Calendar
Living Wisdom Tour: Out of Darkness Into Light
A Concert with Yuval Ron and the Guibord Center
Saturday, October 19th, 2013, 7pm
St. John's Cathedral, Los Angeles, CaliforniaLiving Wisdom Tour: Pir Zia to Speak at USC
Dialogue, Reception & Book Signing
Monday, October 21st, 2013, 7pm
USC, Los Angeles, California
Articles
Elemental
An Exclusive Interview with Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
May 15, 2013
In this exclusive interview with Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, the Co-Director, Co-Producer and Co-Composer of the documentary Elemental, we explore the persistence of hope and other questions relating to the creation, filming and mission of the film.
One Path, Many Paths
Adam Bucko and Zachary Markwith
May 7, 2013
Seven Pillars’ founder and board member, Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, recently sent a letter to Adam Bucko and Zachary Markwith, two individuals with “a deep sense of the sacred, but…quite different approaches to religion and tradition,” inviting them to participate in a dialogue about the relationship between religion and spirituality. Pir Zia was inspired to send the invitation after reading the recently published manifesto, “New Monasticism,” written by Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko. Both Adam and Zachary embraced the opportunity to discuss this question and the first installment of their correspondence is published herein.
New Monasticism
Adam Bucko & Rory McEntee
May 7, 2013
“We assert that new monasticism names an impulse that is trying to incarnate itself in the new generation. It is beyond the borders of any particular religious institution, yet drinks deeply from the wells of our wisdom traditions. It is an urge which speaks to a profoundly contemplative life, to the formation of small communities of friends, to sacred activism and to discovering together the unique calling of every person and every community.”
My God Lives on the Street
Adam Bucko
May 7, 2013
It’s nighttime. I am walking outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal, that depressing brick behemoth on 42nd Street and 8th Avenue that is the main hub for buses arriving to and departing from New York City. I am looking for homeless kids, trying to spot new arrivals who might still be hanging out, unsure of where to go. I want to reach them to offer help before they disappear into the Manhattan sinkhole. But I am not the only one looking for them.
Our “Something Extra”
Laurie Lane-Zucker
April 15, 2013
Spring has nearly sprung here in New Lebanon, New York. It is a time of year when we awaken to the blossoming of new life. It also offers an opportunity to take a fresh look at the challenges we face on the path ahead. Often, when one begins to experience the aural tingling of migratory birdsong, the visual enticement of budding greens, and the caress of sunlight infused with first warmth along the nape of the neck, it can be jarring, indeed despairing, to be reminded of life’s requisite loss and pain. Its unbearable lightness of being.
A Letter of Gratitude
Lori Hanau
April 11, 2013
In early January, I was invited to a Benefit Concert to support Seven Pillars House of Wisdom. As soon as I opened the beautiful invitation at my mailbox, I felt a strong, clear call to show up. When I walked through the loft door and entered the Benefit on January 30, 2013, I became even more connected to a deep sense of honor and gratitude for being there.
Following the Old Indian Path
Laurie Lane-Zucker
December 19, 2012
Several months ago, on an exquisite early autumn morning, I dropped my children at the school bus before beginning my first commute to the Seven Pillars House of Wisdom’s office in New Lebanon, NY, where I had recently accepted a staff position. As they crossed the parking lot, I watched closely to make sure they were being wary of the other cars, and that those drivers were wary of them. Trailing his twin siblings, my youngest turned back, waved and smiled before he disappeared up the bus’s first step.
Sacred Investing
Charles Eisenstein
December 19, 2012
In a sacred economy, investment has a meaning nearly opposite of what it means today. Today, investing is what people do to preserve or increase their wealth. In a sacred economy, it is what we do to share our wealth. Excess wealth, whether inherited from family or from an earlier time in one’s own life, is a dharma, a call to service. To squander it on baubles, to give it away senselessly, or to devote oneself to its increase are all ways of refusing that call.
Reflections on the NYC Peacewalk
Jack Kornfield
December 19, 2012
On a misty Sunday afternoon, Central Park became a temple of Peace for the many hundreds who joined or observed the NY Silent Peacewalk in support of peace in the Middle East. There were intermittent soft showers, the smell of autumn leaves, lovers holding hands, homeless people on park benches, and beside them a stream of nearby traffic and taxis. In the midst of it all we walked as peacewalkers carrying a palpable, reverent, dignified and joyful silence.
