I can imagine the interaction. Indian yogi: I have a higher state of consciousness that allows me to do magical things like fly through the sky, turn invisible and know anything at all with my mere intention.
Greek: OK, let's see you do something that the rest of us cannot do. Yogi: Well, er, uh, it doesn't work that way because of the need of the time and because you Greeks are not pure enough to support miracles. Greek: OK, then just give us one single piece of knowledge that none of the rest of us could know without your special state of mind. Yogi: Well, uh, er, I can see everything in creation as an expression of my inner being and Self. Greek: Yeah, we have guys claiming that here too, it is not a popular philosophy. Anything else that could support the claim that you are in a special state of mind? Yogi: I feel really good inside myself and think of myself in the highest possible way as an enlightened being on earth. Greek: (Stepping backwards carefully) Yeah, well. OK then, thanks for your time, good luck with that and let's just keep future discussions to the topic of spice trading. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote : Yes, the direct contact of the Greeks with the Indian yogis was an exciting moment in world history. Unfortunately however, the Greeks - and Western Civilization - had just embarked, with Aristotle and his Formal Logic, on a different developmental path, that precluded understanding of Indian thought, so those who were influenced by it were necessarily not the mainstream thinkers. That path led to our modern technological phase of civilization. It would take more than 2000 years, and Hegel with his Dialectics, for Western thought to take a decisive turn toward the Eastern. Maharishi's achievement of propagating TM the West is one consequence of this turn.
