4 ms·

There's one thing I don't get about mindful detachment and worldly renunciation - it denies the value of many of the world's greatest achievements and relegates

by cutler 4y ago

There's one thing I don't get about mindful detachment and worldly renunciation - it denies the value of many of the world's greatest achievements and relegates genuine creative passion to mere ego. The western world was built by pioneers who followed their passion for grand projects. Like it or not we all depend on an increasingly sophisticated package of products and services just to lead a normal life. Those facilities were built by people with a passion for industry - people who were goal-driven, not disappearing into their navel. Detachment, I'm sure, can be great in small doses for curing the excesses of negative emotions but to build a life-path out of it just doesn't make sense. If you live in some third world country in the East maybe you can survive on what you can grow and live alone in some remote shack but how is that relevant to the world as a whole? How many great films and how much great music would have been created if their creators had lived a life of detachment? Very little, I suspect. Great art comes out of a deep emotional involvement with life.

ThePrankster 4y ago
This comments shows a deep lack of cultural awareness. The East has created as much a legacy in terms of societal achievements as the West. All of that while being Buddhists, Taoists, Confucianists and Hindus. This ethos to which you attribute the greatness of the West, in the 1500s was seen by the East as a barbaric, dirty way of life. Civilizations like those of the Middle East, China, and even the MesoAmericas were far more advanced in technological and societal arrangements than the “West” up until the 17th century. Detachment proposed by Eastern traditions is not equal to “lack of emotional involvement”; rather it is the lack self-identification with the transient aspects of life. It’s the breaking of the illusion of that same ego that propelled many civilizations (Western and Eastern alike) to cause atrocities in name of a so-called progress, industrial achievements and sophisticated products.
- cutler 4y ago
  Maybe "western world" was an oversimplification but what I'm getting at is the contemplative, reclusive life is the privilege of a few. How can anyone retreat entirely, for example, if they have committed to a job and a family? Life is about activity. Without drive, passion and activity in the world we would be nowhere as a race. A little retreat from time to time is probably a good thing but as a life-path it can only be for the few and is therefore irrelevant to most of us. Listening to someone drone-on about their spiritual path is like watching paint dry. Give me a cricket match any day. That's my kinda Zen.

by cutler 4y ago

ThePrankster 4y ago

This comments shows a deep lack of cultural awareness. The East has created as much a legacy in terms of societal achievements as the West. All of that while being Buddhists, Taoists, Confucianists and Hindus. This ethos to which you attribute the greatness of the West, in the 1500s was seen by the East as a barbaric, dirty way of life. Civilizations like those of the Middle East, China, and even the MesoAmericas were far more advanced in technological and societal arrangements than the “West” up until the 17th century. Detachment proposed by Eastern traditions is not equal to “lack of emotional involvement”; rather it is the lack self-identification with the transient aspects of life. It’s the breaking of the illusion of that same ego that propelled many civilizations (Western and Eastern alike) to cause atrocities in name of a so-called progress, industrial achievements and sophisticated products.

cutler 4y ago
Maybe "western world" was an oversimplification but what I'm getting at is the contemplative, reclusive life is the privilege of a few. How can anyone retreat entirely, for example, if they have committed to a job and a family? Life is about activity. Without drive, passion and activity in the world we would be nowhere as a race. A little retreat from time to time is probably a good thing but as a life-path it can only be for the few and is therefore irrelevant to most of us. Listening to someone drone-on about their spiritual path is like watching paint dry. Give me a cricket match any day. That's my kinda Zen.