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Grex Reality Item 19: Wisdom from the East
Entered by cyberpnk on Fri Jan 27 20:56:31 UTC 1995:

I've always been interested in Oriental philosophy and wonder if anyone else 
out there shares the same interests, esp. in books like 'Art Of War',
'A Book Of Five Rings' or 'Tao Teh Ching'. Comments?
 .

18 responses total.

#1 of 18 by randall on Sat Jan 28 05:00:19 1995:

I enjoy discussion and learning about philosophy, of all types, though
because of my schooling, I am most familiar with Western Philosophy (i.e.
Socrates, Plato, and my personal fav Thomas Hobbes)  I know it's asking 
quite a bit, but is it possible to lay down some *basic* ideas from
certain oriental philosophies?

#2 of 18 by flem on Sun Feb 12 07:27:19 1995:

I adore eastern philosophy, but I don't know all that much about it.  
I'd love to discuss it.  
re #1:  I just read Hobbes (well, a little bit of Hobbes, and a bad translation
        at that) and almost completely disagreed with him.  What ideas of his
        do you like?  
I don't have a whole lot of time now, but if no one has done so by the next
time I'm on, I'll try to put down some basic stuff about eastern philosophy,
thus revealing my true ignorance for all the world to laugh at.

#3 of 18 by carson on Tue Feb 21 07:01:39 1995:

(no one has done so by the next time you're on...)

#4 of 18 by flem on Tue Feb 21 16:34:55 1995:

Hmmm.  Well, I'll try, but I have 4 min left in class, so...

confucianism:  very legalistic.  I don't remember any specifics at the 
        moment.  Hmmm.  I'll have to look some up.  
Taoism:  very odd.  Non-dualistic.  One can only succeed by not striving.
        it is a personal philosophy, not a societal one, like conf.  or most
        western ones.

That was very disturbing.  I know even less than I thought, which was rather 
little.

#5 of 18 by orinoco on Sun Mar 19 17:24:40 1995:

zen is fun because you can't define any of it's tenets, or it's goal

you cannot say it with words, and you cannot say it without words; not
tell me quickly what it is...

#6 of 18 by hong on Tue Mar 21 19:02:14 1995:

I've always wondered about oriental philosophy too.  Oh, there's one
more book in there you'd probably like to add-The Book of Change.  
My grandfather was a sort of oriental philosopher, and it takes many,
many years to fully understand the concepts of most oriental
"philosophies".  I really know nothing about the subject, though.

#7 of 18 by madpoet on Sun Aug 6 10:56:05 1995:

You might also enjoy the writings of Morihei Ueshiba - the founder
of Aikido.

#8 of 18 by bose on Tue Oct 24 09:46:57 1995:

I do know a little bit mostly Hinduism ,being a Hindu ,would love to discuss
anything. I can most of the times co-relate to other Oriental philosophies.

#9 of 18 by ederer on Fri Dec 8 22:03:56 1995:

I have studied and practiced Buddism since 1987. I studied anthropology and
r  eligion in India. The one common misunderstanding is there is  an eastern
philosophy.  Eastern thought is quite varied. One can find atheists, theists,
spirit  worshippers, and other ideas. It is better to speak of Eastern
philosophies than an Eastern philosophy.

#10 of 18 by bumblbee on Thu Jan 18 09:32:15 1996:

Philosophy is nothing buty a way of life, lived scientifically in harmony with
the prevalent environment. Will say more later on .

#11 of 18 by spydre on Sun Aug 11 03:12:26 1996:

The study of such things is a great joy to me.  If you're interested
I've written a book called, Book of the Fox.  A collection of koans,
haiku, and parables; it's zen, Toaism, and everything else in between,
with an American spin to it.  Just E-mail me an address , and I can send you a
copy if you'd like.  =)

                       //^@^\\

#12 of 18 by birdlady on Mon Aug 12 14:07:09 1996:

If you want a very basic (and cute) explanation of the Tao, read "The Tao of
Pooh".  I loved it...  =)

#13 of 18 by orinoco on Wed Aug 14 14:04:31 1996:

a very cute book...but nice...

#14 of 18 by rlawson on Sun Aug 18 16:01:52 1996:

Re #12: A friend of mine was telling me about it and it sounded interesting.
Now that I have your encouragment to go out and read it as well, I think that
I might!

#15 of 18 by spydre on Tue Aug 20 05:56:49 1996:

My suggestion would be to go out and read the actual books by a.a. milne.
All the wisdom is there, and in a highly more entertaining fashion.  Pooh and
crew are some of my oldest teachers.

                              //^@^\\

#16 of 18 by datta on Wed Aug 13 14:02:36 1997:

Hi, My Suggestion Would Be That People Enthu about these things should 
start with an author who delves in the essence of of these philosophies
rather than reading a loaded book right away.
Somebody Like Osho (Rajnish) would be better for starters.
Any Takers!!

#17 of 18 by vishnu on Fri Mar 20 04:00:31 1998:

Its been a long time since someone has responded to this section.My
impressions of eastern philosophy is that all these religions,in contrast to
the semetic religions which also originated in asia,beleive in
rebirth,karma,no absolute good and bad,,compassion,tolerance,respect for
other's beliefs,charity,honesty etc.This does not mean that the other
religions do not profess this,but that especially the first three values are
not semetic.Eastern philosophy has attracted many followers from the west
because of the apparent flexibilty although on closer inspection they are more
orthodox.

#18 of 18 by tct25 on Wed Aug 4 14:21:14 1999:

I'm a grad student of Chinese philosophy in Korea. I also run an email 
list about Confucian philosophy which may be useful to some here. If 
you'd like to subscribe, just send an email to 
majordomo@lists.gnacademy.org and in the body of the message write

subscribe confucius

or 
info confucius

Cheers!
Todd

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