5:00 o'clock and all is well
Exercising poor judgment regarding work and sleep again due, once again, the windowless TA office.
I found today perhaps the first usage of my favorite word, "banjax," outside of a dictionary or my exaltations of it. It was on p. 83 of the edition of Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman we were supposed to read for my fiction class.
"Exaltation," by they way, means not only all the things you'd think it means but also, according to a reputable source, a flight of larks. Like a gaggle of geese, but cooler.
I managed to slip by Easter without really giving a damn. But because of an assignment for my fiction class, I've had to look up a lot of mythology. And I have to say: resurrection and the salvation of humanity are pretty nice things to celebrate, but if we're going to look at Christianity in comparison with the events claimed by other religions, it really doesn't hold a candle up to the awesomeness that is Hindu mythology.
Seriously. Check out the Puranas, or some convenient summary of them. The world of classical Hindu myth is one in which gods and demons are in constant colorful war with all manner of kickassery. Mortals do a little ascetic practice--tapas--and they get extraordinary powers, like comic book heros. Better than comic book heros. Like, modern special effects can't handle the pyrotechnics describe in these myths. When Hollywood's exhausted Marvel, they can turn to the avatars of Vishnu.
Also, Hinduism's got, like, eight creation stories, and humanity is constantly getting its ass saved by divine intervention. There's a dozen virgin births of deities, and they happen with more fanfare. Eschatology galore. Meanwhile, there is plenty of deep and ultimately, I think, empowering philosophical stuff embedded in a lot of the dialogues (like the Bhagavad Gita) that is based, I think, in a worthy attempt at psychological description. It's program for human well-being is way more accessible, practical, and moderately more true than Christianity's "repent, have faith, and be saved in the hereafter" or, alternatively, "do good deeds to earn Jesus-points" messages. Rather than offering the indirect method of making oneself believing, unquestioningly, pacifying thoughts, it outlines an intentional process of pacification.
So, go Hinduism. Or at least my butchered conception of it. None of this is particular in depth or serious, but I think I could stand behind my general point: anything Christianity can do, Hinduism does better. Except maybe justify genocide. Oh, and I guess there isn't a liberation theology aspect of Hinduism, as far as I know.
For me, I was think a couple weeks ago that I really ought to take a good hard look at Buddhism again. Whenever I encounter it, I start thinking "I kind of agree with that. And that. And that." Like the reading at tonight's Madhouse meeting. Or whenever I look back at any Buddhist texts. And then you hear all this great stuff about Tibetan monks hooking themselves up to neuroimaging systems to get a good look at themselves when meditating. That's great stuff--a religion built pretty much entirely (originally, before theistic and mythological additions) on an attempt at descriptive psychology (true? false?) that is willing to investigate its own premises scientifically. If it can avoid dogmatism, I'd say it's golden. It also seems to keep pretty much the same sort of value-system we expect from good people--compassion for the worse-off and all that--but is way less angsty about it than Christianity can be. The one thing I'm skeptical about are the normative claims that are bound up in it, especially the teleology of Nirvana. I can't help but think "Why bother?" But as far as general guidelines for life goes, as far as a default indoctrination goes, I think it's some of the best the world's got to offer at this point, based on effectively zero systematic study into this area.
Oh shit, there goes the time. I just wrote a lot of uninformed, pedantic crap about religion. That's not what I intended to do at all.
Quitting while I'm awake....
I found today perhaps the first usage of my favorite word, "banjax," outside of a dictionary or my exaltations of it. It was on p. 83 of the edition of Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman we were supposed to read for my fiction class.
"Exaltation," by they way, means not only all the things you'd think it means but also, according to a reputable source, a flight of larks. Like a gaggle of geese, but cooler.
I managed to slip by Easter without really giving a damn. But because of an assignment for my fiction class, I've had to look up a lot of mythology. And I have to say: resurrection and the salvation of humanity are pretty nice things to celebrate, but if we're going to look at Christianity in comparison with the events claimed by other religions, it really doesn't hold a candle up to the awesomeness that is Hindu mythology.
Seriously. Check out the Puranas, or some convenient summary of them. The world of classical Hindu myth is one in which gods and demons are in constant colorful war with all manner of kickassery. Mortals do a little ascetic practice--tapas--and they get extraordinary powers, like comic book heros. Better than comic book heros. Like, modern special effects can't handle the pyrotechnics describe in these myths. When Hollywood's exhausted Marvel, they can turn to the avatars of Vishnu.
Also, Hinduism's got, like, eight creation stories, and humanity is constantly getting its ass saved by divine intervention. There's a dozen virgin births of deities, and they happen with more fanfare. Eschatology galore. Meanwhile, there is plenty of deep and ultimately, I think, empowering philosophical stuff embedded in a lot of the dialogues (like the Bhagavad Gita) that is based, I think, in a worthy attempt at psychological description. It's program for human well-being is way more accessible, practical, and moderately more true than Christianity's "repent, have faith, and be saved in the hereafter" or, alternatively, "do good deeds to earn Jesus-points" messages. Rather than offering the indirect method of making oneself believing, unquestioningly, pacifying thoughts, it outlines an intentional process of pacification.
So, go Hinduism. Or at least my butchered conception of it. None of this is particular in depth or serious, but I think I could stand behind my general point: anything Christianity can do, Hinduism does better. Except maybe justify genocide. Oh, and I guess there isn't a liberation theology aspect of Hinduism, as far as I know.
For me, I was think a couple weeks ago that I really ought to take a good hard look at Buddhism again. Whenever I encounter it, I start thinking "I kind of agree with that. And that. And that." Like the reading at tonight's Madhouse meeting. Or whenever I look back at any Buddhist texts. And then you hear all this great stuff about Tibetan monks hooking themselves up to neuroimaging systems to get a good look at themselves when meditating. That's great stuff--a religion built pretty much entirely (originally, before theistic and mythological additions) on an attempt at descriptive psychology (true? false?) that is willing to investigate its own premises scientifically. If it can avoid dogmatism, I'd say it's golden. It also seems to keep pretty much the same sort of value-system we expect from good people--compassion for the worse-off and all that--but is way less angsty about it than Christianity can be. The one thing I'm skeptical about are the normative claims that are bound up in it, especially the teleology of Nirvana. I can't help but think "Why bother?" But as far as general guidelines for life goes, as far as a default indoctrination goes, I think it's some of the best the world's got to offer at this point, based on effectively zero systematic study into this area.
Oh shit, there goes the time. I just wrote a lot of uninformed, pedantic crap about religion. That's not what I intended to do at all.
Quitting while I'm awake....