7.  Jonathan Star (ed.), Two Suns Rising (New York: Bantam, 1991), 128. For purposes of our discussion, I have replaced love’s cruelty with life’s cruelty.

8.  James G. Frazer, Folklore of the Old Testament. (New York: Avenel Books, 1988), 28.

9.  Richard Carlyon (ed.), A Guide to the Gods (New York: Quill Publishers, 1981), 22.

10.  Joseph Campbell, Oriental Mythology, 3.

11.  Mathews’ Chinese-English Dictionary (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 114.

DANCE OF THE SEED

1.  First published in Voices, the Journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, Vol. 27, No. 4, Winter 1991, pp. 45–50.

APPROACHING WHOLENESS

1.  Rabindranath Tagore, “Song XII,” in Gitanjali, cited in Critical Response to Indian Poetry in English, by A. N. Prasad and B. Sarkar (London: Sarup & Sons, 2008), 125. Originally published 1913.

TROUBLED WATERS

1.  Given as a sermon in October 1992 at the Unity Church of Albany, New York.

2.  A. H. Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (New York: Penguin Books, 1976), 273.

3.  Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh (trans.), The Bijak of Kabir (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1983), 48.

4.  My epic poem, “Fire Without Witness,” published in Latham, NY: British American Publishing, 1988.

5.  Robert Mason, Basic Facts of Mental Life, 1992, 17. In Manuscript. Robert’s new book of poems, Nearer to Never, will be published by SUNY Press in spring 2016.

6.  The New Testament, John, Chapter 5, “The Cure at the Pool of Bethsaida,” Verses 1–13.

7.  William Morris (ed.), The American Heritage Dictionary (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978), 1520.

8.  Ibid., 945.

WHO WILL LIVE YOUR LIFE?

1.  First published in Pilgrimage, Reflections on the Human Journey, Vol. 18, No. 5, Nov./Dec. 1992, pp. 2–8.

2.  Stephen Mitchell (ed.), The Enlightened Heart (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 76.

3.  Kenneth Rexroth (ed.), One Hundred Poems from the Japanese (New York: New Directions, 1964), 116.

4.  Ray Charles, Proctor’s Theatre, Schenectady, NY, October 16, 1991.

5.  Anthony Storr, Solitude (New York: The Free Press, 1988), 53.

6.  Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1972), 98.

7.  Anthony Storr, Solitude, 15

8.  Burton Watso (trans.), The Basic Writings of Chuang Tzu (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), 77.

CHORES

1.  First published in Pilgrimage, Reflections on the Human Journey, Vol. 20, No. 1, Jan./Feb. 1994, pp. 25–28. A different version of this essay also appears in The Exquisite Risk, (New York: Harmony Books, 2005), 245.

STILL HERE, STILL WONDERING

UNRAVELING THE SELF

1.  Given as a presentation at the 1999 Associated Writing Programs National Conference, Albany, NY, April 19, 1999.

SIFTING TRUTH

1.  First published in Sufi, A Journal of Sufism. London: Khaniquahi Minatullahi Publications, Issue 47, Summer 2000.

2.  Burton Watson (trans.), Saigyo, Poems of a Mountain Home (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), 51.

3.  Ibid., 124.

4.  Robert Bly (ed.), News of the Universe (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1980), 70.

5.  Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1961), 64.

6.  Robert Bly (trans.), Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), 25.

7.  John Muir, 1869, 1992 Sierra Club Calendar.

8.  Martin Büber, Meetings. (Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 1973), 54.

9.  Burton Watson (trans.), Basic Writings of Chuang Tzu (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), 59–63.

10.  Thomas Cleary(trans.), Energy, Spirit (Boston: Shambhala, 1991), 103.

11.  Ibid.

12.  Rollo May, The Courage to Create (New York: Bantam, 1976), 61.

13.  Elmer O’Brien (ed.), Varieties of Mystical Experience (New York: New American Library, 1965), 149.

14.  Martin Büber, Meetings, 41–42.

15.  Arthur Waley, Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China (New York: Macmillan, 1940), 109.