Social Engagement in Spiritual Practice, Art … and LifeAs soon as a plant breaks the surface of the earth, it begins to live in the light, to participate—receive and contribute to and from the complex eco-system that surrounds it. Organic life both gives and takes from its environment. Are we any different? Personal evolution—in the form of contemplative disciplines, creative development, and the search for awakening—takes place in context, in […]
art and spiritual practice
What is Inspiration?
A sudden answer to a long perplexing problem, a burst of insight that deeply informs your creative work, a moment of wisdom that changes the shape of your life forever or even the fabric of society; these moments are highly inspiring. As artists and creative individuals, we seek to know—and come to rely upon—these stunning moments of epiphany and insight. It is said that Beethoven could “hear” the music, and […]
The 50 Most Influential Spiritual Books of Our Time
“Books are to be called for and supplied on the assumption that the process of reading is not a half-sleep; but in the highest sense an exercise, a gymnastic struggle; that the reader is to do something for himself.” —Walt Whitman A list compiled from our own thought and experience. This is not meant to be objective or universal, but merely the books that we perceive as being useful and important. […]
What Serves What?
One of my teachers, Dorothea Dooling, founding editor of Parabola Magazine, spoke often about the idea of levels, that there are larger dimensions that cannot be understood by the rational mind alone. Further, she claimed that one of the chief maladies of modernity is found in not acknowledging the existence of levels; that everything is on the same plane, that hierarchies of quality and being no longer exist. In relation […]