Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encounters with Eastern Religous Traditions (The Library of Perennial Philosophy): Oldmeadow Bendigo University autho, Harry: 9780941532570: Amazon.com: Books (original) (raw)

"Journeys East will be indispensable for students of comparative religion." -- Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions

Foreword

Early in the 20th century the great French metaphysician René Guénon argued that the modern West has affirmed the superiority of action over knowledge, whereas the East reversed these modalities. At first glance this may seem too schematic a way of characterizing the halves of the world, but it acquires force when we remember that knowledge in the traditional East amounted to what the West calls wisdom, for it focused on spiritual realities or first principles. Unlike Western philosophy—which since the Renaissance has been primarily empirical and increasingly confined to the academy—the strongest philosophies in the East argue that the goal of human life is to achieve liberation.

The 20th century from which we have recently emerged was the most violent in human history, and in every decade hope and despair bounced off each other like matter and antimatter. Many historical currents went into the making of that century, but the one that has received least attention is precisely the one this book takes up. The world westernized in science, technology, economics, and politics, but the answering wave from Asia has been largely overlooked because it is less tangible. Asia penetrated the West’s mind, in part actively as philosophers like Vivekananda and Daisetz Suzuki carried Vedanta and Buddhism to the West; but more importantly by simply being available for venturesome minds to explore (such as those of the New England Transcendentalists, notably Emerson, who were a century ahead of their times).

The thoroughness of the research on which the book in hand builds does not obscure the fact that it is really a romance, the story of how the Western mind expanded in the 20th century to include Asian wisdom. Its author insures this narrative aspect of the book by keeping its impeccable scholarship in its foundations, so to speak. Everyone knows that worldviews differ, but Harry Oldmeadow calls attention to two commonalities they share. The first of these is the understanding of the physical universe which the proofs of modern science now force everyone to accept; and the second is the metaphysical unity that runs through them all like a golden thread. There is real artistry in the way Oldmeadow describes that thread.

One more virtue should be mentioned. The thoroughness with which the author covers his subject required that his book be long, but general readers should not jump to the conclusion that it is intended exclusively for libraries. To be sure, no major library can now be without it, but its style places it within easy reach of the interested public.

Harry Oldmeadow will be remembered with gratitude for having poured his life into producing this profound and fascinating book that is sure to occupy a durable place in the library of the world’s cultural history.

HUSTON SMITH

About the Author

Harry Oldmeadow was born in Melbourne in 1947. His parents were Christian missionaries in India, where he spent nine years of his childhood and developed an early interest in the civilizations of the East.

He is currently the Coordinator of Philosophy and Religious Studies at La Trobe University, Bendigo. Over the last decade he has published extensively in such journals as Sacred Web (Vancouver), Sophia (Washington DC), and Asian Philosophy (Nottingham,UK).