The Sea of Samsara
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VOLUME XII, NO. 38 SEPTEMBER 23, 1950 THE SEA OF SAMSARA THE yearning to be a philosopher overtakes the scientific method and the scientific theory of modern man in strange and unlikely places. He knowledge. We understand science to be defined may be led to search into the meaning of his life by by concepts of knowing and concepts of doing. the impact of a great disappointment; or, instead, At first defined mostly in terms of knowing, it may be that the accumulations of distaste for a science is presently conceived more in terms of savorless existence produce in him a quiet doing, since knowing, after the first flush of wondering about the apparent lack of sense in practical success for the sciences, was realized to what most men do with their time. The pain of a be much more difficult than was at first supposed. deprivation brought by death, or the To say that science deals only with doing is to say estrangements imposed upon the heart by a long that it is empirical—that it manages without a and seemingly futile illness may stir a man to look demonstrable theory of knowledge. This is the about for a better comprehension of meaning. same as saying that science is little more than the higher technology—that truth, whatever it is, is When we say "modern man," we mean the not disclosed by science, but only the techniques man who is free of institutional faiths or of doing what we want to do with whatever compulsions. In the past, the quest for truth or materials we have learned to manipulate. meaning has usually been guided by well-marked institutional sign-posts. A man in search of But regardless of the sophistication with learning would go to an institution of learning. If which we define scientific knowledge, it remains a he sought religious truth, he would enter an order fact that our two hundred or so years of devoted to a spiritual goal. If he wanted wealth or experience in a world progressively scientific has success, there were paths to follow leading to had an ineradicable effect upon our thinking. these ends. Whichever way he chose, he was Knowledge, it has taught us to say, lies in shepherded by the specialists who wore the immediacy. Knowledge is not a word or a book. badges of their profession. There were the great It is very different from a theory. Knowledge, we traditions from which to choose one's calling, and say, is fact, and it is exact. Hearsay, even in which to serve an apprenticeship. frequently attested hearsay, is not knowledge. Knowledge is verified and repeatable explanation Modern Man, however, to the degree that he of the meaning of personal experience. It is is modern, has broken with these traditions. He personal in the sense that the scientist does not say has broken with them on two counts. First, his he "knows" until he has personally repeated the political philosophy—which is more than a experiments or the calculation by which some political philosophy, rather a concept of human other scientist has arrived at the conclusion which identity—declares the radical equality of all men. is called knowledge. This, at any rate, is the final Even when practical experience makes the great test of all knowledge. differences among men a fact of primary observation, modern man still clings to his Thus, the idea of equality (any man, because intuition of equality as some sort of ultimate truth, he is a man, can pursue knowledge through a truth which he may qualify but never abandon. experiment) and the idea of science (knowing is personal experience) have constituted a radical The second break with tradition for modern break with traditional ideas. man has come with the all-pervading influence of MANAS Reprint - LEAD ARTICLE 2 We are not suggesting that modern man has faith in intuition. There is a family resemblance been eminently successful, either in his application between scientific and intuitive cognition. Both of the idea of equality or in his use of science, but are immediate. Both represent individual only that these two ideas have created a temper experience. One encounters material facts, the which cannot help but affect all human other—well, we are not sure precisely what order undertakings. of facts is encountered by intuition, but the matter begins to seem worthy of investigation. For example, when a modern man is hit hard by some personal disaster, he does not Intuitive realization brings a measure of immediately respond to the impulse to go at once impact to the feelings. In fact, an intuition can to a counselor provided by one of the traditional hardly be devoid of feeling of some sort. institutions which still survive in his society. Scientific discovery makes its own sort of impact. Science has shaken the validity of all the It is tangible to the senses. Facts related to doing traditional explanations of the human condition. things are not a negligible part of our He may have the impulse, but he also has a second environment. What, however, is left out in the impulse to resist the first. What do these people comparison is the theoretical work that is a part of know? he will say to himself. What does anyone every science. The intellectual activity which know about such matters? He may look about, begins every scientific undertaking has only the listening to what others say, but it is plain that he slightest of counterparts in the new interest in intends to decide for himself what to think. He intuition. We have not far to seek for an will not uncritically place himself under the explanation of this omission. guidance of another. The instinct of rational First of all, the operations of intuition, while inquiry is bred into his mind. Even if he decides by no means well understood, are at least known that there are cognitions which reach beyond the to be inhibited by too great a reliance on rational, he will draw this conclusion on rational intellectuality, or analytical methods. The grounds, by reflecting upon the limitations of the intuition acts spontaneously. It is possible that it rational. can be trained, but this sounds very much like a Today, however, it is this realization of the contradiction in terms. Then there is the long limitations of rational forms of knowing which is history of Western rationalism and its defeats and very much in the foreground of the thoughts of frustrations to discourage a further trust in the modern man. He has suffered a kind of fatigue of processes of reasoning. Finally, there is the the rational process and an ominous experience of the West with theology, which is a disillusionment with certain of the fruits of rational special kind of rationalism connected with techniques. He still has his skepticism and his revealed religion. Modern man has almost equal respect for the ideals of the scientific method—the contempt for theology and metaphysics, although rule of impartiality, of overcoming prejudice, of this association fails to distinguish between the being willing to look in all directions—but he is dependent nature of theology and the independent beginning to suspect himself of naïveté for having character of metaphysics. Metaphysics, like had faith in the predictions of the scientific theology, is seen to involve intellectualizing about utopians. They have not produced what they said the nature of things, and is therefore without they would produce. Instead, they have raised up much standing for modern man. uncontrollable monsters and armed with incredible We are now, perhaps, in a position to power the irrational tendencies of human beings. understand the modern interest in Zen Buddhism. So, in contemporary thinking, there is the Zen, at least verbally—if Zen does anything beginning of a passage from faith in science to "verbally"—seems to promise a sudden break- Volume XII, No. 38 MANAS Reprint September 23, 1959 3 through to knowledge of an ultimate character. In all these works, the fundamental inquiry is The break-through is said to be intuitive or the search for the means of emancipation from the spontaneous, a result of the elimination from one's bonds and oppressions of earthly existence. The thought of all trace of "conceptual" delusion. In role of Zen, in this perspective, is to provide a general, the sudden attraction of Zen for kind of "shock" treatment to the delusions which Westerners is a favorable indication of the times, arise in human beings during the course of the despite the frequent frothiness of this interest and search. Assent to the essentials of Eastern the occasional vulgarization of Zen ideas. Chief philosophy is taken for granted. Briefly, these sources of information about Zen in the West are essentials are that the universe is a vast Maya, a the works of D. T. Suzuki and of Alan Watts, and kind of "constructive" illusion brought into to a lesser extent Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art existence by the creative activities of beings who of Archery and The Supreme Doctrine by Hubert mistake the unreal for the real. Perhaps we could Benoit, a French psychiatrist. say that the desire for sentient existence is While credit is always given by Zen scholars responsible for the fact that we, as human beings, to the Chinese origin of the Zen sect, until recently are here, and that we shall remain here until that the expositors of this school of Buddhist tradition desire is exhausted, by means of a more profound have drawn on Japanese texts. The Zen Teaching realization of what we are, in essence.