“The Spirit Of Indian Philosophy - Indolink” plus 3 more |
- The Spirit Of Indian Philosophy - Indolink
- New Age ‘philosophy’ dangerous, deadly - Arizona Daily Wildcat
- Philosophy Is Back in Business - Huffingtonpost.com
- Self Defence Philosophy - Associated Content
| The Spirit Of Indian Philosophy - Indolink Posted: 05 Feb 2010 12:19 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. | The western thinkers point out that India has no proper and accurate records of philosophy, there are philosophical thoughts that do not go beyond the mythological stage and do not make philosophy as a thorough going system of thought. It remains simply limited to mythology and ethics. They fail to find any proper historical records not even the biography of its thinkers and seers. Alburey Castell believes that the Greek thinker Pythagoras in the 6th. Century B.C. was the first ever philosopher, 'the lover of wisdom. The western view is based on incorrect information and untruth .It betrays colossal ignorance of ancient Indian thoughts. Its achievements are very imperfectly known to them even today. It may be that the philosophical thoughts in the western evolution may have resulted in a somewhat coherent type as of today but the Indian thought of old definitely represented a superb universal thought of that day. Most of the Indian thoughts in earlier stages existed in a very undifferentiated stage. We witness many schools of thought and criticism of various schools and find each system more differentiated and coherent. Unfortunately most of the systems of thoughts in many cases are lost. India never considered chronology as primary to philosophical interests, which was its main concern. The rise of philosophical thoughts in India has entirely been very different from that of the west. We do not notice system of thought preceding or succeeding each other as in the west. The Indian system developed in richer and better form side by side and supplemented each other. Almost all thinkers dealt with the same system, same thoughts similar to each other unlike the development in the west. Indian philosophy has a long history of continuity and developmental process, longer than any other. Unfortunately continuous foreign brutal invasions and deliberate destruction of scriptures and culture by these brutes, the chronological sequence has lost its distinct trace. Moreover our sages and seers were never inclined to and appreciative of autobiographical writing. Their emphasis remained on the subject of their experience, teaching and realization. Though much of it is lost yet whatever is left, it is sufficient enough to claim that the Indian philosophy of wisdom is the oldest living thought of those eras. The ancient seers preferred selective teaching. It is difficult to translate it in English for the west. Even if some do, he has to be quite at home in Sanskrit and the ways of expressions of those days. Without it, the English rendering of Sanskrit works will not be judicious and authentic. All such translations made before need revaluation, as in many cases they were done with a set purpose of distorting Indian values so as to facilitate conversion. Even today there remains a lot of philosophical works to translate. The job is not easy to achieve. The Indian mode of expression and technical and philosophical terms have no proper English equivalents. E.g., take the Sanskrit word ' sat'. The Greek equivalent is 'to ov '. The German word is ' seiende'. In English, we are bound to use ' that, which is', what exists or what is real. The English is the language of technology and commerce, and not of philosophy or metaphysics. The knowledge of Sanskrit is pre requisite. Dr. Das says,' A man who can easily understand the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, the Law books and the literary works, and is also well acquainted with the philosophical thoughts of European philosophy, may find it literally impossible to understand even small portion of a work of advanced Indian logic or the didactical Vedanta.' He gives two reasons to substantiate:
So in the absence of any judicious translation work and non-prejudice outlook, the west remained deprived of the knowledge of proper Indian thoughts and its deep- rooted philosophy. This ignorance has led them to think otherwise and miss the right conclusion that the Indian philosophy is the oldest living thought as of today. The most ancient Indian philosophy is contained in the four Vedas -Rg. Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. The period of Vedas is debated but can be dated to 4000B.C. or even earlier. Each Veda has four parts—Samhita, Brahmans, Aranyakas and Upanishads. The seed of philosophical knowledge is sown in Rg. Veda hymns. They are the forerunners of monastic system as is evident in the Upanishads. Samhitas are hymns or prayers. Brahmanas are mostly prose treatise, discussions on rituals and are devoted to sacrificial duties. Aranyakas provide ritual guidance to the retired seniors in seclusion. The Upanishads are deep rooted in philosophical thoughts of the realized seers. Poets composed the hymns, priests the Brahmanas and the seers the Upanishads. Next comes the Epic age philosophy as seen in Ramayana, Mahabharat and Geeta. We notice a philosophy linked with life