James N. Powell

~ New York Times Review of Books November 21, 1982

Most people think they use language to communicate. But language is insidious; it determines the way we think. Modern philosophers say we live in a universe limited by our language. Ludwig Wittgenstein even said we were ''bewitched.'' James Powell goes a little further. He examines the symbols of language the way a biologist examines cells. By inquiring into the nature of symbols themselves, he hopes to show the transcendental capacity of language not for mere communication but for ''communion.'' He assures us that the universe is a silent partner in a dialogue that goes on all the time and that throughout history certain images and techniques of meditation have led consciousness to break through the limitations of language.

Mr. Powell argues that we tend to underestimate the volatility of symbols. In world politics, we can easily see the danger of a breakdown in communication. When one world of meaning has no reality for the other, dialogue stops, sometimes violently. If the breakdown is taken as a failure in communication, in which each side sees the other as willfully irrational, the result is explosive. If, however, the failure is seen as a collision of symbol systems, each of which has absolute internal reality, then dialogue may be pursued with a different understanding. 'The Tao of Symbols is Mr. Powell's attempt to bring occupants of different worlds together (Buddhist and Moslem, scientist and sage) and to suggest the basis for a new kind of dialogue.

Some Suggestions for Interreligious Dialog

In addition to his published works, Jim Powell collaborated with Imogen Cunningham on a photographically illustrated translation of the verse of St. John of the Cross.

In 1986, Santa Barbara's Transcendental Meditation teachers unaminously voted Jim in as the Center Chairman, The vote was news to Jim, who accepted the position anyway and served from 1986 until 1996, when he began working working as an English professor. He has been teaching TM since 1972.

Mike Love, of Beach Boys fame, kindly welcomed the local TM teachers to teach from his estate overlooking the ocean. The Santa Barbara TM Center has instructed well over 10,000 Barbareños in meditation.

The TM Center doubled as a Maharishi Ayurveda Center hosting India's greatest Ayurvedic physicians.

Prologues to What Is Possible

1.

There was an ease of mind that was like being alone in a boat at sea,

A boat carried forward by waves resembling the bright backs of rowers,

Gripping their oars, as if they were sure of the way to their destination,

Bending over and pulling themselves erect on the wooden handles,

Wet with water and sparkling in the one-ness of their motion.

The boat was built of stones that had lost their weight and being

no longer heavy

Had left in them only a brilliance, of unaccustomed origin,

So that he that stood up in the boat leaning and looking before him

Did not pass like someone voyaging out of and beyond the familiar.

He belonged to the far-foreign departure of his vessel and was part of it,

Part of the speculum of fire on its prow, its symbol, whatever it was,

Part of the glass-like sides on which it glided over the salt-stained water.

As he traveled alone, like a man lured on by a syllable without

any meaning,

A syllable of which he felt, with an appointed sureness,

That it contained the meaning into which he wanted to enter,

A meaning which, as he entered it, would shatter the boat and leave

the oarsmen quiet

As at a point of central arrival, an instant moment, much or little,

Removed from any shore, from any man or woman, and needing none.

~ Wallace Stevens