ZenDoctor

The Stations of the Mel

2006-08-18T15:32:00.000-04:00

This inspires me to relive the Passion...

The Cyborgs are Here...

2006-08-16T20:03:00.000-04:00

and you are they. This sums it up beautifully.

Better than Marriage

2006-05-12T15:26:00.000-04:00

This argument is difficult to refute.

Adversity & Fulfillment

2006-05-12T14:42:00.000-04:00

Here is an excellent piece that goes a long way to explaining the "sesshin effect". It should be required reading for all Zen-heads, no no, wait, for everyone!

Faith is a Moral Failing

2006-02-11T21:12:00.000-05:00

Faith is a Moral Failing

By George M Felis

Let's be brutally honest. To describe FAITH as a "failure of reason" is a half-truth at best.

There are those who assert that their religious convictions are grounded in reason and evidence alone. But I've never actually met such a rare creature myself. Even the most cunning Jesuitical sophistry seeking to rationally justify religion does not entirely leave out faith as a component. And not faith in the sense of "hope" or "confidence" or any other wishy-washy alternate definition. By "faith" in this context, I mean (and honest believers also mean) believing something because one chooses to believe it, without regard to the absence of evidence/reasons to believe. (Sometimes, faith even entails believing something without regard to the presence of counter-evidence/reasons to believe otherwise. But the absence of positive evidence is quite problematic enough, so let's leave the presence of counter-evidence aside.)

Faith is not a mere failure of reason: Faith is the willful abdication of reason. Faith isn't a mistake along the same lines as a logical error such as affirming the consequent. It is not simply an oversight of evidence that ought to be under consideration. Faith is the declaration that reason may be all well and good in other areas, but reason ends here where the believer says it does! No argument can conceivably be given for not adhering to the standards of reason on any given subject, because argument itself must adhere to rational standards. Otherwise, it isn't argument - it's shouting, empty noise, full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing.

Let me more-or-less directly quote various things I've actually heard people say along these lines:

"This isn't about reason. You have to feel it."

"Believing isn't about reason or argument. You can't argue about God because God is beyond all arguments."

These need not be statements from rabid fundamentalists, but from the sweetest, kindest-natured and live-and-let-live believers you can imagine. But the statements still embody a willful abdication of reason. From where I sit, the only possible response to any such statements is to point out clearly that the speaker has left the fold of reasoned argument entirely - something like the following: "Oh yeah! And what are the reasons why I have to feel it? Can you possibly give me an argument for why I should believe this claim in the absence of any argument for it?" Or, "Explain what you could possibly even mean by saying God is 'beyond all arguments.' Whatever it means, are you declaring that to be a fair move in our discussion? Because my desire for you to give me money isn't about reason or argument. It's beyond all arguments. So give me your money! If you don't buy that move when I make it, why should I accept it when you make it?"

These aren't rhetorical questions. Okay, the tone is snarky. But what tool is left but mockery when someone has abdicated reason entirely? Clearly, further exercises of reason are not much of an option. That ship has sailed as soon as someone adopts any belief or claim as a matter of faith.

The reason this is so important isn't simply that people who embrace faith will have ill-formed beliefs. Reason is not normative solely in the minimal sense that there are strictures within which it must operate or it is no longer reason. There is an ethical component to reason as well, because one's beliefs are intimately connected to one's actions. Some of one's beliefs are themselves normative - beliefs about what is good and right, about whose life is valuable and why and in what manner (see abortion and euthanasia debates). And factual beliefs are also important, since how we understand the world in which we are acting shapes our actions every bit as much as our values and ends.

If one gives up reason in the formation of some of one's beliefs, one gives up the only access to truth we have. Humans don't have any perceptual capacity to immediately discern truth, the way we immediately discern color and shape (if the lighting is good and our eyesight is in good order). The closest we can get is to justify our beliefs. Faith is not justification, it is the suspension of all standards for justification. Faith declares that some beliefs - these important ones right at the center of my world-view that shape how I see many other things - need not be justified at all.

If one's beliefs cannot be justified, and if one's actions are shaped and motivated by one's beliefs, then one's actions cannot be justified. Oh, the actions of the faithful might accidentally be consistent with justifiable actions - but that would be pure luck, really, and could just as well have turned out otherwise.

Those who live by faith are not intellectually inferior. One could even say that it takes a certain brilliance, or at least extraordinary mental flexibility, to engage in the mental gymnastics required to apply reason in most areas of life and then suspend it entirely on other areas. So this isn't really about intellect. And to say that faith is a failure of reason or abdication of reason is just to name it, not to explain what's wrong with it. I think something stronger can be said.

Faith is a moral failing. The abdication of reason is the abdication of justification. When people stop even trying to rationally justify their actions in the world - when they decide to act from faith instead - then they might just do anything at all and call it right and good.

George M. Felis is a bipedal primate with ill-adapted feet and an over- developed neocortex. He is also a Ph.D. student in philosophy at The University of Georgia and a philosophy instructor at Georgia Perimeter College. Religion and himself are two of the many things he doesn't take all that seriously.

End of Faith Part II

2006-01-02T23:01:00.000-05:00

Here is a quick and dirty critique of the reification of mystical experience. Specifically, mystical "insights" have no special (or indeed any?) epistomological status. Everyone needs to take a deep breath, read their Rorty, and get with the non-metaphysical program...

A History of Nonviolence

2005-12-19T20:19:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally got my WIFI working here in Virgin Gorda (that's Pregnant Virgin, by the way), and couldn't resist referencing this fascinating piece on the "anti-Dalai Lama". It brings up lots of good points about the perils of supposed dharma/political interface. Yes, the dharma will set you free, but No, the dharma will NOT tell you who to vote for...

The Master Speaks

2005-12-17T22:24:00.000-05:00

Don't miss this classic interview with the greatest living novelist...!

One of my favorite quotes, and there are many, should be especially useful to bring up at your next Book Club meeting...

"I would be wonderful with a 100-year moratorium on literature talk, if you shut down all literature departments, close the book reviews, ban the critics. The readers should be alone with the books, and if anyone dared to say anything about them, they would be shot or imprisoned right on the spot. Yes, shot. A 100-year moratorium on insufferable literary talk. You should let people fight with the books on their own and rediscover what they are and what they are not. Anything other than this talk. Fairytale talk. As soon as you generalise, you are in a completely different universe than that of literature, and there's no bridge between the two."

Or you might casually quote this one in shul...

"I ask him if he is religious. "I'm exactly the opposite of religious," he says. "I'm anti-religious. I find religious people hideous. I hate the religious lies. It's all a big lie. Are you religious yourself?" he asks." ..."it's not interesting to talk about the sheep referred to as believers. When I write, I'm alone. It's filled with fear and loneliness and anxiety - and I never needed religion to save me."

I studied my first bit of Rashi today, and I feel so cool!

2005-11-11T18:11:00.000-05:00

Jesus, so this is what passes for being a rabbi these days? I was doin' Rashi when she was in diapers. I knock back a few Rashi's before my morning cup of coffee. Yeah, yeah, Rashi is SO COOL!!

Ancient phallus unearthed in cave

2005-07-25T11:12:00.000-04:00

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ancient phallus unearthed in cave: "It's highly polished".

Indeed.

