Eastern Heart, Western Mind

Som Bhandari
Pennsylvania, America

I used to see the phrase “eastern heart, western mind” almost every day in newspapers pasted onto the filmy bamboo walls in a few of my neighbors’ and relatives’ houses. That beautiful phrase captivated me, provoking contemplation for a considerable amount of time. I usually found the phrase somewhat mysterious, and I made attempts to explore its actual meaning. Gradually, I have examined the weight this phrase carried and the meaning it conveys. Although I have been observing and analyzing conflicts between the East and the West for some time, it has just recently occurred to me that many people in the West act with their minds, while most people in the East generally follow their hearts before succumbing to what their minds dictate.

To support my curiosity about what the Eastern Heart and Western Mind phrases entail, I found consensus among learned people that people in the West tend to act with mind and immediate impulses as opposed to people in the East, who act from the heart in tune with mind and body. The West has made tremendous advancements in many fields and has made much progress, yet Westerners have unstable relationships and are known to be less happy because they are accustomed to changing their minds very quickly. Divorce rates are startlingly high, depression and suicide incidents are frequent, and individuality and selfishness abound. Westerners are better described as risk-takers. Easterners, on the other hand, are comparatively poorer, yet they tend to have more stable relationships and are considered to be happier. Eastern people are hesitant to act upon the mind’s fleeting temptations, fearing risky consequences. The Eastern people look for inward peacefulness, and Western people like to search for peacefulness outwardly.

The East is gradually intermingling with Western lifestyles and trendy mindsets, yet many Eastern people classically focus on tranquility and inner peacefulness far and wide through transcendental knowledge acquired from highly revered scripts. Shrines and doctrines have aided rewarding outcomes through Yogas and Sadhanas. Material comforts, money-mindedness, and shallow discourse on religions alone do not stabilize their frayed souls in the West that were more likely than not candid in the East. Rather, there is a possibility of saturation, perversion, and mind desensitization due to material comforts. The true meaning of “Dharma” is narrowly confined to understanding nearly commercialized “Religions” today.

Material comforts and electronic products (smart phones, iPads, iPods, tablets, computers, TV to name a few) can likely dull people’s senses, leading them to religion without meaning, and culture without values. People can fake it as if they are all right. With exception, the majority of the people cannot alert others since there is freedom of choice and people don’t want to admit the resulting degrading gradual consequences so easily.

The rapid industrialization, scientific discoveries, innovation, and fierce competition have revolutionized the whole world. Over time, when science achieved successes in things that the common human once dubbed impossible, people began doubting the role of God. More and more people relied profoundly on their creative innovation and innate talents to keep working for the desired outcome rather than rely on predestined “fortune.” Over time, the term “deed,” which actually means “karma” in Sanskrit, has now become clouded due to its lack in the commercialized economy of the West. Karma teaches people not to indulge immediately in monetary gratification. For almost all Western people now, the existence of God has become a debatable issue.

Eventually, the West turned out to be more like a materialistic society and the East remained comparatively more spiritual. I learned that a long time ago, some religious domains had oppressed Western society as the chief keepers and holders of truth. Scientific projects and findings had no respect then. When the scientific thinkers, atheists, and humanists finally overcame the clutches of religious society, they began to oppose and disregard many of the morals and lessons of religions.

Over several decades, science went to unprecedented lengths to refute religious teachings and their validity. Through passion toward science, invention, and competition for world conquest, the West leaped to great heights of advancement. However, we are seeing a growing number of Western spiritualists who are eager to align themselves with Eastern faiths and philosophies. Although the existence of God is a topic of debate, some renowned scientists have emphasized that God is real. However, numerous scientists and many learned people have favored not being confined to any particular religion. Regardless, science can be meaningfully understood as the boon of god that men skillfully explored.

Even in today’s scientific age, we hear evidence of supernatural powers from those who made fortunes and achieved miraculous things. They credit their successes to faith in God. It may be polemic to say that God created mankind with certain individuals inherently gifted with innate talent. Whether man agrees or not about the existence and role of God, he is amazed at nature’s grandeur. Through curiosities in different objects, geographical landscape, climate, space, motion, nature’s bounty, living organisms and varied other forms of life, men invented and explored new things.

Some of the things that men invented and explored have revolutionized the whole world, but many of them have been misused and abused or at least the threats of misusing some of the greatest inventions such as bombs and missiles have scared the humans on Earth. By conquering space, land, and water, man has felt victorious beyond imagination. However, he could not defeat death. Creating even a single blade of grass has been difficult for mankind. Yet, atheists deny the supernatural power that designed such a grand ecosystem. Numerous people are fascinated by the Big Bang Theory that science postulates as evidence for the origination of heavenly bodies and eventually, life on Earth.

