and i love hinduism. i studied hinduism. i'm one of the strange christians who was taken by the time to study of the faith and every major faith has this ideal thatle hinduism embodies this i get multiple infinite possibilities when to bringit people together. christie and has a credible things about judaism. one of the high holidays of judaism has -- my house be a house of prayer for many nations. the ideals of our faith in the faith traditions of america preaching these things. but the point i'm making is, the onus should not be on someone who often faces discrimination. a woman, lgbtq american to cost would be the one kind of push the bounds of understanding, it's on the rest of us. i get -- in the beginning of this campaign i get these absurd question come to think donald trump is a racist? i'm just like god bless america. this is -- [laughing] this is like, come on. the question is not somebody or somebody not a racist. the most important question is does racism exist? if the answer is yes then becomes to the real quest

and also -- [applause] and also bring attention to one of the second-largest religious groups is hinduismthat is my faith. my question is you are such a uniter and you talk about inclusion that rings true to my heart so how should i the day i feel that i need to shed my skin and i need to shed my state and i need to shed my heritage in order to be included in the current society we are in. how can you address people who look like me and who follow my face and who are [inaudible] to serve our community here? what is your answer? this is an auspicious week for us, the festival of [inaudible] which is a focus of peace, prosperity and coming together, the celebration. thank you. >> it's an important question for us right now at this moment in our society. i love doing my studies on hindus and i'm a strange christian who is taking time to study other faiths in every major fate has is ideal that hinduism embodies this idea of multiple infinite possibilities when you bring people together. and christianity has a credible things about judaism and one of the songs sung during the high holidays of

most notably with hinduism. i will have more to say about this. chart were to do a summarizing what are ideas that transcendentalism, it would include these. first of all, -- and this is not necessarily in order of priority , but, a desire to conceive of new ways of thinking about the human condition. a new sense of wonder, of excitement, and challenge about -- knowing the universe and everything in it. this is something -- in many ways, this is stated explicitly in the writings. somebody like emerson, this is something that comes fairly clear to me. thingsse of wonder at was really quite exciting. it also entails a quest for new and more authentic types of spiritual experience and spiritual growth. the argument being that at that point, unitarianism, so to speak, was running out of spiritual energy. along with a desire to expand spiritual knowledge -- and this also included assumptions about the fundamental unity of mind and of the world. this is something -- this idea is a very -- is very basic to emerson's thought. there was a strong emphasis o

[laughter] i like to take whether it's threads from product to statism and catholicism but also hinduismther traditions that speak to me, i follow that that pathway. >> what strikes me between the time that we spoke in 2014 here in chautauqua, and now, it's not that many years but it's been a really tortuous moment of great shift, culturally and something that strikes me that i don't think i saw in the same way when we spoke before, your mother and grandmother catholic, your mother in fact was a former nun for a little while. your great-grandmother was baptist. your birth father was lutheran, your father who raised he was jewish. and white. what i see at large now is you straddle so many american device. not just black and white but south and north. there's alabama, there chicago, there's princeton, there's the religious and intellectual polarization and there is kind of a multiclass identity, which is really extraordinary in a moment like this. there's some words of james baldwin at the beginning of your book which you named after these words of his, more beautiful and more terrible the

most notably with hinduism. i will have more to say about this in a bit. >> so, if one were to do a little chart summarizing what other ideas are central or that were basic to transcendentalism, it would include in these, first of all and this is not necessarily in order of priority, the desire to conceive of new ways of thinking about the human condition and along with that a new sense of wonder, of excitement and challenge about knowing the universe and everything in it. this is something i think that in many ways this is stated explicitly in the writings but particularly someone like emerson, this is something that comes fairly clear to me. there is a sense of wonder at things. it was really quite exciting. it also entailed a quest for new and more authentic types of spiritual experience and spiritual growth. again the argument being that at that point unitarianism so to speak was running out of spiritual energy. along with the desire to expand your full knowledge and this also included assumptions about the