The Asian Mind/The Western Mind

[aron]

Originally Posted by awareness

Lifton in his book "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China," he speaks to this:

"Lifton also interviewed 15 Chinese who had fled their homeland after having been subjected to indoctrination in Chinese universities. From these interviews, which in some cases occurred regularly for over a year, Lifton identified the tactics used by Chinese communists to cause drastic shifts in one's opinions and personality and "brainwash" American soldiers into making demonstrably false assertions."

Think of the young Lily Hsu: she had Mao's Red Army on the one side, and Nee's Little Flock on the other; both claiming absolute mastery of not only her body but her heart, mind and soul as well.

[zeek]

A process of theosis or divinization like that of Witness Lee or the Eastern Orthodox Church is central to the religious Taoism of the Chinese.

"Unlike Chuang Tzu's way of indifference toward life and death, the Classic of Great Peace declared that between heaven and earth longevity is of the most value and it is possible for everyone to reach immortality. It argued that among slaves and servant girls the wiser can become good people, among good people those who like to study can become virtuous people, among virtuous people those who study ceaselessly can become sages, and among sages those who study ceaselessly can recognize the door of the way of heaven. If after entering the way they still study ceaselessly they become immortals; if they continue they reach the truth;if they continue further they become gods; and if they continue still further, they become the same shape as the Emperor of Heaven. [Our Religions. Edited by Arvind Sharma. Copyright 1993 by Harper Collins Publishers., Chapter 4 Taoism by Liu Xiaogan, Ph.D. visiting scholar in the Department of Religion at Princeton University, page 256]