The Dalai, the Dinosaur, and the Tao

 The Dalai, The Dinosaur, and the Tao

Here are the last two paragraphs from a short essay I wrote after having the chance to listen to the Dalai Lama in Louisville, Kentucky on May 21, 2013. 

"At the root of the Dalai Lama’s understanding of the good life is a profoundly illiberal understanding of humanity. Where the modern liberal project is based on the Lockean and Hobbesian lie that everything rests on the autonomous individual, the Tibetan gave us a vision of humanity existing in families and in community with one another. He told the story of how his illiterate mother carried him on her back while she toiled in the fields and how he learned compassion through a deep and nearly constant communion with her.  A good life within the Tao sometimes requires us to carry others and sometimes to be carried as we attempt to make our way on this journey. We are never really autonomous and self-sustaining individuals. The very office of the Dalai Lama teaches just such an understanding as Buddhist believe he is the reincarnation of a soul who reached its journey but turned back to commune with those still suffering and striving.

"Perhaps we should not be surprised that the teachings of the Dalai Lama are so fully within “the way” that C. S. Lewis identified.  What is surprising is how much the undergirding vision of the man and his teachings are misunderstood by the post-moderns who admire him for lessons they don’t quite understand.  For the sake of the Tao itself, let us hope this 14^th incarnation of the Dalai Lama is not the last of his kind. For now, we Christians of the west should join in his teachings as we are all, despite our differences, either within the Tao or in the shadow lands beyond."

Thanks to the Drepung Gomang Institute and the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts for hosting the Dalai Lama and (Traci Simonsen) for inviting me to tag along.

The full essay can be found by going to:

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/the-dalai-the-tao-cs-lewis/#.UZ4WgIJ1Fyg

50,000 Words and Counting. . .

Its been a slow slog through a busy and wet spring in Kentucky, but this morning I finally pushed over the 50,000 word mark for my new novel, tentatively called "The Spear of Destiny" and while it is about a spear and lots of destinies, and THE Spear of Destiny itself, I am looking for a better title that seems less like a giant cliche.

The 50,000 word mark found my protagonists (Duncan and Molly) heading north in the back of a fake milk truck.  Mr. Cox has set up an elaborate diversion trying to send not only the Nazi enemy but lots of his own men following them toward Wales (though he turned unexpectedly and is taking the team north somewhere beyond the known Highlands of Scotland.) Another team was sent South to London with a hooded and gagged man Cox said was the Monk Belenos, but that holy man from Logres will show up soon and it won't be in London!

The story has cruised along until now at a pretty quick clip, but is about to burst forth with action, adventure and intense danger as the Nazis catch up with them and our protagonists get closer to the portal which leads not only into the land of Logres but into time itself.

That spear tip that pierced the side of our Christ in this world and that of the sacred stag in Logres must not be allowed to fall into the hands of Hitler!

Its about to get fun!
 

Pleased to have been asked to Join the work of Franklin's Opus

May 20, 2013

Contact: Stephen M. Klugewicz                                     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Phone: 856-803-1690

Email: sklugewicz@franklinsopus.org

Dr. Gary L. Gregg, II Joins Franklin’s Opus as a Senior Fellow

Franklin’s Opus is pleased to announce that Dr. Gary L. Gregg, II is now a Senior Fellow.  Dr. Gregg holds the Mitch McConnell Chair in Leadership at the University of Louisville and is director of the McConnell Center. He is the author or editor of ten books including The Presidential Republic, Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition and Securing Democracy—Why We Have an Electoral College. He is an award-winning teacher and has been the national director of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. He has a bachelor’s degree from Davis and Elkins College and a master’s degree and doctorate from Miami University (Ohio).

In being named a Senior Fellow of Franklin’s Opus, Dr. Gregg joins the ranks of scholars Dr. W.B. Allen, Gen. Josiah Bunting, III, Dr. Gordon Lloyd, Dr. Walter A. McDougall, and Dr. Colleen Sheehan.

Stephen M. Klugewicz, Ph.D., president of Franklin’s Opus, had this to say: “Franklin’s Opus is thrilled to have Gary Gregg as a Senior Fellow. Gary is not only an outstanding scholar and one of the foremost experts on the American presidency, but he is also a proven leader and a gifted educator. I am pleased to have the opportunity to draw upon his vast wisdom and expertise as Franklin’s Opus continues to educate teachers about American history and the principles of the American republic.”

Franklin’s Opus fosters the study of history and government among teachers, students, and the public through the use of cutting-edge scholarship and innovative pedagogical techniques. It is the goal of Franklin’s Opus to impart substantive content and to promote solid reasoning skills so that the people it serves can make their own judgments about the present and the past.