"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."

        In Zen in the Art of Rhetoric: An Inquiry into Coherence, I developed an approach to rhetorical inquiry and expression that combines Western, Eastern and African centered theories of language to define rhetoric as a capacity to integrate diverse conceptions of identity and difference.  My approach brought together classical Western rhetoric with Eastern spirituality and Afrocentric thought, drawing upon disciplines as diverse as poetry, epistemology, physics and sociology to offer of vision of rhetoric motivated by a respect for language, each other and ourselves:  a vision of Rhetorical Coherence.

     Rhetorical Coherence transforms what we know about the limits and possibilities of discourse.  It recognizes the limits of adversarial language to reconcile differences and its complicity in the social and material dominance sustained by systems of education, law, politics and religion.   Rhetorical Coherence reflects a shift in how we think, talk about, and engage in communication with each other and ourselves, and eclipses traditional approaches to communication which focus on what we know by also exploring how we know. Rhetorical Coherence, through disciplined and focused practice ameliorates the anxieties, blocks and fears that inhibit quality communication, and poses the critical question:  what is the value of freedom of expression if we cannot speak for ourselves?"

    The answer to that question for many has been found in the Way of the Rhetorical Warrior. Follow The Path to learn more about this Way to rhetorical excellence and eloquence.