Being born and raised in a Western culture, it was very difficult for me to train my mind to embrace the Eastern philosophies of Buddhism and Zen. Some of you may wonder, why consider Eastern philosophy at all? Well, I have come to realize that there are fundamental flaws in Western philosophy as it is practiced in America. Many of us know these flaws exist, but we are so consumed by the dogmatic practices of Western philosophy that addressing these flaws can only occur during a catastrophic social collapse like the one we are currently experiencing with the Wall Street crisis.
Now, why do I use the term defect? I use this term because there are many cases where Western philosophy or customs do not align with the individual, society, or nature. In this specific case, greed was the culprit. Wall Street, our elected officials, and corporate elites may not agree with this assessment, but who would be interested if they agreed with it? It is not theirs.
To be fair, greed doesn’t just happen. It is nourished by a Western philosophy that is based on the concept of survival of the fittest, which defends that the more I produce, the more I earn. Now, I have no problem with the purity of this concept as long as certain regulations and safeguards are put in place to protect society at large from unscrupulous and unethical business practices caused by greed. The crisis we now find ourselves in was allowed to escalate because there were no safeguards and few regulations to protect the global public against excessive greed facilitated by:
Deceptive grouping of mortgage-backed securities by Wall Street executives
Abusive lending practices by banks and mortgage brokers.
irresponsible and speculative on the part of real estate “investors”
All of these groups blindly bought into the old American adage that greed is good (look at Micheal Douglas’s rendition of Gordon Gecko on Wall Street). This philosophy has been celebrated and promoted by the American business elite since this nation’s inception. Facilitated by their money and power, America’s corporate elite have used their campaign contributions to our elected officials to create unhealthy alliances that do not serve the best interests of society at large. Furthermore, special interest lobbyists funded by these corporate elites have silenced the voice of the common individual. Now many industries are deregulated in the name of a free market (telecommunications, energy [Enron-Need we forget?], financial markets and broadcasting are some of the now deregulated sectors of our economy). Is greed at stake in these markets? Yes. But why?
Western philosophy drives the notion and unfortunate practice of pursuing self-actualization and happiness through the excessive consumption of material goods and services (entities outside of our being). This overconsumption practice breeds consumerism, fueled by the pursuit and acquisition of the almighty dollar. This is why Americans are constantly chasing the ball and why we go to work every day, even if we hate what we do for a living. Our Western philosophy has conditioned us to believe that the ability of money to buy us things leads to happiness. The problem with this notion is that while money can provide us with a sense of security and protection in the form of clothing, food, and shelter, it cannot do much more than that. The most important thing to us is that money cannot provide sustainable satisfaction and happiness, because it is an entity outside of our being. Therefore, it does not and cannot address the inner workings of the human spirit.
Western philosophy takes an outside-in approach to life, often leaving the mind, body, and soul defenseless against the distractions and negative influences of the world. I am not here to say that Eastern philosophy is better than Western philosophy. But I’m here to present you with an alternative if you find that the way you live your life no longer works for you, society, or nature.
What are the signs that your life is no longer working for you? Here are some suggestions:
You feel disempowered and disempowering others rather than feeling empowered and empowering others.
Life is not seen as a fun adventure, but as a mandatory task.
You cannot find or even realize that you are not living as your authentic self (the essence of what it means to be you, the uniqueness that makes you special).
Eastern philosophies (Buddhism and Zen) are very different from Western philosophy in that there are no hard and fast rules that implicitly or explicitly impose their will on individuals to live their life in a certain way in order to achieve a notion of “base material “of happiness and fulfillment. Still, there are some guidelines. But know that all these guidelines are aimed at empowering the individual in their relationship with the world in a synergistic (balanced) way, leading to sustainable happiness and satisfaction. In eastern philosophy,
The outside-in approach to Western philosophy is replaced by an inside-out approach.
The consumerism of Western philosophy is replaced by humility and simplicity.
The survival of Western philosophy of the fittest dogma is replaced by embracing and aligning mind, body, soul, and nature.
In Eastern philosophy, no entity is left out of experiencing life to the fullest if it so wishes. So which way are you on? It works for you? If not, could you use a change in philosophy?
Think about it.
