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Russill
Paul was an intimate associate of both Bede Griffiths and Wayne Teasdale. Currently, Russill continues his diverse work of spiritual teaching and
musical artistry, travelling worldwide, from his residence near Austin, Texas.
He is the author of the ground-breaking work The Yoga of Sound: Tapping the Hidden
Power of Music and Chant (New
World Library 2004 & 2006) (see links to samples below). His latest books is
Jesus in the Lotus: The Mystical Doorway between Christianity
and Yogic Spirituality (New
World Library 2009) which is also excerpted below. Russill is the
music producer of several acclaimed chant CDs through The
Relaxation Company, NY, including Nada Yoga: The Ancient Science of Sound and
Shakti: Tantric Embrace.
Russill
trained simultaneously as a monk and yogi, in South India for close to five years, under
the direction of Bede Griffiths. A
master musician, Russill Paul has
performed his unique style of music at many concert venues including the premier European
classical music venue Propstei Sankt Gerold in Austria, Chicago's Grant Part and Medinah
Temple, The Sports Auditorium in Sheffield, England, and the Music Academy in
Chennai, India.
He has also performed on several occasions
for His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India as well as in America and has shared the stage
with music greats such as folk-singer Arlo Guthrie, British rocker Arthur Brown, guitarist
Brad Gillis, Indian sarangi maestro Ramesh Misra, and Tori Amos' bassist John
Evans. For a time he travelled with Brother
Wayne, providing accompaniment for a number of Wayne’s programs on emerging
interspirituality. In 2004, he joined ISDnA
and others at the Barcelona Parliament of the World’s Religions, also providing a
concert to that large worldwide audience.
We are pleased to provide, below,
excerpts from his most recent book, Jesus in the Lotus.
Russill and his supporting Guha
Soulworks LLC can be contacted through his website www.russillpaul.com
and by email at guha2000@cs.com
 Nearly twenty musical
tracks, and free audio and video capsules are offered here; the tracks have been arranged
and sequenced to allow a deeper understanding of The Yoga of Sound:
http://www.russillpaul.com/audiophiles.html
From
Jesus in the Lotus
Explore here five pieces from Russill Paul's Jesus in the Lotus (2009), to which we have provided the following subtitles here at
the Multiplex: Yoga East and West; The InterSpiritual Journey; Ramana Maharshi and Spiritual Inquiry; The Spiritual Search and the Ego;
and Christian Enlightenment
Yoga East and West-- (Russill Paul, from Jesus
in the Lotus pp. 10-12)
Yoga
is the fastest-growing spiritual phenomenon in the United States and internationally, and
many celebrities have embraced its powerful techniques. Christians have to come to terms
with the fact that Yoga is here to stay, and that the influence of Yoga is destined to
have long-lasting and far-reaching consequences for the development of consciousness in
the West and, in all likelihood, the world at large. Even Indians are rediscovering the
depth and implications of Yoga and all that it stands for.
Would it not be wonderful if
practitioners of Yoga could connect to what is deep and good and powerful in Christianity,
in a way that complements the deepest aspects of Yoga practice? And wouldn’t it be
equally wonderful for Christians to embrace the fullness of Yoga practice without feeling
they are betraying their faith and tradition? The sooner we can heal this divide, the
better for our world. It will be a great day when the spiritual leaders of the world can
join hands and proclaim that a saved Christian, an enlightened Buddhist, and a
Self-realized Hindu are equally good, and that a deluded Hindu and a Christian who has not
awakened to the core of Jesus’s message are equally lost. When we travel across this
gorgeous planet, we can see that in all traditions there are both people of integrity and
ignorant people: human nature is the same throughout the world, and there are spiritually
awakened beings in every race and culture.
The Model of a Yogic
Christianity
My hope is that my own
journey as an interspiritual seeker, what I think of as a Christian Yogi and World Soul,
serves as a template for the future. Again, I am referring not to syncretism but to the
simultaneous practice of more than one spiritual tradition, in which the individual is
true to both traditions while being honest about the limitations of each. This is an
interspiritual model rather than an interfaith model.
