Parabola Magazine

Four times a year, for over 40 years PARABOLA has gathered the wisdom of the world's spiritual traditions to illuminate the central questions of life.

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"That’s the great paradox. To know what you love, to know what you want to extend and transmit to the world because something has been transmitted to you through art and created a spark, is to know loneliness and real solitude, because no one else can share it. But it is also to know the deepest love for those around you and the world they’ve created. To become attuned to art is to become attuned to the pure sensation of being alive, because you are seeing it embodied in all its mystery."

— Filmmaker Kent Jones on forgiveness in the work of Martin Scorsese from our Fall 2019 issue.

Read it here.

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"In practical terms, Mercy isn’t just an idea or a concept; in its metaphysical and esoteric sense, it’s a substance. That is to say, it’s of a material nature, and we human beings have the potential to participate in the sensation of that tangible substance. We can receive Mercy—else why ask for it? This understanding is entirely consistent with the idea that it can be bestowed; and it brings it out of the realm of the theological or philosophical and into the realm of the personal." 

—Lee van Laer in our Fall issue: MERCY & FORGIVENESS

Read it here.

Pictured: Photograph by Eberhard Grossgasteiger.

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“I’ve subscribed to Parabola for thirty years, and I’ve saved every copy of the magazine. I always look forward to reading the latest issue. It’s given me spiritual sustenance—no other way to say it.

The theme of this issue is Forgiveness, and that’s a perfect response to a moment in time when unforgiving words and actions are not just celebrated but sold as courage.

It takes real courage to forgive, because it means discarding your anger and indignation, always readily available and therefore dependable, and hacking out a piece of common ground.

Forgiveness of your enemies…forgiveness of your friends and loved ones…and then forgiving yourself: an entirely different kind of question.

To find the courage and the patience and the understanding to see, and from there to accept, is a lifelong practice.

Parabola has guided and provoked and comforted me along my way.”

— Martin Scorsese from Parabola Volume 44, No. 3, “Mercy & Forgiveness,” Fall 2019.

Photograph:  Martin Scorsese. Martin Scorsese Collection, NY

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Announcing our Fall 2019 issue: Mercy & Forgiveness—featuring a statement from Martin Scorsese, and essays by fellow film director, Kent Jones, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Mirabai Star, Desmond Tutu, Satish Kumar, and more—is here! 

Explore it in full at parabola.org.

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Thank you to all those who have generously donated to our digital fundraising campaign. However, we still have a way to go before we reach our goal.

Please consider supporting us by making a meaningful (and tax-deductible) donation to help us digitally protect and secure our rich archive of material and ensure its accessibility well into the future. For more information please visit our campaign page.

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In Parabola’s latest monthly podcast, editor Betsy Cornwell shares excerpts from the current issue: The WILD, including an essay on environmentalism and society in the Amazon and two myths about wilderness, “The Seven Swans” and “Romulus and Remus.” 

Listen here.

Pictured: The Swan Princess. Mikhail Vrubel. Oil on canvas. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

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Lisa Starr remembers beloved poet, Mary Oliver in our summer issue, THE WILD: 

We now know, through some of the later poems, a few of the details about the abuse she endured as a child, and we also know that she used her craft to transform not only her own suffering, but also the heartbreaking nature of the world—the fact, say, that everything and everyone is going to die—into a thing of beauty. Think of ‘Night and The River;’ think of the snapping turtle she found and captured in the city and released into a nearby pond because: 'Nothing’s important/except that the great and cruel mystery of the world,/of which this is a part,/ not be denied.’

Read it here.

Pictured: Mary Oliver and Coleman Barks (l.), photograph by Tricia Spoto.

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"The wild is really good for us human beings. Of course we need to preserve biodiversity for its own sake, but we also need the wild for our own. Without it, our lives become boring, more dangerous and more shallow Many people resonate with this, because they have experienced for themselves the value of simply walking in nature, how you return feeling refreshed, how your thinking is clearer and you are more balanced. This shift in attitude is reflected in language: fifty years ago, “wild” had negative connotations, now they are largely positive." —Staffan Widstrand on bringing back the glories of the wild from our summer issue. 

Read the conversation here.

Pictured: White-tailed eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla, a species once destined for extinction due to persecution, prejudice, pesticides, and chemicals but which since the 1970s has staged remarkable comeback across large areas in Europe.

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"Only the race of man raises his head high, and lightly stands his body upright, and observes the earth beneath him."

—from The Consolation of Philosophy (c. 524 A.D.), the classic and influential work by the Roman senator Boethius (c. 477-524 A.D.), rendered into modern English by Thomas Powers.

Powers’s presentation is based on the original Latin as well as on the fourteenth-century translation by Geoffrey Chaucer and two other English translations. An excerpt can be found in our Summer Issue: The Wild.

You can also download the entire translation for free on our website here.

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PARABOLA published its first issue in January 1976. Since then we have explored with you the great questions of human existence, drawing on the world’s spiritual and cultural traditions in nearly 175 issues.

