Letters from my future self

What does it mean to become the person you are meant to be? How can embodied wholeness be realized, no matter what happened, and become an exhilarating point of departure for creative practice, and ultimately, life. In Letters From my Future Self, my thirty-six minute experimental film, I try to answer this question with material from my own life. By making art out of my personal history, and the mystical vision of a Future Self, trauma becomes a portal for healing, and discovering the beauty of the present moment. In doing so, I offer my story as a template for others’ healing. I encourage viewers to embark on their own inward journeys of self-discovery. To enlighten that which they most wish to hide from and push away. To merge their divinity with their humanity, becoming their own Future Selves.

Letters from my future self

What does it mean to become the person you are meant to be? How can embodied wholeness be realized, no matter what happened, and become an exhilarating point of departure for creative practice, and ultimately, life. In Letters From my Future Self, my thirty-six minute experimental film, I try to answer this question with material from my own life. By making art out of my personal history, and the mystical vision of a Future Self, trauma becomes a portal for healing, and discovering the beauty of the present moment. In doing so, I offer my story as a template for others’ healing. I encourage viewers to embark on their own inward journeys of self-discovery. To enlighten that which they most wish to hide from and push away. To merge their divinity with their humanity, becoming their own Future Selves.

IN-BETWEEN MIND, SPIRIT, AND BEING: A CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF GERDA WALTHER’S PHENOMENOLOGY OF MYSTICISM WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO CORRESPONDENCES TO POST-MATERIALIST NOTIONS OF REALITY

In her main work, Walther exposes the unio mystica as meta-transcendental constitution of (fundamental) spiritual being (the bracketing indicates that this demonstration can be read in a metaphysical, i.e., strong, as well as in a secular, i.e., weak, version). While reflecting her approach theoretically and methodologically by drawing on Husserl, Landmann, Stein, just as on Pfänder and Conrad-Martius, Walther proposes a genuine approach that pushes the transcendental idealistic paradigm further. Its crucial claim is (imperfect) perceptibility and experientiality of (fundamental) spiritual being (labeled “God” by Walther). It is based on a substantially and ontologically differentiating—though integrative—notion of the conditio humana: entanglement of ego-center (both belonging to the transcendental realm and transgressing it meta-transcendentally), self (belonging to psychophysical being), and soulspiritual implications of personal basic essence (belonging to spiritual being) with its “metaphysical-real core” (belonging to fundamental spiritual being). By the help of mystical vision, (fundamental) spiritual being is not only (though imperfectly) perceived and experienced; rather, according to Walther, human ego-consciousness also communicates with God as a spiritual person. However, the latter cannot be supported by Walther’s analysis. In other words, a critical distinction must be made between the—phenomenologically demonstrable—philosophical content of Walther’s investigation and its theologically motivated readings. Accordingly, the present article can appreciate the philosophical significance of her Phenomenology of Mysticism without thereby being committed to its theological interpretations. Walther’s main work, in summary, is a substantial—if not consistently concise—contribution to the philosophy of mind/spirit and being, which, moreover, is able to act as a bridge between philosophical phenomenology and theology. Additionally, in the weak reading, Walther’s integrative concept of mind/spirit and being is connectable to postmaterialist notions of reality.

The Inherited Wish

The chapter begins with an analysis of “The Inherited Wish,” his introduction to William F. Nolan’s Ray Bradbury Companion. The phrase was originally Sir Lawrence Olivier’s way of explaining his inherent love of his acting life, and Bradbury adapted it to explain his own inherent love of his writer’s life. The chapter continues to track Bradbury’s abiding resistance to the intellectual establishment’s occasional attacks on science fiction’s rise into the literary mainstream. Bradbury’s compelling mystical vision attracted Marcel Marceau with a collaboration proposal that neither man had time to develop. Stuart Gordon’s successful Chicago stage productions of The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit was soon followed by his participation in NASA’s “Why Man Explores” symposium with explorer Jacques Cousteau and novelist James A. Michener.

Sacramental Vision in Annie Dillard’s Holy the Firm

In this article I explore the central motif of vision in Annie Dillard’s short poetic narrative, Holy the Firm. Attention to the book’s tripartite structure reveals a movement through an aesthetic appreciation of creation, to an intellectual contemplation of the Fall, finally culminating in a mystical vision of wholeness in the redemptive descent of Christ. I turn to Julian of Norwich’s parable of the Lord and Servant in order to illuminate their shared attunement to the workings of divine love in the face of human suffering. For Dillard, Christ’s kenotic love is continually revealed in the Christian sacraments of baptism and communion. Finally, I suggest that through the artist, the thinker, and the nun, Dillard leads her reader toward a sacramental vision of the world, which locates the holy in the everyday.

Filsafat Sufistis Suhrawardi Al-Maqtul

<p class="07KatakunciKeywords">Suhrawardi built his philosophical thinking with the spirit of combining “intuition-mystical vision” with “rational-philosophical vision”. The combination of “intuition-mystic and rational-philosophical vision” is known as "hikmah al-Isyraq". The concept of Wisdom al-Isyraq is the second school of thought in Islamic Philosophy. This paper is a study of Suhrawardi's Sufistic philosophy with a historical and philosophical approach. The historical approach is used to review the thought settings that influence Suhrawardi's thoughts from the historical point of view of previous Islamic thought. In addition, a philosophical approach is also used to analyze documentary data in a fundamental, integral, and systematic manner with the descriptive-analysis method. The purpose of this paper is to trace the basic thinking of the concept of "Hikmatul Isyraq" Suhrawardi from the point of view of Sufistic philosophy. The findings of this study indicate that there are five sources of Isyraq Suhrawardi's thoughts: first, Sufism thoughts, especially al-Hallaj and al-Ghazali. Second, the thinking of Paripatetik Islamic Philosophy, especially Ibn Sina, which is considered important to understand Isyraqi's teachings. Third, philosophical thinking before Islam, namely the flow of Pytagoras, Platonism, and Hermenism. Fourth, the thought (wisdom) of ancient Persia which he considered to be the direct heir of the wisdom of the Prophet Idris As. (Hermes). Fifth, the teachings of Zoroaster, especially in using the symbol "light" and "darkness".</p>

Bouabré, Frédéric Bruly (1923–2014)

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré is one of the best-known contemporary African artists. His drawings first gained international exposure in 1989 when exhibited in the groundbreaking show Magiciens de la Terre (Beaubourg-La Villette, Paris). Since then he has participated in a number of major international exhibitions: Africa Now (1991), Trade Routes-2nd Johannesburg Biennale (1997), Global Conceptualism (1999), Documenta 11 (2002), Africa Remix (2004–7), Biennale de Venise (2013). His artwork succeeds in challenging the gap between supporters of outsider art and those of conceptual art. Born in the early 1920s into an Ivory Coast farming culture, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré served in the French Navy, worked for the police department in Dakar, Senegal, and held various clerical positions in the colonial administration. In 1948 he had a mystical vision that inspired him to start his own religion, the Order of the Persecuted. He was mainly known by ethnologists as a prophet before his prolific writing and drawing caught the attention of French curator André Magnin.