Evangelicals & Jews

2005-07-24T16:21:00.000-04:00

I could not help posting this one from the Times Magazine. How many layers of irony/denial/deception are exhibited by all parties...?

July 24, 2005
The Rabbi Who Loved Evangelicals (and Vice Versa)

By ZEV CHAFETS
"This guy is a kingdom guy,'' said the Rev. Steve Munsey, gesturing toward Yechiel Eckstein. We were sitting in the greenroom of the Family Christian Center in Munster, Ind., about 40 minutes from Chicago. We were between Sunday-morning services, and Pastor Munsey was taking a break, kicking back to welcome his guest. ''What do I mean by kingdom guy?'' he said. ''Like a godfather in the Mafia, it's a term of respect.''

Eckstein accepted the compliment with a smile and sipped his coffee (from the church's own Starbucks). Eckstein has spent a professional lifetime in evangelical churches, although he had rarely seen one as grand as the Family Christian Center, with its 5,000-seat auditorium and a pulpit that boasts a theatrical replica of biblical Jerusalem complete with Golgotha's hill and, in the words of Pastor Munsey, ''a very lifelike cave depicting the tomb where Jesus was lain.''

A lanky deacon came over to shake Eckstein's hand and said, ''It's a thrill to meet a man like you.'' Eckstein smiled. The deacon is said to be one of the biggest steel contractors in America. Devout Christian laypeople like him have built Eckstein an empire.

''I support Israel in every way possible,'' Munsey said. ''For example, I make it a point to buy my clothes from Jews.'' Since he was wearing jeans and a battered sports jacket, it was hard to assess the monetary value of this contribution. Munsey was dressed informally because he planned to ride his customized Harley motorcycle onto the pulpit. The bike is named the Passion, and it has a crown of thorns painted across it.

The door opened, and Bishop Frank Munsey walked in. He is Pastor Munsey's father. Bishop Munsey founded the Christian Family Center 50 years ago and then passed it along to his son. Someday Pastor Munsey will turn it over to his own son, Kent, who is now the center's youth pastor. ''We call it the Levitical order of succession,'' David Jordan Allen, the associate pastor, told me. Pastor Munsey made the introductions. ''Meet Rabbi Einstein,'' he said to his father, misspeaking. ''You've seen him on TV. He's the head of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.''

''You from the Jewish side or the Christian side?'' the elderly bishop asked. Lately he had been spending a good deal of time in Bulgaria, where the church runs a mission school that is waiting for a license.

''Jewish,'' Eckstein said, touching his small black skullcap.

This struck the bishop as a stroke of luck. He seemed to be under the impression that Jews govern Bulgaria and had been involved in withholding accreditation from his school. Now here was a rabbi sitting right in the greenroom. ''I'd like to ask you a favor,'' he said, handing Eckstein a card. ''Maybe you can get somewhere with these Bulgarians.''

Eckstein took the card and put it in his pocket. Help the born-again Christians of Bulgaria? Who knows, maybe he could.

n the past 25 years, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein has traveled to China to liberate persecuted pastors, hiked through Ethiopia and Siberia in search of vulnerable Jews, advised prime ministers in Jerusalem and met with evangelical Republicans at the White House. His immediate plans include transporting an entire biblical lost tribe from northeastern India to the Holy Land and starting a Spanish-language ministry for the Pentecostals of Latin America. He has even talked about recording some sacred hymns with Debby Boone. And, as Eckstein himself might say, God only knows what he'll do after that.

All this hyperactivity is financed by the contributions of evangelical Christians. In the last eight years alone, an estimated 400,000 born-again donors have sent Eckstein about a quarter of a billion dollars for Jewish causes of his personal choosing. No Jew since Jesus has commanded this kind of gentile following.

This success has, of course, bred detractors. Some of Eckstein's fellow Orthodox rabbis would like to exile him for consorting with Christians. Eckstein is a registered Democrat, but there are liberal Jews who view his friendship with Red State evangelical conservatives like Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed and Gary Bauer as cultural and political treason. Even those who applaud Eckstein's philanthropies are sometimes skeptical about what he calls his ''ministry.'' For Jews, who are used to seeing themselves as victims of bigotry, the saga of Yechiel Eckstein raises uncomfortable questions about who loves -- and who hates -- whom.

He didn't start out to be controversial. The son of the chief rabbi of Canada, Eckstein, 54, received his own rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University in New York and joined the staff of the Anti-Defamation League. In those early days, he was the model of a mainstream Jewish organization man.

In 1977, American Nazis threatened to stage a march in Skokie, Ill., a Chicago suburb with a large population of Holocaust survivors. The A.D.L. sent Eckstein from New York to help the local community round up Christian support. What he found surprised him. In his next year in Chicago, he discovered that the evangelicals, more than any other group, were prepared to stand with the Jews.

Eckstein reported back to New York like Marco Polo recalling his adventures in China. There were Christians in the heartland, he said, who took the Bible literally and believed that the Jews were God's chosen people. They were, he said, a vast untapped reservoir of support for Israel, Soviet Jewry and other Jewish causes. This report was greeted hesitantly. Few A.D.L. people had ever met an evangelical Christian face to face, but they had seen ''Elmer Gantry'' and ''Inherit the Wind,'' and they associated Bible Belt Christians with snake charmers, K.K.K. nightriders, toothless fiddlers and flat-earth troglodytes.

In 1980, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Rev. Bailey Smith, seemed to confirm this stereotype when he publicly declared that ''God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.'' The grandees of the Jewish establishment were outraged, but Eckstein saw an opportunity. He contacted Smith and offered to accompany him on a trip to Israel.

In Jerusalem, Smith and Eckstein were given the royal treatment. Prime Minister Menachem Begin, having previously lost seven straight national elections, had few illusions about the efficacy of Jewish prayer. He did, however, have a keen appreciation for Christians like Smith, who believed that the Bible conferred title to the land of Israel on the Jews. Smith enjoyed being appreciated, and he returned home loudly proclaiming Genesis 12:3: God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel.

''That was the turning point,'' Eckstein says. ''From that moment on, I had an open door to the biggest Baptist churches in the country.''

The following year, Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. An editorial in The New York Times called the strike ''an act of inexcusable and shortsighted aggression.'' Even the normally pro-Israel Reagan administration criticized it. But the evangelicals saw the hand of God and cheered. When Eckstein called this kind of support to the attention of the A.D.L. home office, he was treated like a nudnik. If Menachem Begin wanted to cozy up to Bailey Smith and Jerry Falwell and other such undesirables, well, that was Begin's problem. Eckstein was told to commune with some respectable Episcopalians.

But Eckstein knew what he knew. He quit the A.D.L. and tried, unsuccessfully, to interest other mainstream Jewish groups in establishing relations with the evangelicals. He didn't even bother asking his fellow Orthodox rabbis, many of whom considered (and still consider) merely setting foot in a church to be a grave sin.

Unemployed, Eckstein established his own organization, which he grandly dubbed the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Soon he was making the rounds of fundamentalist and Pentecostal churches, preaching a gospel of Jewish-evangelical solidarity. By this time, American Jewry had been thoroughly worked over by enterprising fund-raisers. But Eckstein found himself in virgin territory. Evangelicals badly wanted to express their love for Israel in a personal way. It was Eckstein's insight that nothing is more personal than a personal check.

