Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encounters with Eastern Religous Traditions (Library of Perennial Philosophy) [Paperback]

Harry Oldmeadow (Author)

Book Description

Series: Library of Perennial Philosophy | Publication Date: April 28, 2004

Journeys East tells the story of the twentieth century's encounters between East and West by exploring the lives of many of the most fascinating scientists, intellectuals, artists, and spiritual seekers of our time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

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

From the Publisher

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

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Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: World Wisdom (April 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941532577
• ISBN-13: 978-0941532570
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,719,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Harry Oldmeadow was born in 1947 and as child spent nine years in India where his parents were missionaries. He studied at the Australian National University, Sydney University and St Johns College Oxford. He is currently the Coordinator of Religion and Spirituality Studies at La Trobe University Bendigo, in central Victoria, Australia. His principal interests include the perennialist movement (as exemplified by René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, Titus Burckhardt and others), mysticism, the spiritual encounter of East and West, primal traditions such as those of the American Plains Indians and the Australian Aborigines, and the environmental debate. His recreational interests include hiking, photography, reading and following the Collingwood Football Club. He lives with his wife and three dogs on a small property in Mandurang, outside Bendigo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Ground-Breaking Masterwork, July 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encounters with Eastern Religous Traditions (Library of Perennial Philosophy) (Paperback)

I can only concur with Prof. Huston Smith, who writes about this book "This is the most comprehensive, engaging, and responsible treatment of the advent of Asian thought to the West that has ever been written -- 'Journeys East' will be indispensable for students of comparative religion".

This extraordinarily well written work ranges across enormous terrain covering more than 100 years of intellectual history reflecting the influence of Asian thought on major 20th century philosophers, artists, spiritual seekers and adventurers. Although it is a serious work of scholarship, reflecting astonishing depth and breadth of erudition and great sensitivity to the subject matter, it is also a highly readable book which will fascinate any reader who is even marginally interested the impact of Eastern thought on the Western mind.

Following Prof. Oldmeadow's previous introduction to the Traditionalist school, "Traditionalism: Religion in the Light of the Perennial Philosophy", this new work brings him into the ranks of the most important historians of religion in our day.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a defense of Traditionalism not promised by the title, October 19, 2005

By 

Wyote (Seoul) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encounters with Eastern Religous Traditions (Library of Perennial Philosophy) (Paperback)

The title of this book suggests that it is a history of 20th century Westerners studying or practicing Eastern religious traditions. Really, the first 330 pages of the book deliver just that, and they do so very well. I was pleased to get good biographical information about figures such as the Theosophists, Jung, Campbell, Eliade, Marco Pallis, D. T. Suzuki, Allen Ginsberg, Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, Bede Griffiths, Ken Wilber and many others. In fact, I really would've enjoyed more of that: more extensive accounts of their lives, their thought and what influenced them.

That section of the book gets five stars from me; even though the sections are way too short and shallow. Figures such as Jung, Merton and Watts, not to mention many others, deserve a richer coverage than this. Nevertheless, the breadth of the coverage is very nice. It is a fine introduction.

I nearly deducted a star even in the first section because the author does not see his task to be one of history, but of evaluation according to Traditionalist criteria (elaborated especially by Schuon and Nasr). He is concerned to report about whether these figures fulfilled the Traditionalist ideal, which in my opinion is a distraction from the more interesting account of what they did, taught and what influenced them.

In the last hundred pages or so, he slips into a defense of Traditionalism and an attack on methodological materialism. I've also recently read Huston Smith's Why Religion Matters, which had this project as its sole subject, and I think that's the better way to handle it.

Essentially, the issue is how to study religion academically. Generally, practitioners and believers of religious traditions study in order to better understand the values and teachings of their tradition, rather than to understand mere historical or psychological contingencies. On the other side, many scholars want universities to be sites of skepticism and questioning rather than indoctrination; but that is inevitably a secular approach. The struggles between the two sides disturb the faculties of many religious studies departments.

I was underwhelmed even by Smith, but Oldmeadow's discussion never rises above sermonizing. I think he anticipated having a sympathetic audience, because he did not address any of the reasons that people disagree with him. He presents ridiculously parodied visions of science and philosophy, casually blaming them for all the ills of industrialism and commercialism.

It would be enough for me to say that I disagree with him; but I want to emphasize how unfairly he presented science and philosophy, and wonder why.

Quite often, in fact, he attacks evolution not only as a cultural or spiritual theory (where it is very questionable), but in biology itself. He claims to have no quarrel with the actual findings of science, merely with the way they are interpreted. That seems to imply that we can search for interpretations of scientific facts to fit our nonscientific intuitions (moral and mystical, for instance).

However, (p. 358):

"[I]t is preferable to believe that God created the world in six days and that heaven lies in the blue skies above the flat surface of the earth than it is to know precisely the distance from one nebula to another whilst forgetting the truth embodied in this symbolism, namely that all phenomena depend on a higher Reality which determines us and gives our human existence meaning and purpose. A materially inaccurate but symbolically rich view is always preferable to the regime of brute fact."

That is a fascinating admission, and ultimately this is why I will remember this book (although I will happily return to its better parts for reference).

Is it not better, I would ask, to know the brute facts and face them honestly, and then to discover and elaborate their rich symbolic, spiritual potential?

I would answer affirmatively without hesitation, and look for inspiration to examples such as Chet Raymo, Loyal Rue, Ursula Goodenough, Carl Sagan or Ed Wilson, perhaps even Brian Swimme, not to mention stars like Einstein. That is on the scientific side of the question, with which I am well familiar.

His portrait of philosophy was just as unfair; in order to do it he had to pass over figures as central as Wittgenstein and as relevant to the stated theme of the book as Jaspers.

The greater part of this review has focused on content in the last 100 pages of this book. The first two-thirds of the book, when he generally stuck to the theme announced by the title and subtitle, were very interesting and deserve the customary five stars of Amazon reviews. But the final pages are not only irrelevant, but so poorly argued, if they were meant to be an argument rather than a sermon, that they deserve one star at best. So I compromise.

I want to close by emphasizing again that the first 2/3 really are a good introduction to the subject, and if that's what you want you'll find it there.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take a Journey East, August 13, 2005

By 

L. J. McKinnon "Christian Platonist" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encounters with Eastern Religous Traditions (Library of Perennial Philosophy) (Paperback)

"Journeys East" deals primarily with Western responses to Eastern wisdom in the 19th and the 20th centuries. Written from what can be broadly called a traditionalist perspective (i.e. agreeing fundamentally with the philosophical perspectives of René Guénon, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, and Frithjof Schuon), this is a profound and comprehensive guide to the interaction between Western thinkers and seekers of the modern era (Carl Jung, Joseph Needham, Bede Griffiths, et al.) and the traditional wisdom of the East (encompassing India, Tibet, China, Japan and South East Asia).
As an undergraduate my twin majors were in Studies in Western Traditions and Chinese Studies. I saw nothing inherently conflicting in studying the best of both East and West (and contra Kipling have found that they often meet). During this time I was lucky enough to study under Kenneth "Harry" Oldmeadow, and this book conforms to the high standards that I have come to expect from him both as a teacher and a scholar. "Journeys East" is an entertaining and philosophically challenging reference source for those who either wish to learn more about those modern Westerners who have studied Eastern religions in depth, or who wish themselves to make a journey East of their own.