Anyone who enjoys poetic language should enjoy paradox. If you are like me, you’ll revel in the amusement paradoxes provide, and you’ll become intrigued with trying to resolve them. At the very least, they provoke us into probing ideas with a heightened degree of focus and criticism.
Visiting India, the Motherland
I first became intoxicated by India as a college student in the 1960s, through the movies of Satyajit Ray, the music of Ravi Shankar and, most of all, the revelations of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. My first exposure to those sacred texts came second-hand, through the work of interpreters like Alan Watts and Aldous Huxley and the fiction of Herman Hesse, Somerset Maugham, and J.D. Salinger. The Beatles put me over the top when they took up Transcendental Meditation and made their landmark pilgrimage to Rishikesh. The total effect of those cross-cultural hinges was to turn this existentialist/atheist/social activist into a dedicated spiritual seeker. I’ve been immersed in yogic practices and Hindu texts ever since.
Faith, Food, and Creating Interfaith Community
One of the best ways to generate community with young people is food. Food is a must! It not only provides an excuse for multitudes of people to come together but can create a strong bond, stronger than we imagine. Centuries of tradition and craftsmanship have gone into the creation of humankind’s many foods, and they can bring peace to one’s mind and stomach. A delicious meal, from whatever community, can also be a great conversation starter. In America, if you have Murgh Makhani (an Indian chicken curry dish) with Naan (bread), or Saag (collard greens) with rice, people can ask about the origins of the dishes and the role food plays in a community.