Bio

Nathan nurtured a great interest in nature as a child. This lead him to a deep appreciation for the natural world, for the mind and the heart wisdom that informs it. He has traveled and lived in many different cultures and sees the value of mythology, science, art, beauty and harmonious communication to human life. His inspirations have included the writer and comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Abraham Lincoln, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman. Among many others.

He studied yoga and ran an IT firm and English teaching school in South India for a decade. He studied the yoga sutras with Mr TKV Desikachar during that period. In his twenties, Nathan enjoyed a very close relationship with Tara Singh. Prime Minister Nehru had been concerned about the impact of industrialized society on the Indian villager. He sent Tara Singh to Moscow and New York and Washington DC to the corridors of power.

From Tara Singh's official bio:

"Tara Singh was known as a teacher, author, poet and humanitarian. Born in 1919, he spent the early years of his life in a small village in Punjab, India. From this sheltered environment, his family then traveled and lived in Europe and Central America. At 22, his search for the truth led him to the Himalayas where he lived for four years as an ascetic. He described this time as his outgrowing of conventional religion, where he discovered “that a mind conditioned by religious or secular beliefs is always limited.”

He subsequently responded to the poverty of India through participation in that country's postwar industrialization and international affairs. He became a close friend of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other great leaders who helped to frame India’s constitution.

After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, he came to America to observe the impact of science on society and to learn how technology could benefit a free India. Even though he had less than three years of formal education, he met and associated with key thinkers, leaders and educators in America. Eleanor Roosevelt, Pearl Buck and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas among others, helped introduce Mr. Singh to the West. Living in New York, he served as an executive of C.A.R.E., refusing to accept a salary although he himself was often without funds.

It was during the 1950’s, as he outgrew his involvement with political and economic systems, that he became inspired by his associations with Mr. J. Krishnamurti and the teacher of the Dalai Lama. He discovered that “humanity’s problems cannot be solved externally.”

Nathan was deeply impacted by his relationship with Tara Singh. Tara Singh associated with Buckminster Fuller, the visionary engineer and innovator and Alan Chadwick the gifted horticulturalist. Nathan worked on a number of the farms that Chadwick pioneered. He likes to go to the root of things and so he was lead into the company of people's whose lives sprouted from the same wealth of soil. Birds of a feather tend to flock together.

Buckminster Fuller's great insight was to look at the Earth as a spaceship. The engineer in him looked at the planet as a whole and integrated system. The poorest country on Earth is Malawi. It grows tobacco and corn in monoculture models. Alan Chadwick was the gardener who kickstarted the organic farming movement. We now have permaculture and biodynamic agriculture, approaches to agriculture that generatively builds up the quality of the soil, that enriches the soil. Carl Jung said that every enterprise and activity will attract its compensatory opposite. Industrial farming attracts holistic management and organic permaculture and biodynamics. These are the ways of the world which is an extension of the mind.

The only way out of the dualities of pain and pleasure is to make contact with the ground of our being which does not change. This is Nathan's primary interest. It demands great introspection and a stepping away from the things that blind one in ignorance. This is not the primary interest of society but it is the way to liberate one of suffering. Our world is an expression of our inner world. We must focus on what is creative.

Carl Jung was clear. As was Tara Singh. As was Ramana Maharshi. Reformers and movements do not reverse the trends of fearful movement in the world. Reactivity is locked in the pairs of opposites and merely prolongs human suffering. The only sane path through this world is to focus on liberation from illusions. Sane individuals who find a way to embrace such a life are the embodiment of hope in a world of duality. This is the creative approach that liberates. Affluence without wisdom is self-destructive and enmeshes us in the ignorance of the ego identity. Transcending such stories is the focus of anyone related to wholeness. Creative approaches are essential to the path of wisdom in the inner and outer worlds.. Destructive ones lead to deserts within and without; myopic approaches to energy and resource management - approaches founded on insecurity and its child - fear and unhealthy limitation and greed bind us to a life of misery. The only way out is within.

By studying mythology (as allegory), science and literature and by being blessed by great teachers, Nathan has discerned his own gifts. He recognizes that our first focus must surely be to see through the eyes of fulfillment, for that is the crux of meaning in a human life. You start at the end. You command your attention on what is critical and of utmost importance: the vision you set out to achieve. When you do this , you become a gardener of the spirit. A gardener nurtures and listens to the soil, to the seed, to the weather and the birds, the animals and the fungi and to his fellow man. The gardener listens to all these things. He has to, to succeed in his task, to celebrate the earth.

Alan Savory, out of Zimbabwe, has pioneered cattle farming methods that reverse desertification and global warming. Farming in such a way that honors the natural order of ecology and that enriches the soil . These things work and they work very well. Such wisdom is ignored only by fools. We are not fools. We can be free of our folly as individuals and as a species. We can dwell on our strengths. Homo sapiens sapiens or Homo sapiens fabula? The twice wise ape or the wise storytelling ape?

