On Being with Krista Tippett

Something new is upon us and yet nothing is ever new. We are alive in a fearsome time and we have been given new things to fear. We've been delivered huge blows but also huge opportunities to reinforce or reinvent our will depending on where we look for honor and how we name our enemies. The easiest thing is to think of returning the blows. But there are other things we must think about as well, other dangers we face. A careless way of careening across the earth and breaking open its treasures. A terrible dependency on sucking out the world's best juices for ourselves--these may also be our enemies. The changes we dread most may contain our salvation.

My class went on a hike the other day. We climbed to the top of a mountain and I shouted, "Hello!" I heard a voice call back, "Hello!" It sounded just like my voice, only far away. My teacher said the sound I heard was an echo. It was fun to hear our own voices. We kept calling out and the sound from space kept calling back. I wonder what God's voice sounds like. Is it deep and gruff? Is it soft and gentle? Is it loud or quiet? I think God keeps calling out. And maybe we are the sound that calls back. Maybe people are God's echo.

No dad, ask the questions. Ask the questions. I want to talk.

My class went on a hike the other day. We climbed to the top of a mountain and I shouted, Hello, I heard a voice call back. Hello, it sounded just like my voice only far away. My teacher said the sound I heard was an echo. It was fun to hear our own voices. We kept calling out and the sound from space kept calling back. I wonder what God's voice sounds like. Is it deep and gruff? Is it soft and gentle? Is it loud or quiet? I think God keeps calling out. And maybe we are the sound that calls back. Maybe people are God's echo.

One night he read and he decided to read this book. And he decided to leave out the questions because he felt that we take too long. And it would be too long a bedtime. Because we're always on a schedule. And the child stopped him in the middle and said, No dad asked the questions. Ask the questions. I want to talk.

When I listened to God, I listened with my heart. I hear trees swaying with their leaves. God is all around. I hear people praying from Australia to Peru. I hear voices coming up, "No more." I hear the love of people.

Here's a prayer she included in her Sabbath prayer book, The Voice of Children, which was crafted by students at Orhadosh congregation in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. When I listened to God, I listened with my heart. I hear trees swaying with their leaves. God is all around. I hear people praying from Australia to Peru. I hear voice coming up, no more. I hear the love of people.

This is a description of yours that Taoism is at once magical technology, textual philosophy, self cultivation, medical practice and collective rituals.

Eddington wrote a wonderful book called Space Time and Gravitation, which is, of course, all about Einstein.

Eddington wrote a wonderful book called Space Time and Gravitation, which is, of course, all about Einstein. That was one of my father's books. So I probably got it there.

last night I had high food. I live not far from the takeaway Bangkok gardens.

I managed to track down a copy of his book The Meaning of Relativity in my mid teens.

I have to say it's not a very good book.

There are many other ways of learning relativity.

And that one is not an easy one.

But nevertheless, I struggled through it.

I managed to track down a copy of his book The Meaning of Relativity in my mid teens.

I have to say it's not a very good book.

There are many other ways of learning relativity.

But nevertheless, I struggled through it.

the historic devotion to freedom by black American leaders...prepared him for embracing the Buddhist Dharma as the most revolutionary and civilized of possible human choices. As the logical extension of King's dream of the beloved community and Du Bois' vision of what the world could be if it was really a beautiful world.

were not for the Buddha Dharma. I'm convinced that as a black American and an artist, I would not have been able to successfully negotiate my last half century of life in this country or at least not with a high level of creative productivity working in a spirit of metta toward all sentient beings and selfless service to others, which in my teens were ideals I decided I valued more than anything else.

And who is a practicing Buddhist. He's always can give me a sense of that moral, you know, compass that I'm trying to follow.

In a book called Turning the Wheel, essays on Buddhism and writing, he writes that the historic devotion to freedom by black American leaders, prepared him for embracing the Buddhist Dharma as the most revolutionary and civilized of possible human choices.

were not for the Buddha Dharma. I'm convinced that as a black American and an artist, I would not have been able to successfully negotiate my last half century of life in this country or at least not with a high level of creative productivity working in a spirit of meta toward all sentient beings and selfless service to others, which in my teens were ideals I decided I valued more than anything else.

