Tidbits

Finals

First, you might have noticed the blog entries have gotten a bit less frequent lately. That's because I'm in the throes of finals. Next week is the last week of classes, and I'm completely swamped. Don't be surprised not to see a blog entry until break.

Speaking of finals, my final project for the Art & Religion course, which has continued to be, er, a challenge for me, is up on the web. Enjoy.

Mysticism

I took a rare break last night, and went to an event at a place called Chochmat HaLev. It was a really interesting talk by a Sufi Imam and a Rabbi, about mysticism, and mystical traditions in Judaism and Islam. There was lots of food for thought, especially for me, given that I consider myself a mystic. One of the most interesting things was that they both said that mystics never stop asking the big questions.

They also talked about exoteric vs. esoteric experience, and how mystics not only must ground themselves in the exoteric experiences of their traditions (religious practice) but also find unity across traditions linking the esoteric experiences. This need to unify based on the esoteric is because we will never agree on the exoteric, which makes sense.

An interesting twist was that the Imam was a white American guy, and not born into Islamic tradition, whereas the Rabbi had been born Jewish. I wondered how that made a difference in their experience. I was reminded of Thomas Merton, who, apparently, when he was in Asia (where he died,) he wrote a letter to someone indicating that he had never really needed to leave. As someone who has chosen to return to the tradition of my birth, rather than stay in an adopted tradition, it was something I would have liked to ask. I've found that in some ways, I'm in the same exact place, asking lots of questions, and focusing on waking up. But in other ways, I'm in a very different place, because the exoteric has had profound influence on my esoteric experience.