Sunday, 22 October 2017

Eight Syntheses

Terminology
"Yoga is control of thoughts," i.e., meditation.
Karma = action.
Ch'an/Zen = Meditation.
Tao = the Way, based on negation and interaction between opposites.
Shinto = Way of the Gods.
Dialectics = interaction between opposites.
Materialism = "Being determines consciousness."

India
Jain soul pluralist asceticism;
Carvaka materialist hedonism;
Buddhist "no soul" middle way.

Yoga;
caste duty;
karma yoga.

China and Japan
Buddhism;
Taoism;
Ch'an Buddhism;
Shinto nature mysticism;
Zen Buddhism.

Europe
Hegelian dialectics;
Feuerbachian materialism;
Marxist dialectical materialism.

Utopian socialism;
political economy;
scientific socialism.

Dialectical materialism;
scientific socialism;
Marxism.

Eurasia
Zen meditation;
Marxism;
Zen Marxism.

The Eight Syntheses
Buddhism
karma yoga
Ch'an
Zen
dialectical materialism
scientific socialism
Marxism
Zen Marxism

From India: Buddhism and karma yoga.
From China and Japan: a refinement of Buddhism.
From Europe: Marxism, synthesizing two syntheses.

Zen Marxism synthesizes Zen and Marxism and updates the two Indian syntheses.