West, meet East. Dharma is not Philosophy.
Two forms of logic systems have been developed in the world, one in Greece and one in India. The logic that was developed in the west gave birth to western science and the system that was developed in India gave birth to Dharm. Both have fundamental differences, the first being; western system understands that the conclusion comes at the end. Which makes sense, in general. We will search for truth, the search will come first, followed by a process and a conclusion will come at the end. Therefore, a western mind will first think and search and then give a conclusion. In India, it is the exact opposite. India says that what we are trying to search has always been there, it doesn’t manifest after our search is over. The truth that will come forward was there before we began the search; before we found it. It is the same before we know it and after we had known. When found, truth only manifests in our experience, it isn’t created. The truth was there before we were, that’s why the Eastern logic states the conclusion first, then the methodology and the process. In the west, the process comes first, then search, then a conclusion. People who reach truth by thinking and logic will find the western method to be appropriate. It’s like finding something in the darkest of the night with a tiny lamp. Darkness is vast, the night is long and the lamp is small. We can’t see more than a few steps ahead. All the conclusions taken on whatever is seen are tentative, unstable and impermanent. Which means that, in some time, something will appear that will make it necessary to change the conclusion. Then something else is found and that conclusion has to be changed again. That’s why the western science that follows the greek logic system can never arrive at a final conclusion. All the inferences are temporary and impermanent. They will change with what we discover tomorrow. There is no truth of the west that is absolute and complete. Which is funny as truth cannot be incomplete, as whatever is incomplete is false. What we have to change tomorrow is not true even today, we just perceived it to be so. That which we don’t have to change can only be the truth. What the western mind calls truth basically is the false based on our present knowledge which will change later based on what is discovered tomorrow. The eastern way is not about finding truth by carrying a lamp. It is like striking of lightning in the same long dark night. Lightning makes everything visible simultaneously in an instant. Not searching something today and then adding something else more tomorrow, but a revelation, everything at the same time. All roads stretching to the horizon, all the trees, mountains, rivers, the entire landscape, everything appears in that flash of lightning. So there is no place to change anything in it. Everything has been known all at once. What we call logic in the west, is the search for truth by thinking. In the east, what we call realisation or Pragya is a counterpart to the western logic, call it intuition. A witnessing by consciousness. This Pragya is illuminating like the striking of lightning. So, the truth comes forth as it is, whole and complete. There is no change to change it. That’s why there is no scope of changing what the masters in the east have said. What they have found are truths revealed in the lightening of thoughtlessness. They are knowing the truth all at once, not one step at a time. That’s why, in the east, we declare what truth is and how it can be experienced, explained and learned is dealt with afterwards. One who understands what the declaration is, nothing new will be revealed to him. But the same thing will be said in multiple ways for those who are adamant on finding truth with a lamp. In lamps light, we discuss truth one piece at a time.