Parabola's Fall 1986 issue:
Sadness Do we really know what sadness is? Many words and definitions spring to mind. But however closely they may be related, can we say that it is the
same as grief, or despondency, or pain, or anguish, or sorrow, or depression? To call it un-happiness begs the question, for there are as many kinds of happiness as there are of sadness, and as many names for their different shades. It is not exactly the same to be joyful, elated, pleased, cheerful, fortunate, glad, or satisfied. Oddly enough, "satisfied" is one of the root meanings of the word "sad," which we think of as the antithesis of satisfaction or happiness. In Old English,
saed means "sated"; Latin
satis means "enough." So the original meaning of sadness is to have enough, or to have too much; yet the feeling of sadness in our human experience is connected with loss or lack. Has the content of the word changed so much that it has become its opposite? Can words contradict themselves? --from the editorial focus
Cover: "Lohan" Photograph by Sheila Metzner, 1982.
In this issue:
- "Modes of Meaning and Experience: viraha and vilaiyatal" by David Dean Shulman
- The landscape of separation
- "Out from Eden" by P. L. Travers
- The quintessential emotion
- "In the Company of Laughter" by Peggy V. Beck
- Turning tragedy into grace
- "Healing Power and Gesture" by Karlfried, Graf von Dvºrckheim
- The movement of renewal
- "Being Is More Than Life" by Meister Eckhart
- "High Resolve"
- An interview with Tara Tulku, Rinpoche
- "Sadness in Art" by Harry Remde
- Strengthening the line
- "Among the Sounds of Night" by James Agee. Photographs by Wright Morris.
- ARCS "An Imperial Affliction"
Tangents - Reviews
- "The Sound of Gurdjieff" by Laurence Rosenthal
- A review of the four-record album of the Gurdjieff/de Hartmann music
- "Images of Death" by Marvin Barrett
- Robert Gardner's Forest of Bliss
Epicycles - Traditional stories from around the world
- "The Besetting One" / African
- "The Ring of Wisdom" / Sufi
- "The Light Princess" / George McDonald
- "The First Tears" / Eskimo
- "Lao Tzu's Wake" / Chinese