Understanding the East

My Japanese teacher gave us an explanation on the eastern way of thinking. He mentioned the name Zen, but I'm not sure this is Zen philosophy. I can't remember everything he said; I guess I should have written it down as soon as the class was over. However, some aspects of it stuck in my mind. When I told my friends about them, they looked at me as if I had read every single book written by Paulo Coelho, but I think the Brazilian author is a huge cheap farce, so I had to make it clear that there was no influence whatsoever from him. I must admit it took me a long time to assimilate, as I can't deny I've grown up in a Western environment. However, I think I'm beginning to understand now. Basically, the idea is that westerners tend to focus on two things easterners don't: ego and problems. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

On this side of the Earth, one's ego is the most important aspect of our lives. We are supposed to be somebody in order to go on. Who are we, then? People are always looking for their identity —am I a skater? am I an artist? am I preppy? —when one should simply be. We identify ourselves with concepts as limited as subcultures or nationality, and as long as we keep on doing so, we will never grow beyond this 'roof' we've imposed over ourselves. We are, for example, Colombians, and nothing else. This is why we simply don't care about things that happen out of our little realm. We're not Iraqi, so we simply don't care about their pain. We're not Americans, so we don't care about their pain either (one of the kids whose Math papers I used to grade was sent to Iraq; did you think soldiers are Bush's robots?). We have a defined personality, a defined identity to stick to, which is not to change, ever. If you think you're shy, you will be shy, and you'll stay shy until you die. It's simply a roof you've imposed over yourself, a roof that doesn't let you go any further. I have my own roof whenever I say I'm incapable of interacting with people my age.

Another aspect of our egocentric culture is how our own self prevails over everybody else's. It's our own feelings what matter, our own needs, ignoring the rest of people. We (myself included) have chosen to ignore the fact that only as a team we will succeed. As long as we keep an exclusive cult to our own little self, disrespecting others blatantly, we will be stuck. This is where the second point we focus on comes in: problems. Westerners think negatively all the time. For every single idea or deed there is a 'but.' When we were told to go to school on Saturdays, we roared. "But it's a holiday!" When I told my friends about these things I'm writing now, Kitty said "But what if you're a miserable woman trying to look for food for your kids? Should you not think about your problems then?" I did not know what to reply then, but I do now. The answer comes with some background on what came before Kitty's rebuttal.

The professor says our problems' roots are the past and the future. As long as we are chased down by our past, tortured by our future, we'll never recover from our problems. There are no problems, only situations to solve. Kitty's question comes here. Well, the solution goes way beyond our own ego. A mother on the street trying to feed her hungry children is considered as a problem by the rest of us. Somebody should have done something about her, right? This whole country is crumbling down, and we simply sit down and talk about how big that problem is. However, our ego is way above all of this, which prevents us from working the situation out. What better example than Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I'm sure that if the Japanese followed the same trend of thought as Colombians, Japan would be no more than a filthy pit nowadays. I guess the clue is: feel the pain, but do not endure the suffering. Of course there was pain among the Japanese (what more pain than that?), but they got up, faced it, and worked out the situation. The outcome is known as the Japanese Miracle.

It's been historically difficult for us westerners to understand eastern cultures. It's been difficult for me to understand certain aspects of their life, even though I'm open to other cultures (I'm open, but I still have a lot to learn). I think these points, exposed by my professor, will definitely help me on my way to understand these people I want to deal with for the rest of my life.