[Buddha-l] The course of Nature

[Dan Lusthaus]

John,

Nature with a capital N is largely an invention of the German Romantics
around the turn from the 18th to the 19th century.

Ancient Chinese thought (pre-Buddhist) had an idea of dynamic patterns
(reversions, progressions, etc.). Patterns were specific and intrinsic to
distinct things (e.g., Heaven, Earth, Man; earth, water, fire, wood, metal;
etc.), but each influenced the other. Interference could block or disrupt
these patterns. So, in a casual way, we might say there are "natural"
patterns which can be "artificially" disturbed. But they did not entertain
the idea of natural law that dominated in the west.

Buddhists devote little to no attention to such things, though in China,
eventually, some of the Chinese cosmological thinking did get adopted
particularly in more vernacular expressions of Chan (Zen). But generally for
Buddhists the ghost in the machine is karma, not natural laws put in place
by God.

Dan

----- Original Message ----- .
> Do I understand you correctly that there is, to your knowledge, no
Buddhist
> equivalent to the notion of 'the course of Nature' (or the 'evolving
process
> of Nature')?
> John Willemsens.