The Many religions of Pi

Fellow Feeing, Religious Quest in the Modern Age

 

The book I chose as the first one to look at on my spiritual quest  was a wonderful book, Life with Pi. Pi is what I would call a syncretist. That is a person who tries to combine different beliefs from different sources often by blending them, or merging them, into one. This word is often used in religion. Some people don’t see religions as opposing each other, but rather as different views of the same truth. Fundamentalists usually have great difficulty with this. They see their own religion as superior, and the rest as inferior others. Many cannot see anything worth noting in the religion of others. This was a very common assumption by representatives of western religions when they encountered indigenous religions around the world. They were blind to what was before them. Syncretism, on the other hand is inclusive, or what I have called expansive.

In the book, Pi said, “I am a practicing Hindu, Christian and Muslim.” He had no reason to believe that only 1 religion could show the way. Why would he?  Why couldn’t he believe and practice all three? Pi was only 16 years old and he thought he had a lot to learn from all of them. Pi even said “Atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith.”

On the other hand, Pi’s father saw himself as “part of the New India–rich, modern, and as secular as ice cream.”  He did not have a religious bone in his body. He was strictly business. “Spiritual worry was alien to him; it was financial worry that rocked his being.”

Pi’s mother on the other hand was neutral on the subject of religion. She had a Hindu upbringing and a Baptist education, and according to Pi this cancelled both out leaving her “serenely impious.” That is the impiety I prefer! Or perhaps that is the piety I prefer.

Pi is puzzled by those who think they have to defend God. “As if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless.” These are often the fanatics of fundamentalism. These people forget the Golden Rule. Their empathy has been shredded by false religion.

According to Pi,

 

“These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, ‘Business as usual.’  But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.

These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out.  The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. “Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defence, not God’s, that the self-righteous should rush.”

 

Does this not sound a lot like the Old Testament prophets?   I posted a blog about them.

Pi also saw the same source for his ideas: “an alignment of the universe along moral lines, not intellectual ones; a realization that the founding principle of existence is what we call love, which works itself out sometimes not clearly, not cleanly, not immediately, nonetheless ineluctably.”

I actually think the word “love” is a bit strong here. I prefer something easier–fellow feeling or empathy. Loving others can be very hard. Seeing oneself in the other should be easier.  It is harder to love the other, but it is enough to see oneself in the other. And that makes all the difference.

That is what religion is all about.

 

 

Life of Pi

Books, Religious Quest in the Modern Age

 

Moby Dick was the first book I chose and read in my new spiritual journey, but I have decided to talk first about a book I read just a few years ago, long after Professor Ridd was gone. I think it sets the stage well for what I want to do. I will get to Moby Dick soon. I promise.

 

The first book I want to talk about on this religious quest was written after Ridd died. The book is Life of Pi by Yann Martel and it won the Man Booker Prize. This was a book like no other. It is a marvellous book and a pretty good movie was made of it.

The books starts off in Canada where we meet a young writer Pi Patel. It is an odd name.  His real name was Piscine Molitor Patel. He was named after a swimming pool in France. In Canada he got in trouble with his name. As so often, kids tend to twist names to tease their peers. For example, when I was young my name, in German, was Hans Erich.  My mother had a rule. When she called me I had to come home. If I said I did not hear her, she refused to accept that excuse. If I did not hear her, I was too far away. If I heard her and did not come home, I was disobedient. Also bad. This was a lose/lose situation. Either way I was in trouble. But my mother had a very loud voice. I could hear her from a great distance away. Unfortunately, so could my friends.  They twisted my second name into Earache. I was called that for a few years and no doubt suffered extreme psychological damage. I hated that name. Mainly because my friends  teased me unmercifully.

 

It was the same with Piscine Molitor Patel. His friends twisted that into ‘Pissing Patel.’  That was not cool. So, one day, he told everyone to call him Pi for short. It was a name based on the symbol Pi. He adopted the symbol (the Greek letter, π) That was more like it. It was a very cool name.

 

In a way that was his start on a religious journey. A religious quest I would call it. The family lived in India the home where many important religions were born. India is probably the most religious country in the world. It is saturated with religion. No doubt more religious quests have begun or ended in India than any other country in the world.