"Ask and it shall be given you,'' says Matthew 7:7. When Eckstein started I.F.C.J., he had no salary, no medical benefits and a pregnant wife. (Today he has three grown daughters and draws an annual salary of about $300,000.) His first headquarters was the back room of a lawyer's office. To make ends meet, he took a job as a part-time rabbi at a local synagogue.

Early on, some money came in from Zionist Christians, but he received the majority of his donations from fellow Jews -- mostly politically minded men who saw the growing importance of the Moral Majority and Pat Robertson's 700 Club. Often these gifts were grudgingly given. ''I don't know what you're doing, and I don't know if I like what you're doing,'' a Jewish philanthropist from Chicago said, but he handed Eckstein a thousand bucks just in case he was on to something.

Eckstein's big breakthrough came in 1993. The gates of the former Soviet Union were open, and tens of thousands of poor Jews wanted to immigrate to Israel. He knew that the ingathering of Jewish exiles resonated with evangelicals as biblical prophecy, and with a $25,000 contribution from a Jewish supporter in Anchorage, he recorded his first TV infomercial.

The 30-minute show promoting Eckstein's ''On Wings of Eagles'' project was narrated, pro bono, by Pat Boone, who delivered a message from Isaiah 49:22. ''I will beckon to the Gentiles. . . . They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.'' The infomercial appeared throughout America, mostly on Christian stations.

The results were amazing. Money began pouring in. ''When I told Pat Robertson how much people were sending, he thought I was totally inflating the numbers,'' Eckstein recalls.

The infomercial eventually ran all over the country for 18 months and raised millions of dollars. Yechiel Eckstein was on his way.

The auditorium of the Family Christian Center was packed for the second service. Munster is largely white, but the church markets itself aggressively in nearby Gary, which is predominantly black. Like Pastor Munsey, the minister of music is white, but the choir is mostly black, and it started things off with a rousing rendition of ''God Bless America,'' while giant screens projected scenes of American troops in Iraq. Allen, the associate pastor, estimates that roughly 60 percent of the members of the Family Christian Center are Republicans. ''A lot of the African-Americans came as Democrats, but some of them are turning Republican, too,'' he told me.

The choir struck up ''Amazing Grace,'' and Munsey, who was sitting next to me in the front pew, rose to take the pulpit on foot. (The Harley ride would come later.) As he passed me, he leaned down and whispered: ''I have a passion for healing. We have one of the highest rates of cancer healings in the nation in this church.''

Munsey is a shaggy-haired man of 50, and he is a showman. This morning, along with his Harley ride, he offered a warranty on tithing. ''If God doesn't pay you back, with increase, in 90 days, then I'll refund the money myself,'' he promised. Israeli flags appeared on the huge screens above the pulpit, and Munsey summoned his guest. ''Yek-eel Epstein is a powerful giant,'' he said, butchering the name. ''He rates right up there. You've seen him on TV. He was a rabbi, and he became a born-again Christian!''

Eckstein, sitting nearby, visibly blanched. For decades, Orthodox critics have accused him of being a closet Christian. He told me that a few years ago four senior rabbis convened a court in New York to try him for the crime of ''teaching Torah to gentiles.'' He was acquitted in a split decision, but he recalls it as one of the most humiliating moments of his life.

Nor did the verdict end the muttering. As Eckstein has grown more powerful, he has attracted ever harsher criticism from parts of the Orthodox community from which he came and whose good opinion he covets. Just a few days earlier, The Jewish Observer, the house magazine of the ultra-Orthodox organization Agudath Israel of America, called his work ''a curse.'' And here he was, sitting next to a reporter as he was being introduced as a born-again Christian. ''This has never happened to me before,'' he muttered, rising. ''I've got to do something.''

Eckstein appeared perfectly composed as he took the pulpit. He has the physical presence of an Eagle Scout troop leader -- tall, broad-shouldered and boyishly friendly. ''Shalom,'' he called to the congregation.

''Shalom,'' everyone replied.

''Come on, I can't hear you -- give me a 'shalom' they can hear all the way to Jerusalem,'' he implored. Eckstein's blandly sincere tone is a style not at all suited to the call-and-response of the charismatic evangelical church, but he is one of God's chosen people, and that was enough to stir the congregation into a loud ''Shalom!''

Sunday services in megachurches like the Family Christian Center are tightly scripted. Giant or not, Eckstein had just five minutes. (He would have another 10 at the third service.) He began with damage control. ''I'm a Jewish rabbi,'' he informed the congregation. ''An Orthodox Jewish rabbi. I believe in a Messiah, but I am an Orthodox Jewish rabbi.'' The congregation applauded, and Eckstein smiled broadly, relieved to have re-established his kosher bona fides without insulting either Munsey or Jesus.

Eckstein thanked the congregation for its support of Israel. Although he still spends much of his time in Chicago, he became an Israeli citizen in 2002 and has an office in Jerusalem with a staff of 10 that hands out millions to charity projects around the country, from mobile dental clinics to costly antiterror devices for government use. In December 2003, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz listed the I.F.C.J. as the second-largest charitable foundation in the country. Such largess has not gone unnoticed by Israeli politicians. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made Eckstein an unofficial adviser, and he is being courted by Sharon's rivals with the offer of more formal appointments.

There is a huge digital clock mounted on the face of the Family Center's balcony, and at the stroke of five minutes, Munsey took back his pulpit. ''We're going to plant a seed today,'' he announced, handing Eckstein a check for $5,000. ''Remember, when you bless the Jewish people, God blesses you. So I want you all to tell Rabbi Einstein, 'Thank you, Rabbi!'''

''Thank you, Rabbi!'' they hollered, as Eckstein pocketed the donation.

"I had them at 'shalom,''' Eckstein said. We were on our way back to Chicago in a rented compact Chevy, with Eckstein in back and his assistant, the Rev. Jerry Clark, at the wheel. (Eckstein doesn't own a car and, conscious of not being too showy, always rents compacts.) Eckstein's self-mockery is one way he struggles against the sin of pride. But there's a measure of satisfaction as well.

Many of the Jews who once derided Eckstein for depending on the kindness of strangers now want to be his best friends. Hadassah, the women's organization whose magazine once refused to run his paid advertisements, is working with him on a joint project. A few years ago the head of the Jewish Agency for Israel refused to be photographed taking a check from Eckstein. Today, Eckstein is a member of the agency's board. Colleagues in the modern Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America who once ignored him now seek him out, and last year (despite a protest by some leading rabbis) he was invited to address the council's annual meeting.

Naturally, a lot of his erstwhile skeptics also want to know the secret to tapping the evangelical bankroll. In April, Eckstein attended a conference of major Jewish philanthropies in Las Vegas, but when fund-raisers there asked him to share his strategies, he tactfully demured.

Talking about it on the drive back to Chicago, he was less tactful. ''These evangelicals are pure,'' he said, gesturing out the window to the Indiana countryside. ''I represent the Jewish people to them. And I know very well how cynical some of these Jewish fund-raisers are. They're just in it for the buck. I should let them manipulate evangelicals like that?''

Sentiments like this help to explain why not everyone in the Jewish establishment has been won over. Abraham Foxman, the national director of the A.D.L., remains one of Eckstein's most prominent critics. Foxman has accused him of ''selling the dignity of the Jewish people'' by pandering to Christians. ''We're not a poor people,'' Foxman told The Jerusalem Report. ''What he's doing is perverse.''