What I am proposing is
analogous to the trilevel dialogue that emerged in the Parliament of World Religions, an
institution revived in 1993, a century after its first meeting, at which Swami Vivekananda
gave the famous speech that many claim resulted in the widespread popularity of Yoga in
Western culture today. The idea is that we learn to relate to other spiritual traditions
not only with our heads but also with our hearts and our hands. In other words, we engage
intellectually, spiritually, and practically — that is, by communally working toward
a higher good for all. In this manner, we allow ourselves to deepen, expand, and unite,
and to acknowledge both our similarities and our differences.
As Christians exploring
Yoga, we must study specific and meaningful ways in which the union of Christianity and
Yoga can be modeled in our own lives and spiritual practice. For instance, when Christians
explore Yoga together with the sublime philosophy of the Upanishads, they add value and
another dimension to their spiritual lives. Their effort does not take them away from the
essential substance of their faith, as many Christian leaders fear must happen. There are
numerous figures in contemporary times, myself included, who bear witness to such
integrity. Aside from Bede Griffiths, there is also Wayne Teasdale, a Christian monk who
deeply explored Indian spirituality as a Christian Sannyasi. Teasdale, in fact, coined the
term interspiritual.
Swami Chidananda, a great
spiritual teacher who directs the Swami Sivananda Ashram in the Himalayas , says,
“Yoga restores to people, whatever religion they may belong to, the inner spiritual
content of their religion.”4 He refers to the mystical core of all spiritual
traditions, the inner spiritual life that is the center of any real religion, and without
which any religious endeavor becomes merely a facade. When a spiritual seeker is awakened
to the mystical life, and he or she becomes truly devoted to his or her own tradition, why
should it matter which system served as the catalyst?
We can see therefore that
Yoga and Christianity, most certainly the mystical dimension of Christianity, are about
the same process: the pursuit of oneness with the Divine. Relating one tradition to the
other can be powerful for the world, since each balances and complements the other. At the
heart of each tradition is a dynamic and transformative power that, without question,
comes from the highest spiritual force in the universe.
Excerpted from the book Jesus in the Lotus:
The Mystical Doorway Between Christianity & Yogic Spirituality. © 2009 by Russill
Paul. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or
800-972-6657 ext. 52. Subtitle and Link-name given by the Multiplex; text
breaks from electronic facsimile
The Interspiritual Journey-- (Russill Paul, from Jesus
in the Lotus pp. 13-18)The InterSpiritual Journey (Russill Paul, from Jesus in the
Lotus, pp. 10-18)
As I have
discovered in my own life, and as exemplified in the life of my mentor, Bede Griffiths,
the exploration and integration of Yoga and Indian philosophy need not threaten, or take
away from, fundamental Christian beliefs but can add a dimension to them and deepen
one’s faith. To give you an idea of what interspirituality is like, let me offer a
short summary of my initial journey and that of my mentor. Perhaps you will see in it some
similarities to your own life or to that of someone you know well.
I was born Roman Catholic in
South India . Although my family was Catholic, all I knew of Christianity was its clerical
institutions — hospitals, schools, parishes, and charities. I was fascinated with
Hinduism, a tradition I did not truly understand or properly express, even though my
maternal ancestry has Hindu roots and I was surrounded constantly by its vibrant spiritual
culture. My parents, like most Indian Christians, lacked real knowledge of Hinduism and
were often suspicious and at times fearful of it. My attraction to Hinduism remained
undeveloped until, in 1984, at the tender age of nineteen, in a dramatic act of formally
renouncing the world, I went to live under the direction of the renowned spiritual
maverick Bede Griffiths.
While living as a
Benedictine monk under his guidance, I studied Yoga, mysticism, Sanskrit chanting, and
Indian classical music with many wonderful teachers, since he en-couraged the development
of a wide range of knowledge and spiritual skills and practices. This book explores the
Eastern practices I have used to deepen my spiritual journey as a Christian monk,
particularly Yoga, and the remarkable mystical experiences I had as a Benedictine monk and
Yogi. Throughout my spiritual life, I have tried to heal the sort of tensions between
Eastern spirituality and Christianity that I have encountered since childhood, tensions
that I see as being prominent in the United States and in the West as a whole today.
