MAc NGOc Pha

THE EMERGING

FOURTH CULTURE
ENOWNING TRANSHUMANISM

SPIRTUAL
.

ECHOES
and

PLAYING-FORTH
THE COMBINING FORM OF SCIENCE, MYSTICISM, CULTURE
PATHWAY INTO SPIRITUAL LIFE OF HISTORICAL HUMANITY AS
ENOWNING HISTORICITY FOR FUTUROPEROLOGICAL DESTINY

Edited by Pat Andrews

1

I only transmit, I dont create

Confucius
The greatest enemies of authentic philosophy
often are the professors of philosophy.
Heidegger
Man finds nothing in that which does not echo
back the heart-beats of his special love in life.
Vivekananda

Conscious Technology CULTURE in Information Age

Mega-Event & Hyperchange Society: New World Order
[Combining Form of Science, Mysticism, Culture as SPIRITUAL ECHOES]

________________________________________________

Volume I

HYPERCHANGE SOCIETY
And

EMERGING FOURTH CULTURE

POLITICAL CULTURE and ENLIGHTENED CULTURE

VIETNAMESE FUTURIST
2014
3

CONTENTS
____________
Preface
Acknowledge
Introduction: MESSAGES for FUTURE PROSPECTS
A. Albert Einsteins Message on Humanism
B. Radhakrishnans Message in An Idealist View of Life"
C. Heideggers Prospects: The Path into Historical Humanity
The Essence of Truth as Errancy
APPENDIX

Contributions to Vedanta Philosophy

--- Vivekananda: Living at The Source
--- Aurobindo: Life and Spirituality
--- Maharishi: Being and Art of Living

* * * * *

PART I

SCIENCE , MYSTICISM , CULTURE

Spiritual Life: Echoes and Playing-forth

J. C. Jung: Spiritual Life & Collective Unconscious

M. Heideggers Message on Awakened Mind
______________

CHAPTER I

PREAMBLE
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
Spiritual Echoes & Archetype
Modern Structure of Thinking

I. J. C. Jung: Spiritual Life as Echoes of Collective Unconscious: Archetype

1. Spiritual Life
2. Spiritual Echoes as Divine Voice of the Death of Living Voice
II. M. Heideggers Message: Reverberation on Awakened Mind
1. The Time of System is over: Unsystematic Thinking
2. Sixfold Structure instead of System as Ground for Systemic Thinking
4

3. Reverberation of "Awakened Mind" as awareness, openness for

conscious

CHAPTER II

ECHOES &playing-forth
LIVING & DREAMING at THE SOURCE
________

A. ECHOES
THE MILLENNIUM PERSONALITY
Buddha and Einstein
[Enlightening Culture]
I. The Buddha Sidhartha Gauthama and Buddhism: Enlightening, Wisdom,
Compassion
1. Buddha and his Path of Enlightenment following Tradition of
Hindu Culture
2. Four Noble Truth & Perfect Insight
3. The Self: Compassion, Love & Wisdom
4. Buddhism and the Middle Way
II. Albert Einstein and Humanism: The Innovator of the Millennium
1. From The Pioneer of General Relativity Theory to Quantum
Mechanics
2. From the "Delusion of the Self" to the "Quantum Koans"
III. Characteralization of East-West Pattern of Culture of Man
1. The Physicists
2. The Mystics
Einstein and Buddha sought to know the deepest truth about the same
reality.
IV. New Cultural Message: Computer Challenge to Human Intelligence
1. Limitations of Genetic Evolution
2. New facets of Conscious Technology
3. Real Virtual World

B. PLAYING-FORTH
Intellectual Seedbed for Future Thinking
The Third Culture and Future
I. Intellectuals Seedbed for Future Humanity
1. The Third Culture and Future Humanity [J. Brockman]
a) From The Two Cultures towards The Third Culture
b) The Third Cultural Scientists, not Literary but Public Intellectual
2. The World Futurist Movements
5

a) About the World Future Society

b) Great Transformation in Human Life
II. Revolutionary Missions [Ed. Cornish]
1. Hyperchange in the Future
a) Exploration of the Transformation
b) Responsibilities for the Future and Future Generations
2. Feminist Perspective (F. Capra)
a) The Radical Critique [Adienne Rich]
b) The Coalescence of Feminism, Spirituality and Ecology
[Charlene Spretnak]
c) Ecology and Social / Political Dimensions Eco-feminist
Movement [F. Capra]
APPENDIX I
Nagarjuna and the Middle Way
APPENDIX II
Quantum Theory

CHAPTER III

ECHOeING ENTHINKING
THE AUTHENTIC LIVING WORLD
Mystical-Chaos Enthinking
Poetic Thinking

I. Enthinking as Finding Echo of Being for Creativity of Truth

1. The Unconcealment of Truth occurs only from Creativity Works
of Art
2. The Authentic Living World is the World of Poets
II. Echoing-Chaos Theory --- Poetic Thinking
1. Mystical Echoing Chaos as Abground of Enthinking
2. Poetic Echoing Word , Image World
3. Echo as Resonance of Unthought: House of Enthinking
APPENDIX Hyperhange & Singularity [Ed. Cornish]

* * * * *
PART II MEgA-EVENT & HYPERCHANGE SOCIETY
Information Revolution & Globalization
WORLD ORDERS / NETWORK SOCIETY

GLOBAL CULTURE and POLITICAL CULTURE

Towards An Enlightened Culture

CHAPTER IV

MEGA-EVENt & NEW WORLD

Digital Age, Information Society

I. Mega-Event & Conscious Technology Civilization

6

1. Great Transformation & Hyperchange Society [Ed. Cornish)]

2. Cybernetics Revolution & Human Consciousness [J. Gleen]
a) Computer and Artificial Intelligence
b) Intelligent Computer towards the Age of Cyborgination
3. Computer & Digital Age, Information Society
a) Computer & Information Technology Revolution [N. Weiner]
b) International Telecommunication & Role of Internet
II. Globalization & Reconstruction of World Order [D.Held & A. Grew]
1. Globalization as Transcontinental Flows. Patterns of Social Interaction
a) What Is Globalization?
b) Towards a Global Politics
2. Reconfiguration of Political Power [Political Project & Role of Elites]
a) Politics and Power [L. P. Thiele]
b) Formation and Rule of the Modern State
c) The Creation of Modern State and the Centralization of Power
d) Political Projects & Role des Elites
3. National Culture and Globalization: Global Flows of Culture
a) Globalization as Identification of Flows transcendencing
National Boundaries
b) Politics Beyond Borders: Emergence of Global Politics, Power
Shift
4. Politics and Future Society [R. Kurzwell]
a) The Emergence of Automated Personalities
b) Difference between Human Machine Intelligence
APPENDIX Nationalism & Globalization

CHAPTER V

NETWORK SOCIETY & NATION-STATE

Culture in Network Society

I. Emergence of Network Society [Manuel Castells]

1. Concepts of Network and Node
2. Network as Open Structure for Shaping Society itself
3. New Emergent Social Morphology: Network Society
4. Culture in Society Network: Real Virtual World
5. Towards a New Politics of Globalization
6. Genesis of a New World: Real Virtual World
II. The Millennium Project for Globalization [J. C. Glenn's Agenda]
1. Purposes of the Project
2. Motivation and Self Responsibility
III. Nation-state & Nationalism: Emergence of Transitional Society
1. Nation & Nationalism: National Identity [D. Held & A. McGrew]
7

2. Nation & Hyperchange

IV. Internationalization of the State
1. The Ideal Westphalian System / World Order
a) Territoriality
b) Sovereignty
c) Autonomy
d) Primary
2. Political Power and Society [ Held & McGrew ]
3. Sovereignty in International Society [Robert O. Keohane]
a) Hobbes's Dilemma
b) Keohane's assessment concerning Hobbes's Dilemma
V. Emergence of Global Politics
1. Internationalization of the States
2. Transactionalization of Political Activities
3. Towards the New Politics and Global Governance
4. Reconfiguration in World Order [Held & McGrew]
a) Cosmopolitan Social Democracy
b) Coalesced Movement for Cosmopolitan Social Democracy
VI. Globalization & Cultural Identity [Terry Eagleton]
1. Identity as Treasure
2. Version of Culture as Identity
a) Original Meaning of Culture
b) Culture over Politics
c) Identity as Cultural Power

CHAPTER VI

POLITICAL CULTURE
Culture & Spiritual Life
An Enlightened Culture

I. Towards a Political Culture: An Incipient Global Civilization Society

1. Primary Analytical Concept [S. H. Beer*]
2. Culture for an Ideal Society
3. The Image of a Global Political Culture as Liberation
4. What is Liberation?
5. Culture & Spiritual Life:
a) Consciousness - Wisdom, Virtue & Value
b) Virtue and Value in Continuity of Existence:
Personality and Dignity
6. Wisdom and Science: Spiritual Experiences
II. Identity and Institutional Modernity
1. Globalization & Modernity
8

2. Identity & Deterioration of the Global Process

III. Globalization and Nation-Ideal
1. What is Globalization?
2. Informational Politics and Society
3. Westphalian Nation-Ideal and Cosmopolitan Social
Democracy
IV. New Society and The Emergence of Global Political Culture
1. Culture is the Source of Power
2. New Politics of Globalization
V. World Orders: Ethical Foundations & National Culture
1. Cosmopolitan Outlook
2. Ethical Foundations in Political Community
3. National Culture & Globalization
4. The Fate of National Culture
VI. Political Culture and Hereditary Transmission of Culture
1. Origin of the Concept
2. Political Culture Is not Ideology
3. Our Private Fate Is Virtually Inviolable
4. Political Culture is Hereditary Culture
5. Global Explorer sharpened in the Hottest Fire

CONCLUSION
TOWADS A GLOBAL CULTURE
An Enlightened Culture
I. A Cultural Bridged-building between East & West [Heidegger]
1. Heidegger and Cosmocentrism of Oriental Thought
2. Heidegger as Planetary Thinker
II. Towards a Common Culture: An Enlightened Culture
1. Culture and Social Transformation
2. Culture Fulfillment in Life-span
a) Emergence of Enlightened Culture
b) Enlightened as Self-realization on the Path of Dao:
Compassion & Wisdom
c) Enlightenment as Process of Spiritual Life towards Divine
Destiny
* * * * *

FUTURE CULTURAL THINKING

PART III

UNIFICATION of EASTERN MYSTICISM & WESTERN TRANSPARENCY

CHAPTER VII

CONSCIOUS TECHNOLOGY AGE

I. The 21st Century Human Mystic's "Mind Awakened" of the Unknown

1. Futurist Foreknowledge & "Mystic's Awareness" of the Unknown
2. Reassigning the Task of the Mind
II. The Spherical View [J. C. Gleen]
1. Spherical Theory
2. A Lesson about The Ants
3. Spherical Approach for Development & Expending Consciousness
III. Spherical Thinking: Technology & Poetic [M. Heidegger]
1. Heidegger's Point of View Concerning about Science & Thinking
2. Metaphorical Language as Poetical Science of Thinking
SUMMARY A. Spherical View [Gleen]
B. Spherical Thinking [Heidegger]
IV. A New Form of Intelligence on Earth [ R. Kurzwell]
1. The Imergence of Intelligence
2. What is Intelligence?
3. Can an Intelligence Create another Intelligence more intelligent than
itself ?

CHAPTER VIII

TOWARDS THE END of PHILOSOPHY

PHILOSOPHY as TRANSMISSION in THE FUTURE COMPLEXITIES
Visioning: Scenario Method & Paradigm
UNIFICATION of MYSTICISM & SCIENCE

I. Philosophy as Transmission of the East-West Unification

1. Characteristics of the Traditional Eastern View
2. Characteristics of the Western Philosophical Thought
3. Philosophy as Transition in Futuristic Views of Complex Technical
Society
4. Politics and Society in the Age of Spiritual Machine
II. Meditation as Experience of Enlightenement [Spirit- Insight & Quantum theory]
1. Eastern Meditation (Samadhi) & Artificial Intelligence
2. Meditations as Experience of Enlightenment [Quantum Theory]
3. Futuric View of Science & Technology: C-T Exercises
4. Strategic Thinking and Scenario Method
5. Millennium Project and Global Strategic Thinking
10

III. Meditative / Philosophical Thinking before the "Enframing" of Techno

1. Heidegger's Critique of Technology
2. Meditative / Philosophical Thinking as Operational Thinking
3. Meditative / Philosophical Thinking: Bridge between Traditional
Meditation & Technical Mind
4. New Paradigm Thinking for Epistemology [F. Capra]
a) Definition
b) Two Different Paradigms
c) New Paradigm in Living Society: Interconnectedness &
Sustainability
5. Humanity's New Potential [Ed. Cornish]
6. Beyond Technology:
a) Virtual Life
b) Artificial Reality
SUMMARY: a) A New End, A New Beginning [Peterson]
b) The Next Generation of Leader with
The Millennium Project [J. C. Glenn]
APPENDIX

The Future is China a Threat to Regional Security?

____________

11

PREFACE
This Volume is dedicated to the Next Generation of Vietnamese Vanguard Leaders for
the Salvation of Vietnamese nation before a potential threat to regional security
especially by the barbarous hegemony and thereby, for the whole South-East Asia
before the Emergent Fourth Culture with A new breed of leaders, the "Next Generation
of Leaders" which is emerging in Asia: the young Asian leadership in politics,
government, business, intellectual and academic areas is reshaping the direction of Asia
and the world. (Megatrends Asia, p.249) According to the worlds leading trend
forecaster John Naisbitt,
Now, Asians are on their way to an economic renaissance that will provide an
opportunity for them to reassert the grander and glory of their past civilizations.
With the application of science and technology, Asians could present the world
with a new model for modernization that combines it with Western and Eastern
values, one that reconciles freedom and order, individualism and community
concerns. The most profound consequence of the rise of the East is the birth of
this new model for modernization. Asians are modernizing in the Asian way
and, in the process, presenting the West with both the challenge and the
opportunity to follow their lead into the twenty-first century. (Ibid., p. 257)
However, a Potential Threat to Regional Asia-Pacific Security permanently begins with
the People Republic China (PRC) which is engaged today in a military build-up,
especially with its 'Cow-Tongue' policy in the South-East Asia Ocean as its project
power beyond China's borders concerning its 'National Interest'. "This current policies,"
on Denny Roy's account, "reflect both the new strategic environment and also China's
anticipation that it will soon assume the status of a major economic, political and
military power." Of such characterization, he asserts:
Finally, many observers have complained about China's lack of transparency in
defence-related issues. These factors lead to suspicious that China plans to build
a strong military machine to coerce its neighbours into accepting bold new
Chinese political demands. In this view, the Chinese military build-up is taken as
the empirical evidence of Beijing's hidden intent to launch an aggressive foreign
policy.(A-PNWO, 151)
Therefore, what is the genesis of our Survival in this Third World as weak countries, the
making sense of our life, if not our union before the Chinese potential threat to our
regional security when in our complex world today the destinies of "small and weak
countries" are only determined by the greatest civilized one of the world such as the
United State if not by the United Nations Organization? Is this the mission, the
responsibilities of the Next Generation of Vanguard Global Leaders in Southern Asia
before all barbarian turbulence of today's Chinese aggressive foreign policy? United we
12

stand, divided we fall. Why don't we follow the Israelite's "mirror-image"? A New
World with a New Enlightened Culture and thereby a New Enlightened Civilization
would emerge in this new Millennium Age. If the experience is the invaluable historical
lesson, it could rise permanently to every challenge as the most important way because:
Experience is the forge through which ordinary people become extraordinary
global leaders. . . . Just like a samurai sword, we become the very best when our
character is forged in the hottest fires, pounded on by the most difficult
experiences, and sharpened with continuous learning. There are few paths in life
that offer greater opportunity and challenge than the one to global leadership.
For that reason, there are few paths in life more rewarding. And for now, it is
still the roadless traveled. (GE,240) (1)
_____________

13

Editor's Introduction
As I understand the message in this essay, we are in the middle of a civilization-changing
time in our history, where our computer lives and society's lives are merging together.
This can be a magnificent transformation or it can be a disaster depending upon how we
handle this new "Enlightenment." Man need science and man needs he mystical. This
new world can offer both if we are wire enough to understand and we take on its
challenges. If I understand, no single government can be in charge or responsible, or
handle this major life-changing event. It is incumbent upon civilization to become a
global world, addressing not only this change but all the world's problems as a global
society, rather than our current national and trans-national state. Our decision makers
must cut the old chords and allegiances and venture into this new world order. The fear
some express is that we can' t or won't do this. That we are too invested in our
separateness and will not be able to overcome. There is a lot of practical advice as to
how to proceed in this new world order such that the world will be more peaceful., more
democratic, and more humane.
The message throughout these writings is such a positive message, so hopeful, and with
such a grand result. I only hope it is also realistic. The author has provided a profound
philosophical world view of humanism, metaphysics, and the future of mankind.
Through and exhaustive summary of so many of our great thinkers --- humanists A.
Einstein, Buddha, Aurobindo, Vivekanandha, Radhakrishnan, philosopher M. Heidegger,
J. C. Jung, mystic thinker Lao Tzu, East-West thinker F. Capra, eminent futurists Ed.
Cornish, J. Gleen, R. Kurzwell, and political theorists M. Castells, D. Held, A. McGrew
--- he explains the world we can create through this global agenda and the "planetary
institutions" it creates. By coupling a scientific method with a moral compass, the author
discovers and promotes this shared vision of the future that includes a defense of
democracy but without the emphasis on individualism and competition. The author
through extensive research, illustrates a thread through history that ties East-West
philosophical thought into a common view. He cites a dizzying array of philosophers and
thinkers from every century that includes scientists, and, of course, humanists, all of
whom share a commitment to internationalism and peace. However much time is spent
with this plethora of thinkers, the author always bring thesis back to the ideas of M.
Heidegger, a difficult philosopher to comprehend but well worth the effort. Heidegger
puts forth a complicated vocabulary of scientific jargon to explain his theories of the
human condition and its future. It takes time and patience to follow Heidegger but the
pay off comes when Heidegger answers the question of how to improve human nature
and bring about an interdependent, inter-spirited world of shred values and peaceful
intentions.
Now the question is whether we have the patience and understanding to apply his thesis
to our lives and those of our children. This is a must-read for all who care about the
world and its survival.
.

San Jose, April 3, 2013

Pat Andrews
14

Introduction
MESSAGES for FUTURE PROSPECTS
AS ECHOING of PRESENT-PAST
* * * * *

A. Einsteins Message on Humanism

I. Albert Einstein as Famous Historical Man
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) is not only famous as a pioneer of our Quantum Physics
Age. Among numerous contributions to physics, two stand out: "his hypothesis that light
is composed of tiny discrete packets of energy called 'photons' (for which he won his
Nobel Prize); and his analysis of the curved trajectory of a body under gravity as, in fact,
'straight line' motion occurring in a curved space-time that has a shaped fashioned by
the distribution of matter within it." (RCLI, OCP, 222) (1b) Besides. not only an eminent
'electricifying thinking physicist', he is also a philosophical thinker in the
operationalism used to treat time in his famous 1905 paper on special relativity. (1a)
Throughout his life, Einstein was concerned with philosophical as well as scientific
questions. He was deeply concerned with the human condition, social injustices, and
virtues such as selflessness and devotion to higher ideals. (2) Hence of late years he
devoted to social and political problems in our World. First of all, today we are
forewarned of the great dangers of a nuclear arms race, the immorality of religious wars,

15

and the barbaric cruelty of political regimes. So, in Open Letter to the General Assembly
of the United Nations, Einstein writes:
We are caught in a situation in which every citizen of every country, his children,
and his lifes work, are threatened by the terrible insecurity which reigns in our
world today. The progress of technological development has not increased the
stability and the welfare of humanity. Because of our inability to solve the
problem of internal organization, it has actually contributed to the dangers which
threaten peace and the very existence of mankind.
There can never be complete agreement on international control and the
administration of atomic energy or general disarmament until there is a
modification of the traditional concept of national sovereignty. For as long as
atomic energy and armaments are considered a vital part of national security no
nation will give more than lip service to international treaties. . . . You are so
right. This has proven to be true. There is no compromise possible between
preparation for war, on the one hand, and preparation of a world society based
on law and order on the other. (3)
REMARK. Especially, with regard to the policies of The United Nations, in A Reply to the Soviet
Scientists he points out emphatically: Concerning the controversial veto power, I believe that the
efforts to eliminate or to make it ineffective has a primary cause less in specific intentions of the
United States than in the manner in which the veto privilege has been abused. (4 )

Albert Einstein was a famous rational scientist but he never lost sight of the
mysterious and unfathomable . He had great insight into what it means to be human, (5)
such as the meaning of life in his message about humanism. Hence, he could be also
considered as an elite driver of civilization, a pioneer of the Third Culture Movement of
our Age. THIS IS SUCH GOOD ANALYSIS AND MAKES IT UNDERSTANDABLE

II. Einstein and the 'Meaning' of Life

1. What is the meaning of Life?
When you ask the question What is the meaning of life ?, on Genpo Merzels
account, you also create the problem; and in Buddhist Zen words, you are bitten by
the question, and it becomes the koan of your life. (6)
First of all, our human life belongs to cosmic life as infinite and eternal life while our
finite mind is stuck in the delusion before the phenomenal world as relative world. In
Einsteins view, if you screw up in the relative world, the absolute wont save you. (7)
Besides, the life that we recognize as our life as true life is a phenomenal or virtual life
because it is forever changing and ultimately unknowable. However, all life must have
its necessity for living as ultimate goal. So our mind creates all kinds of ideas after all
kinds of things. And he writes:

16

We realize that instead of riding the waves of life, we are being tumbled and
crushed by our thoughts and emotions. . . . We obviously have no control over
our experience, and we dont have a clue how to become the master. (8)
So, in his Essays in Humanism (1950), Einstein seems only advocate The Goal of
Human Existence and gives his relative explication of practical life as follows:
Our age is proud of the progress it has made in mans intellectual development.
This characteristic is reflected in the qualities of its priests, the intellectuals. . . .
The intellect has a sharp eye for methods and tools, but is blind to ends and
values. So it is no wonder that this fatal blindness is handed on from old to young
and today involves a whole generation.
The most important factor in giving shape to our existence is setting up and
establishment of a goal; the goal being a community of free and happy human
beings who by constant inward endeavor strive to liberate themselves from the
inheritance and anti-social and destructive instincts. In this effort the intellect
can be the most powerful aid. The fruits of intellectual effort, together with the
striving itself, in cooperation with the creative activity of the artist, lend content
and meaning to life. (9)
Human beings can attain a worthy and harmonious life only if they are able to
rid themselves, within the limits of human nature, of striving to fulfill wishes of
the material kind. (10) WE HUMANS STILL DONT GET IT, DO WE!!

