Tag: hinduism

Elephant Epistemology

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Ceramic sculpture of Lord Ganesha hiding among the shrubbery.

How perspectivism can make you a better thinker 

Ceramic statue of Lord Ganesha hiding among shrubbery
Photo by Chinna Hyderabad Jalsa

Storytelling is one of my favorite ways to communicate ideas. I remember stories more easily than I remember boring lectures.

Have you ever heard the story of the blind men and elephant?

The story goes like this: several blind men approach an elephant. The first man grabs the elephant’s trunk and thinks that it is a rope. The second touches the elephant’s leg and thinks it is a tree. A third blind man touches the elephant’s ear and thinks it is a blanket.

The story goes on like this. Each of the blind men has a piece of the truth, but none of them can see the whole elephant.

My elementary school librarian introduced me and my classmates to this story as a child in the form of the children’s book Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young. In the book, the role of the blind men is played by mice. I remember thinking about it a lot as a child.

I’ve heard several different versions of the story since then. I discovered through research that the story has its origins in the folk mythology of the ancient East. It was popularized in the West by John Godfrey Saxe, who called it “A Hindoo Fable.”

The story is currently used by the Peace Corps to teach about cultural differences. It’s also a great story for teaching perspectivism.

What is epistemology?

Most Americans barely (if at all) even know what epistemology is, but it affects each of us in our daily lives in countless ways. For those who don’t know, epistemology is the branch of academic philosophy which deals with knowledge production.

Epistemology is what helps us distinguish the ideas we consider to be factual and true from the ideas that we consider to be subjective opinions. It helps us establish the “Overton Window,” the socially acceptable boundaries of the arena of public discourse.

Nietzsche and Eastern Philosophy

When I was going to college for philosophy and doing research on Friedrich Nietzsche, I found lots of evidence that his epistemology and ethics were influenced by Eastern thought.

I first read Thus Spoke Zarathustra when I was about twenty-two, and I found the spirit of the book to be too similar to stories from Hinduism and Buddhism to ignore. The protagonist of this book is named after Zoroaster, an Iranian prophet similar in character to many of the Buddhist Bodhisattvas.

In the story, Zarathustra speaks to a dwarf who I recognized as resembling Vamana, an incarnation of Vishnu, who is the preserver and balancer of the universe in Hindu mythology. Vamana made sense to me as the deliverer of information about eternal recurrence in Nietzsche’s mind, as Vishnu is the upholder of moral order and associated with time.

Another avatar of Vishnu, Krishna, declares himself in the Bhagavad Gita:

“I am mighty Time, the source of destruction that comes forth to annihilate the worlds.”  

Like the god Shiva, who is better known for being the the “destroyer” of the Hindu canon, Vishnu is often depicted with snakes, or nagas in Sanksrit. Shiva is usually depicted as holding a snake named Vasuki wrapped around his neck while Vishnu is often depicted as reclining on a snake named Shesha. Shesha represents the fabric of space and time in Hindu metaphysics. 

Snakes are associated with the eternal cycle of death and rebirth in Hinduism, and also in Western culture in the form of the Ouroboros symbol, the snake eating its own tail. I believe this mythology was part of the inspiration for Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence.

Perspectivist Epistemology 

When I was in my late twenties, I started doing further research about Nietzsche and Eastern philosophy, and I began to seriously consider the elephant story again.

Part of what separates Eastern perspectivism from Western Kantian epistemology is the idea that the noumenal world (the “real” world that is never fully knowable to us through empirical observation as the blind men in the elephant story) is at least partially knowable through introspection, like the kind encouraged by Eastern meditation practices. 

Arthur Schopenhauer, one of Nietzsche’s influences, made a similar argument.

I found that this story, while helping me to explain Nietzsche’s perspectivism, also provided an eloquent introduction to Eastern views on epistemology more generally. 

Western philosophy is more likely to tell you to look outside yourself for an answer to a philosophical question, while Eastern philosophy is more likely to tell you to look within yourself. While this might seem self-centered on the surface, in practice, it actually leads to greater empathy and understanding of opposing perspectives. 

When I looked at both Eastern Philosophy and Nietzsche’s ethics, I found mostly Virtue Ethics, which are basically just theories about how to be a good person. Virtue Ethics is also a theme throughout many stories about Eastern sages: they tend to be tales about the many different ways that there are to be a good person.

You can’t have ethics without epistemology, as it determines where you get and how you interpret the information on which you base your values. You can’t have epistemology without ethics, because your values inevitably guide your knowledge-seeking. I think that virtue ethics naturally follow from a perspectivist epistemology. 

