Parabola's Winter 2004 issue: Friendship Friendship is the mystery of two--of the face to face and the heart to heart, of empathy, compassion, and love. Becoming two with another, I acknowledge the other's priority. I see his or her face and my heart opens. We become one. Response precedes question, forgiveness precedes fault: my friend comes first. We remember this from childhood when friends, imaginary or real, were the first revealers of the world, and there is something childlike about true friendship. It is innocent and opens us to heaven. When we are friends, there is mutuality and interpenetration between us. Meeting you as a friend, I acknowledge and recognize you as another I. Together, we become one "I" in mutual seeing and responsibility, and in that unity something greater arises. --from "The Joy of Two" by Christopher Bamford Visit our current issue page for highlights of this issue! Cover: The Meeting of Beatrice and Dante from Dante's Divine Comedy (Canto 15) anonymous manuscript painter, fourteenth century Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, Italy. In this issue:

• "The Joy of Two" by Christopher Bamford
  - The creative power of self-giving
• "Tortoise Mountain Wakes Up" by John Tarrant
  - Finding enlightenment together
• "Sangha" by Gehlek Rimpoche
  - Six qualities of a good sangha friend
• "Rumi and the Celts" by Coleman Barks
  - The Soul as conversation and friendship
• "Turning to the Inner Light" by Frank Purcell
  - The Society of Friends and their influence
• In the Footsteps of the Ancestors: "Oyate Olotapi: The People Borrow Him" Kent Lebsock, interviewed by Briane Keane
  - A tribute to Lakota Elder Tony Black Feather
• "The Spirit of Agitation and the Spirit of Brotherhood" by Hazrat Inayat Khan
  - Our urgent need for harmony
• "Hearing the Call of the Other"
  - An Interview with Stephen Batchelor
• Epiphanies: "To Love One's Neighbor" by W. H. Auden
• "Befriending the Body" by Patty de Llosa
  - A faithful companion
• "Otherworlds and Innerworlds" by Kate Chadbourne
  - A Welsh tale unfolds a universal journey
• Point of View: "Gods, Disease, and Politics" by James Hillman

Epicycles - Traditional stories from around the world

• "The Angel of Friendship" / Jewish
• "A Telling of the Love of Winnedumah for Pahwanike" / Native American
• "Damon and Pythias" / Greco-Roman
• "White Wing" / Hindu

Tangents

• "Seeing Isamu Noguchi" by Roger Lipsey - The new biography and the reopening of the Noguchi Museum
• "Healing the Divide" by Lorraine Kisly - Science and spiritual search

Reviews

• Against the Modern World by Mark Sedgwick
• Face to Face edited by Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson
• Kabbalah of Prayer Shulamit Elson
• Seeing Through Zen John R. McRae
• The Way Things Are edited by Phil Cousineau