But Eckstein has no apologies for his support from Christians. ''I consider what I do more than fund-raising,'' he said. ''It's a ministry. Evangelicals don't give like Jews. Jews give out of communal obligation. They say: 'Send me a letter and a tax-deduction statement, and I'll give you something. If I have a good year, I'll up my contribution by 5 or 10 percent next time.' Christians find that method abhorrent. They don't give out of responsibility but because the Lord told them to. They're moved to do it.''

Eckstein has stories to illustrate his point. ''There's a woman who loves Starbucks but buys regular coffee and sends the difference to us,'' he said. ''Kids donate their birthday money and Christmas gifts. One family in Florida sends us $15 every day. They don't feel comfortable sitting down to dinner unless they've helped Jews. These people ask not to publicize their gifts. They feel that the Lord knows who they are and seeking publicity would be wrong.''

Paradoxically, one of the charges against Eckstein is that he's a publicity hound. He does generally insist that the recipients of I.F.C.J. charity acknowledge its source but says that it's a simple matter of transparency. Eckstein has the power, unique among the heads of major Jewish charities, to write checks at his own discretion, and he wants people to see where their money is going. But he also likes finally being able to take credit for the group's contributions. For years, Eckstein says, he and his Christian donors were treated as invisible by the overlords of the United Jewish Appeal, which took I.F.C.J. contributions without acknowledging the source. Those days are over, but the memory still rankles.

So does Eckstein's sense of being misunderstood. ''I'm a nonevangelical defender of evangelicals,'' he said. ''Jews have such a cynical, negative view of these people. There are all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories out there about how evangelicals only support Israel to bring on Armageddon or because they want to convert the Jews to Christianity. That's just not true. You saw the people there today,'' he said, pointing backward, toward a rapidly receding Indiana. ''They're not religious fanatics, and they don't have ulterior motives. These are good, religious people who love Israel and want to help. What's the matter with that?''

On a Monday morning the phones were ringing all over the I.F.C.J. headquarters, which are in a downtown skyscraper overlooking the old Chicago City Hall. Some of the callers wanted to make donations. Others just wanted to chat or ask a question. At 10:30, the staff gathered for its weekly meeting. Thirty-odd people, some black and some white, some Jewish and some Christian, crowded into a conference room. ''We're going to need more space soon,'' Eckstein said, sighing. The fellowship has moved three times in recent years, and moving is a drag, but what can you do when your gross is growing at 10 or 15 percent a year?

The newest staff member at the meeting was Sandy Rios, who was hired a couple of days earlier as vice president for programming. Rios, a former talk-show host in Chicago, had come from Washington, where she served as president of Concerned Women for America, a conservative family-issues group. The meeting was led by George Mamo, an evangelical minister who is Eckstein's second-in-command. With a light touch, he led the staff through reports on the fellowship's activities and major profit centers. The I.F.C.J. has hundreds of thousands of donors to keep track of and cultivate, tours of Israel to plan, infomercial shoots to schedule, educational material to prepare and Israeli products to sell through a Web site, mailings and television. One woman related details of her recent fact-finding trip to Siberia. Another talked about a philanthropy seminar she had attended.

Finally, Eckstein rose to speak. He had an announcement. The lost Hebrew tribe of Bnei Menashe had been discovered -- after two and a half millennia -- in northeastern India. Its authenticity had been certified by the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel. The tribe -- 6,000 strong -- wanted to ''return'' to the Holy Land. Taking them and getting them settled would run about $8 million, and Eckstein had already informed the government of Israel that he would pick up the tab. This news was received by the staff with an affectionate yawn. That's Rabbi Eckstein for you, always coming up with something different. Mamo ended the meeting with a nondenominational prayer, beginning with the ritual Hebrew invocation ''Baruch ata Adonai.''

ransporting 6,000 lost Jews from India to Israel is Indiana Jones stuff, but it is also, inescapably, a political act. Israeli political parties will tussle over patronage of this new voting bloc. Right-wingers will fight to get it housed in the West Bank; left-wingers will try to prevent that. And the Palestinians will condemn the whole exercise as a Zionist trick to upset the demographic balance. If a rabbi can turn 6,000 Indians into biblical Jews and take them to Israel, what's to stop him from finding 600,000 somewhere else?

Eckstein says he has nothing against Palestinians, but he isn't much bothered by their concerns. He's a Sharon man, though he generally supports any government in power, and he hands out money to the pet projects of politicians from almost all the major parties. ''I've tried to guide my organization in a nonpartisan way,'' he says.

Eckstein is in favor of the Sharon plan to remove Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and a few isolated areas of the West Bank, which puts him to the left of most of his own evangelical flock. Most, according to his internal polling, don't want Israel to leave Gaza or any other territory they regard as part of Abraham's patrimony.

Eckstein is generally somewhat to the left of his American political allies. As a Democrat, he considers himself ''a Lieberman moderate.'' But while he voted for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman in 2000, he voted for President Bush in 2004. And there is no doubt that Eckstein's evangelical friends and followers are mostly Red State Republicans. Eckstein says that he has never met the president himself, but two years ago he took a delegation of evangelicals to Washington for a meeting with Condoleezza Rice, who was then the national security adviser. The delegation, which according to Eckstein was the only Christian group ever to lobby the White House specifically on behalf of Israel, included Jack Graham, then the president of the Southern Baptist Convention; Richard Land, the Southern Baptists' chief Washington lobbyist; and Ted Haggard, leader of the National Association of Evangelicals. Other luminaries of the Christian right like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell appear in Eckstein's infomercials. He runs his advocacy group, Stand for Israel, with Ralph Reed and the former G.O.P. presidential aspirant Gary Bauer. And he recently sent out a mass mailing offering a prayer of support for the embattled Republican House majority leader, Tom DeLay.

At noon that Monday, after the morning meeting, Eckstein, Mamo and Rios gathered over tuna sandwiches in a small conference room for a teleconference with Bauer. The annual Stand for Israel summit meeting in Washington was coming up, and there were plans to make. This year the fellowship was honoring Joe Lieberman and Rudy Giuliani. Eckstein also wanted to discuss whether the fellowship should expand Stand for Israel into a full-fledged lobbying operation along the lines of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Eckstein invited me to ask Bauer a few questions.

''A lot of Jews think Christian support for Israel is a trick,'' I suggested. ''They hear 'evangelical' and think 'anti-Semite.' What do you say to them?''

''There's a lot of history we'd like to do over,'' Bauer said smoothly, ''but this is a new era. Today, Jews are safer living in countries where Christianity is vibrant than they are anyplace else.''

''What about the Armageddon scenario?'' As Bauer knows, a great many Jews believe that evangelicals want to gather Jews in Israel to bring on the ''End of Days,'' a Book of Revelation big bang that includes the return of Jesus and a Jewish mass conversion.

Bauer dismissed this as the ''odd belief'' of an insignificant minority. ''Most evangelicals support Israel for national-security reasons,'' he said. ''After 9/11 there is a strong interest in foreign affairs, and we have a tendency to identify Israel as good guys.''

