spirituality

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the-return-of-the-prodigal-son-rembrandt-van-rijnThe Power of Art

It’s not uncommon to hear that a work of art changed a person’s life.  In The Return of the Prodigal Son, Henri J.M. Nouwen, one of the great 20th century Christian writers, describes his encounter with Rembrandt’s painting of the same name. Nouwen first sees the painting in a colleagues office when he is exhausted after lecturing in US churches about preventing war and violence in Central America.  Over the next few years he ruminates on its meaning as he leaves his teaching post at Harvard and begins working at Daybreak, a home for the mentally handicapped.   Nouwen opens the book:  “A seemingly insignificant encounter with a poster presenting a detail of Rembrandt’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son” set in motion a long spiritual adventure that brought me to a new understanding of my vocation and offered me new strength to live it.”  Talk about life altering, it almost makes me afraid to visit a museum.

Nouwen divides his book into three primary sections which follow the primary players in the prodigal son parable:  the younger son, the elder son, the father.   In each section, he analyzes that character in the painting, in Rembrandt’s life, and in Nouwen’s spiritual journey. Read the rest of this entry »

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An oasis of spirituality in Los Angeles

Once again our friend Laura Sanderson Healy is contributing a review and we’re so grateful to her.  If you haven’t yet read her earlier review, click here.  The rest is her writing.

logo1Calling all Bodhisattvas: enlightenment by the multiple armload awaitsyou at The Bodhi Tree in Los Angeles, a spiritual bookstore beyond compare (though Zen practitioners might tut-tut that comparisons are odious). Since 1970 the Bodhi Tree has been the MRI-strength magnet on Melrose Avenue for seekers of all sorts, whether one is hunting down books on Eastern gurus like H.P. Blavatsky or G.I. Gurdjieff or Western psychics like Edgar Cayce. Books about God or gods/goddesses (and their nemeses), manuals on physical health and wellness, cures and treatments, and self-help titles for those who find themselves on mental or chemical obstacle courses, all find space, as do all the religions, good and — verdict’s out. The store presents all the
theories without passing judgment, according to its literature.

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