Issue 163 | The Sun Magazine

June 1989

Readers Write

Beauty

A field mouse, a newborn, a pair of mallards

By Our Readers
Quotations

Sunbeams

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.

James Baldwin

The Sun Interview

In The Spirit Of Philosophy

An Interview With Jacob Needleman

The more you realize what it actually means to be awake, the more alive all your functions will be. New thoughts, new visions, and new insights come to you, and those can be seductive; so you have to remember that awareness is the vehicle for all of them. That’s why the great spiritual traditions tell us not to get swept away even if someone like the Buddha appears to us; the smart thing may be to tell him to go away. It’s your own consciousness that counts. That’s the Buddha-nature within you.

By D. Patrick Miller
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

The Law Of Relation

(Part Two)

They are lovers. He told me last night at 3 a.m., after we had taken several long walks, talking and coming to no resolution. After weeks of fighting, absolutely at cross-purposes, as though we were speaking entirely different languages.

By Catherine Madsen
Fiction

Leaving The Dead

My mother wanted to flush our pet goldfish down the toilet. My brother and I thought we at least ought to look after its death since we hadn’t done much for its short life.

By Mary Ann Cain
Fiction

Yahbo The Hawk

Again and again he flew against the window so mercilessly I was scared he would break his neck. Then his eyes glowed with wrath.

By Josip Novakovich
Fiction

The Things We Learn

I know what he learns in church: Jews killed Christ. He knows what I learn in Temple: how to kill Christ and get away with it.

By Deborah Shouse