Michael Molloy

When my grandmother was 19 she went to Paris, chaperoned by her mother, to study painting. She stayed in Europe for two years. It was a turning point in her life. She returned home to create paintings, which surrounded me as I grew up in California. She also returned with hundreds of photographs of churches, with religious objects, and with a thirst to drag her grandchildren to museums and churches. It was through the beauty of art that I discovered the beauty of religion.

Early experiences like these also led me to leave the country when I was young. I returned to study religion. My MA degree (at St. John's University) allowed me to study the imagery of divine darkness in Jewish and Christian mysticism. I received a scholarship from the East-West Center in Hawai'i, and there my life began to be influenced by the thought of Asia. For my Ph.D. (at the University of Hawai'i) I wrote on the Hindu and Buddhist mysticism to be found in the writings of Aldous Huxley, and I had the joy of meeting Huxley's wife Laura in Los Angeles, interviewing people who knew him, and reading his original manuscripts at UCLA. I did graduate work in India at Banaras Hindu University, and later studied traditional Japanese arts--including kendo, tea ceremony, and calligraphy--in Kyoto. I have spent several years at Christian and Buddhist monasteries in Korea, Japan, Europe, and the United States, learning methods of prayer and meditation. I live in Honolulu.