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View Buddhism Essay The academically inclined often choose to view Buddhism as an outgrowth of environment or preexisting religions, but Dhammanda (2002) observes that this does not accord it recognition as an intellectual approach to reality. As such, Buddhism is the evolved result of religious and philosophical development derived from a pragmatic form of introspection which yields an emphasis on mental development that evokes the intellectual stance of the scientific method. Verhoeven (2001) notes that, because modern science is regarded as difficult to reconcile with the religious orthodoxy of Western culture, the growing Western interest in Buddhism is largely predicated on its potency as an â€Å"alternative altar† that may seek to fulfill the need to acquire a religious code that can reside comfortably alongside post-Darwinian science. Watson (2001) remarks that exponential progress in the fundamentals of cognitive science have resulted in an increased reception towards the Buddhist tradition, which is preoccupied with the varying modes of human experience. Part of this sudden appeal comes from Buddhism’s remarkable empiricization of psychology and philosophy, which asserts that the emotional well-being of man is contingent upon his ability to realign his perspective on experience and use this realignment to bring about positive change. But the other more crucial component to this sudden appeal is that Western science has begun to reconsider the traditional mind/body binary which situates consciousness within the brain and the body as anatomic extensions of consciousness. As Watson (2001) notes, â€Å"the mind is not just a program in the brain, but [†¦] its processes are distributed throughout the body.† However, Verhoeven (2001) cautions that we should be careful not to equate the resonance between Buddhism and Western science with absolute paradigmatic compatibility. While â€Å"adapting new and unfamiliar Buddhist conceptions to †¦ Western thought† may enrich the field of science, he warns that this also â€Å"threatens to dilute [Buddhism’s] impact and distort its content.† Still, Watson (2001) reasons that Buddhist’s real potential to enrich science is not its quasi-logical structure, but its attempt to propose an epistemology that is not rooted in dualism. â€Å"†¦Its purpose is †¦ to relate to an embodied way of being.† To this end, Buddhism endorses an engagement with the world that is based on process and agency rather than on products and essences. As such, Buddhism’s greatest boon is its potential to confer centuries of results in the domain of first-person experience to further the sophistication of the West’s third-person research. This receptive approach extends beyond enabling the flexibility of fundamental notions of reasons and into the theoretical framework which governs the production of art. Conventional generalizations regarding Eastern and Western art propose that, where Western art give emphasis to form and verisimilitude, Oriental art places an emphasis on abstraction and the representation of the spirit. Under such a dichotomy, the philosophical orientation of Western art is geared towards the imposition of meaning over reality, whereas Eastern art either yields to the primacy of forms, or chooses to receive it as a source of interpretation rather than a tool for representation. Lieberman (1997) proposes that aesthetics in Western art is used to establish a link between the emotions of the artist and the audience. The Western artist accomplishes this by working within the intersection in which form and content operate to produce meaning to create mood. As such, verisimilitude to real forms is not merely a question of creating â€Å"aesthetically pleasing reproduction[s],† but expressing a personal reaction to them. He then contrasts this with Zen Buddhist art, noting that it forgoes verisimilitude in favor of using the simplest possible means to express the â€Å"the inherent nature of the aesthetic object.† As such, regardless of aesthetic peculiarity, any form may inspire painting, be expressed through verse or utilized in music, rather than insisting on dogmatic notions of what can be utilized or expressed in them. (Lieberman, 1997) Lieberman (1997) quips, â€Å"The job of the artist is to suggest the essence, the eternal qualities of the object, which is †¦ a work of natural art before the artist arrives on the scene.† Achieving this goal comes from comprehension of the aesthetic object’s inner nature, what Lieberman terms to be â€Å"its Buddha nature,† and essentially promoting an inquisitive engagement with aesthetic forms not unlike the scientific endeavor. The fashion by which Buddhism enriches civilizations lie in, not merely its ability to open up the modes we engage in science and art through inquisitiveness and receptiveness, but in the fact that these cultural gains are extensions of an entire philosophy which promotes the thinking power of human beings. As Dhammanada (2002) observes, it effectively frees them from the dogmatic approach to life resulting in fanaticism and myopic thinking and â€Å"produces the feeling of self-reliance by teaching that the whole destiny of humanity lay in their own hands, and that they themselves possess the faculty of developing their own energy and insight in order to reach the highest goal.†   REFERENCES Dhammanada, K. S. (2002) What Buddhists Believe. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia. Lieberman, F. (1997) Zen Buddhism and Its Relationship to Elements of Eastern and Western Arts. Retrieved May 16, 2008 from: http://arts.ucsc.edu/faculty/lieberman/zen.html Verhoeven, M. J. (2001, June) Buddhism and Science: Probing the Boundaries of Faith and Reason. Religion East and West, Issue 1. Pp. 77-97 Watson, G. (2001, January) Buddhism Meets Western Science: A dialogue on the mind and consciousness. Religion and the Brain, Issue 19.