Our universities in the UK often stench of snobbery, and reek of ignorance when it comes to accepting the

oneness of the world, I have often wondered why that is? A few academics still consciously, and most

unconsciously, believe that the world of ideas, invention, discovery, religion, metaphysics and language all

somehow began in Greece, Rome or Palestine, and the rest of world was somehow disconnected from all

this.

What could be more untrue? The ancient world was rich with discovery, ideas and evolution, both of the

mind and body. India and China were its pioneering states, and all of Euro-Asia has always been

interconnected. At the time of Socrates and Aristotle, Persia had toll roads and freeways, not for cars of

course, but for traders. The Persians were centuries ahead of Greece in road construction and state

organisation, as well as having established a common civil code, in other word, a common culture. Just as

in antiquity, the Euro-Asian world is driving another globalisation. The East is waking from its deep

slumber, while we in the West are suffering from an arrogance that will haunt future generations to come.

Our folly, I believe, lies in our thinking. Furthermore, at the heart of our folly is modern materialist science,

which has come to be in a kind of dogmatic state, which people like Stephen Hawking has called

Scientism. Scientism is not scientific. Scientism is a religion, a belief system like any other, it is not factbased, but ideas orientated. Its high priests are people like Wilson, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, and

many others, who triumphetically announce that they know what reality is that they hold the key to

truth, or least to understanding it. Up to this point its fine but where it becomes dogmatism, and

unscientific, is when these so called intelligent thinkers begin to idealise the conception that anything which

does not fit into their narrow perception of reality is wrong. Those who belong to the church of Scientism

(note not Scientology which is altogether a different conundrum), say that any other approach is simply

wrong, partial, or at best fits into a primitive kind of mysticism. What is part parcel of this belief system is

that the East has little, if anything at all to offer us. Essentially, it says that there may be some nice

religions in the East, who propagate non-violence, but when it comes to the real stuff, well they simply dont

have what it takes! People like these are plainly false.

As anyone who knows me will tell you Im no religious fanatic, nor am I God fearing. Rather, I see the

evangelical nature of thinkers who believe in Scientism as dogmatic. What these people fail to tell us in

their sermons, is that industrial science is only one part of the whole of science! There are other approaches

within the scientific world, there are alternative interpretations to the same facts, and material or industrial

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science is not the last word. In fact, in a hundred years from now, we may look back and realise that this

belief in Scientism was mechanical meddling to the processes of nature, which resulted in our downfall.

Whats more is that Scientism is reductionist. Whereas, the world, I believe needs a far more holistic

approach, one where science has its place, so does quantum mechanics, and spirituality, by which I do not

mean religious spirituality, but the science of looking inwards. I do not feel we should be discarding the

achievements of Scientism, but rather putting it in context with evolution and world history. What I believe

we need, here in the West, is to look at the East, or rather the ancient East. We should look to places like

China, where they had invented gun power, the same invention that took Europeans into global conquest

mode, centuries before, but didnt use them for world domination and the subjugation of other cultures. We

need to understand that Chinese sailors had reached the Americas centuries before Columbus, but decided

not to invade and brutalise an entire civilisation. Why is this? Where lies the difference?

We, here in the West have indeed developed materially, technologically and militaristically, but we have left

behind a global life style which is unsustainable. Simply put we cannot keep living the way we are, we are

destroying every living system on this planet, we are polluting and eradicating the very life forces that

sustain us. What we need is a complimentary system, where the outward progress of Scientism is

accompanied by the inward psychological science of the East especially the Hindu & Buddhist East, and not

the Religious East. The inward psychological science of the East would check the hyper-testosterone driven

outward science of the West. It goes something like this if a person is primitive inwardly, that person

cannot utilise the outward material science for the common good rather they would use it to satisfy their

own greed, for war and self preservation. Hence, we need an education system that trains the inner world,

as well as the outer. Essentially, what I am saying is that material, industrial science can only save us,

when those who command it are in self control.

If we are to genuinely make a change on our planet, then we here in the West, need to change our thinking.

We need to take a look at the way in which we run our universities, our departments, and see the type of

research we are conducting. Far too many universities are driven by greed, and greed has lead them

towards chemical research, petro-chemical research, genetics for warfare, and other defence orientated

industries. Too many bright academics are ignorant of their own research why? Well, I believe because

they are inwardly unsure, they are spiritually wayward and lack basic emotional intelligence. Where will this

change come form?

In short, it must come from the marriage between Western material science and the inward psychological

science of the East.