All -isms End Up In

The Self Is Too Small An Object For Perpetual Enthusiasm.

I've Spent The Last 50 Years Or So Steeping Myself In The World's Religions, And I've Done My Homework. I've Gone To Each Of The World's Eight Great Religions And Sought Out The Most Profound Scholars I Could Find, And I've Apprenticed Myself To Them And Actually Practiced Each Faith.

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.

Plato Described Ordinary Life As Unthinking, Lived In A Dim Cave Of Shadowy Reflections, But Said That It Is Possible To Leave The Cave And See Things In Sunlit Clarity As They Actually Are.

...like A Magnetic Compass Turning North, I Always Tried To Head In The Direction Of The Better, Which Is The Direction To God. ...the Directions That Appeared To Lead Away From Christianity Led Me Deeper Into It.