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On Our First Meeting
I am excited to be embarking on this project with the folks I spoke with in our first gathering and look forward to meeting the rest, or to re-meeting them in this context. For me, the opportunity to stretch and have unexpected conversations is most welcome. Bharat noted (paraphrasing here) that with other philosophers of his sub-field he might have wonderful conversations, but they are predictable ones. This is my feeling exactly, I want to be able to think and speak in ways that I have been socialized away from within my own little world of religious studies/Japan studies/Buddhist studies/history. People talked about their personal connections to their work, this also interests me greatly – the reasons we study what we do and the implications and ramifications of these yearnings or proddings. What changes as we recognize/reveal/expose these motivations?
Some people identified their religious orientations (or non). I did not, not because I was keeping this private but because the opportunity did not arise. I will say that I could address the question in many different ways and want to emphasize that my self-revelation here is provisional and incomplete. Anyhow, Buddhist-Shaivite-Jew might do well to explain some of my leanings in terms of culture, thought, and practice – and in no way respectively.

Anyhow, I am very excited for our conversations and expect to learn a great deal in dialogue with all of these good folks.