Anthologies
By Shiva

Interview With The Author

Interview With The Author, Shiva

Each of our lives are all so much more interesting than any novel one could ever read! Sometimes it is great to just take a portion of our lives and create this little world that springs forth from within our lives and soul.

For me, writing seemed the last thing I would do in this life. Throughout my years in Elementary, Junior High, High School and College, English was always my worst subject. I always made "D's"... sometimes I would manage a "C", but never anything above that. Then I met a real English teacher. Her name was Lynne. She was around my age and a fellow student in the Seminary of the Religious Science School of Ministry. She was paying for her tuition by teaching this class. She magically opened me up to this wonderful world of words. Through her guidance and inspiration, writing became an expression of the song of the soul for me.

Lynne died in a automobile accident about twenty years ago. But her gift of teaching what she loved so much, still lives within my heart and soul. Teaching has such a powerful influence in the lives and direction of others in ways we cannot begin to understand nor comprehend.

After I started teaching as a spiritual teacher in the early 80's, I began to accumulate a group of stories or personal experiences that I used during my seminars. Some of them were really good! Others were just good... Anyway, one night I decided to begin to write these stories down and compile them.

I soon found myself jotting down key words to a story on a pad and later on I would enter a rough draft on my little Mac. As the number of stories grew, I decided to create a small book comprised of these stories. Once you do that, then you are faced with the issue of coming up with a name for it. "Anthology" came to mind. Since I was not too sure what "Anthology" meant, I looked it up. It seems that one definition of Anthology is, "an arrangement of beautiful flowers". Since my stories were each a little flower, I named the book "Anthology for the Spiritual Aspirant". I self-published the original in 1994. Funny, every once in a while someone will show up with one of these original copies.

The book did not stop there. From time to time new stories would pop up. I continued to jot them down and enter them in to my Mac. Soon the stories seem to be taking a theme. Some were fiction, others were significant dreams that held great meaning and still others were simply stories that were personal recollections. So I decided to break up the book into these categories. Now I had three arrangements of flowers, so I changed the title from "Anthology for the Spiritual Aspirant" to "Anthologies: A Collection of Spiritual Flowers".

The stories continued to come. I found that my personal experiences section were becoming quite large. There were so many stories about my experiences with my teacher that I ended up taking most of them out and starting a new book, "The Fast Path with Rama"... But that, if you pardon the pun, is another story.

I have come to realize that "Anthologies for the Spiritual Aspirant" will never really be finished. I have several new additions to the book that need to be edited and new ones seem to pop up all of the time. This is why it is so suited as an electronic book.

When I write I enter into a magical world.

If it is a fiction, then I am this God that decides everything. I decide the setting and environment. I create and develop the characters and story line. If I do not like the direction or sequence of events I can change it. The fate of every character and the outcome is totally in my hands. It is so much fun!

When I write about some of my own personal experiences, I begin to see into these events in a much deeper level. This can really be a catharsis and a healing process in itself.

As I write about my spiritual insight, I can see how I have grown. Interestingly, some of my writings seem to contradict others. But isn't that the way it is anyway? We are not one or two dimensional beings.

Whether I am writing about my personal experiences or this great pronouncement of "Truth", it is an interesting experience to review your great work of literature and find that it is so full of this massive ego or other disgusting qualities such as being this wimpy victim or self righteous asshole. And to have it so readily displayed for all to behold!