Before globalisation imposes a uniform economicistic vision on the entire planet, it is good to remember and highlight the different mentalities that, broadly speaking, have characterised the cultures of what we call the East and the West.
The thought, the look and the attitude towards life have not been the same in both hemispheres.
D.T. Suzuki masterfully pointed this out, comparing the poems of Basho and Tennyson, where each expressed his reaction to discovering a flower: while the Japanese only looked at it in admiration, the English pulled it and ripped it apart to be able to understand the secret of life (‘East and West’, 1957).
While one contemplates and lives the silence, the other analyzes and lives the explanations.
One looks at the totality, the other looks at the infinite parts.
Wherever the East will see a harmonious forest, the West will record how many trees there are of each species.
While one focuses on Oneness and Harmony, the other focuses on Multiplicity and Description.
One feels integrated with the whole. The other wants to dominate the environment.
Two certainly different views. Each with its own lights and shadows.
The Balance of the Hemispheres
Neurology says that each cerebral hemisphere specializes in different functions. The left hemisphere is the most rational, intellectual and conceptual; while the right side is the most emotional, intuitive and creative. There may be a certain preponderance between them, depending on each person. But to maintain balance and mental health, we cannot exclusively use one of them. A coordinated and harmonious action between the two is needed.
Similarly, the East and the West, let’s call them the two hemispheres of Humanity –not necessarily geographically–, are two different perspectives that human beings, in order to maintain balance and health –that is, to live fully–, must know how to integrate into oneself: one looks at Unity and the other at Multiplicity. Sometimes one will prevail, in others, the other one. But naturally, they act in coordination, harmoniously. In fact, they are not two, as it will be discovered. It is when we are obstinated to look only in one way, when headaches appear.
Therefore, it is not a question of changing our culture for a more exotic one. Nor to use other languages for simple erudition or pedantry. It is about not limiting ourselves to a culture just because we were born in one place or another.
All cultures are World Heritage Sites and, therefore, they belong to each of us. Feel free to listen to what they point out, to discover the wisdom they have in common and to incorporate into our being what is most accurate, suggestive or, simply, that with which we find the most affinity.
East and West.
Unity and Multiplicity.
Don’t let the trees prevent you from seeing the forest.
Don’t let the forest prevent you from seeing the trees.