Pi was raised as Hindu in his family. That was because his family was Hindu. Parents tend to do that. Just like I was raised a Christian. Inevitably, most children enter into a religion because they have been inculcated to do so by their parents. That happens in all religions

Yet at age 12, Pi was introduced to Christianity. Sort of like Christ as a young boy became a Christian (so to speak) at the age of 12.

Later Pi was also introduced to Islam. Now he knew 3 religions. What was he to do? He did something very interesting. He decided all he wanted to do was “love God.” That was when his real religious quest began in earnest. How could he do that with 3 different religions? Well, Pi found a way.

Pi’s  mother did not have strong religious views. She thought that was all right. His father was more interested in money than he was interested in religion. He tried to persuade Pi to become a secular humanist. A rationalist one might call it.

 

Pi’s family owned a private zoo. What an exotic family. The zoo had a Bengal tiger that was called Richard Parker. He became a major character in the book. When Pi was 16 years old his father decided to move his family to Canada together with his animals. They were a major asset. They booked passage on a Japanese freighter, but during a storm the ship foundered and sank. As the ship sank, Pi was tossed into a lifeboat. His family drowned. But he was joined by others. A zebra soon joined Pi in the boat and later an orangutan. A spotted hyena also was discovered on board and it killed the zebra.  Later it killed the orangutan. joined them.  Richard Parker the Bengal tiger emerges from under a tarpaulin and then things got really interesting. As you might imagine.

How could such a strange menagerie of critters together with 3 different religions manage of this strange quest to love God?

I hope your curiosity is piqued. I will tell you more on the next post.

The Religious Quest in the Modern Age

Religious Quest in the Modern Age

 

In 1972 or 1973 as a young man, going to University, I watched a very interesting television show. It was called “The Religious Quest in the Modern Age”.  It consisted of some lectures delivered by Dr. Carl Ridd a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Winnipeg. I was never a student of his. It was about a  a series of lectures on modern philosophy and literature all relating in some way, to religion. It did not have a lot to say about sacred texts—directly at least. It was not that kind of a religious quest. But Ridd was brilliant and riveting.

I was transfixed by the lectures and found them deeply interesting. The lectures I thought were sort of a summary of a course he taught for a number of years at the University of Winnipeg. He had fascinating things to say about the books. I was completely hooked.

Astonishingly, the shows were shown on Saturday mornings. I only saw a small number of them. Maybe 2. I heard about the series by accident. I think we only had 3 TV stations at the time on our small black and white television set I had “borrowed” from my sister Diane. But the ideas were exciting. I was mesmerized I wanted more. I was dumbfounded when the series ended. I was immeasurably jealous of the students from the U of W who got to participate in the entire series. I have been haunted by the memory of that course ever since.

Then during the time of Covid, in the winter of 2021, with little to do, for some reason the idea came into my head that I should teach myself the course. Carl Ridd was long since gone. I knew a couple of old friends who had attended the U of W during those years and had an interest in such topics, so I reached out to them to see if any of them had ever taken that course. Sure enough, 2 of them had. And they shared with me that they had loved the course and gave me their recollection of what books he taught. I had a vague idea from my recollection of the few shows I had seen on TV. Together with their recollections I decided to embark on this spiritual journey. I ventured out on my own personal religious quest in the modern age. Frankly, I was wildly excited by the project.

They used to say there are 9 million stories in the naked city (New York City). They could just as well say there are 8 million spiritual journeys in the naked city. I know we used to think there was just one. The holy book we were taught by our parents. Nothing else mattered, so we were taught.  I was brought up in such a home. But that really is a narrow point of view. There are as many quests as there are people, and some are very interesting. I want to share some of the more interesting quests.

Ridd taught some of the great books of the 19th and 20th centuries. He talked about books by Camus, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and many other great writers. To my surprise he left out some books that ought to have been included. I will include them. So, I have made my list of books inspired by Ridd but not chained to him.

To my surprise I found I had read a good number of the books Ridd taught. That is fine. Good books are worth re-reading. In fact, I have already started that project of re-reading classics and it will fit in just fine with this one.

I will also add books to the list that have been written since he taught the course. There have been some amazing religious quests since then.

I invite you to join me on this spiritual journey. I think it will be very interesting. I will, I promise, it will be a meandering journey.  There will be many stops to permit pondering and mulling things over. I also can’t entirely stop other topics I want to post about such as  politics and religion, social democracy, books, and films, and the like. There will be interruptions.

