Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul

Description

Many paths can lead to the Divine—these inspiring stories may help you clarify yours.

These original spiritual mini-autobiographies showcase the varied ways that people come to faith—and what that means—in today's multi-religious world. Examining their own journeys from belief to disillusionment and from searching to discovery, contributors from many faiths, ages, and backgrounds tell how they learned to integrate the spirit into their daily lives, and the remarkable transformations that followed.

From South Africa to India, Chicago to San Francisco, and many places in between, Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul is the first international collection of its kind. It takes you on a trip through the spiritual lives of Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others who are continually searching to find their spiritual identity.

Many of these brief, inspiring memoirs portray the spirit of interspirituality that is growing in the world today, showing you how to build the foundation for religion and spirituality that can serve to unite, rather than divide, humanity.

"There is a thirst for authentic connection in our scattered, busy, speedy culture. Sharing deeply from the soul and being received with an open heart satisfies that thirst. Being seen and acknowledged cultivates the soil of our good hearts. That is what this beautiful book, and the integral spirituality it addresses so elegantly, is all about."
—from the Foreword by Joan Borysenko, PhD

Foreword
Joan Borysenko, PhD ix
Introduction
Brother Wayne Teasdale and Martha Howard, MD xiii
The Golden Rule: An Evolutionary Future xvii
Look Inside, Look Outside: Concentric Circles of Interfaith Action
Abra Pollack 1
Know Love, Know Life
Shirley Baas 6
Down from the Mountain
April Kunze 7
A Muslim at the Catholic Worker
Eboo Patel 12
To Be a Mensch
Harold Kasimow 18
Finding Harmony in the Spiritual Journey
Jeff Genung 22
The Gift
Juliet Beriou 28
One Small Step Can Change Your Life
Desmond Papi Oganne 33
Fulfilling the Heart's Deepest Longing
Lama Palden Drolma 35
Awakening
Spencer Perdriau 41
The Search for Narrative
Mariah Neuroth 52
The Fly Box
Dan Johnson 57
How the AIDS Pandemic Changed My Life
Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati 62
Religious Diversity on the Spiritual Path
Annapurna Astley 66
Sacred Story
Aquil Charlton 72
Vision of the Future
Swami Shraddhananda (Maureen Dolan) 77
Ethical Speech as Spiritual Practice
Mirka Knaster 86
In Search of Myself
Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel 89
I Do
Rajal Regan 98
Spiritual Search
Rory McEntee 103
Interspirituality: The Next Wave of Consciousness
Russill Paul 110
Witness
A. Frell Levy 118
Living Christ, Living Guru
Bill Hayashi 122
My Path Back to Judaism Was Paved in Breakbeats: The Return of a Jewish B-Boy
Kevin Coval/Melek Yonin 132
From Mourning to Light
Leslie Gabriel Mezei 139
Sustaining a Commitment to the Common Good
Jim Keen 150
Watching the Previews
Brian Sturgulewski 157
The Yellow Carnation
Ida-Regina Lucas Oliver 160
The Secret of the Six Perfections and the Four Immeasurable Minds
Martha Howard, MD 164
A Christian Contemplative in an Interspiritual World
Brother Wayne Teasdale 173
Conclusion
Toward a Unified Humanity: From the Age of Materialism to the Age of Integral Spirituality
Brother Wayne Teasdale and Martha Howard, MD 180
Acknowledgments 187
Appendix:
Blank pages to be used as a workbook for the reader’s own comments and stories 189
About SkyLight Paths 192

Sujets

• hindu
• Inspirational
• Philosophie et théologie
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 18 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781594734908
• Langue: English

