PromptingStatement:

The EasternThought pages are necessary to understanding Patterns. Eastern philosophy deals with resolutions of forces, much as Patterns do, which is why they fit well onto Wiki early on.

RalphJohnson says:

I find most of the eastern philosophy that has been a part of wiki from the beginning to be "noise".

and then there's the improperly named ZenConcepts...

''Note: The original context of this page was WhyClublet's desire to move Eastern philosophy content from this wiki to theirs; however, that discussion has been deleted to distill the salient points to answer the prompting statement ''in situ''.''

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So do you need "eastern" thought to understand Patterns?  Or does understanding Patterns mean you understand "eastern" thought?  Does it matter that you understand Patterns or that you understand patterns?

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''"Wisdom" is another word that comes to mind. Patterns people and eastern thinkers would like to be wise, or failing that, at least be thought to be wise. -- RichardDrake''

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I can't see a obvious relation between patterns and Eastern Thought. But there is a correlation between EasternThought and Good Programming. Good Programming knows some rules of thumb like YouCantGetEverything, EightyPercentIsEnough and DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork which all have a certain anti-neurotic and non-extreme flavour. This has a close relation to the middle path of buddhism. People following this path are more likely following the mentioned rules. In that view ExtremeProgramming has some very unextreme corners (no BigDesignUpFront and maybe PairProgramming).
-- ManfredSchaefer

''disclaimer: For the term 'good programming' fill in whatever you want''

The historical connection between patterns and Eastern Thought is, I suppose, that ChristopherAlexander was influenced by the Eastern Thought. But then FredBrooks was influenced by the thinking of Dorothy L Sayers on the trinity as he describes in MythicalManMonth. The ability of Wiki to link such disparate concepts, very informally and anti-neurotically (I like that), has been very cool, very WabiSabi. But I honestly don't think a real Eastern guru would rate every attempt at wisdom here, would she? -- RichardDrake