The PARABOLA SUMMER 2011 Issue has sprouted! FOCUS | From the Editor THIS SUMMER 2011 issue of PARABOLA explores the universal rhythms of giving and receiving.      We know that life is a gift. How do we receive it? The exceptional man who opens our Giving & Receiving issue, Gregory Boyle, chose the path of a Jesuit priest—or did the path choose him?—and now tends the souls of gang members on the hardest streets of Los Angeles. The issue begins with a powerful excerpt from the priest’s memoir, TATTOOS OF THE HEART, followed by an in-depth conversation with “Father G.”      Other contributors to this issue respond to the gift of life in varying ways. Mary Oliver writes poems that celebrate nature and speak to our inner-most self; we are proud to offer four new poems from her here. Joseph Bruchac, one of PARABOLA’S founding contributors, returns with a rewarding meditation on American Indian Giving that reflects his deep experience and knowledge. Another contributing editor, Margo McLoughlin, translates Jataka tales from the original Pali, enriching our treasury of wisdom stories about the Buddha, as in this issue’s “The Antelope Birth,” a charming story of unexpected mutual support and friendship.      And then there is Wavy Gravy, the legendary trickster whose entire life seems both gift and myth. Interviewed here by our West Coast editor Richard Whittaker, he reveals that, like many of us, he finds giving easy enough, but receiving is for him a “work in progress.”      Why is receiving so difficult? Joshua Boettiger, a rabbi, approaches that question in an essay that ties in God, Moses, and Bob Dylan; it is our vulnerability, he explains, that makes us wary of receiving.      Even so, to be alive means to constantly receive—impressions, food, ­energies—and to unceasingly give as well. We are each a facet of Indra’s net, connected to everyone around us, and every breath, every gesture, every thought resonates in some way, for good or for ill, serving either, as Gregory Boyle puts it, the so-called “Real World” or “The Kingdom of God.” For just as there is exchange on this earthly level, there is giving and receiving between levels, both Higher and lower, as evidenced by numerous contributors here. As William Segal writes in this issue’s ARCS: Giving, receiving,Transmitting, transforming,Man’s body mediatesEnergies on every level. —Jeff Zaleski From parabola-magazine.

The PARABOLA SUMMER 2011 Issue has sprouted!

FOCUS | From the Editor

THIS SUMMER 2011 issue of PARABOLA explores the universal rhythms of giving and receiving.

     We know that life is a gift. How do we receive it? The exceptional man who opens our Giving & Receiving issue, Gregory Boyle, chose the path of a Jesuit priest—or did the path choose him?—and now tends the souls of gang members on the hardest streets of Los Angeles. The issue begins with a powerful excerpt from the priest’s memoir, TATTOOS OF THE HEART, followed by an in-depth conversation with “Father G.”

     Other contributors to this issue respond to the gift of life in varying ways. Mary Oliver writes poems that celebrate nature and speak to our inner-most self; we are proud to offer four new poems from her here. Joseph Bruchac, one of PARABOLA’S founding contributors, returns with a rewarding meditation on American Indian Giving that reflects his deep experience and knowledge. Another contributing editor, Margo McLoughlin, translates Jataka tales from the original Pali, enriching our treasury of wisdom stories about the Buddha, as in this issue’s “The Antelope Birth,” a charming story of unexpected mutual support and friendship.

     And then there is Wavy Gravy, the legendary trickster whose entire life seems both gift and myth. Interviewed here by our West Coast editor Richard Whittaker, he reveals that, like many of us, he finds giving easy enough, but receiving is for him a “work in progress.”

     Why is receiving so difficult? Joshua Boettiger, a rabbi, approaches that question in an essay that ties in God, Moses, and Bob Dylan; it is our vulnerability, he explains, that makes us wary of receiving.

     Even so, to be alive means to constantly receive—impressions, food, ­energies—and to unceasingly give as well. We are each a facet of Indra’s net, connected to everyone around us, and every breath, every gesture, every thought resonates in some way, for good or for ill, serving either, as Gregory Boyle puts it, the so-called “Real World” or “The Kingdom of God.” For just as there is exchange on this earthly level, there is giving and receiving between levels, both Higher and lower, as evidenced by numerous contributors here. As William Segal writes in this issue’s ARCS:

Giving, receiving,
Transmitting, transforming,
Man’s body mediates
Energies on every level.

—Jeff Zaleski

From parabola-magazine.