Poetic Offerings
William Irwin Thompson
December 19, 2012
"The Dragonfly and the Hummingbird," "Mystcism and Science" and "The Dark Winter Afternoons in Portland"
Seven Pillars Receives $15,000 Matching Grant for Holiday Giving
November 14, 2012
As momentum propels us toward more possibilities for innovative, collaborative programming, our budget must also grow to support this expansion. We need your help to make this happen.
To realize our exciting plans for scalable and sustainable activities, one of our funders has offered a Matching Grant of $15,000 that will be applied dollar-for-dollar to all contributions received by December 31, 2012. Your financial investment is key to the success of Seven Pillars House of Wisdom in this pivotal year.
Introducing “The Seven Pillars”
November 12, 2012
After five years of exploratory salons and other gatherings that have involved diverse members of the Seven Pillars' community, the publishing of poignant and probing articles by our thought leadership, and much collaborative work between our Staff, Board, Wisdom Council, and Guiding Voices, Seven Pillars has reached a pivotal moment in our evolution as an organization with the unveiling of "The Seven Pillars."
The Seven Pillars
Overview
November 9, 2012
Seven Pillars House of Wisdom arises from the desire to create a harmonious and thriving world. It is a place of hospitality and service, a community cultivating living wisdom that touches people's hearts, minds, and actions. The Seven Pillars evoke our passage through the unfolding experiences of life, and provide the foundational architecture for our work.
Hungry Ghosts
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
October 23, 2012
For thousands of years the purpose of different civilizations was to look after the Sacred Substance of Creation through rituals, ceremonies, prayer, and sacred music—so that the souls of people could be nurtured, they could have a meaningful life and their souls could evolve. If this Sacred Substance becomes lost the soul will no longer find nourishment here. The worst-case scenario is the whole planet becomes a Hungry Ghost.
Saracen Chivalry
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
October 23, 2012
From the Introduction to Saracen Chivalry: Creed matters, but deeds matter more. In the annals of valor, courtesy and courtly love, Christians and Moslems figure as friends as often as foes. Harun ar-Rashid and Charlemagne might have been pillars of competing faiths, but it pleased the Caliph to send the Emperor the gift of a white elephant.
Announcing New Leadership Team
Rabia Povich
September 19, 2012
It is with great pleasure that we announce two new developments at Seven Pillars—developments that will help build a stronger organization to galvanize momentum for the unfolding of a living wisdom in our time.
A Planetary Consciousness
David Spangler
August 6, 2012
In this excerpt from his book, Apprenticed to Spirit: The Education of a Soul, David Spangler, a Fellow since Lindisfarne's inception, writes of his initial meeting and soul connection with William Irwin Thompson, founder of the Lindisfarne Association, and the early years of the Fellowship.
The Lindisfarne Association
Jennifer Alia Wittman
August 5, 2012
Several years ago we made a new friend. Pir Zia Inayat-Khan had been reading the writings of William Irwin Thompson, the oracular cultural historian, and invited him to visit. This was in 2007, at the very beginning of Seven Pillars’ life, and it quickly became evident that our work descends from a long lineage of individuals and groups dedicated to the realization of a new planetary culture.
Remembering Lynn Margulis
Dorion Sagan
August 4, 2012
Lynn Margulis, my mother, had a stroke on November 17, 2011 and died five days later in her own bed. The following text is slightly modified from a reading, written for my nieces and nephews, given before scattering her ashes in a private family ceremony at Puffers Pond in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Seven Pillars Open House, a Beautiful and Fun Evening!
Corin Lee Girard
June 24, 2012
On Friday June 15th, nearly fifty people joined us for Seven Pillars' first official Open House at our headquarters in New Lebanon, New York. The purpose of the Open House was to orient an ever-growing, extremely supportive local community to Seven Pillars’ physical location, as well as to provide a more concrete outline of our plans for the remainder of this year, and into 2013. Of course, we were also excited to have time to just be together with so many wonderful friends and fellow wisdom seekers!
A Hidden Treasure
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
April 19, 2012
Imagine yourself floating in space with outspread limbs. Thus suspended in midair your recumbent form gives itself over to a delicious languor, and one by one your senses close down. The eyes cease to see and the ears cease to hear. Smell and taste go dormant. Afterimages linger for a time, but in the absence of new stimuli the eidola that haunt the halls of memory slowly fade into oblivion. The void that surrounds you now pervades you. You are dead to the world—and yet you live.
