David Lowry's 'Budo and Bach' essay

My Goju Ryu teacher has introduced me to the writings of David Lowry. He writes beautifully in his compilations of Essays on the Japanese Martial Arts and Ways, which I would recommend to anyone who is keen to learn about Budo traditions. In one of his essays in which Lowry explains his position on the challenges Westerners face when trying to understand the Japanese (Okinawan) way culture (and Budo), and conversely the Easterner musicians trying to get the pulse of Bach's music. In short, this is a mamouth task, Lowry says, for both, Westerners and Orientals. Incidently, I made a similar point in my book where I explained the difficulty to study as a researcher Oriental martial arts which are taught in a Western culture. I based my observation on some previous research on this topic, excerpt which I insert below:

Columbus argues that there are two problems that must be faced when conducting any study about an Oriental martial art in a Western situation - understanding the arts as Oriental arts and understanding these arts in a Western context. Based on Fuller‟s review, Columbus noted that research into the benefits of MAs has been carried out using positivist methods of investigation, which he says are less relevant when it comes to understanding Oriental styles of thinking/acting. Heavily influenced as they are by Zen Buddhism and Taoism these concepts are not easily grasped from a positivist perspective.179 In agreement with this, both Adler and Glassford argue that statistics cannot offer insights into the deep meanings of Oriental teachings and that the truth and value of these systems can only be truly realized through experience.

Moreover, Oriental MAs originated in an Eastern context that is conceptually very different from the West and that is where the other problem lies when using positivist methods to capture the complexity and subtlety of the Oriental MAs. Thus, when taken from their original culture, Oriental MAs may change their method, content, and therapeutic value. In other words, the value system changes to reflect the culture where the MA is practiced. Furthermore, in both of his psychological commentaries Jung has highlighted the difficulties encountered by Western scientific minds to understand the differences between the Eastern and the Western thinking. He says that is:
“(…) partly because of the miserable vanité de savants which fears and rejects with horror any sign of living sympathy, and partly because a sympathetic understanding might permit contact with an alien spirit to become a serious experience.”

If you got to read this far, I invite you to read the introductions to each of the chapters of my book, Psyche and Martial Arts. You can find an intro to each of the chapters when you click the buttons below the photo