Two weeks ago I had an opportunity to attend a Christian Taizé service at night in a church close to where I’m living. As a Buddhist, I enjoy jumping into new environments to learn about the religious practices of others. In the course of my inter-religious exploration I encounter devotion that strikes a chord, or […]
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The Tech Question Concerns Us All
In a letter dated 6 January to Monsignor Paglia for this month’s 25th anniversary of the Pontifical Academy for Life (which was founded in 1994), Pope Francis noted: “Relying on results obtained from physics, genetics and neuroscience, as well as on increasingly powerful computing capabilities, profound interventions on living organisms are now possible . . . Even […]
Postcard from Raymond: Merton’s Theology of the Problematic
My colleague Justin Whitaker has just published news about the 50th anniversary of the Catholic monk and writer Thomas Merton. It is no surprise that Buddhists have joined Christians in commemorating his life. I admired Merton to the point of making his work one half of my BA thesis, which was a Buddhist-Christian dialogue between […]
Spiritual Colossi: Buddhism and Christianity in China and America
As the United States launches its long-awaited trade war against China, I wonder whether something subtler, but just as significant, is bubbling under the already tumultuous surface. I pondered for a short while whether this observation held any water. After all, indirect pressures or persuasions, rather than outright pronunciations and their enforcement, characterize the influence […]
Bodhisattva Vows as Liberation Theology
I was raised in what I consider to have been a very “liberal” Catholic household. Outside our evening “grace” before dinner and weekly church service, God and religion were rarely discussed. When I was of confirmation age, I was given the option to go forward or not. I chose not. Fast-forward through the nearly 25 […]
The Extraordinary Conceptions of Mary and Maya
Conceiving a child without a man’s involvement is, at its heart, a miraculous phenomenon because pregnancy cannot occur without sexual activity and the fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Among some animals and insects we can witness asexual reproduction in which embryos grow without fertilization, or parthenogenesis (from the Greek “virgin creation”). According to […]
Postcard from Raymond: The Gaze of the Divine
“Look at me. Behold, encounter, and meet me.” Two of my favourite expressions of sacred art can be found in Cave 148 at the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang, along the Chinese route of the Silk Road, and the beloved icon of the Holy Trinity in the Orthodox Church. While all art forms of the holy […]
The Harp in the Crisp Wind: Intersections of Buddhism and Celtic Christianity
Raymond Lam In July 2015, I wrote a book review of Laurence Cox’s Buddhism in Ireland: From the Celts to the Counter-Culture and Beyond. “Celtishness” has fascinated European and global culture, from influences in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to historical accounts of sacred places like Lindisfarne. There is an earthly, grassy, hearty beauty about everything Celtic, […]
Why I Don’t Believe in Spiritual Experiences
Raymond Lam Some scientists and psychologists draw parallels between religious experiences and psychological illnesses and conditions, like epilepsy. We’re not just talking about feelings of lovingkindness or compassion generated in meditation, but ecstatic visions of angels or hearing thundering voices of celestial beings. Drawing parallels between mental illness and religious ecstasy is pretty politically incorrect, […]