A previous article here explored Confucianism, but many Daoists have been critical of its orientation to politics. They have emphasized harmony with nature and not
The growth of Islam in Southeast Asia has always intrigued me. The faith has been uncompromising in its basic tenets. God is Tawhid (unity) and
We’ll get back to ancient Greece shortly, but after taking a long voyage to the Malay world. Both cultures were oriented to the sea and
Ancient Greeks’ minds had many deep roots, including the body. Their especially intense love of athletic games helped encourage them to assume that reality is
Theater was yet another type of experience that reinforced ancient Greeks’ views of the world. It converged with many other experiences, including law, agriculture, the
Like thought in other cultures, ancient Greek thought converged from many aspects of life. Politics was one, and most ancient Athenians were obsessed with politics.
The I Ching is also based on the idea of the primacy of cyclic energy flows, and it has been one of the most influential
Chinese intellectual traditions have usually considered the universe to be highly resonant and less partitioned into distinct domains, as Westerners have often emphasized. The last
Several recent articles here explored depths in Westerners’ emphasis on abstract lines and distinct objects. But neither has been a central concept in China, where
Many ancient Indians believed that clouds are elephants’ celestial relatives. They actually called an elephant “Cloud” (Megha) when they honored it. According to Heinrich Zimmer,