EDITOR'S COMMENTS

     Today, the fundamentalists of each of the three major monotheistic religions are doing their best to kill one another, along with as many of the rest of us as they can. This has come about as a result of the split in the collective consciousness between the rational mind of the secular humanists, those who have given us science and democracy, and the spiritual mind of the fundamentalists, those who are trying to stay spiritual by staying true to their ancient Holy Books.
     Today, it is acutely necessary for us to get a handle on how to bridge the gap between our rational minds and any sort of collective spiritual wisdom. For starters, we need to find a collective spiritual way that does not exclude anyone - one, in fact, that includes each and every person here on this planet earth.

     I have been reading Karen Armstrong's book, The Battle for God. Her thesis is that the fundamentalists of all three of the major monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - have long been very unhappy with the world of secular humanism, with its science and its democracy. They have long looked upon this modern world that the rest of us have taken for granted and have judged it to be immoral and against God's will. Because of this, they have all made various and serious attempts at political and/or religious revolution.
     Although these fundamentalists, with their Holy Books, have been battered and bruised by the findings of science and have been ridiculed by many educated secular humanists, they have not given up their faiths. Instead, they have become more and more militant. They have become increasingly disturbed that science and democracy, along with the rational, left-brained mind that had promised so much for mankind, have led us instead to immorality and damnation. They feel that the human race has taken a wrong turn, that science and democracy and this modern world that they have created together are all evil. They believe that only a return to the true religious teachings and values of the past can save us from eternal damnation.
     However, the secular humanists, proud of their science and democracy, point to the amazing results of these same rational, left-brained, minds. Today, we are able to travel vast distances in our great airplanes and our giant ocean liners. We are able to build incredible bridges, immense buildings, and great cities. We have improved our physical health and our standard of living immensely. We have even begun to go into space. Of course, these same rational minds have also given us the atomic bomb and all the other dreadful weapons of mass destruction and intimidation.
     No matter how we look at it though, from the fundamentalist or from the secular humanist point of view, all these incredible changes in human reality came about once we stopped taking the Torah, the Bible, and the Koran literally, once we began to see them merely as increasingly outdated metaphors for how to live a spiritual life. In other words, all these incredible changes came about when our rational minds decided to start thinking for themselves.
     In my essay, Spiritual Revolution, I elaborate further upon this dilemma and propose a transcendental solution, a union of opposites that will include science as well as a spiritual life, one that will include the rational, scientific mind along with the mystical, spiritual mind. In my essay, I suggest that we stop trying so hard to change everyone else. I suggest that we focus upon raising our own individual consciousness instead, leaving everyone else alone to raise their own. Doing this will take the human race onto a higher and much more positive spiritual path.

     In this issue of The Caldron, Wisdom's Corner honors six wise folks who have enriched the rest of us by their very presence. In addition, we are blessed once again by our contributors: Aspen Marks is back with her wonderful notes on spiritual gardening. Partha Majumder is sharing another of his amazing stories as well as one of his poems. Jeannette Harris has given us a beautiful and poignant short story this time. Beast, the man who must write with a boner, shares another lusty tale. And one of our favorite poets, Corey Mesler, has honored us with more of his poems.
     We also have two new contributors. Linden Jordan has graced us with a poem. Linden was born in London and raised in Chicago and England. He started writing spiritual poems during a bout of clinical depression, which to this day is both his heaviest burden and his primary inspiration. Parchatte Majumder, Partha's fifteen-year-old daughter, debuts here as well. She lives in city of Kolkata, India. She is 15 years old and her nickname is Babydoll. She loves writing poems. If you want to get in touch with her, write her dad.
Enjoy.

Eugene Marks, Editor