We Are Born In Mystery, We Live

At The Center Of The Religious Life Is A Peculiar Kind Of Joy, The Prospect Of A Happy Ending That Blossoms From Necessarily Painful Ordeals, The Promise Of Human Difficulties Embraced And Overcome.

The Proper Response To A Great Work Of Art Is To Enter It As Though There Were Nothing Else In The World.

I Don't Want To Justify Religion In Terms Of Its Benefits To Us. I Believe That, On Balance, It Does A Lot Of Bad Things, Too - A Tremendous Amount. But I Don't Think That The Final Justification Of Religion Is The Good It Does For People. I Think The Final Justification Is That It's True, And Truth Takes Priority Over Consequences. Religion Helps Us Deal With What Is Most Important To The Human Spirit: Values, Meaning, Purpose, And Quality.

The First Koan Do Not Have Rational Answers. They Are Techniques Devised Over The Millennia For Triggering An Actual Experience.

The New Age Movement Looks Like A Mixed Bag. I See Much In It That Seems Good: It's Optimistic; It's Enthusiastic; It Has The Capacity For Belief. On The Debit Side, I Think One Needs To Distinguish Between Belief And Credulity. How Deep Does New Age Go? Has It Come To Terms With Radical Evil? More, I Am Not Sure How Much Social Conscience There Is In New Age Thinking.