On this journey we will consider religion from many different points of view. Maybe even yours! Some will be sceptical. Some will be strange. All, I think, will be interesting. All will show a desire to explore the quest for religion in the modern age. Please join me on this quest. I think it will be worth the trip.

 

What is equitable Distribution of Vaccines?

Epidemics/Pandemics, Ethics, Social Justice

 

Yesterday Chris and I got the first of our vaccine shots. Hooray! We didn’t ask if this was just or not. It was offered to us and we grabbed it.

 

No one asked whether the current system of vaccine distribution was actually fair or just. Such questions were off-side. This was an emergency. No one had time to think about justice. What an arcane concept. Every official concentrated on getting the medicine out as quickly as possible. Questions could be asked later when the job was done.

Now some interesting information is becoming available. Information is critically important in assessing actions. Good facts make good ethics. And there were some ethical issues.

Here is what Lindsay Glassco said,

“With the reality of our global interdependencies laid bare, the race for mitigation has already begun. A recent study found that equitable vaccine distribution was about more than ensuring all countries have a line of defence against the health impacts of COVID-19 — it is also our best line of defence against economic devastation.

 

In the most extreme scenario, with most wealthy countries vaccinated by the middle of this year and lower-income countries largely excluded, the global economy would suffer losses exceeding US$9 trillion.”

 

Money has a tendency to sharpen judgment. With trillions at stake, where are the ethics? Was the rush to fill arms with vaccines the right approach? Not according to the World Health Organization:

This is why the World Health Organization is advocating for an equitable response through the COVAX global vaccine sharing initiative. While one country’s vaccination strategy may keep its citizens safe temporarily, the heightened risk for virus spread and mutation in unvaccinated countries can continue to grow, eventually crossing borders. Within a few weeks, or even days, we could find ourselves in the same situation we were a year ago — or worse.

 

It is only natural that all of us (except for the sceptics) want the vaccine as soon as possible. We want it for ourselves and our loved ones. That is only natural. And we won’t spend a lot of time thinking about whether anyone should get it before we do, or at the same time. As a result, neither will our governments. The politicians can see by our actions what we want. We want justice for ourselves and families immediately. Once we are all safely inoculated we can discuss what we should do for others. Not now.

Many Canadians have learned what it is like to live in a pandemic coupled with a severe loss of jobs. People are suffering. Either from the disease, or the economic costs of the lockdowns. It is understandable that people want their political leaders to look after these issues and keep their eyes on the ball at all times. This, to most Canadians, is a time for action, not a time for justice. As Lindsay Glassco said,

“As a result of COVID-19, for the first time in many of their lives, Canadians are experiencing some of the hardships that millions of people in other countries face every day — children out of school, economic disruptions, sickness and disease, and scarcity of resources — leading even to hoarding. While these hardships are experienced to varying degrees, their existence is eye-opening and powerful for many.”

 

Yet, at the same, many of us can see, that we are all in this together. None of us want to be seen as hoarders. We mocked hoarders of toilet paper. We felt sadness for hoarders of vaccines. We have deep empathy for “front line workers,” who are putting their lives on the line for the rest of us every hour of every working day. Some of us even feel a modest twinge of guilt. Not enough  to get us to change places with those “essential” front line workers we claim to cherish so deeply.  At least we want to say we feel connected to them, even if none of our actions show that this is true.

Personal interest does not usually sharpen our moral compass. Rather it often dulls it.

Crony Capitalism

Capitalism, Social democracy

 

Gandhi was once asked what he thought about western civilization. He replied it would be a good idea. I feel that way about capitalism. Many of my friends are big supporters. I am more sceptical. m

Scott Galloway calls what we have  crony capitalism.  He liked capitalism; he hates crony capitalism. This is what he said to Bill Maher, who also likes capitalism:

 

“Capitalism is hands down the best system of its kind. What young people are seeing today is not capitalism. We have rugged individualism on the way up and then we have ‘we’re all in this together on the way down.’ We have socialism. Capitalism on the way up where 5 CEOs of airline companies make $150,000,000 and use all their excess cash flow to buy-back stocks so that they artificially inflate their own compensation and then shit gets real when a pandemic comes they don’t have any money and all of a sudden its ‘we’re in this together.’ When you have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down, that’s not capitalism or socialism it is cronyism. It is the worst of all worlds. Capitalism is full-body contact violence at a corporate level so we can create prosperity and progress that rests on a bed of empathy. We have flipped the script here. We need to be more loving and empathetic with people and more harsh on companies. We should be protecting people not companies. Fucking Delta? Burn baby burn!”

