THE THREE STAGES OF WESTERN INTELLECTUAL THOUGHT.. my short summary

 Western Intellectual thought does not denote thoughts of the Western people, but a strain of philosophy which was born and nurtured in the Western world, adopted as their own by multitudes of people all over the world. Just as Yogic Philosophy, condensed in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras is eagerly adopted by people from Uruguay to Reykjavik!

The intellectual influences whether you grow up in Melbourne Australia or Bruxelles Belgium or Sao Paolo Brasil can be traced historically to an epoch of transformation in the Western mind. I was fortunate to be surrounded by jewish people who had left Europe fearing persecution. I could date our collective thinking to Renaissance.

What has Dr. Lopez who is a Cuban physician practising in Hialeah, Miami to do with Descartes, the French Philosopher.

The good doctor separates the mind from the body and attends to the signs and symptoms forgetting that an individual actually lives in that body. This mind-body dichotomy goes back and has greatly influenced the Western thought and is attributed to none other than our friend, the philosopher Rene Descartes.

 I think, therefore I am 

Descartes was the one who could, in the sixteenth century, separate mind and the body, the church, state and the individual. He also did away with the soul, ascribing it to the pineal gland in the body. We have to thank Descartes for putting an end to the Church hierarchy interfering in the affairs of the society, forcibly, sometimes by burning and execution, in the belief of the people (The Inquisition for example). This was also the birth of Individualism 

Thank you Descartes..

He was a devout catholic and somehow manage to balance his forays into philosophy (doubting every one of his senses but believing in his own existence) and fear of persecution by the church. Paradoxically he was called an Atheist by the Dutch Protestants.

The second stage was Le Penseur.. The Thinker.

Abstract thinking, innovative thinking, prodded on by what one saw in life at home and abroad 

I enjoyed this period in my life (continue to do so) when there was sheer pleasure of thinking, abstract thinking. Medical education does not allow you to indulge in abstract thinking: the pain in the abdomen has 120 different causes and the patient has one of them.

Fortunately Anthropology saved me.. Applying  Anthropology to Health and Illness, allowed you to deviate from What of Medical enquiry to Why of anthropological enquiry.

Education in Medical Anthropology has strongly influenced in my dedication to the Indigenous people.

the Third stage is Meditative..

Until a a decade ago, I was totally (and blissfully?) ignorant of Yoga, Yogic philosophy of Patanjali and teachings of the Buddha. It may have coincided with my increased frequency of travel to Asia but also meeting MYC who was to become my best friend in Asia. Buddha certainly arrived with the Shwedagon Pagoda to my mind and heart..My teacher, Cecil Helman, the Medical Anthropologist had mentioned Meditation and I had known people who had gone to India to do 10 days of Vipassana Meditation. Since i did not notice any great change in their ways of thinking after this experience, I did not pay much attention. 

A friend from Dali City, Yunnan kindled the desire for meditation along with study of Jiddu Krishnamurty. Sadhguru became universally popular. But it was not until I began reading Harari that I became interested in meditation.

Perhaps my admiration for Harari and my appreciation of his clear thinking has an effect on my meditative practices which are in its infancy.

I have become a bit more aware of the Reality and realize that it is my reaction to what is happening around, now what actually is happening.

I look forward to this. and to understand the isolation from places and people during this year of isolation. Now that I am fully vaccinated, I am making plans to travel but the practical matter is that few places that i wish to visit are safe enough to visit. Flights to Leticia from Bogota are cancelled for the fear of the Brasilian strain and that would have been one of my first destination.

ah well..