RT 201: “RELIGION AND THE HUMAN QUEST” THE PLAN. FOUR SEGMENTS 1.BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF...

RT 201:

“RELIGION AND THE HUMAN QUEST”

THE PLAN

FOUR SEGMENTS

1. BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF ‘RELIGION’

2. ICONS OF COSMOS3. ICONS OF RELATIONSHIPS,

SOCIETY AND COMMUNITY4. ICONS OF HUMAN DESTINY

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THE “PLAN”

FOUR SEGMENTS:1. BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF “RELIGIONHistory and etymologyDefinition: “Religion”=

Intensive and Comprehensive Valuing Committed and holistic life-quest

Vocabulary: holy, sacred, power, tradition...Plato’s Cave and Line

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State of Mind Mental Activity Object/Outcome

EPISTEMEABSTRACT THINKING

NOESISMeta-physics

ARCHAIFirst Principles

DIANOIAMETHOD, LOGIC

REASON, CALCULATION

MATHEMATIKA

LEARNED CONCLUSIONS

DOXAKnowing from direct experience

PISTISKnowing from personal

experience

ZOAKnowledge of

Particular Things

EIKASIAImaging, Imagining

EIKONESSymbols, arts

(imitations)

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RELIGION AND THE HUMAN QUEST…

R=ICVDESIRE TO LIVERECOGNITION OF

CONDITIONALITYNEED FOR STRATEGIES

RELIGION AND THE HUMAN QUEST…

• PISTIS EXPERIENCE OF PARTICULARS• EIKASIA IMAGINING THE WORLD

AND OURSELVES• EIKONES THAT RECORD OUR

EXPERIENCE• DIANOIA THAT ALLOWS US TO STUDY

HUMAN EXPERIENCE

ICONS OF COSMOS • SIMPLE COSMOLOGICAL EXPRESSIONS

– Chant, dance, and contingency

• LAKOTA STAR COSMOLOGY AND LIFE STYLE– Directions, experience, value– Constellations, geography and seasons– Wakan– Tipi and Sun Dance

• UNITY OF CHINESE EXPERIENCE• LAO TZE excerpts from TAO TE CHING

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WHAT KIND OF WORLD DO WE LIVE IN?

A HINDU RESPONSE (Smith 72):

1. A multiple world that includes innumerable galaxies horizontally, innumerable tiers vertically, and innumerable cycles temporally


WHAT DO YOU THINK? WHAT’S YOUR pistis?HOW DO YOU KNOW?!

1.How vast is your image of the world?Does cosmic vastness have any meaning? Is it

valuable? Does it matter to the human life search?


2. A moral world in which the law of karma is never suspended.


2. Is the cosmos indifferent to human action?

Is human commitment (intensiveness) without meaning?

Does human decision count?Why do we care if we or others are

indifferent or fanatical?


3. A middling world that will never replace paradise as the spirit’s destination


3. What lies ahead for us? Individually? Collectively? How could we know?

What’s in your pistis? What’s the ground of wanting more? What are the limits of life quest?


4. A world that is maya, deceptively tricky in passing off its multiplicity, materiality, and dualities as ultimate when they are actually provisional.


4. Can we humans be mistaken? What do we do to get it right? Are there absolute conditions or only temporary ones? Can anything we do have meaning if the conditions are only temporary?


5. A training ground on which people can develop their highest capacities


5. Can we learn? Can we secure and pass our learning experience on? How?

Whom do we trust? What value does my individual experience have?

Is 1 in 7 Billion an adequate sample?


6. A world that is lila, the play of the Divine in its Cosmic Dance—untiring, unending, resistless, yet ultimately beneficent, with a grace born of infinite vitality.


6. Do words like JOY, HAPPINESS, FULFILLMENT, SUCCESS have any lasting meaning?

Is reality “gracious”?

ICONS OF RELATIONSHIP, SOCIETY, COMMUNITY

• INDIA:–VARNA/CASTE: work and social

organization–HOLY COWS: Indian ecology and

economy• CONFUCIUS: Deliberate tradition

and social cohesion20

ICONS OF RELATIONSHIP, SOCIETY, COMMUNITY

• FIVE PILLARS: The architecture of community

• Genesis 2-3: Cosmos and Community

• SANTOS: Community of Holy Persons on Earth and in Heaven

INDIA’S SACRED COW

ICONS OF HUMAN DESTINY

• YOGA: the quest/search and human differences

• 4 NOBLE TRUTHS/8 FOLD PATH• ZEN & JODO• KINGDOM OF GOD: Holy Week

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SIGNUP?

RT 201: “RELIGION AND THE HUMAN QUEST” THE PLAN. FOUR SEGMENTS 1.BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF...

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