Larry Wilmore made an important point. He said, “we have not had pure capitalism for 150 years. We are constantly redefining what capitalism is”

 

In the period of the new deal we expanded what government could do. It could bring social security and unemployment insurance. It could bring things that at one time were considered uncapitalistic. Now that does not matter. Perhaps in the US Obama care will be accepted as a proper government benefit. Socialized medicine, as the Americans like to call it, has been an acceptable governmental interference in the economy in all western countries except for the United States.

 

The Republicans in 2016 rode to victory on a platform of dismantling Obama Care. For the first two years the Republicans had a Republican president and a Republican Senate and a Republican House of Representatives and could not kill Obama Care. Perhaps it is also here to stay. How many Republicans campaigned to dismantle Obama Care in the 2020 elections? Not many. They were largely afraid to try that. So they ran on no platform. Their only platform was “I like Trump.” What ever that meant.

 

In Canada no political party in 40 years has campaigned to dismantled Medicare. It is a sacred trust. It does not matter that it is not capitalism. No one in Canada cares.

Capitalism? Yeah that’s something we should try some time.

Sometimes good ethics is good policy

Epidemics/Pandemics, Ethics

I admit it I am chomping at the bit to get Coronavirus vaccine. I missed my first appointment, I don’t want to admit my second one coming up soon.

Yet, I also know, no one is safe until we’re all safe. Some of us (not many) are starting to see that rushing the vaccines into as many arms as possible is not the only issue. It is important, but is it overwhelmingly important?

Or is this a time for us to support  the equitable distribution of vaccines and investments to strengthen global health systems. Not just in Manitoba. Not just in Canada. But around the world. Are Canadian seniors really more valuable or important than seniors in Kenya? Or Afghanistan? When you think about it is there really any reason everyone in Canada who wants a vaccine should get one before hardly anyone in poorer countries gets one? No politician can suggest this is an issue. Of course ‘our side’ is more important than every other side.  Any politician who did not solemnly acknowledge this would be committing political suicide.

But not only that. Besides  doing the right thing, the moral thing, what is smart? According to Lindsay Glassco, writing in the Winnipeg Free Press, the smart thing might be to share! What if the smart thing is to do what the Golden rule says we should? Do unto others as we would have them do unto us? Glassco put it this way:

“Emotionally, that can be difficult to do. Many of us want our opportunity to be vaccinated to come up sooner rather than later, but the life we all want to return to – with healthy supply chains, trade and travel – will be out of reach until we get this virus under control globally. A fair, equitable global response is our only answer. Instead of focusing on the vaccination race with other wealthy countries, we need to recognize that we’re all losing until the whole team crosses the finish line.”

 

In fairness to Canada, we have actually done quite a lot to share our good fortune. COVAX is an international program where some countries have agreed to share with less well-off countries. As Glassco said,

“Canada is now one of the largest contributors to COVAX, having recently pledged $75 million to the program on top of what it had already previously committed. To date, the Canadian government has mobilized more than $2 billion in its global COVID-19 response.”

 

I don’t know about you, but I am pretty proud of that. Canada is doing something significant. Maybe it could do even more; I don’t know. But it is doing something good. I suspect my Member of Parliament will criticize the Liberal government for its lavish spending on third world countries. I won’t. I like it.

Lindsay Glassco said it as well as it could be said,

“Canadians’ support of an equitable pandemic response is our defining moment to live our values and build back a better world for generations to come. No one is safe until we are all safe.”

 

Should Canada be a good Samaritan or the Pharisee?

Sometimes good ethics is good policy.

From a Dark Place

Epidemics/Pandemics

 

I have had a very interesting week in a very dark place. It started off on Saturday morning with breakfast with friends. I felt listless–drained of energy. We socially distanced in the restaurant but did take off our masks to eat and drink as allowed by Manitoba Health guidelines. The restaurant obeyed all the protocols as far as we could tell. But my energy level was dropping. Something was wrong and I knew it. I started to fear the worst.

