Essays

The Night of the Hessian Soldier

The Night of the Hessian Soldier

Tracy CochranJul 28, 202216 min read

I stood on the street below my apartment on East 6th Street in Manhattan, waiting for an unmarked van to pick me up and drive me to an unknown location. I did know the person who contacted me, but in…

East Hill Farm

East Hill Farm

Jonathan JamesJul 28, 202210 min read

Once upon a time… many years ago, when a now very old man was but a youth, he felt something was mysteriously missing in his life, but he didn’t know what it was or where to find it. He wasn’t…

Arrernte Land

Arrernte Land

Karen LethleanJul 28, 202214 min read

A jumble of buildings squatted some distance away, dark, and low. Not a sight I, at my age of eight, imagined part of Dad’s homeland. Funny how things stick in your mind, still sharp now, from so many decades ago.…

To Hold One’s Own

To Hold One’s Own

Surnaí MolloyJul 28, 20226 min read

There is a stone from a shore at home that I carry with me wherever I travel. It has a hole through it, which makes it lucky, and it was given to me by my mother, which makes it precious.…

Prophets without Robes or Staffs

Prophets without Robes or Staffs

Roger LipseyApr 27, 202220 min read

Greta Thunberg was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean on a rough day—high winds, high waves. She was traveling from Europe to North America by the only means she could accept, a carbon-neutral sailing vessel. She was famous, her mission had…

Driving Lessons, by Snigdha Manickavel

Driving Lessons, by Snigdha Manickavel

Snigdha ManickavelApr 29, 20177 min read

Chennai, India. Photograph by aotaro Snigdha Manickavel spent part of her childhood in Edmonton, Canada, before moving with her family to the temple town of Chidambaram…

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…

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,…

The Pipe of Reconciliation, by Joseph Epes Brown

The Pipe of Reconciliation, by Joseph Epes Brown

Parabola EditorsAug 25, 20154 min read

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…

Awakened Awareness

Awakened Awareness

AdyashantiJan 31, 20215 min read

Awakened awareness practices focus on dis-identifying with the conceptual mind, specifically the false self or ego that we imagine ourselves to be. To call the ego a “false self” is…

Whence Cometh Our Help?

Whence Cometh Our Help?

Roger LipseyJan 31, 202024 min read

Little Water. Dalarö. August Strindberg, 1892. Oil on cardboard. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm Is there such a thing as deciduous ideas? Ideas that have had their season. Some flare into color as…

The Unfinished Painting, by Mark Nepo

The Unfinished Painting, by Mark Nepo

Mark NepoJan 18, 20168 min read

Lascaux Cave Paintings, ca. 15,000 BC Dreams and art are the smoke signals connecting the one tribe over time. Stories and myths do the same. Often…

Family, Faith, and Faygo: A Journey Through the Dark Carnival of the Juggalos, by Kitty Stryker

Family, Faith, and Faygo: A Journey Through the Dark Carnival of the Juggalos, by Kitty Stryker

Kitty StrykerNov 1, 201711 min read

Members of the Left Coast Juggalos “cramming into the ride before a show,” circa 2004. Photograph courtesy of Ape Boy “There is a love and a…

Desiring Peace: A Meditation on Dag Hammarskjöld, by Roger Lipsey

Desiring Peace: A Meditation on Dag Hammarskjöld, by Roger Lipsey

Roger LipseyOct 17, 201619 min read

IMMMERSED IN HIS WORLD, DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD SITS FAR LEFT AT THE HIGH PODIUM DURING A MEETING OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY, NOVEMBER 1954. (UN PHOTO) The…

You Must Have an Aim, by G.I. Gurdjieff

You Must Have an Aim, by G.I. Gurdjieff

G.I. GurdjieffJan 31, 201820 min read

During the Nazi Occupation of Paris, Gurdjieff and his students dared to meet late into the night…. “You must have an aim, a serious aim,” G.I. Gurdjieff stated during a…

Plant Healing and Shamanism in the Deep Amazon, by Jorges Hachumak with David L. Carroll

Plant Healing and Shamanism in the Deep Amazon, by Jorges Hachumak with David L. Carroll

Jorges HachumakOct 27, 201820 min read

Photograph by Johannes Hofmann The following passages from an unpublished manuscript by a respected Peruvian shaman describe how he works with the controversial Ayahuasca and other…

Behind the Mask

Behind the Mask

Peter CoyoteJan 30, 202213 min read

In 1955 I was fourteen, and I became fascinated by the rebellious adults of the Beat Generation and their criticisms of American culture. Hearing adults express and clarify feelings I…

Living as Spiritual Practice, by Tracy Cochran

Living as Spiritual Practice, by Tracy Cochran

Tracy CochranJul 27, 201414 min read

The Life and Death of Laura Rothenberg In February 2003, I went to Laura Rothenberg’s apartment to talk about her book, Breathing for a Living, which she wouldn’t live to see…

Holy Women

Holy Women

Robert EllsbergJan 28, 202017 min read

Mother Mary Joseph, founder of the Maryknoll Sisters. The history of Christianity is marked by the stories of countless holy women who struggled to assert their full humanity and to…