Rising Above
From slavery to the priesthood
Voice and Freedom
Expressing our essential self
Meeting the Teacher
A life-changing encounter with spiritual authority
I Knew Two Men
Remembering Harold Bloom and Jacob Needleman
The Word for Soul
A lyrical song of love, nature, the sacred
Browse
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…
Out of the Box: How Raven gave light to the world, by Leslie Hebert
Anonymous / Haida
Retold by Leslie Hebert
Days with Michel Conge, Part One, by Rami Kalfon
Close encounters with a student of Gurdjieff
The Call of the Earth, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Reconnecting to the sacred, from a Sufi teacher
French Lessons, by Tracy Cochran
Vincent Van Gogh, The Red Vineyard at Arles, 1888, oil, on canvas (Puskin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow)One morning last October, I experienced a moment of grace. It happened as I was walking my black Labrador retriever, Shadow, on one of those warm autumn days when everything looks edged in gold….
Abba, tell me a word, by Roger Lipsey
The Desert Fathers and Mothers— and their culture of search
The Art of Budo, by John Stevens
The calligraphy and paintings of the martial arts masters
Lesson from Volume 35 No. 3, Fall 2010: Desire
Anonymous, “Krishna and Radha,” retold with commentary by Laura Simms
The Return of the Runner, by Jim Kristofic
An older Navajo runs for his people
You Must Have an Aim, by G.I. Gurdjieff
During the Nazi Occupation of Paris, Gurdjieff and his students dared to meet late into the night….
Amma, by Lillian Firestone
Amma, 2009 The Hindu spiritual teacher known as Amma (“Mother”), or Mata Amritanandamayi, was born to a family of fishermen in southern India in 1953. Today she is popularly known as the “hugging saint” for her practice of embracing all who approach her as she gives darshan, or an “auspicious sight”…
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…
A Week at the Hermitage, by Br. Paul Quenon, O.C.S.O.
A Trappist monk’s sojourn at Thomas Merton’s hermitage
The Iron Maiden
Detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, The Prado, Madrid I think we tend to create inward forms of our own — adopted, that is, from things we encounter outwardly — and then stalk each other with them. This process is writ large on the social and political landscape;…
The Unasked Question, Retold by Paul Jordan-Smith
A classic quest seen anew
Gastronomy in Ancient China, by Donald Harper
Cooking for the sage king
Ayni: Living Life in the Round, by Patricia Soledad Llosa
Giving and receiving in a Bolivian marketplace
The Dark, by Barbara Wright George
Learning to love winter’s night
Our Authority of Being, by Mark Nepo
Mark Nepo on welcoming the life-force.
Exploring the Frontiers of Science: A Conversation with Leo Piilonen
A conversation with physicist Leo Piilonen
Friendship, by Judith Valente and Br. Paul Quenon
A journalist and a monk exchange revelatory letters
Parabola Commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the arrival of Paramahansa Yogananda in America
With a gaze of majestic power, the master electrified me with a glimpse of his cosmic consciousness.
Spinning Straw, by Tracy Cochran
Naming Rumpelstiltskin, and the path to self-knowledge
Down the Well, by Tracy Cochran
What we need is right at hand
THE BHAGAVAD GITA: A Guide to Navigating the Battle of Life
THE BHAGAVAD GITA: A Guide to Navigating the Battle of Life by Ravi Ravindra. Reviewed by Vinita Kaushik Kapur.
Holy Women, by Robert Ellsberg
Four role models for all who seek the sacred
A Stopinder Anthology, Edited by David Kherdian
The first issue of Stopinder: A Gurdjieff Journal for Our Time appeared in the year 2000. […]
Parabola Podcast Episode 31: The Journey Home
Betsy Cornwell shares Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush’s “Going Home” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Our Journey Had Advanced” in this episode of our free monthly podcast.
