East Hill Farm
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
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
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
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…
A Good Start
“Is this the Dutch Village?” My friend Liz asked this of a New York City police officer who happened to be standing in front of a replica of a big Dutch windmill, its blades slowly turning against a bruised-looking sky.…
Equipment List for the Journey Home, by Trebbe Johnson
Photograph by Simon Migaj From myths and fairy tales, guidance galore I had spent five days alone in the Arctic wilderness, and now I was hiking…
Everything is Burning
Months after he attained enlightenment, the Buddha delivered what came to be called his Fire Sermon on a hilltop in India. He spoke to a thousand ascetics who, he knew,…
The One Who Flies All Around the World, by Thomas Buckley
A Yurok woman. The Native Peoples of northwestern California (I will be writing mostly about the Yurok Indians) had “money” long before non-native invaders, lusting for…
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…
I Pleaded. I Waited. I Married, by Hane Selmani
Xharije’s wedding, 1970 “Who you marry and when you die was written on your forehead the day you were born,” my mother told me when I…
Days with Michel Conge, Part One, by Rami Kalfon
MICHEL CONGE AT LESIAU C. 1980, DURING A SUMMER WORK SESSION. Michel Conge was a physician and a disciple of G. I. Gurdjieff in Paris in…
The Way of the Heart, by Cynthia Bourgeault
Photograph by Brandon Zierer From the Christian esoteric tradition, a path beyond the mind Put the mind in the heart…. Put the mind in the heart….…
Honey Song, by Neil Rusch
Tracing of a Ganesh-like therianthrope enveloped in a swarm of bees.South African Rock Art Digital Archive What the bees and the Bushmen know !kutten means “to…
Longing for the Beloved, by Mirabai Starr
Grieving Mary, by Fra Angelico, c.1437–1446, Museo San Marco, Florence THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION At night on my bed I longed for my only love. I…
Holy Women
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…
Spiritual Principles in Action, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Glastonbury Festival, England, 1971. Photograph by Paul Townsend A Sufi master on taking responsibility for our world In answer to a question from a thirty-one-year-old person, “What advice do you…
The Monkey and the River, by Mark Nepo
A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains. (detail). Wang Ximeng, 1113 When people are at a loss, the guide ferries them over. When one is (awake), one ferries oneself. —Hui-Neng …
Silence of the Heart, by Richard Temple
Andrei-Rublev, The-Old-Testament Trinity, 1422-–-1427, Moscow, Tretyakov Gallery Many things in the Philokalia are said about “passions.” This word has not quite the same meaning as it…