Eckstein nodded. He says he is certain that evangelical Christians want nothing more than to bless Israel, and he is frustrated by his continuing inability to get his fellow Jews to practice what he calls the Four A's: Awareness that evangelicals are helping Israel; Acknowledgment of that help; Appreciation; and Attitude Change. There has been progress on the first two, and No. 3 is coming along, but attitude change remains elusive. ''I want more than a tactical alliance,'' Eckstein said. ''I'm looking for genuine fellowship. And the Jewish community is nowhere near that.''

Bauer's analysis of the problem is political. ''A lot of this is hostility from Jews who just can't stand conservatives,'' he said. ''It trumps even their support for Israel.''

''Jews tend to demonize evangelicals,'' Eckstein said sadly.

''And not the other way around?'' I asked.

Eckstein shrugged. ''Not really. No.''

Throughout this conversation, Rios was clearly eager to join in. And as soon as there was a pause in the discussion, she did. ''You know,'' she said, ''the truth is, Christians do want to convert Jews.''

Eckstein and Mamo exchanged glances. ''Not by some bait-and-switch trick,'' she said. ''But we believe it's part of God's plan.'' Eckstein winced the way he had when Pastor Munsey called him a born-again Christian.

''Anyway,'' Rios said, ''we love Jews, notwithstanding their rudeness and hatred for us.''

Three days later, Eckstein called me in New York. Rios had been fired, but her gaffe, and the impression it made, was still on his mind. ''It's really my fault,'' he said. ''Hiring staff is a problem. Truthfully, it's extremely hard to find people who understand exactly what we're doing here.''

The End Of Faith

2005-07-20T13:32:00.000-04:00

I know it is practically absurd to say so at this point, but this book has had a major impact on my thinking about Judaism and religion in general. You can check out the author's web site here: The End Of Faith, by Sam Harris. This is a shrill, abrasive, unrelenting book, but ultimately the author's argument, that our only hope is to get beyond "faith-based" religion, is irrefutable. Unlike more conventional arguments for atheism, materialism, etc., Harris is dead right in his philosophical and scientific validation of real "spiritual" practice, strongly advocating the pursuit of meditation and other practices leading to nondual awareness, such as those found in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta. Powerful stuff, this is what my parents should have been locking up, instead of the porn...

Shocking News

2005-07-15T19:21:00.000-04:00

Who would have guessed this?

Intelligent by Design?

2005-06-04T14:35:00.001-04:00

Here's a new wrinkle for the Intelligent Design folks to ponder...

IMG_0500_1

2005-03-22T21:06:00.000-05:00

IMG_0500_1
Originally uploaded by haskel.

This Photo has orbs

Sunday Night Explained

2005-02-20T09:14:00.000-05:00

WSJ.com - Cubicle Culture

The Gateless Gates

2005-02-18T22:36:00.000-05:00

This piece from the Forward seems like a stretch. The symbolism, if it is symbolism, seems pretty universal to me...

Jewish Meaning Seen in 'Gates'
By Gabriel Sanders
February 18, 2005

On Saturday, thousands of people watched as miles of orange-hued fabric were unfurled, adorning the 7,500 "Gates" that artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude had arrayed along the serpentine byways of New York City's Central Park.

To some observers, though, the launch of the art project, the largest in New York's history, hinted at deeper and more ancient meaning. A few hours after the installation's inauguration, Michael Strassfeld, a rabbi whose congregation meets just a few short steps from the celebrated 16-day installation, brought together a group of some 70 of his congregants for a Sabbath-afternoon talk on the place of the gate in Jewish thought.

Traditionally, explained the rabbi, the city gate is where the action is: where one goes for news, for trade. It is where justice is administered. The gate is no less central in the relationship between man and God. One need think only of the gates of prayer, the gates of repentance. The closing portion of the Yom Kippur liturgy, the Ne'ilah service, which centers on the closing of the heavenly gates, is regarded as the penitent's last chance at redemption. The gate is the threshold between the known and the unknown, past and future. It's a place of risk, where demons lurk; it's where one hangs the mezuzah.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are playing with this doubleness, the rabbi said. "They're clearly focusing on the intersection of nature and art." And they're creating a space for reflection, introspection. "The effect of the installation is to make people look at Central Park again, the shape and the flow and the frame of it."

Strassfeld, co-author of the celebrated "Jewish Catalogue," is hardly the first to draw parallels between Judaism and the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. In 1994, when the German Parliament was debating whether or not to allow the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin, Konrad Weiss, a Green Party lawmaker, used a Jewish argument to endorse the project.

"In the Jewish faith," he said, "the Torah rolls are wrapped in order to remind us of the preciousness of what they contain. The Reichstag will not be desecrated by Christo's wrapping, it will be ennobled."

Wrappings and coverings constitute an astounding number of Judaism's ritual objects: the curtain for the Holy Ark, the prayer shawl, the wedding canopy, the kittel prayer robe — each endowing what it covers with ceremonial uniqueness. And such, some say, has been the effect of the Gates' billowing fabric on visitors in Central Park.

"Now one no longer ambles through the park," wrote New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman, "but rather saunters below the flapping nylon. Paths have become like processionals, boulevards decked out as if with flags for a holiday. Everyone is suddenly a dignitary on parade."

Strassfeld concluded his lesson with a pair of songs: first the psalm Pitchu Li Shaarei Tzedek ("Open to me, O you gateways of justice"), and then the spiritual "Twelve Gates to the City" (Rich and the poor welcome to the city/Young and the old welcome to the city).

"There was something very nice about being a Jewish community together in the park, experiencing the Gates," Strassfeld said afterward. "There were lots of people walking by, some people stopping. We were singing, and some joined in. It just all came together in a very natural way."

Journalistic Consciousness and the Decline of Civilization

2005-02-13T09:40:00.000-05:00

Thanks to A&L for linking to this provocative essay on the limitations of journalism, and its insidious effects on thought and culture.

Quote:

"The steady diffusion of a journalistic interest in what is going on affects our consciousness of the world we live in. A nun has a different mind-set from a housewife, a philosopher from a man of affairs, but journalism equips them all with a generalized interest in the world. One dimension of how journalism affects the way we think is our propensity to become bored. Someone who is focussed on the novelty of events as they unfold in the newspapers is to that extent less reflective about the events to which he responds. The details of change crowd out the time and energy that would otherwise go into reflection. Religious people, philosophers, or scientists—people who are genuinely educated, we might say—will think about God, or Nature, or literature, and will find new things in quite exiguous materials, whereas the less educated become increasingly miserable without a continual flow of novelty, and since most of reality is repetition, the novelty is a function of triviality. People become, in a word, shallow. Here then is a new form of consciousness evolving under the spur of improving technology to the point where twenty-four-hour news and comment is available to us.

Journalistic consciousness is imperialistic. It invades every sphere of life and takes it over. Consider the world of scholarship, in which men and women dedicate themselves to exploring some area of reality in terms of a particular mode of inquiry—as historians, scientists, or literary scholars, for example. Scholarship is hard, focussed work, continually retracing its steps to check on its validity as scholarly discussion proceeds. It knows nothing of the urgency of the deadline. The scholars who practice this art are often pedantic and stuffy, and certainly impatient with those who think they can master the subject in question without a lengthy apprenticeship. And for centuries scholars used to defend themselves against the contempt of practical men for what is “academic” with an entrenched disdain for journalism and popularization. The Cambridge English don F. R. Leavis detested nothing so passionately as Sunday newspaper reviewing. The Oxford historian A. J. P. Taylor never got the chair to which his abilities entitled him because (so it is plausibly said) he brought scholarship low by writing for newspapers."

