Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory

Joanna R. Macy is Adjunct Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley. She is the author of Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age; Dharma and Development; Thinking Like a Mountain: Toward a Council of All Beings (with John Seed, Pat Fleming, and Arne Naess); and World as Lover, World as Self.

• Preface IntroductionPart One: Background 1. Considering Causality Like the Air We BreatheThe Linear Unidirectional Causal ParadigmOne-Way Causality in the WestOne-Way Causality in Indian ThoughtThe Mutual Causal Paradigm in the WestThe Buddhist Vision of Mutual CausalityThe Reciprocal Hermeneutic of Buddhism and General Systems Theory Part Two: Perceptions of Mutual Causality 2. The Buddhist Teaching of Dependent Co-Arising The Central Role of the Causal Doctrine in the DharmaLinear Causality in Pre-Buddhist IndiaComparison with Western Linear ViewsScriptural Presentations of Paticca Samuppada 3. Dependent Co-Arising as Mutual Causality From Substance to RelationNo First CauseSyntax of InterdependenceReciprocity of Causal FactorsAbhidharmist InterpretationsPaticca Samuppada as Interdependence 4. General Systems Theory Science's Problems with the One-Way Causal ParadigmThe Perception of Systems in the Life SciencesCybernetics and the Concept of FeedbackSystemic Invariances and HierarchiesSystems Theory in the Social SciencesThe Cognitive SystemSystems and Value 5. Mutual Causality in General Systems Theory The Transformation of Causes within the SystemFeedback as Causal LoopNegative Feedback ProcessesPositive Feedback ProcessesSeeing Causes Part Three: Dimensions of Mutual Causality 6. Self as Process Everything ChangesThe Illusion of Separate SelfhoodNo Clear Lines of DemarcationThe Lethal Mirage 7. The Co-Arising of Knower and Known Perception as Convergence of FactorsConsciousness: Conditioned and TransitiveInformation CircuitsShaping the World through ProjectionLearning as Self ReorganizationThe Limits of CognitionObjectless KnowingWho is Knowing? 8. The Co-Arising of Body and Mind Linear Views"Like Two Sheaves of Reeds"Two Sides of a CoinThe Internality of All SystemsThe Ubiquity and Particularity of MindBeyond the Fear of Matter"Minding" 9. The Co-Arising of Doer and Deed Identity and AccountabilityThe Question of RebirthKaya and KarmaStructure and FunctionPast and PresentThe Dharma and DeterminismThe Determinacy of ChoiceThe Cognitive System as Decision Center 10. The Co-Arising of Self and Society Participation and ParticularityThe Interdependence of Person and CommunityThe Dharma of Social Systems 11. Mutual Morality Concern for Other BeingsTolerance and IconoclasmPolitical EngagementRight Livelihood and Economic SharingEnds and Means 12. The Dialectics of Personal and Social Transformation Free to ReconnectThe Tree and the Flame Bibliography Index

"This book deals with a very important and contemporary topic — breaking out of causal patterns of a reductive sort into more holistic non-reductive ways of thinking and explanation. It also brings together Western and Eastern ideas combining a particularly important aspect of Buddhist thought with new Western conceptions. It belongs to movements toward global integration." — Henry Le Roy Finch, Hunter College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York