Category: Blague

As you already may have guessed, a Buddhologian is the Eastern equiva­lent of what we in the West call a theologian. Why the need for a special term? For Buddhists, Buddhologian is le mot juste for a Buddhist scholar for one simple reason: the Greek root theo– in “theologian” means “God.” Unlike Christianity, Judaism, or… Continue reading Buddhologian

Mushrooms are fungi that are so present throughout nature as to be ubiquitous. Underground, out of sight, and in the fecund darkness, they weave a “Wood Wide Web” that forms a communication nexus with the roots of many plants. “While mushrooms might be the most familiar part of a fungus, most of their bodies are… Continue reading FunGuys

Process thought holds that there is divine input, continuous but variable divine influence, in every new moment for all the natural unities throughout the universe. Such influence (Whitehead calls them “initial aims”) is variable because each individual is unique and the aim must take into account the gestalt of each unique perspective and so tailor… Continue reading The Order of Actualization

During the Shang dynasty in China, which began some 32 centuries ago, a form of religious divination was used for prediction, and also to make things happen, such as healing of sickness and control of weather. It was called Oracle Bone Inscription. The bone of choice on which the inscriptions were incised was the flat… Continue reading Positive Thinking in Ancient China

My late good friend James Watson, a notable Faulkner scholar and a PhD (“doctor”) who taught lively morning classes in literature at the University of Tulsa for many years, shared with me the following in an email: “Had I had the velcro memory for math and chemistry that I apparently did for poetry, I might… Continue reading Laughing Out Loud with Dr. James Watson

Quite early one morning it occurred to me that the rational criteria of “coherence” and “adequacy” clearly exemplify the archetypal theme of the many and the one: adequacy to the many facts of experience, and coherence as conceptual unity. Therefore, after imaginative leaps and bounds, and speculative flights, when you reason things through and assay… Continue reading A Golden Trinity of Values

　A mathematician confided　That a Möbius strip is one-sided.　　You’ll get quite a laugh　　If you cut it in half,　For it stays in one piece when divided. A Möbius strip is made by giving a strip of paper a half-twist and then gluing or taping the ends together. Even though it looks like it has two sides and… Continue reading Möbius Strip Tease

In 1981 Charles Hartshorne was commissioned to write the Foreword to a book by Keiji Nishitani called Religion and Nothingness. The book was to be published by University of California Press where John R. Miles worked as an editor. Miles decided not to use Hartshorne’s Foreword for reasons you may find more than a little… Continue reading From Somebody to Nobody to Somebody to Nobody Again

　Part Two Once we see that “I” is a variable, in the sense developed in the previous Post, it becomes an option to deepen and expand our identities. How can we go about that? One practice that Bruteau suggests is a form of contemplative prayer she calls the Hodos Method. The Greek word hodos means… Continue reading Seeing Through the Eyes of Jesus (2)

　Part One Is personal identity a constant or a variable? When I use the word “I,” does it always refer to the selfsame subject? While, as with many complex issues, the answer is both Yes and No, it is more interesting, and more fun, to explore “I” as a variable. And I have it on… Continue reading Seeing Through the I’s of Jesus (1)