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Book Name: Philosophia Perennis, Vol 2Previous     Next
 

philosopher eagerly scribbled notes while they toured the market.

At last they arrived at what the Cannibal King said was their most prized department human brains. As they walked slowly down the aisle, the philosopher noted the following signs: "Explorers' brains -- ten cents-a-pound"..."missionaries' brains -- twenty cents-a-pound"..."businessmen's brains -- one dollar-a-pound"..."commanding generals' brains -- ten dollars-a-pound". The very last item had a display case of its own and its sign was especially large: "philosophers' brains", it read, "fifty dollars-a-pound!"

The philosopher could scarcely contain his delight. Unable to restrain himself, he turned to the Cannibal King and smugly inquired as to how it was, that of all the items in the super-market, philosophers' brains were by far the most expensive.

"Come, come, my good man," said the Cannibal King, "do you know how many philosophers we have to kill just to get one pound of brains?"

Modern philosophy and the modern philosopher is just worthless. It has lost it's peaks: it no more moves into the beyond. It is neither science nor religion. It is just a very confused affair today.

For Pythagoras, science is a search for truth in the objective world and religion is a search for truth in the subjective world -- and philosophy is a search for the truth. So science and religion are like two hands or two wings. They are not opposites but complementaries. And the world would be better if we were reminded of it again.

The church, the temple and the lab need not be enemies. They should exist in a kind of friendship. Man will be far richer then. Now, if he chooses science he becomes rich outside and goes on becoming poorer and poorer inside. If he chooses religion, he becomes rich inside, but goes on becoming poorer and poorer on the outside. And both are ugly scenes.

The West has chosen science; it has all the riches of the world, but the man is completely lost, feeling meaningless, suicidal. The man, when he looks inside, finds nothing but hollowness, emptiness. The inner world has become very poor in the West.

In the East, just the opposite has happened:

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