Posted inWu Project

If I’m not an “I,” what am I?

My admiration for Douglas Hofstadter's "I Am a Strange Loop," the subject of my previous post, is evidenced by the fact that I just carted the 410 pages to Maui—adding the weight of this hardcover book to my 50 pound suitcase limit, every ounce of which I'm going to need on our return trip after our usual rampaging through Lahaina t-shirt shops. But I wanted to ponder my strange loopiness some more while on vacation. At the moment I'm listening to Napili Bay waves, rather than Oregon rain, but the same "I" seemingly is doing the listening though its body…
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Posted inWu Project

You’re a strange loop (and that’s OK)

Via Douglas Hofstadter, I've got some soul-shaking news to pass on to you. You're a strange loop. So am I. As is he. We all are. And it's not a bad thing, once you get used to the strangeness and loopiness of our rarely recognized condition. I'm most of the way through Hofstadter's "I Am a Strange Loop." His new book is an elaboration of themes creatively discussed in "Gödel, Escher, Bach," which I read a long time ago—with difficulty. Hofstadter has come a long way, both personally and professionally (he's a professor of cognitive science at Indiana University). His…
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Posted inReligions

Virginia Tech killer compared himself to Jesus. Crazy?

Once again, the right-wing conspiracy theorists were wrong. I suspected as much. Tuesday the "Where's Your Brain" blog theorized that Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech killer, was some sort of Muslim terrorist—because the words "Ismail Ax" were written on one of his arms. That sounded crazily unlikely to me. I left a comment on the blog post saying as much: Yeah, and you probably think there Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and supported Al Qaeda, right? I realize that facts are irrelevant to the right-wing brain (truthiness rules!), but this post is particularly ridiculous. Anything is possible, but…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

U-turns often lead to a better direction

When you realize you're going the wrong way, what do you do? Reverse course. Make a U-turn. I do it all the time, especially now that my wife and I both have some difficulty reading street signs. (Typical scenario: "We're looking for Acacia Boulevard. Let me know when you spot it." drive…drive…drive "There it is!" "Where?" "Back a few blocks. I couldn't make out the sign until you were past it." grumble…U-turn …drive…drive…drive.) Bruce Grierson wrote about "The Age of U-turns" in a recent issue of TIME magazine. It was a nice counterpoint to the oft-heard assumption that flip-flopping is…
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Posted inWu Project

Honoring the mystery that is me (and you)

In 1977 I spent two weeks in India with a guru, Charan Singh. At that time visitors could spend up to three months at Dera Baba Jaimal Singh in the Punjab, soaking up the mystico-spiritual vibes gratis. Flying off from the Amritsar airport to return home, via Delhi, I remember looking out of my window seat at the majestic Himalaya mountains, saying to myself, "I don't want my thoughts to be mine anymore, but yours." I was a devoted disciple back then. I still am. What's changed is the meaning I give to yours. Thirty years ago it meant the…
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Posted inWu Project

My quest for the meaninglessness of life

I've spent most of my 58 years looking for the meaning of life. That was easy. I've found lots of meanings in religion, family, friends, jobs, volunteer work, books, causes, charity, martial arts, television, nature, food, sex—you name it, I've probably found some sort of meaning in it. But as I said before, and before that, I'm now on a quest for meaninglessness. That's tough. Everywhere I turn, there's meanings staring me in the face. And on one level I want them. I'm addicted to meaningfulness. It's what makes life, well, meaningful. However, like James Park said in his intriguing,…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Meaningful meaningless meditation

More and more, I'm trying to make my meditation time as meaningless as possible. That's a change. I've been meditating, daily, for more than thirty-seven years. After being initiated in 1971 by an Indian guru, Charan Singh, I dutifully followed the meditative practice enjoined by Radha Soami Satsang Beas. While this supposedly was aimed at emptying the mind so divine sound and light, plus the guru's grace, could flow in, actually there's an awful lot of meaningful content in the meditative method I followed for so long. A mantra composed of "five holy names," each of which points to a…
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Posted inWu Project

Boundless existence—the backdrop to life’s meaning

Boundless existence. Can you sense it? Can you think about it? Can you relate to it? No, no, and no. So says Milton K. Munitz in his provocative book, "Does Life Have a Meaning?" I thoroughly enjoyed this short (114 page) exploration of one of the deepest questions we all struggle to answer. This was the last book Munitz, a distinguished emeritus professor of philosophy, wrote before he died. It's profoundly philosophical, but there's as much of Munitz, the man, between the covers as Munitz the academic philosopher. It's obvious that he wrestled with the mystery of existence throughout most…
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Posted inGod

Is God real?

