I love these coincidences -- they seem to be inspirations for blog entries for most of us. Last night I read Kurt's interesting post and the thought-provoking exchange between Kurt Brobeck and Dave Rogers about the Slate article by John Horgan on Buddhism.

This morning, I grabbed The Portable Beat Reader for a quick read and opened to Gary Snyder. One page later, here's what I found. An extensive quote is a lazy way of participating in the conversation, but I thought the coincidence was interesting. (Yes, we know scientifically that coincidences like these are statistically expected, just as we know that the mind is an emergent property --cf the Slate article -- but if we take that too far we find that meaning is an emergent property, and we're lost in meaningless[!] paradox.) I found Gary's writing exciting as coincidence at first, then sloppy as I typed it, and then more relevant as I reasoned with it. Anyway, here's Gary Snyder from p. 305 of The Portable Beat Reader:

Note on the Religious Tendencencies

This religiosity is primarily one of practice and personal experience, rather than theory. The statement commonly heard in some circles, "All religions lead to the same goal," is the the result of fantastically sloppy thinking and no practice. It is good to remember that all religions are nine-tenths fraud and are responsible for numerous social evils.

Within the Beat Generation you find three things going on:
1. Vision and illumination-seeking. This is most easily done by systematic experimentation with narcotics. ... These are sometimes supplemented by dips into yoga technique, alcohol, and Subud. Although a good deal of personal insight can obtained by the intelligent use of drugs, being high all the time leads nowhere because it lacks intellect, will,and compassion; and a personal drug kick is of no use to anyone else in the world.
2. Love, respect for life, abandon, Whitman, pacifism, anarchism, etc. This comes out of various traditions including Quakers, Shinshu Buddhism, Sufism. And from a loving and open heart. At its best this state of mind has led people to actively resist war, start communities, and try to love one another. It is also partly responsible for the mystique of "angels", the glorification of skidroad and hitch-hiking, and a kind of mindless enthusiasm. If it respects life, it fails to respect heartless wisdom and death; and this is a shortcoming. [This point #2 seems sloppy to me, but it's mainly a hit against pollyannish New-Agey participation.]
3. Discipline, aesthetics, and tradition. This was going on well before the Beat Generation got into print. It differs from the "All is one" stance in that its practitioners settle on one traditional religion, try to absorb the feel of its art and history, and carry out whatever ascesis is required. One should become an Aimu bear-dancer or a Yurok shaman as well as a Trappist monk, if he put himself to it. What this bit often lacks is what 2 and 3 have, i.e. real commitment to the stewpot of the world and real insight into the vision-lands of the unconscious.
The startling conslusion is that if a person cannot comprehend all three of thes aspects--contemplation (and not by use of drugs), morality (which usually means social protest to me), and wisdom--in his beat life, he just won't make it. But even so he may get pretty far out, and that's probably better than moping arond classrooms or writing books on Buddhism and Happiness for the masses, as the squares (who will shortly have succeeded in putting us all down) do.