Western Science, Eastern Spirit: Historical Reflections on the East/West Encounter Martin J. Verhoeven Professor Verhoeven finds parallels between the Western attraction to Asian religions and the Asian attraction to Western technology, attractions that have been growing steadily stronger since the mid-nineteenth century. Dr. Verhoeven describes the contributions of the Japanese philosopher Sakuma Shozan (1811– 64), who adopted the slogan “Western technique, Eastern spirit” in his advocacy of modernizing Japan while preserving its ethical core. Similarly, American Buddhists have attempted to adopt Eastern meditative techniques while keeping to their Western postmodern spirit. Dr. Verhoeven shows how in both cases, the ethical or spiritual halves of these equations have been overwhelmed or trivialized by the desacrilizing forces of modern life. When our country neither knows what foreign countries know nor can do well what they can do, in the end our country will not be able to match them . . . . In order to strengthen our country and make the enemy countries fear us, I believe we must know what they know, be able to do well what they can do, and finally excel them. Eastern ethics and Western technique Complete a circular pattern Just as two semi-circular molds Form one mold. The girth of the earth is ten thousand li. One half of it should not be missing.1 —Sakuma Shozan, in a letter dated 1854 However much people today realize it, the encounter of Oriental and Occidental religious and philosophical traditions, of Buddhist and Christian and Hindu and Islamic perspectives, must be regarded as one of the most extraordinary meetings of our age. . . . Arnold Toynbee once wrote that of all the historical changes in the West, the most important—and the one whose effects have been least understood—is the meeting of Buddhism and the Occident. . . . And when and if our era is considered in light of larger societal
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