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Category Archives: dialogue
The Sign of Jonah
The sign of Jonah (Luke 11:29-32) is a sign of contradiction. That is, the sign mirrors the contradiction of a people called to prophesy who, instead, flee their calling. The Book of Jonah, as part of the Hebrew Scriptures, is … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, dialogue, faith as hope, green theology
Tagged change, conscience, environment, experience, Gershwin, God, gospel, Jesus, Jonah, Nineveh, planet-home, Pope Francis, Porgy ‘n‘ Bess, prophecy, sign, Solomon
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The Scenario of the Gita
We stand with Krishna and Arjuna between two armies, in the Field of Truth, Dharma-kshetre. Dialogue genre, disciple and guru, following a typically Indian (Asian) pedagogy of reiterated themes, viewed differently at different levels of reality and understanding: as it … Continue reading
Posted in dialogue, Hinduism, India, inter-spirituality
Tagged Arjuna, Bhagavad-Gita, Hinduism, Krishna, Mahatma Gandhi, Stephen Mitchell, yoga
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January course in Berkeley: “The Bhagavad-Gita today”
Again this January, if any students sign up, I’ll be teaching a course on Hinduism. The theme this year is about the Bhagavad-Gita, India’s favorite scripture, as understood by four twentieth-century commentators. Here is the summary from the course syllabus: … Continue reading
Hindu Diaspora in America
9. Building a traditional Hindu presence in America: the arrival in greater numbers of Indian immigrants, the building of temples across the continent, where authentic vedic rites are celebrated by immigrant Brahmins. Some Hindu scholars and Brahmins are still of … Continue reading
Posted in dialogue, Hinduism, India, inter-spirituality
Tagged Caste, diaspora, Hinduism, temple, Vivekananda, Yogananda
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Christian meditation, yoga practice, ‘intention’
8. Alternatives to Yoga: John Main’s meditation movement and his initial Hindu inspiration; Centering Prayer; the use of mantras; the Christian embrace of the Hindu greeting gesture, the namaskara. American devotees of Hindu gurus who have converted to the Catholic … Continue reading
From West to East: Vedic America returns to India
7. From West to East: Western scholarship and comparative religious studies and their influence in India: Raimon Panikkar; Mircea Eliade and the Chicago school. The controversy surrounding Jeffrey J. Kripal’s reading of Sri Ramakrishna. The work of Georg Feuerstein on … Continue reading
Posted in dialogue, Hinduism, India, inter-spirituality, yoga
Tagged Bede Griffiths, Caste, Daya Mata, Henri Le Saux, Hindu, Indology, Jules Monchanin, kriyaban, mircea eliade, Raimon Pannikkar, Scholars, Wayne Teasdale, Yogoda Sat-Sanga
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Yoga and Science, from East to West and from West to East
6. Hinduism and the Scientific Paradigm: Quantum Physics compared with Vedanta, from Erwin Schrödinger to Fritjof Capra; Robert Oppenheimer, the military-industrial complex, and the Bhagavad Gita. The pertinent chapter from Goldberg (American Veda, pp. 282-308) will be the basis of … Continue reading
Posted in dialogue, Hinduism, inter-spirituality, science
Tagged Bhagavad-Gita, Fritjof Capra, Nikola Tesla, Rationalism, Robert Oppenheimer, Romanticism, Yogananda
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Yogananda, S.R.F., and other offshoots of Yogananda’s mission
4. Yogananda’s idea of ‘Christianity’ as opposed to ‘Churchianity’ (this expression was first used by Vivekananda). Offshoots of Yogananda’s mission, whether institutional or charismatic: Self-Realization Fellowship, Kriyananda and his Ananda Community, Roy Eugene Davis. The opposition between Christianity and Churchianity … Continue reading
Posted in dialogue, Hinduism, India, inter-spirituality, yoga
Tagged Ananda Community, Churchianity, Daya Mata, Kriya Yoga, Kriyananda, Roy Eugene Davis, Self-Realization Fellowship, Yogananda
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Yogananda’s Autobiography, 1946, and Thomas Merton’s, two years later
3. Autobiography of a Yogi, 1946: Yogananda’s song of himself in India and America; compare with Thomas Merton’s autobiography, The Seven-Storey Mountain, 1948, and with Merton’s subsequent, wide-ranging dialogue with the East. The opening lines of AY: “The characteristic features … Continue reading
America’s Parliaments of Religions, 1893 and 1993
2. The Parliaments of Religions in Chicago, 1893 and 1993; Vivekananda’s resounding voice at the first, the subtle Catholic presence at the second (Joseph cardinal Bernardin and the Benedictines). Gurus on the lecture circuit. When we realize how important newly-translated … Continue reading
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