Sections | The Sun Interview | The Sun Magazine #42

Browse Sections

The Sun Interview

The Sun Interview

Fixing The World

An Interview With Schlomo Carlebach

The way to receive light from God is through praying. The only difference is that some people pray unconsciously, some pray consciously, some pray super-consciously. You can walk into a restaurant and see a person who says, “I’m so hungry. I need some soup.” Deep down his soul is praying to God, “God, please give me life, I’m at the end.”

By Howard Rubin November 1982
The Sun Interview

Gently Changing

An Interview On Cancer And Health With O. Carl Simonton

What we have our patients do is to take the symptoms of cancer as the illness, and to look for the five biggest changes that they can identify in their lives in the 18 months prior to the diagnosis being made. If they have had subsequent flareups, they look at the six months prior to each flareup. Then, they look at their emotional reactions to those changes. Finally, with each episode, they look at five good things that happened to them as a result of the diagnosis or of each flareup — what they get out of being sick.

By Lightning Brown November 1982
The Sun Interview

Changing Things

An Interview With David Spangler

We are completely and wholly unique and in a very special one-on-one relationship with the divine. If I can recognize that in my life, there may still be things I want to do, changes I want to make, growth I want to achieve, but I can do so companioned by this spirit of playful and compassionate lovingness. If I can find ways of extending that to others as God has offered it to me, then I’ve found a real gift.

By Howard Rubin October 1982
The Sun Interview

Seeing The Gift

An Interview With Hugh Prather

I had to begin doing things out of peace. I had to begin following my peaceful preference regardless of what my ego said the consequences would be. I didn’t know what the consequences would be. The fact that it was a peaceful thing for me to do was sufficient reason to continue doing it.

By Sy Safransky September 1982
The Sun Interview

The Success Inside

An Interview With Tom Paxton

The bottom line is whether I think I have the power to change people’s minds and the answer is no. All I can do is write my songs, put them out there, and what happens after that is out of my control. The effect that they have is beyond me. My job is to make sure that I write the best songs I can write.

By Howard Rubin July 1982
The Sun Interview

Quiet Mind

An Interview With Matt Lippa

Each thought, each feeling, each idea, each sense, each desire creates a pattern. Usually, thought is random, desires are random, fears, worries are unchecked. They’re working counter to each other; there’s a lot of confusion. So what manifests in the person’s life is chaos. Well, you can control your mind and determine what will manifest in your life.

By Howard Rubin June 1982
The Sun Interview

Ordinary Mind

An Interview With Allen Ginsberg

It could be said that sympathy is our most powerful tool, because nothing stops it, except disaster, but disaster’s impermanent. Hell is impermanent as well as heaven. Therefore there’s nothing to stop sympathy; even in the middle of deepest illusion you can be aware that something else is possible when you see things as outside of yourself and can bear with them.

By Howard Rubin April 1982
The Sun Interview

The Secret Sharer

An Interview With Jenovefa Knoop

When you’re really down, there are amazing resources that open up, psychic, emotional, ancestral resources and wisdom. Genuine suffering is never so bad. As heart-rending and bleak as it is, it pulls you to the center of creation, where everyone who has ever lived has suffered, to the great wellspring of wisdom and survival knowledge and grace.

By Howard Rubin March 1982
The Sun Interview

Transfiguring The Ordinary

An Interview With Roger Corless

If the Christian God exists, the plurality of religions is not a problem in his mind. His mind functions in some other way. So it’s only a problem for us. If Mahayana Buddhism is right and the universe is neither One nor Many nor both nor neither but emptiness, unqualifiedness, then it’s not a problem that there are two religions or one or both or neither.

By Howard Rubin February 1982
The Sun Interview

“All Praises Due To Allah”

An Interview With Brother Yusuf Salim

The music is just a vehicle. I can look around and see better musicians all around me who aren’t getting all the publicity that I’m getting. That makes me realize that it’s not the music. The music just puts me on the stage in a position to reach out. My real profession is human relations. I just happen to play a little piano.

By Howard Rubin January 1982
Free Trial Issue Are you ready for a closer look at The Sun?

Request a free trial, and we’ll mail you a print copy of this month’s issue. Plus you’ll get full online access — including 50 years of archives.
Request A Free Issue