Columbus reveled in making distinctions between his own culture and 'the other,' in a way that prioritized his own culture, even though ironically he went in search of a non-Western civilization's Indian bounty of spices. Columbus' eradication of another civilization is the most extreme form of Western civilization's prioritization of distinction, in contrast to Buddhism's stress upon the collapse of such distinction. The most obvious negative legacy of Columbus, for all of his striving and inquiry, is the current racial divisions of our own society and the damaged material and cultural state of Native Americans. Although a change of attitude cannot heal these distinctions alone, adopting at least some of the Buddhist spirit of the acceptance of the 'Other' as one with the self or 'non-self' might be an important first step in creating common ground in our nation. Our nation was founded not simply in democracy, but upon European colonialization and superiority, far before...
The legacy of China also reminds us that all civilizations have regarded themselves as 'special,' not just our own, no matter how great our democratic legacy.
..Of course, her earnings were also meager, but it was better than relying on farming alone" (Nagatsuka, 1). Oshina, the wives' character in the novel, could be the impersonation of any hardworking farmer's wife during the Meiji Restoration in Japan. The hardship of the life in a village struggling to adjust to the wave of modernity swiping the country, but still very deeply rooted in the previous period was plausible
Regardless, it is important to remember that disease and widespread outbreaks cause existential crises within the population, often just as much as political and economic instability, and as well as the fact that disease itself is a cause of political and economic instability. This is not simply true of the Western tradition, but also true in China, where Buddhism took root in conservative, Confucian China after a plague wiped
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