The Practice of Presence, Part Two
Lee Irwin
April 18, 2012
The mystery of the human experience is inseparable from our capacity to recognize the multiple fields of awareness that infuse our day-to-day consciousness. This flow of consciousness is the experiential ground of Being and Spirit, and as such this flow is the participatory medium through which our capacity to be “a light unto the world” is actualized.
Goethe in Marienbad
Christopher Bamford
April 17, 2012
Appropriately, if only by name, the legendary Bohemian Spa of Marienbad is a place of alchemical associations, harking back as it does to the legendary alchemist Maria the Jewess, “divine Maria” or Maria Prophetissa, the supposed sister of Moses, who was the inventor, among other alchemical apparatuses, of the celebrated balneum Mariae or the bain Marie: the double boiler.
Seven Pillars Update & News
January – March 2012
April 14, 2012
Spring has sprung, and with the energy and inspiration of rebirth that accompanies this time of year, we have been very happily up to our eyebrows in exciting new projects! As we wrote about in our 2011 Year-End Review, everything we do from this point forward will focus on the “seven pillars” – The Journey of Life, Universe Story, Cloud of Witnesses, Unity of Being, The Cry, What May Be and The Pledge.
Vanishing Valentines for You
Introducing Floetry
February 14, 2012
Seven Pillars' Vanishing Art Festival last August experienced some unexpected weather issues, particularly with Hurricane Irene. Consequently, we never developed an envisioned (non) manifesto on art and wisdom. We have our chance now, through Floetry. We invite you to create a poetic (non) manifesto with us.
Reimagining the Arts in a Material(ist) World
Christopher Bamford
February 7, 2012
Do we live actually in a dualistic world, a world of matter and spirit, mind and body? To treat matter as separate already makes it so. Matter, as we know it, is the matter of materialism (egotism, dualism). Yet it really didn’t come into being until Descartes divided the world into res cogitans and res extensa, thinking things—minds—thought of as spiritual, and extended things—bodies—thought of as mechanical.
Vanishing Art: Water Element
Consecrating the Pond at the Abode of the Message
February 5, 2012
Each day during Seven Pillars’ Vanishing Art event in late August 2011 a “poetic action” was planned related to one of the elements, Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Nature, in the form of Hurricane Irene, as well as other unforeseen factors, intervened, leaving the poetic action for Water undone.
Seven Pillars Year-End Review 2011
December 1, 2011
All along the primary question we’ve been asked is “What are the seven pillars?” During the spring of 2010, with this question vivid in our consciousness, the seven pillars revealed themselves in a dream and a new vision for Seven Pillars was born.
The Practice of Presence, Part One
Lee Irwin
October 11, 2011
The practice of presence is no easy task and, spiritually, it is perhaps the most elusive of all practices. Imagine for a moment being fully present to yourself and to your situation. That is, imagine being fully aware of all that passes through and within you and also simultaneously aware of all that impacts you from the surrounding environment—people, places, atmosphere, sensory sensations, integrated with inner thoughts, feelings, memories, and bodily reactions.
Dispelling Ignorance and Developing Harmony
Sister Joan Kirby
October 10, 2011
What ignorance are we addressing here? I am considering ignorance here from the point of view of a westerner. We live in the global village, we share the same roof, we are interdependent and co-responsible for care of the Earth. And yet, we still think of ourselves, and our religion, as separate, distinct, and unique.
Reflections on the Life of a Mystic
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
October 9, 2011
When I first met my teacher, Irina Tweedie, I sat in her small room, looked into her blue eyes and I knew that she knew. From that moment, without knowing why, more than anything, I wanted what she had. Much later I understood this as the knowledge that can only come from direct inner experience, which for the Sufi is imaged as Khidr. Khidr is the most important Sufi figure, the archetype of direct revelation.
The Odor of the Gods
Christopher Bamford
July 19, 2011
Smell is the oldest, most magical sense.
In 'In Search of Past Time,' Proust tells how, returning home for a visit one cold winter’s day, his mother offered him a cup of lime blossom tea with some plump little cakes, called “madeleines,” molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell. At first, he declined, but then, for no particular reason, he accepted. As the lime-tea-soaked crumbs touched his palate, a strange emotion overcame him. The world stopped, and an exquisite, transcendent pleasure, like the effect of love, filling him with joy, suffused his senses.
The Wall
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
June 14, 2011
In deep meditation I come to a wall. I know this wall. I have seen it many times before in meditation and waking visions. It is a high brick wall. I know what is on the other side of the wall: a world of light. But there is no way through; there is no doorway, no ladder, no break in the wall. When I come to the wall I walk along it, and then I have to turn away, back to the narrow streets of this world.
