485: Readers Tell Us About … Importance of news on Holocaust—and East-West celebration of Yunus’ honor

July 30, 2009 by

WELCOME!
Once again, thanks to readers like you,
we’ve got your feedback to share …

New Film on Holocaust 
Prompts Urgent Questions
and Enduring Spiritual Lessons

“HITLER’S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST” sparked messages from many readers. (If you missed it, here’s our story on this important new National Geographic documentary.)
    Two different Jewish readers, who explained that their families suffered losses in the Holocaust, asked if we know more about the regions across eastern Europe depicted in this new documentary.
    “This may sound like a long shot, but it does happen that people recognize things in TV news stories about the Holocaust,” wrote one reader from the Cleveland area, who asked that I not mention his name. “Someone could see a place they remember. I know of cases where people found long-lost friends. … I’ll be watching this carefully. My family came from what is now Romania and Ukraine, too, which you said is in the TV show.“
    Thanks for that note. I know from experience as a journalist covering religious issues that there is truth to what this reader is describing. It’s one of the reasons such new films are very important to viewers with family histories tied to these locations.
    In answer to these readers’ question: There are too many scenes and locations shown in this film to detail each one here, but I counted at least a half dozen different locations ranging from the Baltic to the Ukraine.
    A second big question about the National Geographic documentary was: “How disturbing are the scenes?” This came from reader Mary Owen of Los Angeles who is a high school teacher.
    Answer: The film does include black-and-white documentary film footage of an Einsatzgruppen mass killing. Here’s a link to Wikipedia’s Einsatzgruppen overview, including a photo of one such action on the right side of the Wiki page. You will see images like that Wiki photo in the middle section of this National Geographic documentary. Yes, the scene is disturbing.
    Some readers responded with comments about the program.
    One pointed comment came from reader Mares Hirchert: “The answer to, ‘How can neighbors watch neighbors being killed?’ is that we have allowed violence as a solution instead of non-violence. In the U.S. Civil War, we witnessed brother against brother. It was after this war that Mother’s Day took root. The hope was that mothers in the U.S. would not approve the killing of the sons of mothers anywhere in the world. Mothers of the World need to take over!”
    This week, some members of an interfaith group carried on an Emailed discussion about the prevalence of some forms of violence in global conflict. I was sent a series of these private back-and-forth messages. One note in particular eloquently expressed the ideal role of religious groups in confronting large-scale violence. This was from a writer named Roger.
    I think Roger’s words clearly express why stories about the Holocaust—and other forms of large-scale violence—do show up in the pages of ReadTheSpirit. He wrote:
    “We need to be vigilant so that we do not fall into the
yawning chasm of fear and hate. If it were easy to pull ourselves back from that
abyss, we would not need religious groups.” The core contribution faith can make is to remember moral principles, to protect the vulnerable—and to teach peacemaking. If we do not, Roger wrote, “It seems to be a human
inclination to fight fire with fire—anger and fear directed at anger and fear—and to have our highest and best values and selves immolated in the
process.“

    Thank you, readers! Very thoughtful questions and comments this week! Keep them coming. Feel free to Email us anytime with your reflections.

East-West Connections
Shine in New Books …
… and White House Honors

WE DID OUR PART, this week, draw fresh spiritual connections between West and East in our profile of Madame Blavatsky, a spiritual godmother of modern interfaith movements. If you missed it, here’s a link to meet this mysterious, larger-than-life Russian author and tireless world traveler.
    Then, news broke late this week about White House plans to honor 16 men and women, most of them Americans, with the Medal of Freedom.
    One of the few non-American honorees is Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize winner for rethinking ways to help poor people around the world.

Here’s a link to the White House announcement about all 16 honorees, including Yunus.

Here’s a link to an OurValues.org story about trying to find an effective slogan for Dr. Yunus’ campaign. Take a look and share your thoughts!

PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU THINK:

    This is a good time to sign up for our Monday-morning ReadTheSpirit Planner by Email—it’s
free and you can cancel it any time you’d like to do so. The Planner
goes out each week to readers who want more of an “inside track” on
what we’re seeing on the horizon, plus it’s got a popular “holidays”
section.

    Not only do we welcome your notes—but our readers enjoy them as well. You can do this
anytime by clicking on the “Comment” links at the end of each story.
You also can Email ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm. We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube and other social-networking sites as well.
    (Originally published at https://readthespirit.com/)

..

483: Interview on Madame Blavatsky, interfaith pioneer & Theosophy founder

July 28, 2009 by

Unity of mind-body-spirit. Spiritual quests. East-West connections. Ancient disciplines. Respect for world religions.
   All are commonplace today.
   And yet—all have roots in a tiny New York flat in 1875 where a circle of men and one larger-than-life, Russian-American woman, Madame Helena Blavatsky, committed themselves to the serious study of the world’s religious traditions. Their work touched countless lives, including figures as widely different as L. Frank Baum (the author of “The Wizard of Oz”), the Irish writer James Joyce—as well as some of the leading political figures who eventually joined Gandhi in the India-independence movement half a world away.
    “Today everybody knows the word karma. Now, everybody talks about mind-body-spirit connections in their lives. People everywhere talk about the unity of life around the world—and how we should do away with notions of class and race and religious bias. We can trace the popularity of a lot of those ideas back to this little group of people listening to lectures in their rooms in New York in 1875 and saying: This stuff is going to be important. We should study this stuff. We should tell other people about it.”

    That’s Michael Gomes talking. He’s an author and historian who specializes in America’s largely overlooked religious traditions—like Blavatsky and what became known as the Theosophist Society. Gomes has just summarized this history in a handy introduction to Blavatsky’s masterwork, “The Secret Doctrine.” Then, he provides about 200 pages of excerpts from her 1888 book in which she celebrates global spirituality.
    We should thank Gomes, because the original edition of “Secret Doctrine” was 1,500 pages! Even Gomes admits that portions of the whopping original text don’t make a lot of sense today, including one big section in which Blavatsky critiqued scientific discoveries of her era. “Most of that scientific stuff is too out of date for people to appreciate today, so I left it out,” Gomes explains.
    But what Blavatsky did—and what you’ll discover in this new concise volume—is provide vivid glimpses of the richness within the world’s spiritual traditions. Open up her chapter (preserved in Gomes’ new edition) on “The Lotus, as a Universal Symbol,” and you’ll quickly whirl around the world, opening up lotus petals and envisioning far deeper truths within this potent floral image.
    She also was a seductive storyteller, weaving enticing claims about spiritual secrets 100 years before Dan Brown even dreamed of “The DaVinci Code.” Blavatsky wasn’t consciously writing fiction. She saw herself as a pioneer in the vanguard of a new worldwide movement that would appreciate all of the great religious traditions. She foresaw a day, which now has arrived, in which millions of Americans would tell pollsters they are making their own decisions about the religious disciplines they will follow.
    She’s a spiritual godmother whose image many of us should frame and hang on our office walls as an early saint of the modern interfaith movement.

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR CONVERSATION
WITH MICHAEL GOMES:

    DAVID: I like this quote from an admirer of Madame Blavatsky, after her death in 1891: “She made it possible for men and women to believe at a time when belief was really being challenged.”
    I can’t imagine a better way to describe her enduring importance. We’re looking for teachers like that, today, aren’t we?
    MICHAEL: She could have started her Theosophist Society anywhere in the world and, of course, later she moved to India and she worked in Europe. But she started the Theosophist Society here in America. I think that’s very important for us as Americans and for the world.
    The Beat poets and the Beatles and all those ‘50s and ‘60s people a century later who hit the road, who traveled to India, who renewed all those connections for us again—they really were step-children of Blavatsky’s first pilgrimage to India.
    DAVID: These ideas certainly are red hot, once again. Asian and Indian themes are among the most popular in our online magazine. In the new Pew research on American religious life, tens of millions of Americans say they don’t have a single religious affiliation anymore—partly because so many people are searching globally for spiritual answers. They’ve got more than one spiritual interest. As you put it, we’re talking about Madame Blavatsky’s step children.
    These questions also are huge again in popular culture—especially in best-selling novels. The Harry Potter series and the Dan Brown novels all depend on ideas of secret, esoteric traditions interwoven into our history. That’s Blavatsky, too.
    MICHAEL: I’ve heard Dan Brown’s publisher is planning a 5-million-copy first run of his next novel. We can laugh at some of the things he comes up with in his novels, but it’s part of this big interest in forgotten religious traditions.
    I think America is unique in the world because all of these traditions come together here. We have Native American traditions here. We have the esoteric interests of some of the founding fathers. America drew immigrants from East and West to form a uniquely American culture. This country holds unique potential for exploring these traditions.

