Arbitrary Marks

The reason I wrote the parable in the first place was to manifest how choice may mean violence, specifically choice for philosophical or religious perspectives. If you, say, decided to choose Buddhism over Christianity (or vise versa), then the fact that you find both choices is cheapening, it commodifies them–at least in the West.
However, what [...]

I’ll let ck’s introduction stand as is, even if a person would have to have tasted a few bottles of Lafite before she could ever begin to be called a connoisseur. I will, however, present an autobiographical parable which will give you a sense of my cognitive posture, critique of contemporary thought, and my [...]

Often in life, conversations seem to occur in thematic clusters.  Over and over again, in different venues, you’ll touch upon the same topic.  Is it just your perception, or is it some kind of mystical synergy?  I’m not going to undertake that discussion here (although you can probably guess I lean towards the former, with [...]

Will from ThinkBuddha has a discussion of her work (and her recent book) here.  (She is the writer whose article about inclusivism I recently summarized.)  Go check his critique out, as he has a good explanation of why he is not a Buddhist…

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Purushottama Bilimoria writes*,
“So the question comes down to this: can religions in reality be compared? A positive answer to this presumes that (1) there is a multiplicity of religious phenomena across various cultures, (2) they can be grouped into ‘‘religions,’’ and (3) they have something in common (e.g., a belief in the transcendent or in [...]

Today I read Kristin Beise Kiblinger’s 2004 essay in Buddhist-Christian Studies, based on her University of Chicago dissertation, “Using Three-Vehicle Theory to Improve Buddhist Inclusivism.” She argues that three-vehicle or triyana (sorry, no diacritical marks) theory is a way to give a more robust framework for Buddhist inclusivism. As many Westerners conversant with [...]

Diana L. Eck, the president of the American Academy of Religion, gave the plenary address on the evening of November 18th. What follows are a few notes from her speech. I admit that travel weariness got the best of me, and I left before she finished, at around 8:55 pm.

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This post is well worth reading.  It’s a good lesson for people on either side of any debate (whether it be the existence of god, the theory of evolution, morality of abortion).  Here’s an excerpt from his conclusion:

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Last post for the evening (I’ll talk about McGreevey tomorrow), and the source is the Meadville Journal of Liberal Religion.  From David Tarbell’s “Meaning and Difference: Pluralism among UUs”, found on that site, which I am hoping to read more thoroughly tomorrow:
“Look again at the pluralism amongst us. We find UU Pagans, UU Christians, UU [...]

In case anyone is wondering where I stand on these questions (religious pluralism, worship of multiple transcendents, the existence of god, being a UU), here’s a down-and-dirty summary of where I’m being tugged:

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