Tales of the 50 Most Beautiful Kabbalists

2005-02-12T23:09:00.000-05:00

From NY Observer, these tales of the Kabbalah:

One day, Britney appeared before Rebbe Mendel of Malibu in the company of her new husband. Unperturbed by the scorn heaped by critics upon her latest album, the young songstress was radiant in a pink charmeuse Heatherette miniskirt, a torn FCUK tee tied at the waist and a red wrist string by Marc Jacobs for Couture de la Cabale. Yet her countenance was downcast.
"Rebbe," she said, "take pity on us and help us. We have been married for six hours, yet we have not conceived a child."
The rebbe, resplendent in a white linen robe-and-pants ensemble by Richard Tyler, pondered for a moment, his brow furrowed in thought.
"My children," he said at last, "tell me: When you have performed the holy act, have you done so with the firm and single intention of fulfilling the commandment to be fruitful and multiply?"
"Well," said the young man, "we were in Vegas, and the MTV was on …. "
"Yes," said Britney, "we did."
"Alas," said Rebbe Mendel, "this is where you strayed from the true path. For to that intention you must add the deeper intention of joining the King with the Queen, that is, the Holy One, Blessed be He, with His Shekhinah, or the divine presence, which is the feminine aspect of the godhead, if we may speak of holy things in the language of men. Thus you will join the upper sephirot with the lower, and heaven with earth, which is the principle of all creation. In so doing, you will help ensure the flow of life in the universe, as well as in your own womb, my child."
Deeply moved, the couple thanked the rebbe and went on their way.
Twelve hours later, they were divorced.

One day, when Rebbe Aaron of Bel Air had just concluded his morning prayers, he received a call from the head of Touchstone Studios.
"Rebbe," cried the wealthy yet pious businessman, "heed the voice of our supplication!"
"Why, what is wrong?" asked the rebbe, concerned.
"Woe is me!" the studio head replied. "This morning, in the midst of shooting his new vehicle A Lot Like Love, Ashton removed all his garments, save only for the red string around his wrist, and crawled under the lighting console, making strange gobbling sounds. There he remains, ignoring our pleas as if deaf to human speech, while 50 of our people look on in dismay, at union scale. Rebbe, it seems the poor boy imagines he is a turkey."
Pausing only to remove his phylacteries by Prada, Rebbe Aaron rushed to the Touchstone backlot. When he arrived, wearing a black silk caftan by Zang Toi and a plush sable streimel by Karl Lagerfeld, the situation was just as the distraught studio head had said. Directors, assistant directors, cinematographers, cameramen, actors, extras, continuity assistants, prop masters, stylists, lighting technicians, boom operators, grips and gaffers all stood about, aghast, as, beneath the lighting console, Ashton strutted about on bent legs, his head bobbing, gobbling sounds emerging from his throat.
"Has this happened before?" the rebbe asked.
"Alas, yes," said the studio head. "Two years ago, on the eve of the Feast of Weeks. We called upon the holy Rebbe Nachman of Encino for assistance. Immediately upon his arrival, he doffed his clothes and crawled under the console with Ashton. When Ashton asked him the meaning of his odd behavior, he responded: ‘I’m a turkey, too.’ To this, Ashton had no reply. So, together, they strutted and bobbed and gobbled for some time.
"Presently," the studio head went on, "Rebbe Nachman put on his trousers. Ashton said, ‘How can you wear trousers if you’re a turkey?’ The rebbe said, ‘And where is it written that a turkey cannot wear trousers?’
"Ashton considered this. Finding that he could give no adequate reply, he put his trousers on too. Rebbe Nachman continued along these lines until, at last, Ashton was acting in all respects like a human being, even if he still fancied himself a turkey."
"So the stratagem succeeded?" Rebbe Aaron asked.
"Like a charm," said the studio head. "Not a single gobble has come forth from him—until this accursed day."
"So," Rebbe Aaron inquired, "why didn’t you call Rebbe Nachman again?"
"Because," replied the studio head, "he’s under contract to Paramount."
Rebbe Aaron pondered for a while, his noble brow furrowed in thought. Finally, without removing so much as a stitch of clothing, he climbed under the console.
"Gobble," said Ashton.
"I don’t know if you’re a turkey," said the rebbe, "but your last film certainly was."
"Gobble?" said Ashton.
"If only the director had possessed the wisdom to use your stunt double for the acting, too, the film might have turned a profit."
"Gobble!" the young star exclaimed, his gorge rising like a wattle.
"Indeed," Rebbe Aaron continued, "the rumor in the house of study is that you are not merely box-office poison, but box-office anthrax."
"You can’t say that!" Ashton cried, leaping from beneath the console and drawing himself up to his full, buff, 6-foot-3 height. "That’s slander. Demi, where’s my cell phone?"
"In your pants," replied his lean, well-muscled, middle-aged love interest, jaw-droppingly sexy in a Star of David–spangled blue spandex duotard by Donatella Versace that displayed her washboard abs to full advantage, and a red string by John Varvatos for Mercedes-Benz’s Carma line.
As Ashton, his dark brown eyes flashing fire, wedged himself into his ink-blue distressed-calfskin jeans by Michael Kors, the rebbe smiled. Laying his hand upon the young man’s head in benediction, he took his leave.

One fine summer day, Barbra, Roseanne and Madonna were lounging about the open-air, Olympic-size mikvah at Barbra’s rustic, 4,700-square-foot beach house in East Hampton, Long Island. They had just performed the sacred monthly immersion in this secluded place, safe from the prying eyes of men, except for the Mexican gardener.
When they had talked for some time of their latest shows, films, records, contracts, lawsuits and lovers, they began to argue over which of them had ascended to a higher rung of the cosmic ladder that leads, at last, to the Eyn Sof, the unknowable nothingness that transcends all things. As the debate became heated and there was no agreement in sight, they called Rebbe Schneur Zalman of Amagansett and asked him to come and judge between them.
As it happened, the Rebbe was just then immersed in a particularly difficult and delectable passage of the ancient book of Jewish culinary mysticism, the Zabar. Though reluctant to leave his studies, he was so impressed by the strength of the women’s piety that he agreed to come at once.
"Do you think we should get dressed?" asked Roseanne.
"No need," their host assured her. "The rebbe is so pious that he won’t even notice!"
Indeed, when the rebbe arrived, glowing with holiness in a simple white kittel by Zac Posen and a stunning silk brocade skullcap-and-prayer shawl ensemble by Luca Luca, he gave no indication whatever that he was aware of the women’s dishabille. As he made a practice of avoiding the sight of the opposite sex, his gaze was firmly fixed upon the earthy, salmon-colored paving stones that Barbra’s decorator, Waldo Fernandez, had imported from Arizona together with the skilled Hopi craftsmen who alone could fit and join them. Yet he listened intently to the women as each, in turn, testified to the height she had attained in climbing the Tree of Life.
"I tell it like it is and I don’t take no shit," said Roseanne, who, save for a red string by Zaftique, was naked as the Holy One, Blessed be He, for reasons best known to Himself, had made her. "Hence, I have ascended to the sephirah of Gevurah, or Strength, corresponding to the left arm of the divine being."
"I am a person who needs people," said Barbra, curvaceous and womanly in a classic red string by Chanel. "Thus, I have ascended to the sephirah of Hesed, or Love, corresponding to the right arm of the divine being."
"I have reinvented myself a thousand times," said Madonna, voluptuous yet sinewy in a red string she had designed for her own Shiksa line of mystic accessories. "Hence, I have ascended to the highest sephirah: Keter, or the Crown, the root of roots, the inner wisdom that precedes all creation, indeed all emanation."
The rebbe pondered their words, his brow deeply furrowed above furry eyebrows by Oscar de la Renta beneath which, to tell the truth, it was impossible to know where his eyes were turned.
"My children," he said at last, "all of you have risen so far beyond me on the ladder of holiness that you are lost to my sight. How then can I tell which of you has risen highest?"
Well satisfied with this answer, the women gave each other high-fives, thanked the rebbe and sent him on his way.
—Evan Eisenberg

