[RascalPuff]

Millennia before Western Civilization's science determined the expanding universe, for example, the philosophy of the East (Brahman, and others) knew it. Fritjov Capra's Dancing Wu Lei Masters and Tao of Physics sites example after example of the Eastern Philosophy's prescient knowledge of what the West discovered and otherwise realized only much later.

This fact is fairly well known and understood now by many Westerners, who have adopted much of the philosophy of the East in order to accomodate a better understanding of Western Science. This is all well and good, until the mixture of Eastern Philosophy with Western Science serves only to confuse the latter. By this I mean that I have observed in this forum and others an aversiveness to the Western approach to problem solving. Some science acolytes have adopted a philosophy of rejecting terms such as 'speed', 'expansion', 'motion', 'space', 'time' - 'there is no time, only the eternal now'... 'reduce your multiple dimension to one dimension', 'avoid division of nature through the process of measurement'; etceteras.

Frequently there is only a partial understanding of Eastern philosophy on the part of it's Western practitioners. This cultural contrast and the efforts to eradicate it often results only in the further confusion of standard terms practiced by Western thinkers.

The other side of this coin is that often Western Science has surpassed the Philosophy of the East, while there is an overcompensatory inclination to diminish or exclude Western principles of scientific thought. Such partial understandings and complete misunderstandings only serve to further confuse the processes of scientific method.

In accordance with some schools of thought in these regards, a statement such as 'measuring the speed of the expansion of space' is declared meaningless by some of the Western dilletantes of Eastern philosophy.
'Measurement' is rejected. 'Speed' is rejected, the concept of 'motion' is rejected along with the concepts of 'space' and 'time'. ('There is only the eternal now') Etceteras...

As I have previously observed, if and when the Eastern Philosophy is to be carried out in its extremes and imposed on Western Philosophy, then, for example, all verbal communications stop. Why? 'Because a truly wise man says nothing'. That may be a practical ideal in the East, but it is not a practical ideal in the West. It is the transposition of contexts - the superimposition of a standard from a culture wherein it may be pragmatically practiced, onto a culture where it is not practical at all.

Although there are many misusages and misunderstandings about the meanings of certain words, still, there are specific definitions for 'time', 'space', 'measurement', 'dimensions' 'past, present and future', 'motion', 'expansion' and so on...

These are valid instruments of communication, the abandonment of which serves only to further confuse whatever clarification is sought. Reminiscent of George Orwell's 'destruction of the language (NewSpeak)', or the 'babble' of Babylon - where communication is compromised and people no longer understand or communicate with one another.

The 'wisdom of the East' is not to be denied. Whereas, it is of no use to the Western culture if and when it is misapplied and subsequently misunderstood.

That I know of, the first large social wave of this kind of misunderstanding was popularised by the well intended 'hippies', on Haight Street, in the mid-late '60's. The word 'karma' was rigidly translated to mean that any misfortune suffered by any individual under any circumstances was always the fault of whomever suffered. This misunderstanding constituted a passive ruthlessness and antisympathetic posturing toward victims of whatever description - blaming the victim. ('Karma' means 'what you do and are responsible for', it does not mean to take on the responsibility of the motivations and acts of others or that the victim is invariably responsible for what others may do...)

This grotesque misunderstanding came to be the dominant paradigm within a group of otherwise gentle and peaceful people - the hippies, and the 'hippie mentality'. All this in the midst of a Christian culture, where the savior of them all was a person without sin, who was tormented and tortured to death... In a situation that was by definition not the 'karma' of the victim, but rather, exclusively, the 'karma' of his antagonists, as they projected their karma on him...
Although this is a theistic example of the transposition of Eastern Philosphy on Western Standards, the object lesson makes itself clear.

In summary, there is little doubt that the West has much to learn from the East, but there is also a cautionary regarding the misunderstandings that all too often accompany the practiced transitions.

Thank you for reading this missive and please feel free to say what you think of it.

(I will now, along with many others, resume my efforts to measure the speed of the expansion of space-time, along with several other relatively important - East meets West related - projects.)

Regards, RP