The Difference Between Eastern & Western Thinking

What are the fundamental differences in how eastern and western philosophies view the world? Is it possible for one psyche, one person, to deeply understand both?

Fresh off a visit to southeast Asia in 1937-38, German psychoanalyst Carl Jung was asked to comment on a Tibetan Buddhist text about the nature of mind. What he actually wrote is something far bolder.

The first part of his essay, "The Difference Between Eastern and Western Thinking," lays out a few key claims:

1. Everything we know reaches us as a psychic image; the world exists for us only insofar as the mind can picture it. The differences between the eastern and western subconscious, then, are of the same essence as the material world.
2. East and West are temperaments as well as doctrines. The West is extraverted: truth and redemption come from outside, through facts or grace. The East is introverted: mind is the ground of existence, and liberation is self-liberation.
3. Neither can simply adopt the other. "You cannot mix fire and water." A Westerner who imports yoga wholesale is only satisfying his acquisitiveness again. The way to understanding the truths of Eastern thought runs through our own unconscious.
4. Self-liberation has a catch. The unconscious compensations that transform us cannot be produced at will. Jung argues that the West's dependence on "grace" encodes a psychological truth the East overlooks.

At the heart of both, though, is a common theme: "The extraverted tendency of the West and the introverted tendency of
the East have one important purpose in common: both make desperate
efforts to conquer the mere naturalness of life."

Expect some friction... Jung generalizes freely about "Eastern man" and "Western man." He compares both Nazism and Communism to religious movements. He plays fast and loose with ideas like "consciousness" and "ego." He aims to refute reductive materialism.

There's plenty to discuss.

Required Reading
Part 1 only, "The Difference Between Eastern and Western Thinking" (§759–787), from Collected Works, Vol. 11, Psychology and Religion: West and East. It is 29 paragraphs and may take 40–50 minutes.

Just this article: *https://drive.google.com/file/d/1grUI4SzN_kINzGUkmMt7dmaacWxEeSBF/view?usp=sharing*
Full Work: *https://www.jungiananalysts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/C.-G.-Jung-Collected-Works-Volume-11_-Psychology-and-Religion_-West-and-East.pdf*

No background in Jung is necessary, and all are welcome even if you aren't the sort of person who ordinarily comes to a "philosophy meetup." We'd love to have you.