Winter Issue 2018 – Simplicity and Essence

Our Winter Issue – Our January 2018 issue is on simplicity, the essential part of our nature–essence. What steps can we take to return to it, from a Fourth Way perspective? Life requires many masks, but who are we, truly? Show me your original face, before your father or mother were born. – Zen master […]

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Simple vase

From Liu Yiming on the Essential Purity

Pottery and Decoration Speaking of essential purity, Liu Yiming wrote these words. Pottery has a basic constitution, and is without artifice. Decorate it with colors, inlay it with gold and jade, and though it may be beautifully adorned, it has lost its basic constitution. What I realize as I observe this is the Tao of returning […]

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Essence of the Lotus

On Essence & Presence – the Fourth Way and Other Traditions

Essence and Presence – What is presence, and how does it relate to essence? How do the Fourth Way and other traditions use these terms? From the Sufi Tradition – Zikar In Sufism, the word zikar means “remembrance of the Presence of God while losing oneself in a sacred experience.” Truly, it is the remembrance of a […]

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Simplicity - bread and jam

Bread-making: The Soul of Craft

Bread and the Essence of Craftmanship – How does a master craftsman use bread-making for presence? Amidst these days of mass marketing and food production, one man here makes bread by hand for his community. Craftsmanship requires attention in the moment for a finished product to be both useful and beautiful. Presence to detail creates […]

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Firefly Lake

Little Firefly – American Indian tale

Little Firefly – To tell the story of Little Firefly, you must know that once upon a time, on the shores of a great lake, lived a hunter, a widower with three daughters. Every day when he went into the forest, the hunter would leave his daughters with instructions to clean the wigwam, repair his […]

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