2. Mystery in Life and Religious Life

Now we return with Einstein to the question What is the meaning of life?
On Einsteins assessment, man acquires at birth, through heredity, a biological
constitution as fixed and unalterable, as at the mercy of a cruel, self-inflected fate.. . .
In addition, during his lifetime, he acquires a cultural constitution which determines
to a very large extent the relationship between the individual and society. The
individual has become more conscious than never of his dependence upon society, and
[human being] can find meaning in life only through devoting himself to society.
(11) EH , 4-5) And in his essay The World as I See It, Einstein points out that the social
feelings are another source of the crystallization of religion with the social and moral of
God as ultimate and eternal Religious Goal, and he writes: The religion of all civilized
peoples especially the peoples of the Orient are primarily moral religions. (12) (WISI,
25) This phenomenon could be revealed, for example, with Buddhism, Hinduism,
Confucianism, and also with the Dao of Lao Tzu. Einstein calls theses moral religion
in terms cosmic religious feeling which knows no dogma and no God conceived in
mans image. And for him, that cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest
incitement to scientific research. (13) (Ibid., 28) Einsteins philosophical reflections
constitute an important, eminent chapter in twentieth century thought. With regard to
the question meaning of life, or the goal of the human existence he always directs his
endeavor and his judgments to them. Here is his intimate self-meditation [as limited to
our following selected quotations]:
17

a) Human life is ephemeral and depends oneself from one to another.

What is the meaning of the human life? To answer this question at all implies a
religion. . . . Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows
not, though he sometime thinks he feels it. . . . A hundred times every day I
remind myself that my inner and my outer life depend on the labors of
other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in
the same measure as I have received and I am receiving. (14) (WISI, 1)
b) The depth to the others: Responsibility
In human freedom in the philosophical sense I am definitely a disbeliever.
Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with
inner necessity. Schopenhauers saying, that a man can do as he will, but not
will as he will, has been an inspiration to me since my youth up, and a continual
consolation and unfailing well-spring of patience in the face of the hardships of
life, my own and others. This feeling mercifully mitigates the sense of
responsibility which so easily becomes paralyzing, and it prevents us from taking
ourselves and other people too seriously; it conduces to a view of life in which
humor, above all, has its due place. (15) (Ibid., 1)
c) The Ideals of Life
I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves. The ideals
which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to
face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Without the sense
of fellowship with men of like mind, of preoccupation with the objective, the
eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific research, life would have
seemed to me empty. (16) (Ibid., 2)
d) Personality and Society, Value
The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in
virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which
directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave. . . .
Without creative, independently thinking and judging personalities, the upward
development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual
personality without the nourishing soil of the community. (17) (Ibid., 8-9)
My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always
contrasted oddly with my pronounced freedom from the need for direct contact
with other beings and human communities. . . . My political ideal is that of
democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized .
(18) (Ibid., 2-3) The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the
measure and the sense in which he has attained to liberation from the self. (19)
(Ibid., 7-8) We must built spiritual and scientific bridges linking the nations of
the world. We must overcome the horrible obstacles of national frontiers. . . .
(20) (EH, 25)
e) Mystery of Life & Religious Man
18

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. It was the experience
of mystery that engendered religion; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a
deeply religious man. [However,] I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and
punishes his creatures. (21) (WISI., 5)
It is a very high goal which, with our weak power, we can reach only very
inadequately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspirations and
valuations. If one were to take that goal out of it religious form and look merely
at its purely human side, one might state it perhaps thus: free and responsible
development of the individual, so that0 he may place his powers freely and gladly
in the service of all mankind. (22) (OLY, 23) I MUST COMMENT THAT
YOUR EDITING AND CHOICE OF QUOTATIONS ALONG WITH THE
SOLID ORGANIZATION MAKES THIS AN EASY FLOW TO READ.
3. Value True of a Human Being: Society & Personality
However, Einstein asserts, it is perhaps poignant when by painful experience we have
learnt rational thinking does not suffice to solve the problem of our social life.
Scientists, with their penetrating research and inventions, could liberate man from
exhausting labor, making his life easier, but also making him a slave to his
technology, creating the means for his own mass destruction. (23) (EH, 24-5) In brief,
Man has not succeeded in building in developing political and economic forms of
organization which would guarantee the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the
world. He has not succeeded in building the kind of system which would
eliminate the possibility of war and banish forever the murderous instruments of
mass destruction. (24) (Ibid., 25)
Unfortunately, horrible weapons have been invented, capable of destroying in a few
seconds huge masses of beings and tremendous areas of territory. A tremendous
responsibility is indispensable. However, our situation is not as the past. We must
revolutionize our thinking, revolutionize our action, and must have the courage to
revolutionize relations among the nations of the world. (25) (Ibid., 27) Hence,
What task could possibly be more important for us in the domain of Thinking ?
What social aim could be closer to our hearts ? (26) (EH, 25)
And Einstein suggests the Supranational organization as Path for Liberation:
A tremendous effort is indispensable. If it fails now, the supranational organization will be built later, but then it will have to be built upon the ruins of a large
part of the now existing world. Let us hope that the abolition of the existing
international anarchy will not need to be bought by a self-inflected world
catastrophe the dimensions of which none of us can possibly imagine. (27) (Ibid.,
27-8)
I hope with my all heart that the new Institute by constant interaction with the
Commission of Intellectual Cooperation [created by the League of Nations] will
19

succeed in promoting their common ends and winning the confidence and
recognition of intellectual workers all over the world. (28) (IO, 87)
[Hence,]
In this way, our daily life is transformed into the Path of Liberation (29)
(WISI, ?)
4. The Role of Intellectuals
Einstein characterizes emphatically the role of intellectual individual in society in an
interesting paragraph Society and Personality as follows:
The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in
virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society,
which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.
A mans value to community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts,
and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows. It is clear
that all the valuable things, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive
from society can be traced back through countless generations to certain
creative individuals [although his cognitive message is provided by social
communications.] The use of fire, the cultivation of edible plants, the steam
engine each was discovered by one man.
Only the individual can think, [play the role of synthesis and systematization]
and thereby create new values for society nay, even set up new moral
standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative,
independently thinking and judging personalities the upward development of
society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality
without the nourishing soil of the community. (30) (WISI, 8-9)
Now it is time to shape our mind-set. Einstein writes an article Society and Personality
[WISI]: Let us now consider the times in which we live. (31) (Ibid., 9) He likes to open
a new window on the future for a New Future Young Generation by recollecting to them
his assessment concerning the stagnation of Europe to-day:
Europe to-day contains about three times as many people as it did a hundred
years ago (Italian Renaissance.) But the number of great men has decreased
out of all proportion. Only a few individuals are now to the masses as
personalities, through their creative achievements. Organization has to some
extent taken the place of the great man, particularly in the technical sphere, but
also to a very perceptible extent in the scientific.
The lack of outstanding figures is particularly striking in the domain of art. . . .
In politics not only are leaders lacking, but the independence of spirit and the
sense of justice of the citizen have to a great extent declined. . . . The
democratic, parliamentarian regime has in many places been shaken;
dictatorships have sprung up and are tolerated because mens valuation of the
dignity and the rights of the individual is no longer strong enough. (32) (WISI,
20

10)
And here, his Message for Posterity:
Our time is rich WITH inventive minds, the inventions of which could facilitate
our lives considerably. . . . [However,] people living in different countries kill
each other at irregular time intervals, so that also for this reason any one who
thinks about the future must live in fear and terror. This is due to the fact that the
intelligence and the character of the masses are in comparably lower than the
intelligence and character of the few who produce something valuable for the
community. I trust that posterity will read these statements with a feeling of
proud and justified superiority. (33) (OLY, 11)
A MESSAGE TO INTELLECTUALS
We meet today, as intellectuals and scholars of many nationalities, with a deep
and historic responsibility placed upon us.
By painful experience we have learnt that rational thinking does not suffice to
solve the problems of our social life. Penetrating research and keen scientific
work have often had tragic implications TRUE EVEN OF THE INTERNET
for mankind, producing, on the one hand, inventions which liberated man from
exhausting physical labor, making his life easier and richer; but on the other
hand, introducing a grave restlessness into his life, making him a slave to his
technological environment most catastrophic of all creating the means for
his own mass destruction. This, indeed, is a tragedy of overwhelming poignancy !
However poignant that tragedy is, it is perhaps even more tragic that, while
mankind has produced many scholars so extremely successful in the field of
science and technology, we have been for a long time so inefficient in finding
adequate solutions to the many political conflicts and economic tensions which
beset us. Mankind can only gain protection against the danger of unimaginable
destruction and want on annihilation if a supranational organization has alone
the authority to produce or possess these weapons. . . .
A tremendous effort is indispensible. If it fails now, the supranational organization will be built later, but then it will be built upon the ruins of the large part
of the now existing world. Let us hope that the abolition of the exiting
international anarchy will not need to be bought by a self-inflected world
catastrophe the dimensions of which none of us can possibly imagine. (34)
(EH, 24)
However, Chaos seems to reign all over the World. We are threatened by the terrible
insecurity which reigns in our world today. The progress of technological development
has not increased the stability and the welfare of the humanity. (35) (?) Before all these
dangers which threaten peace and the very existence of mankind the Way we Think
about the Future claims itself a compelling message as a mysterious experience, a
tremendous effort to our need for New World before the Innovation and Creativity in a
Complex World (edit. by G. Wagner) with the ideal in visionary framework and creation
as Ed. Cornish has noted in his Futuring:
21

Chaoticians have shown that trivial details in the initial conditions of a system
can, over time, lead to huge differences in later conditions. Thus it may never be
even theoretically possible to track down the ultimate causes for many significant
events, or to predict all the results that our actions may produce. (36) (Futuring,
60)

5. Science and Religion

To be sure, all this compelling message for the Future Prospect does not separated
from the Spiritual Wisdom Philosophy of Life because according to the authentic
philosophy:
The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basic
of natural science. Since, however, sense perception only gives information of
this external world or of physical reality indirectly, we can only grasp the
latter by speculative means. It follows from this that our notions of physical
reality can never be final. (37) (EB, 62)
For Einstein, the knowledge of truth as such is wonderful, intelligence makes clear to
us the formation of scientific thinking. However,
The very fact that the totality of our sense experience is such that by means of
thinking (operation with concepts, and the creation and use of definite functional
relations between them, and the coordination of sense experiences to theses
concepts) it can be put in order, this fact is one which leaves us in awe, but which
we shall never understand. One may say The eternal mystery of the world is its
comprehensibility. (IO, 292) (38)
Because the mystery of the world can not be understood by means of thinking as
operations with concepts, Radhakrishnan initiates a philosophical insight into reality
through the function of the spirit as Buddha asks us to be awakened in meditation. He
argues as follows:
Insight into reality, though inaccessible to reason, is consistent with it. It reflects
back on the rational, completing it and endowing it with significance; that which
transcends the rational need not violate it. There is a higher logic of spirit which
comprehends but does not annul the rational. Though truth cannot be tied in
words, through paradox and poetry it is suggested. It is indicated but not
described. In art problems are solved not by concepts but by shapes and symbols.
While the labor of thinking is never finished, the creations of art are complete.
The poet says the unsayable in the language of the symbols. Artists answer the
unanswerable. Poetic ascent and philosophic belief require to be combined.
(RCW, 102) (39)

22

According to Maharishi, Dr. Bevan Morris writes, Meditation technique is the

most practical of all technologies, vital to success and fulfillment in life, and in 1994 he
had trained 40,000 teachers of Transcendental Meditation through out the world.
Maharishi presents his Teaching in Science of Being and Art of Living as follows:
Through the technique of Meditation he provides us a higher state of
Transcendental Consciousness as Cosmic Consciousness. Every particle in the
universe is experienced as a wave in the unbounded ocean of Transcendental
Consciousness which is ones own self. Everything in the universe is found to be
the reverberations of my own Self, of my own unbounded consciousness in the
limitless sea of Cosmic Being. (SBAL, xvi) (40)
Hence,
An individual in Unity Consciousness gains total mastery of Natural Law, and
lives a life of all possibilities. This is perfection of life, life lived on the level of
the ultimate Unity of all life. The individual life stream then is the tidal wave of
the eternal ocean of Cosmic Being, a wave that holds within itself the entire ocean
of cosmic life. (Ibid., xvii) (41)
According to Hindu belief, all life is part of a great rhythmic process of creation and
destruction, of death and rebirth as the ebb and flow, the tidal wave of eternal ocean
which as Shivas dance symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction as the
basis of all existence. (TP, 242) (42) Besides, in Indian traditional culture,
philosophical thought doesnt be separated from moral religion such as with either
Buddhism or Hinduism. If Radhakrishnan is fond of human compassion, hence
Aurobindo would like devoting himself to Life Divine in the domain of Spirituality
because for him:
Spirituality is in its essence an awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a
spirit, self, soul which is other than our mind, life and body, an inner aspiration
to know, to feel, to be that, to enter into contact with the greater Reality. (LD,
981) (43)
This approach is the aim of religion: its purpose is to link the human with the
Divine and in so doing sublimate the thought and life and flesh so that they might
admit the rule of the soul and spirit. But this knowledge must be something more
than a creed or a mystic revelation; this is the work of philosophy, and in the field
of the truth of the spirit it can only be done by a spiritual philosophy, whether
intellectual in its method or intuitive: this is the work of spiritual realization and
experience. (LD, 896) (44)

Summary YOU CAPTURE EINSTEIN SO CLEARLY I CREDIT

YOUR EDITING. A VERY DIFFICULT JOB WELL DONE
In fact, when science can only ascertain what is coming into play in a phenomenological
occurrence with the variety of factors in operation, scientific method in most case fails
us. But Einstein asserts that if the goal of the science strives to discover the reality of
facts in the world, this is not its only aim. To be sure, whoever has undergone the intense
experience of successful advances in his domain of research achieves a far-reaching
23

emancipation from the shackles of personal hopes and desires, and thereby attains that
humble attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason incarnate in existence, and which,
in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man. (?) (45) This attitude appears to
Einstein to be religious, and he assesses:
Science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the
aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however,
springs from the sphere of religion. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist
without that profound faith. (IO, 46) (46)
Science not only purifies the religious impulse of the dross of its anthropomorphism but also contributes to a religious spiritualization of our standing of
life. (IO, 49) (47)
And for him, the situation may be expressed metaphorically by this brilliant image:
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. (IO, 46) (48)
However, for Einstein, it must be assumed that although the divinization of humanity
is the highest principles for our aspirations in all religious traditions, such as in Hinduism,
Christianity, Catholicism . . . . , with our weak powers, we can reach only very
inadequately. () (49) Consequently,
If one were to take that goal out of its religious form and look merely at its purely
human side, one might state it perhaps thus: free and responsible development of
the individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of
all mankind. (IO, 43) (50) Mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate
and the fundamental ends and valuations, and to shape them fast in the
emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important
function which religion has to perform in the social life of man. (Ibid., 42) (51)

* * * * *
B. Radhakrishnans Message in
An Idealist View of Life
I. Radhakrishnans Idealism in Vedic Tradition
Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) is acquainted with versatile genius, universally
recognized both as philosopher and statement (President of the Republic of India in 1962,
and Indias cultural ambassador throughout the East and the West.) From his childhood
on he was nourished by India Vedic tradition with the conviction that the reality of the
world is the virtual world behind the flux of phenomena. (IP, 610-1) (1) His philosophy
owes more to the Upanishads Idealism where matter, life, consciousness and bliss are of
all the categorical expression of the spirit. On K. Senguptas account, All his works are
24

united in a common emphasis on a universal spirit underlying all existence. . . . Thus the
spirit which is open to intuition is the root concept of Radhakrishnans philosophy.
However, Radhakrishnan denies spiritual intuitions because, according to his point of
view concerning natural science, the cosmic process is the interaction between two
complementary principles, spirit and matter, though they appear antagonistic. (2) (CPs,
606-7) He has devoted a lifetime to the study of the religious problems of the EAST
and WEST, and reflected on the religion on the future for the destiny of Humanity in a
Changing World. In A Sourcebook In INDIAN PHILOSOHY, his philosophy is
summarized as follows :
In essence, his philosophy is absolute idealism, but in a form and with a dynamic
character which, instead of nullifying the great richness of the many facets of life
and experience in terms of a wholly transcendent Absolute, recognizes the reality
and meaning of the many aspects and grades of experience. In all phases of his
philosophy, he reveals a synthesizing ability which enables him, in conformity
with the essence of the great Indian tradition, to avoid the extremes. In this
spirit, Radhakrishnan resolves the traditional between the Absolute and the
nonabsolute, God and world, appearance and reality, intuition and raison,
philosophy and religion, and philosophy and life.
His religion of the spirit, accompanied by a deep religious fervor and conviction,
provides him with the belief that the essence of all religions is the same, since
religion is not a creed or code but an insight into reality. In this attitude,
Radhakrishnan has taken religion out of the real of dogma and authoritarianism,
and has made it into a living philosophy of the spirit. (3) (IP, 610)
In his Ideal View of Life Radhakrishnan points out the emphatic on the regulative
idea of a world community, of a human and equitable social order, of human solidarity,
of active and fruitful cooperation among the people of the world. . . . All his works are
united in a common emphasis on a universal spirit underlying all existence. (4) (CPs,
606-7) In the words of Radhakrishnan:
The Upanishad believes that the principle of spirit is at work at all levels of
existence, moulding the lower forms into expressions of the higher. The
splendor of spirit is making use of natural forces in the historical world.
(Schlipps quotation, CPs, 607) (5)
After World War II, atomic bombs, rockets, specially Cybernetic Revolution and
Technological progress, a new society is gradually emerging, the anger and the violence
are the pangs of the birth of something new as terrible catastrophes for human life.
Radhakrishnan, in his Religion in a Changing World, writes:
The human individual has to be renewed if human society is to be preserved. We
have to affirm the doubts and insecurities of modern men and point beyond them
to the ground of hope.
We must become aware of the future dimensions of human life. All living faiths
are anxious for survival and are readjusting themselves to the new conditions of
25

life. Religion has been the great force for the disciplining of mans nature but
unfortunately to many people it has lost its value and validity. It is the difficulty
of religious beliefs that is responsible for the present distemper of the world. We
need a faith that is reasonable, a faith that we can adopt with intellectual integrity
and ethical conviction, a large, flexible faith for the whole human race to which
each one of the living religions can bring specific contribution. We need a faith
which demands loyalty to the whole of mankind, a faith to which the secular and
emancipated mind may cling even in the face of disaster. (RCW, 8-9) (6)

