Hassidic Wisdom

SJ77-HassidicWisdomby Rabbi Allen S. Maller

One of the most important teachings of Hassidic Rabbis was not to worry about the future or sacrifice present joy because you fear it will not last very long.  After all most things people worry about never occur.

The Baal Shem Tov’s great grandson Rabbi Nachmann of Breslov added another guideline, “Always remember that joy is not merely incidental to your spiritual quest.  It is vital.”

Rabbi Levi Yitzkhak says, “There are two types of marital sex.  One type is physical sex as gratification of the husband’s passion, which means that he does not love his wife at all but loves only himself.  The other type is loving his wife because she is (God’s gift) the way by he fulfills the commands of God.  This is true love.”

When his wife died the Baal Shem Tov said, “I thought I could rise to heaven in a whirlwind like Elijah, but now that I am only half a body this is no longer possible.”

Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk asked, “Where can you find God? The other sages say that God is everywhere.  I say God is wherever a person lets God in.”

Visit the Store to Subscribe or Buy the Current Issue and Back Issues

Looking for Haal in All the Wrong Places

SJ77-LookingforHaalinAlltheWrongPlacesby Dani Kopoulos

In 2005 I traveled to Pakistan for the first time to meet my husband’s family. I didn’t know what it would be like to visit Pakistan as an American woman, but I wasn’t too worried. I grew up in a Greek-American household; I had been surrounded by judging elders and traditional family customs my whole life. Also, I had some familiarity with Islam, and a love of Pakistani music and craft. I had traveled; I could fit in any vessel, how hard could it be?

The earthen jug of milk, collected in the morning.  The pigeons in their cages on the roof, the goats with colored tassels hanging from their necks licking at a broken pipe just outside the front door, the golden dust that hangs over the whole city as the sun starts to sink.  Beauty.  I realize I have barely noticed it as my identity takes up all the room with its self-preserving struggle.

I try to ask my spiritual teacher for help in my heart, try to ask him to please deliver me from myself, but shame stops me mid-thought. I’m pounding on the door of love, as Rumi says, from the inside. I know it.  But I can’t feel it.

Maybe it’s time to call Haq.

Visit the Store to Subscribe or Buy the Current Issue and Back Issues

Why Ants Do One Thing at a Time

SJ77-WhyAntsDoOneThingAtATimeby Anonymous

The other day I went out for a breath of fresh air and a break.  Often, I walk up to the shed and squat on its concrete base.  That day, while basking in the autumn sun, something caught my eye.  What happened next, I’ll never forget! It was a wake-up call.  But I’ll explain that in a sec…!

Often our expectations are based on surface observation and not on “truth”. Lots of times I catch myself leaving something I’m supposed to do and go for a new project, falling for a mirage of a better and “Sugary” prospect. Be honest, haven’t you done this too?

Days, weeks, months and even years go by and one day… One day you’re thinking: “Oh! What happened to my dreams and goals?”

Anyhow, I waited a long time to catch a second ant falling for the sugar.

None of them ever did.

Visit the Store to Subscribe or Buy the Current Issue and Back Issues

Summer Issue 2014

SUFI87_MASTER_ART_FILE_MAY2014-05.inddSUFI Issue #87-ENVIRONMENT features LES SPONSEL on Spiritual Ecology, SEEKING THE KOGI a journey in Colombia, artist ANDY GOLDSWORTHY photo essay, and an interview with SATISH KUMAR on his New Ecological Paradigm.

Read more →

Les-Sponsel

Biography of Les Sponsel

Leslie E. Sponsel holds a BA in Geology from Indiana University and the MA and PhD in Anthropology from Cornell University. He is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Hawai`i. Sponsel is Founder and Director of the Research Institute for Spiritual Ecology (https://spiritualecology.info).

 

Spiritual Ecology References

Abdul-Matin, Ibrahim., 2010. GreenDeen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Berry, Thomas. 2006. Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books (Mary Evelyn Tucker, ed). https://www.thomasberry.org.

Bingham, Sally G., ed. 2009. Love God, Heal Earth. Pittsburgh, PA: St. Lynn’s Press. https://interfaithpowerandlight.org.

Boeckel. Jan van, et al. 2009. The Call of the Mountain: Arne Naess and the Deep Ecology Movement. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: ReRun Productions (51 minutes) https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8meah_arne-naess_creation.