Laura Battle: Star Drawing, 2007. Graphite on paper. Lohin Geduld Gallery. Courtesy of artnet. “One cold winter day recently, I visited the Lohin Geduld Gallery on West 25th Street in Manhattan, and took in the numinous, intricate, spacious paintings of Laura Battle. When I walked into the gallery from the cold street, I felt as if an energy was activated in me,  a cellular recognition of the connection between infinite space and the intimate reaches of our own hearts and minds.   Exquisitely geometricate, full of symbols, her works looked like maps or astrological or alchemical charts.  The artist happened to be present.  Amiable and soft spoken, she told me that she spent part of her father served as an ambassador in Egypt and she spent her childhood playing in the ruins of Egyptian temples. She led me to a painting called Spell, an intricate hieroglyphic structure in shades of yellow.  I felt called to read it–not to decipher it but to follow where it lead.  What I read in it was a powerful wish for transformation.  What I read was that art can be a means to enter the “Great Aloneness” and know what is hidden to others.  Such people and such works are clues to me that we can be seekers–and maybe even shamans and fierce warriors of awareness–still.” —an excerpt from Tracy Cochran’s post: Fierce Warriors over at the Editors blog. From parabola-magazine

Laura Battle: Star Drawing, 2007. Graphite on paper. Lohin Geduld Gallery. Courtesy of artnet.

“One cold winter day recently, I visited the Lohin Geduld Gallery on West 25th Street in Manhattan, and took in the numinous, intricate, spacious paintings of Laura Battle. When I walked into the gallery from the cold street, I felt as if an energy was activated in me,  a cellular recognition of the connection between infinite space and the intimate reaches of our own hearts and minds.   Exquisitely geometricate, full of symbols, her works looked like maps or astrological or alchemical charts.  The artist happened to be present.  Amiable and soft spoken, she told me that she spent part of her father served as an ambassador in Egypt and she spent her childhood playing in the ruins of Egyptian temples. She led me to a painting called Spell, an intricate hieroglyphic structure in shades of yellow.  I felt called to read it–not to decipher it but to follow where it lead.  What I read in it was a powerful wish for transformation.  What I read was that art can be a means to enter the “Great Aloneness” and know what is hidden to others.  Such people and such works are clues to me that we can be seekers–and maybe even shamans and fierce warriors of awareness–still.”

—an excerpt from Tracy Cochran’s post: Fierce Warriors over at the Editors blog.

From parabola-magazine

‎”We participate in life with both a divine nature and an animal nature. Man is double; he is not one. And as such, he is only a promise of man until he can live with both natures present in himself and not withdraw into one of the other…A conscious man is he who is always vigilant, always watchful, who remembers himself in both directions and has his two natures always confronted.
Jeanne de Salzmann. From “The Reality of Being,” published by Shambhala Publications. An excerpt from the book containing this quote appeared in Parabola’s Winter 2009 Issue: “The Future.” See the current issue for the passage: “Another Vision,” from the same publication. (via parabola-magazine)
parabola-magazine: Robert Orgera, “Photograph of a statue of the Buddha, in Provocative Proximity to a Cage,” from Wikimedia Commons. This photograph appears on page 45 of The Fall Issue, “Desire,” as part of the article by Roger Hawkins, “Desire for Truth: Zen teachings on realizing what is.” Here is an interview with Roger Hawkins, author and  founder of the Fort Lauderdale Zen Group in Florida, and dharma succesor in the White Plum Lineage of Taizen Maezumi Roshi of Los Angeles, courtesy of Sweeping Zen. You can also find a biography of Hawkins here. “Zen practice is a group project, you could even say that enlightenment itself is also. The support of the sangha was of tremendous benefit for me in developing the ground for living a more enlightened life.” —Roger Hawkins from the interview at Sweeping Zen

parabola-magazine:

Robert Orgera, “Photograph of a statue of the Buddha, in Provocative Proximity to a Cage,” from Wikimedia Commons.

This photograph appears on page 45 of The Fall Issue, “Desire,” as part of the article by Roger Hawkins, “Desire for Truth: Zen teachings on realizing what is.”

Here is an interview with Roger Hawkins, author and  founder of the Fort Lauderdale Zen Group in Florida, and dharma succesor in the White Plum Lineage of Taizen Maezumi Roshi of Los Angeles, courtesy of Sweeping Zen. You can also find a biography of Hawkins here.

“Zen practice is a group project, you could even say that enlightenment itself is also. The support of the sangha was of tremendous benefit for me in developing the ground for living a more enlightened life.”

