Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths

by Wayne Teasdale (Editor), Martha Howard MD (Editor), Joan Borysenko PhD (Foreword by)

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594734908
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/18/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Wayne Teasdale was a lay monk and best-selling author of The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions, Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to His Interspiritual Thought, and A Monk in the World. As a member of the Bede Griffiths International Trust, Teasdale was an adjunct professor at DePaul University, Columbia College, and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Wayne Teasdale was editor of Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery.

Martha Howard, MD, is a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, which she has practiced since 1982. She is medical director of Wellness Associates of Chicago, and author of the Power of Suggestion CD series. A practicing Buddhist, she is active in the interfaith and peace movements, and is a producing partner of a documentary film in development, Journey to Peace.

Joan Borysenko, PhD, is a respected scientist, gifted therapist, and unabashed mystic. Trained at Harvard Medical School, she was an instructor in medicine until 1988. Currently the president of Mind/Body Health Sciences, Inc., she is an internationally known speaker and consultant in women's health and spirituality, integrative medicine and the mind/body connection. She is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestsellers Minding the Body, Mending the Mind; A Woman’s Book of Life; 7 Paths to God; The Power of the Mind to Heal; and Inner Peace for Busy People.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

In Aquil Charlton's essay, "Sacred Story," she says, "Hearing the beliefs of others helps tune our ears to the sound of God being evoked in our presence. 'We can listen to the plights of others for familiar stepping stones and stumbling blocks that remind us of our own path." Isn't this the very gift we bring to bear in spiritual direction? We tune our ears and our hearts to the sound of God being evoked through the directee's sharing. This book, consisting of thirty individual srories, was gathered over the past four years by Teasdale, a Catholic lay monk, and Howard, a medical doctor and practicing Buddhist. As members of the Council for a Parliament of the world Religions' Spiritual Life Circle, they sought "to come to terrns with the value and effectiveness of spirituality across religions and cultures" and "to inquire into what works in all forms of the spiritual life to open minds, expand hearts, and transform lives into radiant examples of compassion, kindness and love-in-action."

This collection, written by people whose lives often reflect openness to more than one tradition (Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jew) is effective and engaging. While some may find this a "mixed bag" in spiritual sophistication, that is what I found most captivating. -this is a valuable resource for our culture, with so many seeking personal growth in spirituality. In a short space, readers can enjoy a range of spiritual experiences that challenge, inspire, and awe.

Russill Paul's essay helps us move into a greater understanding of interspirituality, a "both-and" experience in the spiritual realm. Paul offers a well-developed commentary on interspirituality, understood as the next wave of consciousness. He presents qualitative distinctions important for understanding interspirituality-its benefits and challenges. He observes, "the fear of interspirituality, which is the fear of globalizarion, is reflective of the most basic fear we all have: Will any semblance of our own lives and impressions remain when we merge with the Divine at death?" He continues, "Through an emerging global awareness, the Divine is showing us that our identity is not lost but merges with all things."

These stories invite us in- tolisten, to reflect, to make connections— and spiritual directors will find numerous uses for them. I can note five. For personal reflection to encounter a wide variety of stories reflecting various religious paths leading to a transformative, often mystical, experience of awakening to new insights, new commitments, new realities. For understanding diverse generations, especially generations different from the director's own. For encountering religious traditions and blends, which will stretch many directors focused in one tradition within their practice. For directees, as stories for spiritual reading. For spiritual growth groups, to invite members to share their own stories.

'What I found myself wanting as I read the book was a biographical note for each seeker. Having connected with them at a spiritual level, I wanted to know more. That being said, I recommend this text as a valuable compendium, fostering the hope that our current generation welcomes a resurgence of the mystical tradition in its many manifestations. This is the hope we base our ministry of direction upon, and the Hope we serve.

Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction - Margaret Diener

This ambitious anthology of spiritual autobiographies steps toward "building the foundation for a viable spirituality that can serve to unite rather than divide humanity for the countless millennia ahead." This lofty goal is an evolved passion of Teasdale (The Mystic Heart), a member of the Parliament of the World's Religion's Spiritual Life Circle that spearheaded this publication. Filled with short accounts by diverse contributors, many under 30 years old, this volume celebrates "the collapse of boundaries that have separated the religions and cultures for millennia... [through the] rediscovery and recovery of the mystical dimension universally present in all the great world traditions." Most of the stories recount the lives of those who experienced some version of an early spiritual awakening. They also express the fruits of first-hand exposure to other traditions through experiences of practice and dialogue. These heartfelt stories reveal an openness of spirit unafraid to be informed and transformed by new experiences and can be enjoyed by the spiritually sympathetic as well as the curious or even cautious. Blank pages invite readers to write their own spiritual autobiography, a worthwhile endeavor complementing the book's quest. (Aug.) Forecast: This balanced and loving book will be launched at the Barcelona Parliament of the World's Religion this July. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly