Slavery To An Unknown Mind

The Chinese world-view depended upon a totally different line of thought than the Western view of a mechanical universe externally ruled by a political Monarch and Creator. The harmonious cooperation of all beings arose, not from the orders of a superior authority external to themselves, but from the fact that they were all parts in a hierarchy of wholes forming a cosmic pattern and what they obeyed were the internal dictates of their own natures. Modern science and the philosophy of organism, with its integrative levels, have come back to this wisdom, fortified by new understanding of cosmic, biological, and social evolution.

Joseph Needham, the British academic was known for his research on Chinese culture. “Needham Grand Question” was why China was overtaken by the West in technology and science despite its early successes. He believed that Taoism and Confucianism played a role in slowing the pace of Chinese scientific discoveries.

Chinese philosophical concepts focused on self-responsibility and unity within the self. The Western world immersed itself in inventive separatism. Western cultures are united in the diversity that exists in fragmented beliefs of others, not in the internal dictates of their own nature.

From our fragmented beliefs, our Western culture developed a system of knowing that was controlled by a force outside of us. This force evolved into a political and judgmental monarch that ruled with a firm external voice of a church. The slightest misstep can cause eternal damnation, but complete compliance means future rewards. These rewards are not specific in nature. They are promises filled with esoteric thought. The rewards and the punishment are self-inflicted, but we believe they are the work of this multi-purpose being that supports approval and vindictiveness.

The Chinese never adopted that philosophy. Hence, their political system is different. Their family structure is different, and the way they perceive their reality and the universe is different. The Chinese system is not better or worse than the Western system. It is a system that allows restricted freedom of mindful self-expression. In Western culture our system promotes slavery to an unknown mind. In China, they recognize the mind.