II. Radhakrishnans The Idealist View of Life

1. Ultimate Reality of the World
The World here is not the natural world as the Universe, the cosmic reality, but rather the
world for the being-in-the-world. For Radhakrishnan, it is characterized as follows:
* Firstly, the World we live in as fourstructure world [ Sky, Earth, Man, Gods]
or human-being world, differentiates itself as inner-life (conscious, spiritual life) and
extern-life (material or natural life as environment, social life.) The world we live in is
an ordered whole. The physical world is not a futile play of senseless atoms engaged
in a deadly conflict. The earth and its contents prepared for life, though life had to fit
itself for its setting to grow. (IVL., 248-9) (7)
* Secondly, all existents are structural organism which reflect the whole, past,
present, and future [as temporalized.] Even in the simplest physical entities the plan of
the whole controls the character of the subordinate parts which enter into them. The
change in the material world are not merely external ones of position, velocity, etc. . . .
(Ibid., 251)(8)
* Thirdly, Time introduces something new in the properties of things. In the
continuous flow of nature there is neither repose nor halt. . . . [Nature] always aspires to
other levels. . . . There is a constant emergence of new qualities which we cannot predict
from a knowledge of the old. . . . Theories of emergence note this fact, though they do not
explain it. The historical process has in it two elements of continuity and novelty; it is
irreversible. (Ibid.. 248-9) (9)
* Fourthly, Life is a dynamic equilibrium which tends to maintain itself. The
parts of a living organism are less independent than those of a physical one. The
removal of any part from a physical body does not involve any essential change of
properties, but in living organisms, form, structure and composition are interdependent.
The living organ is a whole, doing things that no atomic system could ever do. They
register the results of their experience, and in a sense form habits. The changes which
they present in response to outward circumstances are retained and built into the
organism (Ibid., 197) (10)
* Fifthly, encounter with Reality is possible only for those who have attained
integration and harmony by overcoming the conflicts within themselves. Religion is the
26

remarking of oneself. The human being requires to be renewed. It must be born again to
enter the kingdom of heaven, of Spirit. Religion helps to free the leaping forces of the
enslaved spirit. It awakens the real in man and recreate the Being itself. (RCW, 106)
(11)
* Sixthly, the direct apprehension of Reality is incommunicable. Meditation is the
way to self-knowledge. Heaven is the state of ones spiritual being. It is up to each
individual to attain harmony, awakening to spiritual truth. (Ibid. 104-5) (12)
The Kingdom of God is within you. The truth shall make you free. The knowledge of
God in the human being is possible through the withdrawal of the senses and mind from
the world of outer experience and concentrating these energies on the inward reality.
Man realizes his true nature through this inward penetration. When the individual
gains the knowledge of the self, he becomes illumined. (RCW, 180-1) (13)
2. Man and the Spirit in Man [Selected Quotations]
a) The highest aim of Life: Spirituality and Religion
The whole root of difference between Indian and European culture springs from the
spiritual aim of Indian civilization. A spiritual aspiration was the governing force of this
culture, its core of thought, its ruling passion. Not only did it make spirituality the highest
aim of life, but it even tried to turn the whole of life towards spirituality. (FIC, 139) (14)
[Hence] Hinduism is spiritual, not social discipline. (Ibid., 143) (15) Man himself was
not a mere reasoning animal, but a soul in constant relation with God and with the divine
cosmic Powers. . . . The highest spiritual meaning of life was set in the summits of each
evolving power of the human nature. The intelligence was called to a supreme
knowledge, the dynamic active and creative powers pointed to openness and unity with
an infinite and universal will, the heart and sense put in contact with a divine love and
joy and beauty. (Ibid., 184-5) (16)
But these things, great as they were, were not final or supreme: they were openings, steps
ascension towards the luminous grandeurs of spiritual truth and its practice was kept
ready and its means of attainment provided for the third and greatest type of human
being, the third loftiest stage of the spiritual evolution. The complete light of spiritual
knowledge when it emerges from veil and compromise and goes beyond all symbols and
middles significances, the absolute and divine love, the beauty of the All-beautiful, the
noblest dharma of unity with all beings, the third loftiest stage of the spiritual evolution.
(Ibid., 188) (17)
b) Intuitive Experience and Intellectual discipline
All creative work in science and philosophy, in art and life is inspired by intuitive
experience. Intuitive life, spiritual wisdom at its highest is a type of achievement which
belongs only to the highest range of mental life. Creative work is not a blind imitation. It
is synthetic insight which advances by leaps. Anew law in mathematics is just as much a
bit of spontaneous intuition as is a composition in music as Mozart. (18) (Ibid., 138)
In his work on Science and Method, Henri Poincare has a chapter on Mathematical
Invention where he contends that his own mathematical discoveries are more or less
artistic intuitions.

27

It is the intuitive grasp of the dynamic principle which enable one to organize the facts
successfully. Henri Bergson has dealt with this problem in a suggestive way. It is
generally supposed that scientific discovery is reached by conceptual synthesis, that is, by
putting side by side or externally attaching to each other concepts arrived at by abstract
analysis. (19) (Ibid., 138)
The art of explanation is an adventure of the mind. When the intuition arises, thought
gives it a form and make it possible for it to be communicated to others. By an external
intellectual synthesis, we may reach a wider reading of facts, a more comprehensive law,
a more complete notation, but the creative idea is not seized by the pursuits of intellect.
The creative insight is not the final link in a chain of reasoning. It is the spark of genius
that lights the fire and makes it burn. Intellect supplies the necessary tools. They are
quite valuable but they are not knowledge. . . . The function of discovery is sometimes
attributed to Imagination which helps us to combine the discrete data into synthetic
wholes. . . . The insight does not arise so much as the solution of a problem but as the
perception of something true. (IVL, 138-41) (20)
c) Intuition and Artistic Knowledge
All art is the expression of experience in some medium. Sculpture has for its medium
stone and marble, painting colors, music sounds and poetry words. By means of the work
of art, the experience is released afresh. We may confine ourselves to the great art with
which we are all familiar, poetry. Anthropology makes poetry rhythmic song. Rhythm
helps breathing. So poetry and music employ it. Psychoanalysis argues that art is the
unconscious and symbolic expression of the sensuous instinct. There is a deliberate
suspension of individuality, an submission to the real, a complete absorption in the object
as it is, so to breathe its life and enjoy its form; the heart and soul and sense in concert
move, the individual is absorbed by the object, live in its rhythm and hear its inward
harmony. . . . The genius of the artist is the determining factor. (Ibid., 144-5) (21)
Art as the disclosure of the deeper reality of things is a form of knowledge. Poetic truth
is a discovery, not a creation. Poetry is essentially self-expression. We cannot be sure
that our apprehension of reality is knowledge of reality. The sensible is not independent
of the observer. The color of the rose exists only for one who has the human sense of
sight. Deepest poetry has the widest appeal. . . . It is the function of the artist to induce
in us a sense of the signification of life. The poet shares with us the knowledge which he
has gained of the foundations of life. (Ibid., 152-4) (22)
We measure the value of poetry by the depths of its roots in reality. Only poems that
come from the soul trailing clouds of glory make the heart beat and the eye brighten. The
function of art is to stir the spirit in us, humanize our nature, refine life and produce
profoundly satisfying states of mind which gradually become fashioned into more
persistent attitudes. (Ibid., 149-50) (23)

III. Religion in a Changing World [ Selected Quotations]

1. The Emergent World Society
A new world society is gradually emergent. It is growing quietly, imperceptibly in the
minds and hearts of men. The tumult and the excitement, the anger and the violence,
28

the perplexities of spirit and the ambiguities of expressions are the pangs of the birth of
something new. We of this generation are called upon to work for this new order with
all the strength and capacity for suffering we possess. When religious prophets and
philosophers speak of our common humanity, of natural kinship of human beings, it is an
essential part of wisdom and a real need of the enlightened spirit. Mans basic physical
structure, his mental make-up, his moral needs, his spiritual aspirations are the same
world over. We share a common origin and a common destiny. We stand on the
threshold of a new society, a single society. Those who are awake to the problem of the
future adopt the ideal of the oneness of mankind as the guiding principle of their thought
and action. It is true of all cultures that the greatest gift of life is the dream of a higher
life. The pursuit of perfection has been the dominating motive of human life. Man is
essentially a remaker. He is not content with the patterns of the past. (RCW, 15-6) (24)

2. Religion as Experience of Reality

Indian thought believes in the reality of spiritual experience. All thinking which goes
deep enough ends in experience. Experience achieves clarity concerning itself through
thought. By theoretical knowledge we can not attain fulfillment. (RCW, 98) (25)
Meditation is the way to self knowledge. It is the way to self knowledge. It is up to
each individual to attain harmony, awakening to spiritual truth. [Insight into reality] is
compared to the spiritual experience with a flash of lightning, which suddenly appears in
the middle of a dark blue cloud. (Ibid., 104) (26) The question of the attainment of the
goal of life depends on our spirit of earnestness. All life is great and leads to purity.
Greatness lies in worthy living among the common things of life. . . . Religion will lose
their redemptive power, if saintly lives are not encouraged. (Ibid., 110) (27)
All living faiths are anxious for survival and readjusting themselves to the new conditions
of life. Hinduism and Buddhism are revising their social attitudes while preserving their
permanent values. Catholicism and Protestantism are revising and reappraising their
policies. All religions should have the responsibility of understanding the change in
the social order, interpreting them, preparing us to meet them, by modifying themselves
when the best interests of society so dictate. (Ibid., 10) (28) The Kingdom of God is
within you. (St Luke XVII, 21) The Truth shall make you free. (SJVIII, 32) Man
realizes his true nature through the inward penetration. When the individual gains the
knowledge of the self, he becomes illumined, the bonds of the heart are destroyed, and his
finitness is transcended. (Ibid., 181) (29)
With the speeding up of communications, [technical information exchange,] ideas and
tools now belong to man as man. The necessities of the historical process are making the
world into on. We stand on the threshold of a new society, a single society. Those who
are awake to the problems of the future adopt the ideal of the oneness of the mankind
as the guiding principle of their thought and action. (RCW, 16) (30)
The land may be dark, the sky may be gray and black. It may be chilly, and we might be
cold, uncomfortable, tired and restless. But nevertheless, the star of Bethlehem is over
there. Human beings hope. The final hope that human beings could ever be hopeful of
is enlightenment, the star of Bethlehem on the horizon. . . . (PG, 36) (31)

29

C. Heideggers Prospect

THE PATH INTO HISTORICAL HUMANITY

THE ESSENCE OF TRUTH
ESSENTIALIZATION OF HISTORICAL MAN
I. The Truth with Being & the Horizon of Thinking
1. Truth and Knowledge
a) Traditional & Modern View
In ancient times, Greek philosophy associated truth with Being. Parmenides was the
first to discover the idea of Being of beings, and he identified Being with the perceptive
understanding of Being. The traditional concept derives from Aristotle who connected
truth and Being with the formula Truth is the adequation of intellect to thing and the
theory to show itself as it is. Thomas Aquinas held the correspondence of intellect and
thinking. In the eighteenth century, Kant advocated the agreement of subjects
knowledge with its object. So the correspondence or agreement is based on phenomenon
of confirmation for the theory of truth.
Heidegger, at the prime of his life, was already focusing on the relationship between
Being and Truth with his major work Being and Time (Sein und Zeit). Afterwards,
especially after the shipwreck of Being and Time, he persistently attempted to work out a
new conception of truth although always in accordance with his question linking
Being with time on the ground of world-historical in the ontological-historical
perspective. Truth, in Greeksview, was the core of philosophical thought; as for the
modern and contemporary, knowledge is the horizon of thinking.
But truth is the ground of knowledge and hence must be more fundamental. It
is the jewel in the crown of thought. (1) (?)
The new conception of truth [Heidegger] was struggling toward makes its
appearance in the discussion of truth in the historical sciences. Heidegger
says that the possibility and structure of truth are to be expounded in terms
of the authentic disclosedness (truth) of historical existence. (2) (?)
Truth has traditionally been the quality of correspondence between the propositional
content of either judgment or evident assessment and the facts as they really are. In other
words, truth resides in proposition, and all theories of truth can be seen as theories about
the criteria for assessing a true or false proposition one can use in his assertion
corresponding to reality, to something merely present-at-hand (objectively) in the world
as phenomenon. However, truth is not a feature of correct propositions asserted of an
object by a human subject but, for Heidegger, by the manner of ek-sistence
(existence) which, rooted in truth as freedom, is exposure to the disclosedness of beings
as such because Being and truth are equiprimordially, (BTb, 211) that is, they coexist.
Truth is disclosure of beings through which an openness essentially unfolds. All
human comportment and bearing are exposed in its open region. Therefore, man
30

is in the manner of ek-sistence. (BW, 127)

Heidegger does not deal with the criteria of truth, but points out the essence of truth as
the meaning of Being because sense of Being and truth of Being are the same thing.
(CP, 182) Michael Gilven assesses:
The first point to realize about Heideggers approach to truth is that it is not
so much a theory as an analysis. That is, he examines what happens in an
event in which truth occurs. But to understand truth in this way already has
enormous consequences, for truth is no longer a mere relation between the
subject-knower and the object-known, but rather something that happens. And
what happens is that the meaning of the event is revealed to us. This way of
thinking is at once a brilliant discovery. . . . Truth is not seen; it is shown. () (3)
In Heideggers view, the original meaning of truth appears in the word
phenomenology as taking beings out of concealment, letting them be seen in their
unconcealment (uncoveredness.) So, unconcealment is the original meaning of truth and
the truth as Being-true means to-be-discovering. (BTb, 201) With such definition
Heidegger could do away with the idea of agreement from the traditional concept of
truth and then paves the way for discovering the most primordial phenomenon of truth.
To say that a statement is true means that it discovers the beings in themselves. It
asserts, it shows, it lets beings be seen in their discovered-ness. The being-true
(truth) of the statement must be understood as discovering... Being-true as
discovering is ontologically possible only on the basis of Being-in-the-world.
This phenomenon is the foundation of the primordial phenomenon of truth. (BTb,
201)
The most primordial truth is the locus of assertion; it is the ontological
condition for the possibility that assertion can be either true or false. (BTa,
269; BTb, 208)
The existential and ontological foundation of discovering Being-true (truth) is a way
of Being of Being-in-the-world (BTb, 203) while Being-true as Being-discovering is the
way of thinking through the phenomenon of Being-in-the-world. It appears primordially
in the light of concealing withdrawal (BW, 137-8) which is letting Being-as-a-whole be
disclosed itself and at the same time concealed. By contrast, the phenomenon of truth in
the sense of being-discovered belongs to unconcealment. (BTb, 204) Therefore, the truth
of Being as ontological truth is simultaneously revealed through discovering itself and
appearing itself on the basis of beings in the light of concealing withdrawal, and beings
are discovered and at the same time distorted. With regard to the essence of truth, O.
Poggeler notices:
About the subject of truth we must distinguish the characteristic revealed of
Being (ontological truth) from the revelation of being (ontic truth). Ontological truth and ontic truth necessarily stand together on the basic of their relations to the difference between Being and being ontological difference. (4)
31

Thus, on one side, the ontological truth (to be discovering, discovery) as revelation of
Being is Being-true and corresponds to Thatness (way of Being as such) belonging to
categorical ontological sense Existential such as Being in general.
The that-it-is which is disclosed in Daseins state of mind must rather be
conceived as an existential attribute of the entity which has Being-in-the-world
as its way of Being. (BTa, 174)
On the other side, the ontic truth (to be discovered, discoveredness) as revelation of
being is the truth of being and corresponds to Whatness (existence as concrete entity)
belonging to categorical ontic sense Existentiell such as beings.
Dasein always understands itself in terms of its existence, in terms of its possibilities to be or not to be itself... Existence is decided only by each Dasein
itself in the manner of seizing upon or neglecting such possibilities. We come
to terms with the question of existence always only through existence itself.
We shall call this kind of understanding of itself existentiell understanding.
(BTb, 10)
In Sartrian language we can say the ontological truth and its ontological constitution
as revelation of Being precedes every ontical truth as apophantic manifest of becoming
beings. These above concepts can be resumed as follows:
* Ontical truth
=> categorical ontic sense:
Existentiell being (particular)
relating to concrete entities (Creature-discovered, Whatness, Essence)
* Ontological truth => categorical ontological sense: Existential Being (general)
relating to way of Being of those entities (Creator-discovering, Thatness, Existence)
In brief,
Ontic => Existentiell => Whatness => Particular (being)
Ontologic => Existential => Thatness => General (Being)

=> Essence
=> Existence

The theoretical understanding of ontological structure of existence is necessary for the

existential analysis of Da-sein, which is the primordial task in the question of Beingtruth.
The question of structure aims at the analysis of what constitutes existence.
We shall call the coherence of these structures existentiality. Its analysis does
not have the character of an existentiell understanding but rather an existential one. The task of an existential analysis of Dasein is prescribed with regard
to its possibility and necessity in the ontic constitution of Dasein. (BTb, 11)
On the subject of truth Charles B. Guignon, in A Commentary on Heideggers Being
and Time, explains that the possibility and the structure of Being-truth through
Heideggers works are expounded in terms of the authentic truth of historical existence
that [transmits] the force of the past into the future by fully appropriating it for the
32

present. (5) So the goal of historical study is to reveal the needs, will, motivations of
individual and social lives of humans for their survival through history with their culture
and sense of values in spiritual life.
Authentic truth here seems to be a matter not what one knows, but instead of
how one lives. (6). . . At the deepest level, truth is the emergence of a
clearing or opening that releases beings from hiddenness. (7)
This conception of truth based on our deepened lives is implicit in Heideggers
interpretation of truth as aletheia, as unconcealment, unhiddenness that freely lets
beings be beings they are. Freedom now reveals itself as letting beings be. (BW, 125) In
other words, the essence of truth reveals itself as freedom. (BW, 128) So the freedom
is considered as the liberation for what is manifest in the opening as a letting-be of Being,
as phusis, the emerging-abiding sway, which refers to what arises from itself, what
unfolds, what comes-into-appearance as originary event for the first time and endures in
appearance (8) on the illuminating horizon of Being-true. For Heidegger, freedom is the
inner foundation of truth, which is understood as a foundation (act) without foundation
(ground) foundation without bottom as an abyss, a deep bottomless hole:
Since freedom was grasped as the abysmal ground, freedoms letting-oneselfinto the truth as unconcealment must rediscover the abyss in truth, the staying
away of the ground in grounding. (9)
The absence of foundation reveals itself in the essence of truth as the non-essentiality
of the untruth. Thus the non-essence of truth is pre-essential essence. (BW, 130) It
remains in its own way essential to the essence as a mystery.
By disavowing itself in and for forgottenness, the mystery leaves historical man
in the sphere of what is readily available to him, leaves him to his own resources.
Thus left, humanity replenishes its world on the basis of the latest needs and
aims, and fills out that world by means of proposing and planning. (BW, 132)
Because the non-essence remains in its own mystical way essential to the essence, the
discussion of the non-essence of truth is the decisive step toward an adequate posing to
the question, which is concerning the essence of truth. From calculations and preoccupations for everyday needs and aims, man appears to be incalculable and incomprehensible. As insistent man clings to what is surely available, and as ek-sistent man turns
away from the mystery. However, they belong together and are the same. (BW, 132-3)
In taking its standards, humanity is turned away from the mystery... Mans flight
from the mystery toward what is readily available, onward from one current
thing to the next, passing the mystery by -- this is erring. (BW, 133)
If the essence of truth reveals itself as the liberation for the opening of Being, hence
how does this opening realize itself in the mystical erring to represent a Being as such?

