herman melville in  jerusalem

i was thinking that advaita, zen and religion generally were like melville's experience of jerusalem

all the gloss of a lot of history and the associations and stories in the bible, but the reality is an unattractive arid city with alot of stone, muggers and petty thieves ; O)

and
actually

the

heartless

brutality

if

you

can

see

it

:

o

)