 

Our first Covid-19 vaccination was scheduled for Monday morning.  We definitely did not want to miss that. Yet I did appear to have some of the Covid symptoms. I had a slight sore throat, achy body feelings, slight breathing problems, but no fever. At least objectively I had no fever, but it sure “felt” like fever because of the sapped energy. I hoped they would go away by Monday morning. They did not. So I consulted with Shared Health Manitoba on Monday morning, explained the symptoms and was told me to cancel my vaccination appointment, which obediently I did. I have been to Obedience School for many years. Even worse we had to cancel Chris’ vaccination which she strongly desires to get before surgery. A delay was not attractive.

 

All week long I felt sapped of energy with the same symptoms. On Thursday I started to feel slightly better. There was some indication this might end. I zoom coffee with friends.

 

Friday, I got the very good news that my Covid-19 test result was negative. Thank goodness for that, but what do I have? I still feel weak. I did go out for a walk. It was my first exercise in a week. It felt great to be outdoors. What did I have? I have no clue. One friend suggested silent heart failure. Not a very pleasant alternative.

The best advice came from another friend who thinks he is a doctor after watching TV all these years. He suggested my body was suffering from alcohol starvation. This seems like a very logical to me and I will test out this year tonight and report back. I have high hopes and am not high.

Is it important that we all get across the finish line?

Capitalism, Epidemics/Pandemics

 

Some Canadians are leery about taking any of the Covid-19 vaccines as they are worried they might not be as safe as advertised. On the other hand, many of us are worried about not getting the Covid-19 vaccines fast enough. In fact some of us think our government has done a poor job of securing enough vaccines. We look jealously at friends in the US who already have had their vaccinations. 3 of my friends are vaccinated and getting out and about again. But jealously will get me nowhere.

I have been thinking a lot about vaccine ethics lately. There is no reason in the world why we are justified in getting vaccines ahead of anyone else.

Then I read recently that according to the WHO until recently 25 vaccine doses were administered in all of the poor countries combined, while in the wealthy countries, such as Canada, 39 million doses had been given. And we thought it was bad when people were hoarding toilet paper. The rich  countries don’t recognize it yet, but this is not good for any of us.

 

I read an interesting article in the Winnipeg Free Press  by Lindsay Glassco the president and CEO of Plan International Canada.

where she said,

“It shouldn’t be about winning the vaccination race, but rather ensuring we all cross the finish line. It’s been more than a year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. In that time, the virus has exacerbated long-standing inequities and deepened global power imbalances. It has also revealed our interdependencies and the fragility of our global systems.”

 

 

Hoarding vaccines is a lot worse than hoarding toilet paper.

One thing that has become difficult for us not to learn is that during an international pandemic borders are ephemeral and lose much of their significance. No country can keep out the coronavirus or escape its deadly and costly consequences. I remember when Donald Trump seemed to suggest that the US might be able to keep its cases of Covid-19 to less than a hundred! Now they have had more than 500,000 deaths from the virus. How quickly times changed.

All of us must understand that we are citizens of the world. We are all linked and what happens in distant countries can have a profound effect on us. As Glassco said,

“The interdependencies that make up our global fabric are more evident than ever, because we are witnessing first-hand what can happen when they are affected, at local, national and global levels. Disruptions to supply chains, closed borders and restricted freedom of movement are a few examples.”

 

Fragile health systems are likely to affect us no matter where they are found. It’s like a dyke. If the hole in the dyke is in front of your neighbour’s house it won’t matter. You will be deluged too. This is difficult for many of to comprehend. We are accustomed to live in a society where we think as long as we are secure in our own welfare we have nothing to fear. Many of us have started to understand how wrong that it. It’s a terrible platitude, but we actually are all in this together. For example, if our health care system were to get overwhelmed, we would all pay a huge price.

As Glassco said,

“Political borders may separate countries, but they are highly porous. We have seen that the impacts of a fragile health system in one country will inevitably spill into others — damaging the health of many and eventually the global economy.”

 

For example, a new virus appeared in far off China, and within weeks, the entire world was deluged with deadly cases of Covid-19. We were not immune. We are not an island. We are in this with everyone else. As Glassco said,

“We all now recognize how much healthy economies depend on healthy societies. Without a strong health system to help people recover and return to work, their economic contribution halts — both locally and globally — and the effect on global trade worsens.”

This is inevitable. We must act accordingly. Even capitalism cannot avoid this.