Pre-Western and going back way back when. Be happy obviously to pay for a 1:1 session or paid 1:M classes.

Hi Marco,
Great to know you share the interest. I have studied a lot on religion and philosophy (eastern and western) on my own; and can claim some level of expertise on religions and philosophies emanating from India (including Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, Jain philosophy and Sikh philosophy).

Is there any particular topic that interests you? Or are you looking at a broader overview?
We could set up a class and gauge interest levels from others as well….

A great idea…. and would love to have more of a discussion than a discourse :)

Interesting topic Marco.

I love Eastern Philosophy, I’d love to see group classes to discuss them. Or learn more about them. That would be very exciting!!

I love Eastern Philosophy, I’d love to see group classes to discuss them. Or learn more about them. That would be very exciting!!

I’d love to learn about it too!

Hey guys,

I know this topic is pretty old, but did everyone’s taste for Eastern philosophy get sated? Philosophy (both Eastern and Western) happen to be my area of expertise!

I am sure we are always ready for more Joe :)

Ah, eastern philosophies as well? I’m not deeply into it but I’m very receptive to it. My current course material is Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and this led me to learn much more about Taoism, but there’s other ideas from the same period of time that I’ve heard about for many years, but never studied intensively. (My means for doing so seemed far too diluted.)

If it’s anything like what I’ve found people doing to Sun Tzu’s writings, there’s a lot of misconceptions out there.

Taoism is great! A favorite of mine and probably the subject I know the most about when it comes to Eastern philosophies.

I’m not sure what you mean about misconceptions. Could you explain?

Oh, people just have a tendency to impose their own prejudices on philosophies that, when you look deeper, are amazingly open-ended. Even though I certainly haven’t practiced Taoism or Zen Buddhism, my mind finds joy simply at reading about them because they emphasize accepting the world as it is, and finding beauty and wonder in its reality. If that’s confirming a bias in me, it’s confirming an attitude of “no bias,” because I hold non-prejudicial appraisal of the world and the universe as a core personal value. I inquire, I learn; that’s what I’ve always done.

It just tickles my mind that some people thought well enough of the concept to create philosophies around it.

@Joe I have a big interest in Taoism and I would love to see a class on this.

@ Jeremiah: You’re absolutely right. People definitely have that tendency. A great many of the Western philosophies tend to be extremely closed systems; that is, their authors have definite ideas about and intentions for their thinking. Often any derivation is swiftly condemned by hardline supporters. Eastern philosophies, as you said, are designed to be open-ended, and if you ever find any ‘axioms’ (as are common in the Western traditions), they are often very open-ended concepts, like, for example, the Confucian concept of ‘ren’.

Luckily, however, both Eastern and Western philosophy were founded upon the desire to inquire and learn, and to live the good life, and so more often than not their points-of-view can be contrasted in a complementary rather than oppositional fashion.

@ Debbie: I was thinking of putting something together this weekend, actually. I’ll get right on it! =)

Thanks Joe, that will be very exciting :)

Indeed, I’m really looking forward to whatever you can put together, Joe.

So am I. Go Joe! :)

Would love to come too Joe! :)

Me too!

Hey, everyone! Thanks for the encouragement. I’ll let you all know once I’ve got a lesson put together!

Excellent! Thanks Joe :)

I am interested as well.

Hey everyone, just completed an outline for ‘Taoism: an overview.’ Working on the powerpoint now. Thanks for the interest, everybody, I could maybe have a class by the end of this week. I’ll let you all know. Thanks!

Hey all,

Just finished the powerpoint and outline for the first session, which will be a basic overview of Taoism. If there is enough interest, I will also do two further sessions centered around closer readings / discussion of the philosophy’s two main texts, and a fourth session revolving around a comparative view of Taoism via other Eastern philosophies and Western philosophy.

Does anyone have any preference for what time / day I make the class for? Weekday or weekend? I’m in PST, but am flexible in my hours.

Thanks everyone!

Sounds great. I’m still scraping by and not even affording a SuperPass class in current circumstances, so I may end up cheering from the sidelines, but I certainly have been hammering out PowerPoint presentations. I certainly respect the work that’s involved in making good ones.

No advice on times from me.