FOCUS | From the Editor
Many of us consider His Holiness the Dalai Lama wise, but why? In a groundbreaking early interview with him (reprinted in this issue), Parabola asked the Tibetan leader about his approach to obstacles. He said, “If you utilize obstacles properly, then it strengthens your courage, and it also gives you more intelligence, more wisdom.” History shows that, rather than succumbing to obstacles, the Dalai Lama has used them to achieve support for his people and religion, as well as inner peace. In this he hews to one basic definition of wisdom: the ability to perceive reality along with a disposition to act in accord with right values.
Of course to perceive reality is not so easy. In this Spring 2014 issue, spiritual pioneer Ram Dass offers practical instruction on getting past the mind to unmediated, direct perception. From a new book by insight meditation master Joseph Goldstein comes a consideration of equanimity, joined in this issue by life advice from what is arguably the first book ever written, four thousand years ago by Ptah-hotep, minister to the Pharoah. The search for wisdom is as old as the human spirit, it seems.
We all seek wisdom. Bestselling novelist Dean Koontz, a Roman Catholic, speaks in this issue about some of what he’s learned, and elsewhere we read of the enduring wisdom of Odysseus; of the writer Herman Hesse and his struggle to live wisely; of the difficult but rewarding road of the man who co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous; and of the courageous and wise choices made by the great Jungian thinker Helen Luke and her community at Apple Farm.
It’s been nearly forty years since Parabola began. Jean Sulzberger was present at the beginning and has been an invaluable support ever since—editorially, financially, spiritually. Currently she is the longest serving member of the Board of Directors of The Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, which publishes the magazine. For all she has done, we at Parabola are proud to dedicate this issue on Wisdom to Jean Sulzberger.
—Jeff Zaleski
