A half century ago, the first issue of Parabola appeared in mailboxes and on newsstands. The times were right for such a magazine—spiritual search had entered the mainstream—and, under the guidance of its founder, Dorothea Dooling, the magazine flourished. Its first ten years saw a growing readership appreciative of Parabola’s message—that life has meaning—explored by an array of distinguished teachers, writers, and artists including Mircea Eliade, Isaac Bashevis Singer, P.L. Travers, Helen Luke, Owen Barfield, and the Dalai Lama.
In this commemorative issue we celebrate those ten years (future issues will recall subsequent decades) as we ponder the passage of time and its many meanings. Popular author Richard Smoley leads off with a useful overview, followed by Parabola editorial director Tracy Cochran on the journey to timelessness. Acclaimed filmmaker Kent Jones (Diane) contributes a penetrative piece on time in art, particularly cinema. Understandings of time in Islam and Buddhism as expressed by Muhammad and Dogen, and as embodied by Christ, continue the conversation, to which Krishnamurti, P.D. Ouspensky, and Maurice Nicoll also contribute. There is a wonderful poem by Joseph Bruchac, returning to Parabola after several years, and a fascinating look at how the San, aka Bushmen, deal with change and its consequences, intimately connected to the nature of time.
Over the decades, Parabola has opened its pages to ever more various spiritual traditions. In this issue, we break ground by presenting an essay by a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is high time for that, and also for the report by West Coast editor Richard Whittaker on an extraordinary conference on G.I. Gurdjieff and his teaching held in December 2024 at the Harvard Divinity School.
May you enjoy and benefit from the time you spend with this issue.
—Jeff Zaleski
table of contents
What is Time? Richard Smoley
A compelling overview
A New World Tracy Cochran
To heal, we must feel
In Time Kent Jones
An acclaimed director on time in art and cinema
Time Signatures H. Talat Halman
Muhammad’s God-Time and Dogen’s Being-Time
The Future Is an Illusion John Roger Barrie
Vedantic wisdom on the eternal present
N!o’an-ka|’ae: The Changing Bradford Keeney and Hillary Keeney
How the Bushmen approach change, and so time
Psychological Time Jiddu Krishnamurti
A master on how to be free of time
Mysterium Temporis Christ Clayton H. Ramsey
When the temporal and the eternal met
A Visit to Apple Farm Shawn Casey
A place of prayer and Jungian wisdom
Time and Movement Olivier Laignel de Salzmann
How to inhabit the present moment
Parabola at Fifty The Editors
The first ten years
It’s Déjà vu All Over Again The Editors
Do we live our lives over and over?
Devouring Tyrant or Refreshing River? Philip Novak
How Buddhism tames time
At This Time Amy Barr
A Latter-Day Saint shares her understanding
The Time Traveller H.G. Wells
He had all the time in the world
epicycle
The Seer and the Student Nartana Premachandra
A story of Einstein and Gödel
poetry
How the Mink Stole Time Joseph Bruchac
tangent
The Harvard Gurdjieff Conference Richard Whittaker
Notes from a Centennial, December 4-5, 2024