He remains a globally influential revolutionary Islamist writer today.

Ed Hussein calls Kutub's Milestones, the communist manifesto of Islamism.

There, he first read the work of the post-colonial Egyptian author, Sayed Kutub, an original ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood. In his books, including Milestones, Kutub presented a politically radical and religiously pure-it-in-reading of Islamic history and of the Quran.

Ed Hussein calls Kutub's Milestones, the communist manifesto of Islamism.

Ed Hussein has been compared to Ion Hersi Ali, the Somali-born former Dutch parliamentarian whose own memoir The Infidel details her traumas as a Muslim woman growing up in Africa.

Ed Hussein has been compared to Ion Hersi Ali, the Somali-born former Dutch parliamentarian whose own memoir The Infidel details her traumas as a Muslim woman growing up in Africa.

I had discovered the obbys and omnis of the ancient Egyptian Desert back in graduate school, and had found them a wonderful antidote to the academic ethos that I was having to write my dissertation

And one Saturday when it was just unbearable and it was about three o'clock in the afternoon which was about two hours later than Richard had said he would be home, I was sitting there on the couch and ringing my hands in anguish with the dry mouth and stomach ache and all of a sudden the obbas from the agent doesn't start saying to me, Robert, we have something to say to you and I said shut up and leave me alone. I'm worried and they said, Oh no come on now come on listen I'm worrying leave me alone and finally I said, All right all right what do you have to say and they said to me well now you know that the main thing we're doing out here in the desert is prayer and you spent a lot of time studying us and working on us and you might consider whether this might be something for you and I said to them, Oh come on now look I am a rational reasonable woman and I'm an academic and this is what's your suggesting just is not really for me.

And the answer to that was, Oh, you might also consider as part of this that you have put Richard into the place of God for you.

So that's okay all right all right I'll try it I'll try it so I went that at that point I went out and got well first I let Richard come home and and yelled at him a little bit and then I went out and got a book that had a pattern of prayer and it was similar to what was used in the early church and that was what started me on my discipline of prayer.

And then when the timer goes off say thank you very much God that was very enjoyable and then go and do something else and that after a while that's a way of learning that God is a safe person to be with and you know maybe it takes six months maybe it takes two years maybe it takes ten years God's got plenty of time and we're not doing this because we're want to be good people or we're following a command but because we're made to long for God and it's for our own well being and happiness and so we find it for that reason not because we ought to.

I had discovered the obbys and omnis of the ancient Egyptian Desert back in graduate school, and had found them a wonderful antidote to the academic ethos that I was having to write my dissertation

The Desert Fathers and Mothers were free spirited and spoke always from the depth of their hearts, to the depth of their disciples' hearts.

And one Saturday when it was just unbearable and it was about three o'clock in the afternoon which was about two hours later than Richard had said he would be home, I was sitting there on the couch and ringing my hands in anguish with the dry mouth and stomach ache and all of a sudden the obbas from the agent doesn't start saying to me, Robert, we have something to say to you and I said shut up and leave me alone. I'm worried and they said, Oh no come on now come on listen I'm worrying leave me alone and finally I said, All right all right what do you have to say and they said to me well now you know that the main thing we're doing out here in the desert is prayer and you spent a lot of time studying us and working on us and you might consider whether this might be something for you and I said to them, Oh come on now look I am a rational reasonable woman and I'm an academic and this is what's your suggesting just is not really for me.

Oh, you might also consider as part of this that you have put Richard into the place of God for you.

And then when the timer goes off say thank you very much God that was very enjoyable and then go and do something else and that after a while that's a way of learning that God is a safe person to be with and you know maybe it takes six months maybe it takes two years maybe it takes ten years God's got plenty of time and we're not doing this because we're want to be good people or we're following a command but because we're made to long for God and it's for our own well being and happiness and so we find it for that reason not because we ought to.

One is called Jesus. What he really said and did.

One is called Jesus. What he really said and did.

Well, I would love that. You're such a good interview. It would be a great privilege for me to talk with you about that.