    DAVID: Blavatsky is such an amazing woman that—well, if someone made a movie about her life, audiences would think it was pure fiction.
    MICHAEL: She had this really keen intellect. There were no women in academia writing about world religions like this until the middle of the 20th century. So many people who hoped to see a change in the world order came to this new movement she launched—people who were abolitionists, activists for women’s suffrage, creative people, writers, artists, musicians, political activists.
    She was a world traveler. She’s one of the first people to look at indigenous traditions and say they have enduring value for humanity. She was so ahead of her time in this, ahead of Joseph Campbell and all of these other people.

    DAVID: What produced such a unique life? She was born in 1831 in what is today Ukraine into what seems like a fairy-tale family.
    MICHAEL: Her family would have been considered lesser nobility. Her mother was a very well-known writer in Russia. Her father was in the cavalry and they moved from town to town. She had a sort of free-wheeling childhood with no real fixed place she could call her own home—and then her mother died when she was 11 and she was sent to live with her grandparents in a very strict home. Her family was part of the cultured, learned, old aristocracy that eventually would fade away, of course. Her grandmother also was quite literate.
    Then, at the age of 17, on the eve of her 18th birthday, she marries this old Mr. Blavatsky who was about twice her age. We don’t know if this was a means of escaping that very strict life she had been living with her grandparents. We do know that she abandoned her husband after just a few months and began a life of travel.
    It’s still amazing to consider that this 18-year-old girl leaves Russia, goes off to Constantinople and from there she travels all over the world. She could have had a very easy life in Russia. Her husband was a lieutenant governor and she could have been a grande dame with servants. She could have established her own literary salon. She could have been a real starring light in Russian society—but something compelled her to start this life of restless travel.
    DAVID: While her family was strict and old-fashioned in a way, she also had some strong influences fueling her thoughts about women’s abilities, right?
    MICHAEL: She certainly would have known about her mother, who wrote things about women’s rights. Her grandmother also corresponded with a lot of scientists and philosophers of the day. Reading—and literature in general—would have been very important to her from an early age. The Russian aristocracy tended to learn French and she learned French from an early age.
    DAVID: What was her family’s religious background?
    MICHAEL: She was baptized into the Russian Orthodox church.
    DAVID: But soon she was making friends with people of every faith she could encounter around the world.
    MICHAEL: There are long gaps in the records of her travel, but we have documented stories about many of the places she visited. She visited Greece, areas that now are Turkey, Palestine, Egypt. Her name pops up in those areas. She claimed to have reached India and claims to have visited the lamas in the north during that period.
    She was an extremely willful person who enjoyed years of travel. But she also made a transition into this dedicated writer who could sit at a desk and write 12 hours a day.
    DAVID: Initially, she wasn’t known as a “writer.” The first of her two huge books, “Isis Unveiled” in 1877, pretty much surprised even her friends.
    MICHAEL: Her family was shocked because she showed no background as a writer. When they first heard she had written a book, they thought it was a hoax.
    But here’s what she writes about this: “I am but the reflection of an unknown bright light. However this may be, this light has gradually been incorporated into me, … it has, as it were, pierced through me; and, therefore, I cannot help myself that all these ideas have come into my brain into the depths of my soul; I am sincere although I may be wrong.”
    DAVID: I love that kind of sincere, enthusiastic, honest profession—with “I may be wrong” tacked onto the end. Clearly, she was eager to get some kind of larger movement going. She saw something important in the world and wanted more people involved.
    MICHAEL: She had tried, in 1872, to start some kind of spiritual society in Cairo, but it only lasted for a few weeks.
    Then, in 1875 she was in New York. It was September 7 in her rooms on Irving Place, which by the way now is Washington Irving High School—this place where she used to live. George Henry was giving a lecture on the lost canon of the ancients. She was hosting the lecture. At that meeting, they decided to start what would become the Theosophical Society. Then, on November 17 that year, Col. Henry Steele Olcott gave his inaugural address as president.

    DAVID: Their work became very popular within a circle of bright, creative people.
    MICHAEL: In her first major book, “Isis Unveiled,” she makes the case for what she calls the existence of an ancient wisdom that underlies all of the world’s religions and philosophies. She argues that there is a commonality between religions. She calls for discussion among all religions.
    Then, she travels to India and things take off. The Indians really adopt her ideas. By 1885, there were 130 lodges in India doing this kind of study and work. Remember, this was a time when India as we know it today didn’t exist. There were separate states and the British controlled some of this, but it was a hodge podge of different states.
    This idea of universal principles was very attractive. The society spread so quickly because it was one of the first all-India organizations. That’s why it had such an influence on people who later would work for India’s freedom from the British.
    This was one of the few places in India where people from all backgrounds could come and speak. The Theosophist Society’s first goal was forming a universal brotherhood regardless of race or class. They allowed Indians to come and speak with non-Indians and everyone was able to discuss ideas on an equal footing. This was a dramatic change for people who discovered this group in India.
    DAVID: “Isis Unveiled” was big and dramatic and innovative—but it also was somewhat difficult to read. She wanders between ideas pretty freely. Really, this second big book—this Blavatsky masterwork, “The Secret Doctrine”—was related to that first book, wasn’t it?
    MICHAEL: Yes, “The Secret Doctrine” was supposed to be a revision of “Isis Unveiled.” She finally went back and reread the entire first book while she was in India and she wasn’t satisfied with it. The style is very much a free association of thoughts. She’ll go off and tell you about one thing, then veer off and tell you about something else. So, she wanted to do another book and what she produced could have been just a revised, edited version of her first book.
    But it wasn’t. She wrote and wrote and wrote. She wrote for a time in Germany and by the time she later moved to London, the manuscript for this new book was over three feet high! The book that finally was published in 1888 was edited down.
    DAVID: And still it was huge! Thank you for your 200-page condensation. I’m especially interested in Madame Blavatsky’s revival because she restores some of the long-overlooked credit that should go to women for modern religious writing.
    It’s sad that she’s so little known. I’d like to see her portrait up on my wall along with other spiritual pioneers.
    MICHAEL: She did have a knack as a writer. She was one of the first people to coin the phrase “the sixth sense.” She describes it as a sense that’s latent and that we should develop.
    She was very creative. But her success ultimately was her failure.
    Now, you can walk into any community college and take a course in comparative religion. That’s Blavatsky’s legacy.
    Brotherhood—we all talk about that today. You’re not an appropriate member of today’s society if you don’t show some respect for the universal nature of humanity. Blavatsky encouraged that more than 100 years ago.
    Our assumption now that we’re multifaceted personalities? The idea that there’s a wholeness principle? Blatvatsky taught about this. And, so much more. These were ideas that permeated her work and were so influential to others around the world. Yet, today, not many people know the story of this woman who wrote about them so powerfully and convinced others to carry on the work.

PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU THINK:

    This is a good time to sign up for our Monday-morning ReadTheSpirit Planner by Email—it’s
free and you can cancel it any time you’d like to do so. The Planner
goes out each week to readers who want more of an “inside track” on
what we’re seeing on the horizon, plus it’s got a popular “holidays”
section.

    Not only do we welcome your notes—but our readers enjoy them as well. You can do this
anytime by clicking on the “Comment” links at the end of each story.
You also can Email ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm. We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube and other social-networking sites as well.
    (Originally published at https://readthespirit.com/)

436: Readers Tell Us About … responding to terrorism & Cheeni Rao — plus spirituality in aging … and horror

May 21, 2009 by

WELCOME!
Once again, thanks to readers like you,
we’ve got your feedback to share …

OUR “BALANCED RESOURCES PAGE”
ON NEW YORK BOMBING PLOT
IS OPEN TO YOUR ADDITIONS

ON THURSDAY, we immediately established a BALANCE RESOURCES PAGE in response to police and FBI arrests of four men who planned to blow up two synagogues in the Bronx. This incident is a crucial moment for anyone who cares about the future of interfaith peacemaking efforts. If you’re wondering why that’s the case, just visit our Resources Page for more.
    AN IMPORTANT PART OF THAT PAGE is an open invitation to readers to share their thoughts with us and also to share other online links and statements they find helpful in putting this deeply troubling news in perspective.

    OUR FIRST CONTRIBUTION came from a Jewish reader who pointed us toward the wisdom of Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, who posted his own response to the bombing plot. I agree with the reader who forwarded this link to us—it’s a balanced column and well worth reading.
    IN PART, Brad writes: “If anything, this is a story about the efficacy of both local and federal agencies doing their jobs and keeping Americans safe. This is certainly not the “horror” that some groups are labeling it. The horror would have been if they had succeeded and people were killed or injured. But in this case, there was not even any damage to property! So let’s keep things in perspective and not stir the pot of moral outrage anymore than is necessary.”
    And that parallels our own “take” on the incident in our own Balanced Resources Page.