The Iron Rules, Numbers Nine and Ten
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
June 14, 2011
My Conscientious Self: Seek not profit by putting someone in straits.
My Conscientious Self: Harm no one for your own benefit.
Though we live in a world that habitually conflates them, money and happiness are two different things. Money is an object—a useful object often, but still only an object. Happiness is a state of being.
From Shamanism to Religion
William Irwin Thompson
June 14, 2011
When I was living in Toronto in the late sixties and early seventies, I had the good fortune to go to the University of Toronto’s Coach House where Marshall McLuhan performed for one evening a week. I say “performed” because McLuhan was a brilliant aphorist and artistic master of what he called “probes”—a kind of blast-off into outer space that most academics could not manage, and one that gave us a new look back at life on Earth.
A Physics of Peace
Victor Mansfield
April 7, 2011
Middle Way Buddhism describes a dynamic synergy between its primary pillars of thought: emptiness and compassion. When we understand and experience our deepest, fundamental nature as empty and as interdependent intersections in this vast web of the universe, a natural tendency for compassionate action arises.
Confluence: An Interview with Dr. Ashok Gangadean
Gary Null
April 7, 2011
I want to introduce my guest, Dr. Gangadean, who is Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. His lifelong study and passion has been to clarify the common ground at the heart of human reason and to promote a deeper dialogue to bring forth a more integral and holistic global consciousness to remedy the apocalyptic fervor associated with our fragmented world.
The Broken Chain
Ralph Abraham
April 7, 2011
With the advent of modern science, the spiritual side of the pre-modern paradigm was cast aside. The cosmology of the great chain of being, our heritage of 5000 years from the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, was broken. The main advantage of the great chain is its vision of the interconnection of all things in the universe, and the intelligence manifest in the evolution and animation of all beings on the great stage of life.
Report on Sufi-Yogi Dialogue
Kavita Byrd, Global Peace Initiative of Women
April 7, 2011
On Feb. 7, 2011, the fourth in a series of Sufi-Yogi Dialogues organized by the Global Peace Initiative of Women was held at the burial shrine, or dargah, of Hazrat Inayat Khan in New Delhi, India. The gathering, entitled “A Sufi-Yogi Dialogue: The Nature of Oneness,” brought together fifteen leaders from the Sufi and Yogi traditions to deepen exploration of the nature of ultimate reality as represented by these two ancient traditions, and its relevance in meeting the critical global challenges facing us all today.
Compass of Truth
Dara Shikuh (1615-1659)
February 24, 2011
The execution of the Mughal crown prince Dara Shikuh by order of his brother Aurangzib was a crime that sent ripples down through the ages. A religious pluralist with a deep commitment to mystical hermeneutics, Dara Shikuh had the makings of a brilliant ‘philosopher king.’ His religious, cultural, and political outlook was profoundly imbued with the legacy of his great-grandfather Akbar, who elevated the Mughal Empire to the status of a premodern superpower by uniting Hindus and Muslims under the principle of sulh-i kull, ‘universal peace.’ As heir apparent, Dara Shikuh awaited the day when he would mount the Peacock Throne and revive Akbar’s syncretic vision.
Magical Mindscapes
Paul Devereux
February 24, 2011
Sacred geography is where land and mind meet. Ancient and traditional peoples have found many different ways to invest their home territories with mythological or spiritual meaning. Such geographies could be small and intimate or cover large tracts of ground; they could be natural or constructed, or a combination of both.
Trust in Life
Henry Corbin
February 24, 2011
If you had written a large opus about Sufism, its teachings, practices and history, and asked me to write an introduction, I would have shrunk back from such a task. But you intended to write a little book that should primarily be a testimony of your personal experience of Sufism, and a guide for those who feel drawn to follow the instructions of your meditations. For these pages you asked for my presence. How could I have denied my presence as a friend?
The Endless Flow of Life
Patrick Levy
January 26, 2011
It is told that Tupala was a great king who was devoted to his subjects, generous towards the brahmins, gentle with children, respectful of wise men and wisdom, and who followed the rules of good governance. On one hunting night, leaving his retinue far behind, he ventured far and deep into the forest and lost his way.