—Roger Hawkins from the interview at Sweeping Zen

When we deeply ask, “What or who am I?” we allow ourselves to become what Zen Master Hakuin called “The Great Doubt:” At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully.
Roger Hawkins, “Desire for Truth: Zen teachings on realizing what is,” from the current Fall Issue of PARABOLA.
National Treasure Priest Ganjin Hollow dry-lacquer Height 80.1cm Nara period, 8th century Toshodaiji, Nara (via: wikimedia commons) In reading the current issue of PARABOLA, there are several examples of individuals who have been able to navigate their lives through the stormy seas of desire and temptation. Another example that comes to mind is the fascinating story of Jianzhen or Ganjin (688–763), a Chinese monk who helped to propagate Buddhism in Japan. In autumn 742, an emissary invited Jianzhen to travel to Japan to give lectures on Buddhism. Despite protests from his disciples, Jianzhen made preparations for his first voyage. The crossing failed and in the following years, he would attempt to cross to Japan six times. In the summer of 748, Jianzhen made his fifth attempt to reach Japan.  Leaving from Yangzhou, he made it to the Zhoushan Archipelago off the coast of modern Zhejiang province.  But the ship was blown off course taking the lives of 36 members of Jianzhen’s crew including Eiei, one of the Japanese monks who had accompanied him. Shortly thereafter, more than 200 others in the crew abandoned him out of fear and frustration.  Jianzhen was then forced to make his way back home to Yangzhou by land, lecturing at a number of monasteries on the way.  It took him three years to eventually return home to Yangzhou, and by this time he was blind from an infection he had contracted in his journey. Nevertheless, he was still determined to make it to Japan. Undeterred, Jianzhen made the sixth attempt five years later at the age of 66, after a horrific 40 day journey at sea, he arrived in Japan on December 20th, 753. Jianzhen died a year later on May 6th, 763. This story fits with Mathew J. Stills’ description of desire as action in our Fall 2010 Issue: “Desire, to be true, must be efficacious. It must have the power to take hold of someone and move him or her.” How does one harness this power of desire so that it is transformed into a determination or a wish as the story of Jianzhen clearly describes?  Maybe this story is true or maybe it has been blown up to mythological proportions, but nonetheless it is a story that shows us the true place of desire. —Luke Storms  Click here to subscribe to PARABOLA. from parabola-magazine

National Treasure
Priest Ganjin
Hollow dry-lacquer
Height 80.1cm
Nara period, 8th century
Toshodaiji, Nara (via: wikimedia commons)

In reading the current issue of PARABOLA, there are several examples of individuals who have been able to navigate their lives through the stormy seas of desire and temptation.

Another example that comes to mind is the fascinating story of Jianzhen or Ganjin (688–763), a Chinese monk who helped to propagate Buddhism in Japan. In autumn 742, an emissary invited Jianzhen to travel to Japan to give lectures on Buddhism. Despite protests from his disciples, Jianzhen made preparations for his first voyage. The crossing failed and in the following years, he would attempt to cross to Japan six times.

In the summer of 748, Jianzhen made his fifth attempt to reach Japan.  Leaving from Yangzhou, he made it to the Zhoushan Archipelago off the coast of modern Zhejiang province.  But the ship was blown off course taking the lives of 36 members of Jianzhen’s crew including Eiei, one of the Japanese monks who had accompanied him. Shortly thereafter, more than 200 others in the crew abandoned him out of fear and frustration.  Jianzhen was then forced to make his way back home to Yangzhou by land, lecturing at a number of monasteries on the way.  It took him three years to eventually return home to Yangzhou, and by this time he was blind from an infection he had contracted in his journey. Nevertheless, he was still determined to make it to Japan.

Undeterred, Jianzhen made the sixth attempt five years later at the age of 66, after a horrific 40 day journey at sea, he arrived in Japan on December 20th, 753. Jianzhen died a year later on May 6th, 763.

This story fits with Mathew J. Stills’ description of desire as action in our Fall 2010 Issue: “Desire, to be true, must be efficacious. It must have the power to take hold of someone and move him or her.” How does one harness this power of desire so that it is transformed into a determination or a wish as the story of Jianzhen clearly describes?  Maybe this story is true or maybe it has been blown up to mythological proportions, but nonetheless it is a story that shows us the true place of desire.

—Luke Storms 

Click here to subscribe to PARABOLA.

from parabola-magazine

parabola-magazine: Photograph by Fan Ho, “Approaching Shadow,” 1954 Be Kind To Oneself I try to set a time each evening to sit quietly for five or ten minutes and try to be aware of this body. I don’t need to do anything except observe what is taking place. I see that I give in to my resistances all too easily. Before I approach my meditation, I can say to my body that, “if you allow me to do this, I will let you surf the internet for an hour as a reward.” This inner bargaining can be extremely useful. And above all else, I try to remember to be kind with myself, especially the parts that remain interested in this effort. There’s an old native story that  illustrates out human predicament beautifully. It goes like this: The grandfather looked at his young granddaughter thoughtfully. Something in the beloved child of his child was developing there and so he spoke to her as follows: “Inside me, there are two wolves and these two wolves fight each other constantly. One of the wolves is aggressive, nervous and filled with a wish to succeed. The other wolf is different. He wishes for more understanding. Both wolves want fulfillment. The first wolf dreams that this could result in more prestige in the eyes of others but the other wolf believes that fulfillment may be found through the path of understanding.” The grandfather observed that his granddaughter was looking at him anxiously and added “Don’t worry about me alone, for this fight between the two wolves takes place in every one of us existing on this earth. In other people, the first wolf may have a variety of characteristics but the second wolf is, more or less, the same in everyone.” The granddaughter looked thoughtful and was silent for some time and then she said, “Grandfather, which wolf will win the fight in you?” “Well” said her grandfather, “It depends which one I feed.” —Luke Storms an excerpt from the PARABOLA Newsletter: September 3rd, 2010. Click here to subscribe.