and worldly affairs .It is full of social and ethical values. . Mahabharat describes elaborate social order and the four fold aims of life of righteousness, wealth, worldly enjoyment and salvation. It also describes the four stages of life. It is thus a history, a mythology. Politics, philosophy and law, all in one. Ramayana gives us a vivid idea of human relationship in its various spheres. Two more works of different ages need our attention—The Manu Smrti and The ArthaShastra. Manu was the first law- giver and deals with wide-ranges thoughts of social order and the duties of ruler's .He codified the entire social code. Kautilya (Carakya of Maurya dynasty) is the author of Arthashastra, a treatise on science of economics and politics. It deals in details on the nature of sovereignty, representation, war and peace, code of punishment, taxation, state function and police. Then there dawned in Sutra period .It is in this period that the systematic and logical philosophical thoughts are evident. It is known for an orderly, systematic, consistent and logical sets of brief aphorisms, fathom deep in philosophical thoughts. The philosophies of Naiyaya (Logical relation) Vaisesiki (Realistic pluralism), Samkha (Evolutionary Dualism), Yoga (Discipline of Meditation), Purva Mimamsa (Investigation of Vedas of early period), and Uttar Mimansa (Vedas in the later stage and the Vedantic period) are six great schools of thought. These systems are prior to the Buddhist period though some of their elaborate works came to light after Buddha. There has been continuous stream of philosophers from the earliest times of 4000B.C. Or even earlier unto the 17th. Cent, accompanied with an unbroken chain of teachers, thinkers and pupils The scholastic period proceeding the six philosophical schools, is known for a number of commentaries on the sutras explaining their viewpoint on life and world. There were as many commentators as were the schools of thought. Each school presented its own viewpoint as the only accurate and logical one. This led to the feeling of intolerance of other's viewpoint. Jealousy among these schools developed. It was the time when Samkarachaya appeared on the scene as a rare and unique force of integration. He succeeded in removing confusion. His commentary on Vedanta Sutra overtook the highly praised philosopher and writer Badarayan. Samnkar infused new life in the philosophical thought and its interpretation. His efforts brought about higher evolution in thought and a philosophical binding force. The other important names of the period are – Gaud pad, Kumaril Bhatta, RamaNuj, Udayan, and Madhava.and Jayant. The Mogul invasion and their brutal rule totally smashed most of Indian philosophical works. The library of Nalanda in Bihar was set ablaze and burnt for months. The British rule was no different .It planned the translation of Hindu scriptures in such a way that may lead the elite away from them and near Christianity. Fortunately there existed a line of thinkers, sages and associations like Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Ram Krishna Mission and the like. They revived and rejuvenated Indian philosophy and cultural thoughts. The revival of Indian consciousness, of the greatness of its own philosophy of its glorious past as of today can now be witnessed after fifty years of Indian freedom Among the modern thinkers Dr. Radha Krishna and Yogi Aurobindo occupy unique place. Some distinct attributes and characteristics common to all the philosophical thought are:
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| New Age ‘philosophy’ dangerous, deadly - Arizona Daily Wildcat Posted: 04 Feb 2010 10:54 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. What would any reasonable person think of a motivational speaker described as "a peer of Deepak Chopra and Tony Robbins," known for a best-selling self help book and an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show? Presumably, that the man is a paradigm-case asshat. But the world is full of stupid people. Not to speak ill of the dead but James Shore, Kirby Brown and Liz Neuman probably were among them. These three unfortunates were casualties of James Arthur Ray's New-Age "sweat lodge" ceremony, in which participants spent two hours in the Angel Valley Resort near Sedona, Ariz., confined in a tent composed of blankets and plastic tarps, heated by steam from red-hot rocks in the tent's center. Eighteen others were hospitalized. The sweat lodge ceremony was part of Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" program during which, for the reasonable price of $9,695, Ray subjected his students to a variety of stultifying New-Age malarkey, from which death must have been sweet respite. Ray's website describes his corporation — named after himself, naturally — as "dedicated to mentoring individuals to create wealth in all areas of their lives: financially, relationally, mentally, physically and spiritually." He has certainly mastered the first aspect: James Ray International turned a profit of $9.4 million in 2008, according to a New York Times article. For a taste of this spiritual guru's standard practice: during the "vision quest," a 36-hour fast in the Sedona desert, which preceded the sweat lodge ceremony, Peruvian ponchos were made