ABSTRACT
The Easternization of the West has been represented as a major cultural revolution in which the worldview previously dominant within Western civilization has been effectively pushed to one side, whereas an Eastern one, which previously occupied a secondary, subservient position within this civilization, has come to dominance in its place. It is now clear that this process dates from the 1960s and in particular from the cultural revolution that is associated with the emergence of a distinctive youth culture, or counter culture, movement. What happened at that time, as we have seen, is that there was a coming together, or confluence, of exogenous and indigenous Eastern religious and philosophical ideas. That is to say, material coming directly from the civilizations of the East, and especially from India, met with endogenous Eastern traditions of thought to mutually reinforce each other and hence create a cultural climate uniquely favorable to an Eastern worldview. Although this account goes some way toward helping us understand how the process of Easternization occurred, it is not clear that we are much closer to understanding why it should have happened at this particular time, or indeed why it should have occurred at all.