Sadly, Hindu-Christian tensions that continue in India seem to have escalated in some
parts, especially during the past few years as I wrote this book, resulting in dozens of
deaths, the burning of homes and churches, and even the rape of a nun.5
In Bede Griffiths, I found
the perfect combination of a Christian mystic and Hindu holy man. Born an English
Anglican, he was educated at Oxford under the tutelage of the literary genius C.S. Lewis,
who became his close friend. Bede started out as an agnostic. An experiment in studying
the Bible as literature led him to Catholicism and eventually to Benedictine monasticism.
For almost twenty-five years, he lived the quiet and hidden life of a Benedictine monk in
an English monastery, until he met Tony Suzman, a disciple of Carl Jung. Under
Suzman’s influence, Bede’s life took a radical turn, particularly when she
introduced him to Eastern spiritual writings such as the Bhagavad Gita. This classic Yogic
scripture, along with the Upanishads (Hinduism’s New Testament), would influence his
Christian faith and experience for the rest of his life.
When Bede felt called to
explore India and Indian spirituality, he did so without giving up his Christian faith and
religious commitment to the Benedictine way of life. In stark contrast to his earlier,
English life, he spent the latter half of his life in the garb of a Hindu mendicant monk,
meditating on the Hindu scriptures and seeking to understand his Christian faith in light
of the Yogic experience of India . His deep reflections, born of many decades of
comparative study, and coupled with his rich inner spiritual life, informed my own
spiritual development.
The life and work of Bede
Griffiths and others are invaluable testaments to the power of Christianity’s union
with Yoga. In outlining my own spiritual journey in this work, I seek to explore the
potential of that union even further. There is also an added therapeutic benefit of Yoga
that should interest Christian practitioners: medical science and innumerable case studies
in a variety of disciplines attest to the tremendous healing power of Yoga.
I sincerely hope that this
book will inspire Christians to understand and embrace some of the powerful methods and
teachings of Yogic spirituality and to integrate it into their faith experience. Likewise,
I hope that Yoga practitioners find new ways to relate to Christianity without the
hardened resistance that is presently characteristic of so many. My book also addresses
nontraditional spiritual seekers and young people looking for spiritual insight and may
help them understand the value of the mystical journey, which is a universal process.
The Benefits of
Interspirituality
What do we stand to gain by
relating and combining the worldviews of Christianity and Hinduism? In essence, the former
emphasizes relationship, the latter identity. Both are important, and there are individual
and collective benefits to relating the two, including the strength of cross-cultural
harmony, which can contribute significantly to the peace and stability of our world. While
Christianity, with roughly 2.1 billion practitioners,6 is the world’s largest and
most powerful religion today, Christians stand in danger of isolating themselves from the
rest of the world, in an us-versus-them scenario. This is because of popular
Christianity’s exclusivist doctrines and strongly extroverted spirituality, which,
arguably, have value but are in need of balance. The present tension between the Western
world and the Middle East is largely a result of the long-standing tensions between
Christianity and Islam, which is just as exclusivist and extroverted (except among
mystical sects, most notably the Sufis). The Islamic population is rapidly growing, as is
the Hindu population. Tension between Christians and Muslims is so strong that it will
take a long time to eliminate it. Furthermore, it is difficult for practitioners of these
two religions to collaborate spiritually, since both have exclusivist doctrines
fundamental to their faith.
Yoga — like the
Hinduism from which it is derived — is broad, deep, universal, inclusive, flexible,
and tolerant. A Christianity informed by Yoga’s rich inner mysticism and
Hinduism’s profoundly inclusive worldview can rediscover itself in a new light and
inspire a greater proportion of the world’s population. This is possible because Yoga
and many wonderful aspects of the Hindu spiritual tradition can support rather than
threaten Christianity. In fact, the two can complement each other in marvelous ways, as we
will discover. The benefits of this union may well extend to Islam, which today, as a
result of political conflict, is also rediscovering itself. In this context, great tribute
must be offered to the Sufi community, which, for almost a millennium, has sought to
integrate the best elements of mystical Hinduism, Yoga, Christianity, and Judaism.