Meta-Atheism

2005-02-12T00:17:00.000-05:00

Check out this interesting discussion of meta-atheism, the principle that most people who think they believe in god actually don't. It is this type of analysis that, to me, makes philosophy worth doing. If anyone ever makes the mistake of asking me if I believe in god my general response is, well, that depends on your definition of "god", and your definition of "believe", and, for that matter, on your definition of "you"... As I said, the question, itself, is a mistake.

Zen Judaism, Part II

2005-02-04T11:04:00.000-05:00

Please see Zen Judaism post earlier in this blog, with comments, or click here. I have posted my response below, as a new thread. Again, Rabbi Rami's Manifesto can be found here. The discussion at Velveteen Rabbi can be found here.

Anonymous, I agree with your concern with Principle 5 of the manifesto, re the definition of who is a Jew. Rami's criteria are too lax and ambiguous. They would be fine if you were solely defining Judaism as a philosphy, say, and not a religion. If, however, you hope to maintain some form of institutionalized religion that can be transmitted, used for Law of Return, etc, it is unacceptable.

Eshin, I think you hit the nail on the head. We are all "free" to interpret and practice Judaism as we choose, to select what we will or will not adhere to, as individuals. We are certainly free to understand Judaism from the perspective we may have acquired through other practices. But taking on the project of "reconstructing" Judaism for others is an entirely different issue, and fraught with danger.

Of course, over the centuries, Judaism HAS been reconstructed, over and over again, by generations coming to terms with prevailing realities. This reconstruction has occurred both on an institutional basis and on a grassroots basis, eg. The widely accepted principle that minhag is regarded as halachah! What does that mean? Bluntly put, if enough Jews take on a particular mode of practice for a long enough time, it becomes de facto Halacha for that community! A radical concept is it not? And accepted by normative Orthodoxy.

The reality of the historical evolution of Jewish practice has been used as a foundation of the Reconstructionist movement in justifying the self-conscious and deliberate modification of Jewish practice as an ongoing project. This phenomenon, greatly accelerated in recent times, while giving rise to obvious slippery-slope concerns, has also resulted, I believe, in the emergence of a new generation of committed, actively engaged Jews, seeking to find a way of being Jewish that is meaningful and constructive. It is these very people, IMO, who would have been entirely "lost" to their own religion without this development. Certainly, I would include myself in this group.

Is this "good" for Judaism or "bad"? Are "we"(whoever WE are) better off with a small remaining kernel of diehard Jews, practicing "normative" Orthodoxy, and complete assimilation of remaining population, or do we want to widen the net, keep our eyes and ears open, and enter the 21st century as a living, adapting community. Arguments could be made both ways; my inclinations are to the latter...

Pee Well

2005-02-02T18:15:00.000-05:00

I'm not a big fan of Top 10 lists, but for the Top Ten Urinals I'll make an exception.

Entire universe is contained in the mind and spirit

2005-01-30T11:59:00.000-05:00

Dr. Ecstasy: "When Shulgin had his first psychedelic experience in 1960, he was a young U.C. Berkeley biochemistry Ph.D. working at Dow Chemical. He had already been interested for several years in the chemistry of mescaline, the active ingredient in peyote, when one spring day a few friends offered to keep an eye on him while he tried it himself. He spent the afternoon enraptured by his surroundings. Most important, he later wrote, he realized that everything he saw and thought ''had been brought about by a fraction of a gram of a white solid, but that in no way whatsoever could it be argued that these memories had been contained within the white solid. . . . I understood that our entire universe is contained in the mind and the spirit. We may choose not to find access to it, we may even deny its existence, but it is indeed there inside us, and there are chemicals that can catalyze its availability.''"

Epistemological doubts concerning validity of insights obtained in meditation and other "altered" states are echoed in this quote concerning use of Ecstasy:

"Steven Hyman, professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, put it this way: ''If you asked me to place a bet, I would be skeptical. In general, one worries that insights gained under states of disinhibition or mild euphoria or different cognitive states with illusions may seem strange and distant from the vantage of our ordinary life.''"

Yes, these insights can seem strange and distant, when they are not integrated properly into one's life, which is why meditation, yoga, entheogen use, etc. have no real impact when they are not realized in context of a serious spiritual or religious practice.

Hope

2005-01-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

While struggling through arctic conditions to get to work Friday morning I
suddenly realized what it is that I have been waiting and hoping for all my
life...a taxi ex machina...

Zen Judaism

2005-01-25T23:41:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Velveteen Rabbi for linking to this manifesto of Judaism for the 21st century. While it may seem to be a neutered and watered-down Judaism, I do think it is our only hope. Once you have tasted the "truth" of non-duality, there is no real choice but to be non-dual in your Judaism (or Protestantism or agnosticism, etc.) or just let it go. Any religious observance that is exclusionary is, ultimately, spiritually fatal.

Why I Blog

2005-01-18T11:48:00.000-05:00

Well, this sums it up perfectly. Instead of the usual round-robin of forwarded emails, articles, links, outrages, etc., why not have a central site for sharing this stuff, and, hopefully, getting a real dialogue going. Some barriers are--1. Getting people to actually look at the thing without constant email reminders, and 2. Overcoming new-found reticence of friends and colleagues who are too bashful to post their usually eloquent thoughts in a "public" forum.

Armchair Theology

2005-01-16T22:49:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Arts & Letters for pointing out this piece on god and physics.

"There is a photograph taken from one of the early interplanetary probes, looking back toward Earth. Earth appears as a tiny blue sphere surrounded by an immensity of blackness. It is a photograph that makes tears flow. There is no sharper visual statement of the loneliness of our planet. Earth is an insignificant speck in a vast and overwhelmingly hostile universe. There is nothing to suggest that human beings have a special role to play in this universe. Steven Weinberg is
absolutely right when he says, “The more the universe is comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”"

Denial of Death: Part II

2005-01-16T17:19:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting piece on the use of hallucinogenic drugs for dying patients. Studies are apparently underway to assess the "utility" of drugs like ecstasy and psilocybin in easing the death process.