Eastern Philosophy and Nazis

For Nietzsche, a misinterpretation of his perspectivist epistemology resulted in his ethics being misappropriated and warped by Nazis.

Nazis learned about Eastern philosophy from Nietzsche and from a Hindu woman named Savitri Devi. They used Nietzsche’s work as a vehicle to misappropriate and warp the principles of Eastern philosophy that Nietzsche admired. Some of these stolen ideas became part of Nazi philosophy and culture.

This was some of the most effective political propaganda ever created. Centuries earlier, European Colonialists used the same kind of ideological misinterpretations to exploit the Hindu caste system. Both this and the Nazi misinterpretations of Hindu ethics influence modern Hindu nationalism and Nazi occultism.

I think that the Nazis wanted to appropriate and smear Hinduism because Eastern asceticism, like fascism, preaches a disciplined lifestyle. The difference is that Hindu ascetic discipline comes from within, while fascist discipline is forced on a population by corrupt authority figures.

The Nazi misinterpretation of Hinduism is fundamentally a misinterpretation of what it means to be powerful. Nazis preached the power of the boot and the fist while Hinduism preaches the power of self-discipline and fearless compassion.

Smearing a symbol

Probably the most commonly known example of this philosophy mistake is the story of the swastika symbol. The symbol adopted by the National Socialist Party in 1918 originated as a Hindu symbol for peace. There are also many similar-looking symbols in other cultures.

The swastika is sometimes thought to be originally based on the swirling shape of galaxies in the cosmos, or on the shape of the movements of the sun in the sky. Because of the Nazi smear-job, the symbol seems to be permanently associated in the public consciousness with Adolf Hitler and the atrocities of the Nazi regime.

So why is epistemology important?

Mistakes like this are common throughout history in both philosophy and science, and they serve as ridiculous and terrifying examples of why the disciplines of philosophy and science need each other and always will.

Epistemology is a critical intersection of philosophy and science, because it’s the part of philosophy that convinces us that we should trust science in the first place, and whose science, and why. It’s also a critical intersection of philosophy and politics because it tells us which politicians we should trust and listen to, and when, and why.

When the consequences of a philosophy mistake are the facilitation of the literal Holocaust, it makes sense to pay attention to how that mistake was made and how to avoid that mistake and other mistakes like it in the future.

That’s what I’m aiming to do by telling you this story.

A horrible epistemology mistake led to the peaceful, compassionate philosophies of the East being misinterpreted by Westerners (and some Easterners) as the building blocks of literal fascism.

I want to show you how to avoid making the same kind of fatal mistakes in your own thinking, and how to correct them when they happen.

Elephant Epistemology

Another thing about elephants: it is said that they have excellent memories. It is said that they “never forget.” I’ve never forgotten the lesson of the elephant story.

Now, every time I think about my own epistemology, I start by thinking about the elephant. Since my perspective as a single human being is limited, I can only perceive one part of the elephant at a given moment.

When I begin pondering how much I know about something and why I know it, I keep in mind that the other perspectives on whatever I’m pondering are probably different. That doesn’t mean that what I’m seeing is right and what others are seeing is wrong or vice versa, just that I have to keep an open mind to the parts of the elephant that I can’t see.

The thing about life is this: just when you think you have it figured out, there’s always more to the story.

How to use Elephant Epistemology

By talking about the history and practice of epistemology in a more casual and less academic format, I’m hoping to get people interested in a way of seeing the world that will broaden their perspective and empower their ethics and decision-making.

The sad truth is that people mostly think about their own perspective and the perspective of those like them in most situations. That’s not the best way to get an accurate picture of what the world looks like.

The best way to do epistemology like an ancient Eastern sage is to gather your knowledge from a variety of viewpoints and to try to think from the perspective of each of those viewpoints.

It’s the old story of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. The other person might be living, dead, or not even a person at all. Try thinking from the perspective of a plant or animal, for instance (maybe an elephant?). Then you’ll start to get a feel for the kind of epistemology that I think is effective for producing good knowledge.

Remember that, like the men in the story, your own perspective is always going to be limited to whatever part of the elephant is near to you. No one is omniscient (not even God, in my opinion), and learning is best approached with as much humility as you can muster.

A word from Lord Ganesha

In the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata, the Hindu god Ganesh is creatively credited as the one who wrote down the tale as dictated to him by the Hindu sage Vyāsa.

