Sat, 26 Feb 2000

Exoteric, not esoteric

Thank you very much for publishing my article Spirituality differs from religiosity (The Jakarta Post, Feb. 24, 2000). I was worried that you would think that I misspelled the word exoteric, and it seems that you did.

Exoteric is the opposite of esoteric. Exoteric means "outer" or mythical, while esoteric means "hidden" mystical. Hence, this is to correct the second last paragraph of the article that should have read: "What we desperately need is not a religion, but a spiritual movement based on a perennial philosophy -- perennial means universal -- that transcends all the tremendously varying exoteric or mythical aspects of religions."

RAHAYU RATNANINGSIH

Jakarta