The Etherealization of Capitalism
William Irwin Thompson
January 26, 2011
Cross-cultural trade is as old as the hills. In Neolithic Chatalhoyuk in ancient Anatolia, we find cowrie shells from Jericho, and in Jericho we find obsidian from Anatolia. A by-product of such trade in objects is an exchange of words, ideas, animals, even humans, both male and female. Human intelligence grows as the gene pool grows larger, as the complex system of human culture moves from band to tribe to clan to town to city.
The Islamic Notion of Beauty
William C. Chittick, Ph.D.
January 26, 2011
Anyone with the vaguest knowledge of Islamic culture knows that it has produced extraordinary works of art and architecture—Persian miniatures, the Taj Mahal, the Alhambra. Few are aware, however, that this rich artistic heritage is firmly rooted in a worldview that highlights love and beauty.
2012: A Prophecy and a Prayer
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
January 26, 2011
Are we facing a global catastrophe or a golden age, or both? As 2012 comes closer with its Mayan prophecies of the end of time, we are being forced to face the realities of an ecological disaster on a global level. What does this mean to us now, in this present moment?
Living Relatedness: An EcoCentric Worldview
Gary Null
January 26, 2011
Today we are going to continue our Remarkable Minds series with a spiritual ecologist, an earth pilgrim, a vegetarian who led a civil disobedience movement in efforts to restore humanity’s sense of community. He is Satish Kumar and he is one of the few individuals who fully embraces the principles of Mahatma Gandhi, to promote a spirituality opposed to war and ecological destruction.
On Prophecy and Time
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, David Spangler, and William Irwin Thompson
December 16, 2010
A myth like the Apocalypse is a horizon and not a location, so if you run toward it, it moves away. In the same way, the blue of the sky is not a thing, but a relationship between two energy streams, solar and earthly atmospheric.
The Iron Rules, Number Eight
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
December 16, 2010
The next Iron Rule is: My conscientious self, render your services faithfully to all who require them. This saying epitomizes the spirit of chivalry that defines the Knight of Light. Let me begin by sharing with you a wonderful passage from Creating the Person by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan that elucidates this Iron Rule.
Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience
Gary Null
December 16, 2010
We have this notion today, that is supported by the media, that we should place our faith in the brightest and most experienced people who are running the show of finance and politics. These people are educated and knowledgeable, yes, but are they leaders with wisdom?
The Mystery of Trees
Gary Null
October 4, 2010
In this recent interview, Gary Null and Diana Beresford-Kroeger discuss the biological wonders and medicinal properties of trees; the destruction of our forest, and the threats to human and other life due to their demise; and ways to introduce trees back into our lives.
Spiritual Maturity and Service
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
October 4, 2010
At the beginning of the path the Beloved looks into our heart and ignites the fire of longing, the pain of separation that draws the lover back to God. Through this longing we are taken into the mystery of mystical love, the way God reveals divine presence within the heart. We are taken by love to love.
Sarmad, the Cheerful, Naked Martyr
Sharif Graham
October 1, 2010
While reading about Dara Shikoh, I saw several references to a strange figure called Sarmad who had been befriended and introduced into the court by the prince. Sarmad was an Armenian Jew from Iran who had converted to Islam, was an excellent poet, and always went around stark naked. I was intrigued by this odd dervish.
On Prophecy and Time
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, David Spangler, and William Irwin Thompson
October 1, 2010
As I begin these movements that are like the movements of ch'i in Chi Gung, I envision "God the Father" above and outside the physical body, the Divine Mother or Holy Spirit over the brain in the sahasrara or crown chakra, and the indwelling Cosmic Christ within the third eye or ajna chakra.
On Prophecy and Time
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, David Spangler, and William Irwin Thompson
August 12, 2010
I have been thinking lately about planetary culture and an earlier age of esoteric syncretism in the Convivencia in medieval Spain. I would say that the Sufis—and not the Italians!—actually brought us the Renaissance.
One Word, a Small Stone, and an Empty Book
Max Strom
August 12, 2010
Once a seeker traveled to see a renowned Sage who dwelled in the forest and asked for a teaching. “Will you teach me the secret of a meaningful life?” The Sage studied the man and finally said a simple word, “Gratitude.” Then he gave the seeker a small, plain stone.
Creating the Universe Anew
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
June 18, 2010
Nature mystic Richard Jefferies speaks about how one night he felt himself as wandering amongst the stars.
What May Be
The Sixth Pillar
November 9, 2012
Responding with mind and heart to the call of the future.
Our Sacred Heritage
The Third Pillar
November 9, 2012
Contemplating the rich record of the human encounter with the divine.
