Every child who is asked the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” knows one thing for sure: They want to be something different than who they are now.
The yearning for transformation informs our lives. As author J.G. Bennett points out in this Spring 2023 issue of Parabola, that is because we all harbor an ideal. We can never match it but the deep, often unacknowledged wish to do so—to change ourselves into something other, more—manifests in myriad ways, from donning a Halloween costume to amassing wealth to pumping iron to ascending the spiritual ladder.
All the traditions teach that transformation is possible, with self-knowledge being an important first step—as recalled here by Tibetan Buddhist master Phakchok Rinpoche, prodded toward wisdom by his boyhood teacher. There are numerous paths to transformation, and teachings on it. Among the many explored in this issue are Zen origami, fairy tales, solitude and prayer, love, cooking and cleaning, Vedanta, and Jungian analysis. All arrive at the same startling conclusion: that the ultimate transformation is for us to become who we really are all along. To escape our cocoon of grasping and delusion, and to emerge, as teacher John Roger Barrie puts it here, so that “Our inner transformation produces outer transformation. Darkness gives way to light. At that wondrous stage, all apparent barriers are broken. Where there is no division, all is one.”
Parabola mourns the loss of Jacob Needleman (1934-2022), teacher, author, and friend. In this issue you will find a tribute to “Jerry” by Roger Lipsey and the Parabola editors.
Due to inflationary pressures, after years of resisting we are forced to raise the single issue price and subscription prices of Parabola. We trust that you understand and will continue to read, enjoy, and benefit from our offerings.
—Jeff Zaleski
table of contents
Abba, Tell Me a Word Roger Lipsey
The Desert Fathers and Mothers and the culture of search
Inner and Outer Transformation John Roger Barrie
Illuminating the path to freedom
Looking for Gold Mary A. Osborne
The hidden alchemy of Cinderella
To Look Within Phakchok Rinpoche and Sophie Wu
Wisdom from a Tibetan Buddhist master
Testimony Brenton MacKinnon
Haunting memories of a war and its aftermath
The Shelter of Your Peace Mary Lane Potter
How the Jewish holiday of Sukkot lets the world in
In the Steps of Charles Reznikoff Robert Hirschfield
Remembering a poet of the streets
The Art of Budo John Stevens
The calligraphy and painting of the martial arts masters
In the Hands of the Sea Surnaí Molloy
A rapturous meditation
Transforming Moments The Editors
In an instant, everything changes
Dante Alighieri’s Spiritual Journey Murray Stein
A Jungian consideration of The Divine Comedy
Random Acts of Origami Lawrence Souder
The Zen of folding paper
Struggle John G. Bennett
Practical advice on how to work within
Wash Your Bowl Judith Ragir
Cooking and cleaning on the way to enlightenment
Jacob Needleman Roger Lipsey and the Editors
A tribute to a great teacher and friend
Transforming Moments The Editors
They can arise anywhere, anytime
epicycle
The Monk & the Temple Dancer: A Buddhist legend of ancient India Retold by Nartana Premachandra
Anonymous / Buddhist
poetry
If You Quit Thinking: Two poems Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, newly translated by Haleh Liza Gafori
book review
Underland Robert Macfarlane / reviewed by Alicia K. Anderson
Epictetus: The Complete Works: Handbook, Discourses, and Fragments Edited and translated by Robin Waterfield / reviewed by Richard Smoley
The Moon Is Behind Us Fazal Sheikh and Terry Tempest Williams / reviewed by Z.G. Tomaszewski