    DR. BENJAMIN PRATT, author of “Ian Fleming’s Seven Deadlier Sins” and a retired counselor who specialized for many years in working with government employees, sent along a thoughtful insider’s perspective on the news:
    My first response to the news was the feeling of gratitude—gratitude for the
sacrificial vigilance of these government workers who spend endless
hours focused on protecting all of us. My second response was to
think, “Well, now it is confirmed why she hasn’t been able to come to
dinner for the last 4 months…she has been working a case.” We have a
number of friends in the FBI, CIA, Border Patrol and often we suspect
they are on big cases. They are slow to respond to invitations because
they are working long hours. I am deeply grateful for their faithful
dedication, but I wish she could come to dinner.
    Then I thought about what I can do. As a person of faith, I can
pray for the courage to be an instrument of peace, a sower of hope
where there is doubt, a sower of love where there is fear and hatred. I can commit myself to be vigilant and vocal where I see fear driven
slander of my Islamic and Jewish brothers and sisters. I can join
hands with all people of faith to witness to the basic yearnings of all
traditions—love of God and fellow inhabitants of our planet, peace,
hope, social justice and economic fairness.

    THE COUNCIL of ISLAMIC ORGANIZATIONS in MICHIGAN, one of the major Muslim networks within the United States, immediately issued a statement—also offering balanced wisdom. Here’s the text:

    Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan condemns attack on any place of worship.
    Four men were arrested Wednesday for allegedly plotting to bomb a synagogue and a Jewish community center and for planning to shoot down military planes. CIOM applauds our law enforcement agencies for preventing possible harm to either Jewish institutions or to our nation’s military.
    Defense of religious freedom is the foremost Islamic mandate: Holy Qur’an, 22:40, “For, if God had not enabled people to defend themselves against one another, (all) monasteries and churches and synagogues and mosques—in (all of) which God’s name is abundantly extolled—would surely have been destroyed.”
    The Islamic principle understood in the above quotation of a verse of the Holy Scripture is that of respect and protection of all places of worship, Jewish or Christian as well as Muslim, and all foundations built for pious uses. Acts of a few misguided individuals, acting against the principles of their professed faith must not be used to demonize Islam.
    Muslims request all people of good will—not to allow exploitation of this un-Islamic act of a few for others to promote anti-Muslim fear and stereotypes against “all” Muslims.

    ANOTHER READER SUGGESTED we provide a link to this fascinating story by William J. Dobson, a top journalist and scholar on global issues. Dobson’s story was written before these arrests, but it’s well worth reading in the present context. His subject? What the United States could learn from Singapore about the rehabilitation of “terrorists”—using Muslim scholars to correct the twisted impressions of Islamic teaching that may push some young men toward violence.

    CBS NEWS REPRINTED AN ANALYSIS PIECE FROM THE NATION—among the most solid, critical overviews of the news we’ve seen. A couple of readers sent this link our way on Saturday. As a journalist of more than 30 years myself, I have to say—Robert Dreyfuss’ analysis of the case against these so-called terrorists is very persuasive. Most important, strong evidence is surfacing that these so-called Muslims were marginal figures who weren’t active in an Islamic community. (Here’s New York Times coverage of the informant’s role in this plot.)

    WE WILL KEEP THESE PAGES “LIVE” through the weekend, if you want to add a helpful link or statement or share your thoughts. Just email us.

GROWING UP IN A STRICT RELIGIOUS
COMMUNITY IS TOUGH …
… BUT SOMETIMES THE SPIRIT IS STRONG ENOUGH

OUR INTERVIEW WITH CHEENI RAO this week, the hot young Indian-American writer who survived drug addiction and years of crime on the streets—to rediscover the tough spiritual strands of his Hindu tradition—drew a number of private reader comments.
    “I hope my parents find that story on your page. I don’t think they’d ever allow the book into their home, but I wish they’d … understand that we love them but we can’t just lock away all the stuff that’s happening inside us … like the man says: God wants us to be honest, but a lot of times we can’t,” wrote a reader who said she went through some very tough stuff in high school and college that she never could talk about with her parents.
    “We’re past it now, I think, but it could have been a lot better … I know I would have had tons less stress … if someone had let me even talk about this. Parents and all our family and all our friends wouldn’t let stuff like this even be talked about. Like don’t talk about it and it doesn’t exist.”
    “It does exist.”

    That was the tone of a number of emails. The woman who above lives in New Jersey. A woman from the Chicago area wrote, “I think it’s even tougher for girls than guys like Mr. Rao.” But, readers did not want their names attached to these notes. Thanks for sending them—even without permission to use your names. They show that these pressures exist all over the landscape for young adults. Cheeni Rao’s spiritual journey was tougher than most, which is why his memoir is such a powerful tale. But many of the truths in his memoir are shared by millions.

LET’S HEAR MORE
ON SPIRITUALITY …
… AND HORROR … AND AGING

    I ran into readers this week (as I traveled to several different cities for meetings) who mentioned both our Tuesday story on “The Gifts of Aging” by Missy Buchanan and our Thursday story on “Horror and Spirituality” by James Leach. One pastor of a large church, in particular, said that Missy’s 10 Tips for Better Ministry is destined to be mentioned in the pastor’s own email newsletter next week. It’s that kind of a solid piece.
    We didn’t hear much on either story via email notes from readers, though. Readers” attention this week was mainly focused on our provocative look at “Why We Treat Our Soldiers So Badly,” a series that is running over at www.OurValues.org. That national problem, which finally is receiving more attention in Washington D.C. right now, relates to many of our readers’ early preparation for the looming Memorial Day weekend. So, it’s timely on a couple of levels for readers.
    Also, by Thursday morning this week, many of our readers were scrambling to find out more about the bombing plot in New York.
    BUT, we still welcome your thoughts on both aging — and horror. And, no we’re not saying the two are related!

    If you missed those stories, though, click back and enjoy them.

PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU THINK:

    This is a good time to sign up for our Monday-morning ReadTheSpirit Planner by Email—it’s
free and you can cancel it any time you’d like to do so. The Planner
goes out each week to readers who want more of an “inside track” on
what we’re seeing on the horizon, plus it’s got a popular “holidays”
section.

    Not only do we welcome your notes—but our readers enjoy them as well. You can do this
anytime by clicking on the “Comment” links at the end of each story.
You also can Email ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm. We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, YouTube and other social-networking sites as well.
    (Originally published at https://readthespirit.com/)

434: Conversation With … hot young Indian-American writer Cheeni Rao on crime and a family’s spiritual wisdom

May 19, 2009 by

THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO INTRODUCE “IN HANUMAN’S HANDS,” the gripping new book by hot young (he’s only 35) Indian-American writer Cheeni Rao:

Introduction No. 1: “In Hanuman’s Hands” is a visceral, R-rated half-memoir, half-jazz-riff on temptation, addiction and the drug trade, penned by an author who admits he’s still drawn toward that darkness on a daily basis—in the tradition of James Ellroy, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.

Introduction No. 2: “In Hanuman’s Hands” is a deeply moving family story about crossing oceans, cultures and generations to weave together a new kind of future—from the toughest spiritual strands of the past. In the tradition of … Well, it’s hard to think of religious models for this kind of book. Cheeni Rao’s wounds as a real-life recovering addict and one-time homeless drifter are as raw as a hundred other writers who’ve explored these themes before him—but very few of those memoirs end up with the kind of stirring affirmation about the strength of family and faith that we find in this new tale.

    So, is this a “book,” a “memoir” or a “tale”? In the end, it’s all three. I like the words memoir and tale, though. It’s autobiographical reflection, so it’s a memoir. And it’s also a tale—much like “Black Dahlia,” “Naked Lunch” and “On the Road” are tales that blend memory and fiction. Cheeni says this book is very close to the documented history of his life—but he also admits that he “blacked out” during certain phases of his homeless life and he reconstructs scenes from his ancestors’ lives back in India that sometimes are startling and sometimes are stirring. But he wasn’t there when these things supposedly happened to know for sure.
    You may be wondering from Introduction No. 1: Is the street-life portion of this book as good as other classic tales of temptation and dissolution? Let’s see if readers of crime-and-addiction literature still are drawn to this book in 10 years before answering that question.
    But what certainly is remarkable here—what leads us to highly recommend this memoir with all its sharp edges and tough language—is the spiritual hope that emerges in the end.
    Midway through the book, reading an extended passage on how Cheeni’s mother and father met back in India and navigated the complicated customs of arranged marriages to pursue their love for each other—that’s the moment when we know this book is … well, it’s truly and tenderly unique.

