NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR
I.
This book is the first volume of what I intend to be a life-long work. It is both literary and spiritual in nature. Like Whitman’s
Leaves of Grass, Suicide Dictionary will advance piecemeal as I continue with my goal of offering a “Contemporary
Upanishads” that capture the beauty of both western intellectuality and eastern (or mystical) spirituality in a single
literary framework. The closeness of my integral vision with the work of Ken Wilber will be obvious to the initiated. I have
applied Mr. Wilber’s Integral Theory to the making of Suicide Dictionary and now consider it’s poetic expression an
announcement of the emergence of an Integral Poetics, a sub-section of Integral Art. Although I am as yet employing poetic
forms of the past, the ideas erupting from the symbols I offer are products of consciously operating from (at least) an
“integral” or “second tier” level of awareness.
This volume of Suicide Dictionary consists of the first 100 entries. The headers are taken from the ‘A’ section of my Merriam
Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. The book is and will continue to be divided into chapters of 50 entries each.
Each entry’s purpose is four-fold:
1) To supply a “definition” for the corresponding word.
2) To supply a snippet of “integral philosophy” through the use of poetic language.
3) To supply a trans-rational pointing exercise that encourages the reader to explore spiritual experience through an authentic
transformative practice of their choice.
4) To supply information which develops the main story-line in regards to the epic of Quantum Psalter and Rainbow Abbey.
I plan to use this existence to define each word in the ‘A’ section of the dictionary. This leaves the opportunity for other integral
writers to take action on B, C, D, etc… A project such as this has the potential of offering a truly “Worldcentric Vedas” to the
emerging Integral Age. If you are interested in authoring a future volume of Suicide Dictionary please contact Paul Lonely at
paul_lonely_merryweather@hotmail.com.
When I was an undergraduate science major at a small college in central Kentucky there was a poster hanging in one of my
classrooms which read, “What isn’t Chemistry?”. I remember instantly identifying the reductionistic nature of the phrase and
thinking at the time, “What isn’t Mind?”. It’s now been six years since I sat in that classroom. The road I’ve taken is
embedded in each word of this book. As I sit here today staring into the depths of what IS, I can only hope that one day this
phrase will be added to that poster: “What isn’t Spirituality?”.
II.
It has recently been brought to my attention that a short summary to properly situate the reader would be beneficial before
beginning the book. Although I feel the note above will be sufficient for most readers, I’ve decided to provide a bit of
background information that will allow the reader to grasp from the out-set some of the more surface aspects of the work.
The setting for Suicide Dictionary is a monastery named Rainbow Abbey which is located on an island in the North Atlantic
called Ambrojjio. This island was discovered in 1453 ce and donated, later in the same year, to the Catholic Church. Pope
Nicholas V (the first humanist Pope) used the land to erect a secret monastery for an artist colony of monk-poets he employed
to formulate what he called a “prophetic” or “inspired” document to be published in the year 2050 . This artist colony (now
called the Order of Quantum Catholics) has survived to the present day (2007) and still employs monk-poets who remain hard
at work on Pope Nicholas’s “prophetic” document which has now been titled Quantum Psalter.
There are nine monk-poets currently living at Rainbow Abbey and working on Quantum Psalter. Their names are:
Taft Merryweather
Abbot Ezra Davenport
Silas Paul
Gordon Flannery
Dale Rutherford
Issak Kidwell
Abe Hendrik
Martin Fugat
Simon Warner
There is also a young boy, named Hugo Gustafson, who figures prominently in the book. His mother is an oblate at Rainbow
Abbey and allows Hugo (a prized student) to spend some of his free time with the Quantums. Thus far I have utilized multiple
styles in my presentation of Suicide Dictionary. Each entry’s style will fall into one of four categories:
1) Dialogues. The majority of entries are composed of conversations between Quantum monk-poets currently residing at
Rainbow Abbey.
2) Direct prose statements. These entries have one of two purposes. The first is to give details of the physical features of
Rainbow Abbey (an example is entry #3). The other is to provide a brief history of the Order of Quantum Catholics (examples
are entries #20 and 27).
3) Free-standing poems. In Book One I have written a series of sonnets. In Book Two I have included six acrostics.
4) Journal Entries. These entries furnish Quantum history and insights from the monk-poets of Rainbow Abbey’s past.
As you begin the book please do not be put off by not having a feel for “who the characters are.” It is my intention to transcend
and include this “cult of personality.” As my dictionary progresses I will slowly fill in the character’s masks for those
interested. What the monks are saying and pointing to is far more important. That being said, the characters will mean more and
more to you as the book advances. Nirvana will hold hands with Samsara, I promise.
Paul Lonely
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