Bourne, Edmund J. 2008. Global Shift: How A New Worldview Is Transforming Humanity. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Buzzell, Linda, and Craig Chalquist, ed.  2009. Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.

Cain, Clifford Chalmers, ed. 2012. Many Heavens, One Earth: Readings on Religion and the Environment.  Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Carroll, John E., and Warner, Keith, eds.  1998. Ecology and Religion: Scientists Speak. Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press.

Carson, Rachel. 1962.  Silent Spring. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Catton, William R. 1982. Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Crosby, Donald A. 2002. A Religion of Nature. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

De Boer, K. Lauren. 2007. “Spiritual Ecology: A Practice of the Heart,” in EarthLight: Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age, Cindy Spring and Anthony Manousos, eds. Oakland, CA: Friends Bulletin, pp. 11-17. https://www.earthlight.org.

Dregson, Alan, and Bill Devall, eds. 2008.  The Ecology of Wisdom: Writings by Arne Naess. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint.

Foltz, Richard C., Frederick M. Denny, and Azizan Baharuddin, eds., 2003. Islam and Ecology: A Bestowed Trust. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Gore, Al. 1993. Earth in Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. NewYork, NY: Penguin Books USA Inc.

Gottlieb, Roger S. 2006a. A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and our Planet’s Future. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

_____, ed. 2006b. Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Grim, John, and Mary Evelyn Tucker. 2014. Ecology and Religion. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. https://fore.research.yale.edu.

Guterl, Fred. 2012. The Fate of the Human Species: Why the Human Race May Cause its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA.

Hartman, Thom. 1999. The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.

Hawken, Paul. 2007. Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. New York, NY: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Holthaus, Gary. 2008. Learning Native Wisdom: What Traditional Cultures Teach Us about Subsistence, Sustainability, and Spirituality. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.

Kaza, Stephanie. 2008. Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications , Inc.

Kinsley, David. 1995. Ecology and Religion: Ecological Spirituality in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Kopenawa, Davi, and Bruce Albert. 2013. The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Korten, David C. 2006. The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publications, Inc./Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, Inc.

Kumar, Satish. 2007. Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities Of Life. Dartington, Totnes, Devon, UK: Green Books Ltd. https://www.resurgence.org/.

Leslie, John. 1996. The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction. New York, NY: Routledge.

Lovelock, James E. 2010. The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Macy, Joanna, and Chris Johnstone. 2012. Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy. Novato, CA: New World Library. https://www.joannamacy.net.

Maybury-Lewis, D. 2002. Indigenous peoples, ethnic groups, and the state. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon (Second Edition).

McGrath, Alister. 2003. The Reenchantment of Nature: The Denial of Religion and the Ecological Crisis. New York, NY: Doubleday/Galilee.

McKibben, Bill. 2010. Eearth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Metzner, Ralph. 1999. Green Psychology: Transforming Our Relationship to the Earth. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press. https://www.greenearthfound.org/.

Moore, Kathleen Dean, and Michael P. Nelson, eds. 2010. Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril. San Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press.

Mosley, Lyndsay, ed. 2008. Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. 1997. Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man. Chicago, IL: ABC International Group, Inc.

Raymond, June. 2010. Meditations with Thomas Berry. London, UK: GreenSpirit.

Rockefeller, Steven C., and John C. Elder, eds. 1992. Spirit and Nature: Why the Environment Is a Religious Issue. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Sponsel, Leslie E. 2012. Spiritual Ecology: A Quiet Revolution. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. https://www.spiritualecology.info.

_____, 2014 (April). “Spiritual Ecology: Is it the Ultimate Solution for the Environmental Crisis?” CHOICE 51(8).

Spring, Cindy, and Manousos, Anthony, eds. 2007. EarthLight: Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age. San Francisco, CA: Friends Bulletin. https://www.earthlight.org.

Spring, David, and Eileen Spring, eds. 1974. Ecology and Religion in History. New York, NY: Harper & Row, Publishers.

Taylor, Bron, Editor-in-Chief. 2005. The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. New York, NY: Thoemmes Continuum. https://religionandnature.com.

_____. 2010. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. https://www.brontaylor.com.

Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn, ed. 2013. Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth. Point Reyes, CA: The Golden Sufi Center. https://www.spiritualecology.org.

Worster, Donald. 2008. A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.