[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Curt Steinmetz]

Richard Hayes wrote:
> I have no idea what New Age religion is supposed to be. 

Just five minutes ago I picked up and started reading "Secular 
Spirituality: Reincarnation and Spiritism in Nineteenth Century France" 
by Lynn L. Sharp. Spiritism preceded Spiritualism which preceded 
Theosophy. Along the way there were also Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism and 
of course even before those there was Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, etc. 
Quietism, Quakerism, Shakerism and Pacifism also spring up from this 
same fertile ground - and all these roots are intertwined.

"New Age religion" is simply what religion looks like when people are 
allowed to think whatever they please. Much of it is unedifying in the 
extreme, but the messiness of spiritual anarchism is much to be 
preferred over the alternatives proposed by those who like their 
spiritual trains to run on time.

For the moment I have decided to drop everything else and just read Lynn 
Sharp's fascinating book, along with Gregory Evans Dowd's "A Spirited 
Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815".

"Secular Spirituality" by Lynn Sharp at googlebooks:
http://tinyurl.com/8g4gpb

"Spirited Resistance" by Gregory Evans Dowd at amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/74betf

"Birth, death, rebirth and progress without end, this is the law."
Allan Kardec (1804-1869)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Kardec

Curt