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Issue 18 Cover
Issue 18  /  Fall–Winter 2000
What Does It Mean To Be In The World But Not Of It?
From the marketplace to the monastery, from the household to the mountaintop, WIE takes a closer look at the age-old question: What does it really mean to be in the world but not of it?


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table of contents



Reader's Forum

From the Editors

Introduction to this issue
What is Enlightenment?
A Report from the Trenches
by Andrew Cohen




The New American Spirituality
by Craig Hamilton
Elizabeth Lesser
At Play in the Fields of the Lord

"American" and "spiritual" may seem to be antithetical terms. But to the cofounder of Omega Institute and author of The New American Spirituality, the democracy and diversity of this modern materialistic nation may prove to be fertile ground for a new, world-embracing spiritual path.

by Craig Hamilton

Integral Transformative Practice: In This World or Out of It?
Ken Wilber

One of the most insightful philosophers of our times—the man who had the audacity to write a book entitled A Brief History of Everything—raises some intriguing questions about the relationship between relative spiritual practices and the direct realization of the nondual.

 
 
Sid Arthur of Sausalito

A postmodern fable about the perennial question: Should I stay where I am or should I give up everything in order to devote myself entirely to the spiritual quest?

by Brad Roth

 




 
Transcend the World
by Andrew Cohen
 
Eckhart Tolle
Ripples on the Surface of Being

"When my inner transformation happened," this modern mystic recounts, "it was so fulfilling and blissful simply to be that I lost all interest in doing." In this captivating interview, one of the contemporary spiritual world's newest stars speaks about the inward stillness he's discovered and what it really means to "transcend the world."

by Andrew Cohen

 
Joseph Goldstein
There's No Escape from the World

One of the founding fathers of American Buddhism speaks about why he never became a monk, and insists that transcendence of the world is strictly an inner matter.

by Andrew Cohen

 




 
Embrace the World
by Carter Phipps
 
Rabbi David Edelman
And God Said, "The World Is Good"

"When God created the world, he created it as a positive thing." This modern-day patriarch of a large Orthodox community brings to life the joy and richness of a spiritual path that embraces all aspects of creation.

Interview by Amy Edelstein

 
Sheikh Tosun Bayrak
The World Is Beautiful

"The world is your friend if it reminds you of God, and your enemy if it makes you forget God," declares this dynamic leader of the Halveti-Jerrahi order of Sufis in a captivating exploration of the prophet Muhammad's teaching on finding one's right place in the world.

Interview by Carter Phipps

 




 
Renounce the World
by Carter Phipps
 
Father William McNamara
The e'M'pire

A Carmelite monk speaks passionately about the joys of living the holy life and the fulfillment found in renouncing what he calls the e'M'pire—the world of manipulation, mendacity, and mediocrity.

Interview by Carter Phipps

 
His Holiness Penor Rinpoche
The World Is Unreliable

Joining the monastic world at the age of four, tulku Penor Rinpoche eventually became the presiding abbot of over 400 monasteries in Tibet and was named the Supreme Head of the Nyingma Buddhist Lineage. In this rare interview, he speaks about the unique advantages of the monastic path for the seeker of liberation.

Interview by Andrew Cohen

 
Peter Masefield
The Price of Liberation

What was the life of the monks really like in the Buddha's time? Buddhist scholar Peter Masefield presents an unembellished picture of the radical and austere life lived by those who ordained under the "Awakened One."

 




 

A Call to Mediocrity
A review of two new releases: After the Ecstasy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield and Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

by Stephen Cope


Time Is the Enemy
A review of Eckhart Tolle's runaway bestseller The Power of Now