When he grew to
adulthood, wrote Paul the Apostle, “I put away childish things.” Yet his
teacher, Jesus, advised that “Unless you turn and become like children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
We tend to think that experience destroys
innocence. But the koan of contradiction presented by Jesus and Paul suggests
that both innocence and experience play essential roles in the search for
meaning, and that experience can feed a wisdom that may nurture a renewed
innocence. As the Buddhist teacher Thanissara narrates in this Summer issue
of Parabola, the Buddha needed to experience the sights of aging,
illness, and death before he could gain enlightenment.
Philosopher Jacob Needleman contributes to this
issue; so do Buddhist scholar Mu Soeng, Taoist master Solala Towler, author
John Shirley, Jungian thinker Helen Luke, and others. While their spiritual
paths differ, all manifest an understanding that it is through an awakened
acceptance of the experiences of life, accepting them as a child accepts the
dawn of a new day, that life is best lived.
That kind of openness is easier said than done. To
learn how to accept, we can turn for help to all sorts of guides and
companions—even a fallen angel, Lucifer, considered in Tracy Cochran’s
contribution, and even animal guides, as we see in Joan Chittister’s entry
about a new puppy, and in a photo gallery of wonderful animals gone forever.
We also remember Jean Sulzberger, a pillar of
Parabola for forty years, who died this past February. A brief memorial to her
can be found in this issue, which we hope will be of benefit to you along your
way.
—Jeff Zaleski
Table of
Contents
ESSAYS AND CONVERSATIONS
The Editors, Become as Children: The
joy of bringing innocence to experience
Tracy Cochran, Lessons from Lucifer: Falling
into life
Lee van Laer, Innocence and Experience in
the Halls of Man: A museum inspires deep questions about our past,
present, and future
Rachel Jamison Webster, To Bring into
Harmony the Tyger and the Lamb: Two great poets and the search for
understanding
Joan Chittister, Danny Comes Home: A
puppy teaches, and the author listens
Jacob Needleman, A Hidden Yearning: The professor discovers
a Way forward
Gilles Farcet, The Others Were My Masters!: A
wild conversation with filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky
Mu Soeng, Wordly Happiness / Buddhist
Happiness: What the Buddha really taught
Solala Towler, The Path of the Sage: Wisdom
from a modern Taoist master
David Ulrich, The Reenchantment of Vision: A
photographer learns to break “the spell of the rational”
Thanissara, A Great Awakening: The
path of the Buddha—and the family he left behind
The Editors, And They Were Good: Wonderful
animals we will never see again
Lorraine Kisly, Then It is Given to You: A
conversation with Jungian thinker Helen Luke
Gregory Shepherd, The Zen Master: “Does
anyone mind if I smoke?” asks the enlightened one
J.M. Barrie, Innocent and Heartless:
What happened when Peter Pan returned
The Editors, Remembering Jean Sulzberger:
She was a pillar of Parabola
POETRY
Kabir, God Is the Breath of All
Breath
TANGENTS
Joseph Boettiger, Talking About the Weather:
Finding God in the cloud
Alexandra Ashmore, A Triumph No Villain
Can Defeat: In the new Star Wars film, the Force is
with all of us
BOOK REVIEWS
Richard Smoley, How God Became God: What
Scholars Are Really Saying about God and the Bible | reviewed by John
Shirley
Ravi Ravindra, The Pilgrim Soul: A Path to
the Sacred Transcending World Religions | reviewed by Patty de
Llosa
Grevel Lindop, Charles Williams: The Third
Inkling | reviewed by Doug Thorpe
ENDPOINT