I was taken aback by your words about Pir Vilayat in your magazine [Issue #61]. You must have felt the same when you were asked questions about your magazine by Pir or you would have written about the encounter in a more unattached way.
I wonder why you didn’t ask about Pir Vilayat’s intent during his address (“it’s as if he’s trying to impress the scientists in the room with his grasp of biology. . . .”) and about his intuition (“I wonder why, if he’s as intuitive as he claims, he’s playing this game.”) to him. It seems these are the things you wished to know about.
It’s regretful perhaps, for readers of THE SUN, that you don’t believe that you experienced Pir Vilayat’s intuition and presence in a personal way. I’m not sure that is Pir’s fault.
Last, I’d like to remind you of a quote from the same issue — “What is to give light must endure burning.”
In love and light,
I live in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. I went to Palo Alto yesterday and browsed in my favorite store, The Plowshare. I picked up THE SUN, and am now in love with it. I wish to subscribe. I am also sending a gift subscription to my uncle. Linne Gravestock’s piece was beautiful. It’s all good. Thank you.
Your last issue — #61 on cancer — was absolutely outstanding! I am a psychotherapist and would like to have you send me ten copies of that issue if possible. There are people who need the message. Your article on the conference was beautifully and sensitively written.
A year ago a dear friend sent me a subscription to THE SUN and it has been illuminating my life ever since. In turn, I have sent subscriptions to two friends of mine.
It gets to be something like those old chain letters, doesn’t it? Perhaps they’re not around in your generation (I was born in 1913) but the letter usually had a prayer which you were to copy and send to a dozen people within two days — in return you would receive money usually, or some kind of exceptionally good luck. If you broke the chain, dire results were predicted. These chain letters were very prevalent during the Depression and World War II.
Perhaps some similar plan could be devised for warming up people’s lives with THE SUN with rewards such as the two issues with Ram Dass and the wonderful interview with Stephanie Matthews-Simonton. The threats for chain-breaking could be a bad case of cultural chill and soul hunger.
I was published in THE SUN #61 on “Fear and Courage.” The issue focused on cancer.
I was recently published in a small health journal, Healing Leaves, which also featured a (continuing) article on cancer.
I’m sure there is a message from the Lord in this. This earth is filled with the sadness of cancer and any spiritual outlook, any religious profession, that does not take this into account is deceitful and blind. To be honest, which we must be if we are to be real, I believe that THE SUN has promoted a view that puts the real pain and suffering of cancer (and associated bestial truths) into a surreal philosophic framework that is tantamount to ignoring its actual, physical pain.
I’m in the “hole” in an east coast prison way up here in Canada. An unknown friend sent over these issues of THE SUN. What can I say? High octane! Spontaneous sprouts in the gray matter upstairs — then a cooling of the emotions where the fire used to be. Doubtlessly the most delicious food for thought I’ve sampled in some time.
I’ve always held an active interest in philosophies (many of your Sunbeams lighted days past). It’s decent to see some of them crystallized more tangibly and in such fine form. Thank you.
Being a nomad means so much to me that I’m committed to coming and going and packing up and unpacking. My friends like to see me because I never stay long enough to blend into the woodwork, and I can bring with me the excitement and awe of Other Places. However, I miss you, SUN; and though I’m a subscriber I must chose an address and hope you will eventually find me, thanks to friends who are willing to pass you on.
Well, October SUN just came and thanks be, I’m settled in for long enough to write a few thoughts. Sy, your page was so pure and blessed that I wanted to jump up and hug you. Sunbeams: how about more feminine voices? There’s a woman in Fayetteville, Arkansas who’s compiling a new dictionary of quotations, with (all? most? I forget) females emphasized. The Gary Snyder excerpt is significant — more! Such an interesting contrast with Linne Gravestock’s downer. Give us light! Readers Write: I’d love to read about subjects like the moon, gardens, garbage, water, fire (try the elements). Maybe you already have; I’ve only known you about one and a half years. Well, that’s all except that I bless your being.
Since I have strong traditional moral views and am in most respects a conservative in my political and social views, there are, of course, articles, letters, poems, and pictures that grate against my convictions and sensibilities.
Still, THE SUN seems to have a spiritual quality about it, a sense of inquiry that meshes the intellectual, sentimental, and spiritual, mixing the social and personal interest stories. It does not wallow in immoral nihilism or engage in rebellious affronts to established values as have so many of the little magazines of the small press of this century.
While I am not completely happy with what I consider the still too liberal and permissive qualities of the magazine, still I find that the general sense of honest inquiry, intellectual stimulation, personal sharing, and seeking after a higher purpose to be intriguing and mostly uplifting.