Yoga, which is not a
religion in the strict sense of the word, demands to be taken very seriously. It is not
only ancient, with a formidable five thousand years of historyand development, but also
tremendously effective in a wide range of therapeutic applications well recognized by the
Western medical community today. Christians, even if grudgingly, have to come to terms
with the fact that Yoga is a credible discipline, not just physically and psychologically,
but spiritually too. In fact, quite a few Christians practice the physical form of Yoga
without recognizing its spiritual roots and philosophies and still derive the deeper
benefits naturally built into the system. However, when Christians open themselves to the
wisdom of Yoga’s deep insights, their faith experience and personal spiritual
practice can only be enriched.
Conversely, Christians’
embrace of Yoga can just as well invite Yoga practitioners to look more closely and deeply
at the core values that Christianity has to offer the East. However, if Christians are to
determine Christianity’s values and strengths within the context of a global
spiritual perspective, and know what it can truly offer the East, they must first
understand and appreciate Yoga’s spiritual depth and power.
I am not suggesting that
Yogis, or Hindus, become Christian any more than I want Christians to become Hindus. The
intention behind this work is not about conversion to either path. My hope, rather, is
that Christians and Hindus heal the wounds that intolerance, lack of knowledge, and
prejudice have generated. Christianity has not been very kind to Hinduism, and the wounds
run deep, but they can and must be healed, for healing them will make our world stronger.
Additionally, there are Christians deeply committed to their faith who also have an
interest in Yoga, whose techniques and mystical insights they are afraid to embrace
because they distrust the tradition. This is a conditioned distrust founded on irrational
fears and the lack of unprejudiced discovery of the value and spiritual compatibility of
Yoga with Christian faith. It is my prayer and hope that this book helps in some way to
change it.
However, as we know, all
change has to begin with individuals. When I speak of Christianity in this book, I often
try to link it strongly with the Jewish tradition in which it was birthed, just as Yoga
was birthed in Hinduism. Any individual who allows himself or herself to be influenced by
the powerful crosscurrents between the two traditions — Judeo-Christianity and the
rich complex of Hinduism and Yoga of which Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism are part —
will be pushed to the forefront of evolving consciousness. These cross-cultural prototypes
represent the spirituality of the future that is being birthed in our time. Ours may be a
personal journey now, but we are being called to forge models for the future, for we are
at a cusp period in our history, one that is of momentous significance, as significant as
the invention of the wheel, the discovery of fire, the birth of the printing press, or all
of these and more put together and magnified many times over. My explanation of how those
crosscurrents can enrich the personal spiritual journey of the individual, how the
discovery and the opening of this mystical doorway can affect the life of the individual
seeker, is perhaps the most powerful message of this book.
Excerpted from the book Jesus
in the Lotus: The Mystical Doorway Between Christianity & Yogic Spirituality. ©
2009 by Russill Paul. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or
800-972-6657 ext. 52. Subtitle and Link-name given by the Multiplex; text
breaks from electronic facsimile
Ramana
Maharshi and Spiritual Inquiry-- (Russill Paul, from Jesus
in the Lotus pp. 61-62)
David Godman, in
Living by the Words of Bhagavan, explains Ramana’s spiritual methodology: The
“I”-thought identifies itself with all the thoughts and perceptions that occur
in the body. For example, “I” am doing this, “I” am thinking this,
“I” am feeling happy, and so on. Consequently, the idea that one is an
individual person is gener-ated and sustained by the “I”-thought and by its
habit of constantly attaching itself to all the thoughts that arise. Shri Ramana
maintained that one could reverse this process by depriving the “I”-thought
mechanism of all the thoughts and perceptions that it normally identifies with, until only
the Atman or the (true) Self remains.5 Eckhart Tolle is another contemporary spiritual
teacher who has succeeded in finding efficient psychological language to describe this
process and teach it to others, particularly Westerners.