The elephant-headed god Ganesh is depicted in the story as having written down the story with one of his tusks, which he removed and dipped in ink after the feather pen he was using broke during the dictation. This story highlights the importance of the elephant in Hindu culture as a symbol of the processes used to obtain knowledge and wisdom.

Ganesh is seen in the Hindu faith as the placer and remover of obstacles.

An important lesson from this story about Ganesh: when you are searching for the truth, you will always encounter obstacles. What’s really important is your ability to overcome these obstacles and adapt your thinking to your changing perspective on a changing world.

Keep the elephants of Hindu mythology in mind as you embark on your journey to find the truth.

The West Desperately Needs More Eastern Philosophy

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Americans would benefit from more diversity in their spirituality

monk greeting the sunrise with “namaste”

Photo by THÁI NHÀN

I feel like being a spiritual or religious person is almost becoming taboo in my culture. People who are really into their religions tend to be seen as eccentric by your average, reasonable person.

Religion can seem a little crazy to anyone who is rational, and I certainly understand why. But I think a lot of people are sort of missing the point when it comes to religion. This isn’t their fault! It’s based on a lack of education on the matter.

I think it’s time that religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism made a serious comeback in the West. I’d like to see the histories of these religions taught in schools more. I’d also like to see their philosophies taught in colleges more alongside the plethora of Western traditions available to college students.

Religion isn’t really about the supernatural. It’s about the natural. It’s a way of explaining the vast beauty of the natural that is beyond human comprehension. Eastern traditions helped me understand that, and I think they have the potential to help many people understand that.

Religion, in general, needs a comeback

Religion can offer a lot of things that many modern Westerners are really missing in their lives, like a sense of purpose, stronger connections to their local and/or faith community, a higher degree of self-mastery, and a greater ability to understand oneself.

A lot of people are sort of burnt out on religion in the US, where I live. Some of them have had bad experiences with it. They aren’t very willing to consider it as a possibility when it comes to life changes that could have a positive effect on their quality of life or on their family or community.

Religion, when done right, in my opinion, should make you a happier and better person. It can and certainly has been done wrong throughout history. It has also been done right on many occasions.

Religions and religious people have also done an immense amount of good in the world. I believe that we are undervaluing this potential for good in modern societies, especially in the West.

Religion can be traumatic and a lot of people hate it

Something I’ve noticed about all religions is that they all tend to preach peace, but the folklore and history behind them always tends to be wrought with violence. I think that people misunderstand their religious texts and believe that the violence of the Gods is something that is meant to be wielded by human beings.

Many Americans have religious trauma from growing up in major religions like Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. There are also a variety of cults that reside in the West. I’ve met a lot of people who have left religions or cults, often complaining of things like sexual abuse, psychological abuse, or ideological hypocrisy.

Personally, I’m not totally clear on what separates a cult from a religion besides the number of followers. The two seem pretty similar to me. I think that most people join cults because they are looking for meaning in their lives. The negative social connotations around cults come from the fact that cults are often scams which advertise spiritual meaning but don’t provide it to their followers. Religions can, unfortunately, be the same.

All faiths have good things and bad things in their histories and current practices. There will always be predatory or sanctimonious people within pretty much all of these communities. There will always be religious groups that will be nonfunctional as far as giving people the personal answers they seek on their spiritual journeys.

Changing religions can help

Some people become atheists or agnostics when they leave religion, sometimes because they’ve lost their faith in God or the divine. People also sometimes do this because of the bad experiences they’ve had with being raised in a religion or cult or with joining a religion or cult as an adult.

Some people still believe in the divine or in God but don’t want to associate with the religion, cult, or other spiritual group that traumatized them or to be reminded of it. Or perhaps there are things about the belief system or religious practices of the person’s religious alma mater that just don’t sit right with them.

It’s possible to feel negatively towards religion because of certain experiences you’ve had but also to still benefit from religion and spirituality. Offering Eastern traditions to people in the West gives them the chance to experience religion, spirituality, and philosophical questioning in a new way that might feel or function better for them.

Eastern traditions mostly preach peace

While there is violence in both the scriptures and history of the East, just like there is in both the scriptures and history of the West, Eastern traditions have a big emphasis on peace and nonviolence. Many Buddhists and Hindus, for example, are vegetarians and are vegetarian as an act of compassion towards animals. These kinds of acts of compassion are encouraged in Eastern traditions.

Eastern traditions have a lot in common, philosophically, with Western traditions, like the idea that stealing or murdering is wrong or the idea that prayer will produce good results in your life. They really aren’t that different, but I think some people get confused about things like their personal ethics when they learn them from Western traditions.

