Dualism in the East and the West

It has been a while since Onmyo-Do, Yin-Yang-ism, gained some popularity among young Japanese. Onmyo-Do, or at least its roots, is said to have come to Japan around the 5th century. Yin-Yang-ism surely belongs to dualism. Another member of this mailing list may have more information on the issue. What, however, interests me most is how dualism, or dualisms, has ranged from one place to another in the world. Zoroastrianism was born in the -6th century. It affected Manichaeism, which was born in the 3rd century, and later moved to China in the 7th century.Zoroastrianism had reached China a centry earlier. In Europe, from the 10th century to the 14th, there used to be Cathari Christians, whoes belief, according to what I learned in my high school days, has some dualism. Yin-Yang-ism dates back to Lao Zi in China, who is said to have lived in the -5th century. He is supposed to be one of founders of Taoism. All the ancient Chinese isms came to Japan around the 5th century. Onmyo-Do is said to have its origins among the imported knowledge. I wonder if all the distributed dualisms over the Eurasian Continent originated from one, or human beings have cognitive bias to conceive things in the dualism manner. Queerly enough, President Bush, who cannot be a heretic Christian, is seeing the world in a dualism way, and is distinguishing good countries from evil ones.

The Question is if We Can Export the Revolution or NOT

The U.S. government seems to have an intention to make Iraqi regime into a democratic one. The question is if the revolution, either of the democracy or of the socialism, can be exported, or not. Obviously,the history tells us we can't. Only when, I believe, a certain society is ready to transform itself on its own, the different outer societies can influence it by providing new ideas. Japan had, some argues, walked more than half way from physiocracy to mercantilism by itself during the Edo Era, which made it possible modernize, or Westernize itself after the Meiji Restoration. Even as for the democratization after World War II, we can claim Japanese people at the time had a certain degree of readiness to democratize themselves. The certain degree also explains why the democratization suffered a severe setback after the Korean War. The Japanese were not ready enough to be so democratic as some American people had hoped. What about Iraq? Everything is according to the will of Allah, at least there, not of the Lord, nor of the 8 million Japanese gods in the least.

Kishiwada Castel

We crimbed the stairs in Kishiwada Castle, or precisely speaking, of its donjon. The stairs are made of concrete, the windows have glasses, and a part of the castle even is air-conditioned. The third floor exhibits articles left by the owners of the castle, a warlord clan, Okabe. One of the exhibits dates back even to the Sengoku period, a turbulent age in Medieval Japan. The Okabe clan worked for the Imagawa clan in today's Shizuoka, who were defeated by the Takeda clan, which in turn was destroyed by Oda. One of Oda's alliances opened the Tokugawa Shogunate later. The exhibition tells only a little about how the Okabes hopped from one lord to another to survive. The fourth and top floor commands 360 degrees wide views of the Osaka Bay and Izumi-Katsuragi Mountains. The cool sea breeze let us forget the hotness below. Beneath, you can find a large rock garden. According to the castle's brochure, the garden shows "eight battle formation." Young princes might have learned how to make war. Kishiwada Castle is, with no doubt, the nearest one from Kansai Airport. Yet, it doesn't seem they are trying to attract sightseers from abroad. 15 minutes drive from hotels around the airport, it might be a last-minute chance for visitors who missed an opportunity to vist Japanese castles. It is closed at 5p.m. "No entrance after 4p.m." the brochure says. Why did they refurbrish it then? I miss the creaking wooden stairs.

Cross-Cultural Experience and the Development of Students' Cognition

School trips abroad became popular among Japanese high schools during the bubble economy in late 20th century, and are no less so even during the recession afterward. Countless reports and essays have been written either by the teachers or by the students who took part in the school trips abroad. Yet the argument has been neglected: how the trips works on students' development, or, even, if they works at all or not. The situation which caused the lack of the argument is very easy to understand. Under the pressure and stress from cons, who outnumbered pros in the closed Japanese society, the pros had no choice but to praise the trips. It is usually the case that pros try to praise one idea to the skies while cons try to beat the hell out of it. No reasonable argument. Yet, this is high time, I believe, we started arguing reasonably.
There may be 2 ways which may enhance students' cognition by encountering another culture. One is caused by moving one's view point: the other is learned through communication with another culture. First, we enrich our cognition by seeing things from different view points. When you move, your viewpoint moves. It is obvious that if you move your viewpoint physically, your object looks in a different way. If you move one step aside, what you see shows you another facet. What happens, if you move your viewpont culturally? When you move geographycally, you may see different nature and culture. Seeing another culture doesn't mean you are seeing things in a culturally different way. Stay in another culture for a while and go back home afterward, and you may see your own culture in a new way. This is what I want to call moving one's viewpoint culturally. It should be an aftermath to see things in a culturally different way. You must have moved your viewpoint culturally during the stay in another culture. The question is how the process have made its way. That is how your cognition has been changed. We see things in a culturally biased way, and would never realize our bias unless we encounter another culture.
Second, other people's cognition might enrich our way of cognition. Each culture provides its members with certain cultural schemas to help its members cognize their surroundings efficiently. In other words, we become members of some culture by learning corresponding cultural schemas from the earlies stage of our lives. We may be able to import other cultures' schemas by communicating with the people from other cultures, and to enrich our recognition. The question is whether the number of schemas will increase or the number of the sets of schemas will increase. People from different cultures cognize their surroundings with different schemas. If we can import schemas other than ours, we can increase the number of schemas we have. That is so called "to widen our perspective."

Cultural Viewpoint

When you move, your viewpoint moves. It is obvious that if you move your viewpoint physically, your object looks in a different way. If you move one step aside, what you see shows you another facet. What happens, if you move your viewpont culturally? When you move geographycally, you may see different nature and culture. Seeing another culture doesn't mean you are seeing things in a culturally different way. Stay in another culture for a while and go back home afterward, and you may see your own culture in a new way. This is what I want to call moving one's viewpoint culturally. It should be an aftermath to see things in a culturally different way. You must have moved your viewpoint culturally during the stay in another culture. The question is how the process have made its way. That is how your cognition has been changed. We see things in a culturally biased way, and would never realize our bias unless we encounter another culture.

Zen, Why in Japan

Buddhism was born in Northern India. Oddly enough, it is not prosperous in today's India. Zen was said to be started by Bodhidharma, a high priest in India who later moved to China. Queerly enough, Shaolin-si Temple in China, where Bodhidharma stayed until his death, is rather related to Kung Fu. Zen, a sect of Buddhism, is rather Japanese. It is still popular in Japan, and has been exported to the Western world via Japan. The truth is something to be felt while you are just sitting. It is implicit. That might have been sympathetically vibrating with the everyday feelings Japanese people have had. Friendship is something to be felt while you are just mingling together. Even love between lovers, not to mention between spouses, may be something to be felt while you are staying together, and is sung that way in some Japanese love songs too. They are all implicit. At least, so have they been until lately. The way friendship is taken in Japan has caused some problems. If you are not spending enough time with your friends, you can be supposed you are leaving them. That makes young Japanese hardly leave their Keitai, a cellular phone. They are always either sending e-mails or making phone calls. The relationship among Japanese people is getting more and more explicit. Yet, a peer pressure that you are supposed to spend unreasonably long time together is still alive. You may find it very UZAI.