this chapter argues that there is some traction between an ontology of nature1 based on the reality of law and chance in nature, on the one hand, and a metaphysics of ultimacy,2 on the other. Contrary to the strategy of traditional natural theology, which aims at direct entailment from aspects of an ontology of nature to theories of ultimacy, the traction i speak of has only the limited effect ...

The story of the ox and oxherd, separate at first, but united in the realization of the inner unity of all existence, is an old Taoist story, updated and modified by a twelfth century Chinese Buddhist master to explain the path to enlightenment. The ox symbolizes the ultimate, undivided reality, the Buddha-nature, which is the ground of all existence. The oxherd symbolizes the self, who initial...