The growing human being—child or adult—has need for ideas that nourish the search for Truth and the development of the Will to the Good, that nourish the sense of the sacred in nature and, above all, in ourselves. It may not be necessary for everyone to enter the path of inner work, leading to the opening to the true I Am within. But it may very well be necessary for the doors to be open to those who are touched by the great wish that leads to the personal search for God, whether that search takes place in the hidden heart of our own ancient teachings; or in the still living practical mysticism of Eastern teachings; or in the re-discovered path leading to the awakening of Conscious Attention; or in ways still, for all we know, hidden and waiting to be “switched on” in our civilization.
Both in our Earth and in our personal lives—we are perhaps at an unimaginably critical juncture in the life of man on Earth.
We cannot wait for very long. The time remaining is very short, is it not?
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June 06 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
More and more, as I see it now, this heartless way of thinking about God and ultimate reality dominates the mind of the contemporary world. For God or against God, “belief” or “atheism,” it makes no difference unless the inner yearning—or whatever we wish to call the cause and source of the “second breathing”—is there. And it can so easily be there, just as it can so easily be covered over and ignored, perhaps for the rest of one’s life. God or not God, “belief” or “science”—it also makes no real difference for my personal life unless the call of the Self and its need to “breathe” is heard and, ultimately respected. Not only can thought about ultimate reality make no difference to the world or to my personal life unless we hear and respect the call of the Self, but such empty thought can bring down our personal and collective world, even our Earth itself. When thought races ahead of Being, a civilization is racing towards destruction.
June 03 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
Introduction
To think about God is to the human soul what breathing is to the human body.
I say to think about God, not necessarily to believe in God—that may or may not come later.
I say: to think about God.
I clearly remember the moment something deep inside me started breathing for the first time. Something behind my thoughts and my desires and fears, something behind my self, something behind “Jerry,” which was and is my name, the name of me, from my earliest childhood.
I can say this now, more than sixty years after my first conscious experience of this second breathing, this first breathing of the soul.
Let me explain.
Tags: "What Is God?"
April 24 2009 | Books | No Comments »
For nearly decades Jacob Needleman has confronted the central questions of our era in light of the vision that lies at the root of the world’s great spiritual traditions. Needleman’s work it takes topics that exist in disparate threads throughout our culture—new religions, esoteric Christianity, the founding mythos of America—and frames them in a manner both sensible and deeply questioning. Needleman calls forth the human meaning hidden in virtually every aspect of our modern lives.
Mitch Horowitz at Parabola recently sat down with him to discuss the nature of consciousness and its relationship to the body. Amid the current talk of “quantum fields” and “consciousness studies,” Needleman returns us to the heart of the matter: Should the mind and body be understood as two aspects of one thing, or as two distinct realities? And what does this mean for our sense of ourselves?
Read the Interview (PDF, 800KB).
Tags: Consciousness, Philosophy
March 01 2009 | Interviews | Comments Off
Goodrich Lecture
Indian Springs School
Jacob Needleman
January 22, 2004
THE ONE GREAT QUESTION
I think I should start by saying what I think a philosopher is. As some of you probably know, it means a “lover of wisdom,” somebody who seeks wisdom, who searches for wisdom—in that sense of love as the deep desire for something you do not have, but which you wish for more than anything else. And to say of someone they’re a professional philosopher is very uncomfortable for me because it’s a little like saying someone is a professional lover. Read More (PDF, 130KB).
Tags: Philosophy
March 01 2009 | Articles by Jacob Needleman | No Comments »
Gurdjieff International Review
G. I. Gurdjieff and His School
by Jacob Needleman
Although there is an increasing recognition of the importance of G. I. Gurdjieff in the spiritual landscape of the twentieth century, his name continues to evoke a variety of reactions throughout the world, ranging from awe and reverence to suspicion and hostility. It will no doubt be some time before a general cultural consensus appears, and in this brief account we shall attempt only to survey those aspects of his life and teaching that are of signal importance for anyone approaching this influential spiritual teacher for the first time.
Read more online at http://www.gurdjieff.org/needleman2.htm.
Tags: Gurdjieff
March 01 2009 | Articles by Jacob Needleman | Comments Off
Questions of the Heart: Inner Empiricism as a Way to a Science of ConsciousnessNoetic Sciences Review, Summer 1993
Read this article online at:
http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Needleman_93.html
Tags: Love, Philosophy
March 01 2009 | Articles by Jacob Needleman | Comments Off
FINDING MY RELIGION: Philosopher Jacob Needleman asks in his latest book, ‘Why Can’t We Be Good?’ (Pt 1). Read the interview by David Ian Miller, April 9, 2007, for the SF Gate.
Tags: Being Good
March 01 2009 | Audio/Video and Events and Interviews | Comments Off
The Tribune-Herald interviewed Jacob Needleman after he spoke to about 80 people about the meaning of America and his book, The American Soul, at Baylor University’s Mayborn Museum on June 13, 2006. The entire 1 1/2 hour lecture is available online at www.BaylorTv.com.
Tags: American Soul
March 01 2009 | Audio/Video and Events and Interviews | Comments Off
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