Temenos Academy Review 2014

The Temenos Academy Review contains the usual feast of articles, of poems and reviews. Among the items that especially caught my attention was Joseph Milne on the heavenly order and the lawful society, Raimon Panikkar on spirituality, the way to live, and an interview with Brother John Martin Sahajananda, a former colleague of Bede Griffiths. Panikkar makes the important point that spirituality must be based on more than the individual soma and psyche, but must also include polis and kosmos - everything is a totality so spirituality should be integral without neglecting any aspect of reality. Brother John Martin talks about how he met Father Bede and how he bases his life on the vision of Christ rather than historical Christianity. He has a beautiful explanation of one of the I Am sayings by Jesus by relating it to the different parts of a tree. He also sees atheism as playing an important role in the evolution of religion by purging some of the historical aspects.

Given the death of Sir John Tavener at the end of last year, it was very good to see of a fine obituary by Ian Skelly as well as an essay on composition by Sir John himself and another on spiritual traditions in his work. I loved the story from 2008 when he was thought to be brain-dead and his wife arrived with a CD of Mozart to find her husband in a deep coma. As soon as the music began, his hand began conducting it in the air. Composing sacred music requires a completely different attitude on the part of the artist, the very opposite of self-expression. Icon painters and early composers of Orthodox chants were unknown; they were steeped in a tradition of which they became an instrument. Sir John understood himself to be in the same position, becoming transparent so that music literally flowed through him. His inner world had to be animated by God. Lastly, I very much enjoyed Rupert Sheldrake's review of The Intuitive Way of Knowing, which is a tribute to Brian Goodwin as well as of a discussion of the commonalities and differences between them.