Peter Putnam

Peter Putnam

I was Peter’s student at The Union Theological Seminary, NYC, during the late 1960s. For me, he was life-changing.  Shaking and changing. Probably the best way to tell you about Peter is from this website, which is recent, no doubt by a student or someone who grasps his importance.  Pay special attention to his obit at Princeton and the video compilation of interviews of people who knew him, both right side, scroll down to the last items.

Although it does not show there now, I commented as follows at the forgoing video:

  • Amanda, thank you so very much for doing this labor of love and setting it forth for us / me to see and enjoy in such digestible manner. I was Peter’s student when he lectured at Union Theological Seminary. He held us riveted and was very popular with us students, although not with the faculty. FWIW, the shared experience of observer and observed is the observation. In Vedic literature this is called The Triple Thread. It is akin to an asymptotic ratio / proportion, as Greek geometers expressed it. That’s the point of contact, the h, as you physicists put it, and it is irreducibly ambiguous, not zero — I am a theologian and forget the exact word you used where I used ambiguous — just as you assert. Not of the same age (chronos) or sempiternal brilliance as Peter but of the same moment (kairos) and parallel array of interests was Gregory Bateson. Peter was / is a national / earth treasure. Someone has his papers and bio online now, thankfully! Might I assume that is you and / or your associates in this wonderful and learned appreciation of Peter’s labors?

Sharing the foregoing video with acquaintances, I commented:

  • Have fun.  This lady, Amanda Gefter, has done a wonderful service.  I made an appreciative and contentive comment, which is not showing now.
  • I was an highly appreciative student of Peter’s when Peter was an instructor at Union.  We students loved him, the faculty did not.  His tenure there was short in consequence.  One of those moments of being in the right place at the right time: Kairos time as contrasted with Chronos time vis-a-vis place and person.  The Church calls this phenomenon Providence.
  • A page dedicated to Peter is permanently at the top of Theological Geography.
  • A reality she does not grasp is Peter’s impulse for personal simplicity.  What he wanted to do could not be done without going very simple.  This illustrates an ancient and abiding truth: that liberty is achieved by taking out the garbage, not by adding to the household.  Amanda, the video maker, does not grasp this truth, yet.

This from Swami is in the realm where Peter walked:

Give up body attachment. Only then can you develop attachment toward the Atma. As you are endowed with a physical body, you have to discharge your duties diligently. However, do not be deluded with the feeling that this is permanent. All the physical relationships are like passing clouds and are subject to change. Truth alone is that which does not undergo change. A mother has four sons. The first son asks her for red colour juice, the second for green colour juice, the third for black colour juice and the fourth for white colour juice. Then what does the mother do? Being an intelligent mother, she pours the same juice in red, green, black and white colour glasses to satisfy her sons. Our bodies are like those glasses. We should not go by differences in bodies. We should realise the oneness of the spirit within. The cups and colours may be different but the juice (Atma) is the same in all.