
Parabola at Fifty!
The first ten years

In Time
An acclaimed director on time in art and cinema

A New World
To heal, we must feel

What Is Time?
A panoramic overview

The Harvard Gurdjieff Conference
Notes from a Centennial, December 4-5, 2024

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Inner Grace: Charisma and Presence, by David Ulrich
JFK, Ram Dass, and the mystery of Being

We’re In It Now, by Tracy Cochran
The greatest shocks can inspire the deepest wisdom

The Buddha Calling the Buddha, by Kinrei Bassis
Odilon Redon, Buddha Walking Among the Flowers, 1905. “Most of us are like a fish caught in a hook. The Buddha is trying to reel us in; the hook holding us is our deep spiritual longing. We spend most of the time struggling, not wanting to be reeled in, not wanting…

In Time
An acclaimed director on time in art and cinema

Parabola Podcast Episode 36: Renewal
Story editor Betsy Cornwell shares essays from Parabola’s extensive archives on the theme of “Renewal” in this episode of Parabola magazine’s free podcast.

Lesson from Volume 40 No. 4, Winter 2015-2016: Free Will and Destiny
Part of an Ancient Story: A Conversation with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Earth as Goddess: A conversation with African healer and guide Baba Mandaza Augustine Kademwa
A conversation with African healer and guide Baba Mandaza Augustine Kademwa
Ceremony, an Aztec myth, By Fray Juan de Torquemada and Translated by David Johnson
How the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca created a fiesta of music.

The Transforming Power of Great Sorrow | Mary A. Osborne
A vibrant meditation on Pietà, grief, and growth

To Try To Have Some Healing, A Conversation with Silas Hagerty
Silas Hagerty was a young filmmaker in his twenties when I met him at a Servicespace retreat. […]

Parabola: The Search for Meaning : Free Complete Digital Index, 1976-2019
The Gurdjieff Foundation of Illinois has generously assembled a free searchable index for Parabola magazine readers.

Portfolio: James Whitlow Delano

The Reenchantment of Vision: Breaking the Spell of the Rational, by David Ulrich
The most powerful teachings and teachers are those that bring us back to ourselves, as we are now, helping us see our true nature: vulnerable and exposed, along with both our nascent strengths and formidable obstacles. […]
Verbum Ineffabilis, by Anita Doyle
Cezanne, Fruit and Jug on Table, Detail (1890-94). “Before she could speak, my daughter taught me the language of silent things: fruits, flowers, an oaken chair. I came to understand, through my relationship to this small being, why the word adult forms the root of adulteration and adultery. Watching her, it became…

Healing Water Goddesses, by Betsy Cornwell
Four Sacred Guardians

Friendship, by Judith Valente and Br. Paul Quenon
A journalist and a monk exchange revelatory letters
Surrounded by Water and Dying of Thirst, by Lambros Kamperidis
Saint Anthony Abbot Tempted by a Heap of Gold, Tempera on panel painting by the Master of the Osservanza Triptych, ca. 1435, Metropolitan Museum of Art “As I commute to work every day, I leave behind a quiet country road for a highway that takes me to the city. Nature still…

The Ladder of Heavenly Unity, by Sister Joanna

The One Who Flies All Around the World, by Thomas Buckley
The dance of wealth among the Yurok tribe

LETTERS FROM HELL, by Jan Cheripko
LETTERS FROM HELL by Valdemar Adolph Thisted. Preface by George MacDonald. Reviewed by Jan Cheripko

Lament and Praise for the Earth | Trebbe Johnson
A passionate prayer for what is lost and what is found

Rising Above, by Mary A. Osborne
From slavery to the priesthood

Indigo Animal: The Complete Trilogy
Indigo Animal is original, delightful, and profound. The artist, Rue Harrison, has given us wonderful characters in illustrated books in which she has raised the bar on a certain kind of content. […]

Parabola Podcast Episode 37: Remembering
Story Editor Betsy Cornwell shares excerpts from PARABOLA’s forty-three year archive on the theme of remembering.

A Stopinder Anthology, Edited by David Kherdian
The first issue of Stopinder: A Gurdjieff Journal for Our Time appeared in the year 2000. […]

The Wall and the Mirror: Forgiveness in the Work of Martin Scorsese, by Kent Jones
Forgiveness in the work of Martin Scorsese

In Search of Bombadil, by Keith Badger
Tracking J.R.R. Tolkien’s Keeper of the Forest

The Endless Vows, by Mark Nepo
Four statements to transform your life

Meeting Krishnamurti, by Ravi Ravindra
Memorable encounters with an extraordinary being

Nassreddin Hodja and His Donkey: Ten Stories Retold by the Brotherhood of the Dancing Camel
Nassreddin Hodja was a real person, a Turkish Sufi, who died in the thirteenth century.

Things Don’t Stay Still | Surnaí Molloy
Along the Camino de Santiago….

There Must Be More
There must be more to me than this. Have you ever thought this? It’s a little moment of awakening rather than an ordinary thought—a clearing in the clouds, a a distant memory, a knowing that there is more. More to life. More to me. This realization can feel like hitting bottom.

