GATHERING SPARKS: Interviews from Parabola Magazine

Was there ever a better moment to be reminded that there is a wisdom that lives deep in the body, and that at that deepest level of human experience we are all connected? This fascinating collection of interviews with Joseph Campbell, the Dalai Lama, Elie Wiesel, Peter Brook, Oliver Sacks and others, conducted by Barrett and others on behalf of the distinguished quarterly of myth and tradition, does not supply easy or particularly quotable answers to the question of how to live rightly. According to Jungian analyst and author Helen Luke, becoming genuinely responsible for the state of the world demands that we learn to "live out our life stories with the utmost devotion to that which is not the ego but includes it." The ego must learn to be aware of the unconscious; that's old news. Yet when Luke emphasizes that we must learn to see our own small part, "our own little bit of darkness," even when we are very badly treated by others, the words realize new resonance. Each of the interviews here deepens and elaborates the theme of consciousness. There is much gold here, from the Jungian Marion Woodman, who describes how the "god" of greater awareness can enter through the "wound" of addiction, to the insights of neurologist Oliver Sacks, to the painter and philosopher William Segal, who movingly describes the silent communion that is the very highest level of both prayer and meditation. Although some readers may balk at a rather grandiose foreword by editor Barrett, those who persist will be rewarded with real food for thought. (Nov.)