The Living Universe
The Second Pillar
November 9, 2012
Exploring the nature of the universe and the Earth, and our vital relation to them.
The Journey of Life
The First Pillar
November 9, 2012
Reflecting upon the shared contours of the human experience.
Notes on the Historic Context of Saracen Chivalry
Shaikh al-Mashaik Mahmood Khan
October 23, 2012
Notes on the Historic Context of Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity, and the Mystical Quest by Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
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Seven Pillars Local Salon
Friday, September 28, 2012, 7-10 pm
August 23, 2012
Official Flier: On Friday September 28th, 2012, from 7 until 10pm, join Seven Pillars' Guiding Voices, Robin Becker and Christopher Bamford, for an evening exploration of wisdom, and the challenges we face in our quest to cultivate wisdom for our time.
“Mocktail” Recipes
June 20, 2012
Interested in throwing your own "mocktail" party? Here are the recipes for our famous, homemade "mocktails," Sans-gria and No-hitos, as seen at our Open House on June 15th, 2012. Enjoy!
Fostering Wisdom in the New Global Culture
Shams Kairys
July 8, 2010
Over the Memorial Day weekend, 38 visionaries, teachers, artists and change agents of many faiths and professions came together for a special gathering at the Abode of the Message in upstate New York.
Approaching Seven Pillars, House of Wisdom
Christopher Bamford
July 8, 2010
I have been asked to say something about my experience of Seven Pillars. For me, Seven Pillars has been, and I am sure will continue to be, a learning experience.
Returning the Soul to Poetry
Jennifer Ferraro
June 18, 2010
In a techno-consumer culture enraptured with externals and superficiality, the tendency toward poetry can represent a struggle to value, protect and embody those qualities that are most hidden in oneself, the qualities of the soul.
The Golden Elixir
Lee Irwin
June 18, 2010
There is a creative tension, one we all face, in reconciling the teachings and traditions of the past with the tremendous global changes of the present. Our current era is one of dynamic change, fraught with all the eddies and currents of conflicting interests and aspirations, stirred by the plasmic energies of technology, and heated by increasing sensitivities of personhood—in gender, age, ethnicity, community, language, ideology, and local, layered identities no longer confined to simple bodily perceptions.
A Great Urgency
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
June 2, 2010
Time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their Leaders. I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together from the Spirit of your Nations in prayer.
Art and the Restoration of a Unified Field of Knowledge
Michael Green
April 27, 2010
We are curious creatures. As long as we have inhabited this world we have sought to understand it and to understand ourselves.
To do this we have developed many strategies, which could be generally categorized as either the Way of Science or the Way of Religion.
To these, the compelling power of beauty – the Way of Art – should be added.
Field Notes One: An Overview
David Spangler
April 27, 2010
For some of my readers, the non-physical worlds and the beings who come from them to work with us will be as familiar as your everyday surroundings and friends. But for others, perhaps most, this will be fairly new territory. So what do I mean when I talk about the non-physical realms? Who are the beings who inhabit them?
The Green Man
H. Talat Halman, Ph.D.
March 23, 2010
Almost every single medieval church has tucked away somewhere—or fully displayed—an image of a face popularly known as “the Green Man.”[2] His face is covered with foliage, often oak leaves. Many eighteenth-century gravestones in the Scottish Lowlands also bear his image.[3] What does he symbolize? John Matthews describes him as “the spirit of nature . . . an ancient symbol of nature and fertility.” Matthews finds the Green Man in the Norse World Tree, Yggdrasil, and the figures of Attis, Adonis, Tammuz, Odin, Osiris, the King of the Wood, the May King, the Harvest King, the Green Giant and Tolkien’s Treebeard.
Report on the Sufi-Yogi Dialogue
Dena Merriam
March 23, 2010
From January 27th to 31st, 2010, Hindu and Muslim religious leaders from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan met to explore forming a spiritual alliance to ease tensions, counter extremism, and set a new tone for the region. Gathering thirty-five leaders from various traditions, the Sufi-Yogi Dialogue took place in a place famous for spiritual seers and sages, Rishikesh, on the banks of the sacred Ganges River in India.
Noctilucae
Lafcadio Hearn
March 23, 2010
From the book Shadowings by Lafcadio Hearn, published in 1900.
Wisdom vs. Knowledge
February 4, 2010
On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, a group of Seven Pillars Guiding Voices met for one hour via conference call to discuss the topic:
What differentiates wisdom from other forms of knowledge?