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR CONVERSATION WITH CHEENI RAO:

    DAVID: Let’s sketch in a few biographical details for readers. You were born in this country to traditional Hindu parents. Back in India, your ancestors were among the priestly class and, here in this country, your parents are professionals in other areas. Your Dad’s a doctor. You were a straight-A high school student with talents in theater arts—but you also developed a secret life of addiction and crime. In 1992, you enrolled in Williams College in Massachusetts. You were a pre-med student, but you got very involved in the theater program there. And, tragically, you also got very involved in parties and substance abuse.
    Then, three years into your time at Williams, drugs and alcohol sent you into a tailspin that knocked you out of school and eventually led to hard-core addiction, crime and even periods when you were sleeping out in the open on the streets. Eventually, you began to restore your life and you made it back to the University of Chicago, where you got your BA in 1998, then you did graduate work at the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop. This novel is a memoir of your family, going way back in their history, but also it’s a brutally honest look at your painful years of decline and recovery in the 1990s.
    CHEENI: That’s right. When I was still at Williams, my family thought I was going to become a doctor. I didn’t include this in the book, but while I was still at Williams, I got involved in the Asian theater project on campus. I worked on ensemble stuff. I started writing plays and I also directed. So already this route was opening up for me of writing and sharing my experiences in this way. There were so many things you could never talk about in my family. This all built up inside of me, and sitting in science classes memorizing formulas wasn’t allowing me to express what was really going on inside of me. I felt alienated from the outside world, especially from my family. I couldn’t communicate with them honestly about my life.

    DAVID: Like a lot of immigrant families from minority communities in this country, your family wanted you to become a professional. Even though your ancestors were of a priestly class back in India, in this country the adults became doctors and engineers. I’ve seen this in Muslim communities in the U.S. as well. Those professions become a standard of success.
    CHEENI: In our community, you’re given those two choices—you either become a doctor or an engineer. There are some members of my family who still do stuff related to the priesthood back in India. But in order to escape poverty and to transform their lives and provide for their families here, they needed to take on these new skills and learn these ways of making money in the U.S. They wanted the stability these professions represent. I remember having a conversation with my father about the law. I thought at one point that I might want to become a lawyer. He didn’t think I should. He said, “Oh, I don’t know anything about being a lawyer.” Families follow traditions they know about.
    DAVID: Now, you’re a full-time writer and editor. You live in Iowa and have a successful business working on many different manuscripts for writers and publishers. Is your family OK with that?
    CHEENI: I think I got the leeway to become a writer because I was so badly broken by all that happened to me after Williams. When I finally started to put my life back together and went to the University of Chicago, my parents kind of hoped I might still pursue medical school—but their expectations for me had dramatically lowered. Just becoming a productive member of society again was enough. As long as I wasn’t out there doing drugs and being a criminal anymore, then they could be OK with what I chose to study.

    DAVID: Help me clarify what you’re really saying here, because there are some people writing about your book who blame your problems mainly on your parents’ strict religious approach to life. A Chicago Sun-Times reviewer writes: “All this happens because a young Rao, hemmed in by his parents’ stern Hindu values and his white American peers’ refusal to accept him, predictably bursts.”
    “Predictably bursts”? Sounds like this reviewer thinks that a strict, religious family inevitably produced your addictive behavior, breakdown and lawlessness. In many years of reporting on religion, I know a whole lot of strict families who’ve produced admirable sons and daughters. Plus, I’ve read your book and I don’t think that’s what you’re saying. Your parents’ inability to talk with you contributed toward your slide into all these problems, but they didn’t cause it. How do you feel about what this review is saying?
    CHEENI: I appreciate the review, but I do have an issue with that point. It’s the reviewer’s personal reaction to my story and I can’t disagree with his reaction. It’s his reaction.
    But the issue with my family—and all families in communities like this—is complex. Our families do put huge pressure on kids. Talking about what’s really going on in our lives is very difficult. The pressures we feel as sons and daughters do have consequences throughout our lives.
    I have a cousin who’s a doctor and he’s confided in me over the years that he doesn’t have the passion for the work that he feels he should. He often wonders if this was the best choice for his life. Because of the pressures and expectations, people force themselves to fit into these holes prepared for them by their families. He’s a doctor now. He wonders what might have happened if he’d had another choice.
    What happened to me—I don’t think it was an inevitable part of my background. In my case there was a lot going on internally that led to my falling apart. The strict upbringing made it so that I couldn’t confide in my family about my confusions. They would just shut down these thoughts I was having right away. They’d just say: You shouldn’t think like that! So, I didn’t have a family where I could be open about these pressures inside of me and they couldn’t help me come to an understanding about what was happening.
    But did my family cause me to fall apart? No, to chalk it up to my family so simply is wrong. My own brain chemistry and my own battles with mental illness all contributed to who I am today.

    DAVID: In the opening pages of your book, you do write some very angry passages about your family, especially in an opening dreamy sequence in which you describe yourself as almost having been “sacrificed” by your family. But, overall, when you’ve finished the book, I think you’ve got an amazingly compassionate view of your family. You’ve got real love for them and you take us through all these wonderful stories back in India because you keep reaching back into that rich heritage for strength.
    CHEENI: I do have a tremendous amount of respect for them. I’m amazed at their stories, what my father went through in his life and all the challenges my ancestors had to deal with. There’s a lot that didn’t make it into the book. I wouldn’t say I’m Hindu in the sense of doing all the traditional rituals now, but the Hindu way of thinking about life really impacted me. This book is meant as a loving look at these traditions. Yes there are problems. They aren’t perfect, but there is a lot of love that comes through in this story.
    People will say: How could you write this way about Hanuman or how could you reveal these secrets within your family? But for me this is the truest sign of love.
    We are comprised of all these beautiful and terrible moments.
    DAVID: One of the most beautiful passages describes your mother and father meeting, falling in love and making it through the complicated rules of arranged marriage to spend their lives together.
    CHEENI: I heard so many different versions of that story where they would leave out key details and incidents and—yeah it’s a wonderful story that my mother would tell me, my father would tell me, aunts who were living in the same house at that time would tell me. There were all these versions of the story. It’s a beautiful romance in a classical Indian sense. I interviewed everyone involved to try to put it together as accurately as possible.
    In the end, this is a story about love.

    DAVID: I agree with you. That’s why I’m recommending your memoir to our readers. Let’s close this conversation by talking about Hanuman, the monkey-shaped character who expresses various divine attributes in Hindu mythology. He’s very powerful, almost unstoppable—and when you finally broke with your family in your descent into drugs and street life, your mother finally commends you into “Hanuman’s hands,” which gives the book its title.
    I was reminded right away of “The Hound of Heaven,” the famous poem written more than 100 years ago by Francis Thompson, who became addicted to opium and wound up as a ragged, desperate street person himself. He wrote “Hound of Heaven” while still struggling with his addictions in the streets and it later influenced other writers, including J.R.R. Tolkien. The opening lines of “Hound”:
“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.”

    But then Thompson writes about “those strong Feet that followed, that followed after.” These “Feet” were God’s presence in the form a great, relentless hound who travels with him even into the worst haunts and alleys of his life.
    In your book, you end with this traditional Hindu hymn to Hanuman in an English translation. You repeated this each day as a way to stay focused as you survived the worst and began to recover. Whose translation is it?
    CHEENI: It’s my rendering of it, which I’m sure some scholars may have issues with—but it’s the way I would translate it. When I think of it in English, this is the way the meaning comes to me.
    DAVID: I like it very much. It’d be fascinating to compare the two poems—“Hound of Heaven” and your final hymn or prayer to Hanuman. “Hail the monkey lord, the fountain of power,” you write. “Relieve me of the imperfections that bring me sorrow.”
    You describe him as “Valiant hero, mighty as the thunderbolt,
From you is born good sense and wisdom,
For you are the dispeller of darkness of evil thoughts.”
    And he pursues you wherever you go, however deep you sink.

    CHEENI: His mythology has spread throughout southeast Asia. One reason is that unlike these gods who are so distant, who are these perfect beings way up on high—Hanuman is part animal. He has these weaknesses, but he also has prodigious strengths. And, most important, there’s this idea that Hanuman is eternally here on Earth with us and always will be.
    He has this tremendous compassion. He is the bringer of cures. And that was something for me that really resonated. My mother would tell me: “Say the Hanuman Chalisa,” this prayer that’s at the end of the book.
    I did and it was such a powerful idea to me that the divine is present around you and loves you—and all you need to do is ask for help.
    DAVID: There’s much in your book that will be difficult for some of our readers to deal with—some raw experiences and raw language. So, let’s end this with a reminder of the wisdom from your grandfather in the book.
    CHEENI: He said, “You should never hide what Gods teach you. What they tell us, they need us to share.”

