Letters to the Editor
Ben Sen
Published Letters: 541 Editor's Choice: 98
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Buddha Brain II
[Read the article: Divining the brain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What an incredibly lively and exciting discussion! My father used to say the two things you never talk about are religion and sex. I have come to believe the "injunction" is exactly what makes them the most interesting subjects--especially when the respondents are as inquisitive and sincere as so many Salonites. (my word)
I am most intrigued by the science VS. religion, or the science AND religion aspect. As a Buddhist, particularly a Zen Buddhist, the discussion is mostly moot, since we believe that what are called "religious" or "non-religious" beliefs are an entirely personal matter in which the collective values and traditions make no difference.
The methodolgy is "scientific" because what one discovers as a result of the practice of meditation IS THEIR RELIGION, or belief system--whatever you want to call it. The focus is not on the ideas, concepts or dogma but on the practice. PERIOD. This is almost impossible for many Westerners to fathom given the "results" oriented indoctrination that pervades the culture. We do X so we will receive Y. But what if there is just X and only X--and Y is an undigested piece of cheese?
I'll make one other point that arises in the discussion. The either/or thinking: In the West, one is either an athiest OR a believer, a Christian OR a Jew, a Fundamentalist OR a Liberal, a Green OR a Red. In Eastern thought, one is a devotee of Shiva AND of Zoroaster, an athiest AND Buddhist, a Presbyterian AND Unitarian, an X AND a Y.
Spirituality is based on the INCLUSION of beliefs THAT INDIVIDUALS HOLD of one sort or other--not the EXCLUSION that is the assumption in the West that lends itself to so much prejudice. Thus, tolerance is itself part of religious practice rather than imposed by the social contract, laws, courts, liberal intellectuals, etc.
I was most taken by the response of JONTV. In his looking for answers I saw a concern about the culture, and his place in it as a non-believer, AND that is typically Western--the preoccupation with what is outside the self, rather than what is inside, which is the focus of the Eastern tradition.
Not to be steriotypical and prejudiced, it is also in the esoteric tradition in the West, i.e. Gnosticism, Eckeart, Bohme, and Sufism--which sprang from the Muslim tradition.
I hope those who know all this will forgive me. I couldn't help myself.
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If Not Now When
[Read the article: Back to the Dark Ages]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you knew very little about this man before he became Pope, this is no surprise, and it may be just as well it happened now, fairly early in his Papacy. Now it will take him out of contention as a leader on the world stage, and give the next contenders for his job plenty of time to see that confrontation and exclusivity simply do not work, and enhance the "moral" authority of Catholicism.
My bet is Ratzinger's trip to Turkey will be cancelled. If his advisers have any wits about them at all, they will attempt to call some sort of summit, but it will be "iffy," and I fear even at that I am giving them more credit than they deserve.
What I can't figure out is why there has been no call for an American Catholic Church that at least has the wherewithall to break from the most egregious of the old faith's hypocracy--but hey--even asking the question pulls my covers. I've always been a dreamer.
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You Go Bill
[Read the article: Great expectations]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I gotta say it or I'd be a liar. There has been little doubt in my mind Bill Clinton is the greatest politician in my era--and that goes back away. We are in the same generation.
He remains the only politician I've known who I actually enjoy listening to speak, and convinces me almost every time that he knows more than everybody else, regardless of the issue, and is at least heading in the right direction in solving it.
His new organization in my mind represents a classic "end run," around the compromises that must be made in a country like the US that has such a large and well organized regressive establishment. I always was interested in what he would do as a follow-up to the Presidency and he hasn't been a disappointment.
Perhaps, no other issue so grabs me now as the future of Hillary. She shows almost every indication that she is his equal in the brains department, and I hope as time passes that she will feel she can open up more emotionally as well.
She has to prove that as a woman she's "tough," as the guys--but I'm not sure those who look for such things are going to vote for her under any circumstance--so why play to the bleachers when there are some many folks in the front and middle rows dying for a new hero?
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Water Boarding is Out
[Read the article: The GOP enacts its drama to perfection]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We can rest assured now.
The Republican majority finally relented as a result of the efforts of former prisoner of war John McCain and others, reluctantly to be sure, despite terrible fears they would render our great nation defenseless, in no longer allowing the CIA to torture our suspected enemies with the simulated drowning technique of "water boarding."
I don't know what "water boarding," is, and I don't want to knew. I suspect, however, that it will appear in the next James Bond movie as a terrorist tool--and not anything a God-fearing predominately Christian nation in the 21st century would imagine let alone attempt to enact.
Yes, I feel better now. My sense of dignity and honor at being a member of a civil society has been redeemed by my elected officials. Thank you one and all for your efforts.
I'll sleep better tonight. I know this means God is on our side. Let freedom ring.