Thoughts on Mysticism and the Voice
Bisan Toron
February 4, 2010
I often wonder at the range of emotion engendered by our relationship with our voice, from giddy delight to deep shame. Or interestingly, there might be a neutral attitude toward one’s voice, or even a total removal from knowing it at all, so that one never takes the time to consciously feel its nuances, leaving that to the experts and approaching it only as a means to an end: communication, usually of a verbal kind. Perhaps something in us understands the power of our voice to bear witness, to answer the call, and perhaps most shattering of all, to call forth.
What Happens When the Ice Melts
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
February 4, 2010
While in deep meditation I am drawn into awareness. Rather than dissolving deeper into the emptiness of inner silence I am asked to listen for a sound, the specific sound of ice cracking. But I can hear nothing, no sound of ice cracking.
Wisdom and the Way of Self-Awakening
Lee Irwin
February 4, 2010
The topic of Wisdom is a deep and difficult subject because, as a limited human being, the scope and depth of Wisdom exceeds my grasp. I cannot start from a position of authority because Wisdom, whom I will personify as feminine, knowing she is so much more, cannot be contained by the authority of any personality or subjective state. For me, Wisdom is a Mystery inseparable from the sacred ground of Being from which we all come and in which we live and breathe and co-exist.
Avatar and the Vocabulary of Evildoers
Josh Schrei
January 14, 2010
While critics have unanimously agreed that the visual spectacle that is James Cameron's Avatar is beyond compare, there has been less enthusiasm for the plot line, which has been called out as flat and unoriginal.
Meditation on Christ
Richard Grossinger
January 14, 2010
The intelligence of the universe towers above this world, unscrolling a pale blue creation. By Gnostic lore we dwell several octaves below Christ, several more below Divine Intelligence.
Conversations with Remarkable Minds: Dr. Piero Ferrucci
Gary Null
January 14, 2010
Today we’re going to continue our Conversations With Remarkable Minds series with Dr. Piero Ferrucci, a psychologist and philosopher who today is one of Europe’s leading intellectuals in spiritual psychology. We’re going to talk about beauty and the soul, and the role of beauty in intelligence, health, creativity, social action and spiritual awakening.
The Iron Rules, Number Seven
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
January 14, 2010
My conscientious self, do not spare yourself in the work you must accomplish.
I can imagine this might not be what you want to hear. None of us wants to work ourself into the ground. But before recoiling, consider closely the implications of the words. What one must not spare oneself in is specifically the work you must accomplish.
An Ecology of Consciousness
William Irwin Thompson, David Spangler, and Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
November 10, 2009
During the month of October 2009 William Irwin Thompson, via email, proposed the question: "My use of the word "daimon" comes out of its use in the Western esoteric tradition in Plato and Yeats. I understand it to mean the part of the soul that is too vast to squeeze into a human body in the process of incarnation, and so it is experienced as an accompanying spirit, or spiritual guide. I have read that the Persians call this 'daena.' Is this true?" Pir Zia Inayat-Khan and David Spangler responded to this initial question, and a full on dialogue ensued, completely taking place in cyberspace. The conversation is shared here, in close to its original form.
Evolutionary Panentheism for the Planetary Era
Sean Kelly
November 10, 2009
Though it began some five centuries ago with the so-called discovery of the New World and the first circumnavigation of the globe, the reality of the Planetary Era has, in our own times, finally entered the sphere of collective consciousness as a result of the growing threat of climate change, ecological devastation, and the mass extinction of species. If the world’s religious or spiritual traditions are to serve in the transition toward a life-sustaining society, they will need, as they come into greater dialogue with one another, to seek out those elements that affirm the sacredness of the earth and cosmos and point to the indissoluble, if still complex, unity of the cosmos, the human and the divine.
The Iron Rules, Number Six
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
November 10, 2009
An amusing story is told in Turkey about a gathering of Sufis. At this gathering someone asked three shaykhs—the heads of three orders—a question: “What do you do when you see a vice in someone.” The first shaykh answered, “I admonish the person.” The second shaykh answered, “I try to cover it up so that no one will see it.” Finally the third shaykh, the most enlightened, answered, “Vice? What vice?”
Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom)
October 29, 2009
This fall Seven Pillars launches a new speakers series, Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom), at the Abode of the Message in New Lebanon, New York.
Two initial talks are set with the first on The Writing Craft and Conscious Evolution, with visiting guests Richard Grossinger and Lindy Hough, on Sunday, November 1, and then The Spiritual Dimensions of War, Wounding and Healing with Dr. Edward Tick on Sunday, December 13.