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    (Originally published at https://readthespirit.com/)

308: Conversation With Deepak Chopra on Jesus as East-West connector

November 25, 2008 by

We’re pleased, today, to welcome the best-selling author and interfaith activist Deepak Chopra to ReadTheSpirit for a conversation on his second — and most provocative — book about Jesus this year.


    This may seem like a strange spiritual twist: In 2008, a writer steeped in Hindu tradition is becoming one of the world’s most influential voices about the importance of Jesus’ life and teachings.
    Early this year, he published the non-fiction analysis of Christianity, called, “The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore.” Now, he is releasing a novel on the early years of Jesus’ adult life, “Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment.”
    He is not the first unlikely literary celebrity to pen a speculative novel about Jesus’ early years. Former vampire-novelist Anne Rice pretty much took all the surprise-factor out of that move in 2005 with “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt,” which has turned into a very popular series of novels about Jesus.
    If you think Deepak Chopra is doing this merely to sell more books — you’re mistaken. Already, he has written more than 50 books and has attained all the celebrity he wants.
    No, there’s something more important — even, dare I say it? — historic about this turn in his career.

    All around the world, even in the midst of a financial crisis and ongoing wars, there are many spiritual voices trying to find religious connection, rather than conflict, between the huge groups that make up the world’s population. And, before you dismiss that line as high-flown exaggeration, walk into a Target store near your home and look very closely at the shelves.
    You’ll find that ordinary men and women across the U.S. already are drawn toward themes in Eastern spirituality. Check out the prominent section of yoga gear, currently featuring huge banners in most Target stores. Check out the aisles for teas and other beverages, the housewares and especially candles, the music aisles, the shampoos and creams, the DVDs and even the game sections. If you’re looking closely, you’ll find dozens of themes borrowed from Hinduism and Buddhism.
    Deepak Chopra is well aware of those many forms of spiritual connection in the U.S. What he is doing in these new books about Jesus is arguing persuasively that the Christ figure worshiped by 2 billion Christians around the world can become a connective figure — if we can see Jesus Christ on one level as a “spiritual guide whose teaching embraces all humanity.” He does part company with orthodox Christianity in his interpretation of Jesus, but he is holding open an intriguing doorway for some rich conversation.

    He goes even further in his new novel, spinning his story so that Jesus — during the many years that go unmentioned in the four gospel accounts of his life — travels the Silk Road into India, where he develops the highest forms of his spiritual wisdom.
    To put this claim in context: He isn’t the first to pen this kind of story. At this point, however, most noted scholars of Jesus’ life in the West regard this as a myth not even worth exploring. Nevertheless, in this Conversation you are reading today — and in extended teaching Deepak Chopra is doing online and on television in coming months — he argues that such a journey to India was, indeed, likely for Jesus. He outlines some of the evidence that sometimes is used to pose this speculative argument. And, today, we have added a number of Web links where you can “read more” and decide for yourself.

HERE ARE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR CONVERSATION:

    DAVID: In preparing for this interview, I talked with people about your recent book, “The Third Jesus,” to hear more about what is attracting so many American readers to that book. They’re the same people, I think, who will feel drawn to your new novel, “Jesus,” as well.
    I talked with one young woman who just attended a whole series of study groups on “The Third Jesus.” She was very enthusiastic about the book, so I asked her: “What one thing surprised you about this book?”
    She said, “I was raised Catholic and, through this study, I realized that Jesus is far larger than I ever thought he could be.”
    Is that the kind of impact you’re trying to have with these books?

    DEEPAK: Yes, she is talking about what we describe as the cosmic Christ. We are saying that Jesus cannot be confined to a specific demographic, let us say. Of course, we think of Jesus as coming from the Jewish background 2000 years ago in Israel, what was then Judea, and then everything follows from that.     In this understanding of Jesus, his God is also based on the Jewish God. If we limit ourselves to this understanding of Jesus, then he ends up being, if I may say so, a tribal chief with an ethnic background squeezed into a body in a single lifetime and then his followers go out and spread this limited word, mostly to the West. This is one approach.
    But there are those who from the beginning travel East. Thomas travels to the East. He and others spread the gospel, which literally means good news, but they do it in different ways. There are Eastern traditions of Christianity that started in Syria and Egypt and spread outward and some of them spread eastward into India. One of these traditions was the Nestorian group. They believed in two aspects of Jesus: the human and the cosmic. So there were many ways these traditions connected with the East.

    DAVID: That certainly is true. There have been many East-West connections.
    In reading your books on Jesus, I found many similarities to the writings of Yogananda, whose most important work was nearly a century ago in bringing these Eastern perspectives to Americans. He was very well received, became something of a celebrity himself and he also wrote about this cosmic Christ.
    Do you see parallels between what you are writing and the work of Yogananda?
    DEEPAK: Yes, this follows on Yogananda’s work and there are other people who have commented on this aspect of Jesus, as well. This is part of a long tradition among certain Hindus. Jesus is regarded as an avatar, an incarnation of God the Divine Intelligence and he is included in the whole array of Hinduism. In this tradition, Jesus is seen as a savior—just not the only savior.

    DAVID: So, you have given us two books now, almost a two-volume set. The first is nonfiction, talking directly to people about how you see the figure and teaching of Jesus as possibly moving beyond limited, Christian, doctrinal barriers. In that first book you’re trying to place Jesus in a role as enlightened sage for a larger global community. Then, in the new novel, you tell a very gripping story about how this might have unfolded in the years of Jesus’ life that we don’t find in the gospels.
    How did you intend people to read and use these two books?
    DEEPAK: I hope that people will read them together. They’re both teaching tools.
    The first one obviously is written as a nonfiction piece explaining these teachings. At the moment, this book is being used by people in over 1,000 Unity churches. If you go to my Web site, www.DeepakChopra.com, you can read more about these studies. These are very in-depth practical discussions.
    So, that’s the first thing: I am hoping that these books are practical tools that can help people to expand your consciousness from everyday consciousness to Christ consciousness and cosmic—ultimately God consciousness.
    DAVID: And the novel adds this dramatic dimension of stepping into what might have happened in these key years of Jesus’ unfolding consciousness.

    DEEPAK: Let me tell you how the novel came about. I grew up listening to legends and mythical stories about Jesus having come to India. But there is more to think about than legends.
    There is some scholarly work done by Russians. In the 1880s, there was Nicolas Notovich, who came to a monastery in Tibet and found documents that Jesus had visited there during the lost years. Nicolas said that Jesus met also with some Buddhist scholars, argued with them, debated with them and exchanged knowledge with them.


    There also was Nikolai Roerich from Russia (shown at left) who traveled to Tibet in the 1920s and there were books about this in the early 1900s.
    Later, there was work by Holger Kersten who wrote about connections between Jesus and Buddhism.
    And of course there is no question that Thomas the apostle and it is very well documented as having come to India.

    DAVID: Let’s talk for a moment about Thomas and India. Americans who have traveled to India and explored the enormous global diversity of Christianity may be familiar with this long tradition. But my guess is that most Americans have never heard much about this ancient Indian branch of the church.
    DEEPAK: There is a long tradition that Thomas came to India in 52 AD, which was before the other gospels were written down. He was buried there. I visited Mylapur while working on these books and in a church there you will find a statue of Jesus where he is not on a cross, but is seated meditating in enlightenment.
    Then, in the state of Kerala, where there were Christians originally converted by St. Thomas, there is a church and seminary. When I went to Kerala, I learned that for 400 years these fellows in Kerala thought that they were the only Christians in the world! For 400 years! They didn’t know that Christians existed outside of Kerala. I attended mass there and it’s one of the few places in the world where ancient Aramaic, Jesus’ original language, is still used. I don’t understand the language, but when I was there we sang these unbelievably uplifting hymns—beautiful, beautiful hymns. The sound was absolutely amazing!
    So, there are many connections between Jesus and Christianity and the East and much has been written about these connections before my books.
    DAVID: I think at this point, beyond your own best-selling work on Jesus, many Americans also have had contact with Yogananda’s work on this through his continuing movement that’s still publishing and updating editions of his work.
    DEEPAK: Yes, there is much to read. And I started to read these things about the connections as I worked on my books. I also read a lot of the other literature about Jesus and this era in which he lived. The history is fascinating.
    The Silk Road had already existed for 500 years before Jesus’ birth. It extended from China through India and Syria and Jerusalem and Egypt. There was a thriving trade. Some of the animals—camels and donkeys and etc.—around Jerusalem at that time were actually of mixed breed from the East. There was a lot of trade going on in spices, precious stones, etc., and then I also read a lot about what was happening with the Roman Empire at that time. I am fascinated by this whole history so I read about the various sects within Judaism during this time of subjugation by Rome.
    DAVID: We meet a number of these groups in dramatic scenes in your new novel.

