[M.D. Holloway]

East and West
We speak of East "meeting" West. However, it is East in its place, and the West in its place will complete the whole of the world. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Ancient & Modern Spiritual Wisdom Emerging in the World
India and China have cultural and spiritual values that are deep, penetrating, and profound, and yet the West caught up in its semi-rational modernity can hardly perceive it. The Upanishads, the Vedas, the Gita, the Tao te Ching, et al, plus all of the spiritual evolutionary Eastern teachings of the modern era can allow the world to fulfill the individuality that the West championed for humanity.

Asia will outgrow its current superstitions -- religious and material -- and discover the profound basis of culture that is at its roots. She will also take the evolutionary Science and perceptions of the West and integrate it into their subtle, spiritual view, opening open up a new era of consciousness and awareness for humanity.

The Indian sage and seer Sri Aurobindo presaged this all 50+ years ago, and the world is now taking its first small major steps in that direction. Cultural, social, and spiritual integration will follow the current economic basis of unity rising in the world. When the spirit is applied to the details of life, then the ancient wisdom and modern evolutionary spirituality will begin to take hold, ushering in the next stage of human evolution.

Unifying Work and Spirit in Nations (i.e. their Integral Wholeness)
The West, as in America, and the East, as in India, are at the extremes of work and Spirit. It may be asking too much for each to directly influence the other to enable each sides greatness in full. Each however individually can bring themselves to solve their problems and utilise their opportunities in the integral way.

Sri Aurobindo's integral view is a perfect model for each to follow. He said that the hour has approached where the world can integrate Material Prosperity and Spiritual Realization to enable the evolution of the world. How to begin to do this? The best solution is for a few individuals from each side to try to live His integral ideas.

The West is prosperous. Western prosperity is there because they have discovered Brahman in Matter. Their science is lifeless and produces negative side effects and strengthens the Forces of violence of all descriptions.

Releasing the Spiritual Values of Life in India and the West
The ancient Indian rishis/ascetics discovered the true Spirit in life. That truth has become the foundation of Indian culture, known nowhere else in the world to such a degree. It has been said that the very fiber of the Indian body is fundamentally filled with light, whereas the material Westerner, is empty and dark, since he doesn't know and experience the Spirit within, even taking pleasure in debunking its very existence.

And yet on the surface of life, in the material realm, the Westerner has discovered the Spirit in Matter. Why is this so? It has because it has uncovered the true values of life. Values are the way that the Spirit express effectively and powerfully in daily life. Spiritual power in life is that power of truth, orderliness, regularity, etc. that brings about far greater results than we are used to. The West has these in great abundance. E.g. no science would have come into existence if scientists had been speaking falsehood, were clumsy, dirty, dishonest, or secretive, which are the values of darkness. The Indian life on the other hand is externally poor, dark, and filled with false values of life. Should the Indian develop the values of Truth in life, as the Westerner has, he will find that the inner Spirit he knows will emerge at some time to express through his life, not outside and beyond his life. The Green Revolution in India is an example of this success. The joining together of India and the West will then unleash a power the world has not known so far. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Upgrading the Values for the Westerner and the Indian/Easterner
The values of the Westerner are work values. They should be upgraded into life values, mental values, spiritual values and finally values of the evolving soul, the Psychic Being. The Indian should go back to the ORIGINAL spiritual values of work, life and mind and upgrade them into psychic values.

One is free to go directly to the spiritual values of the evolving soul. Capacity to surrender dispenses with all these intermediary methods and ushers him into the goal. Examples: The printer in the West whose book is without printing error has a vision of physical perfection from which he never deflects. It is perfection for perfection's sake. It can be perfection for the sake of the customer, which is one step higher, or for the sake of the Divine. To discover the inner divine is the first endeavour and to refer to HIM each part of the printing work will raise his work from printing perfection to divine perfection. The Indian who raises the level of his life, instead of doing it for his own sake, can refer to the inner divine who is established earlier. (MSS, slightly modified)

The Indian's Mind's Abilities and the Western Mind's Limitations to Fully Know
Sri Aurobindo has said that when the Indian Mind takes up a subject it goes to the very end. Philosophers call this analysis understanding an issue from the "first principles"...

The Indian can do this in potential because he has an association with the highest consciousness, which is the Overmental consciousness, which their representative avatar Krishna had risen to. [The Overmental consciousness takes the potentialities of the Supermind and follows them to their uttermost possibility, where each becomes Unique.] However, the Indian Mind because of his poverty and other factors has thus far not yet achieved this potential.

Winston Churchill, in his History of the English Speaking People said that the enunciation of the first principles has always been an anathema to the English mind.

The material success of the West, particularly the English, is largely due to this practical bent of mind focusing on the practical use of things. It prevents them from inquiring into the fundamental nature of things. Hence the limitation of Science. (MSS, somewhat paraphrased)

How Indian & Westerner Embody Spirit
The Indian has the spiritual light in his body. The Westerner knows the Spirit in his work. [MSS]

Europe vs. Asia
Europe is industrious, Asia is emotional and indolent. (MSS)