Nathan believes that the wise storytelling ape is the most fitting name for man. What benefit does the appellation "twice wise" give us? We, after all, are only wise based on what stories inform our experience of the world. We hold the pen. All of us.

As the scribe of our personal story, and as the scribes of our collective stories, it is imperative that we become conscious and aware of the feelings and thoughts that populate our consciousness. The great myths, in the hands of wise interpretation transform the landscape of man's experience and the application of great science does the same to the fields of the earth that we plow. We are the custodians of the Earth. The Earth matters and we matter. This is not an issue up for debate. When science is used wisely we listen to a man like Allan Savory who has, in turn listened to the earth. Then the earth blossoms and blooms. When myth is interpreted wisely we become attentive to the great interpreters of the literature of the spirit : people like Carl Jung, Robert A Johnson Florence Scovel Shinn and Joseph Campbell. These are all wonderful teachers to work through our blindness and lack of faith. To navigate what is preventing us from going deeper into the hidden cave in the heart.

The persona - what we would like to be and how we wish to be seen by the world

The ego - what we identify as being and what we know about consciously

The shadow - the part of us that we fail to see or know that is hidden in the unconscious

The anima - the feminine side of a man that is so important to connecting with the lost feeling faculty that ends cruelty/brutality in man

The animus - the masculine side of a woman that helps her find her drive in the world and balance to her feminine nature

The Self - the realization of the Self is the focus of an enlightened mind - it is our nature beyond form, that is not born and does not die. It is joyous, has no center and is not limited and illuminated from within.

Kali, with her horrific long bared tongue, her necklace of skulls, her belt of severed arms, is not some goddess to worship outside of oneself. Rather, she represents that archetype in the female that protects and nurtures and that warns against folly. She is not meant to frighten, she is meant to remind us to live in a way that we does not create negative consequences for ourselves.

Here is Florence Scovel Shinn writing about the allegorical meaning of the parting the of the Red Sea:

"CROSSING YOUR RED SEA

"Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." Ex. 14:15

One of the most dramatic stories in the bible is the episode of the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea . Moses was leading them out of the land of Egypt where they were kept in bondage and slavery. They were being pursued by the Egyptians. The children of Israel , like most people, did not enjoy trusting God; they did a lot of murmuring. They said to Moses: "Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt , saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness." "And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever." "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." We might say that Moses pounded faith into the children of Israel . 

They preferred being slaves to their old doubts and fears (for Egypt stands for darkness), than to take the giant swing into faith, and pass through the wilderness to their Promised Land. There is, indeed, a wilderness to pass through before your Promised Land is reached. The old doubts and fears encamp round about you, but, there is always someone to tell you to go forward! There is always a Moses on your pathway. Sometimes it is a friend, sometimes intuition! 

"And the Lord said to Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel , that they go forward!" "But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea." "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided." "And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left." "And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." "And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea." "And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the hosts of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them." Now remember, the bible is talking about the individual. It is talking about your wilderness, your Red Sea , and your Promised Land. 

Each one of you has a Promised Land, a heart's desire, but you have been so enslaved by the Egyptians (your negative thoughts), it seems very far away, and too good to be true. You consider trusting God a very risky proposition. The wilderness might prove worse than the Egyptians. And how do you know your Promised Land really exists? The reasoning mind will always back up the Egyptians. But sooner or later, something says, "Go forward!" It is usually circumstances—you are driven to it. I give the example of a student. 

She is a very marvelous pianist and had great success abroad. She came back with a book full of press clippings, and a happy heart. A relative took an interest in her and said she would back her financially for a concert tour. They chose a manager who took charge of the expenses, and attended to her bookings. After a concert or two, there were no more funds. The manager had taken them. My friend was left stranded, desolate and disappointed. This was about the time that she came to me. She hated the man, and it was making her ill. She had very little money and could afford only a cheerless room where her hands were often too cold to practice. She was indeed, in bondage to the Egyptians—hate, resentment, lack and limitation. Someone brought her to one of my meetings, and she spoke to me and told her story. I said, "In the first place you must stop hating that man. When you are able to forgive him, your success will come back to you. You are taking your initiation in forgiveness." It seemed a pretty big order, but she tried and came regularly to all my meetings. 

In the meantime, the relative had started a suit to recover the money. Time went on and it never came to court. My friend had a call to go to California . She was no longer disturbed by the situation, and had forgiven the man. Suddenly, after about four years, she was notified that the case had come to court. She called me upon her arrival in New York , and asked me to speak the word for rightness and justice. They went at the time appointed, and it was all settled out of court, the man restoring the money by monthly payments. She came to me overflowing with joy, for she said, "I hadn't the least resentment toward the man. He was amazed when I greeted him cordially." Her relative said that all the money was to go to her, so she found herself with a big bank account. 

