Irrationality and the Eastern Mindset

"Do not go by reasoning, nor by inferring, nor by argument" - the Buddha.
"When you do not understand, then you will know". - Zen student
"Mind always protects what is false. Mind is a black light" - Guru Maharaji Ji
"He who knows, doesn't speak; he who speaks, doesn't know" - Lao-Tse
"To the law and the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20, The Bible.

The development of Western Civilization owes a lot to the principles of logical thinking.  Modern technology would never have existed if mankind had never embraced the principles of disciplined, logical thinking. Science has advanced only as we have rejected imperfect hypotheses and made new ones on the basis of better data. The acceptance of one hypothesis in science will always require the rejection of others. We cannot believe in the theory of gravity and the idea that the earth has a huge vacuum cleaner inside it that attracts all that comes close. Its either one theory or the other - or neither.

The computer you use operates only according to the laws of logic. A computer that has faulty logic gates is no use to anyone, not even a rejecter of logic. We cannot depend on such a computer to give us meaningful results.

A computer that fails to do binary arithmetic will not be useful. In the same way, when we no longer think rationally, we are moving to the place where the things we say no longer have any meaning.
 
The basic principles of Eastern thinking, however, are as follows:

1. Reality is ONE.

There can be no contradictions in the eastern mindset, which sees reality as a Unity. The Beatles sang is their song, "Dear Prudence", "you are part of everything". The eastern mind seeks for the unity in all things. This might sound pretty smart and enlightened at first. But it can lead to real stupidity. For example, cruelty and non-cruelty, in the Hindu way of thinking, are ultimately equal, and there is no intrinsic difference between them. But which Hindu would be indifferent to the idea of someone pouring boiling water over his head, instead of giving him a cup of coffee? Such philosophy doesn't work in practice.

Some eastern thinkers deny the reality of evil, or even of the material world. These things are supposed to be nothing more than illusions, that will go away if you can empty your mind of thought for long enough. Such concepts are prevalent in such ideas as Mary Baker Eddy's so-called "Christian Science" which denies the reality of sickness and evil, and teaches that Jesus Christ is just a "divine idea".

All this amounts to is confusion and a denial of the basic categories without which we can neither behave rationally nor make intelligent judgments. In fact, even an advocator of irrationality depends on rationality in order to get his ideas across, using the medium of language which in turn depends on structure, order and convention. No guru who preaches against the mind could make a convert of anyone who had no mind to first listen to the guru. A totally irrational person would be a babbling idiot or a vegetable, unable to convince anybody of anything. I am not saying that rationality is the ultimate measure of truth, for some things transcend rationality. Yet I contend that none of God's truth is irrational or illogical.

From this doctrine of the unity of all things, comes the idea that all religions are basically one.  We often hear that "there are many paths to God". Those who haven't bothered to check it out might think of Jesus Christ as just another "enlightened guru" with a marvellous, if impractical  system of ethics. But actually Jesus said He was the ONLY WAY to the Father. We may hate Jesus and Christians for saying that, but let us not be so condescending and false as to pretend that what he said was really in harmony with Hinduism, Buddhism and the many paths of eastern religion.

2. Reality is illogical.

The quotes above by eastern philosophers illustrate this. Eastern religions often say all kinds of illogical and contradictory things. But the easterner does not see this as a problem. D.T. Suzuki, the famous Zen Buddhist, says, "Zen is one thing and logic another. When we fail to make this distinction and expect Zen to give us something logically consistent and intellectually illuminating, we altogether misinterpret the signification of Zen."

Believing that All is One, it follows that the contradictions are still part of the same unity, and both can be embraced wholeheartedly. Of course, you can prove anything from a false axiom. What really gets scary is that people are willing to step out and act on these notions at times. It has proved fatal for some. If the Bible is true, then it will prove eternally fatal for the multitudes who have a

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