33

In On the Essence of Truth, Heidegger interprets that the openedness as freedom for
what is disclosed in an opening. Consequently, this phenomenon reveals itself that the
essence of truth is freedom erring between Being and non-Being on the mystic path of
twofold in the perplexing comportment of errancy:
Errancy is the free space for that turning in which insistent ek-sistence
adroitly forgets and mistakes itself constantly anew. The concealing of the
concealed Being-as-a-whole holds sway in that disclosure of specific beings,
which, as forgottenness of concealment, become errancy.
Errancy opens itself up as the open region for every opposite to essential
truth. Errancy is the open sit for and ground of error. Error is not merely
an isolated mistake, but the realm (the domain) of the history of those
entanglements in which all kinds of erring get interwoven. (BW, 133)
Accordingly, freedom itself, as in-sistent ek-sistence, originates from the primordial
essence of truth, the rule of the mystery in errancy (BW, 134). In the thinking of Being,
the errancy -- in which any period of historical human must process for its course to be
errant -- is essentially connected with the liberation that grounds history as much as
authentic history. (BW, 135) Because the full essence of truth includes its non-essence,
the disclosure of beings as such is intrinsically the concealing of Being-as-a-whole.
Hence Errancy simultaneously holds sway as con-cealing and un-concealing, and Being
is as it holds sway as enowning. (CP, 183)
Only when Being holds itself back as self-sheltering can beings appear and
seemingly dominate everything and present the sole barrier against the
nothing. And nevertheless, all of this is grounded in the truth of Being...
However, enowning can not be re-presented as an event and a novelty.
Its truth, i. e., the truth itself, holds sway only as sheltered in art, thinking,
poetizing, deed. (CP, 180)
The essence of truth depends on the human beings point of view of value. The value
means what is envisaged as truth possibility, and truth is the center of perspective for a
deep view on authentic entity that is Being rather anything. In addition, truth cannot be
separated of human lifes errancy in the world. From this we conclude only one thing
that truth is not the highest value: instead of saying it is thus and thus, we should say
it shall become thus and thus (NIII, 64). However, the truth of Being -- in which its
essential swaying is sheltered -- is enowning that determines man as owned by Being.
(CP, 185) In short, through enowning, the Being of beings becomes our own as the
abground of our selfhood. In other words,
Being needs man in order to hold sway; and man belongs to be Being so that
he can accomplish his utmost destiny as Da-sein. (CP, 177)
The sway was seen [by the Greeks] as consisting of beings with determinate
characteristics that come to be manifest as phusis the name for the emergingabiding sway. (BQP, 169)

34

Heidegger raised the question of truth (second beginning in early 1930s) in a new
original way in order to experience the essence of the essential swaying of truth or selfunconcealment. His idea is based on our need arising from the abandonment of beings by
Being because in our age technical thinking governs our knowledge. As a result,
everything becomes calculable and obviously understandable without any impenetrable
depths. This transparency that emerges from a luminosity on the verge of blindness
makes beings strut as beings and then abandoned by Being. (BQP, 169) So,
The truth itself its essentialization is the first and highest truth, in which
alone all further truths can find their ground. Thus when we raise the
question of truth,... we are compelled by the most hidden and consequently
the deepest need of the age, and by that alone. (BQP, 170)
For Heidegger, we can attain to the authentic and fulfilled essentialization of truth
only by leaping ahead into a mystical errancy although Being dwells in a luminosity, in a
light and is always before us, ready to provide us with free access and welcome entrance.
Being is not merely hidden; it also conceals itself. So, the openness of beings is not
simply bounded and delimited by something hidden but by something self-concealing in
phainesthai (self-manifesting) as phusis which arises into the light. (11) It requires an
essential insight: the clearing in which beings are. Because beings stand in the clearing,
Being reveals itself in a particular way: the essential sway determined as the clearing
for self-sheltering-concealing. (BQP, 179) Especially, when truth is sheltered in
beings, it is preserved and safeguarded in a way that involves both concealment and
unconcealment. (12)
Its self-concealment is therefore one primordially proper to it (Being.) It shows
itself and withdraws at the same time. This vacillating self-refusal is what
properly highted up in the clearing. (BQP, 178)
This openness of beings has now shown itself to be the clearing for the vacillating self-concealment which constantly points into the clearing. Accordingly,
truth is not simply the unconcealedness of beings aletheia but, more
originally understood, is the clearing for the vacillating self-concealment.
(BQP, 178-9)
If the clearing is the clearing for the self-concealing, then it is not what we ourselves
think or represent. It opens for us a relation to beings and to ourselves and thus is
considered as the supporting ground of our historicity that illuminates our destiny in our
projecting-thrownness into the future.
The clearing for the self-concealing truth is the supporting ground of
humanity, and humanity comes to pass only by grounding and being exposed
to the supporting ground as such. While man stands as a being in the
openness of beings, he must also at the same time stand in a relation to what
is self-concealing. The ground of humanity must therefore be grounded
through humanity as ground. (BQP, 179)

35

Therefore, the question of truth and its essentialization as the innermost need of our
history are originally historical question, the question that founds history (BQP, 172) -providing that truth as clearing for the self-concealing is the supporting ground of
humanity. (BQP, 179) Because the meaning of Being is determined as truth of Being,
Heidegger wants to see truth as the highest revelation of Being itself and hence the
ground for spiritual life. Accordingly, historicity and history are to be experienced as
belonging to this truth. (CP, 346) In addition, because Being reveals itself as an
imperative direction to the illuminating horizon of our future, he claims what is crucial
is that the most meaningful ekstasis [of temporality] for history is the future. (13) In
other words,
The future has priority in the ekstatic unity of primordial and authentic
temporality. (BTb, 302)
Besides, in the same meaning with The truth of Being is the Being of the truth, (CP,
66) the determination of the essence of truth as well as the truth of essence is
necessary for the transformation of man. It turns him away from his homeless (without
ground) into the ground of his essence, helping him to become the preserver, the
shepherd of the truth of Being as historical man, which means the one who creates
history, is sustained by history, and is beset by history. (BQP, 181)
However, although man is the creature of the truth of Being, he is neither subject nor
object of history. Rather he is the one blown upon by History (enowning) and pulled
belong into Being, (CP, 346) and his existence is grounded on the unity of temporality.
Temporality temporalized itself as a future that makes present in the process of havingbeen (BTb,321), so the present arises from its authentic future and having-been.
(BTb, 319) We can say, the past happens out of its future (14) as somehow Laotse
states about the principle of reversion as the operation of Dao. Thus
History has its essential weight neither in past nor in the today and in
connection with what is past, but in the authentic occurrence of existence
that arises from the future. (BTb, 253)
To sum up, because [humans] as teleological appropriate the possibilities of the past
in projecting them toward future goals, (my brackets) (15) and in terms of the futuredirected happening to empower the present by caring forward the flow of the past into
the destiny of a community, (16) the future could be considered as the origin of history
in a new perspective on a new horizon.
History as happening is determined from the future, takes over what has been,
and acts and endures its way through the present. (IM, 36)
The historical is neither the past, nor the present. History has its roots essentially in
the future (BTa, 438) because we have to be concerned with the necessary goals, the
possible standard, with all that is commanded to our will, expectation, and care in terms
of common ideals, goals, norms, values, and interests.
36

Man has history because he alone can be historical, i. e., can stand and does
stand in that of an objects of goals, standards, drives, and powers... Only
man is historical as that being which, exposed to beings as a whole, sets
himself free in the midst of necessity. (BQP, 34)
History is the [historical] destiny in which Being gives itself to man as the
disclosure, as the truth or how of being. () (17)
Heidegger insists a futural horizon of world-view is not a negation of the past; quite
the reverse, it signifies precisely a positive appropriation of the having been because
construction in [history] is necessarily destruction, that is to say, a de-construction of
traditional concept carried out in a historical recursion to the tradition (my brackets).
(BPP, 29) As de-construction, history has been evolving through constantly great
beginnings such as upheavals or revolutions for forward-reaching goals articulated by the
logos of historical needs and culture as history-disclosing essence.
To be authentic historical is to transmit the force of the past into the future
by appropriating it for the present. Authentic here seems to be a matter
not of what one knows, but instead one lives. (18)
Then, Being essentially unfolds as appropriation and sheltering in our search for lived
experiences in the world: it is swaying as enowning, that is, the sure light of the
essential swaying (my emphasis) of Being in historical mans deepest distress, (CP, 22)
which unites thinking and Being for an ongoing future-directed happening. Essential
swaying means the manner in which Being itself is, namely Being. (CP, 341)
Accordingly,
History is not meant as one domain of beings among others, but solely with a
view to the essential swaying of Being-itself. (CP, 23)
Therefore, history cannot be explained as series of fact but the background of
significance which historizes as world. And the task of the historian is not to select data
and give narrative form to the past for the needs and concerns of the present as an
objective picture of history. [It] is not to exhibit merely something present-at-hand or to
provide historically-correct interpretation but rather by means of dialogue thinking
(my emphasis) itself to find way toward itself, (19) allowing to point to an event for a
permanent beginning because
Being as enowning is history. It is from this perspective what is ownmost to
history must be determined independently of the representation of becoming
and development, independently of the historical [as discipline] observation
and explanation. (CP, 348)
History [as a discipline] therefore never attains to history. (CP, 337) The
way toward what is ownmost to history grasped according to the
essential swaying of Being itself is prepared fundamental-ontologically
historicity on temporality. (CP, 24)
37

From Heidegger, all entities created, shaped, cultivated by historical man are historical
entities in the broader sense of world-historical, which is all his culture and works -what Kuhn calls a disciplinary matrix, the entire constellation of beliefs, values,
techniques and so on shared by the members of a given community. (20) The movement
as epochal processes of the opening of the world-history happens in the fundamental
social mood that determines for historical man the place and time which are open to his
mission or required responsibility toward the historical humanity in his every particular
epoch, that is, the historical context in which we find ourselves. (21) So, culture is just
the manifest, the disclosedness of Being-ones-self of historical humanity. In other
words, the history of humanity with its culture and works is obviously the history of its
Beings epochal disclosure through its temporalization in the world, and each historical
period is unique and can be evaluated only in terms of the values immanent in that
period. Consequently,
Once works of culture, even the most primitive tool, have come into the world,
they are still capable of being when no historical human being any longer
exists. (BPP, 169)
Heidegger denied all historicist claim that man is categorically determined by his
historic circumstances, by an objective world and cannot escape them, that is, man is only
a child of his time. (22) This conception of historicism elaborated by Friedrich Hegel
was later considered by Karl Marx as fundamental thought for his communist ideology.
In fact, it is a misleading political idea based only on classes struggles as crucial
dynamic forces of evolution with a narrow and distorted view of human nature embedded
in its historicity, which is essentially determined by its destiny and cultural heritage
instead of dialectical disguised proletarians class. Especially, mans life has ground on
temporality that encompasses both past and future to make up the present. Therefore,
historical man is not only the child of his time but also the child beyond his time. (23)
Historicity is the authentic repetition of possibilities, not a mere enslavement
of what has gone before, but as a sharing in the decisiveness and guilt that
made the situation of the past significant... Without a heritage, the possibilities
that would be grasped would not be ones own. (24)
Besides, in Karl Marxs romantic organic society, it appears as a kind of relic of
natural law that limits the validity of his socio-economic theory of the class struggle,
(25) which is considered as the kernel of his historical materialism. Dazzled by his
utopian doctrine, he cannot understand that life is never measured by any standard of
idea of science and true history transcends all perspectives and ideologies. Life
identified as intentionality and communication encompasses all human experiences,
potentialities, and possibilities, and history is truly transcendent because it belongs to the
disclosure of structuro-existential cohesion of the unconsciously swaying of Being-inthe-world. As the transcendence of Being-in-the-world, historical humanity is grounded
in its specific wholeness on the original ekstatic-horizonal constitution of temporality,
which is the condition of the possibility for the understanding of historical humanity.
38

(BBP, 302) Therefore, we must account for the priority of specific human nature in its
existence as Being-in-the-world such as autopoesis, autoregulation, autoprogramming
with its great and marvelous traditional heritage of humanity since primitive civilization
cultimating in the collective unconsciousness of the primeval age of myth culture.
Obviously, we all recognize:
Productive strategies, social institutions, and virtually every interaction
with the environment have been conditioned by the existence of that very
uniquely human phenomenon culture. (26)
On the other side, Dilthey reacted against positivist ideals of sciences and scientific
knowledge. He rejected all applying the method of natural science to the human science
as Marx has done in his Historical Materialism. He attempted to explicate the human
science in terms of life. According to him, life reveals itself as a depth that is
inaccessible to observation, reflection, and theory (27). It is the ultimate nexus of reality.
The agglomeration of life experiences characterizes the historical humanity within a
certain historical horizon (28) with certain historical archetypes that represent a real
challenge of all forms of historicism. Heidegger denies all historicism because it requires
historical laws, which should determine the laws of development and the direction of
political and social life. According to Gadamer,
Dilthey, the interpreter of this historical worldview, was driven to this conclusion
to the extent that hermeneutics was his model. The result was that history was
ultimately reduced to intellectual history... [So] everything in history is
intelligible, for everything is text. Thus Dilthey ultimately conceives inquiring
into the historical past as deciphering and not as historical experience (29).
In addition, for Heidegger, Diltheys concern is the history of the spirit with a relativistic
philosophy of life; however,
For a superficial consideration, this sketch is correct. But it misses the
substance. It covers over more than it reveals (BTb, 363).
The determination of the essence of truth is necessarily articulated with the
transformation of man, which is available for the dislocation of humanity out of its
previous homelessness into the ground of its essence (BQP,181). As essentialization of
truth, man by his relationship to Being with his unlimited creative power can follow
Being wherever it leads in the world and whenever it opens the way into historical
humanity (30). Strictly speaking, the essentialization of truth is accompanied by the
essentialization of man, and both are the same (BQP, 181). Being, in this sense as
building historical man, reveals itself in and as a goal that directs man to a new
future and opens up for him a past to correspond to this future (31). Nevertheless,
History, as Heidegger understands it, does not move forward gradually and
regularly but spasmodically and unpredictably. Mankind is thus not gently
turned toward a new future that is among the possibilities already present in
39

its tradition but is wrenched out of its historical world by the nothingness of
Being and casts toward a new goal that is utterly alien to this tradition ... It
is a submission to this truly revolutionary reconstitution of the world in accord
with the revelation of Being that Heidegger sees as necessary to the salvation
of the earth and mans humanity. (32)
To be historical man is to have mastered the possibilities and potentialities embodied
in heritage of traditional culture and to have taken some stand on these possibilities as
well as to struggle for the realization of his own ideal as an actualized historical
archetype. Accordingly, an authentically historical man of our age has to manage his
way of life and his spiritual-ideational character representing the historical characteristic
of his community as the transition from the structure of spiritual coherence in traditional
collective unconsciousness to historical coherence in futural metaconsciousness or nanotechnological understanding in a globalizing world with its emerging metacultural
cyberspace. That historical man understands himself and especially his relation to worldhistorical -- as selfhood of humanity -- as quite differently from public concern. He sees
himself as indebted to the traditional heritage and entangled in the destiny of his people
as well as in terms of his relation to Being. He feels his mission in life is to carry
forward the flow of the past by projecting himself ahead into the destiny of his
community. (33) But in order to understand and conceptually grasp the meaning of
historicity of historical humanity we must heed some following quotations as
Heideggerian encompassing considerations:
1/ Being as enowning is history. It is from this perspective that what is ownmost
to history must be determined independently of the representation of becoming
and development, independently of the historical [as discipline] observation and
explanation. (CP, 348) Being gathering fittingness, as phusis, thus becomes the
necessity of the essence of historical humanity. (34)
2/ History is the source of all our possibilities. (35) The future is the origin of
history. (BQP, 38) Through human being, Being confirms itself in works as
history. (36) The selfhood of humanity (as world-historical) has to transform the
Being that opens itself to it into history, and thus bring itself to a stand. (37)
3/ Life is essentially goal-directed and purposive; to be human is to be projected
toward some final definitive configuration of meaning for ones life. (38).
4/ Man is just crucially depended upon Being as fate and destiny, he is not subject
to historical necessity, and there is no historical limit upon human possibilities
(39). History is not the exclusive right of man but rather the essential sway of
Being itself. (CP, 337)
5/ The self is a crossing point of cultural systems unfolding through history.
(40) It has the character of a mid-point that is open and thus sheltering,
between the arrival and flight of gods and man. (CP, 23)

40

6/ The question of the essentialization of truth (Being-true) is the question that

grounds history originally (BQP, 172) -- because the truth of Being, which is to
be opened up, will bring nothing other than the more originary essential swaying
of Being itself. (CP, 334)

And in the form of theses, we can say: if the way toward what is ownmost to history
is prepared fundamental-ontologically by means of grounding historicity on
temporality. (CP, 24) and if the Heideggers orientation of scope that the
essentialization of truth is the essentialization of historical man is correct, then the path
of thinking is just the path into historical humanity, and man [on his path of thinking]
is primordially itself the founder of his History. Moreover, because we must interpret
the actual course and the social forces of the present from the point of view of the
realization of that meaning, (41) Heidegger suggests the following idea for the historical
study:
Over all it is a question of rethinking Being-historically the whole of human
being. (42)
On the other hand, although history is always already its not-yet as long as it is,
although our salvation depends on the sheltering-abiding-sway (enowning) of
illuminating human Being in the horizon of a mystical emptiness of the future and it is
impossible to foresee what is ahead, (43) we can believe with the eminent historian A.
Toynbee:
Our future largely depends upon ourselves, we are not just at the mercy of our
inexorable fate. (43)
________________

41

Notes A
1. Arthur Fine, in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, [CDP], General Editor 2nd
edition, 1999 p. 256.
2. Thomas J. McFarlane (ed.), Einstein and Buddha [EB], 2002, p. 7.
3. Albert Einstein, Essays in Humanism, [EH], 1954, Philosophy Library, New York,
p. 28-9.
4. EH, 43.
5. Dennis Genpo Merzel, The Path of the Human Being [PHB], 2003, SAMBALA,
Boston & London, 50.
6. PHB., 151.
7. PHB, 161.
8. Merzel, PHB, 160.
9. Einstein, EH. 108-9.
10. McFarlane, EB, p.24
11. EH, 4-5
12. WISI, 25
13. WISI, 28
14. WISI, 1
15. WISI, 2
16. WISI, 2
17. WISI, 8-9
18. WISI, 2-3
19. WISI, 7-8
20. EH, 25.
21. WISI, 5.
22. OLY, 23.
23. EH, 24-5.
24. EH, 25.
25. EH, 27.
26. EH, 25.
27. EH, 27-8.
28.? A. Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, 1982, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 87.
29.? A. Einstein, The World as I See It, (about 1979), trans. by A. Harris, A
Philosophical Library Book.
30. WISI, 8-9.
31. WISI, 9.
42

32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
51.

WISI,9-10.
OLY, 11.
EH, 24.
?
Futuring, 60.
EB, 62.
HEM, 154.
IO, 292.
RCW, 102.
SBAL, xvi.
Ibid., xvii.
TP, 242.
LD, 981.
Ibid., 896.
?
Ibid., 42.

47. IO, 46.

48. Ibid., 47.

49. Ibid., 46.

50. Ibid., 43.

Notes B
1. Indian Philosophy (A Sourcebook,) 1975,ed. by S. Radhakrishnan & A. Moore,
Princeton University Press, p.610-1.
2. A Companion to The Philosophers (CPs), 2001, Ed. by Robert L. Arrington,
BlackWell, 606-7.
3. IP, 610..
4. CPs, 606-7.
5. CPs, 607.
6. S. Radakrishnan, Religion in a Changing World (RCW,) 1967, Humanities Press
New York, 8-9.
7. Radakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life (IVL,) 1964, Barnes & Noble Inc New
York., 248-9.
8. IVL, 251.
9. IVL, 248-9.
10. IVL, 197.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.

Radakrishnan, RCW, 106.

RCW, 104-5.
RCW, 180-1.
FIC, 139.
FIC, 143.
FIC, 184-5.
FIC, 188.
FIC, 138.
FIC, 138.
IVL, 138-41.
IVL, 144-5.
IVL, 152-4
IVL, 149-50
43

24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.

