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There has been considerable interest in Eastern thinking in the West for many centuries. This has grown significantly in recent times. This scholarly and well-presented work is a very important contribution towards the dialogue with the Orient, particularly exploring the role of C.G. Jung. Clarke is a historian of ideas. He seeks to trace the development of Jung's dialogue with Eastern thought and examines how some of Jung's ideas were shaped by his interest in Oriental concepts. Clarke successfully demonstrates that Jung used various Eastern concepts to help him make sense of psychic reality, particularly his concept of individuation and wholeness.
When attempts are made to relate to Eastern traditions from a Western perspective, they are, most often, difficult encounters. From a Western sense of superiority and rationalism, Eastern traditions are either considered as primitive, mystical and pre-logical systems, or they are seen as highly idealized, morally and philosophically superior systems. In either situation it is impossible to have any meaningful dialogue.
Clarke examines the idea of hermeneutics, which is the ‘art of understanding’. Clarke's insight into the subject comes from the works of G.H. Gadamer. He notes that whenever we try to understand a text, a human artefact or another human being, hermeneutics becomes the key to understanding the distinct nature of the human as opposed to the natural sciences. The essential features of human understanding are such that all knowing involves both that which is familiar and that which is unfamiliar. Normally we tend to veer away from the unfamiliar. However, in hermeneutics the acceptance of the unfamiliar aspects of knowing, and the gap between what is familiar and what is not, is held and valued. Temporal distance between the familiar and unfamiliar is thus not seen as an intrinsic barrier to understanding, but rather as a positive and productive possibility. It forces us to recognize differences and alternatives