That's simply not true. Asian culture had a tremendous influence, even if somewhat misunderstood or reinterpreted, on the West. Our exam system in universities is inspired by the Chinese. People like Voltaire did admire Confucius' way to (not) talk about God. Leibniz was impressed by Yi-king's numerical perfection. Etc. (I agree that the zen-this and dao-that we have nowadays is an uninformed Western distortion, though).
Edit: And I dislike the quote in the article. I read Daode Jing many time, in different translation, and I don't remember having seen this. Anyway, any quotation of Chinese classics that do not give the reference is deemed to be a joke (like those Confucius said jokes).
It's in Chapter 27 of Stephen Mitchell's translation. It's by far the most prominent recent English Dao. I like Mitchell's translations, but when he strays into editorializing he makes me cringe. (Also - an irrelevant pet peeve - he or his publishers came up with one of the most obnoxiously hubristic titles I've ever seen in "The Gospel According to Jesus").
I agree with your main point. Not only has much come West, much of value has come West. For example, I consider the Wilhelm-Baynes I Ching to be a masterpiece. Our civilization -- heck, my life -- has improved immeasurably by exposure to the Sanskrit and Chinese classics.
On the narrower point of California Buddhism and similar spiritual trends, these do seem to me to be all about rebellion against Western religion, so they're tied up (often unconsciously) in issues that have nothing to do with the models they seek to emulate. In fact both of the two great spiritual trends going on right now -- the other being aggressive atheism -- seem like attempts to fill the same void. Presumably these will give way to other trends over time. My guess (could be totally wrong) is that people will eventually rediscover their own traditions.
Someone who worked at one of the big Zen institutes in San Francisco told me that they were visited by a highly regarded Japanese teacher who walked in on a large room full of silent meditators, hung out for a while, then angrily yelled "You're all looking for God" and stormed out.
> It's in Chapter 27 of Stephen Mitchell's translation. It's by far the most prominent recent English Dao.
If we talk about the first sentence in this chapter (http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?l=Daodejing&no=27) I fear I can't agree. Waley's translation reads "Perfect activity leaves no track behind it", which is way too far from "A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving". The Chinese text is straightforward and the context present no difficulties. Word to word meaning is "good, walk, no, tracks" and the actual meaning is about doing things the natural way, avoiding artifices, avoiding to leave "human prints" on the world, a very common rant in Daode Jing.
Agree with the rest of your comment. I'll add the rebellion against Western religion is frightening, because those who spit on Christianism today could be the fanatics of tomorrow.
You can't agree that the sentence quoted is from Mitchell's translation? I assure you it is.
I say nothing as to whether it's accurate or not. I wish I could read the original like you. One of my dreams, in fact, is to do so someday.
"Good walk no tracks" is actually a fine translation as far as I'm concerned. It communicates a great deal, leaves a lot of interpretation out. It has that quality of mystery-combined-with-practicality which is essential to the whole book. I wish they'd publish a literal translation like that. Maybe you should!
Incidentally, can you also understand the original text of the I Ching? And commentaries on it?
The I Ching is not exactly a text, it is more like a beautifully organized list of named symbols, with their first-hand commentaries (attributed to Confucius), and comments on these comments (like in HN threads). The overall picture draws an interesting landscape of evolving configurations, but I fear some comments on the symbols may have lost their meaning, so no, I can't understand I Ching.
An exam system, Voltaire and something that impressed Leibniz don't seem very fundamental impacts to me.
The fundamental ideas in Eastern thought do not seem to have made any penetration whatsoever in Western culture.
For example, the Eastern removal of self consciousness doesn't really exist. Eastern forms of thinking haven't introduced anything new in the West. Hindu veneration for all forms of life equally doesn't exist, except perhaps for some philosophers such as Singer that most don't take seriously.
Can you point out anything truly fundamental in our culture that has come through Eastern thought?
That's simply not true. Asian culture had a tremendous influence, even if somewhat misunderstood or reinterpreted, on the West. Our exam system in universities is inspired by the Chinese. People like Voltaire did admire Confucius' way to (not) talk about God. Leibniz was impressed by Yi-king's numerical perfection. Etc. (I agree that the zen-this and dao-that we have nowadays is an uninformed Western distortion, though).
Edit: And I dislike the quote in the article. I read Daode Jing many time, in different translation, and I don't remember having seen this. Anyway, any quotation of Chinese classics that do not give the reference is deemed to be a joke (like those Confucius said jokes).