RCV, I5-6.
IVL, 98.
IVL, 104.
IVL, 110.
IVL, 10.
IVL, 181.
IVL., 16.
PG, 36.
_________________

APPENDIX
CONTRIBUTIONS

To Radhakrishnans Vedanta Philosophy

[ Selected Quotations ]
I. Vivekanandas Contributions: Living at The Source
Through Vivekananda we will discover the ideal of a Universal Religion and its relationship to
the various religion. He describes the lives of the great Prophets of the world including Christ,
Buddha and Mohammed. He discusses their messages and reveals a remarkable similarity in
the aims of all REGIONS. [As meta-religious philosopher,] Vivekananda stresses the fact
everyone has to discover religion for himself and illuminates the path to true selfrealization. (WRI, cf., from front flag) (1)
Vivekananda was not only a great thinker but also a great Indian, a patriot and an inspirer of
his countryman down to the present generation. (WRI, xxi) (2) He had come to America to
speak for his native land. He wanted to tell Americans about India s poverty and appeal
for their help. But he also had a message to the West. He asked his hearers to forsake their
materialism and learn from the ancient spirituality of the Hindus. (WRI, xi) (3) He recognized
great virtues in the West which he found lacking among Indians; and he had not come to America
in spirit of negative criticism. It is significant that when, during the earliest days of his visit, he
was taken to see a prison near Boston, his reaction was as follows:
How benevolently the inmates are treated, how they are reformed and sent back as
useful members of society how grand, how beautiful, you must see to believe ! And
oh, how my heart ached to think of what we think of the poor, the low, in India. They
have no chance, no escape, no way to climb up. They sink lower and lower every day.
(Ibid., xi) (4)

1. Religion of Man-making
a) God and The Very Soul in Man

44

Vivekananda wanted every human being to Stand on the self, Stand on the rock. He
said:
You are indestructible. You are the Self, the God of the Universe. (LS, xxiii) (5) All power is
within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that, do not believe you are weak; do
not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics. All power is there. Stand up and express the divinity
within you. (LS, xxii) (6)
He spoke of seeking God within our heart, of perceiving God as external universe. . . . In
Vivekanandas own experience, it was this sovereign unity of God, man, and universe that
eclipsed all facts bearing upon the conduct of life, the knowledge of God, and the mastery of
oneself. . . . Knowledge of this unity yanks out of fear by the roots. (Ibid., xxiii) (7) He writes :

But as a man sees his on face in a mirror, perfect, distinct, and clear, so is the
Truth shining in the soul of man. The highest heaven, therefore, is in our own
souls. The greatest temple of worship is the human soul. (Ibid., 3) (8)
The whole universe is one. There is only one Self in the universe, only One Existence.
Everything in the universe is that One, appearing in various forms. Therefore in the Advaita
philosophy, the whole universe is all one in the Self which is called Brahman. That Self when it
appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self when it appears behind this little
universe, the body, is the soul. This very soul, therefore, is the Self in man. (LS, 3) (9)

b) Realizing of God in the Soul THINK OF THE WARS ELIMINATED WITH

ONE RELIGION ONLY SO WHY IS THIS SO HARD FOUGHT AND RESISTED?
The end of all religions is the realizing of God in the soul. That is the universal religion.
Through the vistas of the past the voice of the centuries is coming down to us: the voice of the
sages of the Himalayas and the recluses of the forest; the voice that come to the Semitic races;
the voice that spoke through Buddha and other spiritual giants. This voice is like the little rivulets
that come from the mountains. Now they disappear. And now they appear again in stronger flow
till they finally they unite in one mighty majestic flood. The messages that are coming down to us
from the prophets of all sects and nations are joining their forces and speaking to us with the
trumpet voice of the past. (WRI ,3) (10)
Now an ideal presents itself to my mind. It may be only the dream. I do not know whether it
will ever be realized in the world; but sometimes it is better to dream a dream than die on hard
facts. Great truths, even in a dream, are good, better than bad facts. So let us dream a dream.
We stand in the present, but open ourselves to the infinite future. We take in all that has
been in the past, enjoy the light of the present, and open every window of the heart for all that will
come in the future. Salutation to all the prophets of the past, to all the great ones of the present,
and to all that are to come in the future !
I accept all religions that were in the past and worship with them all. I worship God with
every one of them, in whatever form they worship him. I shall go to the mosque of the
Mohammedan; I shall enter the Christians church and kneel before the crucifix; I shall enter
the Buddhist temple, where I shall take refuge in Buddha and in his law. I shall go into the
forest and sit down in meditation with the Hindu who is trying to see the Light which
enlightens the heart of everyone (WRI, 16-7) (11.)
The idea that I want to [suggest] is that religion does not consist in doctrines or dogmas. The
power of attaining it is within ourselves. We live and move with God. The end of all religions is
the realizing of God in the soul. That is the one universal religion. While we recognize a God,
it is really only the Self the Atman that we have separated from ourselves and worship as
outside of us; but all the time it is our own true Self, the one and only God (LS, 6) (12.) SUCH A
PROFOUND STATEMENT

45

c) The Luminous Idea: God Himself is your image

The one great idea that to me seems to be clear, and comes out through masses of
superstition
in every country and in every religion, is the one luminous idea that man is divine , that
divinity is our nature.
When you look at that unchanging Existence from the outside, you call it God; and when you
look at it from the inside, you call it yourself. It is but one. There is no God separate from you.,
no God higher than you, the real you. All the gods are little beings to you, all the ideas of God
and Father in heaven are but your own reflections. God Himself is your image (LS, 26) (13.)
The yogis [as Guru] say that man can go beyond his direct sense-perception, and beyond his
reason also. Man has in him the faculty, the power, of transcending his intellect even, a power
which is in every being, every creature. By the practice of yoga that power is aroused, and then
man transcends the ordinary limits of reason, and directly perceives things which are beyond all
reason (Ibid., 27) (14.)
The guru must tech me and lead me into light, make me a link in that chain of which he
himself is a link. The man in the street cannot claim to be a guru. The guru must be a man who
has known, has actually realized the divine truth, has perceived himself as the spirit. A mere
talker cannot be the guru (Ibid., 34) (15.)
Each man is perfect by his nature; prophets have manifested this perfection, but it is
potential in us. In practical daily life we are hurt by small things; we are enslaved by little beings.
Misery comes because we think we are finite we are little beings (LS,52) (16). . . . We are in
reality that Infinite Being, and our personalities represent many channels through which this
Infinite Reality is manifesting Itself. . . . Infinite power and existence and blessedness and
wisdom, cannot, but grow into the Infinite. Infinite power and existence and blessedness are
ours, and we have only to manifest them.
What we want is to see the man who is harmoniously developed. . . . We want the man whose
heart feels intensely the miseries and sorrows of the world; the man who not only can feel but can
find the meaning of things, who delves deeply into the heart of nature and understanding; the
man who will not even stop there, who wants to work. . . . Such a combination of head, heart,
and hand is what we want. . . . Why not the giant who is equally active, equally knowing, and
equally loving ? Is it impossible ? Certainly not. This is the man of the future, of whom there are
few at present (LS, 53) (17.)
In conclusion, according to J. Nehru:
Vivekananda spoke of many things, but the one constant refrain of his speech an writing
was abhay be fearless, be strong. For him man was no miserable sinner but a part of
divinity: why should be afraid anything ? (on back flag of WRI) (18.)
Aurobindo expresses high praise for the puissance of a leonine dignity as follows:
Vivekananda was a soul of puissance if ever there as one, a veritable lion among men. .
. . We perceive his influence still gigantically we know not well how, we know not well
where, in something that is not yet formed, something leonine, grand, intuitive,
upheaving, that has entered the soul of India (Ibid.) (19..)
And in the West, Romain Rolland (Nobel Laureate) expresses his strong feeling in a
Vivekananda speak :
I cannot touch these sayings of his without receiving a thrill my body like an electric
shock (on the front flag of WRI) (20.)

II. Sri Aurobindo: Life & Spirituality

46

Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) is the foremost of Indian thinkers, who has realized the most complete
synthesis between the genius of the West and of the East (R. Rolland, Nobel Laureate) (on back
cover of LD) (21.) In Aurobindo, the two currents of intellectualism and spiritualism intermingled.
All his philosophical writings were governed by his spiritual outlook. According T. K. Chakrabarti,
The guiding principle of Sri Aurobindos philosophy is to avoid two extremes: materialism
ignorant spirit, which was prevalent in the West; and spiritualism neglecting matter, which was
dominant in the East. True philosophy must arise out of a harmony or synthesis between the
two (LW., 621-2) (22.) In other words, Aurobindo on this view maintains that absolute reality
transcends all conceptual constructions as conventional truth; it is unconditional, that is,
non-dual and contentless, which are the essential ideas of Nagarjunas philosophy.
a) Contentless because no entity can be characterized in itself as having an essential
entity; Ascribing existence to thing is only a matter of pragmatic usefulness, not one of
attributing ontologicat reality to it, such putative entity is contentless, that is, in
Nagarjunas words emptiness [void.]
b) Non-dual because, according to Nagarjuna, It does not make sense to argue whether
. things exist or not. Consequently, there is no absolute reality, there is no absolute truth.
All reality is only constructions of mind which focuse on perception concerning the
phenomenal realm of the world; this is called conventional or relative reality as relative
truth (CPs, 600) (23).
However, according to Kant, there is no relative reality as phenomenal reality without noumenal
reality or absolute reality that transcends both refutation and non-refutation affirmation and
negation, refutation and non-refutation as Nagarjuna regards as none other than the Middle
Way or Non-dualism. Hence, Reality can only be captured by rising to a higher level in
transcendental meditation, i.e., the level of [Prajna] (CPs, 600-1) (24.) STARTING WITH THIS
PARAGRAPH, YOU MIGHT WANT TO SIMPLIFY. I GOT LOST.
In regard to the spirit as the truth of reality, he points out as follows:
Indian culture recognizes the spirit as the truth of our being and our life as a ground and
evolution of the spirit. It sees the Eternal, the Infinite, the Supreme, the All; it sees this as the
secret highest Self of all, this is what it calls God, the Permanent, the Real, and it sees man
as a soul and power of this being of God in Nature. The progressive growth of the finite
consciousness of man towards this Self, towards God, towards the universal into spiritual
consciousness, into illumined divine nature, this is the significance of life and the aim of human
existence. . . . [T]his spiritual vision of Self, God, Spirit, this nearness to a cosmic
consciousness, a cosmic sense and feeling, a cosmic idea . . . . , this drive towards the
transcendental, eternal and infinite, the engrossing motive of philosophy, the sustaining force of
religion, the fundamental idea of civilization and culture. (FIC, 179-80) (.). . . . Human life must be
induced to flower, naturally in a way, but at the same time with a wise nurturing and cultivation
into its own profounder spiritual significance (FIC, 182) (26.)
Man himself was not a mere reasoning animal, but a soul in constant with God and with
the divine cosmic Powers. The souls continued existence was a cyclic or upward progress
from birth to birth; human life was the summit of evolution which terminated in the conscious
Spirit, every stage of that life a step in a pilgrimage . . . . The highest spiritual meaning of life was
set on the summits of each evolving power of the human nature. The intelligence was called to a
supreme knowledge, the dynamic active and creative powers pointed to openness an unity with
an infinite and universal Will, the heart and sense put in contact with the divine love and joy and
beauty (Ibid.,184-5) (27.)
All the highest eternal verities are truth of the spirit. The supreme truths are neither the rigid
conclusions of logical reasoning nor the affirmations of creedal statement, but fruits of the souls
inner experience. Intellectual truth is only one of the doors to the outer precincts of the
temple. And since intellectual truth turned towards the Infinite must be in its very nature manysided and not narrow one, the most varying intellectual beliefs can be equally true because the

47

mirror different facets of the Infinite (Ibid., 142 ) (28..) Indian religion placed four necessities
before human life:
a) First, it imposed upon the mind a belief in a highest consciousness or state of
existence universal or transcendent of the universe.
b) Next, it laid upon the individual life the need of self-preparation by development and
experience till man is ready for an effort to grow consciously into the truth of this greater
existence.
c) Thirdly, it provided it with a well-founded, well-explored, and always enlarging way of
knowledge and of spiritual or religious discipline.
d) Lastly, a framework of personal or social discipline and conduct, of mental and
moral and vital development by which they could move each in his own limits in such a way as to
become eventually ready for the greater existence (Ibid., 142-3) (29.)

In CONCLUSION
Man, the mental being, has an imperfect life because mind is NOT the first and highest power of
consciousness of the Being; even if mind were perfect, there would be still something yet to be
realized, not yet manifested. For what is involved and emergent is not a Mind, but a Spirit. . . .
All spiritual life is in its principle a growth into divine living. It is difficult to fix the frontier where the
mental cases and the divine life begins, for the two project into each other and there is a long
space of their intermingled existence.. . . . As the mind and life become illumined with the
light of the Spirit, they put on or reflect something of the divinity, the secret greater
Reality. There can undoubtedly be a spiritual life within, a kingdom of heaven within us which is
not dependent on any outer manifestation or instrumentation or formula of external being. The
inner life has a supreme spiritual importance and the outer has a value only in so far as it
is expressive of the inner status (LD, 1056-7) (30.) THIS IS THE MESSAGE OF
PROTESTANISM

III. Maharishis Contributions: Being & Art of Living

Maharishi, founder of the Worldwide Transcendental Meditation Movement, has established
meditation centers in all major cities of the world. In 1957 he began to offer to the world the
quintessence of the ancient Vedic wisdom of the Himalayas. During ten world tours, he explained
to the people of over 100 nations that Being is a limitless ocean of life while the different aspect of
creation are the ripples and waves of this vast ocean of eternal Being. Maharishis
Transcendental Meditation enables any individual life-experience to contact this field of Pure
Being (SBAL, xi) (31.)
REMARK. On our assessment, his philosophy in the famous masterpiece Science of Being and
Art of Living reveals the reverberations of awakened mind of both great thinkers in our age:
first with Heideggers fundamental theory of Being in Being and Time, and second, with
Radakrisnans art of living outlined in An Idealist View of Life, such as ascribed to the lives of
heroes like Buddha and Christ which are not merely truthful and austere but beautiful beyond
all dream (IVL, 157) (32.)

1. Being and Life

The field of Being or absolute existence was for many centuries considered in terms of mysticism.
The present scientific age hesitates to assign value to anything shrouded in the garb of
mysticism, and that is why to the study of Being, the absolute field of creation, has not been a
part of any branch of science until now (SBAL, xlii) (33.)

48

Being is Life. It is existence. To be is to live, to exist. Being or existence finds expression in

the different aspect of living: living, speaking, doing, experiencing, feeling. All aspects of life have
their basis in Being. Life expresses itself in different modes of living. That which is lived is the
expression of life.
Existence, life, or Being is the manifested reality of all that exists, lives or is, Being is the ultimate
reality of all that was, is, or will be. It is eternal and unbounded, the basis of all the phenomenal
existence of the cosmic life. It is the source of all time, space, and causation.
Experience shows that Being is bliss consciousness, the source of all thinking, of all existing
creation. The conscious mind reaches the state of pure consciousness which is the source of all
thinking. Without the knowledge of the foundation of life, life is like a building without a
foundation.. All relative life without the conscious basis of Being is like a ship without a rudder,
ever at the mercy of the tossing sea. Thus, Being is that which is the basis of life, give it meaning,
and makes it fruitful. Being is the living presence of God, the reality of life. It is eternal truth.
It is the absolute in eternal freedom (SBAL, 21-2) (34.) And in metaphorical language,
Being is a limitless ocean of life, out the realm of time, space and causation, while the
different aspects of creation are the ripples and waves of this vast ocean of eternal Being
(Ibid., xi) ?(35.)

2. Being, Prana and Mind

Prana is the expression of manifesting Being. It is the tendency of the manifested to manifest. It
can be said to be the impulse of abstract of absolute Being. Being is the absolute existence of
unmanifested nature. It tendency to vibrate and manifest is referred to as prana. Being vibrates
by virtue of Prana and manifests. Assuming a subjective nature. Being becomes mind;
assuming a objective nature, It becomes matter.
Remaining innocent, It serves as a link between the subject and the object, creating the subjectobject relationship and making possible the start of the multiple creation for the eternal one divine
Being to have Its play in the field of the great variety of life.
Thus we find that Prana is the power of Being which is latent in its unmanifested state and comes
into play in the process of manifestation when Being assumes the role of the of the subjective and
objective creation.
The reality of duality is unity. Even though different in their characteristics, absolute Being and
relative creation together form one reality. The whole process of what we understand as creation
and evolution is just the state of Being in the Prana, and the change belongs to the very nature of
Beingness. Creativity lies in the nature of absolute Being, creation of Its play, and evolution is Its
expansion in Its Beingness. Being remains Being and the creation come s to be. Prana can just
be said to be he nature of Being, the motivating force of creation; it is the basic force of the
mind (Ibid., 35-6) (36.)
Mind is a wave of the Ocean of Being. Unmanifested absolute Being, stimulated by its own
nature, prana, appears as mind, as an ocean stimulated by the wind appears as a wave. Karma
acts as the force of wind to produce a wave of the mind in the ocean of unmanifested Being. To
sum up, it may be said that prana, supplemented by the influence of karma, is the mind (Ibid., 37)
(37.)
The human mind naturally tries to understand the ultimate reality and to stand at the shore of the
limitless ocean of wisdom of the absolute. In it attempt to fathom the unfathomable and
understand the transcendent it takes the course of understanding the finer fields of creation in
the hope that if and when the finest stratum of creation is understood, it will then be possible to
understand the real nature of the ultimate supreme (Ibid., 39) (38.)

3. The Art of Living

49

Art implies a graceful and skillful method of accomplishment. The art of living enables a man to
live full value of life, accomplish the maximum in the world, and at the same time, live a life of
eternal freedom inn God consciousness. The art of living is the art of letting the life stream flow in
such a manner that every aspect of living is supplemented with intelligence, power, creativity, and
the magnificence of the whole life. As the art of making a flower arrangement is to glorify every
flower by the beauty and glory of every other flower, in the similar way the art living is such that
every aspect of life is supplemented by the glories of every other aspect. It is in this way that the
transcendental aspect of life supplements the subjective and objective aspects of existence so
that the entire range of subjectivity and objectivity enjoys the absolute strength, intelligence, bliss,
and creativity of eternal Being.
When the power of absolute supplements all aspects of subjectivity, the ego is full, the intellect is
profound, sharp, and one-pointed, the mind is concentrated and powerful, thought force is great,
and the senses are fully alert. When the ego, intellectual, mind and senses are fully
supplemented by absolute Being, experience is more profound, activity is powerful, and at the
same time, the intellect, ego, mind, and senses are useful in all spheres of life, in all spheres of
action and experience in the individual life in society and the entire cosmos (Ibid., 77) (39..)
The art of life demand that the mind cultivate within itself the eternal state of absolute Being. For
without constant and continuous infusion of the absolute into the very nature of the mind, the
mind can never be all-comprehensive and powerful. Thus, the art of living demands that, for
life to be lived in all its values, the subjective aspect of life be infused with the power of
Being. Then only will it be possible to make use of ones full potential for glorification of all
aspects of life (Ibid., 78-9) (40..)

_________

Notes
I. VIVEKANANDA
1. Vivekananda, What Religion Is, (WRI), 1962, The Julian Press, Inc. Publishers, New
York, Cf. Praize on front flag..
2. WRI, xxi.
3. WRI, xi.
4. WRI, xi.
5. Vivekananda, Living at The Source (LS), 1993, Sambala, Boston & London, xxii.
6. LS, xxii.
7. LS, xxiii.
8. LS, 3.
9. LS, 3.
10. WRI, 3
11. WRI, 16-7
12. LS, 6.
13. LS, 26.
14. LS, 27.
15. LS, 34.
16. LS, 52.
17. LS, 53.
18. WRI, back flag.
19. Ibid.
50

.
II.. AUROBINDO
20.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.

WRI, front flag

LW, 621-2.
CPs, 600.
CPs, 600-1.
FIC, 179-80.
FIC, 182.
FIC, 184-5.
FIC, 142.
FIC, 142-3.
Aurobindo, The Life Divine (LD), 1940, Publisher: Lotus Press, PO Box 325, USA,
1056-7.

III.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.

MAHARISHI
Maharishi, Science of Being and Art of Living (SBAL), 1995, A Meridian Book, xi.
IBAL, 157.
SBAL, xlii.
SBAL, 21-2.
SBAL, xi.
SBAL, 35-6.
SBAL, 37.
SBAL, 39.
SBAL, 77.
SBAL, 78-9.
_________________

51

PART I
______________________________________________________
CHAPTER 1 PART A--------- I AM COMPLETELY LOST. I CANNOT
FOLLOW HEIDEGGER AT ALL. PERHAPS YOU CAN SIMPLIFY?
ONCE WE GET TO PART B, I AM BACK ON SOLID GROUND BUT PART
A IS WAY BEYOND MY UNDERSTANDING. I STRUGGLED FOR DAYS
AND GAVE UP. YOU ARE INDEED A PROFOUNDLY GIFTED
INTELLECTUAL THINKER TO BE PUTTING FORTH THIS LEVEL OF
PHILOSOPHY.

