East and West - ways of perceiving

East and West

East is east and west is west, and neither shall the twain meet

East or West is not referred to as a region or geography (though geography confirms this viewpoint). East is referred to a ‘way of looking’, which is different to an alternative way of looking (west).

West sees Nouns, East Verbs. East sees substance, whereas west sees Objects.  East looks for similarities in substance, while west sees them in shape. The west sees a collection (merger), while east sees it holistically as a whole, as a collage.  Western mothers tend to us more nouns, while Eastern mothers tend to use more verbs. English language (a western language) use a lot of nouns to describe things. Mothers in East talk about ‘doing’ – sit, run. Why is there the difference between a noun or verb focus? Would you like to drink more? (East) against westerns, “Would you like more Tea? (Stressing the noun tea). A noun in west is a being, while in East it is arising. 

Cause and effect in a western world is seemingly complex. Cause resides within the object. Atom for example is part of matter in western thought. It is thought that the property of an object lies within the atom of the object. The nature of the property determines its structure. So a rock sinks, because of the property of the rock against a piece of wood, which floats.  This holds the notion that the property controls the behavior. A person looks happy whether with happy people or sad people. There are indifferent to the context.

In Eastern mind, the causes are outside the property of the object.  People can be kind and rude depending on the behavior of the other (the external cause). In contrast, Easterners see the opposite when the background is changed ( happier or sad collection of people). The property of the object changes depending on the field (the situation). 

Focus is on the object in the west, East spends more time on the background and try to determine the relationships. 

Western portraits have narrow backgrounds (the object is magnified), in East the background is balanced.  Easter children describe their homes from a bird’s eye view while western children draw from their own their own personal view. 

Panda and a Monkey may be grouped together (similar nouns) while a banana and a monkey go together in terms of relationships (an Eastern view). Easterners select a wooden cylinder to a rectangle of wood (same substance) while westerners select a wooden Cylinder to a steel cylinder ( as it looks similar). 

West sees the world as separate individual objects and use Collective nouns to group the objects. Categorizing supports building of knowledge. And leads to study of science. The beauty of an object comes from the proportion of each part: the golden ratio rule. Reason itself derives from the word ratio. For Easterners the world is a big field: all connected. Each one is expressed in each other.