Remarkably, atheism is on the rise in the Western Hemisphere, where material advancement and comfort equally abound. In recent decades, the atheist population in the East has risen as a result of the impact of worldwide digital revolution. Eastern philosophy emphasizes the mind-body-spirit connection whereas as previously mentioned, the West tends to act on mind and immediate satisfaction.

By chasing the mind, Western countries advanced rapidly in many fields with the additional consequence that people have become restless. Overtime selfishness and individualism have replaced values of family unity, socialization, co-operation, shared responsibility, and a harmonious relationship within one’s given community. The pursuit of quick riches has become the primary focus, as many people believe that acquiring more material possessions leads to greater happiness. People tend to change their minds often. People are likely to distrust one another. Consequently, relationships suffer and divorce rates skyrocket.

It seems to me that people in the West are not as profoundly happy as they should or could be. Perhaps Westerners focus too much on perfection, particularly beauty and body shape, which ultimately makes their ideas of body image questionable. In the long run, relationships suffer. Hence, we see so many fleeting and unstable relationships, which make couples bitterly unhappy. In the East, on the other hand, holistic life matters a lot. Many developing countries of the Eastern world pursue life-enriching ideals and philosophies. Due to widespread poverty, material possessions are a luxury that’s too costly to achieve. More and more people in the East prefer pluralistic thoughts and family-oriented life-styles that share successes and sorrows.

In the East, an individual’s success in life is often determined by conformity with the family expectations, distinct group values and standards instead of being determined by unique individual virtue. The idea of seeking independence and pursuing individual merit is often attacked sarcastically. It is not easy to find individuals with a strong sense of self as their identity is strongly influenced by family and group expectations. Although the younger generation wants to claim more independence, a collective approach to fit or do certain things still dominates.

Traditionally, Eastern society tends to reward conformity and group harmony but restricts individuality. The idea of conformity is reinforced from an early age. The group is given more importance than the individual because groups determine people’s identities. An exceptional person is considered an outlier and that person is looked down upon. Individuals have to adjust to well-defined traditional rules and roles. This kind of mentality kills the seed of creativity. As a result, not many Asians have achieved international prominence. They do not express their opinions as openly or freely as their Western counterparts.

The East focuses more on the unity of the soul, mind, and body. Spiritual happiness precedes material comforts in many Eastern countries, and it is considered morally unacceptable to act out selfishly and individually. Married families in the East don’t break up as often as those in the West due to a sense of shared responsibility and family loyalty.

The Bhagavad Gita and other sacred books highlighted many important themes long ago that still resonate today. The Gita explains that people should not become enslaved by human senses and material desires but instead master them. Hindus find many religious, spiritual, and social lessons applicable everywhere and on every occasion in a person’s life.

On one hand, electronic devices, the World Wide Web, and social media have made distant connections and learning easier. They have essentially made the world smaller through networking and have helped people increase their productivity manyfold. On the other hand, people are acting weird, and they have become engrossed and addicted to man-made electronic products, video games, social media, and the Internet. Man is tempted to text and drink while driving and suffers damage, injuries, or even death. Smartphones, Facebook, and alcohol don’t cause these problems; it’s how people use them.

Having said all this, I am not writing to discredit the roles and general attitudes that have shaped the Western nations, but highlighting what they have done for those in danger from abuse, violence, discrimination, poverty, and hunger.

Western nations have reached out to the corners of the world to help refugees and victims of terror while other immediate nations have hesitated to become involved; Westerners have cared for those people who were evicted from their homeland, they have given life to those who were almost killed, they have spoken and advocated for victims’ rights and freedoms, and they have offered security as much as they could.

Some people in Western societies constantly promote religious tolerance and serve others with a sense of humanity. Fearing interference over one’s freedom, the Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, must have written the words, “freedom to practice religion or not at all,” so that any citizens could worship any God they like. Some believers honor their own God at heart if they have faith but they don’t boast that theirs is the only way to God and hate those who promote the superiority of their own religion. They understand and respect different religious beliefs, cultural values, and collectivistic or individualistic attitudes. They do their best to provide space for others to keep their respective values.

The problem we have is, we don’t meet these people very easily, frequently, or abundantly. Nevertheless, it will be worthwhile for Easterners to become proactive to keep up their Eastern values if they are to form the supportive communities necessary for our success in the new societies we live in.   As an Easterner, I see it is very important to find a way to keep up traditional values, to discard some outdated ones, and to accept new values as well. I think this is how we may find the essence of ‘Eastern Heart, Western Mind.’

 

[Som Bhandari is the author of Chasing an Unknown Destiny, published in 2024 – Editor]