Category: Introduction to Great Religions
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Haibun 06Jul25: Reading, Authority, and Reason
When I was young, I thought books were keys to the vault of answers. If I read enough, deeply enough, I’d know what to think. I mistook tradition for commandment. Decades later, I sit among these same volumes—dog-eared, underlined, marked with my old urgency—and realize they never wanted to be…
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The coming schism
An op, Ed from the Los Angeles Times that speaks to the growing rift between the highly conservative United States. Bishops conference for the Catholic Church here, and the Vatican, specifically, Pope Francis. While the pontiff makes every effort to emphasize the need for pastoral care from all members of…
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Previously undiscovered neolithic circle of deep shafts near Stonehenge
As the area around Stonehenge is among the world’s most-studied archaeological landscapes, the discovery is all the more unexpected. Having filled naturally over millennia, the shafts – although enormous – had been dismissed as natural sinkholes and dew ponds. The latest technology – including geophysical prospection, ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry…
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‘One of a kind’ Egyptian tomb discovery revealed
The tomb, found in the Saqqara pyramid complex near Cairo, is filled with colourful hieroglyphs and statues of pharaohs. Decorative scenes show the owner, a royal priest named Wahtye, with his mother, wife and other relatives. Archaeologists will start excavating the tomb on 16 December, and expect more discoveries to…
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Of the usefulness of propriety and the uselessness of superheroes
Started off the day asking about why we have such a big proliferation in the stories of superheroes. Finished the day by talking about Dào 38 and touching on a lot of the problems with professional education in the USA.
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Dyadic not dualistic
It’s difficult to break out of the Western habitude of dualism. But it is especially important to make the effort when thinking of the Chinese notion of Yin Yang. Rather than another form of dualism in the history of philosophy, it teaches the insight of dynamic equilibrium. After a short break,…
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Prayer and Thinking
We began with me sharing some ideas about the connection between prayer and thinking. We discussed Poem 27 of the Dào Dé Jing along with some forays into Poem 1.
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Reverence Ritual Worship Worldview
For this class, we took a step back to explore a few concepts before we move from India to China.
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There is no one here
After my good brother Andrew Teeter shared his experiences living in Korea and learning about the sacred traditions of the Korean people, we took a brief break. On our return, I lectured on the basic points of the Buddha Dharma and shared a more mythological take on the story of…
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Non-violence, non-attachment, non-singularity
Because we were behind in our class readings/lectures, I spent the day making sure we focused on Jain Dharma.
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Bhakti Redux
Today’s class we went over the concept of Bhakti for a little while before we spent the majority of time in a circle discussing the purpose of education: devotion to learning, coming to knowledge, bettering our situation in the world by developing our selves.
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Diversity of worship, unity of thought
Because we had roamed around in and out of a few topics yesterday, I decided to mostly lecture today with the hope that we would catch up a bit but that there would still be a lot of good questions from my friends. From what I read toward the end…
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Coordination, Subordination, and Exordination
Yesterday in our class, the discussion led me to talk for a little bit about a distinction originally made by Marcuse, I believe, regarding soft versus hard totalitarianism. I extended this description out to all manner of group structures that lead to implicit or explicit domination. Thinking about it last night,…
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Ordering expectations
In Tuesday’s class, we touched on the diverse story traditions from ancient India. My colleagues spent time at the beginning of our meeting talking with each other about what they had discovered about Indian sacred traditions, and what questions this had brought up to them. There were basic similarities, of…
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Introducing the Reality of Reality
Beginning our section on Hinduism today. So I decided to do two lecture sessions.
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Ultimate Concern
For our Thursday class, we began by everyone sitting in a circle on the floor. We stretched out our legs so that our feet touched each other completing the circle. Then we went around the circle and each named a thing we find in the world that is circular (e.g.…
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Explanations of religion
Below my lecture from 13 July 2016. Before I addressed the students, we had more discussion on what we take for granted in the everyday world, and then we shared a few things we take for granted about religion. Our questions and answers led us to a place where I believed…
CALL ME MAGGIE 
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