Odds and ends (free post)

A new Substack recommendation, a young hermit in the Kentucky boondocks, and an article on why Buddhism is no more "scientific" than any other tradition

Most of you are aware — if not readers — of my brother Ben’s (a.k.a. David Bentley Hart) Leaves in the Wind Substack page. My other brother, Robert, has also recently started his own page. Whereas Ben’s is all about baseball, with occasional side interests thrown in for good measure, and mine is focused on techniques of needlepoint, Bob’s page is comparatively highbrow stuff. It’s called The Musical Platypus, for reasons he explains in his initial post, and — as the title suggests — it’s all about music. Not just music, but all sorts of music. He is well-qualified to expound and, for the benefit of his readers, mine the myriad mysteries of musicology (my prose style owes a lot to Stan Lee), and I sincerely think some of you will find his page of interest. I’m expecting great things. You can check it out here, and the first few posts are free to read:

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Peter Santenello has a fascinating travel channel on YouTube. I recommend looking through his line-up of videos. He takes his viewers to places most of us haven’t visited, both in America and abroad, and introduces us to the people who live there. Educational, occasionally inspiring and sometimes disheartening, every video is absorbing and thought-provoking.

Below is a visit he paid to Titus Morris, a very young man who lives a happy hermit existence in Kentucky. Morris is intelligent, articulate, and profoundly spiritual. He’s a living reminder that there are still those, following in the footsteps of Thoreau and others, who don’t “keep pace” with society’s status quo because they hear “a different drummer.” There’s something a little romantic about Morris, and maybe he’s a bit naive (as I said, he’s young). Some of us may find his brand of religion and his political views not to our liking. But he’s so affable and well-adjusted that I certainly give those minor matters a pass. I have no problem with his assertion that God “told” him to do this or that, and no compelling reason to doubt that he could have heard God’s “still, small voice.” I would like to see where he is ten, twenty, thirty years from now; hopefully, he will have gained even more wisdom, but not strayed too far from his current steadying principles.

Santenello describes the video this way: “Deep in the woods of rural Appalachia is a man that lives alone on his land. He grows his own food, has no government ID, his overhead is $140 a month, and he possesses a claimed happiness by being free from the system, inspired by faith. Join me as we travel into the sticks of Kentucky to dive into the fascinating world of Titus Morris.”

I think you’ll enjoy it.

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Lastly, some of you may be as fed up as I am with those silly claims that Buddhism is unique among the faith traditions by not, ahem, being a “faith tradition” (which it most certainly is — and that’s certainly not to its discredit). Nor is it “a philosophy but not a religion”; nor is it uniquely “scientific” and “empirical.” I am very fond of Buddhism, as I am of all the faith traditions, and find in the variety of “spiritualities” endless resources of enlightening perspectives. What I don’t like is the “mine is better than yours” games that certain adherents (some of whom are smart enough to know better) in every tradition like to play, frequently with an uncharitableness that sinks to the level of arrogance and manifest stupidity; unappealingly, it’s played by Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and — as I saw just today in an article on “Medium” — Hindus. It’s tiresome, it’s non-productive, and it’s almost always built on misconceptions (I won’t say outright lies) about other traditions — which just a modicum of earnest study would suffice to correct — and overweening confidence in the specialness of one’s own. For me, it’s a non-starter. There’s nothing wrong with noting differences and variety, but there’s a lot wrong with assertions of superiority.

Regarding the doubtful claim (unsupported by history, incidentally) that Buddhism is especially “scientific,” indeed verifiable by “science,” I offer this excellent book review to the contrary. That it comes from “The Secular Buddhist Network” is particularly gratifying.

You can read it by clicking here.