GURDJIEFF RECONSIDERED: The Life, the Teachings, The Legacy
“GURDJIEFF RECONSIDERED: The Life, the Teachings, The Legacy” by Roger Lipsey. Reviewed by Jeff Zaleski
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…
An Intelligence That Bypasses Thought: On Retreat with Michel de Salzmann, by Fran Shaw
Recollected talks of Michel de Salzmann at Chandolin
Truth and Perception, by Mickey Lemle
All movies are an illusion. We think we are seeing motion but in fact we are seeing twenty-four still pictures every second. Half the time the screen is actually black. Yet movies seem so real, and some have the potential to reveal great truth. […]
On Unknowing, by Pamela Travers
Travers in the role of Titania in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, c. 1924 (Wikipedia) It is not ignorance. Rather, one could say, a particular process of cognition that has little or no use for words. It is part of our heritage at birth, the infant’s first primer. And the…
Silence of the Heart, by Richard Temple
Many things in the Philokalia are said about “passions.” This word has not quite the same meaning as it has in ordinary language […]
Altar Girl, by Sonja Livingston
Searching for her place in God’s house
The Challenge of Artificial Intelligence, by Jeff Zaleski
Mike Licht, Cydippe with Acontius’s Apple iPhone, after Paulus Bor The toy company Mattel has announced the release in Fall 2015 of “Hello Barbie,” the first Barbie doll to feature artificial intelligence. Through the toy’s wireless transmission of a child’s voice (“Hello, Barbie!”) to offsite computers, which will wire back a…
A Matter of Life and Death, by Rosalind Bradley
Reflections from a Death Row inmate; inspired thoughts from a Sikh guide
The Lazy Girl and the Butter-Yellow Pot, by Nartana Premachandra
Anonymous / African
Retold by Nartana Premachandra
An Amazing Childhood Experience, by James Opie
A childhood memory leads to forgiveness and love
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.
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. […]
The Caretakers Of The Cosmos
Ever since human beings discovered that we live in an expanding, evolutionary universe with billions of other galaxies, it has become increasingly fashionable to suggest that human existence is essentially meaningless …
Rising from the Fire: The Art of Transformation, by David Ulrich
The fiery path from light to light
Hands, by Robinson Jeffers
Inside a cave in a narrow canyon near Tassajara
The vault of rock is painted with hands,
A multitude of hands in the twilight, a cloud of men’s
palms, no more,
No other picture. […]
Lesson from Volume 37 No. 3, Fall 2012: The Unknown
Helen Berger, “A Shift in Vision”
Part of an Ancient Story: A Conversation with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
One August day recently in northern California, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee sat down with Parabola to speak about free will and destiny.
The Calling, by Lucinda Herring
Meeting death with dignity
A Night in the Forest, by Tracy Cochran
In the darkness, the Buddha found light
The Third Striving
The nature of wisdom is necessarily esoteric, because it subsists on a level which both transcends and is internal to, anything we can directly observe. …
Parabola Podcast Episode 50: FIRE
Story editor Betsy Cornwell shares excerpts from the Fall 2021 issue of Parabola Magazine, Fire, including the lead essay by Sufi master Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, “Fire Season.” Read the full issue by subscribing to Parabola. Parabola Magazine · Parabola Podcast Episode 50: Fire
Inanna and the Land of No Return, by Rachel Nora Greene
A child retells the legend of the Sumerian goddess Inanna and her descent to the Nether World.
A Free Gift for You in These Challenging Times
A free PDF of our ALONE & TOGETHER issue from summer 2012 to read in these challenging times.
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 Demands of the Way, by Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch
A spiritual master on what it takes
A Shared World, by Tracy Cochran
Therefore, Ananda, be islands unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves….” As he lay dying, the Buddha gave this advice to his beloved cousin and disciple Ananda. I thought of it as I stood in a security line in the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, just after a male security guard gestured for me to…
Eight Worldviews and Practices, by Mark Nepo
Eight traditional ways to wholeheartedness and authenticity
The Pipe of Reconciliation, by Joseph Epes Brown
Dr. Joseph K. Dixon, A Native American sends smoke signals in Montana, June 1909, National Geographic Creative. The sacred pipe of the Native Americans is a potent symbol of relationship. Through it the human breath sends to all the six directions the purifying smoke that connects the person to the divine and…
Parabola Podcast Episode 47: Balance
Story editor Betsy Cornwell shares excerpts from the current issue of Parabola, BALANCE.
Driving Lessons, by Snigdha Manickavel
A young woman navigates the roads outside—and within
A Parabola Bestiary: Tadpole, by Janwillem van de Wetering
The fluidity of who and what we are reflected in embodied transformation
The Golden Ticket, by Tracy Cochran
When we least expect it, someone may walk up to us on the street and hand us a golden ticket.
