All Transmitters to Full! All Receivers to Boost!

And we're live with American Dharma!

What is American Dharma you may ask? Well, like it or not, religion is an integral part of America from our founding to our very existance today. From the Anglicanism and Deism of our founding fathers to the Pluralism, Evangelicalism and even the Atheism mixture in our present society. I chose to use the word "Dharma" instead of Religion (and not just because I study things on the East side!) because a) the very word "religion" leaves a nasty taste in many people's mouths b) Religion is not exclusive in and of itself (or "sui generis" as the theorist Mircea Eliade once claimed) and c) because Dharma is meant as an ultimate overlying truth. Though I cannot comment on the kind of Truth with a capital T the Hindu Rishis really meant, I can say this: the "truth" is that love it or not, religion (and the absence thereof) and all of its implications is a fact of American life and religious ideas, rituals, and symbolism, interplay with our everyday lives.

Jack Kerouac once dreamed and wrote of an "American Dharma", which is now recorded in a collection of his journals on his Buddhist meditations and writings called Some of The Dharma. He dreams of uniquely American sages and figures, creating uniquely American Buddhist texts and sutras. Although Kerouac's dream of an American Buddhist wonderland did not quite come to fruitition the way that he hoped, one thing is true in my mind, and it is this: there is a uniquely interesting way in which "American Dharma" is different than religious expression in any other country in the world. Perhaps it is our puritanical beginnings, our mixed salad society (I'm ever wary of the term "melting pot"), or the great expanse of land where each region holds different customs and traditions. Perhaps its all of this.

All I can know for sure is that the American Dharma is ever expanding, ever changing, ever developing, and ever encompassing the different aspects of our everyday lives and love it or loath it, it is there and it effects each and every person who calls themselves an American.

So please, sit back and enjoy watching the American Dharma unfold. All transmitters to full. All receivers to boost. Forget London-- this is America calling. American Dharma is live and running!