SYMBOL OF DIVINE LIGHT: The Lamp in Islamic Culture and Other Traditions
“SYMBOL OF DIVINE LIGHT: The Lamp in Islamic Culture and Other Traditions” by Nicholas Stone. Reviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos.
Golden Temple, by Neil Patel
Julian Nyca, Golden Temple, Amritsar, India, Wikimedia Commons The night Nimo, Jay, and I arrived in Amritsar, India, we made a cursory survey of the Sikh Golden Temple, wandering around the outer area and meditating at its river banks. The next morning, we woke up at 3:00 A.M. to get there…

Making God Necessary, by Deepak Chopra
Why God is a verb, not a noun

Endpoint from “The Divine Feminine,” Spring 2016
Despite a growing awareness of the Divine Feminine, women remain ineligible to head many major religious groups and institutions […]

Without Pause, by Mark Nepo
They say the legendary hitter Ted Williams could see the seams of the ball as it came out of the pitcher’s hand. …

Determination, by Tracy Cochran
When most of us think of determination, we think first of imposing our will on the world, insisting on a particular outcome, our vision. Yet real determination appears when we keep going, surrendering what the ego wants, which is always to look good, to sound good, to win. Real perseverance is willingness, not will. […]

Already Broken, by Joyce Kornblatt
Although it felt like flight, I knew the fall was wrong: body upended, working to right itself even as it spiralled head-first, it seemed, down. I’d gone over the tiniest cliff, from darkened footpath to an unseen recessed lawn. On my back, I looked up at faces—my husband Christopher, my step-daughter Miriam, a nurse who’d…

Passing Through the Storm, by Tracy Cochran
How can we find joy in this suffering world?

Paths are Made by Walking, by Nipun Mehta
Four steps to take on the road of life

Giving Thanks, by Tracy Cochran
“Today we have gathered and see that the cycles of life continue.”

Let Them Be, by Luis Fernando Llosa
America’s children are being robbed of their childhood. It’s as simple as that.

Parabola at Fifty!
The first ten years

Ayni: Living Life in the Round, by Patricia Soledad Llosa
Giving and receiving in a Bolivian marketplace

How Do We Reclaim The Heart Of Humanity?, by Trebbe Johnson
A Report on the 2015 Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Polychromatic Mysticism: A Visit to Little Gidding, by J. M. White
Little Gidding has been described as a “thin place” where there is only a slim veil between time and eternity.

Days with Michel Conge, Part One, by Rami Kalfon
Close encounters with a student of Gurdjieff

Parabola Podcast Episode 28: The Miraculous
Story editor Betsy Cornwell shares excerpts from Parabola Magazine’s new issue, “The Miraculous,” including three new poems by beloved author Jane Yolen.

The Awakened Eye, by Frederick Franck
A recollection of the first moment of being at one.

Meditation and Service: A Conversation with Nipun Mehta
A conversation with visionary philanthropist Nipun Mehta

Ring of Wisdom, a Sufi Parable, Retold by Anne Twitty
A Sufi king seeks a ring of great power.

What Happens in Mindfulness, by Cynthia Bourgeault
A review of John Teasdale’s “What Happens in Mindfulness” by Cynthia Bourgeault

Spiritual Principles in Action, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
The Sufi master on meeting the inner and outer challenges of our time

A Path of Love and Freedom, by Amir Freimann
A conversation with Sufi master Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

The Real Rasputin? by Richard Smoley
A fresh look at “the mad monk”

My Life in the Chair, by Lillian Firestone
I was determined not to let dialysis take over my life. But it already had. […]

The Yoga of Sacred Knowledge and Discernment, by Ravi Ravindra
Life lessons from the Bhagavad Gita

Pulitzer-winning poet Mary Oliver has died at 83
Mary Oliver was an astonishing poet beloved by many and also a frequent contributor to PARABOLA over the years.

The Temple of Amount, by Eliezer Shore
Searching for symbol in a world of number

Desire for Truth, by Roger Hawkins
Sick of what it is called
Sick of the names
I dedicate every pore
To what’s here.
—Ikkyu

O Little Town of Riverside, by Mary A. Osborne
Frederick Law Olmsted’s village in the woods

The Poet and the Shepherd, by Joshua Boettiger
King David, Leonard Cohen and the Search for Meaning

Magic and the Third Force, by Steffan Soule
A professional magician ponders a universal law

The Forms of Magic, by Richard Smoley
An introduction to Western magic

The Lesson, by Fred Cheney
An encounter to last a lifetime

Rising from the Fire: The Art of Transformation, by David Ulrich
The fiery path from light to light

We Are All Witnesses: An Interview with Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel died Saturday, July 2, 2016 at his home in Manhattan. The Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner was 87. In May of 1985, we interviewed Elie Wiesel for our “Exile” Issue.

And So On, by Kent Jones
Within the chaos, a door to “the inexhaustible Now”

Away, by Tracy Cochran
On silent retreat, a woman finds connection from PARABOLA, Vol. 37:2, Summer 2012: Alone and Together.

