Shearer, Sybil (1912–2005)

In the modern dance world, Sybil Shearer was by most accounts an idiosyncratic, singular, and somewhat esoteric figure whose career spanned the second half of the twentieth century. As a dancer Shearer came of age in the 1930s, when she studied at the Bennington School of the Dance, joined the Humphrey–Weidman company, and performed with Agnes DeMille. In 1941 she presented her debut concert as a soloist in New York City and became recognized as an innovator, an original voice within the generation that followed Bennington. The following year she moved to Chicago, a decision that enhanced her reputation for curiosity, elusiveness, and mystique. She founded her own ensemble of Chicago-based dancers, the Sybil Shearer Company, created scores of short solos for herself, and was a pioneer in the photographic and film documentation of her dances in collaboration with photographer Helen Balfour Morrison. Deeply philosophical and at the same time profoundly spiritual, Shearer devoted her career as well as her inner life—it is impossible to separate her artistry from her spirituality—to a constant search for cosmic meaning, aesthetic purity, and spiritual authenticity. Strongly influenced by Rudolf Steiner, she was a true modernist in the sense that she believed deeply in universal concepts and was in constant search of the evidence and experience of those realities through choreography and dancing.

Introduction

This chapter provides a sketch of Norman Anderson’s lifelong interest in Islam against the broad backdrop of three major developments:1) the long-term growth of secular imaginaries in western culture, 2) the geopolitical transformation of the ‘Near East’ into the ‘Middle East’, and 3) the evolution of liberal imperialism in the midst of decolonization. It draws on key features of Anderson’s thought, situating them against ancient, medieval and early modern trends, to develop broader conclusions about the historically unique features that define and distinguish twentieth-century Christian concern about Islam from its historical predecessors. It finds these features in the growing association of spiritual authenticity with private, voluntary, personal religion.

Thy Rod and Thy Staff, They Discomfort Me

This chapter examines the role of the staff as perhaps the primary religious symbol representing the profound aptitude of the spiritual authenticity as well as institutional authority of Zen masters. By virtue of evoking and embodying an adept’s greatest levels of accomplishment, the staff serves as an especially expedient means for implementing his particular method of instructing disciples and, thereby, also becomes an effective method of transmitting the teaching style and legacy of his lineage. Through examining the history and symbolism of more than half a dozen varieties of canes, rods, sceptres, sticks, and whisks, the chapter explores the material and rhetorical elements of Zen staffs.

INDIKASI PENCITRAAN DALAM UPACARA ADAT REBO PUNGKASAN DI WONOKROMO PLERET BANTUL YOGYAKARTA

Penelitian mengenai indikasi pencitraan dalam upacara adat Rebo Pungkasan bertujuan sebagai media introspeksi masyarakat agar selalu merawat nilai-nilai keaslian budaya dan spiritualnya. Kesadaran tentang upacara adat sebagai media untuk berhubungan dengan segala isi alam semesta dan Tuhan Yang Maha Esa perlu dibangunkan kembali guna menjadi pembatas agar tidak terjebak dalam sebuah pencitraan semata. Metode penelitian kualitatif dipilih untuk memperoleh segala informasi tentang upacara adat Rebo Pungkasan. Pada akhirnya sebuah indikasi pencitraan ditemukan dalam ritual tersebut. Pencitraan sudah merajalela dalam area ritual. Pada satu ruang lingkup upacara adat Rebo Pungkasan, pencitraan dapat dilihat jelas dalam kepalsuan lemper Boga Wiwaha yang dijadikan sebagai persembahan/caos dhahar. Wujud lemper dilebih-lebihkan dengan ukuran panjang antara dua meter dan diameter sekitar setengah meter supaya menarik untuk dijadikan sebuah ikon. Segalanya dikemas manis dan menarik seperti pada iklan di televisi, orasi pada kampanye, aktivitas dalam sosial media, dan sebagainya. Hampir dibalik itu semua terdapat sesuatu yang dilebih-lebihkan, kepalsuan bahkan kebohongan yang disembunyikan. Sesuatu yang disajikan/ditawarkan belum tentu sesuai dengan kenyataan yang terjadi. Sebuah pencitraan sama halnya dengan sebuah topeng yang menjadi penutup citra yang sesungguhnya. Research on the imaging indication ceremonial Rebo Pungkasan intended as a medium of introspection people to always take care of the values of cultural and spiritual authenticity. Awareness about the ceremonies as a medium to get in touch with all the contents of the universe and God Almighty needs to be woken up again to be a barrier to not get stuck in an imaging alone. Qualitative research method was chosen to obtain any information about Rebo Pungkasan ceremonies. In the end an imaging indication is found in the ritual. Imaging is already rampant in the ritual area. In the scope of traditional ceremonies Rebo Pungkasan, imaging can be seen clearly in falsehood donuts Boga Wiwaha used as offerings / caos Dhahar. Exaggerated form of donuts with a length between two meters and a diameter of about half a meter so interesting to be an icon. Everything is packaged sweet and charming as the ads on TV, speeches on the campaign, the activity in the social media, and so on. Almost behind it all there is something exaggerated, even falsity lies hidden. Something that presented / offered not necessarily correspond with the reality of the matter. An imaging as well as a mask that became the cover image of the real thing.

Broken Altars: The Work of Form in George Herbert’s Temple

George Herbert’s collection of poetry is very visibly structured: his famous shape poems are only the most obvious in an entire collection that is cleverly and carefully shaped. While this formality has suggested to some an approach to poetry either rigid and conventional or quaint and fussy, the content of the poems is far less fixed. It is deep and meditative, doubtful and unsettled. The poet is in pursuit of an emotional or spiritual authenticity he finds elusive, and that seems specifically precluded, even on his own account, by the highly artful forms of his poems. Close attention to this apparent discrepancy between the form and the content of the poetry reveals a richer understanding of the way form works—or the work form does—in Herbert’s spiritual poetics.

Spiritual Authenticity in a Secular Context: How Modern Postural Yoga is Searching for Legitimacy in All the Wrong Places

This paper examines the historical origins and spiritual context of contemporary yoga practice in the West. In an attempt to assess the spiritual significance of this somatic practice, this essay explores the way in which both critics and promoters of postural yoga frame their arguments for the value of contemporary yoga practice by showing either its disconnect from, or homogeneity with ancient Hindu traditions. By tracing the evolution of yogic practice from its scriptural origins to its contemporary manifestations, this paper argues that yoga has never been a static or perfectly defined entity. Rather, yogic practice has a long history of being re-interpreted to meet the specific spiritual needs of practitioners. Modern Postural Yoga (MPY) represents a continuation of this tradition of adaptation. Rather than being an inadequate replication of an ancient tradition, I argue that MPY is a distinctly modern practice that has been transformed to fit the contemporary spiritual needs of a secularizing and body-conscious Western society.