SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

APPENDIX I *WESTERN INTEREST IN BUDDHISTMEDITATIONa. Reasons for Western Interest inBuddhist MeditationFor man, the most important thing is life. Life is alwayschanging, flowing, and it is the matrix from which new lifeis created. Anything without life is dead. Life has creativity andvitality as its essential elements. Originally, all living thingsembodied creativity and vitality. But eventually, over manyyears, they become rigid, form-ridden and dogmatic. In Declineof the West Oswald Spengler (1880 Ð1936) wrote that the Westhas civilization but no culture. This weakness has now becomeapparent in politics, economics and science.Many taboos have emerged in social convention and traditions.Techniques and machines brought about the industrialrevolution; man has been taken up into the cogs of machinery* Some of the information here seems only a summary of previouschapters, but there is also additional material.103