Now she will soon reach her Promised Land. She came out of the house of bondage (of hate and resentment) and crossed her red sea. Her goodwill toward the man caused the waters to part, and she crossed over on dry land. Dry land symbolizes something substantial under your feet, the feet symbolizing understanding. Moses stands out as one of the greatest figures in biblical history. "It came to Moses to move from Egypt with his nation. The task before him was not only the unwillingness of Pharaoh to let go of those whom he had made into profitable slaves, but also to stimulate to open rebellion this nation which had lost its initiative under the hardships of its taskmasters." "It required extraordinary genius to meet this condition, which Moses possessed with self abnegation and the courage of his own convictions. Self abnegation! He was called the meekest of men. We have often heard the expression, 'As meek as Moses.' He was so meek towards the commands of the Lord, that he became one of the strongest of men." 

The Lord said to Moses, "lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea." So, never doubting, he said to the children of Israel , "Go forward." This was a daring thing to do, to lead a multitude of people into the sea, having perfect faith they would not drown. Behold the miracle! ". . . the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided." Now remember, this could happen for you this very day. Think of your problem. Maybe you have lost your initiative from living so long a slave to Pharaoh—(your doubts, fears and discouragements). Say to yourself, "Go forward." ". . . the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind." We will think of this strong east wind as a strong affirmation. 

Take a vital statement of Truth. For example, if your problem is a financial one, say: "My supply comes from God, and big happy financial surprises now come to me, under grace, in perfect ways." The statement is a good one, for it contains the element of mystery. We are told that God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. We might say in surprising ways. Now that you have made your statement for supply, you have caused the east wind to blow. So walk up to your Red Sea of lack or limitation. The way to walk up to your Red Sea is to do something to show your fearlessness. 

I will tell the story of a student who had an invitation to visit friends at a very fashionable summer resort. She had been living in the country for a long time, grown heavier, and nothing fitted her but her girl scout suit. Suddenly, she received the invitation. It meant evening clothes, slippers and accessories, none of which she had, and no money to buy them. She came to me. I said, "What is your hunch?" She replied, "I feel very fearless. I have the hunch to go, anyway." So she squeezed herself into something to travel in, and went. When she arrived at her friend's house she was greeted warmly, but her hostess said, with some embarrassment, "Maybe what I've done will hurt you, but there are some evening clothes and slippers I never wear which I have put in your room. Won't you make use of them?" My friend assured her she would be delighted—and everything fitted perfectly. She had, indeed, walked up to her Red Sea and passed over on dry land. 

The waters of my Red Sea part, and I pass over on dry land, I now go forward into my Promised Land. "

What is the opposite of pearls before swine?

Well, that phrase means to share valuable things with those who do not appreciate it. The opposite is to share valuable things with those who DO appreciate them.

Mythology is essentially the study of the potential in the human spirit, as individuals, and as communities. It is the study of heroes, tricksters, dragons, mavericks, and deities. For example: The Chinese dragon celebrates the vitality of the muddy swamps - the rich places that organic life springs up from. It is a happy dragon that celebrates living. The European dragon has the pretty woman and the pots of gold - but he cannot use them. He must be slain by the knight. Metaphorically, the knight is the activating principle in all of us. The center of discernment, conviction, and imagination.

Mythology is essentially concerned with the our interpretation of the voices in our head and in our culture, the voices that steer and lead and populate our consciousness.. When we boil it down, mythology/emotionally intelligent psychology is the study of "What is talking?"

Is it a vision dedicated to honoring you, seeing you in your best light, seeing each other that way too, seeing the planet in its best light? What relationship do we have with our inner authority figures? That is Nathan's chief interest. For himself, and in his work and life in general.

"What kind of vision is our seeing founded in then? This question matters. And it inspires me and teaches me my way of being in the world. A good father or mother or teacher looks for the natural talents in their child. They listen for nature to guide what potentials come through their children. So the stories we tell ourselves shape our reality - birth it in. That is what vision is. How we look upon the world. And ourselves. The myths or stories of man reflect what he believes himself capable of. We have labored too long under the misperception that we are a pained species, born of pained nations, pained communities, pained companies, pained marriages, pained individuals. We owe it to our children to outgrow these fearful approaches. Innovatively. We do."

Nathan Daniel Curry

'We are creatures of air,

Our roots in dreams

And clouds, reborn in flight."

Salman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses

What do you dream for yourself? For your family? For your friends? For your children? For your community? For the planet? These are the stories that are capable of rebirthing us in flight, here is the fabric of our interwoven life, here we find the overflowing reservoirs of the quiet persistence of hope. They can also bind us to delusion if we are not careful. Our ultimate goal is to outgrow the world and unite with our deeper nature.