    DEEPAK: Yes, there were the Zealots, an underground movement that was intent on overthrowing the Roman empire by violence, you had the Pharisees and the Saducees who were controlling the temple in Jerusalem, then you had the Samaritans who weren’t looked upon as a pure Jewish race by other Jews, then there was this wonderful interesting group of people called the Essenes who were very mystical and who were very tuned into what we would normally consider Eastern philosophy today. There’s a lot of lore about Jesus being taught by the Essenes or having some associations with the Essenes.
    DAVID: In these two books, you’re really grappling with this question of how Jesus moved from his infancy to become this figure with an amazing awareness of the larger spiritual reality about his life.
    DEEPAK: I was asking: How does a person go from the childhood we read about in the gospels to this adult figure. In the Bible, we read in Luke that there was this episode when he was 12 years old in the Jerusalem temple. His parents were going back to Nazareth and they found Jesus missing. They go back to the temple and he’s 12 and he’s arguing and debating with the priests in the temple with amazing finesse and what seems to be theological scholarship.
    After that, Luke says the child grew in wisdom and stature and in the grace of God—and then there’s nothing until the baptism. So, I also went to Jerusalem and all over Israel and I spent time in the places I wrote about from Jesus’ life. I kept asking this question: If someone was moving from man to messiah-ship, and from ordinary consciousness to God consciousness—what happens in that story?
    DAVID: Given everything you have read and all of your other research for these books, are you saying: “I have concluded that Jesus definitely traveled to the East”? Or, are you saying: “I think that perhaps Jesus could have traveled to the East”?
    DEEPAK: I think we would be safer saying: Perhaps it might have happened. How could one know this for sure? But if you travel to areas of India and also to some places that are today in Pakistan, you do find so many stories there and even relics that people attribute to Jesus and his mother Mary.
    DAVID: Why does it seem so important to say that Jesus completed his awareness of his God nature, his God consciousness, in relation to the East?


    DEEPAK: There is a very specific map in the Eastern traditions that goes back almost 5,000 years and then that map became more sophisticated by the work of the writers we call the rishis, the sages who developed this wide array of Hindu scriptures. One of these known to many Americans is the Bhagavad Gita, which is considered like a Bible by some people growing up in the Hindu part of the world.
    But there is another text called the Yoga Vasistha. It’s a very interesting text because the story begins with Ram, who is an incarnation of God and is a young prince in the royal family. Ram is sent by his father, the king, to the great sage, the guru Vasistha (image at left), to be tutored.
    When Ram arrives at the sage’s ashram, something happens that was customary in that time. Ram falls to the ground and touches the feet of the guru Vasistha—but the great sage says, “Stop it! I am just a teacher. You’re a reincarnation of God himself. You’re not supposed to do that.”
    The boy Ram says, “I may be God, but I have forgotten. Can you help me remember?” This is an extraordinary story.
    DAVID: Well, I don’t want to spoil the “Jesus” novel for readers by talking about details late in the book, but hearing you describe this, I can see the kind of stories you’re recalling in the novel.
    DEEPAK: Yes, these are extraordinary stories from thousands of years ago. If you go back into this literature, your mind will reel in bewilderment and excitement, because the insights help us to see how someone could move from the individual domain, to the collective domain, to the domain of cosmic consciousness. I grew up hearing, reading, studying this literature and I thought it would be helpful to give Jesus this experience in this story I was writing about him.
    DAVID: It’s more than a story about a person, though. For 2 billion people around the world who call themselves Christian, Jesus is divine. As you wrote this novel about what might have unfolded in his life, you faced a lot of literary challenges. Let me ask you about one startling scene that takes place in the middle of the novel, so it won’t spoil the ending of the story to ask about it.
    I’m talking about the scene in which the young Jesus, before he has fully realized what his identity really represents, finds himself confronted by a couple of angry Roman soldiers. They’re threatening him and others around him with great harm. And, in your novel, you have Jesus punch one of the soldiers in the face and deck the guy. It’s quite a punch. It will come across as a startling moment for Christian readers: Jesus slugging someone.
    Did you struggle over that scene?
    DEEPAK: Oh yes! That is a pivotal moment in the book and I thought about that a lot—a lot. Finally, I decided: At this point in the story, he is still on his way to enlightenment. I know that some people believe that Jesus always was aware of who he was and was perfect in everything that he did all his life. But I am writing about how this boy came to realize his messiah-ship, how he came to full enlightenment and he wasn’t fully there yet when this happens in the book, so I finally decided that, at that moment, he would react in that way.


     DAVID: Let me also ask you about Jesus’ friend and follower Mary Magdalene, who is a major figure in your novel. You had a choice to make in depicting her in the book. There is a long tradition in arts and letters of depicting this Mary as a prostitute, but the Bible never says she was a prostitute. This idea that she was a prostitute comes along later in history—from a mistaken association of Mary Magdalene with the unnamed woman caught in “adultery” who is brought before Jesus. The people who made that connection, then, sparked centuries of paintings and literature casting her that way.
    But most serious contemporary Bible scholars say it was a mistake to make that association and, although Mary Magdalene may have been afflicted with some spiritual problems when she met Jesus, she wasn’t a prostitute.
    So, why did you choose this older lore about Mary Magdalene and cast her as a prostitute in your novel?
    DEEPAK: I was following an inner sense of what could have been. That’s what dictated a lot of my choices in this book. There is so much controversy about this point that you could go either way in writing a new story about Jesus’ life. As a writer, I wanted to show Jesus as a redeemer and I wanted to show that in his relationship with Mary. In the depths of Jesus’ being, he was not judgmental of so-called “sinners.” I wanted to write about the character of Mary in a way that we see this non-judgmental relationship Jesus had with people as a redeemer.


    DAVID: Again, I don’t want to spoil the novel for people, but a lot has been written in popular fiction about Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene. We’ve had Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code” in which they had children together.
    In your novel, they are very close friends. You raise this question of an attraction between them, specifically sexual attraction between them, and you do something much different with it than Dan Brown and others have done. To perhaps put some readers’ anxiety to rest, in your novel, they do not wind up having a sexual relationship. But something else dramatically unfolds from their attraction to each other. I think it’s another moment in your book in which Eastern religious traditions are powerfully at work. Is that a fair way to describe it?
    DEEPAK: Yes. There are spiritual traditions in Christianity and in other religious traditions that like to paint celibacy as a path to enlightenment. But if you truly understand the movement of consciousness toward higher development, I don’t think that celibacy itself is a path to enlightenment. I think that celibacy can become a byproduct of enlightenment in which a higher level of love overrides passionate arousal.
I’ve written about this elsewhere. Sexual energy is similar to spiritual energy. Both are creative energies.     Great passion comes out of these energies. Great art comes out of this. Great deeds come out of this. When people fall in love, sexual arousal is a part of that process and can lead to extraordinary things in life. But, when you find a higher spiritual energy, then the sexual arousal is transcended. That’s what I was trying to show in this book.


    DAVID: I found some intriguing connection points—points that would be fascinating to discuss further, sometime in the future—involving spiritual principles you describe in your new novel and the writings of some of the younger evangelical writers. I’m specifically thinking about the best-selling evangelical writer Rob Bell who we’ve also featured on our Web site in this Conversation series. Rob Bell writes about the biblical teaching that Christ “reconciles all things.” Rob says that this is a far larger truth than most of us realize.
    In your book, you explore this kind of idea from a broader Eastern perspective. You write about how Jesus’ sense of reconciliation eventually embraces everything—that Jesus moves even beyond a sense of specific labels of good and evil to reconcile the whole world.
    DEEPAK: We speak of God as being both immanent and transcendent. When I talk about this, I say that the immanent faith of God involves both what we think of as the sacred and the profane at the same time. Another way to say this is: You cannot have creation unless you have contrast. Part of what unfolds is hot and cold, pleasure and pain, good and evil. These are the forces of creation and creativity that we experience as good and evil depending on your stage of consciousness.
    Then, once you transcend all of this, then you move beyond separate categories of good and evil. We reach a point where all possibilities exist. I personally can see this kind of spiritual truth when Jesus says, “Resist not evil,” and also says, “Deliver us from evil.” I think he is talking about getting in touch with this larger consciousness.

