Parabola's Winter 1994 issue: Hidden Treasure So much of what is there, or here, is not visible. It lies obscured, under the sea, below layers of earth, in the air--or lost in another time. We bump into it without knowing we have encountered anything out of the ordinary. We live above ground, upstairs, distracted by dailiness, unfamiliar with the cellar of our lives or the underground tunnels where the blind mole finds its way. Remembering and hoping for Paradise, we skirt its borders or cross momentarily into its territory, hardly noticing where we are. There is no map to the hidden treasure. A path must be cleared. --from the editorial Focus Cover: Seventeenth-century Tibetan-Chinese lotus mandala of Paramasukha-Chakrasamvara (Supreme Bliss Wheel Integration Buddha) The British Museum, London Photograph copyright John Bigelow Taylor In this issue:

• "Treasure Teachings: An interview with Robert Thurman"
  - Discovering Buddhism's secret knowledge
• "The Heart of Ritual" by Eliezer Shore
  - The treasure of repetition
• "Holy Foolishness" by Jim Forest
  - Unexpected saints in the Russian Orthodox tradition
• "In Search of Hidden Wonder" by John Matthews
  - The quest for the Holy Grail
• "Digging Into Your Heart" by Joseph Bruchac
  - Native American tales of buried wealth
• "The Power of Illusion" by Lawrence E. Sullivan
  - Magic as the revealer of hidden forces
• "The Copper Scroll" by Michael O. Wise
  - The unfolding of an ancient mystery
• "Gazing on the Truth" by Jane Hirshfield
  - From Women in Praise of the Sacred
• "Am I the Innkeeper?" by Richard Temple
  - Pieter Brueghel's The Numbering at Bethlehem
• "Spirit Possession in Judaism" by Howard Schwartz
  - The secret powers of dybbuk and ibur
• "Treasure Hidden in a Field" by Christine Whittemore
  - Lindow Man and the Hoxne Hoard

Picture Essay

• "Awakening the Spirit with Mandalas"
  - The art of Jeanne Miles

Texts

• "That Which We Look at and Cannot See" / Taoist - from the Tao Te Ching
• "The Ark of the Covenant" / Judeo-Christian - from I Kings and Revelation
• "Where the Self Is Hidden" / Hindu - from the Katha Upanishad
• "On the Supreme Identity" / Islamic - by 'Abd al-Kader

Epicycles - Traditional stories from around the world

• "The Treasure" / Jewish - retold by Martin Buber
• "The Farmer and His Sons" / French - by Jean de La Fontaine
• "Andvari's Gold" / Norse - retold by Tom White
• "Tales of the Guardian" / German - from The Brothers Grimm
• "The Discovery of Salt" / Chinese - retold by Wolfram Eberhard
• "The Dreamer and the Treasure" / Icelandic - retold by Jacqueline Simpson