Summary : Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General System Theory The Dharma of Natural Systems |
|
This Book brings important new dimensions to the interface between contemporary Western Science and Ancient Eastern wisdom. Here for the first time the concepts and insights of general systems theory are presented in tandem with those of the Buddha. Remarkable convergences appear between core Buddhist teachings and the systems view of reality, arising in our century from Biology and extending into the social and cognitive sciences. Giving a cogent introduction to both bodies of thought, and a fresh interpretation of the Buddha's core teaching of dependent co-arising, this book shows how their common perspective on causality can inform our lives. The interdependence of all beings provides the Context for clarifying both the role of meditative practice and guidelines for effective action on behalf of the common good.
Joanna R. Macy is Adjunct Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley. She is the author of Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age; Dharma and Development; Thinking Like a Mountain : Toward a Council of All Beings (with John Seed, Pat Fleming, and Arne Naess); and World as Lover, World as Self.
Preface
Introduction
Part I : BACKGROUND :
1. Considering Causality :
i. Like the Air we Breathe
ii. The Linear Unidirectional Causal Paradigm
iii. One-way Causality in the West
iv. One-way Causality in Indian Thought
v. The Mutual Causal Paradigm in the West
vi. The Buddhist Vision of Mutual Causality
vii. The Reciprocal Hermeneutic of Buddhism and General Systems Theory
Part II: PERCEPTIONS OF MUTUAL CAUSALITY :
2. The Buddhist Teaching of Dependent Co-Arising :
i. The Central Role of the Causal Doctrine in the Dharma
ii. Linear Causality in Pre-Buddhist India
iii. Comparison with Western Linear Views
iv. Scriptural Presentations of Paticca Samuppada
3. Dependent Co-Arising as Mutual Causality :
i. From Substance to Relation
ii. No First Cause
iii. Syntax of Interdependence
iv. Reciprocity of Causal Factors
v. Abhidharmist Interpretations
vi. Paticca Samuppada as Interdependence
4. General Systems Theory :
i. Science's Problems with the One-way Causal Paradigm
ii. The Perception of Systems in the Life Sciences
iii. Cybernetics and the Concept of Feedback
iv. Systemic Invariances and Hierarchies
v. Systems Theory in the Social Sciences
vi. The Cognitive System
vii. Systems and Value
5. Mutual Causality in General Systems Theory :
i. The Transformation of Causes within the System
ii. Feedback as Causal Loop
iii. Negative Feedback Processes
iv. Positive Feedback Processes
v. Seeing Causes
Part III. DIMENSIONS OF MUTUAL CAUSALITY :
6. Self as Process :
i. Everything Changes
ii. The Illusion of Separate Selfhood
iii. No Clear Lines of Demarcation
iv. The Lethal Mirage
7. The Co-Arising of Knower and Known :
i. Perception as Convergence of Factors
ii. Consciousness : Conditioned and Transitive
iii. Information Circuits
iv. Shaping the World through Projection
v. Learning as Self Reorganization
vi. The Limits of Cognition
vii. Objectless Knowing
viii. Who is knowing?
8. The Co-Arising of Body and Mind :
i. Linear Views
ii. "Like Two Sheaves of Reeds"
iii. Two Sides of a Coin
iv. The Internality of All Systems
v. The Ubiquity and Particularity of Mind
vi. Beyond the Fear of Matter
vii. "Minding"
9. The Co-Arising of Doer and Deed :
i. Identity and Accountability
ii. The Question of Rebirth
iii. Kaya and Karma
iv. Structure and Function
v. Past and Present
vi. The Dharma and Determinism
vii. The Determinacy of Choice
viii. The Cognitive System as Decision Center
10. The Co-Arising of Self and Society :
i. Participation and Particularity
ii. The Interdependence of Person and Community
iii. The Dharma of Social Systems
11. Mutual Morality :
i. Concern for other Beings
ii. Tolerance and Iconoclasm
iii. Political Engagement
iv. Right Livelihood and Economic Sharing
v. Ends and Means
12. The Dialectics of Personal and Social Transformation :
i. Free to Reconnect
ii. The Tree and the Flame
"This book deals with a very important and contemporary topic- breaking out of casual patterns of a reductive sort into more holistic non-reductive ways of thinking and explanation. It also brings together Western and Eastern ideas combining a particularly important aspect of Buddhist thought with new Western conceptions. It belongs to movements toward global integration." - Henry Le Roy Finch, Hunter College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York