"Trevelyan had been meditating upon his philosophy." (p. 146)
"Meditation" has different meanings and some of them are opposites. Apparently, "discursive meditation" involves thinking about, e.g., a scriptural passage whereas zazen, "just sitting meditation," is "neither trying to think nor trying not to think, just sitting, with no deliberate thought." (I am quoting a passage that is recited in our meditation group before the practice of zazen.)
"Philosophy" can mean either conceptual understanding or an attitude to life. Thus, contemplating the implications of an understanding or of an attitude might count as meditating on a philosophy? And maybe I meditate in this sense as well as practicing zazen? There is no agreed terminology in such matters and maybe there cannot be.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The word "philosophy" makes me think more often of a systematically organized "conceptual understanding. The examples I've thought of being the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Scholasticism, etc., in the West. Oriental examples would be Buddhism and Confucianism.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Plus six orthodox and three unorthodox systems in Indian philosophy. The three include Buddhism.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Somehow I never seem to remember Buddhism originated in India. Most people don't associate Buddhism with India, after all. My vague impression is that most Buddhists in India are Tibetan exiles.
Ad astra!Sean
Sean,
That is so. But Buddhism existed long enough in India to become classified as an unorthodox philosophical system and some Hindus regard the Buddha as an incarnation of the god, Vishnu.
My Buddhist friend in Birmingham is in what was called the Western Buddhist Order. However, it has spread back East, including to India, so it has changed its name because it is no longer just "Western."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Considering how Buddha himself was at least agnostic about God or "gods," he would not agree with those Hindus calling him an incarnation of one of their gods!
I would not have changed the name of the "Western ?Buddhist Order." Keep the name to indicate where it originated, where it came to have its own distinct ideas.
Ad astra! Sean
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