parabola-magazine:

Photograph by Fan Ho, “Approaching Shadow,” 1954

Be Kind To Oneself

I try to set a time each evening to sit quietly for five or ten minutes and try to be aware of this body. I don’t need to do anything except observe what is taking place. I see that I give in to my resistances all too easily. Before I approach my meditation, I can say to my body that, “if you allow me to do this, I will let you surf the internet for an hour as a reward.” This inner bargaining can be extremely useful. And above all else, I try to remember to be kind with myself, especially the parts that remain interested in this effort. There’s an old native story that  illustrates out human predicament beautifully. It goes like this:

The grandfather looked at his young granddaughter thoughtfully. Something in the beloved child of his child was developing there and so he spoke to her as follows:

“Inside me, there are two wolves and these two wolves fight each other constantly. One of the wolves is aggressive, nervous and filled with a wish to succeed. The other wolf is different. He wishes for more understanding. Both wolves want fulfillment. The first wolf dreams that this could result in more prestige in the eyes of others but the other wolf believes that fulfillment may be found through the path of understanding.”

The grandfather observed that his granddaughter was looking at him anxiously and added “Don’t worry about me alone, for this fight between the two wolves takes place in every one of us existing on this earth. In other people, the first wolf may have a variety of characteristics but the second wolf is, more or less, the same in everyone.”

The granddaughter looked thoughtful and was silent for some time and then she said, “Grandfather, which wolf will win the fight in you?” “Well” said her grandfather, “It depends which one I feed.”

—Luke Storms

an excerpt from the PARABOLA Newsletter: September 3rd, 2010. Click here to subscribe.

“I need to see that my thought is almost never directed on knowing myself as I am in this moment…and again in this moment. It is difficult for the thought to remain on what is, because it is based on memory and is constantly visualizing the possibility of becoming. How to …resist the desire to become in favor of simply what is? It is difficult for my thought to…stay in front of the unknown. This means abandoning belief in everything it knows, even the trace of the preceding moment. To stay in front of the unknown my mind must be profoundly silent. This is a silence that is not obtained by suppressing or by sacrifice. I do not make the silence. It appears, when the mind sees that by itself alone, it cannot be in contact with something it cannot measure, something higher. Then the mind no longer seeks, it does not try to become. I see that there is never any stillness and that all this thinking of the known prevents me from having an experience of reality.” —from Jeanne de Salzmann’s “The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff.” You can read a wonderfully provocative and insightful review of this long awaited book by Tracy Cochran in the current issue of PARABOLA. from parabola-magazine

“I need to see that my thought is almost never directed on knowing myself as I am in this moment…and again in this moment. It is difficult for the thought to remain on what is, because it is based on memory and is constantly visualizing the possibility of becoming. How to …resist the desire to become in favor of simply what is? It is difficult for my thought to…stay in front of the unknown. This means abandoning belief in everything it knows, even the trace of the preceding moment. To stay in front of the unknown my mind must be profoundly silent. This is a silence that is not obtained by suppressing or by sacrifice. I do not make the silence. It appears, when the mind sees that by itself alone, it cannot be in contact with something it cannot measure, something higher. Then the mind no longer seeks, it does not try to become. I see that there is never any stillness and that all this thinking of the known prevents me from having an experience of reality.”

—from Jeanne de Salzmann’s “The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff.” You can read a wonderfully provocative and insightful review of this long awaited book by Tracy Cochran in the current issue of PARABOLA.

from parabola-magazine

From an old issue of Parabola. The accompanying caption: The Indication of Paths. The names of Sufi brotherhoods are inscribed; each is named for a saint and is traced back through the first four caliphs to Mohammed, Gabriel, and Allah. Great find, from: sairaluvsu & touba

From an old issue of Parabola. The accompanying caption:

The Indication of Paths. The names of Sufi brotherhoods are inscribed; each is named for a saint and is traced back through the first four caliphs to Mohammed, Gabriel, and Allah.

Great find, from: sairaluvsu & touba

Have good trust in yourself. Not in the one that you think you should be, but the One that you are.
Maezumi Roshi via Peter Gregory (via reclusland)