Quote:

"The possibility of using potent consciousness-altering agents raises a question: At what point do the theological, cultural and personal significance of mortality become altered, or lost? Does going high into that good night risk mocking end-of-life customs - prompting rave flashbacks rather than life review, rude jokes rather than amends?

"I see death not only as an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of your own existence, but to offer your life as a gift to others," said the Rev. Donald Moore, a professor of theology at Fordham University. The end presents us with a time to ponder - and discuss, if possible - what life has meant and might continue to mean for others. Any drug that interferes with that experience comes at a steep cost, he said."

and:

"But there is no philosophical or psychological reason why existential questions should wait to the end of life. Death itself hardly respects concerns about meaning or timing. It strikes friends and loved ones often without warning. Moreover, it casts a deepening psychological shadow starting in middle age, which gives most people ample opportunity to contemplate the purpose and content of their lives simply by virtue of living to adulthood, psychologists say."

The questions raised here, as interesting as they are, are well beyond the domain of clinical research, and squarely in the domain of philosophy/theology. It seems absurdly paternalistic for academic psychologists to be contemplating the "efficacy" of drugs in enabling people to find the MEANING OF LIFE as that life ebbs, and (I assume) to be making recommendations regarding legalization of these drugs. One can only wonder what their "materials and methods" might be like in evaluating these terminal patients.

Who should qualify for the use of otherwise illegal drugs to cope with mortality? People given 6 months to live? Anyone over 80? Young, healthy people with a pronounced sense of the transience of life?

And regarding the supposed "interference" of hallucinogens with our ability to PONDER, I'll skip all the sophomore-level inquiries re just which reality is really real, but really now, is the corporate/media-induced capitalist meme more conducive to clarity and insight? Or the Judeo-Christian eschatology?

My New Year's Resolutions

2005-01-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

1. Stop bashing Bush
2. Stop bashing Bill Gates
3. Do much more zazen
4. Read more books; waste less time blogsurfing

Shouldn't Bush be Busy Fighting Evil or Something?

2004-12-29T18:38:00.000-05:00

Huh???

Let Them Eat...

2004-12-29T11:26:00.000-05:00

Anti-Semitism?

I have always had great confidence that the Vatican will take the correct and moral position in world affairs, especially in matters regarding Israel and the Jews.

Trouble in 2029

2004-12-28T15:01:00.000-05:00

Uh-oh

Geological Time

2004-12-28T13:00:00.000-05:00

This is a good overview of the uncertainly that underlies, literally, our existence on this planet. Excerpts:

"The possibility of great landmasses falling into the ocean is always with us, and recently scientists found vertical fault lines through a volcano on La Palma, one of the smaller and more westward Canary Islands. The volcano has a crater about five miles wide and a half-mile high, and erupts about every 200 years. The last eruption was in 1948, but the newly discovered fault lines have convinced some scientists that eventually the huge crater will break apart and slide into the ocean, bringing more than a half-trillion tons of rock with it.

Since tsunamis are created in proportion to the amount of land that has fallen into the water, this event would likely create a wave mass never before known to written history, many times bigger than the wave at Lituya Bay. The wave would diminish a little as it crossed the Atlantic, but if it hit the Atlantic Seaboard it could be higher than the skyscrapers of Boston, New York, Washington and Miami. Scientists do not know if it will take one, four, or 10 eruptions to separate the landmass, only that the separation is inevitable."

"BIG earthquakes occur infrequently, but when they do they usually come unexpectedly and with horrendous power. It is, of course, dangerous to live in an earthquake-prone area, but what area in the world can we say is earthquake-safe? Surely the people in the Mississippi Valley feel they are safe, as do the people in New York City. Yet, New York has a fault line going across 125th Street that I would guess 99 percent of the city's population does not know about."

And a Merry Christmas to All

2004-12-23T21:26:00.000-05:00

How not to buy happiness

"The meaning of life is that it ends."
-- Franz Kafka

"So here's a question: Would you ride a bus in Jerusalem? Right now? Here's your 5 1/2 shekels, go take a bus to market, buy some figs. Pick a bad day, after the Israelis have assassinated some terrorist leaders and everyone is waiting for the second sandal to drop. There are lots of buses in Jerusalem -- the odds are still long in your favor. Do you take that dare?"

I especially enjoyed the retro reference in this article to Ernest Becker's Denial of Death, the single most influential (non-pictorial) text of my teen years. You don't need to be a Freudian, post-Freudian, or even post-post-Freudian to appreciate its importance.

The end of the world: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."

Great Photo site

2004-12-22T01:13:00.000-05:00

SLOWER.NET

I would suggest a cushion

2004-12-21T23:54:00.000-05:00

This has a familiar ring: "Meaning, he concludes, is to be found in the ways in which we relate to one another in the short time we have, without reference to eternity. In moving from primate to devout agnostic, Holloway embodies the words of Russian philosopher Vasilii Rozanov, from whom his title is taken: 'All religions will pass, but this will remain: simply sitting in a chair and looking in the distance.'"

Fix your Deity and Yourself

2004-12-21T23:42:00.000-05:00

The Do-It-Yourself Deity and fix your mind.
This may help you sort things out.

Nice Piece of Asperger's

2004-12-20T13:30:00.000-05:00

Oops. I meant on Asperger's. We are seeing the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure, as debate rages on the IT diagnosis of the 00's. While the debate over "disease" vs "trait" is fundamentallly a semantic one, the implications, re disability payments etc. should be huge...The novel making the rounds through reading clubs is cute, but over-rated. For the unique Aspergoid perspective on Asperger's, and, like, just exactly which side is normal, check out this site.

Divine Salvation

2004-12-19T10:19:00.000-05:00

Here is an exhaustively complete site on Salvia Divinorum, apparently one of the most powerful entheogenic drugs available, and still legal in the US!! I haven't tried it, nor do I know anyone who has, but then again I don't get around that much...

I agree

2004-12-18T01:17:00.000-05:00

But is it OK if I blog this?

A Memory...

2004-12-18T01:11:00.000-05:00

This has a Sebaldian feel to me, which is why I posted it. Extra credit if you can tell where I took it.

Non-achievement

2004-12-17T15:00:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite artists has died: "'One thing I like about Zen,' she wrote. 'It doesn't believe in achievement. I don't think the way to succeed is by doing something aggressive. Aggression is weak-minded.'" This quote is hardly surprising to anyone familiar with her work. Reading her obituary, it seems the only thing she was aggressive about was maintaining an Ordinary life...

Success by Non-achievement is a subject near and dear to me. The Zen texts are too numerous to cite. A classic non-Zen text can be found here.

Just Sitting, sitting, sitting...

2004-12-16T11:29:00.000-05:00

Recently completely a wonderful 5 day urban Zen retreat at Eshin's Gateless Zendo, 35 stories above the streets of NYC...This mini-Rohatsu sesshin was unique in my experience, blending profound sitting samadhi with the demands of daily living and work--quite unlike the rarefied intensity of monastic retreat...We sat from 1 PM to 8 PM on the first day, and progressively later, till about midnite on the last day. While the depth of samadhi was less than that attained in a monastery setting, the quality and flavor of the sitting was in its own way more real. The lack of overt Buddhist ritual (chanting, prostrations, etc.) only added to the intensity and clarity of the practice. More to come...

Oy...

2004-12-15T16:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I've finally done it. This is my blog. G-d help us all...