Host: Michael Toms Interview Date: 3/12/2009 Program Length: 1 Hour
Media:
MP3 Download
Price: $1.99
Program Description: More and more Christians feel a need to seek meaning outside their own religious traditions. At the same time, Christianity has much to offer yogis who seek to bring a greater social context to their practice. Few people bridge the spiritual traditions of East and West, of the yogi and the Christian, as Russill Paul does. He is a native of India raised as a Catholic, with deep ties to Hinduism and the yogic tradition, and studied as a Benedictine monk at an ashram near Madras. From his perspective, neither tradition is better than the other-only unique. He explains, "A practicing yogi could very well make Jesus the center of his or her attention, and use the methodology and the teaching. We also have to see that Jesus himself propagates a kind of yoga, a yoga of love. While it's important to see that both the yoga and the Christian traditions have their emphases and specialties, there are certain things about Jesus' teaching, which can push the yoga tradition in certain ways that can be very powerful-just as the reverse is possible, the yoga tradition can help push Christians in certain ways that can be very powerful for them." Whether your practice is rooted in the teachings of Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, or Jehovah, this conversation will inspire you to explore ways to draw on the unique offerings of other traditions, so that you create your own unique yogic balance of inner and outer grace.
Russill Paul is a musician, spiritual teacher, professor of Eastern spirituality, and Founder and Directio of the Mystic Heart School of Transformation. He has taught at Naropa University and in the Doctor of Ministry program at the University of Creation Spirituality. Mr. Paul's CDs include Nada Yoga: The Ancient Science of Sound. He is the author of The Yoga of Sound: Healing & Enlightenment Through the Sacred Practice of Mantra (New World Library 2006) and Jesus in the Lotus: The Mystical Doorway Between Christianity and Yogic Spirituality (New World Library 2009). To learn more about the work of Russill Paul go to www.RussillPaul.com
Topics explored in this dialogue:
Why Christian religions are losing their popular appeal
How Jesus' apostles were influenced by Eastern spirituality
Why the notion of sinfulness is difficult for yoga practitioners
How the feminine is represented in Eastern spirituality
Why the resurrection of Jesus is perceived differently in Indian culture