I had already laid the
foundation for at least recognizing my true Self. I had gotten used to not thinking while
I was performing routine actions such as brushing my teeth or washing my clothes or
eating. I would just say a single word to identify the action, like “chewing” or
“scrubbing” or “walking.” This reminded me that I was to refrain from
using my mind to think deliberate thoughts and to simply experience the task along with
all the sensations that were part of it. Now I added to this practice a method of self-
inquiry that involved asking
“Who is feeling?” or “Who is thinking?” This gradually led to an acute
awareness of the part of me that was witnessing everything. This eternal witness, I came
to realize, is the Atman, the Spirit that dwells within us, and this is the image and
likeness of
God in which we are all
created. God is formless essence. Our own true nature lies hidden within this essence. To
help differentiate between the ego self and the true Self, the Katha Upanishad offers
this:
In the secret high place of
the heart, there are two birds that sit on the tree of life: one that enjoys the fruits
thereof and the other that impartially looks on.
The Atman, the Spirit in us,
is beyond sound and form, without touch and taste and perfume. It is eternal,
unchangeable, and without beginning or end: indeed above reasoning. When consciousness of
the Atman manifests itself, we become free from the jaws of death.
Not through much learning is
the Atman reached, not through the intellect and sacred teaching. It is reached by the
chosen of him — because they choose him. To his chosen the Atman reveals his glory.
Excerpted from the book Jesus in the Lotus:
The Mystical Doorway Between Christianity & Yogic Spirituality. © 2009 by Russill
Paul. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or
800-972-6657 ext. 52. Subtitle and Link-name given by the Multiplex; text
breaks from electronic facsimile
The Ego and Discernment-- (Russill Paul, from Jesus
in the Lotus p. 62f)
The Ego and Spiritual
Discernment
Walking the path toward
union with the Divine and finding one’s true Self are really one and the same. Those
who seek spiritual joy and transcendent experience must necessarily enter into intimate
relationship with this Atman, this eternal soul, this presence of God in the heart —
whatever you choose to name it. This, very simply, is the essence of mystical spiritual
practice and is what Jesus meant when he said, “No one comes to the Father but
through Me” (John 14:6). Here, he was identifying not with his human ego but with a
sense of universal Selfhood, which in Hindu terms is Atman. It is present in everyone,
without exception, and is beyond name and form. What makes it a challenge — perhaps
the ultimate challenge that an individual faces — is that the ego stands directly in
the way. When the ego dissolves or becomes transparent, we can, like Saint Paul , say,
“It is no longer I, but Christ who is living in me” (Galatians 2:20). The Atman
is none other than the Christ Self. The process of discovering it, as Jesus simply stated,
is to be willing to lose or give up one’s ego. Jesus asks that it be done for his
sake, meaning that it be done for love, not for the sake of achievement. However, people
around the world have been doing it and finding it without any association with Jesus of Nazareth.
But most certainly, the Christ nature within us, which Jesus identified himself with, is
synonymous with Atman.
Atman suffuses our souls and
indeed the entire universe, but it remains absolutely inaccessible until the ego gives up
its structures of control. Since ego is control (Wayne Dyer calls it an acronym for
“Edging God Out”),7 this means that the ego must fade away and, finally,
dissolve. When it puts up resistance, it must be deconstructed. This, however, is not
easy, for it is a direct threat to one’s sense of self and personhood, because the
self, the lower self, is a product of the ego. As the cultured ego begins to disappear, so
too does the self — or what you’ve always thought of as your self — and the
true Self, the higher Self, is revealed.
The ego, of course, resists
deconstruction. It has spent its lifetime building up its defensive structures, and it is
always ready to create convoluted arguments to protect itself and the assumptions of which
it is made. You cannot make spiritual progress until you learn to recognize the operation
of the ego — to become aware of its games and tricks — and understand the
difference between it and your true Self, or eternal soul.
In short, one has to
distinguish between the two, through spiritual discernment, a power that both Christian
mystics and Indian Yogis have long valued. Saint Anthony the Great, one of the most
revered Christian mystics of the Egyptian desert, is famous for describing the crucial
value of this skill: “The gift of discernment is neither earthly nor of little
account, but is, rather, a very great boon of Divine grace. And if a monk does not do his
utmost to acquire it he will surely stray like someone in a dark night amid gruesome
shadows.”8 In the Hindu tradition, there’s a similar focus on this skill as a
fundamental part of spiritual practice. The Bhagavad Gita expresses it in surprisingly
similar terms, describing a practice that can be translated as the “Yoga of
Discernment.” Spiritual discernment is key in Samkhya philosophy, which forms the
basis of both the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, considered to be among
the most important Yogic scriptures. This discernment is essentially the ability to
discriminate between what is real and what is unreal, meaning, the true Self and the false
self, the ego. And this is why each morning at the ashram we chanted in Sanskrit,
“Lead me from the unreal to the real...”
Both East and West seem to
agree that the power of discernment is a gift of Divine grace. As Saint Anthony the Great
says, “This [discernment] is no minor virtue, nor one which can be seized anywhere
merely by human effort. It is ours only as a gift from God...and among the most
outstanding gifts of the Holy Spirit.”9 The Gita proclaims, “Action without
craving for the ‘I’ and ‘mine’ leads to a state of divine grace that
is peaceful. Absorbed in it, everywhere, always, even at the moment of death, such a
person vanishes into God’s bliss.”10
Because discernment is a
gift from the Divine, you must ask for it. In both the Christian and Yogic traditions, one
may request this gift in petitionary prayer. One asks the Divine for the power to discern
the spiritual from the nonspiritual, the cultured ego from the eternal soul. In the Hindu
tradition, petitionary prayers often take the form of mantras, which are rhythmic sounds
that develop the discriminatory powers of the spiritual mind. Not all mantras are
necessarily petitionary prayers, but when they are, they are essentially prayers of
enlightenment. The particular mantras that address this need are often from the Vedic
tradition. Ved means “to know” and comes from the same root as the Latin vid,
from which we get video — the knowledge that comes to us through this kind of
prayerful chanting comes from an inner vision, a perception, a “seeing.”
Gaining the power of
discernment and using it is essential for spiritual development, but it is only the first
phase of the path to enlightenment (Self-realization for Hindus, awakening for Buddhists,
and the anointed state for Christians). Different writers, Christian saints, and Eastern
mystics have explained the path to enlightenment in various ways, but most describe a
common pattern of three fundamental phases. In the Christian mystical tradition, these are
called purgation, illumination, and union. Discernment is the essential work of the
purgation phase, in which one gets rid of, or purges, all the ego structures that stand in
the way of illumination and, ultimately, union.
The Bhagavad Gita describes
a similar division when it outlines three types of Yoga. Karma — the way of
purification through action — corresponds well with the purgative phase. Both embody
the essential idea of ridding oneself of the barriers to spiritual progress. Next there is
Gnana, the way of illumination through knowledge; and finally there is Bhakti, the way of
union through devotion.
The three phases of
Christian mysticism aren’t linear, just as the kinds of Yoga aren’t sequential
or mutually exclusive.11 Purgation often happens in fits and starts, with glimpses of
illumination and even union occurring between episodes of dark, traumatic, and ultimately
transformative purgation. That was the case for me during my time at Shantivanam. The
mystical experience I had after the vipassana retreat was the first in a series of
illuminative bouts preceding a purgative period that was for me very much a “dark
night of the soul.”
Excerpted from the book Jesus
in the Lotus: The Mystical Doorway Between Christianity & Yogic Spirituality. ©
2009 by Russill Paul. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or
800-972-6657 ext. 52. Subtitle and Link-name given by the Multiplex; text
breaks from electronic facsimile
The Spiritual Search and the Ego-- (Russill Paul, from Jesus
in the Lotus pp. 131-134)
Going inward to find that
place where God dwells is a journey with many challenges. Although the trials and
obstacles we face on the journey have some common sources, each person faces a different
set of challenges and overcomes them in different ways. Making your way around the
obstacles in your search for spiritual truth is, therefore, more like wandering through a
labyrinth than treading a straight or well-worn path. But with each success, breakthrough,
or new insight, you make progress in the largest sense of the word, even if enlightenment
feels as far away as ever.
What we have as our primary
guide on the journey is our inherent spiritual design. It is the why and how of our being,
and it is always with us, in the now of our existence. If we have lost sight of this
Divine source, it’s only because of our education in this world. Starting in our
childhood and then throughout our schooling and career, many, if not most, of us have been
taught that the world is a dangerous place, that we must compete with others to be
successful, that others are out to get us, and that our race and our community are
different from and better than others. In addition, in order to function effectively in
the world, we have all spent much effort developing, strengthening, and honing our egos.