    DAVID: In an earlier book, you wrote about the life of Buddha. Now, you’ve written about the life of Jesus. Where are you headed from here?
    DEEPAK: I just signed a contract. It took me a long time to decide and I want to do this with integrity. I am going to try to get comfortable at the deepest level in understanding Muhammad and his experiences. I am drawn to the Quran, which was dictated to him by the angel. The verses of the Quran are so melodic. I’m working on that now, but I won’t complete it unless I’m totally sure that I can do this with integrity and honesty.
    DAVID: Fascinating. So, over the years, you’re developing a whole body of Eastern-influenced reflections on the great religious leaders known around the world today.
    As you do this work, are you hopeful about the future? You’re trying to enlarge the appreciation of each of these faith traditions—and you’re trying to open up the members of those religious groups to a greater compassion for people outside the boundaries of their groups. Are you hopeful that we are moving in that direction?
    DEEPAK: I think so, but there is also a lot of fear out there, generated by people who do not want anyone breaking up the traditional stereotypes. This fear of breaking up old ideas generates fundamental reactions in many people. This is happening in Hinduism, in Islam and in Christianity, too.
    But there are also other teachers and other traditions, even within the traditional religious groups, that are trying to open up the world. For example, there are the Sufis in Islam who are bringing new aspects into interfaith discussion that many people have not heard before. When we open ourselves to learn from new insights, then there is hope.

PLEASE, Tell Us What You Think.

    Not only do we welcome your notes, ideas, suggestions and personal
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    (Originally published at https://readthespirit.com/)


185: Must Our Diversity Lead to Conflict? Avoiding Ugly Images from the Past

June 8, 2008 by


    “It became more and more obvious to me that at the heart of every other global crisis –- both in the potential of making problems worse and in the potential leverage point for making them much better -– is religion. Are our religions going to be forces for fear or forces for healing?”
    Best-selling writer and activist Brian McLaren from our Conversation With Brian, coming on Wednesday.   

In our ReadTheSpirit Planner, a free newsletter we publish via Email each Monday morning, I told readers that the world seems to be stumbling into a dangerous season of fear. Just think of the headlines we’ve read in recent days: Unemployment rates and oil prices are soaring, the values of stocks on which many retirees depend are dropping and there are rumors of looming war with Iran, not to mention ever-worsening crises in Africa, especially in Zimbabwe.
    The good news is that, as people of faith, we are the people with the spiritual resources to swim in such stormy seas and continue to find hope and healing.

    But, today, let’s take a hard look at one of the serious challenges we face:
    In a new digital age in which an entire century of media is available to us — we need to keep watch when ugly images from the past resurface in our midst. In explosive seasons like this one, ugly stereotypes are like dry kindling just waiting to be touched by matches.
    While preparing this week’s ReadTheSpirit stories for you, I spent quite a long time talking with the Christian activist Brian McLaren. Once again, he pointed me toward the importance of facing this timeless problem of fear and the assumptions that breed fear. Come back on Wednesday to read the entire Conversation With Brian — and on Thursday to read even more about a landmark project that Brian, Phyllis Tickle and a half dozen other major writers are launching right now.

    But, consider: If we look around carefully, it’s not hard to spot this problem close to home.
    The Turner Classic Movies channel is devoting much of June to exploring both the stereotyping of Asians in American films — and those artists who managed to transcend these biases. Look through your TV listings and you’ll find dozens of TCM films with Asian themes sprinkled through June.
     I watched several films and commentaries that TCM ran in recent days concerning the Hollywood pioneers Anna May Wong and Sessue Hayakawa. Their life stories are amazing tributes to perseverance against often staggering odds.

    Anna May Wong (at left) was Hollywood’s first Chinese-American star, which placed her in the awkward and demanding role of trying to change global images of Asians in an isolationist United States. Sessue Hayakawa (below), best known today for playing the prison camp commander in “Bridge Over the River Kwai” at the end of his acting career, was Hollywood’s first Japanese-American star.
    Both stars struggled to break out of stereotyped images of Asians as cruel, lustful and devious — or, just as bad, as simple-minded dolts in their obedience to powerful forces.

    Hayakawa eventually left movies as he became an ordained Buddhist master and wrote the spiritual memoir, “Zen Showed Me the Way.” He probably was the more successful of the two in overcoming hateful stereotypes.
    But the TCM series this month gives all of us lessons to ponder. Among the films airing in June are  examples of stereotypical Asian detectives (Mr. Motto, Charlie Chan and Mr. Wong among them — all played by non-Asian actors). Those films also are back on DVD with new collections of their adventures debuting almost every month.

    The problem is: Just as China and India are rising to become the world’s next superpowers, Americans’ ideas about Asians are intertwined with this poisonous old stew of stereotypes.
    Now, you may argue that we’re all too sophisticated to be taken in by ignorant stereotypes. But I was stunned last week when a review copy of a new paperback book by an evangelical writer hit my desk. As I skimmed through several chapters, I realized that this was quite literally an attempt to summon Christians into a worldwide struggle with Islam. The writer’s ignorance about Islam is astounding. Nevertheless, the author confidently tries to tell Christian readers that they should fear for their lives, because — this author claims — there are countless hordes of Muslims around the world whose lives are driven by hatred and who have made a “commitment to kill innocent women and children.”
    I am not going to mention the title, the author or the publishing house — because I don’t want people to seek out this horrifically ill-informed book. Let’s let it vanish into its own obscurity.
    But the fact that it crossed my desk — along with dozens of other new religious books last week — is one more sign of how common these ugly voices are in our world.

    This weekend in the flagship Borders store in Ann Arbor, I ran across another unreconstructed slice of old-fashioned bias. In the midst of the huge Mystery section stood a large, stand-alone display of paperback reprints of “Shadow” and “Doc Savage” novels with lurid covers from the past.
    I wondered if someone had updated these tales — much like Spielberg and Lucas updated the pulp fiction of 1930s movie serials for the latest “Indiana Jones” release. But, no, these editions are low-cost reprints of the original novels, complete with savage stereotypes.
    In one volume, “Who Is Lingo?” we get a brutal scene featuring a devious Asian killer, called a “chink” in the text. The killer has devised a technological marvel: a killing chamber that traps its inhabitants, then pumps lethal gas into the room. As the killer operates the lever, he says, “Room fillee. Takee couple minute to killee people in there. Me timee.”
    In another volume, “The Magicals Mystery,” the killers are Indians, each one called simply “the Hindu” or sometimes “the creature” in the text. They are devious masters of deception, as well, able to contort their bodies into tiny places, then slither out to murder people. And, to heighten the drama, the text describes these Indian assassins as looking like snakes. In one case: “His wasted face was apish, with lips so drawn that the hiss must have come from between his teeth. He was, in a sense, a human reptile.”
    The illustration (at right) is from this “Hindu” story.
    Pretty sad to see beautiful new paperback editions of these books — marred by all the ugly stereotypes of our past.

Finally, let’s end this reflection on a positive note:

     Tuesday through Thursday this week, you’ll find stories here about
new approaches to building interfaith and cross-cultural understanding.

    If you missed it last week, check out our Conversation With Stephen Simon, the pioneering filmmaker who is circling the globe now with positive stories through his Spiritual Cinema Circle.

    Plus, check out our bookstore, where we recommend dozens of great books that point toward understanding, hope and help.
    And, here’s a very timely question for you. To be honest, we can’t quite figure out whether Adam Sandler’s new movie, “Zohan,” is a groundbreaking comedy because of its attempt to salute interfaith brotherhood — or whether it’s so offensive that no one should take it seriously. Yes, I’ve seen the movie and, yes, I laughed out loud in a number of scenes. If your weekend included “Zohan” — hey, Email us with your thoughts on the movie!

CARE TO READ MORE?

    Anna May Wong and Sessue Hayakawa aren’t easily accessible these days, unless you have NetFlix or carefully watch for their films on TCM. Unfortunately, the remarkable spiritual memoir, “Zen Showed Me the Way,” is now out of print, but you can find used copies online. In both cases, Wikipedia has pretty strong starting points for exploring their lives.
    The Anna May Wong page has all sorts of resources.
    The Sessue Hayakawa page is nearly as elaborate.
    Please — if you’ve a particular interest in these actors or have a memory to share with us of seeing their films —Email ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm and tell us about it.