A Turning Point in the Cosmos, by Mary A. Osborne
Owen Barfield and the history of consciousness
Waking Up Aurora, by Rhiannon Thomas
Sleeping. Louis Sussman-Hellborn (1828–1908) I’ve had quite a tumultuous relationship with fairy tales. The Little Mermaid was always my favorite as a child. Not just the Disney version, where everyone lives happily-ever-after, but the original, where the mermaid feels like she’s walking on a thousand knives and almost stabs the prince to…
Parabola Podcast, Episode 30: Together
Story editor Betsy Cornwell shares editorial director Tracy Cochran’s “Fusterlandia” and Elizabeth Napp’s “An Education in Peace,” as well as some wise words on leadership from Octavia Butler, in this episode of Parabola Magazine’s free monthly podcast.
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. …
Tracking Thoreau & Leopold, by Keith Badger
A trail toward a Golden Rule, a Land Ethic, and real magic
Finding Joy: The Science of Happiness, by Patty de Llosa
Sound, scientific advice on attaining happiness
In Search of Bombadil, by Keith Badger
Tracking J.R.R. Tolkien’s Keeper of the Forest
Paths are Made by Walking, by Nipun Mehta
Four steps to take on the road of life
The Heights of Machu Picchu, by J.M. White
A miraculous visit to Machu Picchu
The Prayer of Saint Francis
Virgin and Child in Majesty, 1150–1200, Made in Auvergne, Walnut with paint, gesso, and linen Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is discord, union; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where…
Worshipping Illusions: An Interview with Marion Woodman
In the Summer of 1987, Parabola sat down for an exchange with Marion Woodman on the subject of addiction.
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.
Journey of the Rainbow Serpent, by Nartana Premachandra
Anonymous / Aboriginal
The Christmas Angels, by Risa Levenson Gold with Artwork by Jean Zaleski
Two strangers, vehicles of the miraculous
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. […]
Fallen Angel, by Betsy Cornwell
A young woman finds her way.
Emptying the Cup, by Elizabeth Napp
To learn is to be vulnerable. It is to have the courage to say, “I don’t know” and the wisdom to know the difference between knowing and not knowing.
TIMELESS IN TIME: Sri Ramana Maharshi
TIMELESS IN TIME: Sri Ramana Maharshi. Reviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos.
For a Man There’s an Order in Life, by James Opie
Homespun advice to a young man in need
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.
Parabola Podcast, Episode 11: “The Value of Education”
Story Editor Betsy Cornwell reflects on the spiritual value of education in this new episode of Parabola’s free monthly podcast.
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.
Bose, Το πιο Ριζοσπαστικό Μοναστήρι στη Γη
Από τη στιγμή που ιδρύθηκε, πενήντα χρόνια πριν, η κοινότητα του Bose ήταν προορισμένη να λειτουργήσει ως οδοδείκτης […]
The Monkey and the River, by Mark Nepo
The simplest and hardest thing to do each day is to be here–fully, completely, without turning away.
Poetry of the Sacred
The annual winners of the Poetry of the Sacred Contest (2021), chosen by the Center for Interfaith Relations.
The Word for Soul
A lyrical song of love, nature, the sacred
Rated “Condemned”, by Jean Iversen
Tasting the forbidden fruit
Who Are You? by Jennifer Skiff
A human, an orangutan, a heart-to-heart communion
The Fairies’ Right of Way, by Betsy Cornwell
Protecting the places where the magic folk roam
The Art of Cleaning, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Hilary Hart
Housework as spiritual practice, from a Sufi master
Meditation and Service: A Conversation with Nipun Mehta
A conversation with visionary philanthropist Nipun Mehta
Saturday in New York with Gitanjali, by Tracy Cochran
Gitanjali Babbar wanted to walk to the Freedom Tower. This cold day in New York City marked the end of her first trip to the United States. …
How to Reach Where You Already Are, by Alan Watts
Previously unpublished commentary from Alan Watts, a pioneer of East-West spirituality.
A Parabola Bestiary: Horses, by Alice van Buren
Meeting a horse to find peace, war, and the sea
Participators of Sacred Things, by Roger Lipsey
The structure of traditional art
Helen Keller, by Langston Hughes
She,
In the dark,
Found light
Brighter than many ever see. […]
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.
On Being Nobody…and No One, by Tracy Cochran
How deeply we fear being nobody. One way to think of the ego is as a defense against pain, particularly the pain of being no one.
I Have A Suitcase, by Lee van Laer
I have a suitcase
Packed with many things. …