Writers, thinkers, and luminaries as diverse as Robert Aitken, Ibn’ al-Arabi, Sri Aurobindo, Wendell Berry, Annie Bessant, Black Elk, Paul Bowles, Peter Brook, Joseph Campbell, Henry Corbin, HH the Dalai Lama, Meister Ekhart, Mircea Eliade, Georg Feuerstein, G.I. Gurdjieff, Kabir Helminski, Franz Kafka, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Ursula K. Le Guin, Martin Lings, John Daido Loori, Thomas Merton, Mary Oliver, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Gertrude Stein, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, P.L. Travers, and Ken Wilber have all graced the pages of PARABOLA.

Dean Koontz, Alan Arkin, Mark Nepo, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Adyashanti are among recent contributors.

Currently only one quarter of our back-issue library has been digitized. Many classic issues such as Attention, Prayer and Meditation, Liberation, The Heart and others are in danger of going out of print and disappearing.

PARABOLA is a non-profit, independent, reader-supported publication. We have no endowment. No organization sponsors us. In order to publish each issue, we depend directly upon the generosity of readers like you. Now we urgently need your help to pay for costs to professionally digitize and curate our 43-year archive.

Please consider making a meaningful (and tax-deductible) donation to help us digitally protect and secure our rich archive of material and ensure its accessibility well into the future.

To give your support, please visit our campaign here.

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“The art of cleaning is a simple spiritual activity that is often overlooked. The image of the monk sweeping the courtyard has a deep significance, because without the practice of cleaning there can be no empty space, no space for a deep communion with the sacred. Outer and inner cleaning belong to the foundation of spiritual practice, and as the monk’s broom touches the ground, it has a particular relationship to the Earth. We need to create a sacred space in order to live in relationship to the sacred within ourselves and within creation."

—Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Hilary Hart from “The Art of Cleaning,” in our Summer 2017 Issue: “Happiness.” This issue and many other back issues in print are now available for 50% off as part of our warehouse clearance sale in our online store.

Pictured: Girl Sweeping. William McGregor Paxton, 1912. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

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PARABOLA magazine is published by a nonprofit organization. Our aim is to promote understanding and peace, not to make money. But like many nonprofits, our income does not provide sufficient funds to cover expenses. We have no endowment and no wealthy benefactor. But we do have a community of committed supporters…people like you. And it is through your generosity that we can continue our uniquely enriching conversation about the deepest, most important spiritual ideas and themes. 

Please make your tax-deductible donation to PARABOLA today!

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Receive 50% off all back issues in print from our store.

[parabola-magazine]

PARABOLA published its first issue in January 1976. Since then we have explored with you the great questions of human existence, drawing on the world’s spiritual and cultural traditions in nearly 175 issues.

Writers, thinkers, and luminaries as diverse as Robert Aitken, Ibn' al-Arabi, Sri Aurobindo, Wendell Berry, Annie Bessant, Black Elk, Paul Bowles, Peter Brook, Joseph Campbell, Henry Corbin, HH the Dalai Lama, Meister Ekhart, Mircea Eliade, Georg Feuerstein, G.I. Gurdjieff, Kabir Helminski, Franz Kafka, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Ursula K. Le Guin, Martin Lings, John Daido Loori, Thomas Merton, Mary Oliver, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Gertrude Stein, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, P.L. Travers, and Ken Wilber have all graced the pages of PARABOLA.

Dean Koontz, Alan Arkin, Mark Nepo, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Adyashanti are among recent contributors.

Currently only one quarter of our back-issue library has been digitized. Many classic issues such as Attention, Prayer and Meditation, Liberation, The Heart and others are in danger of going out of print and disappearing.

PARABOLA is a non-profit, independent, reader-supported publication. We have no endowment. No organization sponsors us. In order to publish each issue, we depend directly upon the generosity of readers like you. Now we urgently need your help to pay for costs to professionally digitize and curate our 43-year archive.

Please consider making a meaningful (and tax-deductible) donation to help us digitally protect and secure our rich archive of material and ensure its accessibility well into the future. 

To give your support, please visit our campaign here.

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Mindful Writing Workshop with Tracy Cochran Saturday June 22nd, 2019 | 10:00am – 4:00pm

Join editor Tracy Cochran for a MINDFUL WRITING WORKSHOP, Saturday, June 22nd from 10:00am-4:00pm at New York Insight Meditation Center. 

Join us as we combine mindfulness meditation with short writing exercises geared toward personal reflection, discovering our ways of being heroic, including relaxing and letting go. Creating a safe space together, free from judgment and striving, we will explore how mindfulness can bring us to life, leading us to our own insight and wisdom. Everyone is welcome. Participants are not required to share their work. Bring a journal, a pen, and a spirit of adventure. 

For more information, please visit NYIMC here.

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"Ah, my dear,” she said to him, “If you wish your subjects to understand your transformation and to follow your example of non-harming, then you must tell them the story of the noble stag.” 

Margo McLoughlin translates and retells the anonymous Buddhist tale in our summer issue: The WILD. Read the full story here.

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Celebrated composer, Laurence Rosenthal recounts his experience with LSD in our summer issue: THE WILD: 

I had known about drugs given to novices in mystical schools of the East at the beginning of their training, for the purpose of providing a confirming glimpse of the kind of state they might one day reach through their own inner work. In fact it was a motive related to this idea that led me to try LSD. And now the mounting magnificence of the hours, growing constantly more radiant, finally melted all resistance.

To read the entire essay, click here.

Photograph by Josep Molina Secall