THE COMBINING FORM

OF

SCIENCE, MYSTICISM, CULTURE

SPIRITUAL ECHO & PLAYING-FORTH
REVERBERATION in SPIRITUAL LIFE

52

CHAPTER I
_____________________________________________________________

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

MEDITATIVE THINKING
MODERN STRUCTURE of THNKING
___________

PREAMBLE
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
C. G. Jung: Spiritual Life & Collective Unconscious
M. Heideggers Message on Awakened Mind
I. C. G. Jung. Spiritual Life: Echoes of Collective Unconscious [Archetype]
The answer to the question What is The Spiritual Life? if deeply understood,
according to the symbolist M. Lingss words, has been known to change altogether a
mans life. (SA, vii) (1) that is, to come back to the Present Past with C. G. Jung as in
the Dream with numberless interconnections to which one can find parallels only in
mythological associations of ideas. (C. G. JUNG, 152) (2) These mythological
components, products from prehistoric world, are considered as types, or primordial
images, and Jung calls them archetypes. According to Jungs account,

53

The archetypes appear as involuntary manifestations of unconscious process

whose existence and meaning can only be inferred, whereas the myth deals with
traditional forms of incalculable age. They hark back to a prehistoric world
whose spiritual preoccupations and general conditions we can still observe today
among existing primitives. Myths on this level are as a rule of tribal history
handed down from generation to generation by words of mouth. . . . The
primitive cannot assert that he thinks. The spontaneity of the act of thinking does
not lie in his conscious mind, but in his unconscious. (Ibid.,153) (3)
The spiritual preoccupations of the unconscious and its archetypes as fantasyimages or metaphors intrude everywhere into the conscious mind corresponding to
certain collective structural elements of the human psyche in general, which constitute
the existence of a collective psychic substratum as collective unconscious. Hence
we, human beings, are obliged to assume the existence of these spiritual preoccupations
as Echo of our Spiritual life, in order to connect the life of the past that still exists in
us with the life of the present, which threatens to sleep away from it. (Ibid., 157) (4)
In the end, as J. Sallis assesses, echo is nothing but the words of others, a voice that
is the death of the living voice, such as Echo that has come from to sing and to play the
pipe and the lute with a nymph. (E, 2) (5) Echo that sounded not only in the mysterious
woods and deep oceans but also the celestial voices through the angelic mountains, such
as Himalaya in India. In other words, echo awakens the dormant consciousness from
unconsciousness, and still sounds even if its words are no longer really its own,( . . . ,) it
continues to echo, to ring out into that open enclosure that Heidegger called clearing.
(E, 34) (6) In us consciousness is Mind which is imperfect, so constantly has to be
waiting a Superconsciousness as Cosmic self-luminous Spirit of inner life a Perfect
Spiritual Reality of our lifes significance as Divine Life, which regulates the perfect
harmonization between inner and outer life. (LD, 1054) (7) . . . . And perhaps this is
one encountered echo of singularity in the emerging domain of religious Revelation. . .
.
REMARK. Singularity = A postulated time in the future when technological progress
and other aspects of human evolutionary development become so rapid that
nothing beyond that point can be reliably conceived. (Futuring, Glossary)

II. Heideggers Message on Reverberation of Awakened Mind

Martin Heideggers thought is controversial. Some judge him to be one of the
greatest, if not the greatest, twentieth-century philosopher. Others find his thinking
mystifying and even exacerbating . . . . However, in September of 1966, [the same time
about the foundation of the World Future Society,] Heidegger gave an interview to the
magazine Der Spiegel, and he said:
For us today, is the greatness of what to be thought is too great. Perhaps the
best we can do is the strive to break a passage through it along narrow paths
that do not stretch too far [Seehan, 61] (On H, 1) (8)
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In this interview, on Johnsons assessment, Heideggers self-evaluation seems more

modest. "[He] understand his task as following a pathway in the hope that it will
provide direction for him and others." (Ibid., 2) (9) Consequently, Heideggers life can
be described as a winding pathway, full of turns and forks. At each fork in the way a
new reverberation of wawakened mind on the path resonates ahead. If Heideggers
thought is best understood as a call, it is only a provoking thought in the Illuminating
Horizon of Time as Echo for another new historical beginning as Playing-forth.
In Gadamers words, Heidegger is a nothing an electrifying thinker. As his former
student, Gadamer remembers:
He demonstrated a well-integrated spiritual energy of a revolutionary thinker
who himself visibly shrank from the boldness of his increasingly radical questions
and who was so filled with the passion of his thinking that he conveyed to his
listeners a fascination that was not to be broken. () ? (10)
Lowith, another distinguished student of Heidegger, provides a similar account:
We nicknamed Heidegger the little magician from Messkirch . . . His lecturing
method consisted in constructing an edifice ideas, which he himself then
dismantled again so as to baffle fascinated listeners, only to leave them up in the
air. (HEIDEGGER, 19-20) (11)

1. Echo and Playing-forth are the soil and field for Inceptual thinking
a) Unsystematic Thinking and Two Hermeneutic Foresights
For Heidegger, thinking [as enowning and historical enthinking] that stands outside
the domain corresponding to the determination of truth as certainty is therefore
essentially without system, unsystematic. (CP, 45) So, in his turn (Kehre) Heidegger
II through his second famous master-piece Contributions to Philosophy cultivates a way
of thinking that tries to escape rigid distinctions between passivity and activity, subject
and object thought, between phenomenon and noumenon. Such thinking suggests
various names initiating a New Pathway of Thinking for the Future (CP, 3) as a
spiritual current which flows in the New Horizon of our modern world that the Futurist
Ed. Cornish assesses as Hyperchange World, or Mega-event of our Age. (Futuring, 9,
11) According to F.-W. Hermann, Heidegger in his Contributions, for the first time,
deals with enowning by opening two hermeneutic foresights:
The first is the challenge to forego dealing with enowning by opening the
pasthway of inquiry of being-historical or enowninghistorical thinking.
(CHCP, 105)
The second hermeneutic foresight is that enowninghistorical thinking
originates from within the fundamental-ontological thinking of the question of
55

Being (CHCP, 105) because of the transformation of fundamentalontological thinking: Being holds sway as enowning, (CP, 22)
b) Meaning of Enowning
But, first of all, what is the meaning of en-own-ing as swaying ? Accordig to R.
Polts explanation: Enowning is the translation of the German word Ereignis that
ordinarily means event. It is connected to eigen (ones own,) and to eigentlitch
(authentic.) Heideggers use of the term calls on both of these connections. And he
asserts:
Whatever the content of Being may be, Appropriating (Ereignis) is Beings own
way of happening, of giving itself to us . . . Ordinarily Ereignis used as just as
we use the word event but Heidegger wants to hear an echo of the adjective
eigen, (own), which is the root of the words such as Eigenschaft (property),
and even eigentlich (authentic). (R. Polt, Heidegger, 146) (12)
So, Enowning (Ereignis) has the meaning of event of appropriation which shows us
that we make things our own through enownment process as autopoesis swaying. P. A.
Johnson interprets the meaning of this term in his metaphorical language, which gives
some illustration of what Heidegger is trying to express in his Contributions:
A still lake reflects the sky and clouds, the mountain at its shore, and our face as
we look into the water. If the clouds block the sun, or we ripple the water, the
reflection is broken, but the play continues. . . . Ereignis is an event of
appropriation and disclosing where we are as much appropriated as
appropriators. We are gathered into a situation where we belong together with
what is present with us. We disclose the world like the mirroring of the lack. We
reflect things in the context of the light that is available. (H intr., 67-8) (14)
c) Different Ways of Thinking
And with regard to the New pathway thinking for the Future, we can enumerate the
following different ways as follows:
(i) Underway thinking through which the domain of Beings essential swaying
completely hidden up to now is gone through and attained in its ownmost
enowning-character of Being-historical-thinking. (CP, 3)
(ii) Enowning-hisorical thinking indicates the free sheltering of the truth of
Being as Essential swaying of Being itself. Enowning-historical thinking itself
belongs to the historical essential swaying of the truth of Being as enowning
because this thinking is itself enowned by enowning. (CHCP, 106)
(iii) Enthinking translated from the German word Er-denken that means to
think something up, to invent it. So for Heidegger, Enthinking is a
happening that belongs inextricably to the happening of enowning itself because
enthinking is a crucial instance of the emergence and flourishing of meaning,
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that is what the word enowning indicates. This implies that enthinking is not
just about enowning but is enowning. In order to understand the characteristic of
enthinking, we must engage in enthingking and thus allow enthinking and
enowning to elucidate themselve. CHCP, 81-2)
4) Inceptual thinking is enthinking of the truth of Being and thus engrounding of
the ground. By resting on the ground, this thinking first of all manifests its
grounding, gathering, and holding power. For this reason inceptual thinking is
necessary as an encounter between the first beginning which still needs to be
won back, and the other beginning which is still to be unfolded. The beginning
is Being itself as enowning, the hidden reign of the origin of the truth of beings
as such. And Being as enowning is the beginning.
5) Inceptual thinking:
lets Being tower into beings, within he reticent saying of the grasping
Word, [that iis, building on this mountain range.]
prepares for this building by preparing for the other beginning (CP,
40-1)
Inceptual thinking as the opening for the crossing of historical thinking
unfolds outside the question of whether a system belongs to it or not.
(CP, 45)
And it must be pointed out emphatically that
Echo and Playing-forth are the soil and field for inceptual thinkings first
leaping off for leaping into the essential swaying of Being. (CP, 57)
REMARKS 1) Inceptual thinking is the originary enactment of the onefold of echo, playing-forth,
leap, and grounding. Enactment here wants to say that these echo, playing-forth, leap,
leap, and grounding, in their onefold are taken over and sustained in each case only in
human term [the occurrence of Da-sein (human-being as suchness,) my emphasis.]
2) In-graping here is never a comprehensive grasping in the sense of a speciesoriented inclusiveness but rather the knowing awareness that comes out of in-abiding and
bring the intimacy of the turning into the sheltering that lights up. (CP, 44-5)

2. Sixfold-Structure
On Heideggers conception, instead of systematization we have to see it in the six
joinings as the Full Shaping of the Jointure, considered as constituents of a dynamic
self-organization in which these six joinings and Being referentially depend on the
turning and its concomitant projecting-opening. (CHCP, 233) The projecting-open, as
the grounding enopening of the free-play of time-space of the truth of Being, is the
crucial motive of the outline of Contributions to Philosophy with the six joinings as
constituents of sixfold structure. Every joining stands for itself, and yet there is a hidden
57

inter-resonating and an enopening grounding at the site of decision for the essential
crossing into the still possible [historical] transformation. (CP, 57)
1/ Echo carries far into what has been and what is to come hence in and through
the playing-forth its striking power on the present. (Ibid.)
2/ Playing-forth receives its necessity primarily from the echo of the distress of the
abandonment of being. Playing-forth shows how there is interplay (Ibid.)
for the Crossing of other beginning.
3/ The Leap first of all opens up the ungone expanses and concealments of that into
which belongs to the call of enowning, must press forth. (Ibid.)
4/ Grounding sets up ground for all events, for the fact that beings are. The
originary grounding of the ground is the essential swaying of the truth of Being
(CP, 216)
5/ The Ones to Come, i.e., those who withstand the thrust of Being and receive the
hint of the Last God (as the last end enouncing for the other beginning.) The
Ones to Come as inabiding in Dasein with a threefold structure [being-enowned,
projecting, and disclosing.] They are called the Ones to come because they
experience the enowningcall of Being (the enowning throw) as that comes
towards them (CHCP, 120)
6/ The Last God [not from the Divine-character of God but a being as such] is
the one which both shows itself and withdraws from within the truth of Being.
The last is not the ceasing, but the deepest beginning, which reaches out the
furthest and catches up with itself with the greatest of difficulty (CP, 285)
The Last God is not the end but the other beginning [ as it resonates unto and
in itself] of immeasurable possibilities for our history (CP, 288-9)

3. Jointure Instead of System

In Contributions to Philosophy, Heidegger enacts a questioning about a pathway in the
age of crossing from Metaphysics to Being-historical thinking as the other beginning.
Being-historical thinking is a thinking that is enowned by being in its historical
unfolding (CP, xv) Consequently, it is a question of rethinking Being-historically the
whole of human being for the world-forming as crossing into the openness of history
towards the pathway as Futurity to constitute historical humanity as historicity.
History is understood as the clearing sheltering of being as such (CP, 43) However,
in the enactment of this visionary prospect always remains only an intimation, though
already decisive (CP, 3) Heidegger assesses himself in the Preface of his second most
important work after Being and Time:

58

Thus, even though the Contributions in Philosophy always and only say Beings
essential sway as enowning, still they are not yet able to join the free jointure of
the truth of Being out of Being itself. If this ever succeeds, then the enquiring of
Beings essential sway will determine the jointure of the work of thinking. This
enquivering then grows, becoming the power of a gentle release into the intimacy
to the godding of the god of gods, from out of which Daseins allotment to Being
comes into its own, as grounding truth for Being (CP, 3-4)
On the other hand, although history is always already its not-yet as long as it is,
although our salvation depends on the sheltering-abiding-sway (enowning) of
illuminating human being in the horizon of a mystical emptiness of the abyss-future, it is
impossible to foresee what is ahead (44?) (35) How do we enact if we do not know the
mandate of our historicity ?
A thinking that stands outside this domain and outside of the corresponding
determination of truth as certainty is therefore essentially without system, ansystematic; but it is not therefore arbitrary and chaotic. Unsystematic would then
merely mean something like chaotic. Un-systematic would then merely mean
something like chaotic and disordered, if measured against system.
Inceptual thinking is the other beginning has a rigor of another kind: the freedom
of joining its jointure. Here the one is to the other according to the mastery of the
questioning-belonging to the call. (CP, 45)
At the cross-roads: The time of system is over, [t]he time of rebuilding is not
arrived, in the meantime, on Heideggers account:
[I]n crossing to an another beginning, philosophy has to have achieved one
crucial thing: projecting open, i.e., the grounding opening of the free-play of the
time-space of the truth of Being. [However,] how is this one thing to be
accomplished ? (Ibid., 4)
Heidegger distinguishes jointure from system as the structure of modern thinking of
reason. Each of the six joinings represents a specific domain of the swaying of Enowning
and is determined from within the enjoined whole. He speaks of Being in the joining of
the jointure as follows:
Each of the six joinings of the jointure stands for itself, but only in order to make
the essential onefold more pressing. In each of the six joinings the attempt is
made always to say the same of the same, but in each case from within another
essential domain of that which enowning names. (CP, 57)
To sum up, F.-W. Herrmann gives his assessment:
Each of the six joinings, when held against any other joining, is the specific
domain of the swaying of enowning. The same [not the identical] is that manner
of swaying of enowning which is the peculiar to each joining and belongs
59

uniquely to it. To say in each joining the same of the same thus means always to
unfold in thinking, a manner of swaying of enowning. (CHCP, 113)

III. Primary Role of Echo & Playing-forth: Inceptual Thinking & History
1. ECHO
In Contributions, Heidegger attempts to think the question of the truth of Being out of
its originary grounding in the time of crossing from Metaphysics into another beginning
with the abandonment of being. Abandonment of being means that Being abandons
beings and leaves beings to themselves and thus lets beings become objects of machination. (CP, 7) Because the thinking emerges in a historical transition, Heidegger calls a
Being-historical thinking (CP, 3) Hence Being-historical thinking as the thinking of the
transition would think what gives itself to be thought in this passage as crossing with
enthinking in the other beginning as echoing resonance. In general,
Echo must encompass the whole of the rift and above all be articulated as the
mirroring of Playing-forth. (CP, 75)
a) Echo of Essential Swaying of Being out of the Abandonment of being
Echo resonates in the essential swaying of Being out of the abandonment of Being.
Being Echo is heard in how Being has abandoned beings and in how human has forgetten
Being as enowning. Echo must encompass the whole of the rift and above all be
articulated as the mirroring of playing-forth (CP, 75)
Accordingly, echo shows itself as the first essential domain of enowning with
its encounter-resonating structure (CHCP, 114) Echo is that domain of swaying
of enowning wherein enowning resonates, but in the manner of dis-enowning,
which leads into the possibility of enowning. (Ibid., 115)
With the unfolding of the forgottenness of Being in which the other beginning
and thus also Being resonates the echo must resonate and commence from
within the abandonment of Being, (CP, 80)
b) Echo as echoing resonance for the crossing
It is designed to prepare for the crossing and is drawn from the still unmastered
ground plan of the historicity of the crossing itself. (CP, 5) The echo [as not granting]
shows itself as the first essential domain of enowning-throw with its counter-resonating
structure for the other beginning.
Here in Echo what shows itself in its refusal is the open swaying of the truth of
Being as enowning a truth to which refusal belongs as the origin of all clearing
and unconcealing of Being. But the echo of the truth of being as a self-refusing
truth is itself a manner of ennowning by which enowning refuses itself in its open
manner of swaying. (CHCP, 114)

60

Echo, according J. Sallis, bespeaks casting. Also doubling (Echoes, 1) (13)

Echo-voice cast out across a space in anywhere and anything, only to be returned, almost
as if from others, doubled indefinitely.
Echos speech was limited to merely repeating what someone else had just said. It
was as though her voice were no longer her own, as though it were taken over by
the words of other, expropriated. . . . In the end she is nothing but the words of
others, a voice that is the dead of the living voice. (Ibid., 2)
Echoes sounded from a cavern, a temple in the woods, in the mountains with
figurative historical archetypes, from the Pearly Gate of mythological life, singing and
playing the pipe and the lute with the nymphs in the Celestial dancing.
Daughter of a nymph, she had been taught by the Muses and, once she had
ground up, she had come to sing with them and to dance with the nymphs (Ibid.,3)
Besides, in the cultural domain, the poetic language as symbol or metaphor would
echo what sounds forth in a poem, or blossoms in the sky. . . . Thus if Being needs man
in order to hold sway (CP, 177) as swaying-enowning, then echo needs poetic language
in man, which makes up Being as counter-resonance the most fleeting thing
through the enactment of projecting open for the truth of Being in the crossing as
inceptual historical thinking.

2. PLAYING-FORTH
If abandonment by and forgottenness of being are inceptually grasped as resonance in
the domain of enowing called Echo, being-historical thinking must pass over the second
pathway of swaying-enowning as Playing-forth.
Coming from the resonance of Echo as swaying-enowning, Playing-forth is a first
foray into the crossing, a bridge that swings out to the shore that must first be decided
() As in itself a transformation-initiating preparation for the other beginning, playingforth into enowning-historical thinking discloses the resonating of oriented truth of
swaying-enowning historical-being relating to the leap for the other beginning. In
Preview, Heidegger writes:
The playing-forth is initially the playing forth of the forth beginning, so that the
first beginning brings the other beginning into play, so that, according to this
mutual playing forth, preparation for the leap grows. (CP, 7)
a) Playing-forth means coming to grips with the necessity of the other beginning
from out of the originary positionary of the first beginning. (CP, 119) Playing-forth
shows how there is interplay of the first and the other beginning and how an other
beginning emerges and shines forth from within the first beginning.

