Chapter 4: The Culture of Eternal Life The Purity of Our House The separate Ways of the East and the West are founded on
the two independent impulses (or circuits) of the autonomic
nervous system. These two impulses or circuits are
experienced daily by every human being. Indeed, both
impulses are active in every moment of bodily existence, and
the bodily test of Man is a matter of whether or not the two
divisions of the autonomic nervous system can achieve and
maintain a functional harmony. However, we function with a tacit presumption that there
are in fact always two alternative modes of attention, or
thinking, or bodily behavior, in every moment of our
functional existence. These two modes are the modes of
extroversion (or outward-directed attention and motion) and
introversion (or inward-directed attention and motion). And
these two alternative modes of acting or “being” correspond
exactly to the two functionally independent impulses in the
autonomic nervous system. Thus, human beings may be characterized, according to our
observation of them in any moment, or in their general
pattern over time, as relatively extroverted or relatively
introverted. If a person exhibits the “hot” or extroverted
tendency, the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous
system is dominant. And if a person exhibits the “cool” or
introverted tendency, the parasympathetic division of the
autonomic nervous system is dominant. These same mechanisms account for the basic personal and
cultural divisions in the human world. The male is more or
less associated (at least traditionally) with the
extroverted character, and the female with the introverted
character. Likewise, the occidental or Western cultural
style is traditionally extroverted, and the oriental or
Eastern cultural style is traditionally introverted. Just
so, the primary method of knowledge and of cultural
enterprise in the West is extroverted, scientific (or
technological), and analytical, whereas that of the East is
introverted, mystical, and intuitive. Man as a species and mankind as a process are both
properly understood only when viewed (and exercised) as a
totality, or an integrated whole. Man and the natural world
are truly a dynamic or living play, not a self-divided
machine of death. Therefore, the great cultural divisions in
the human world must constantly yield to the motive of unity
and energetic harmony, just as the male and the female must
yield to one another in self-transcending love. Those who speak of an irreducible “Western mind” and an
equally irreducible and opposite “Eastern mind” are simply
bereft of true understanding of themselves and of Man, and
they are not turned to the ecstatic and single motive that
is native to the universal Life-Energy and to the central
nervous system of Man. There must be a personal and a universal cultural
synthesis of human functional energies. The dynamics of
personal and cultural existence must constantly and
creatively work toward a living unity-otherwise the play of
Life becomes a kind of warfare in which self and other are
constantly brought to the brink of destruction. The natural
divisions of the autonomic nervous system and of the two
hemispheres of the human brain-mind must not be permitted to
create a self-divided Man and an irreducibly divided
world. Therefore, the creative and truly human task of Man, in
the form of any individual, any group or community, or in
the form of the total world of humanity, is to overcome
self-division, conflict, and destructive motivations. The
separate motives of the two structural halves of Man may
seem to demand self-divided conflict in any moment, but the
unity of the whole body (and the central nervous system)
must constantly be accepted as the prior and dominant
Principle of action. Indeed, the acceptance of the personal
and cultural Principle of inherent and ultimate unity
(rather than inherent and ultimate self-division) is the
distinguishing characteristic of the true Man and the true
culture of Man. We must accept the discipline of self-knowledge and of
critical understanding of all of our personal and collective
motivations. Such is the very least of human wisdom that we
should expect of one another-and of all our leaders. It is
time for this. It has long been time for this. Now is the
time for all of us to purify our houses and embrace one
another in the square.
Scientific Proof – Table of
Contents