SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

The Coming World Culture 5philosophy. Its fountainhead is Indian culture in which there isboth the idea of infinity and the inherent immaculacy or emptinessof all form.Neither scientific Western culture nor religious Easternculture can, by itself, be considered complete. In Oriental culturescience is necessary; in Occidental culture, religion. Here isthe key with which we can bring about the synthesis of the Orientaland Occidental cultures. Both cultures, while preservingtheir special characteristics, must possess the magnanimity tocontinue to search for what is good and to remove from its midstwhat is not. The future world culture must have as its foundationa religious spirit which embraces science. Science is built uponhumanistic thinking which in its essence means respecting,educating and liberating humanity, thus including at once boththought and action. The object of science, in accordance withthe demands of humanism, is the happiness of mankind.Likewise, religion has the responsibility of bringing aboutthe salvation of mankind by finding the cause and the cure ofsuffering. It is the force which sustains human existence and isderived from the deepest recesses in man. Thomas Carlylecompared religion to the eternal stars in the sky: as the darknessof night covers the earth, the brilliance of the stars grows everbrighter in the sky.Although we must respect science to the utmost, we cannotoverlook the fact that human life requires something morethan science alone. But so long as science is based partly on