Did you see what I am "writing" these days? Do you think it's a good idea to write down my thoughts? I lost so many of them earlier while I was driving. I listened to lectures on Hinduism and Judaism after Shostakovich. I truly enjoyed Hinduism, because it is closer to what I have experienced, and it is also very poetic. The passage I cited from pre-Hinduism, the Rig Veda, is more a poem than a "Bible". I especially love the first line (Then was neither non-existence nor existence) and the last few line (he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows it not). I was going to write a little commentary for this. From the little I learned, I came to know that both Hinduism and Judaism have complicated and specific rules and laws telling people how to live their lives. Interesting. But I suppose since there is no real preferred way to live a physical life, it should not matter much if one follows the strict rules. The part I like about Hinduism is the many many god and goddess in their religion. The people understand that God has many faces, therefore the more images and varieties of god they create, the less one will attach a specific image to the true Being which cannot be named, described, imagined. This is why the Christian God is the least satisfying, because it not only has a gender, a conventional image, but also a personality, and his concept is so concrete.

It is so interesting now to think about religions. I would like to learn more about different religions, mythologies (Campbell is now my hero), and perhaps some philosophy (but philosophy is so much like science!). Of the few that I am thinking about right now, the Judaism religion seems the most limited, because it has one god, and one chosen people. Next comes the Christian religion, with its one god (Catholic cannot even talk directly to this one god, right? I wonder how they can endure that.) The Hinduism religion is quite open, because they recognize the many manifestations of god, so everything can be god, probably even the Christian god. Then in Taoism, there is no god, no supreme being, but only nature, so there is no artificial "god". I don't know where to put Buddhism (and Zen), in which there is nothing, not even nature, not even self, not even Buddhism itself. The more broad, the more open, the more accepting, the more natural "religion" or "attitude", should be the closer to Truth. Hmm, I have a book of Mayan "bible" and it might be fun to read it and compare to others. And there are the Greeks, the Muslim, and some others...

I didn't intend to write this long. You see, once I start to think and write, I cannot stop. I will put these letters in my blog.

-- email to JA.