61

Coming from the echo of the truth of Being, which refuses an open swaying, the
history of the metaphysical inquiry into beingness of beings as history of the first
beginning plays forth into enowning-historical thinking, thus constituting the
domain of swaying called Playing-forth. In this playing-forth the resonating
truth of Being is in play as the swaying of the other beginning. (CHCP, 115-6)
b) Playing-forth is Projecting-open grasped as the Historical Beginning
What is projecting-opening into Being is more originary truth, which transforms
Being (CP, 119) What is more originary points to the essential sway of truth as the
sheltering that lights up (CP, 132) The truth of Being is the essential swayingenowning of truth as the sheltering that lights up, the happening of the turning point as
projecting-open [Phusis] under Inceptual Thinking. Inceptual thinking is enthinking of
the truth of Being (?) (60,) and thus engrounding of the ground for the first beginning as
projecting-open. For this reason, Inceptual Thinking is grasped as the Historical
Beginning. In sum,
Inceptual thinking is necessary as an encounter between the first beginning
and the other beginning. . . . Grasped inceptually, the beginning is Being itself.
The beginning is the Being itself as enowning, the hidden reign of the origin of
the truth of beings as such. And Being is the beginning.
Inceptual thinking:
(i) lets Being tower into beings, within the reticent saying of the grasping
word.
(ii) prepares for this building by preparing for the other beginning.
(iii) commences the other beginning by putting the first beginning in proper
perspective as it is more originarily retrieved.
Inceptual thinking is masterful knowing. Whoever wants to go very far back
[into the first beginning] must think ahead to and carry out a great future.
(CP, 41)
For Heidegger, Inceptual Thinking, as the originary enactment of the onefold of echo
and playing-forth which is grasped here, is Being in the joining of those jointures for
the first beginning into Historical-Beginning. This stimulates a thinking that stands
outside of determination of truth as systematical certainty, that is, standing without
system, un-systematic; but it is not therefore arbitrary and chaotic.
Inceptual thinking in the other beginning has a rigor of another kind: the freedom
of joining of its jointure. The rigor of reservedness is other than the exactitude
of a reasoning a reasoning whose result are equally valid for every man
and compelling to for such certainty-claims.
The basic principle of inceptual thinking is thus twofold: Everything of the
ownmost is essentially swaying. All essential swaying is determined according to
what is ownmost in the sense of what is originary and unique. (CP, 45-6)

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In the crossing as pathway of Playing-forth as thrown projecting-opening for

another beginning, the shelteredness of the inceptual thinking is preserved. Because every
explaining never reaches the beginning, every attempt to explaining is to be avoided.
What is left unasked sheltered and conceals itself as such and allows for inceptual
thinking only the uncanniness of rising of constant presencing in the openness
of beings themselves to make up the essential swaying. Without being grasped
as such, essential swaying is presencing. . . .
But what is more originary points to the essential sway of truth as the sheltering
that lights up. The truth of Being is nothing less than the essential sway of truth
grasped and grounded as the sheltering that light up, the happening of the
turning point in the turning as the self-opening mid-point. (CP, 132)
To sum up, in future thinking as Underway thinking, Historical enthinking as Beinghistorical thinking through the relational context of enownng historicity as historical
autopesis-essentialization of transhumanity in its auto-shapping futurity as destiny
comes to itself in light as opening-projecting Historical-Being on the Transcendental
Illuminating-Horizon of Time without either any dialectical principle in Spiritual
Idealism, or any historico-dialectical law in Materialistic Historicism.
This is itself obviously evident because there isnt causality in the Universe as
foundation without foundation (Abground,) so no dialectical law in the phenomenal
Form / Empty World such as our terrestrial world. Besides, in scientific point of view,
Brian Goodwin, argues :
In the new biology, what you get is evolution is dance. It has no goal. As
Stephen J. Gould says, it has no purpose, no progress, no sense of direction. Its
a dance through morphospace, the space of organisms (TC, 6) (15)
There is no progress in evolution. The fact of evolutionary change through time,
doesnt represent progress as we know it. Progress is inevitable. Much of
evolution is downward in terms of morphological complexity, rather than
upward. We were not marching toward some great thing. (TC, 51) (16)
In the complex systems chaos dominates; so, according to Stuart Kauffman, the
enormous puzzle:
In order for life to have involved, it cant possibly be the case that trajectories
are always diverging. Biological systems can work if divergence is all that s
going on. [W]e have to ask what kinds of complex systems can accumulate useful
variation.
We discovered the fact that in the evolution life very complex systems can have
convergent flow and not divergent low. Divergent flow is sensitivity to initial
conditions. Convergent flow means that even different starting places that are far
apart come closer together. Thats the fundamental principle of homeostasis , or
stability to perturbation, and its a natural feature of many complex system.
Complex systems have involved which may have learned to balance divergence
and convergence, so that they re poised between chaos and order. . . . In this
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sense that when complex systems coevolves, each sets the conditions of success
for the others so that complex coevolving systems mutually get themselves to
edge of chaos, where theyre poised state. It may be right too. (TC, 334-5) (17)
All the above arguments are the consequences of the Bells theorem The whole
determines the elements and the Heisenbergs Uncertainty principle with the
probabilities of interconnections (Quantum Physics.) So the economics cant decide the
historical processes as the hand cant create the mind, . . . Consider Capras assessment:
Quantum theory thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we
cannot decompose the world into independently existing small units. As we
penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated basic building
blocs, but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various
parts of the whole. (TP, 68) (18)

* * * * *

CHAPTER II

___________________________________________

ECHOES & PLAYING-FORTH

Living & Dreaming at The Source

_____
A.ECHOES
THE MILLENNIUM PERSONNALITIES

Einstein and Buddha

One of the great challenges of our time is to unite Reason with
the Human Heart, cognition with compassion, science and
spirituality, and here we have the ground works (1a.)
W. Nisker
In future centuries, people may look era a second scientific
revolution: the duality of Science versus Religion was revealed to be an illusion (1b)
J. McFarlane

I. Spirituality and Science

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1. Eastern Mysticism & Religion

According to Sri Aurobindo, the difference between Eastern and western culture springs
from the spiritual aim of civilization as a stamp of striking originality and solidarity
GREATNESS as the governing force of this culture, its core of thought, its ruling
passion (FIC, 139 ) (2.)Consequently, for the Eastern thinkers, specially religious
intellectuals:
All the highest eternal verities are truths of the spirit. The supreme are neither
the rigid conclusions of logical reasoning nor the affirmations of creedal
statement, but fruits of the souls inner experience. Intellectual truth is only one
of the doors of the outer precincts of the temple. And since intellectual truth
turned towards the Infinite must be in its very nature many-side, the most
varying intellectual beliefs can be equally true because they mirror different
facets of the Infinite. However, separated by intellectual distance, they still form
so man side-entrances which admit he mind to some fain ray from a supreme sight
(FIC, 142) (3.)
a) Hinduism and Spiritual Life
The spiritual source of Eastern Mysticism lies in the Vedas written by anonymous sages
at different periods between 1500 and 500 BC. At last, the Upanishad elaborates the
philosophical and practical content of oldest parts of sacrificial rituals connected with
Vedic hymns which contain the essence of Hinduisms spiritual message. However,
according F. Capra:
The mass of the Indian people, have received the teaching of Hinduism not
through the Upanishads, but through a large number of popular tales, collected in
huge epics which are the basis of the vast and colourful Indian mythology. One
of those epics the beautiful spiritual poem of the of the Bhagavad Gita [dialog
between the God Krihna and the warrior Arjuna.] (TP, 86) (3.)
The Gita, in fact, is the dialog between the god Krishna and the warrior Arjuna who is, in
great despair, forced combat his own kinsman in the family war. Krishna, disguised as
Arjunas charioteer in the battlefield, and obviously the war between the two families
soon fa, and the battle of Arjuna is the spiritual battle of man, the battle of the warrior
in search of enlightenment as the following:
Kill therefore with the sword of wisdom the doubt born of ignorance that lies in
the heart. Be one in self-harmony, in Yoga, and arise, great warrior, arise (TP,
86-7) (4.)
The basis of Krishnas spiritual instruction , as of all Hinduism, is not merely the form of
a religio-social system, i.e., social discipline. The fundamental idea of Hinduism is
the idea that the multitude of things and events around us are the same ultimate reality, or

65

absolute unity of the soul in man with God or supreme Self as eternal Brahman, the
condition of Spiritual Perfection. (TP, 87 & FIC, 145) (5)
As only Brahman is real, only a consciousness or a power of Brahman could be a
real creature and a creator of realities. () (6)
The real which is at the heart of the universe is reflected in the infinite depths of
the self. Brahman (the ultimate as discovered objectively) is Atman (the ultimate
as discovered introspectively): Tat tvam asi = That art thou. Truth is within us.
The Upanisads set forth the distinction between Brahman in itself and Brahman in
the universe, the transcendent beyond manifestation and the transcendent in
manifestation, the Self pure and essential and the Self in the individual selves. (IP,
38) (7)
The manifestation of Brahman in the human soul is called Atman. All presentations of
beings, names, forms, happenings, things, impossible to be accepted as true, are called
Maya. Then,
Maya is not real, it is non-existent: Maya is itself an illusion. Maya is unreal,
Brahman is the sole trust, alone and self-existent for ever. (LD, 465) (8)
b) Buddhism
Buddhism has been for many centuries a religion of Eastern and Central Asia, founded by
Siddhartha Gautama, known as The Buddha who lived around the 6th century BC, at the
same extraordinary period with the birth of so many spiritual and philosophical
geniuses: Confucius and Lao Tzu in China, Zarathustra in Persia, Pythagoras and
Heraclitus in Greece.
The BUDDHA was not interested to the origin of the world, the mythological nature of
the Divine. He pointed out the origin of human frustrations and the way to overcome
them, taking up for this purpose the traditional concepts of maya, karma, nirvana, etc.,
and giving them a fresh, dynamic and directly relevant psychological interpretation.
(TP, 93) (9) Buddha means Awakened One or Enlightened One. Buddha began
his Path to Enlightenment as an ascetic following the Hindu tradition. (2) (EB, 17)
The Buddha takes up some of the thoughts of Upanishads and gives to them a new
orientation. The Buddha is not so much formulating a new scheme of
metaphysics and morals as rediscovering an old norm and adapting it to the
new conditions of thought and life. The Buddha postulates that life is a stream
of becoming. There is nothing permanent in the empirical[world. One thing is
dependent on another. All these forms change according to the law of Karma.
(IP, 272)(3) THIS IS FASCINATING.
In the words of Radhakrishnan:
A wonderful philosophy of dynamism was formulated by Buddha 2,500 years ago
. . . . Impressed with the transitoriness of objects, the ceaseless mutation and

66

transformation of things, Buddha formulated a philosophy of change, and adopts

a dynamic conception of reality. (4) (TP, 191)
His Four Noble Truths are that there is suffering, that it has a cause, that it can
be suppressed, and that there a way to accomplish this. All things pass away,
dreams and hopes, fears and desires. None can resist the universal supremacy
of death.
The cause of suffering is traced to ignorance and selfish craving. When we get
rid of ignorance and its practical consequence of selfishness, we attain Nirvana,
which is described negatively as freedom from ignorance, selfishness, and
suffering, and positively as the attainment of wisdom (prajna) and compassion
(karuna) (IP, 272.) (5) OH, IF ONLY-----------If there is nothing permanent in the empirical world, then we do not take our self as
reality when it is nothing but a bunch of perspectives: constructs, figments of our
imagination, and these perspectives are in constant flux. We are not born with beliefs
and ideas; we develop and cultivate them over time. (6) (PHB, 55) One of the first
discoveries of enlightened meditation-practice is that we hold many conditioned beliefs
and ideas as usually about ourselves and think who we are. So, we create our own
barriers to realizing our true Self. (PHB, 41) (7) Of course, we could decide to drop
all our ideas and to live without any fixed perspective. Then we can live freely, without
clinging to the illusion of the self. (PHB, 78-9.) (8) THIS IS SO TRUE
The Buddhas philosophical teaching is the Middle Way between opposite extremes, and
the eminent expounder of this doctrine is Nargarjuna, one the deepest thinkers among the
Buddhist patriarchs who used a highly sophisticated arguments to show the limitations of
all concepts of reality and thus demonstrated that reality, ultimately, cannot be grasped
with concepts and ideas. Hence, he gave it the name sunyata, [the void, or
emptiness,] a term which is equivalent to tathata or suchness that means the
oneness of the totality of all things, the great all-including whole (9) (TP, 131) So,
when the futility of all conceptual thinking is recognized, reality is experienced as pure
suchness (10) (TP,97.)
And according to F. Capras assessment :
Nagarjunas statement that the essential nature of reality is emptiness is just far
from being the nihilist statement for which it is often taken. It merely means that
all concept s about reality formed by human mind are ultimately void. Reality, or
Emptiness, itself is not a state of mere nothingness, but is the very source of all
life and the essence of all forms (11) (TP, 97.)
In fact, Sunyata or Emptiness is only a highly metaphorical expression on the way
centered on perfection of insight beyond dogma and dependency, the most direct way
to liberate oneself from the world on the direction towards intimate reality as pure
suchness, which discloses itself as sudden Enlightenment. Enlightenment means that
we have directly experienced our true intrinsic nature (12) (TP, 191) when we enter a
very personal meditation-space where we can find liberation as suchness, as perfect
67

insight which is insight into the source of everything, incessantly in motion. So for the
Buddhists, an enlightened being is one who does not resist the flow of life but keeps
moving with it. (13) (TP, 191) As an enlightened being, the Buddha, accepting the
world as it moves and changes, is always on the flowing way of life and is one who
comes and goes thus. Accordingly, Buddhists call the Buddha the Tathagata. (14)
(TP, 191)
On the other side, Albert Einstein whose Theory of Relativity revolutionized the
science of physics lived millennia apart, on opposite sides of the earth, used different
methods to understand and investigate the same nature of reality discovered by the
Buddha. (15) (EB, xi.) If the Buddha mentions the clinging to the illusion of the self,
as a bunch of perspectives, a construction of figments of our imagination, Einstein refers
to the delusion as a kind of prison for us:
A human being . . . experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something
separated from the rest a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. This
delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to
affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from
this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion to embrace
all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty (16) (EB, 26.) THIS IS
SUCH A WONDERFUL STATEMENT. I LOVE THIS. I LOVE THE WAY IT
IS CONVEYED.
According to Genpo Merzel,
Albert Einstein was a master of rational thought, but he never lost sight of the
mysterious and unfathomable. He had great insight into what it means to be
human. He said that for us to be fulfilled as human beings, we must first liberate
ourselves from the self
He was deeply concerned with human condition, social justices, and virtues
such as selflessness and devotion to higher ideals (17) (PHB, 50)
Generally speaking, from an overview of world culture it might seem as though the Earth
was divided according to the two hemispheres of the brain:
Asia was assigned the right hemisphere, and its great sages turn their attention
inward, seeking truth through intuition and receptive quietude
In Europe and the Mediterranean the left hemisphere the search for truth
turned outward, and become a process deconstructing and analyzing the world,
relying on the more aggressive powers of reason. (18) ()
However, in his famous work The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra gives his assessement:
The difference between Eastern and Western mysticism is that mystical schools
have always plays a marginal role of the West, whereas they constitute the
mainstream of Eastern philosophical and religious thought (19) (TP, 19.)
And he also remind in the words of Lama Govinda,
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An experience of higher dimensionality is achieved by integration of experiences

of different centers and levels of consciousness . . . .
The four-dimensional world of relativity theory is not the only example in modern
physics where seemingly contradictory and irreconcilable concepts are seen to be
nothing more than different aspects of the same reality. Perhaps the most famous
case of such a unification of contradictory concepts is that of the concepts of
particles and waves in atomic physics.
At the atomic level, matter has a dual aspect: it appears as particles and as
waves. Which aspect it shows depends on the situation. In some situations the
particle aspect is dominant, in others the particles behave more like waves; and
this dual nature is also exhibited by light and all other electromagnetic radiation.
. . . This dual aspect of matter and radiation is indeed most startling and gave
rise to many of the quantum koans which led to the formulation of quantum
theory (21) (TP, 151-2.)
To sum up, we think it is stimulating to repeat the following words of Robert
Oppenheimer quoted by Fritjof Capra and his interpretation:
If we ask , for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we
must say 'no' ; if we ask whether the electron 's position changes with time, we
must say 'no'; if we ask whether is at rest, we must say 'no' ; if we ask whether it
is in motion, we must say 'no'. (SCU, 42-3) ()
The reality of atomic physicist, like the reality of the Eastern mystic, transcends the
narrow framework of opposite concepts; Oppenheimer's words thus seem to echo the
words of the Upanishads,
It moves, It moves not.
It is far, and it is near.
It is within all this.
And it is outside of all this. (Isa Upanishad, 5)

II. Characterization of Cultural Paterns of Human [in East/ West tradition]

1. Physicists
In The Two Cultures of C. P. Snow (1959), John Brockman has noted that during the
1930s the literary intellectuals took to referring to themselves as "the intellectuals",
as though there were no others. This new definition by the 'men of letters', excluded
scientists such as the astronomer Edwin Hubble, the mathematician John von Neumann,
the cyberneticist Norbert Wiener, and the physicists Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and
Werner Heisenberg. . . . To sum up, in traditional culture, the literary intellectuals are not
communicating with physicists or scientists.
In recent decades, many Western scholars of truth and physicists of experimental science
have done extensive study in the Asian wisdom schools and have discovered that, like
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science, this other way of knowing involved a clearly proscribed and rigorous discipline.
Although it may sound contradictory, we are realizing that mystical can be learned. (22)
(EB, viii.)
First and foremost among them, Fritjof Capra turned his rational mind toward the
challenge of comprehending an essentially mystic experience, which he describes in his
1976 book, The Tao of Physics:
Sitting by the ocean one afternoon, watching the waves wash against the shore,
the California-based physicist realized that the vibrating molecules and atoms
composing the scene around him of a cosmic dance of energy. I felt its rhythm
and I heard its sound, he recalls, and at then moment I knew that this was the
Dance of Shiva, the Lord of Dancers worshipped by the Hindus. (23) () ?
In this master work, Capra explores the parallels between the underlying concepts of
the paradoxes of modern physics which seems to have been anticipated in the paradoxes
of mysticism and the basic ideas behind the various forms of Eastern mysticism which
relates the world view emerging from the mystical traditional ideas of Hinduism,
Buddhism, Taoism, Zen and the I Ching. (Sambalas comments) (24) He writes :
The most important characteristic of the Eastern world view is the awareness of
the unity and mutual interrelation of all things and events, the experience of all
phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness. All things are seen
as interdependent and inseparable parts of cosmic whole; as different
manifestations of the same ultimate reality. It is called Brahman in Hinduism,
Tao in Taoism, Tathata or Suchness in Buddhism. The basic oneness of the
universe is not only the central characteristic of the mystical experience, but is
also one of the most important revelations of modern physics. (TP, 130-1) (25)
In Eastern mysticism, this universal interwovenness always includes the human observer
and his or her consciousness, and this is also true in atomic physics. At the atomic
level,objects can only be understood in terms of the interaction between the processes
of preparation and measurement. The end of this chain of processes lies always in the
consciousness of the human observer. Measurements are interactions which creates
sensations in our consciousness for example , the visual sensation of a flash of light,
or of a dark spot on a photographic plate and the laws of atomic physics tell us with
what probability an atomic object will give rise to a certain sensation if we let it interact
with us. Natural science, says Heisenberg, does not simply describe and explain
nature; it is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves. (Ibid., 140) (26) THIS
IS REALLY THE THEME OF YOUR WORK, IS IT NOT? I SEE THIS AS A
RECURRENT THEME THROUGHOUT.
2. The Mysticis
A number of Western Buddhist teachers have even described the path of meditation as a
form of scientific investigation. Although people will have different conception

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frameworks and therefore different ways to express what they see in meditation, their
insights often involve descriptions of reality or the laws of nature.
Through meditation, people can realize that mind is a co-creator of the world, all
phenomena are connected in a web of relationship similar to what is described in
complex theory; that every perspective is relative to the observer; that energy comes
in quanta; that all things are in process and there is no solidity anywhere. (27) Ibid.,
ix.) In Buddhism,Spirituality is not a merely interior reality or a mere escape from
ordinary existence. It does not presuppose any dualism between the spiritual realm and
that of the senses, or between a sacred dimension and the profane world. Rather:
.
It aims at cleaning the mind of impurities and disturbances, such as lustful
desires, hatred, ill-will, indolence worries and restlessness, skeptical doubts, and
cultivating such qualities as concentration, awareness, intelligence, will, energy,
the analytical faculty, confidence, joy, tranquility, leading finally to the
attainment of highest wisdom which sees the nature of things as they are, and
realizes the Ultimate Truth, Nirvana. (28.) ()
Its dangerous to believe that everything you do is perfect. Everything we do is in
harmony with the Buddha-dharma. We disregard dualistic views such as right
and wrong, good and bad. The law of cause and effect operates on the relative
level. In the absolute there is no cause and effect. Yet the absolute and the
relative are two sides of the same coin, and they cant be separated. If you screw
up in the relative world, the absolute wont save you (29) PHB, 161. )
In many aspects, modern physics leads us ever closer to the view of reality
embraced by ancient Asian philosophies. Science and religion are neither
entirely different nor entirely the same. Comparing the parallel sayings of
physics and mystics allows us to look beyond the antagonism a new era of
harmony and integration.
These parallel saying are provocative seed for contemplation of a reality beyond
the strictly physical or purely spiritual way of understanding. Where the sayings
show similarities, they reveal the unity amid the differences between science and
religion. Where they saw differences, they illuminate the profound nature of that
unity. Like Zen koans, they help loosen the minds grasp on simplistic views of
reality, opening to us a space where insight can dawn (30) Ibid., xii.)
In sum,
Both scientists and mystics investigate reality by refining their capacities to
observe extremely subtle phenomena far beyond the limits of ordinary perception.
Physics constructs elaborate measuring devices and uses mathematical symbols
to represent reality. The contemplative traditions cultivate special forms of
insight through meditation and other disciplines and use myth, art, poetry,
parable, and philosophy to represent reality.
Einstein and Buddha both sought to know the deepest truths about the same
reality, using many of the same investigative principles. Its no wonder they had
similar things to say about what they discovered. (31) (EB, xvi)
SO PROFOUND AND YET SO SIMPLE
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III. Cultural Message: Computer Challenge to Human Intelligence

