widdershins

Tao

Ron Hogan's paraphrase of the Tao Te Ching captures the spirit of the Chinese classic as pragmatic advice in a modern American vernacular. For the most part, the poetry is stripped away, which makes the wisdom and its applicability to our lives very clear. Thus, the more traditional translation of the beginning from Stephen Mitchell's famous edition:

"The Tao that can be named
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name."

becomes the earthy, Tarantino-esque

"If you can talk about it, it ain't Tao.
If it has a name, it's just another thing."

This version of the Tao is available under a Creative Commons license in several formats, including plain text, Palm format, or PDF suitable for printing and binding.
[via boing boing]

Spiritual cafeteria

The spiritual cafeteria is open. Jesse Walker's excellent article "Inside the Spiritual Jacuzzi: What JewBus, Unitarian Pagans, and the Hot Tub Mystery Religion tell us about traditional faiths" on Reason Online describes the Hot Tub Mystery Religion, Discordianism, and the myriad other neopaganisms as part of the modern evolution of religions that are ever-changing and adaptable. The extreme ease and speed of modification, and the cafeteria-style pick-and-choose from multiple traditions as people develop their own spiritual approaches are the distinctive features of contemporary religious development. Somewhere between fundamentalism and disbelief, this is the new middle ground in theology.

Merry Yuletide

Yule carols for singing during your Yule wreath observance.

Vatican: condoms spread AIDS

According to the Guardian, the Roman Catholic Church is now saying that condoms do not prevent the spread of HIV and do not prevent conception.

Sacred Texts

The Internet Sacred Text Archive contains major works of world religions, traditions, and mysteries. I found the books by Charles Fort and the Confucian classics especially interesting. Also of note is the so-called Internet Book of Shadows, a large collection of articles related to neo-paganism that have been circulating online via the Internet and through BBSs before that.

Islam quiz

How much do you know about Islam? asks the Beeb in this online quiz. I got 8/10.
[via Burnt Toast]

Sadhus, Holy Men of India

Sadhus, Holy Men of India renounce their friends, families, homes, possessions, and names and take up a life of devotion and ascetic practices. There are still 4-5 million of them in India today, including hundreds of foreigners.

Believers only have to 'behold' a sadhu -- as a kind of living idol -- to receive a spark of his spiritual energy. They give donations to the sadhus -- regarded as offerings to the gods -- and get their blessing in return. Thus, since time immemorial, has Indian society been organised to support the holy men, for they are not supposed to work.

[link courtesy of Love and the Happy Cynic]

Yezidi

Strange taboos, maligned as devil-worshippers, syncretic middle eastern religion of ancient origin, the people of the peacock angel.

See the great links on MetaFilter.