Some People Simply Bury Their Heads In

Nirvana Is Something Within You. It Is Not An External Reality. No God Thunders Down From The Mountaintop. Just As The Great Mystics In The Christian, Jewish And Muslim Faiths All Discovered, God Is Within The Self. God Is Virtually Inseparable From Ourselves.

Compassion Is The Key In Islam And Buddhism And Judaism And Christianity. They Are Profoundly Similar.

Theology Is-- Or Should Be-- A Species Of Poetry,which Read Quickly Or Encountered In A Hubbub Of Noise Makes No Sense. You Have To Open Yourself To A Poem With A Quiet, Receptive Mind, In The Same Way You Might Listen To A Difficult Piece Of Music... If You Seize Upon A Poem And Try To Extort Its Meaning Before You Are Ready, It Remains Opaque. If You Bring Your Own Personal Agenda To Bear Upon It, The Poem Will Close Upon Itself Like A Clam, Because You Have Denied Its Unique And Separate Identity, Its Inviolate Holiness.

I Learned A Lot From Both, Initially Jewish And Muslim Theologians That Had Been Missing, Perhaps From My Rather Parochial Catholic Upbringing.

I Have A Very Sharp Tongue, I'm Very Impatient, And It's A Lifelong Struggle.