Soul's Code

Indian portal Rediff.com has picked the 50 most influential Indian-Americans, a list that highlights several deep thinkers and spiritual leaders.

Akeel Bilgrami, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, who wrote Belief and Meaning and Self-Knowledge and Resentment. Bilgrami once told India Abroad:

 “People like (Oxford scientist) Richard Dawkins are missing something deep about what religion is about now in countries like America. It is not primarily about belief and doctrine. These identities and commitments are ways of seeking community and solidarity in a world that is deeply disenchanted. It is foolish and undemocratic of the liberal Left intelligentsia to condemn an entire electorate of half the country as vile and stupid.”

Dogfighting quarterback: “In My Defense, I’ve Found God”

Multimillionaire NFL quarterback Michael Vick goes on record for staging dog fights. If you listen to the first three minutes of that clip, it sounds like an apology.

Then, Vick finds God: “In this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness, and just turned my life over to god. I think that’s the right thing to do as of right now.”

The religious rhetoric re-emerges toward the end when Vick says: “I will redeem myself. I have to.”

It’s great that Michael Vick apologized. Long overdue in fact. Dogfighting really isn’t in the pantheon of Christian activities. In fact, it’s not even cool. Even the Taliban banned dogfighting in Afganistan (You remember them –they were the guys who  hosted bin Ladn and the mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed — and destroyed ancient Buddhist statues at Bamiyan.)

A Manchester, Conn. couple have found Jesus — in their kitchen cabinet, according to an NBC report.

Malynda and Eric Smith saw the face of Jesus and have decided to keep the cabinet. It’s not quite a chocolate Virgin or God in your eggplant, but a kitchen cabinet is certainly close.

Then there’s the a slightly more artistic appearance of Jesus in a trash-can in Austria. An 800-year-old crucifix was lost when the Nazis rolled through Poland, according to Reuters. The crucifix may now be worth north of $539,000, experts estimate.

Psychologists call the phenomenon parataxic distortion: If you’re seeking Jesus, he is bound to show up anywhere, anytime, anyhow.

We’ve written before about the cult of consumerism and Steve Jobs’ new Jesus phone.

Now a Palm Beach Baptist Minister took it to the next level by offering $15 iTunes gift cards to anybody who filled out a join-up (“connection card”) at the church, the Palm Beach Post reports.

Does it smack of a bribe? Nah, it’s the stuff of good old-fashioned American “Second Great Awakening” marketing.

In a once-in-a-lifetime religious pilgrimmage, a Virginia couple walks the historic Camino de Santiago in Spain

It’s hard to imagine undertaking an activity that will require long distance walking every day for 30days or more. Before I began the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), I used to think that walking 5 or 6 miles was a long distance. Little did I know or
understand what it would take to complete anywhere from 8 to 18 miles a day with a backpack weighing a minimum of 16 pounds plus water.

The first couple of weeks were very difficult for me  physically and psychologically.

I was in the grocery store when someone in the next aisle answered their cell. Harsh words followed. I tired to ignore the intrusive, one-sided conversation as I maneuvered through the onions and potatoes to the bananas. A stranger was inflicting me with their angst.

That brought me back to the Camino where I delighted in the chirruping of birds, the buzz of bees, the swish of wind in the trees, and the distance clank of cowbells. It is no wonder that many stores sell relaxation CDs featuring the sounds of nature.

The most memorable sound of the Camino, however, was silence. A silence so profound and meditative that when I heard a slight gurgle from my half-filled water bottle, I had to empty it.

Since my return from the Camino, I hear as if for the first time the wail of sirens, the whir of tires, the screech of brakes, the roar of motorcycles, the constant clatter and chatter of media, all part of our constant noise pollution. I long for the restorative silence of the Camino.

Taking a Contrast-Bath for Global Warming

We’ve written about the psychological and spiritual benefits of nudity before, but this time Spencer Tunick has taken it, as they say, to a totally new level. The photographer staged 600 volunteers on a glacier in Switzerland in 50-degree weather to draw attention to global warming.

The cheeky Reuters reporter covering the event contributes this: “Alpine glaciers have lost about one-third of their length and half their volume over the past 150 years.“

Quite.

When a Bodega chocolate worker stopped believing in God, the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to her. But the appearance didn’t come down out of the sky, as it did to Juan Diego 500 years ago. The Virgin appeared on the floor of a factory, created from the drippings of a chocolate-making machine, according to CBS. This chocolate Mary appeared a year ago today in Fountain Valley, CA.

CBS reports that the store owner turned down a $30,000 offer to buy the chocolate Virgin.

This is the newest exhibit in the ever-growing pile of food-related religious apparitions.

There’s something inside the psyches of computer programmers that draws them to the intractabality of Zen koans. Combine that with a passion for sci-fi and faux mysticism and it bestows upon all mankind a prolific online library of teacher-student koan dialogues. 

Here’s a sample from The Tao of Programming:

A programmer from a very large computer company went to a software conference and then returned to report to his manager, saying: “What sort of programmers work for other companies? They behaved badly and were unconcerned with appearances. Their hair was long and unkempt and their clothes were wrinkled and old. They crashed our hospitality suite and they made rude noises during my presentation.”

Sometimes God’s work gets in the way of a person’s relation with God. In no profession is that more true than being a pastor, a new study shows. Six out of every 10 Christians feel their hectic schedules keep them from spending time with God, it reports. Two thirds of pastors surveyed said their overloaded pace of life interfered with growing in the Lord.

If these people have no time to contact the Divine, how can lay people manage it at all?

The super busy are increasingly multitasking their spirituality. A workout turns spiritual when you do yoga. Artists and politicians mix their religious lives with their work.

Perhaps the best way to retain your connection to God is to try seeing His signature in everything — the Buddhist notion of, “Open yourself to love.”

Picking up from David Deida’s insightful book . . .