Something about Eastern religions that drew me to them more than I was drawn to Western religions is that I found it easier to make a connection between the religious practices and the positive results in my life. Certainly, this kind of tangible connection is possible in any religion. A Muslim might get a sense of community and belonging from daily prayers with other Muslims. A Christian might find a sense of purpose by feeding homeless people or caring for the sick. A Jewish person might gain a sense of personal identity from their Bar Mitzvah rite of passage.

Religious diversity and tolerance are good things

I think that different religions have a better chance of causing tangible positive changes in people’s lives based on what kinds of practices and beliefs are best suited to them. Everyone is different.

For me, certain beliefs and practices ring true and serve me better more than other ones. I think this is true for many people, partly because of how there are differences in the ways that different people’s brains work and because people have different life experiences and preferences, more generally. It’s kind of like “learning styles”– certain people “learn” religion better in different ways because that’s how they are wire.

More diversity in religion and better tolerance of different religions and religious practices would, I think, give many people an incentive to pursue a spiritual path. Spiritual paths can be long and winding. They aren’t always happy or fun, and sometimes they can be scary or painful. Doing spiritual work in your life is worth these risks, and people deserve as many opportunities as they can get to do that work.

Eastern religions can cut out the middle man

One thing that led me to Eastern spiritual practice is the idea that practice is often possible without the aid of a priest, monk, or other religious official. Something that people often don’t discover for way too long of a stretch on their spiritual path is that the answers they are looking for are usually available through internal reflection.

Eastern traditions, like meditation, encourage the kind of internal reflection that is necessary for spiritual growth. They also don’t necessarily require that you go to church or consult some kind of guru in order to have a relationship with the divine. They encourage a relationship with the divine that I feel, at least for me, is more personal. I think that more Western religious leaders could and should take note of that and encourage that kind of divine relationship in the faithful who follow them.

No one can really tell you who you are, what to believe, or how to behave in the world. Only your God or Gods really truly have that power. If you’re an atheist or agnostic, one thing you might have an easier time doing than most religious people is recognizing the strength of your internal power.

Personally, I believe that God/s lives within all of us and that everyone has access to spiritual truth through their own thoughts, words, and deeds.

If Christianity or Islam hasn’t been working for you, try Buddhism or Taosim! If you’ve just left a religion or cult, try reading religious scripture or making up your own religious rituals. You might find that some of the things you previously found fulfilling or comforting about your spirituality are still there! You don’t have to give it up entirely.

If you’re an atheist or agnostic, and you’re looking for more structure or meaning in your life, I’d recommend giving spirituality or religion another try. A belief in an anthropomorphic or wrathful supreme being actually isn’t necessary. You might also find that many religious practices work great when applied to a secular lifestyle!

Westerners: please give the peaceful traditions of the East your attention and consideration. I can’t promise anything, but you might find something there, even if it wasn’t what you were looking for.

Previously published on wordpress.com and medium.com

The Overwhelmingly Vast Majority of Hindus Are Not Nazis 

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Stop confusing the two!

very pretty statue of lord ganesha
Photo by Sonika Agarwal

Explaining my religion is complicated. I was raised Wiccan or Neo-Pagan, and my family on that side is mostly Catholic. My family on the other side is mostly Protestant. I am a practicing Hindu. 

I came to be a practicing Hindu, not through simply deciding to be a Hindu, but by pursuing religion and spirituality in an abstract way, which led me, ultimately, to religious beliefs and practices that were consistent with Hinduism. I explored the world, I explored different spiritual practices, and I ended up repeating the ones that worked for me the best. Gradually, I found myself doing things like chanting traditional Hindu mantras and praying to Hindu Gods, and I began to identify as a Hindu. 

My current religious practices are a mix of how I was raised, Neo-Pagan practices, and the religion that I found on my own spiritual path as an adult, Hinduism. My Hindu practices are mostly consistent with a branch of Hinduism called Shaivism, and with a branch of Buddhism called Vajrayana Buddhism. I learned from research, after adopting many of my current practices, that my Buddhist practices have pretty obvious roots in ancient Vedic Hinduism. I’m also into Chaos Magic, but I don’t think that’s inconsistent with any of my other beliefs.  

I went on a quest to learn about the religion that I had found I was already practicing, because I wanted to engage with it more fully with on a spiritual level. On my quest, I did a bunch of research about Hinduism. I found it to be strangely associated with Nazism, largely through the influence of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on a woman named Savitri Devi and Devi’s influence on Hitler and the the Third Reich. 