The Promise of Judaism: Raw Transcript
October 29, 2009
On Monday, October 12, 2009, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Maggid Yitzhak Buxbaum, Rabbi Yaakov Kellman, Rabbi David Ingber, Pir Zia Inayat-Khan and Deborah Rabia Povich met at the Abode of the Message in New Lebanon, New York for a full day of private dialogue on Judaism’s contribution to the world today, with a public dialogue offered that evening. We have chosen to post the raw transcript from the public dialogue, for you.
A Fearless Woman
Rabia Povich
October 15, 2009
I first met Sakena Yacoobi at a gathering hosted by the Global Peace Initiative of Women in Aspen Colorado in 2008. Both of us knew few people in attendance, so we had dinner together as we discovered each other and shared interests. I was struck by Sakena's quiet yet confident manner, her modesty despite significant achievements as I learned more about her life and work at presentations over the next few days.
Pilgrimage to the House of Wisdom
Janet Piedilato
October 15, 2009
The idea of a pilgrimage immediately conjures up visions: a long awaited one-time visit, a special crossing taken to a holy site, a journey to Lourdes, to the Kaaba, to the Wailing Wall, or to Chalice Well. Each visit could, to a great extent, be described within the boundaries of a specific history, philosophy or religious tradition.
Conversations with Remarkable Minds: Jane Goodall
Gary Null
October 15, 2009
This interview with Jane Goodall was conducted by Dr. Gary Null, noted talk radio host, in September 2009 as one of his Conversations with Remarkable Minds.
Reclaiming the Feminine Mystery of Creation
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
October 15, 2009
The feminine is the matrix of creation. This truth is something profound and elemental, and every woman knows it in the cells of her body, in her instinctual depths. Out of the substance of her very being life comes forth.
Why Hatha Yoga Is The Friend of the Mystic
Max Strom
August 14, 2009
Sufism, Buddhism and Yoga are three great rivers that carry many people toward the light. Yoga in particular is surging across the globe. A February 2005 Harris poll commissioned by Yoga Journal, the leading American Yoga magazine, found that 7.5 percent of U.S. adults, or 16.5 million people, now practice Hatha Yoga.
The Iron Rules, Number Five
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
August 13, 2009
I have two small children and I take great delight in watching them grow and change. In children one can see the simplest impulses of the human personality before it has been socially conditioned. For example, when two children are playing together with an assortment of toys, a toy will often lie utterly neglected until one child happens to takes it up, at which point the other child will develop a sudden interest in it, and demand it as his own. As long as it lay on the floor there was no special attraction, but when another grasps it, it acquires urgent importance.
Spiritual Ecology
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
August 13, 2009
Finally we are waking up to our ecological imbalance, to the realities of global warming and its catastrophic consequences. It is also beginning to dawn upon us that these environmental changes are accelerating, that time is running out more quickly than we may realize.
The Iron Rules, Number Four
Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
July 1, 2009
If we are to live by the Golden Rule we must consider ourselves in the same light. Reversing one’s gaze, one might notice that there are ways in which one’s own ego has a jarring effect upon others. We might find that we have a tendency, in the intoxication of the moment, to lose ourselves in our own interests to such an extent that we have little regard for the concerns of those around us. We are so caught up in our life that we forget that our personal drama is ours alone, that it is only we who are riveted by the angle of vision that is uniquely ours.
Traveling Dream Pathways Within and Between Landscapes of the Soul
Barbara Tedlock
July 1, 2009
Traveling dream pathways provides a valuable source of information about, and an empathetic understanding of, spiritual phenomena. Such phenomena occupy a paradoxical space located neither within our bodies or minds, nor outside in the natural world. Rather they exist in a sacred space located between the tangible and the intangible, the visible and the invisible, the audible and the inaudible.
Accessing the Imaginal Realm to Heal our Planet
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi with Raqib Ickovits
July 1, 2009
Our planet is in grave danger. Pollution, war, and the plundering of natural resources afflict her. Warring cosmologies and the resultant policies produce inflammations, which are inimical to planetary health; and we, who are the cells of the global brain, are challenged to go deeply into the planet’s hidden operating files to untangle the messed up connections. What are these hidden operating files? They are the underlying rules of operation — like the hidden operating files that establish the way the computer starts up. Similarly, the Earth’s hidden operating files put in place all the functions necessary for it to operate healthily.
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