Cosmology and Metanoia: A Buddhist Path to Process Thought for the West

In recent memory, much worthwhile literature has appeared regarding the complexities of Alfred North Whitehead's relationship to Buddhist metaphysics. Without doubt, process thought has served as a fruitful path for Western scholars in their efforts to gain a more refined appreciation of the cultural vision and religious insight of the East. Generally, this literature presumes that the strangeness of Buddhist thought to the West can be overcome, or at least lessened, by interpreting it with a process metaphysics. According to this interpretive strategy, in which the familiar is used to render the exotic more understandable, Whitehead's process metaphysics serves as a heuristic device for overcoming the alien character of Buddhist thought to the West. While acknowledging the usefulness of this approach, it should be noted that the strategy presupposes that Whitehead's thought is in fact no stranger to the Western intellectual tradition. I believe this presupposition needs to be called into question.