The Desk, by Kenneth Krushel
A miracle made of wood

Love and Compassion in Meditation and Action, by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
Love and compassion are qualities essential to our stature as true human beings, and jointly might be considered the capacities that most distinguish us from the animals, except that animals sometimes display more kindness towards one another—and towards people—than we do.

Wonder is a Level Within Us: A conversation with Rabbi Dr. Raphael Shuchat, by Roger Lipsey and Kenneth Krushel
A conversation with Kabbalah expert Rabbi Dr. Raphael Shuchat

The Thanksgiving Prayer, Adapted from the Mohawk
Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. […]

I Have A Suitcase, by Lee van Laer
I have a suitcase
Packed with many things. …

Parabola Podcast, Episode 5: “Embodiment”
Story editor Betsy Cornwell looks at our Summer 2014 Issue, EMBODIMENT, in Parabola Magazine’s monthly podcast.

How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race, by Anonymous (West African)
There once lived, in Fanti-land, a man named Father Anansi. He possessed all the wisdom in the world. People came to him daily for advice and help.

Every Word I Pick Here, by Lee van Laer
Every word I pick here | Is the wrong one, one | I’ve used too often, | Touched by thought | Until it’s worn and tired.

Driving Lessons, by Snigdha Manickavel
A young woman navigates the roads outside—and within

Gifts for Gifted Children
Each summer I teach creative writing classes at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. It’s a wonderful job for many reasons: my colleagues are uniformly, eccentrically brilliant, I’ve taught at campuses all over the country, from Los Angeles to the U.S. Virgin Islands, and since the program is a sleepaway camp, the mood is…

These Are the Words of the Secret: The Gospel of Thomas Revealed, by Jean-Yves Leloup
Yeshua said: Whoever lives the interpretation of these words shall no longer taste death.

Prophets without Robes or Staffs, by Roger Lipsey
Hammarskjöld, Havel, Mandela, Thunberg

The Esoteric Shakespeare, by Michael White
“All the world’s a stage.”

A Matter of Life and Death, by Rosalind Bradley
Reflections from a Death Row inmate; inspired thoughts from a Sikh guide

Common Sense, An Interview with Peter Kingsley
Over 2,500 years ago, Peter Kingsley tells us, Parmenides and Empedocles laid the basic foundations for the world and culture we now live in.

Enthralled by the Marvel, by Alejandro Jodorowsky
The legendary director meets Carlos Castaneda

Let it Be, by Tracy Cochran
When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

A Touch of Divine Grace: A Conversation with Mother Teresa, by Lex Hixon
In April 1976, Mother Teresa spoke before the United Nations. The following day, she was interviewed by spiritual teacher and radio host Lex Hixon. What follows are some of Hixon’s introductory remarks and a brief portion of his rare interview with Mother Teresa.

La Llorona, by Edward W. Wood, Jr.
A visitation in the night

Ave Maria, by Jenny Koralek
Vincent Van Gogh, Pietà (after Eugène Delacroix). 1889. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam As the following passage begins, Jesus of Nazareth, here called Yeshua, is suffering on the cross, attended by several including his mother, Mary, here known as Maryam, and Elizabeth, cousin to Maryam and mother of John the Baptist. It is Elizabeth who narrates. —The…

To Worship the Life Force, by Edward Bruce Bynum
The essence of African religion

Signore: Parabola visits the Monastero di Bose in the Foothills of the Italian Alps, by Roger Lipsey
Photograph courtesy of Monastero di Bose “There must be monasticism in the twenty-first century!” So said a friend not long ago. Both his implicit protest and his conviction make sense. The landscape of the spirit in the West would be torn and lacking if the monastic way vanished in our time.…

Lesson from Volume 40 No. 2, Fall 2015: Intelligence
Rabbi Douglas Goldhamer, with Peggy Bagley, “Spiritual Laws: The Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah”

The Christmas Angels, by Risa Levenson Gold with Artwork by Jean Zaleski
Two strangers, vehicles of the miraculous

The LSD Experience, by Laurence Rosenthal
A celebrated composer hears celestial music

Longing for Being | Tracy Cochran
At home with past, present, future

The Flight from Disunity: Thomas Merton on Suffering, by Vanessa Hurst
“Some men believe in the power and value of suffering,” writes Thomas Merton. “But their belief is an illusion. Suffering has no power, no value of its own.”

Parabola Podcast, Episode 7: “Ways of Healing”
Story editor Betsy Cornwell explores our current issue, “Ways of Healing,” in PARABOLA Magazine’s podcast. Learn more about this issue or become a subscriber at parabola.org. This episode also includes Kenneth Lawrence’s retelling of the Japanese tale “Kiyotsune.” Please consider supporting this podcast and Parabola Magazine by purchasing a back issue or becoming a subscriber. This…

Painting Enlightenment, Paula Arai / Artwork by Iwasaki Tsuneo
A remarkable gallery of Heart Sutra Art

The Meaning of Tradition: A Conversation with Huston Smith
Parabola’s first issue, Winter 1976, included the magazine’s first interview. Conducted by then-editor John Loudon, it questioned religion scholar Huston Smith, author of the bestseller The Religions of Man, whom Loudon described as “a man who has traveled widely, but deeply, learning the many languages for what is primordially true.”