July 25, 2008, Sufi talk and practice, By Farhad Farhang, Great paintings, great poems, How the heck can you tell one ‘tec from another?, By Professor Guillermo Mendez

Sufi talk and practice
By Farhad Farhang July 25, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Lecture
Sufism
Tue, July 29, 6pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
Donation

Sufism is a way to God through love, a path toward Truth. Its method is to look solely in one direction and its objective is God. A Sufi is one who moves toward Truth through love and devotion. Since only one who is perfect is capable of realizing the Truth, Sufis strive for perfection by being in harmony with Divine Nature.

Nimatullahi Sufi Order

The present master of this authentic Sufi order is Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, who was born in Iran in 1926, and graduated from the University of Tehran medical school in 1952. He specialized in psychiatry, first in practice at Tehran’s Ruzbeh hospital and then as a professor at the university. In 1977, Dr. Nurbakhsh was named head of the Department of Psychiatry at the university and director of Ruzbeh hospital. Iran hosted the World Congress of Psychiatry for the first time under his supervision.

Chivalry

Before Islam appeared, the tradition of chivalry in the Middle East, specifically in northeastern Iran, was maintained by training men to be chevaliers. Chivalry involved consideration for others, self-sacrifice, devotion, kindness, helping the unfortunate, keeping one’s word and self-effacement. These qualities later emerged, for Sufis, as the noble attributes of the perfect human being. Chevaliers embraced Islam when it appeared, while retaining the conventions of chivalry.

Love

Human love takes three basic forms. The first is friendship based on social conventions. The second form includes profound love as well as the love found within most families. The third kind transcends all conventions based on mutual expectations and has no constraints or conditions. The Sufi’s devotion to God exemplifies this form of love.

God

God is Absolute Being and whatever exists is a determination or manifestation of Him. All being exists through God’s Being, without which there would be nothing. This insight is the philosophy of the Unity of Being. Though there may appear to be many and few, in truth there is but One.

Great paintings, great poems

Lecture
Culture & ArtExperience
Thu, July 31,1pm
Instituto Allende Theater
Ancha de San Antonio 20

Join University of Texas-Pan American professor Dr. Steven Schneider as he examines the intertextual relationship between poetry and art and reads several poems written in response to paintings by Mexican artists or about Mexico.

Schneider will read from his own poems and those of other poets, including W.D. Snodgrass, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet who has spent winters in San Miguel de Allende for many years. Snodgrass’s poem about Manet’s painting The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian, is an excellent example of how poets use a dramatic occasion to develop a poem about a work of art. Other examples come from poems written about paintings by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and other Mexican artists from the period of the Mexican Revolution.

For information, contact University of Texas-Pan American, 1201 W. University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539, 1-866-441-UTPA.

How the heck can you tell one ‘tec from another?
By Professor Guillermo Mendez

Lecture
Ancient Cultures Part I
The Four Major Pre-Hispanic Mexican Cultures
Prof. Guillermo Mendez
Wed, July 30, 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos

“Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec, Zapotec”—we know they were some of the great cultures of ancient Mexico, but how the heck can you tell one ‘tec from another? If this question has been on your mind lately you may be interested in a lecture this week at the Teatro Santa Ana of the Biblioteca Pública. Retired professor of humanities Guillermo Méndez examines four major pre-Hispanic Mexican cultures described by one Mesoamerican scholar as the four “unifying forces” in ancient Mexico. They are the Olmec, Teotihuacán, Toltec and Aztec civilizations. The lecture will be illustrated with over 200 digital images of the art, artifacts, and architecture of the four cultures.

For each culture a distinguishing concept will be given and discussed. The concepts are defining concepts that help to differentiate one group from another.

For example, the defining identity for the Olmecs is “The Mother Culture,” for that is the role they played in Mesoamerican history. Most of the salient characteristics of later cultures were present in the Olmec several centuries before the year zero in our Gregorian calendar.

The ancient cultures of Mexico shared a unique calendar that combined a 365-day solar calendar and a 260-day ritual calendar. This combination of calendars did not repeat until 52 years had passed. Thus 52-year “centuries” acquired considerable importance in the cosmic expectations of the Aztecs, for example, demanding vital rituals like the “new fire ceremony.” Every 52 years all the fires in the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan, were extinguished. On a hilltop outside of the city a “new fire” was started on the chest of a soon-to-be-sacrificed person. From the new fire all the extinguished fires of the city would be reignited.

Each of the four cultures had its own style in art and architecture. Again distinguishing visual images will be presented that characterize each culture. In the case of the Olmecs the colossal heads carved of basalt will be discussed and the unique were-jaguar images, many carved from jadeite, will be examined and interpreted.

A second lecture next week utilizing the same format will present the Zapotec, Maya, Classic Veracruz, and Mixtec cultures.