    The Shadow and even Doc Savage both continue to have loyal fans. And, here at ReadTheSpirit, we stand proudly in the cheering section for the rebirth of comics, graphic novels and even the kind of pulp fiction that fueled the Shadow and Doc. In short: We love this genre, overall.
    But — we draw the line at anything that demeans whole groups of people — and, even if you’re a fan of the Shadow, Doc and all the rest, let’s be honest: You know they sprang up in an era when hateful stereotypes were commonplace.
    Our suggestion is that — just as Spielberg and Lucas did with Indiana Jones and just as so many comic artists and graphic novelists are doing with their superheroes these days — we need a good scrubbing of our literary past. We can celebrate heroism, sacrifice, loyalty and compassion in a healthy way only if we’re not doing it at the expense of other people.
    But, hey — You know that already, don’t you? If you do want to learn more about the Shadow, he’s got a huge Wiki page, too. So has Doc Savage.

AND FOR MORE STORIES RELATED TO THIS WEEK’S SERIES …
    We’ve got an in-depth Conversation With Phyllis Tickle, the chief architect of the new series that Brian McLaren is kicking off. The interview with Phyllis focuses on a recent book she wrote about the words of Jesus.
    On Tuesday, we explored one of those global pillars: Pilgrimage.
If you missed it, go back and take our 10-question pilgrimage quiz. See
how much you know. You’re sure to pick up some cool new facts to share
with friends.
    On Wednesday, we published an extended Conversation With Brian McLaren, who Phyllis chose to write the kick-off volume in her series.

    Tell us what you think!

097: Asia: A Colorful, Singaporean Model of Religious Harmony

February 6, 2008 by

This week, we’re in the midst of a special ASIA SERIES: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7. Here’s today’s Part 6 …

One amazing night in Singapore, I looked into the faces of many gods — and, even more importantly, into the faces of thousands of people celebrating their widely diverse faiths on a single narrow street in the heart of this island-nation’s famous Chinatown district.
    In that moment, I wished that I somehow could have packed all of our ReadTheSpirit readers onto airplanes and ushered all of you into this vibrant corner of Singapore — because this is a glimpse of what spiritual globalization could become if people welcome and carefully plan for this inevitable cultural wave.
    These thousands of people who had immigrated to Singapore from dozens of countries around the world had converged peacefully and joyously on this street where an immense mosque, a vast Hindu temple and a huge Buddhist shrine all thrive shoulder to shoulder amidst shops, restaurants and apartments.
    The night I visited this corner of the globe, the celebrations spilled into the streets. Hindu and Muslim pairs of shoes, left behind as worshipers stepped into their sacred precincts, were piled up along the sidewalk within sight of the brightly lit Chinese New Year’s decorations spread out along the same street by Buddhists.

    WANT TO SEE what I’m talking about? The video clip below is just one tiny moment in one house of worship: the towering Sri Mariamman Temple, a Hindu landmark in Singapore for nearly two centuries. The temple is the oldest of the Hindu temples in Singapore and is the spiritual home to immigrant families from India.
    In the online version of this story, CLICK on the video screen that appears below to watch a small portion of a procession that evening. (OR, if you’re reading this story via Email, CLICK HERE, and you’ll jump to YouTube, where you can view the video clip on that page.)

 

 

    THEN, in the next clip, you’ll glimpse just a few moments of a lengthy Buddhist service that evening. This gorgeously decorated Buddhist temple in Chinatown is fascinating because it’s so new. While the Hindu temple and the mosque are historic landmarks, the Buddhists felt sufficiently at home in Sinagpore’s diverse religious environment to build their own major new facility on the same narrow street.
    Because Singapore officially encourages religious and cultural diversity — from the government to the grassroots of the country — the opening of the temple last May included an elaborately decorated processional route through the streets. More than 100 brightly lit dragons were positioned along the two-kilometer-long route.

    FOR A GLIMPSE inside the Buddhist temple, CLICK on the video screen that appears below. (Or, if you can’t see the screen in your version of this story, CLICK HERE, and you’ll jump to YouTube to view it.)

 

    Now, if you know much about the island-nation of Singapore, you’re probably already saying to yourself: Yes, this may seem wonderful, BUT this kind of colorful community only exists because Singapore is virtually a dictatorship run by a one-party political system with strict government controls that Americans would never accept!
    That is one critique that observers have voiced about Singapore’s system. This isn’t the place to argue, in detail, about the island-nation’s political system — except to say that, yes, Singapore’s constitution allows far more top-down social-engineering by the government than would ever be allowed in the U.S.

 

    For example: The vast majority of families live in government-owned apartment complexes (like the one shown at right that’s decorated for the Chinese New Year). In these complexes, families purchase their flats from the government in an arrangement similar to American condominiums. However, there’s one big social-engineering exception in Singapore’s housing developments: The total number of flats in each apartment complex must be sold proportionate to the country’s ethnic mix. So, ethnic-Chinese families many of whom have Buddhist or Taoist traditions are required, by law, to live next to Indian-Hindu families and Muslim families who migrated from countries like Malaysia.
    In other words, by law, every neighborhood becomes a mini-United Nations.

    In addition, acts of ethnic bias are strictly discouraged, mainly by Singapore’s news media, where journalists are infamous for splashing violators’ names and photos across the front page. Plus, there’s more to fear than public embarrassment. Hate speech is illegal and is vigorously prosecuted.

    Official encouragement of cultural and religious diversity doesn’t stop there. Well-heeled government ministries produce countless programs to encourage diversity — including helping with the dragon-lantern launch of the new Buddhist temple last year. Beyond that, ministries produce gorgeously designed, full-color booklets that guide first-time visitors through various houses of worship. Performances and exhibitions are sponsored. And there’s even official funding to help groups that, in the U.S., would limp along with nonprofit status. For instance, there’s a growing “kindness” movement in Singapore that encourages this kind of diversity and is fueled in its efforts by government-funded publication of its inspirational paperback books.

    Obviously, the Singaporean system would never even be considered in the United States, where our constitutional protections prevent government meddling in religious issues. But, around the world, people are searching for new models of religious diversity and Singapore presents an example that appears more healthy than, say, military enforcement of religious segregation as happens in some countries.

 

    One remarkable result of the Singaporean involvement in religious life is that the government, while notoriously strict, takes a novel approach toward any religious zealots who may be convicted of crimes as serious as encouraging terrorism. In the U.S., anyone convicted of such a crime seems to be regarded as beyond rehabilitation. Our legal system tends to regard such people as so badly twisted in their outlook on life that there is little chance of reformation.
    In Singapore, the greater attention to religious social engineering has led the government to fund an extensive rehabilitation program, even for people convicted of encouraging terrorism. In Singapore, such a conviction now may be followed by a years-long process of counseling by religious scholars who work with both the inmate and the inmate’s family to try to turn around the twisted religious assumptions.

    While in Singapore, the small group of journalists traveling with the East-West Center had a chance to discuss these matters with George Yeo, Singapore’s Minister of Foreign Affairs — the equivalent to  America’s Secretary of State. Yeo granted us a lengthy audience and was eager to talk about these experiments. Originally, our meeting was “off the record,” as most such high-level briefings are for journalists. But, by the end of our long conversation, Yeo said that these issues were so important that we could quote him from the notes we had jotted during our meeting.
    Regarding the pioneering program of trying to rehabilitate convicted terrorist sympathizers and their families, Yeo said this idea arose because Muslim scholars argued persuasively to government officials that “these men had a very perverted sense of what Islam is.” That means they possibly can be turned around, Yeo argued. He declined to discuss specific cases, but he said these teams of Muslim scholars are “succeeding in only a few cases, not in all cases.”

    Nevertheless, the experiment is extremely important, Yeo said. “We could see that these were men possessed, so what should we do with them? … We recognize that this is a struggle for the hearts, minds and souls of individuals. We cannot reach every one, but if we can turn one around — he is worth more than a whole police department.”
    Yeo said Singapore’s governmental attention to diversity reflects a sophisticated vision of the social pressures building around the world as countries become more culturally diverse.
    “The kind of harmony we are talking about is not a natural state,” Yeo said. “It is something we must work on—on a daily basis, every day. … All the time, in everything we do, we worry about this concern. Any committee you form, any board you form, we pay attention to these issues.”

    At ReadTheSpirit, the 10th of our 10 founding principles is: “Peace is possible,” which means that we encourage the search for models that will foster peace in diverse communities. We believe that, eventually, it is possible for people to find models that will produce healthy, strong, peaceful communities with richly diverse religious cultures.
    Singapore’s model won’t work in the U.S., obviously, but at this point it’s an intriguing model whose many individual elements are worth exploring further!

USE THE LINKS AT TOP TO NAVIGATE THROUGH PARTS OF THIS 2008 SERIES.

NOTE: This series was published in early 2008 and continues to draw readers, years later. ReadTheSpirit online magazine has moved through several redesigns and expansions, in those years. Some of the typography and page design of this series may appear slightly askew, due to changes in online templates. However, the entire text of the series remains as published. Please email us at [email protected] with questions or comments.