David B. Hart's book

- Discovery, Peter Max

Reading about David Bentley Hart's book, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss at Religion Dispatches: Do Intelligent People Need Religion?. I'm not sure if I'll buy it ... on the one hand, I find strange his obsession with defeating atheism, but on the other hand, from some of what I read about the book, he spends time on what matters to me about religion: experience. Here's a bit from the review ...

Religion reminds us that, “we labor to forget what is laid out before us in every moment,” and spend, “much of our lives wandering in dreams, in a deep but fitful sleep.” The Experience of God focuses on three mysteries that lie at the heart of every person’s experience of the world. These mysteries are summed up in the phrase, Satchitananda, or Being, Consciousness, Bliss—the Hindu name for the experience of God.

Earnest reflection upon reality, Hart says, will always leads us to an experience of wonder; we can’t help but be amazed, if we consider it carefully enough, that anything exists at all. This wonder doesn’t concern how one physical state arose out of another physical state through material causes, it’s the awareness that existence is a gift we receive in every instant.

Below is a video of Hart talking about his book. One word he mentions is 'Satchitananda' and when I heard that, my first thought was of the yogi, Satchidananda :) ...

Satchidananda Saraswati (December 22, 1914 – August 19, 2002), born as C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder, was an Indian religious teacher, spiritual master and yoga adept .... in 1966 he visited New York City at the request of the artist Peter Max. Soon after his initial visit, Satchidananda formally moved to the United States and eventually became a citizen. From his new home he spread his teachings of yoga, selfless service, ecumenism and enlightenment.

But I digress. Here's the video ...