What's New on IJHC (August 2008)

IJHC May 2008, Volume 8, No. 2 features:

RELIGION AS EXPERIENCE:
the convergence of INDIA and the WEST since 1770
Sister Gayatriprana

This article explores how the understanding of human perception and specifically its ability to grasp the numinous has developed in the West since seventeen-seventy, and how it has increasingly related to the experiential Vedantic tradition of India. 

Beginning with the thought of David Hume, the first person in modern times to insist on the exclusive primacy of experience as a basis for valid perception and knowledge, I touch on the thought and discoveries of savants who built on that presupposition.  I conceive of four historical groups in the West, each of which contains:

1. A primary theoretician.
2. A savant who applied the theory to practical situations.
3. A savant who worked on an interface with other disciplines.

A "mystic" who added new dimensions to the whole discussion.
The overall findings of each of these four groups are then compared with the discoveries and teachings of a contemporary sage in the Vedanta tradition.

In the West these figures are distinguished by their qualifications in Western science, including psychology and philosophy.  In India, the selected figures are recognized as masters of experiential religion and its traditional framework of explanation extant in India.

My thesis is that what Western savants arrived at as a group is mirrored and complemented in the more holistic thinking of the great Indian spiritual figures who were their contemporaries.  I show how India has contributed to the West's ongoing development in the world of spiritual perception and experience, particularly in more recent history. 
(See more in IJHC, May 2008)

Quilts that Teach
Jacqueline Mast

Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouths;
I was born with a needle and thread in my hand.

Needlework came naturally to me as if it is something I brought with me to this life from a time before. I have created with fabric, needle and thread since before I could write. One of my first memories is of walking outside our house, grumbling, "I'm going to break off my teeth." I was so frustrated; this was the most horrible thing I could think of to express that frustration. This stemmed from having an idea in mind of a sewing project that I wanted to create but I had a three year old's limited fine motor abilities. I knew what I wanted but my body was not there yet!

Synchronicity has always been an important player in the intuitive abilities I bring to my professional life and in how I make my quilts. Quilts are a meditative experience for me. I cannot force a quilt into existence. I have to wait for the time that is right within my inner self. Quilts are never work; they take on a life of their own and lead me through the process.

Many times, in interviews, writers will comment that they did not write the book; they were just a conduit through which their characters spoke. My quilts are often done in that manner. I do not plan out my quiIts ahead of time; they just seems to come together of their own as I am inspired by yet another fabric or design concept as I go along. I sometimes start a quilt and get stuck part way through. I have to put it away in my attic and wait for the muse to return. This is sometimes when I realize who that quilt is being created for; at which point, I find it very easy to finish because it just flows.
(See more in IJHC, May 2008)