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Contents
Foreword Joan Borysenko, PhD
Introduction Brother Wayne Teasdale and Martha Howard, MD
The Golden Rule: An Evolutionary Future
Look Inside, Look Outside: Concentric Circles of Interfaith Action Abra Pollack
Know Love, Know Life Shirley Baas
Down from the Mountain April Kunze
A Muslim at the Catholic Worker Eboo Patel
To Be a Mensch Harold Kasimow
Finding Harmony in the Spiritual Journey Jeff Genung
The Gift Juliet Beriou
One Small Step Can Change Your Life Desmond Papi Oganne
Fulfilling the Heart s Deepest Longing Lama Palden Drolma
Awakening Spencer Perdriau
The Search for Narrative Mariah Neuroth
The Fly Box Dan Johnson
How the AIDS Pandemic Changed My Life Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
Religious Diversity on the Spiritual Path Annapurna Astley
Sacred Story Aquil Charlton
Vision of the Future Swami Shraddhananda (Maureen Dolan)
Ethical Speech as Spiritual Practice Mirka Knaster
In Search of Myself Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel
I Do Rajal Regan
Spiritual Search Rory McEntee
Interspirituality: The Next Wave of Consciousness Russill Paul
Witness A. Frell Levy
Living Christ, Living Guru Bill Hayashi
My Path Back to Judaism Was Paved in Breakbeats: The Return of a Jewish B-Boy Kevin Coval/Melek Yonin
From Mourning to Light Leslie Gabriel Mezei
Sustaining a Commitment to the Common Good Jim Keen
Watching the Previews Brian Sturgulewski
The Yellow Carnation Ida-Regina Lucas Oliver
The Secret of the Six Perfections and the Four Immeasurable Minds Martha Howard, MD
A Christian Contemplative in an Interspiritual World Brother Wayne Teasdale
Conclusion Toward a Unified Humanity: From the Age of Materialism to the Age of Integral Spirituality Brother Wayne Teasdale and Martha Howard, MD
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Blank pages to be used as a workbook for the reader s own comments and stories
About the Editors
Copyright
Also Available
About SkyLight Paths
Foreword
J OAN B ORYSENKO, PhD
N EARLY THIRTY YEARS AGO , when my sons Justin and Andrei were little guys, we sat together one night reading a bedtime story from the New Testament. Earlier in the evening our family had gone to Sufi dancing hosted by a nearby Episcopal seminary. The following week we would start preparations for the Jewish Passover. My husband and I were also deeply involved with Paramahansa Yogananda s Self-Realization Fellowship, studying points of unity between yoga philosophy and Christianity in our search for the Divine Beloved.
Sound odd? The kind of interreligious study and practice that my children grew up with had its beginnings as a grass-roots movement among the baby boomers three decades back. Wade Clark Roof, a professor of religion at the University of California, Santa Barbara, identified this trend in his 1993 best seller, A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Lives of the Baby Boom Generation . He s continued to follow the baby boomers and ask questions about the kind of practical, engaged spirituality so many of them continue to seek.
I ve been intrigued by a related question concerning the spiritual lives of the baby boomer s children. How do kids like Justin and Andrei, raised in an interreligious environment, find a path that can go the distance and take them home? Will the eclectic spirituality with which they were raised do its job both as a moral compass and as a psychospiritual guide that can help them see and dismantle the false self and live instead from Divine Essence? As the old adage warns, are we raising a generation to dig a hundred shallow wells rather than one deep well that will yield living waters for the benefit of the larger human family?
When my boys were young men of twenty and sixteen, we sat together at the kitchen table one morning, reflecting on their interfaith upbringing. Do you consider yourselves part of any particular religion? I asked. They looked at me incredulously and blurted out, almost in unison, We re Jews, of course.
Judaism is my religion of origin, and by Jewish law a mother s children are automatically members of the faith. The celebration of holy days with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins was a deep bond to Judaism for the boys, even though they hadn t been sent to Hebrew school. As a young man, Justin was angry about the loss of a traditional Jewish education. He felt deprived of his heritage and wanted to become a bar mitzvah some day. His brother, Andrei, in contrast, expressed relief that he d been spared what he thought of as early programming. He argued that being exposed to different religions and growth philosophies as a child would allow him to find his own authentic path as an adult. He might or might not choose to be a bar mitzvah some day, but at least the choice would be his.
If I had the opportunity to raise my precious boys again, I would have looked for a liberal Jewish congregation and grounded them firmly in their root tradition while simultaneously exposing them to the interreligious experience. As young men, neither of them is deeply committed to any spiritual path. But this is far from unusual at their ages. As I ve listened to people s spiritual autobiographies over the years, the conversion experiences that call us home to the Divine Beloved often come later in life, frequently in the throes of a dark night of the soul that shatters the known world and delivers us to the mysterious unknown, where our soul can more easily hear the divine voice calling.
Many of the fascinating spiritual autobiographies collected in this volume are those of young people like my sons. They are not just Americans, or children of baby boomers. These young voices come from many cultures and religious traditions. A common thread in most of these stories is that the writers heard the call when they were children. The development of their good hearts had been supported by parents who practiced what they preached. The religious tradition they were affiliated with mattered far less than the example of a loving, caring life.
The process of writing spiritual autobiography is a profound exercise, often filled with fresh revelation. The process is deepened even further when the member of a group of friends, family members, or fellow travelers each write an autobiography to share with the rest of the group. Fifteen years ago I was part of an ecumenical women s circle. The writing and sharing of spiritual autobiography occupied our first several sessions. The experience was so intimate, authentic, and real that we bonded instantly from our hearts. The field of love, kindness and authenticity that resulted set the tone for years of friendship, spiritual practice, and mutual growth.
There is a thirst for authentic connection in our scattered, busy, speedy culture. Sharing deeply from the soul and being received with an open heart satisfies that thirst. Being seen and acknowledged cultivates the soil of our good hearts. In the back of this book you ll find a space to write your spiritual autobiography. My hope is that you ll share it with others and hear their stories in turn. May the heartfelt conversation that results be a deep inquiry for you all into the meaning of being both fully human and fully divine. That is what this beautiful book, and the integral spirituality it addresses so elegantly, is all about.
Introduction
A LL OF THE CONTRIBUTORS to this book have made intensely personal searches for higher meaning in their lives, and most of them began very young. Their religious and spiritual experiences as children and young people might well be required reading for all parents, religious leaders, and teachers. They are a testimonial to the idea that teaching is done almost exclusively by example, not with words. Gaps between preaching and practice more often than not cause rejection of what we are preaching. Several writers emphasize the importance of teachers and mentors as models for inspiring us to seek lives of practical spirituality. These teachers are all distinguished by their ability to serve as living illustrations of their beliefs.
These extraordinary stories are spiritual autobiographies that reveal an essential need for the human spirit: the existence of many paths to the experience and the manifestation of the Divine. The writers come from different faiths, ages, and backgrounds. Their accounts of lifechanging spiritual events and realizations are remarkable for their individuality; yet all have common threads.
In the stories, the search for true integration of the life of the spirit into daily life unfailingly draws our writers into remarkable transformations: sometimes in their original faith, and sometimes in a different one, an interfaith practice, or a practice of ethics that does not necessarily involve any formal religion.
What is it about these stories that can benefit us? Why is it important to read them and to generate our own stories? Kindness, and all of the good qualities of which we are capable as human beings, are worth cultivating. These stories are practical revelations of the kinds of responses and actions in daily life that develop the skills and focus to make kindness, understanding, mutual respect, generosity, honesty, patience, wisdom, and the golden rule a d