Quoted By:
This whole approach is horrible for anyone who is really willing to learn things and grow as a person.
This is not even a specific defense of mysticism or of eastern thought, though it may seem so given the example.
However, consider how somewhere, some culture has evolved a way of living, thinking and talking and that this thing is exotic to the western person. Consider then that you seek to define it by your lens, what is religion, what is philosophy, what is it that you can take it to your life and what is it that you can not. The major problem here is not in that division, but in not acknowledging that this division is made by your present self, from that place that you are now and thus, it projects itself into that possible knowledge, it haunts your future self who could supposedly learn something different from what you are now.
You are making concessions based on your perception of the world as it is, so it won't be challenged and thus, it won't be changed. If that is really the case, then you have nothing to do on foreing lands, you already know what you supposedly set yourself to learn. Your conclusions will be the same as your assumptions.
Western scholars of eastern thought have evolved much in the past century or so, precisely because the passing of time has shown what sort of biases were guiding previous western students of eastern ideas. If at one time everything was seen through a Christian lens, now it is from a secular one. But what is most important if one wants to learn, is precisely the ability to step on exotic grounds, into a vocabulary you don't use, into a way to see the world that you have not met yet, it is the ability to entertain these thoughts without the impulse to look away. This may be hard to do so if you only see things in terms of what you agree and disagree, what you accept or what you deny. What is mysticism, science, religion, superstition, culture, art, social rule, language or habit must show itself as it is, for what it is, as in integral whole that can help you not only understand how they live, think and feel, but how you think the world today and what other ways are there for you to explore.
Again, this problem is not specific of this subject. It's just like corporate self-help books borrows from everywhere, including eastern thought, to say the same things. If you want to learn something new, go all in and understand it from the inside out, otherwise it will just mirror that what you're thinking now. Allow yourself to see the other as someone who has something to teach you.
