Essays

Looking for Gold: The alchemy of Cinderella

Looking for Gold: The alchemy of Cinderella

Mary A. OsborneJan 31, 202310 min read

Once upon a time, “The wife of a rich man fell ill, and when she felt that she was nearing her end she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, ‘Dear child, continue devout and good. Then God…

The Art of Budo

The Art of Budo

John StevensJan 31, 20236 min read

In my lifelong spiritual quest, I have read hundreds of sutras; plowed through pages and pages of philosophical texts; grappled with koan collections; analyzed thousands of poems; searched through biographies; meditated for hours; and interacted with many teachers, good and…

Testimony

Testimony

Brenton MacKinnonJan 31, 202316 min read

The day finally arrived when my faculty advisor asked me to choose a topic for the Master’s thesis in sociolinguistics. What to do? Maybe some coffee and a piece of pie down at the Koffe Klatch would lubricate my imagination.…

In the Hands of the Sea

In the Hands of the Sea

Surnaí MolloyJan 31, 20237 min read

I went out into the garden, to the crag, and I sat on the bench and watched the light change in the sea; looking over the fields, the holy well, the standing stone. The mountains beyond the bay were blue with…

Out of the Dark Depths

Out of the Dark Depths

Lane IgoudinOct 30, 202210 min read

“We used to bury our people down there, at the bottom,” said Mario, my twenty-something Yucatec Maya guide, a history major from the University of Valladolid Yucatan nearby, as he pointed at the cave’s dark mouth, dropping underground at about…

The Golden Ticket, by Tracy Cochran

The Golden Ticket, by Tracy Cochran

Tracy CochranApr 29, 201713 min read

Photograph by Peter Hershey One day a Buddhist monk stopped me on the street in Manhattan, offering me peace for the rest of my life. I…

You Would Run for Your Life, by Tracy Cochran

You Would Run for Your Life, by Tracy Cochran

Tracy CochranNov 1, 201714 min read

Viking ship. Photograph by Adrian Wallett A mother and daughter trace their roots to the Vikings—and to those they conquered “You would run for your life,”…

Kissed by Fire

Kissed by Fire

Trebbe JohnsonAug 1, 202112 min read

As I walked out of the somber rooms of the funeral home into the bright August sunlight, carrying my husband’s ashes, I teetered between two realities: This, now, is him,…

Tracking Thoreau & Leopold

Tracking Thoreau & Leopold

Keith BadgerNov 3, 202112 min read

My most drawn-upon pieces of writing while working with adolescents over the past several decades have been Walden (1854), by Henry David Thoreau, and A Sand County Almanac (1949), by…

Playing With God, by Tracy Cochran

Playing With God, by Tracy Cochran

Tracy CochranNov 15, 201511 min read

Photograph: Girls exploring rock pools, Cameron Bay by State Library of Victoria Collections, 1909 “Religion isn’t for me,” announced my eight-year-old daughter, Alexandra, as we ate…

“I Will Teach You” by Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim

“I Will Teach You” by Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim

Tae Yun KimApr 29, 201810 min read

Photograph by Republic of Korea Only a miracle would free her to live her own life As the following passage opens, the young Tae Yun Kim,…

Participators of Sacred Things, by Roger Lipsey

Participators of Sacred Things, by Roger Lipsey

Roger LipseyMar 20, 201810 min read

Vault mosiac, Mausoleum of Galla Placidia Participators of sacred things—the phrase is from St. Thomas Aquinas, the thirteenth-century theologian remembered today as the preeminent Scholastic, his…

A Week at the Hermitage, by Br. Paul Quenon, O.C.S.O.

A Week at the Hermitage, by Br. Paul Quenon, O.C.S.O.

Br. Paul QuenonJul 28, 201812 min read

Br. Paul Quenon Grace and glory at Thomas Merton’s refuge Photographs by Bill Murphy The hermitage in the following passage is at the Abbey of Gethsemani…

Abba, tell me a word

Abba, tell me a word

Roger LipseyJan 31, 202317 min read

Abba Anthony was living his customary day of prayer and labor in the desert hermitage he called home when a band of seekers paid a visit. We are sometime in…

Where Do We Go From Here?

Where Do We Go From Here?

Trevor StewartNov 1, 202015 min read

It is the opening day of the 2020 All and Everything International Humanities Conference. I sit on my meditation cushion, rocking gently back and forth to settle in as I…

Desire for Truth, by Roger Hawkins

Desire for Truth, by Roger Hawkins

Parabola EditorsApr 3, 201614 min read

Robert Orgera, Photograph of a Statue of Buddha, in Provocative Proximity of a Cage (Wikimedia Commons) One day, as a small child, I was struck by…

Sacred Time, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Sacred Time, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Llewellyn Vaughan-LeeMay 1, 202310 min read

Time speaks in many voices, many different images and sounds. For the Neolithic builders of Stonehenge, sacred time was marked by the Summer and Winter solstices, particularly the Winter solstice,…

Who Decides History’s Future?, by Alexandra Zaleski

Who Decides History’s Future?, by Alexandra Zaleski

Alexandra ZaleskiJul 25, 201912 min read

Knights and martyrs. Painting (detail) on canvas from church of Abbas Antonios, Ethiopia. Late seventeenth century. Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris In the Era of Princes, Abyssinia had no…

Remarkable Beings, by Eleanor O’Hanlon

Remarkable Beings, by Eleanor O’Hanlon

Eleanor O’HanlonNov 1, 201715 min read

Photograph by Laura M. Brown, Desert Elephant Conservation Among elephants, it’s a family affair Beneath the arid surface of northern Namibia run hidden veins of water…