available to the seekers — for a trifling $250. Such is the cost of pseudoscience (I'm talking about untimely death again, not the overpriced ponchos, but – come on! - $250 for an alpaca Snuggie? That alone merits this article). Ray is a proponent of a New-Age concept known as the Law of Attraction, which purports that a person's thoughts, positive or negative, will influence his or her life in either way respectively. This thesis is justified through various appeals to shamanism, self help principles and even a remarkably poor understanding of quantum physics. Steve Salerno, skeptic and author of "SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless," is quoted in an article in The Arizona Republic on Ray describing his ideas as "psychological bouillabaisse." Bouillabaisse, indeed – less delicious, no doubt, but just as fishy! In his book "Harmonic Wealth," Ray writes: "I'm 8 years old, sitting in the front pew in my father's church. I hear the words that would play in the background of my life like annoying elevator music for years to come: 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.' That cannot be true, I thought." Despicable, indeed, but surprising — in that one might expect that elevator music to be this smarmy huckster's jam. To the yuppies who plague Sedona, James Arthur Ray offered a valuable service: to provide some spiritual amelioration, to return to them the souls they had rashly sold, for a fee they could comprehend. Not through asceticism, for Ray himself embraces things material, nor serious spiritual study, no, enlightenment can apparently be attained at a two day workshop – all Ray wanted was money, that world-renowned panacea, and his victims had become so emotionally desperate that they believed spiritual satisfaction could be bought. This in itself is a death of the soul, perhaps as tragic as the deaths of Shore, Brown and Neuman; lost sheep preyed upon by a wolf in savior's clothing. James Arthur Ray was arrested Wednesday on three counts of manslaughter. I'm hoping my power of positive thinking — and perhaps yours, dear reader! — will convince the judge to punish this charlatan to the fullest extent of the law.
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| Philosophy Is Back in Business - Huffingtonpost.com Posted: 20 Jan 2010 02:19 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. The financial and climate crises, global consumption habits, and other 21st-century challenges call for a "killer app." I think I've found it: philosophy. Philosophy can help us address the (literally) existential challenges the world currently confronts, but only if we take it off the back burner and apply it as a burning platform in business. Philosophy explores the deepest, broadest questions of life — why we exist, how society should organize itself, how institutions should relate to society, and the purpose of human endeavor, to name just a few. "The Wealth of Nations," a book that serves as the intellectual platform for capitalism, lays out how markets should be organized and how people should behave in such markets. The book's author, Adam Smith, was not an economist, as many believe, but a philosopher. Smith was chairman of the Moral Philosophy Dept. at Glasgow University when he wrote the book. Like other philosophers, Smith attempted to create a new framework for understanding the world, addressing how we as humans seek alignment in our relationships and among competing interests. The philosophical approach Smith pursued has faded from use, yet it's more relevant than ever in light of the crises our organizations and countries face. Credit, climate and consumption crises cannot be solved through specialized expertise alone. These problems, like most issues businesses confront in the global marketplace, feature complex interdependencies that require an understanding of how political, financial, environmental, ethical and social interests influence each other. A philosophical approach connects the dots among competing interests in an effort to create synergy. Linking competing interests requires philosophers to examine areas that modern-day domain experts too often ignore: core beliefs, ethics and character. When I say we need to return to a philosophical approach in relation to problem-solving, I mean that we need to broaden our understanding of problems by looking deeper at our own beliefs, values, ethics and character, and then understand how they relate to those of others who share a stake in our problem-solving efforts. Needed: Broader questions and goals Like philosophers, we as individuals and organizations need to keep values, ethics and the overall human condition in mind as we make decisions and take actions. Among other behaviors, this means hiring for character (in addition to specialized skills), considering the long-term implications (in addition to the short-term rewards) of our decisions, and figuring out how we can create value (in addition to extracting value). By taking these steps and embracing a more philosophical approach to problem-solving, we will establish our character as the 21st century's defining competitive differentiator. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus so elegantly put it almost 2,500 years ago: "Character is fate." This holds true for individuals and organizations. I see growing evidence of businesses asserting their desire to address the human condition, which certainly marks a step in the right direction. My bias stems from my experience as an undergraduate at UCLA, where philosophy lit a fire inside me. By rewarding me for the careful consideration of one idea instead of compelling me to read hundreds of pages of text, philosophy helped me understand why I was struggling in all other academic areas. I studied philosophy for seven years before I went to law school, where I took eight classes in jurisprudence, which is essentially the philosophy of law. A more ethical corporate sector Here's a timely and practical example of how applied philosophy can generate a new business idea: At LRN, we don't think of our suppliers as "vendors" or our customers as "buyers." They are all our "partners" in a shared effort to build our businesses together in the service of a big idea — a more ethical corporate sector. This may sound abstract, but it's actually quite practical. When you share a philosophical concept or a world view, you create alignment, whether it's with a colleague, a trading partner or another stakeholder. Without that shared vision, relationships often bog down in low-level squabbles. During LRN's negotiations, for instance, instead of butting heads with our partners across the table over low-level details, we strive to remember that we share common ground and that we are committing to working together for years. If we remember that, we're more likely to reach a win-win agreement that deepens our connections. LRN is hardly alone. As I wrote in an earlier story, more companies appear eager to deepen connections with their own partners and the human condition in general. I was recently struck by the simplicity of Ally Bank's print advertisement expressing its competitive advantage: "We Speak Human." Wanted: Philosophers in pinstripes When LRN posted the job listing for the New York office administrator position that Emily recently stepped into, we included a specification designed to let candidates know that we valued what they might contribute to our company, beyond their administrative skills: "Philosophy major preferred." We hoped to find someone like Emily, who could truly connect with our mission and not just "do the job." That qualification seemed a bright idea. It turned out to be a practical idea. Before my September trip to China, philosophy major Emily took the initiative to join a group of staff members who brainstormed with me about ways I might connect international company executives, local business people, students and Chinese citizens on the topic of values, ethics and behaviors. Our office manager and philosopher added value in a way that someone hired exclusively for a skill set probably would not have been able to contribute. Anyone — not only philosophy majors — can think more broadly and more deeply about the beliefs and values at the root of our crises, but Emily certainly does. This is hopeful news at a time when massive problems are nudging people to hunker down, rather than to lean in and connect. These connections are vital as we engage deeper with the 21st century's biggest challenges. As we do this, we will find that philosophy's application is not only "killer" in a practical sense, but necessary in a fundamentally human one. 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| Self Defence Philosophy - Associated Content Posted: 01 Feb 2010 02:15 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. The Use of Minimal ForceMost people have rules for living. Sometimes we derive them from Religions and other moral codes, other times we go by simple 'gut feel' about what we believe to be right or wrong.Personal philosophy is a very sensitive thing so I will not attempt to outline any recommendations. However, from a Martial Arts point of view a strict moral code is relevant - indeed, essential - in order to train and conduct oneself in a fulfilling, satisfactory way. The simplest way of putting this is as follows: As far as is possible, treat other people exactly the same way as you would like to be treated yourself . Respect others and respect yourself as well. If everyone observed this principle it can be argued that this world would be a much better place to live in. From the Martial Artist's perspective, this involves exercising restraint in everything one does. If one defends oneself against an attacker or threat, this must be done in a disciplined, controlled manner. Indeed, 'over enthusiasm' in defending oneself can actually cause more trouble with the law, etc. Only use the minimum amount of force necessary on an opponent/attacker. Think of it this way, every human being is worth something. Every human being has good aspects to them-this is a fact. Every human being is valued by somebody, somewhere in the world. If you are in a situation where somebody has attacked you, obviously you will need to do everything in your power to safeguard yourself. Once you are certain you are in a safe situation - once the threat is neutralised - there is no need to continue to inflict any more unnecessary damage to the opponent. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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