Existentialism and Eastern Philosophy

It is always interesting to me how the West can misquote and misinterpret some of Eastern teachings.

Existentialism as interpreted by Camus and especially Nietzsche unfortunately has led to some seriously arrogant egomaniacs like Hitler who believed that he was Superman…taken from Nietzsche, who took the term of superman from Indian philosophy while removing the cosmic aspect of it, implying we are all gods and can do what we like.

Indian philosophy says that if god is in us we can only access him/her by acting like the goodness he/she is.

We are responsible for our actions says Camus. There is only death, the abyss so do what we like. Don’t bother looking for meaning of life as there isn’t any. This thinking leads either to amassing money (why not) or suicide by folks who can not come to terms with impermanence of life and see no point in it.

In Indian philosophy we are a drop in the ocean…and there is an ocean of light, radiance and so on that we also need to be accountable to. We can call it God or Universe or whatever but it is the realization that we are here on earth to grow and learn and the meaning can be experienced through various methods such as meditation…Life is MUCH larger than man…

Kierkegaard was a theologian who had an experience back than and could say, sometimes you just need a leap of faith,when you reach the abyss, if you are not capable of experiencing. The intellect is not cut out for this kind of understanding.