Re: Interiority? Or inter-relatedness?

On May 1, 10:18=A0am, Tang Huyen <tanghuyen{dele...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:

> It is often said that traditional society consists of "we"
> whereas modern, especially modern Western society,
> consists of individuals. In the USA individualism runs
> rampant, so much so that people are trapped in their
> own bubbles, so that people so to speak carry their
> own prison around. Chinese society is composed of
> liaisons, connexions or relation****ps (guan-xi, lian-xi),
> regardless of political system. In that sense Chinese
> society is still pre-modern. (By the way, Communism
> has destroyed religions in China almost entirely, but
> the family system inherited from Con****ianism is
> still intact).
>
> That said, in Buddhism, there is a funny contradiction.
> On one hand, Buddhist theory emphasises relations,
> mutual relations that go on indefinitely, especially in
> causality, and yet in practice the sage is independent
> and self-sufficient. Relations are to loosen up one's
> sense of individuality, and awakening is to free oneself
> of all identifications, especially to one's self, as one no
> longer creates a self for one to carry around. Freedom
> is freedom from norms and standards, especially the
> biggest and baddest of them, the norms and standards
> of one's self, the norms and standards that constitute
> one's self. In freedom one has dropped norms and
> standards, and is free to roam untrammelled, though of
> course one is still bound by physical and social laws.
>
> Tang Huyen

Yes, I've heard it said that buddhist teachings on interdependence
tend to be met with puzzlement by folks in the east, who perhaps have
no need for it.  The early teachings seem to view dependence on others
as somewhat of a necessary burden. These days interdepence is taught
more as an ideal to aspire too, or something that needs to be seen as
it is - since it is an unavoidable fact.  But it's viewed in a
positive light rather than as a burden.

Oddly Thich Nhat Hahn is the biggest non-western proponent of
interdepdence.  He was exiled from vietnam.  (They recently let him
back in)  Maybe his perspective arose as he attempted to deal with his
own isolation?  I don't mean this as a psychological analysis, but it
would seem to explain his popularity in the U.S.

-DaveK