Parabola's Spring 1991 issue:
Money The immediate associations with the word "money" are emotional and usually negative: greed, indebtedness, bankruptcy, "filthy lucre," the love of it being the "root of all evil." Yet, as Sri Aurobindo states, money, "in its origin and true action belongs to the Divine." In pondering the theme for this issue of
Parabola, we have been struck by just such negative and positive contrasts. This has brought the question about what money
is, and what it could be in its "origin and true action." In this process of examination, the very terms we employ to try to speak about money begin to take on a new level of meaning. What is
interest--where does it come from? How do we
value something? What do we do when we
invest? What takes place in an
accounting? What are our
debts, which can perhaps be forgiven through right action? Where is
credit due in our lives? How is something
charged? What is
currency? A
gratuity? Payment? Home economics? What do we really confront when "the buck stops here"? --from the editorial Focus
Cover: "The Moneychanger and His Wife" by Quinten Metsys Flemish, early sixteenth century Musv©e du Louvre, Paris
In this issue: - "The One Who Flies All Around the World" by Thomas Buckley
- The dance of wealth among the Yurok Indians - "The Role of Money" by Sri Aurobindo
- Reconquering a metaphor for the Divine - "The Test of Giving" by Philip Zaleski
- Exploring the impulse behind almsgiving and tithing - "Mother Teresa and the Poorest of the Poor"
- Scenes from a life exemplifying the vow of poverty - "From Rhinegold to Ring and Back Again" by Rob Baker
- A symbol's corruption and redemption in Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle - "Payment" by P. D. Ouspensky
- Obligations of students to a spiritual teacher - "Towards a Philosophy of Wealth"
- The timeless dilemmas of poverty and power - "Money and the City" by David Appelbaum
- Currency as measure and reminder - "Your Money or Your Life" by Joseph Kulin
- The vital necessity of financial balance - "Making Real Gold" by Titus Burckhardt
- The alchemical process - "Buddhist Economics" by E. F. Schumacher
- Beyond materialism - "Threepenny Bit" by P. L. Travers
- A child's first lessons on responsibility and value - ARCS: "The Uses of Money"
- "The Degeneration of Coinage" by Renv© Guv©non
- Falling prey to the "reign of quantity" - "Four Indian Attitudes Toward Money" by Karl H. Potter
- From identification to non-attachment in Eastern philosophy
Epicycles - Traditional stories from around the world - "The Miser" / Jewish - retold by Judith Ish-Kishor
- "The Simple Grasscutter" / Indian - retold by Allen B. Chinen
- "Two Mullah Judgments" / Middle Eastern - retold by Paul Jordan-Smith
- "The Spirit in the Bottle" / German - from Grimms Fairy Tales
- "The Ninety-nine Rupee Snare" / Hindu - retold by Vijay Dan Detha
- "A Case of Gold" / Kurdish - retold by Manocher Movlai