The Tao Te Ching and the Upanishads are an integral part of the Eastern religions. Indigenous peoples value their elder wisdom traditions and their oral transmissions. The reality maps that weave our cosmologies are constantly updated by world events and the shifting spirit of an age, the shared mind-field, the Zeitgeist. Through becoming acquainted with the texts and the myths of the wisdom traditions, our students prepare their minds for the love of wisdom, philo-sophia. If we pass a strainer through the world's religions to lift out their conclusions about reality and how life should be lived, those conclusions begin to look like the winnowed wisdom of the human race.
Some courses address questions of power, disempowerment, and the human longing for liberation.
Others focus on the relationship between individual literary or historical texts and cultural patterns that affect us both directly and indirectly. We study literature not just to appreciate art or connect with our cultural roots but to understand the power of language and art to shape reality. Students are advised to choose classes from two different disciplines in fulfilling this requirement. The study of history and culture can be more than precise and honest scholarship or research. It can be experiential in that we might join the wisdom of the past with a fresh understanding of our lives and communities.