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If some pious persons raise the head in prayer, others lower it. If many Christians let their knees go down to the floor, some Muhammedan dervishes bring theirs up to the chest. If Catholics and Protestants sit on benches or chairs during church service, Greek Orthodox congregations stand during their service. Hindus and Buddhists squat cross-legged in meditation, but Indian Jains stand. All these outward forms have been shaped by tradition and so historically: fanatical insistence on them misses the point--what is going on in their minds and hearts. Not only the facts revealed by the studies of comparative religion and comparative mysticism show up the silliness of fanaticism, but even more the correct understanding of those facts.

-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge > Chapter 6 : Philosophy and Religion > # 21