Learning to exercise healthy caution and building a sense of self in the world are
important, but if you are like most people, these aspects of your development have gone
far enough to have obscured and suppressed the spiritual self that has always been inside
you.
As long as our spiritual
self remains suppressed, attempts at spiritual practice are likely to be frustrated. When
our methods of prayer don’t seem to produce the results we expect, our ego steps in
with its judgment to make us feel dissatisfied, setting in motion that wheel of self-doubt
that almost ensures the results won’t be what we want. We have to remember in such
situations that we are dealing with years of negative conditioning, which has given us
habits, thoughts, and impulses that push us to look for love and spiritual fulfillment
within a narrow mental framework. The German mystic Meister Eckhart described the problem
well when he wrote, “God is at home [within us]; it is we who have gone out for a
walk!”1
As we progress on the
journey toward reconnection with our spiritual design, we don’t necessarily need to
look for teachers outside ourselves. Our pain and the condition of our souls are ready to
teach us much of what we need to know. Even more powerful is an archetypal force at work
in everyone’s life that has been called the “guru principle.” Although the
guru principle can take the form of an actual physical person or guru (the word guru
translates as “that which dispels the darkness”), it more commonly shows itself
as a spiritual presence or interior awareness that works through books, dreams, inanimate
objects, or other people.
One of the most important
lessons I’ve learned in the many years that have passed since I first walked through
the gates of Shantivanam is that the most potent enemy we face on the journey inward is
our very own ego. In chapter 2, I explained that the ego masquerades as the core of our
self by creating the “I” and preventing us from recognizing our true Self, our
spiritual essence — the interior manifestation of the Divine that Hinduism calls
Atman. In Christianity, this is the Christ Self, the anointed self. As Saint Paul would
say, “It is not I, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). However, the
Christ Self can shine only with the cooperation of the ego. Achieving a certain
“transparency” of the ego is what spiritual practice is truly about. This is the
theosis, or spiritualizing of the ego, that we spoke of earlier. I find this more helpful
than the typical Hindu approach of treating the ego as an illusion, something that is to
be destroyed altogether. However, there is value in understanding what is meant by
illusion in the East.
From the Hindu perspective,
the world of the senses and the constructs of the mind are both illusory: they are merely
surface phenomena in a constant state of flux, below which lies a permanent level of
existence, the infinite reality of the Divine. It is the ego’s function to make you
identify with the illusory physical and psychological worlds; this identification keeps
you trapped in them and out of touch with the underlying reality and with your true Self.
This is why Patanjali, in his opening sutras, describes Yoga as the control of the
mind’s flux. The purpose of Yoga, he explains, is to enable the true Self to shine
forth. As long as there is flux, the self is identified with the mind’s content, and
that is precisely what fortifies the ego (Yoga Sutras 1:2–4).
Discovering the absolute
dimension of existence requires that one break through the illusion, or maya, created by
the ego. The ego fights this process, of course, but it may do so indirectly, by taking
responsibility for every bit of spiritual progress, every outward manifestation of greater
holiness. When this is happening, your practice may actually be strengthening the ego
rather than transforming or dismantling it.
Excerpted from the book Jesus in the Lotus: The
Mystical Doorway Between Christianity & Yogic Spirituality. © 2009 by Russill
Paul. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or
800-972-6657 ext. 52. Subtitle and Link-name given by the Multiplex; text
breaks from electronic facsimile
Christian
Enlightenment-- (Russill Paul, from Jesus
in the Lotus pp. 171-174)
It is also necessary
to explore the Christian contribution to the experience of spiritual enlightenment. What
distinguishes it is its awareness of the power of one’s soul to influence the
communal process of enlightenment. From the deeper Christian point of view, individual
choice has a role in the grand fulfillment of the universe that has been “groaning in
travail” (Romans 8:22). This is why the Second Coming of Jesus is better seen as a
gradual process that ushers in a new consciousness, a process that requires our consent
and conscious participation. It is not understood as a dramatic appearance that, in a
moment, separates the good from the bad, for that would indicate Divine impatience.
