Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Cain]

Didn't Castaenda also use Don Juan as part of his Ph.D thesis?

Slightly different things, IMO.

[Cramulus]

Castaneda was awarded both his bachelors and doctorate based on his first three books, which he wrote while he was an anthro student at UCLA. I agree that Don Juan probably wasn't a real dude, and yeah Castaneda made some scratch and prestige from book sales. But I still think that's kind of immaterial, sort of like the validity of the new testament being contingent on the physical reality of Jesus' existence.

Anyway, I'm really intrigued by the notion of zen and cabalah as opposite ends of the spectrum. Zen is unloading, Cabalah is overloading. Maybe it's time to quest through that stuff again - but I still feel kind of rationally anchored. Will have to think on this further.

[LMNO]

Does that mean that you'd put the Celestine Prophecy on the same footing as Ashtanga Yoga?

[Cain]

Lets put it this way.  When we had to submit proposals for our M.A. thesis', I suggested a paper called The Neorealism of Mordor: Balancing and Bandwagoning in Middle Earth.  My submission tutor told me "no, just no."  I argued that while the setting was, of course, invented, Neorealism and bandwagoning and so on were real phenomena.  To which he replied "do you want me to fail you for this course right now?  Because I could do that."

So, yeah.

[Cramulus]

Does that mean that you'd put the Celestine Prophecy on the same footing as Ashtanga Yoga?

I haven't read either, so I'm likely missing some nuance.

But if I felt both had a positive effect on my life, or stirred me into thinking in a new way, then yes.

[LMNO]

Anyway, I don't want to get into a shouting match over a Brazilian fraud.  I'd rather keep talking about Kaballah.

[Cramulus]

fair enough. I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree anyway. I'm glad to have heard your opinion in a less flippant dismissive manner. 


Anyway, what's a good way to begin towards this overload? Does it require memorizing all the numeric correspondences? Should I get a thick cabalah dictionary and reference all the time? Is it something like how with tarot you need to start with a question and then build from there?

[LMNO]

Well, if you really want to do it, it takes a fair amount of work.  I'd pretty much follow Lon's book:

1. Learn the hebrew alphabet
2. Learn the numbers associated
3. Learn the correspondences of the letters
4. Learn the correspondences of the Tree of life (both the spheres and the paths)
5. Learn the correspondences of the Tarot to the Tree, the alphabet, the zodiac, etc
6. Memorize them all
7. Start making connections

[LMNO]

More on line with the original post, I'm reading The God Delusion, and I have to say that Dawkins is kind of a jackass.

To sum up the first 20 pages or so:

1. "When mystics and sages use the word "God", they are describing something different than when the everyday person uses the word "God".  So we're going to ignore and deride the people who have spent their lives studying their own spirituality, and go with the definition of the regular spag on the street."

2.  "When scientists use the word "religion," they mean something different than when the everyday person uses the word "religion".  So, out of respect to these great men of science, we are going to carefully parse and respect their use of the word, and show that their definition is far superior to the regular spag on the street's."

[P3nT4gR4m]

More on line with the original post, I'm reading The God Delusion, and I have to say that Dawkins is kind of a jackass.

To sum up the first 20 pages or so:

1. "When mystics and sages use the word "God", they are describing something different than when the everyday person uses the word "God".  So we're going to ignore and deride the people who have spent their lives studying their own spirituality, and go with the definition of the regular spag on the street."

2.  "When scientists use the word "religion," they mean something different than when the everyday person uses the word "religion".  So, out of respect to these great men of science, we are going to carefully parse and respect their use of the word, and show that their definition is far superior to the regular spag on the street's."

Could it be, as I've suspected for some time, that this man is single-handedly responsible for the whole attitude of the modern atheist movement?

[LMNO]

Probably.

It's funny; most of the "enlightened" sages, prophets, seers, and saints, when you boil down their rantings and explanations, say something to the effect of "God is all; it is the Universe, and the laws of the Universe; All is One, and that is God." Dawkins rejects this.

He then goes on to defend the scientist's use of the word "religion", in that they are invariably describing their "religion" as the wonderment of the Universe as a whole, the stunning idea that we are all connected, at the simplicity and beauty of the laws that govern Nature, etc.


From where I'm standing, they're talking about the same thing, pretty much.

[Cramulus]

did you see the South Park where Eric goes into the future to discover that religion has been crushed, and now all the wars are about which sect of Atheism is better?

I love how they celebrate the teachings of Richard Dawkins:  "It's not enough to be right. You also have to be a dick about it."

[LMNO]

No shit?

I swear, those infantile morons are fucking geniuses.

[Xooxe]

More on line with the original post, I'm reading The God Delusion, and I have to say that Dawkins is kind of a jackass.

I'm generally ignoring his moral crusade. Love his biology books though.

It's funny; most of the "enlightened" sages, prophets, seers, and saints, when you boil down their rantings and explanations, say something to the effect of "God is all; it is the Universe, and the laws of the Universe; All is One, and that is God." Dawkins rejects this.

I've got a bunch of friends who are pretty much hardcore muslim. They're really bright and it's brilliant having conversations about philosophy with them, until it comes to putting a name to the subject and they're like "NO, it's called ALLAH!"

"Finnnnnnne, we'll stick with Allah then."

[LMNO]

Duquette has a line about this.  I'll see if I can find it.