I no longer buy the narrative that Devi was Hitler’s Nazi priestess or the idea that that Nazism has any real roots in Hinduism. Nazism is built, in part, on horrific misinterpretations of Hindu philosophy, which honors the cycle of death and rebirth and the unique roles that living beings play during their time on the planet Earth. 

My theory is that Devi was basically Hitler’s hostage, and that her real beliefs about the world were twisted by Hitler to fit his Nazi ideology. Either that, or she became confused, as Nietzsche had been when learning about Eastern philosophy through the influence of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer studied Eastern philosophy, and one of his main takeaways was an Eastern interpretation of the concept of compassion. 

Compassion in Eastern traditions is a kind of compassion that more deeply understands the experience and mindset of the individual who is not oneself. Compassion in Western traditions is often associated with submissiveness and cowardice, and not honored or explained in quite the same way as it is in Eastern traditions, except maybe, through Western religions, sometimes. There are similar concepts of compassion and peace in Christianity, for example. 

Devi and Hitler, like many Hindus, were vegetarians. It would seem that they had some kind of compassion for the natural world. And yet, Hitler’s regime led to the torture and slaughter of millions of people.

This isn’t the kind of thing that my Hindu or Buddhist practices advocate for, and the confusion of the two, in my opinion, should be included in the list of Nazi crimes against humanity, as this kind of cultural erasure is, in itself, an act of genocide. The swastika, for example, which is important in Hinduism and also exists in many other cultures, has now come to globally symbolize Nazi philosophy. 

Hinduism, and the many Eastern faiths that have been spawned by its ancient Vedic roots overwhelmingly focus on practices of peace, nonviolence and self-discipline. Philosophically, they tend to focus on the importance of cultivating of love, compassion and understanding for all living beings on Earth. 

The self-discipline and personal growth aspects of the Hindu faith, I think, are where the Nazis began twisting Hindu philosophy to fit their nefarious ends. One theme in Hinduism is repetition, like the repetition of mantras and certain tasks. This kind of repetition leads to the kind of mastery of different skills or disciplines that would be valued in Nazi philosophy. This kind of repetition in the natural world leads to literal evolution. Practice might not make “perfect,” as they say, but you can’t deny that you usually get better at something if you do it a bunch of times. 

Evolution, I think is what the Nazis were attempting to force with their torture and killing of millions of people. I don’t think that their propaganda and ideology, which attempted to convince the world that huge populations of people were worthy of indiscriminate punishment based on their immutable physical characteristics or social classes alone, expressed their true goals. Their true goal was to place stress on humanity and to traumatize it in such an irrevocable way that it would be forced to evolve in a new direction. The cruelty itself was the point. 

If the Nazi goal was to create a version of humanity that was objectively better, I don’t think the path they chose to get there was effective. Humans, because of our powers of self-reflection and our ability to plan for the future, are different from the vast majority of living beings on this planet. Because of our differences we wield immense power. Massively traumatizing us, as through war, will not necessarily cause the kind of evolution we want. Sometimes trauma causes growth in people, but much more often it makes them terribly ill. 

War has made us sick as a species, and further traumatizing us through further wars will not force us to evolve fast enough to save ourselves from ourselves. We need to find a different approach to reigning in the chaos of humanity. War is everywhere. It’s even in the streets of my hometown, and it could always come to the streets of yours. 

We will not solve the world’s problems by torturing the populace. Every act of torture is an experiment, and every failed experiment runs the risk of becoming an act of terror or a horrific crime against humanity. Torturing people might make them stronger or more compassionate sometimes, but it’s a high stakes gamble. That’s not a bet that I’m willing to take for the sake of creating a better or stronger humanity. It doesn’t seem like it will work! 

People often get confused and think I’m a Nazi because I’m talking about Hinduism, or about Nietzsche or Schopenhauer or because they see the Hindu symbols tattooed on my body. I’m not really offended by this misunderstanding because I understand where it comes from, but I think it’s a shame that Westerners are being deprived of the wisdom that my religion and other religions like it have to offer by these unfair negative cultural associations between Hinduism and Nazism. 

Colonization in the East by the West began in ancient times and the warping of these traditions by the West has continued since then. It’s almost like the power of real, authentic love and compassion that is behind these traditions is too much power for the colonial West to allow anyone to hold besides itself. 

For the record: Hindus are not Nazis. 

We are mostly peaceful, and we often even take our peacefulness to extremes. I’m an extremist in some ways, and I know that means I won’t always get along with everyone. But I’d rather be an extremist for love, compassion, and peace than an extremist for hatred, bigotry, and war, and I just want to make sure that everyone knows which one I am.