A Moslem-Buddhist synthesis;
codified by the Prophet Subotai;
one temple, the Prophet's Tower, in the one city;
it is a red pagoda, two kilometers high;
the Prophet's words in Sino-Cyrillic script on the northern wall;
Flandry feels awe:
"A stupendous will had raised that spire above these plains." (II, p. 347) (For full reference, see here.)
That reminded me of a passage in the Time Patrol series. When Keith Denison sees the "Christian ziggurat" that has replaced Notre Dame in the alpha timeline, he asks:
"What ambition had replaced the lovely Gothic with this?"
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), Part Six, p. 286.
And who would try to synthesize Islam with Buddhism? My neighbours pray. I meditate. It is possible to practice both prayer and meditation but not to synthesize prophetic monotheism with Buddhist metaphysics. I suspect that the "synthesis" is an incorporation of Buddhist elements into a theistic tradition.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I too have puzzled over how there could be a "synthesizing" of Islam with Buddhism, considering how different they are from each other.
Sean
Paul and Sean:
Frank Herbert's Dune used the Islam/Buddhism notion, too: the Fremen people were "Zensunni." For that matter, an appendix to Dune mentioned "Mahayana Christianity, Zensunni Catholicism, and Buddislamic traditions..." Zensunni who're also Catholic?!
It's worth noting that Herbert and Anderson were on good enough terms that one of the Dune sequels has a scene of the God Emperor asking a young lady if she's read the philosophy of Noah Arkwright. And a biography of one important character is mentioned as having been written by one "Pander Oulson."
David,
Herbert merely presents names for implausible syntheses. No detailed discussion. I argue that everything in Asimov, Herbert, Star Trek or Star Wars - and more - is done better by Anderson.
Paul.
Kaor, DAVID and Paul!
I should have remembered that! That is, Herbert suggesting a synthesizing of Buddhism with Islam, implausible as that is. To say nothing of how, thousands of years before DUNE, there was a Butlerian Jihad against "thinking machines." That too is suggestive of Islam. But I don't recall any mention mention of ORTHODOX Catholicism in the DUNE books, except the vaguely mentioned "Zensunni Catholicism," which brings up speculations about a weird mix of Catholicism, Zen Buddhism, and Sunni Islam.
Was Catholicism persecuted and driven underground? The very mention of "Mahayana Christianity" and "Zensunni Catholicism" makes me think some Christians tried to take on "protective coloration" by pretending to take on beliefs more palatable to the ruling authorities.
Very cool, that Herbert and Anderson were on friendly enough terms that the former threw in a mention of NOAH ARKWRIGHT.
Paul, and the only time we see religion being mentioned or used in the three original FOUNDATION books was the truly ludicrous and absurd "Religion of Science" worshiping the Galactic Spirit cooked up by Salvor Hardin.
Sean
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