It Would Be Good If We Bore

Built Into Human Makeup Is A Longing For A 'more' That The World Of Everyday Experience Cannot Requite.

If Human Life Is To Survive On This Planet, The Old Dualistic Worldview, With People On One Side And The Environment On The Other, Must Yield To A New Vision That Connects Us With Everything Else And Leads Us To Care For And Take Responsibility For It.

The Self Is Too Small An Object For Perpetual Enthusiasm.

I Come From A Missionary Family - I Grew Up In China - And In My Case, My Religious Upbringing Was Positive. Of Course, Not Everyone Has This Experience. I Know Many Of My Students Are What I Have Come To Think Of As Wounded Christians Or Wounded Jews. What Came Through To Them Was Dogmatism And Moralism, And It Rubbed Them The Wrong Way.

The Heart Of Religion Is Not Altered States But Altered Traits Of Character. For Me, Then, The Test Of A Substance's Religious Worth Or Validity Is Not What Kind Of Far-out Experience It Can Produce, But Is The Life Improved By Its Use? That's The Test. Now, On That Score, If You Remove The "religious Cocoon," The Experiences Don't Seem To Have Much In The Way Of Discernible, Traceable Effects.