It warmed my agnostic heart to see that this week's issue of Newsweek had "Is God Real?" on the cover. Usually news magazines run religion-friendly puff pieces around Easter and Christmas. Kudos to Newsweek for asking the tough question. Which, of course, can't be answered. However, this won't stop hundreds of millions of Christians from going to church tomorrow and glorying in the resurrection of someone who may or may not have actually existed, and is considered to be the son of a God who may or may not be real. That's too many "may's" for me to take the…
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Posted inReality

World picture puts a frame around reality

Some people look at things so bizarrely. Like Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, authors of the hugely popular "Left Behind" series of books that takes a fictional view of events surrounding the Second Coming of Jesus—which for LaHaye and Jenkins won't be fiction when the Big Day comes. Yesterday I heard them interviewed on a right-wing Portland talk show. The host asked them how they were faring on their book tour to the least-churched state in the nation. (Whenever I hear that fact, I always feel like cheering, Yay, Oregon! We're #1!) LaHaye and Jenkins said, "Just fine. We've got…
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Posted inHumor

Puppetji gives a YouTube socksang

When a puppet on YouTube makes just about as much sense as any spiritual book I've read, or any mystical guru I've heard, that says a lot. About what, I've got no idea. But whatever it is, The Truth According to Puppetji vaguely gestures in its direction, insofar as a puppet with arms stuck to rods is able. I browsed through several of Puppetji's video socksangs. The first one I saw, the most recent, was my favorite. "Puppetji vs. The Secret." No contest, really. Puppetji wins. And it won't cost you $29.95 to learn his take on The Truth. You…
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Posted inReligions

Being fuzzy is fine

Most people have a strong tendency toward drawing distinct lines. Between belief and unbelief. Between right and wrong. Between all sorts of false dichotomies. False, because life generally is a lot fuzzier than our "got to be this or that" minds take it to be. Today's Dilbert comic gets it right. I've been pondering fuzziness recently because my wife and I are preparing for an appeal hearing on a nearby proposed 217 acre subdivision. We and our neighbors are fighting the development because we don't believe there is enough groundwater for additional wells in the area. The developer does. So…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Pope says hellfire is real and eternal

Well, looks like it's going to be an interesting afterlife. If you believe the Pope—and why wouldn't you, since he's infallible—the fires of hell are real and eternal. This news comes on the heels (oops, I typed "hells" first time around; guess the Devil made me do it) of my condemning myself to hell for a free DVD. And providing video proof which, unexpectedly, has been viewed by 755 people in less than three months (only a few of whom were me). Despite being a devoutly unfaithful lapsed Catholic, I figured that it was safe to take the blasphemy challenge.…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Unbelievers should want the Bible taught in public school

Seeing the headline on this week's TIME cover, "Why We Should Teach the Bible in Public School," I was prepared to become outraged. But after reading the article, and giving more thought to the subject, this unbeliever is all for more Biblical instruction. Naturally it shouldn't be with an evangelical slant. The article's author, David Van Biema, says that the Bible should be treated as the bedrock of Western culture, not the holy word of God. Other religious texts also should get wider exposure in schools. A few weeks ago I pulled up to a drive-in Dutch Brothers for a…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

My blogistic compendium magisterium

[Update: The compendium has been moved here. The Google Page Creator site isn't up any more.] By the authority vested in me, which pretty much reduces down to keeping my annual TypePad blogging fee paid up, I hereby announce the release of a Church of the Churchless compendium magisterium. I rarely put text in color, but if there's any occasion that demands it, this would be it. For a magisterium relates to the teachings of the Church; it sounds profoundly Latinish; and this blog surely is a church, because it's got the word twice in its name. My compendium can…
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Posted inReality

Deepening the mystery of existence

Pondering "Why is there something rather than nothing?" will blow your mind. This is the most common way the mystery of existence is framed, as noted in my "Existence exists. Amazing!" But, hey, why stop there? If we're going to have our minds blown, might as well blow up what's doing the blowing up also. Bigger the explosion, the better. This morning I plucked Milton K. Munitz' The Mystery of Existence from my bookshelf. This is a deeply philosophical book that isn't the easiest of reading. I'd read most of it before flaming out from intellectual overload on the final…
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Posted inMorality

Life is fair. Here’s why.

About ten years ago I wrote a book called "Life is Fair." That was back in my fundamentalist days, when I was pleased to toe the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) party line on karma, vegetarianism, and most other doctrinal matters. But you know, I still believe that life is fair. Just not for the same reasons that I expounded in the book. I got to thinking about life's fairness when someone emailed me a few days ago, asking if "Life is Fair" still was being sold. He'd noticed that it wasn't listed on the RSSB (a.k.a. Science of the…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

I make some new web friends

There are some new friends in my "Links to Explore" category in the left-hand column. In the usual web fashion, I haven't talked with them or seen them, and probably never will. Yet I feel that we're close, closer in some ways than I am with people who I meet face to face all the time. Pondering deep thoughts about life, spirituality, and the cosmos (plus some not so deep) gives us a lot in common. The folks over at Religious Forums have brought almost 11,000 members together to discuss all sorts of belief systems. I appreciate their Church of…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

It takes two to Tao (and Tango)

One nice thing about Taoism is that it's pretty damn simple. The yin-yang symbol, or Taijitu, says just about all that can be said about my favorite philosophy. Which ideally would be nothing, as the first four lines of the Tao Te Ching tell us. The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.The name that can be named is not the eternal name.The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.The named is the mother of ten thousand things. But last Thursday night I was expected to say something about Taoism to a Comparative Religion class for…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Wine, women, and enlightenment

Got to get fired up, or cooled down, for the Taoism talk I'm going to give to a Comparative Religion class tonight. I won't prepare a whole lot. Want to let it flow. I'm planning to carry along the Lieh-tzu, though. That's the third leg of the traditional Taoist canon, along with the Tao-te Ching and the Chuang-tzu. Translator Eva Wong says: The Lao-tzu describes a state of reality that a sage experiences; the Chuang-tzu describes a state of mind that the sage is in; but the Lieh-tzu describes how the enlightened person lives. …If the Lao-tzu is poetry and…
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