For tens of thousands of years, human evolution was limited to the slow pace of genetic
evolution, which enable to take advantage of what we learn during our lifetimes. Save
for a rare mutation, the genes we pass along to our children are the same ones we
receive ourselves decades earlier. Cultural evolution is wonderfully faster, perhaps a
hundred times faster, because it allows much what we learn to be passed on and
combined with what others around us have learned via the medium of language. That is
why we can do so much more than our historical ancestors could, even though our brains
have not necessarily evolved at all in the interim.
The power of cultural evolution comes in part from its ability to pick out best-of-breed
techniques, but even more from its ability to make these good ideas together in novel
ways. People with different perspectives contribute their own individual bits of
understanding to the stew (32.) (AT, 5.) A new kind of parallel and evolutionary
computing has now emerged to connect to this world. This is the true electronic
computing revolution. By processing information adaptively, computers will open up
important new vitas for us in the social and life sciences. (33) (Ibid., 6)
One of the major tasks of futurists is to craft images of the future that are
multifaceted and compelling enough to give meaning to our daily decisions.
Distinctions between humans and machines will blur. When that actually
happens in the 21st century, we will have a world renaissance that could properly
be called the Conscious Technology Civilization.
The leading indicators of this post-Information Age are already with us. The
whole thrust of Cyborg advances is to take the best of our external technology,
miniaturize it, and then make it part of our bodies. Theres the Jarvik heart, the
Utah Arm, artificial kidneys, the Boston elbow, heart pacemakers, microelectronically driven limbs, intraocular eye lenses, the MIT knee, plastic skin,
artificial ears, blood vessels, and bones. The miniaturizing of technology for both
remedial purposes and the amplification of human capacity represents a strong
trend toward the cyborginzation of humanity. (FM, 1)(34)
[The futuring] will explore the many facets of Conscious Technology and the transitions
from today into the Post-Information Age [through] the interplay of six facets:
1/ First, it is the merger of the human body and technology. With advances in
bionics, we will gradually become cyborgs, who will be able to electronically link
our bodies with external technology for worldwide communication of thought and
action.
2/ Second, it is the implantation of intelligent computer programming in all external
technology to make our built environment our conscious partners. We will be able
to have intelligent conversations and relationships with inanimate objects.
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3/ Third, it is the appreciation of the dynamic relationship of technological and

advances and consciousness growth. Advances in technology alter our
consciousness, which in turn invents new technology.
4/ Fourth, it is the merger of the attitude toward the world and the technocrats
methods of organization of the world. It is the understanding that without the best
of the technocrat our civilization will lack the organization to absorb the pace of
change and crumble into chaos.
5/ Fifth, it is a way to view things, as much as it is a new set of things to be viewed.
[Futurists gave early warnings over 40 years ago about the potentials of the
dawning Information Age. Now it is time to give a similar alert about the coming
post-Information Age. (Ibid., 8)] (35)
6/ Sixth, it is the condition of civilization wherein the majority of people and
intelligent technology are an interrelated whole. You would still be able to
distinguish humanity from technology, as you distinguish the color from the rose,
but you would not be able to separate human from technology, just as not be able
to separate the color from the rose. (Ibid., 6-7) (36)

HAVE

WE
ALREADY TAKEN SOME OF THE EARLY STEPS, HAVENT WE?
YOUR TREATISE IS PRESCIENT. YET WE FIND PEOPLE RESISTING,
FRIGHTENED, AND UNWILLING TO ACCEPT. THIS IS ONE OF THE MANY
CHALLENGES WE CONFRONT.

____________

B.PLAYING-FORTH
Intellectual Seedbed for Future Thinking

The Third Culture & Futuring

I. Intellectual Seedbed for Future Humanity [J. Brokman]
The Third Culture consists of those scientists and others thinkers in the empirical world
who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional
intellectual in rending visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what
we are. (TC, 17) (1)
In 1959 C.P. Snow published a book titled The Two Cultures. On the one hand, there
were the literary intellectuals; on the other, the scientists. This new definition by the
men of letters excluded scientists such as cyberneticist Norbert Wiener, the physicist
such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg. . . . In the second edition (1963,)
Snow added a new essay, The Two Cultures: A Second Look, in which he suggested
that a new culture, a third culture would emerge and close the communications gap
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between the literary intellectuals and the scientists. [However, it is only S.J. Goulds
Wonderful Life, S. Hawkings A Brief History of Time, R. Penroses The Emperor New
Mind that science has changed the intellectual landscape. () (2)
Now, in The Third Culture, the futurist John Brockman shows, it is scientists, not
literary intellectuals, who have the most to say on the important questions facing
mankind. He points out:
Today, third-culture thinkers tend to avoid the middleman and endeavor to
express their deepest thoughts in the manner accessible to the intelligent reading
public. . . . We now live in a world in which the rate of change is the biggest
change. Science has just become a big story.
The role of the intellectual includes communicating. Intellectuals are not just
people who know things but people who shape the thought of their generation..
An intellectual is a synthesizer, a publicist, a communicator. The Third Culture
thinkers are the new public intellectuals.
America now is the intellectual seedbed for Europe and Asia. This trend started
with the prewar emigration of Albert Einstein and other European scientists to
America.. Through history, intellectual life has been marked by the fact that only
a small number of people have done the serious thinking for everybody else.
What we are witnessing is the passing of the torch of one group of thinkers, the
traditional literary intellectuals, to a new group, the intellectuals of the emerging
Third Culture. ( TC, 18-9) (3)

II. The World Futurist Movement

1. About the World Future Society (Ed. Cornish
The World Future Society helps individuals, organizations, and communities see,
understand, and respond appropriately and effectively to change. Through media,
meetings, and dialogue among its members, it raises awareness of change and encourages
development of creative solutions. The Society takes no official position on what the
fut0ure will or should be like. Instead it acts a neutral forum for exploring possible,
probable, and preferable futures. Founded in 1966 as a nonprofit educational and
scientific organization in Washington D.C., the Society has some 25,000 members in
more than eighty countries around the world. Individuals and groups from all nations are
eligible to join the Society and participate in its programs and activities.
The Societys annual conferences provide opportunities to hear and meet many
outstanding thinkers and to take one-or two-day courses dealing with the future.
Chapters of the World Future Society are active in cities around the globe. Chapters offer
speakers, educational courses, seminars, and other opportunities for members in local
areas to meet and work together.
The Societys Website (wfs.org) features unique resources such as the online Futurist
Bookshelfbrief summaries of new and noteworthy books, reviews, and links to order
and Web Forums such as Future Generations, Utopias, Social Innovation, and Global
Strategies (Futuring, 314) (4.)
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REMARK. The World Future Societys Future Generations Fund enables young people and
others to acquire knowledge they did not only to(manage their personal future but also to
preserve and enhance the worlds natural and human resources for future generations
(Ibid., 315) (5.)

2. The Futurist Revolution (Eduard Cornish)

a) Great Transformation in Human Life
Our society is currently undergoing a mega-event. This is the global transformation of
human life and it affects everyone everywhere. Cornish refers to this transformation as
the Great Transformation.
In todays hyperchange society, individuals have little stability in their lives. Change
brings new demands, new conflicts. Ray Kurzweil says:
The twenty-first century will be equivalent to twenty thousand years of progress at
today rates of progress; about one thousand times greater than the twentieth
century (cf., Futuring, 12.) (6)
Kurzweil also predicts that a technological singularity will occur at some time in the
twenty-first century. This will be such a massive change that no one will be able to
predict its impact on society (7) (BF, 8.) According to Cornish, A postulated time in the
future when technological progress and other aspects of human evolutionary
development become so rapid that nothing beyond that point [named as singularity]
can be reliably conceived (Futuring, 299.) (8) I AM ALWAYS TELLING MY
STUDENTS THIS. THAT WE DONT EVEN RECOGNIZE THE REVOLUTION WE
ARE LIVING THROUGH. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN TRUE, HAS IT NOT? THE
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, SAME THING.
In fact, the rapid emergence of new technologies has generated scientific
developments never dreamed of before.
The expression emerging technologies is used to cover such new and
potentially powerful technologies as genetic engineering, artificial intelligence,
and nanotechnology. . . . Nanotechnology deals with atoms and molecules,
biotechnology with genes and cells, infotechnology with bits and bytes, and
cognitive science with neurons and brains. These four fields are converging
thank to the larger and faster information processing of ever more powerful
computers. Thank to technological evolution, human will transcend our biological
limitations to become transhumans and eventually posthuman (SFTNE, 76-8.) (9)
Human are the first species which is conscious of it own evolutions and
limitations, and humans will eventually transcend these constraints to become
posthuman (Ibid ., 78.) (10)
b) De Jouvenels Futuribles Project

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After World War II, the French were forced to ask about the French destiny in the future:
the basic questions about themselves and their values. From Sartre they have an eloquent
description of experience during the war:
We had lost all our rights, first of all, the right to speak. We were insulted to our
faces every day, and we had to remain silent. We were deported in large groups
as workers, as Jews, as political prisoners. . . . Since the Nazi venom inserted
itself even into our thoughts, each free thought was a victory. Since the allpowerful police tried to force us into silence, each word became precious as a
declaration of principle. Since we were hounded. Each our movements was like a
skirmish with the enemy (11) Cf. Futuring, 188.)
That passage helps explain how and why many of the French developed a strange sense
of personal responsibility for the future of their country.
In 1960, with Ford money-support, de Jouvenel launched a project dubbed Futuribles. In
1967, he and his wife founded the International Futuribles Association. The Futuribles
Group is now one of the worlds leading foresight institutions.
c) The Rise of American Futurism
The United States was also affected by World War II. Although America triumphed over
its enemies but the war had paradoxically left the nation feeling even more threatened
than before because the Soviet Union and a vigorous international communist movement
was moving aggressively to take control over the large number of nations. In 1946,
Arnold established the RAND project. The project purpose was to study the broad subject
of inter-continental warfare other than surface warfare. In 1947, under the guidance of
Arnold, commanding general of the Army Air Corps, Theodor von Karman, an engineer,
wrote a report Toward New Horizon In 1948, RAND was the first real think tank for
concentrating on future issues and possibilities (BF, 73.) (12)
Futuring took a new turn when the space race began. In 1957 the Soviet Union launched
the first satellite, Sputnik. The U.S. formed NASA in 1958 to compete in space
exploration. During the 1960s many futurist formed. In 1966 the World Future Society
was formed in Washington D.C. (13) (Ibid., 74.)

3. Revolutionary Missions
a) Hyperchange in the Future (Quotations)
The acceleration of change has inspired a lively debate about the possibility of a
technological singularity occurring at some time in the twenty-first century. The
technological singularity would be such a massive amount of change we cannot even
begin to predict its consequences.
Technology seems nearly certain to advance even faster during the twenty-first century
than it did during the twentieth. The computer has increased the effective intelligence of
humans just as the steam engine increased their physical power. A fourth technological
revolution may already have started in biotechnology, notably in genetics.

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Biotechnology promises revolutionary changes that could be even more extraordinary

than those wrought by the computer. Genetic engineering has already started to redesign
plants and animas so they can be more productive. Genetic knowledge is already to
being used to reduce defects in new born babies. In the years ahead, parents will use
whatever new technologies become available to try to make sure that theirs is no
ordinary son or daughter, but one that is superior in one or more ways. They may try to
give their children the musical capacities of a Mozart or the mental abilities of an
Einstein. We may hope for million of Einsteins, get millions of Elvis Presleys. (14)
(Futuring, 19-20.)
b) Exploration of the Transformation
Life is very different in todays fast-changing world. Tradition no longer lays out our
futures. We must somehow create our futures by ourselves, trying, as best we can, to fit
ourselves and our organizations into a highly complex, swiftly changing that provides
extraordinary opportunities for those with good foresight but potential disasters for
people who lack it. The pace of change poses similar challenges for business
organizations, communities, and the world as a whole.
On the other hand, rapid change opens extraordinary opportunities for those who have a
future-oriented attitude and know how to explore the possibilities of their future. The
primary goal of futuring is to develop foresight. Foresight might be defined as the ability
to make decisions that are judged to be good not just in the present moment but in the
long run. Good foresight depends on good futuring (15) (Futuring, 212-3.) During the
years ahead, good foresight will be more urgently needed than never before in order to
achieve personal and organizational success (16) (Ibid., 215)
c) Responsibilities for the Future: Future Generations (Quotations)
We are made wise not by the recollection of the past but by the
responsibility for the future.
George Bernard Shaw
If we think that luck really determines the fate of nations and our own fate in work and
life, perhaps we should make our career decisions by rolling dice and select our political
leaders by lottery. But if we recognize that choices really count in determining our
future, we must also recognize that we ourselves are largely responsible for our own
future. We went on to look at patterns of change, such as cycles and stages of
development, that enable us to anticipate certain future events, and also at the way we
can use the concept of system to understand many of the bizarre ways in which events are
fashioned.We moved on to examining methods of futuring that enable us to learn about
the future and so make good decisions about what we do knowledge that can help us to
create better governments in the future (17.) (Futuring, 215.)
Today we have more power than ever to determine our own future, so we must accept
our responsibility for actually making the wise decisions that are needed (Ibid., 216.)
(18.) Essentially, one visualizes some conditions in the future, imagines each step from
the future back to the present, and then acts out the steps like an actor following the a
77

script in a play (19.) (FM, 96.) People with good foresight have a kind of mental map
of the future. The map is very vague and rough, but it gives them a starting place for
thinking about their own future and making wise decision about it (20.) (Ibid., 222)
Choosing the future of humanity is truly awesome task, but that is the responsibility that
has been thrust upon us. Choosing our collective future is not simply a matter of selecting
our preferred environment from a cosmic menu of alternative paradises. The fact is, we
could make such poor choices that, instead of getting any sort of desirable future,
progress could become regress and civilization could collapse into barbarism and
savagery. History contains numerous examples of civilizations that have collapsed,
relapsed into barbarism, or sheet of risks and opportunities, the futures bottom line
seems elusive: There are too many uncertainties. So perhaps our best policy is to stop
worrying whether the future will be as good as we hope or as bad as we sometime fear
and just get on with the task of creating a future that we will try to ensure is good (21)
Ibid., 227-8.)

SUMMARY
Yet there is an extraordinary gap between our technological overdevelopment and our
social underdevelopment. Our economy, society, and culture are built in interests, values,
and systems of representation that by at large, limit collective creativity, confiscate the
harvest of information technology, and deviate our energy into self-destructive
confrontation. There is no eternal level in human nature. There is nothing that cannot
be change by conscious, purposive social action, provided with information, and
supported by legitimacy. If people are informed, active, and communicate throughout the
world; if business assumes its social responsibility; if the media become the messengers,
rather than message; if political actors react against cynicism, and restore belief in
democracy; if culture is reconstructed from experience; if human kind feels the solidarity
of the species throughout of the globe; if we assert intergenerational solidarity by living
in harmony with nature; if we depart for the exploration of our inner self, having made
peace among ourselves. If all this is made possible by our informed, conscious, shared
decision, where there is still time, may be then, we may at last, be able to live and let live,
love and be loved (EM, 390-1) (22.)
____________

Notes A
1. M. Lings, Symbol & Archetype, 1991, Quinta Essentia, vii.
2. C. G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (ACU), 1959, new edition
1990, Princiton University Press, 152.
3. Ibid., 153.
4. Ibid., 157.
5a. T. J. McFarlane (ed.), Einstein and Buddha (EB), 2002, Seastone, Berkeley,
California, 2.
78

5b. EB, 34.

6. Aurobindo, The Life Divine (LD), 1949, new edition 2000, Publisher, Lotus Press,
1054.
7. Heidegger, Contributions to Philosophy (CP), 1999, Indiana University Press, 45.
8. Companion to Heideggers Contributions to Philosophy (CHCP) , 2001, Indiana
University Press, 81.
9. Ed. Cornish, Futuring: The Exploration of the Future (FEF), 2004, World Future
Society, USA, 9 and 11.

Abbreviations
Works by Heidegger
BPP
BQP
BTa
BTb
BW
CP
IM
NIII

The Basic Problem of Phenomenology, trans. A. Hofstadter, Indiana University Press,1982.

Basic Questions of Philosophy, trans. R. Rojcewicz and A. Schuwer, Indiana University
Press, Blooming & Indianapolis, 1991.
Being and Time, trans. J. Macquerrie & E. Robinson, Harper & Row,
Publishers, N.Y.,1962.
Being and Time, trans. J. Stambaugh, State University of New York, 1996.
Basic Writings (What is Metaphysics ?, On the Essence of Truth, Letter on Humanism,... ),
trans. D. F. Krell, Harper, San Francisco, 1993.
Contributions to Philosophy, trans. P. Emad and K. Maly, Indiana University Press, 1999.
An Introduction to Metaphysics, trans. R. Manhein, Anchor Books Edition, N. Y., 1961 .
Nietzsche, Vol. III, trans. J. Stambaugh, D. F. Krell, F. A. Capuzzi, ed. D. F. Krell., Harper
SanFrancisco, 1987.

Notes
1. Michael Gelven, A Commentary on Heideggers Being and Time, Northern Illinois University Press,
1989, 230.
2. C. Guignon, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge, Hackett Publishing, Company, 1983, 248.
3. Michael Gelven, A Commentary on Heideggers Being and Time, 128.
4. Otto Poggeler, M. Heigeggers Path of Thinking, trans. D. Magurshak and S. Barber, Humanity
Books, 1991, 72.
5. C. Guignon, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge, 248.
6. C. Guignon, Ibid. 248.
7. C. Guignon, Ibid. 250.
8. S. Schoenbohem, Heideggers Interpretation of Phusis, in Heideggers Introduction to Metaphysics,
ed. R. Polt & G. Fried, Yale University Pres, 2001, 145.
9. O. Poggler, M. Heideggers Path of Thinking, 76.
10. R. Polt, The Event of Enthinking the Event in Companion to Heideggers Contribution to
Philosophy, ed. C. Scott, S. Schoenbohm..., Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2001, 82.
11. C. Guignon, Being as Appearing, in Heideggers Introduction to Metaphysics, 39.
12. R. Polt, Heidegger An Introduction, Cornell University Press, New York,1999, 150.
13. M. Gelven, A Commentary..., 208.
14. C. Guignon, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge, 137.

79

15. C. Guignon, Ibid. , 137.

16. C. Guignon, Ibid. , 140.
17. M. Gillespie, Hegel, Heidegger and the ground of History, 152.
18. C. Guignon, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge , 248.
19. O. Poggeler, M. Heideggers Path of Thinking, 164.
20. T. Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University Press, 1970, 175.
21. C. Guignon, A Commentary..., 246.
22. M. Gillespie, Hegel, Heidegger and the Ground of History, The University of Chicago Press,
Chicago London, 1993, 169.
23. M. Gelven, A Commentary..., 208.
24. M. Gelven, Ibid., 208.
25. H. G. Gadamer, Truth and Method, trans. J. Weinsheimer and D. Marshall, Continuum, New York,
1996, 169.
26. L. Redman, Human Impact on Ancient Environments, The University of Arizona Press, 1999, 7.
27. H. G. Gadamer, Truth and Method, 235.
28. M. Gillespie. Hegel, Heidegger and the Ground of History, 121.
29. H. G. Gadamer, Truth and Method, 241.
30. M. Gillespie, Hegel, Heidegger and the Ground of History, 169.
31. M. Gillespie, Ibid. , 170.
32. M. Gillespie, Ibid. , 173.
33. C. Guignon, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge, 140.
34. S. Schoenbohm, Heideggers Interpretation of Phusis, in Heideggers Introduction to Metaphysics,159.
35. C. Guignon, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge, 187.
36. S. Schoenbohm, Heideggers Interpretation of Phusis, 159.
37. C. Guignon, Being as Appearing, 45.
38. C. Guignon, Heidegger and the Problem of Metaphysics, 90.
39. M. Gillespie, Hegel , Heidegger and the Ground of History, 169.
40. C. Guignon, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge, 86.
41. J. Habermas, Communication and the Evolution of Society, trans. T. McCarthy, Beacon Press:
Boston, 1976, X.
42. C. Guignon, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge, 86.
43. Toynbee, Civilization on Trial and the World and the West, Meridian Books, Inc., New York,
1958, 46.

80

APPENDIX

Nagarjuna and Sunyata Theory

Fritjof Capra

Nagarjuna is the most intellectual Mahayana philosopher who used a highly

sophisticated dialectic to show the limitations of all concepts of reality. With brilliant
arguments he demolished the metaphysical propositions of his time and thus
demonstrated that realty, ultimately cannot be grasped with concepts and ideas. He gave
it the name Sunyata, 'the void' , or 'emptiness, a term which is equivalent to 'tathata' or
'suchness'; when the futility of all conceptual thinking is recognized, reality is
experienced as pure suchness.
Nagarjuna

81