Christian enlightenment,
then, is the call to actively participate in the Divine vision for humanity. The new
consciousness is ushered into the world, into humanity, and into all of creation. All
human beings take part in this conscious partnership with the Divine, and all support one
another, as individuals and as communities. Furthermore, from the Christian point of view,
the human response to this cocreated consciousness is prompted by love rather than a
desire for truth or even knowledge of the Self. While all approaches arguably lead to the
same end, each process shapes the individual and the world uniquely, and this must be
appreciated, which is precisely why the Judaic and Christian viewpoints are worthy of
inclusion in the yogic perspective that is, for the most part, strongly individualistic.
The Christian view of
enlightenment is also unique in that it posits that enlightenment is both individual and
communal. The Eastern view, on the other hand, states that it is entirely individual and
pertains strictly to human consciousness, meaning that the rest of creation and other
conscious individual beings are not drawn into it: they are, according to the enlightened
view, an illusion. Not that they don’t exist in themselves, but that, in the
experience of enlightenment, the Self shines in its own being and this Self is the same
Self of everything else. In other words, there are no particular or individual identities
in the Self. It is somewhat difficult to wrap the mind around this, for it is an
experience, not an idea. There is a huge difference between the Eastern view and the
Christian and Jewish viewpoints.
For instance, when the great
Indian sage Ramana Maharshi was asked about the conflict between becoming enlightened and
helping others, he is supposed to have responded, “But there are no others.”
Here, of course, he is speaking from a profound mystical experience, a fullness of Self,
not selfishness. In the Eastern view, there is only the one, indivisible Supreme Spirit
residing in all things and all people, and when we awaken to its presence within us, all
distinctions are illusory and simply fall away: we see only God, in ourselves and in
others and in all things. There is no differentiation in this vision — only a
seamless connectedness to an infinite continuum. This is similar to the Buddhist view of
nirvana, in which the illusion of separateness is “snuffed out,” which is the
literal meaning of the word nirvana.
I suggest that, while
recognizing the value of the Hindu and Buddhist views, we can simultaneously acknowledge
and value the power of the Christian and Judaic view that there is ultimate value in the
individual parts of creation and in the individual processes as well as in all of human
suffering. In this view, every creative process, from the very beginning to the very end
of time as we know it has ultimate value, meaning, and purpose. The various phenomena of
creation are not an illusion that drops away, but are integral and intrinsic to our
individual and collective enlightenment. In this view, every atomic reaction and every
biological process from the beginning to the end of time is fulfilled: “For creation
itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the
children of Spirit” (Romans 8:21). And so, every amoeba, deer, and dinosaur has
meaning and purpose and participates in the experience of a collective enlightened
fulfillment, the result of the awakened consciousness that has been precipitated by
conscious human participation in the divine purpose for our universe. Why can’t this
be concurrent with the ultimate realization of consciousness?
In the west, Yoga has become
popular enough to spawn its own culture, with specific clothing lines and clichés. Yoga
is big business today. One thing we must guard against in this process of cultural
development and commercialization is the loss of the deepest aspects of this wonderful
discipline. We must also recognize the danger that accompanies the development of a
spiritual ego in Yoga practitioners who assume that, because they are spiritual
practitioners, they know more about spirituality than others do, and who express this ego
by denigrating Christianity. On the brighter side, Western Yoga continues to integrate
more and more with Western psychology to produce a healthier form that is a prototype for
the future.
I sincerely hope that a
conversation begins between the Christian and the Yogi within each spiritual seeker who
reads this work. We are all Yogis. Yoga is union, balance, harmony, and peace. However,
our peace and our balance and our connection to our source are constantly being challenged
by life’s circumstances, our changing world and health, our complex relationships,
and the often intricate maneuvering and meandering in our professional lives. Yoga shows
us how to restore and maintain harmony by honoring our physical bodies and disciplining
our minds. This Yoga is universal.
Christianity too is
universal. The word catholic actually means “universal.” Consciousness of Christ
and the awakening of universal consciousness in every human being is essential to our
evolution. And we must recognize that Christ consciousness is already a part of other
traditions, that it is greater than Christianity. In the same way, Yogic powers,
processes, and capabilities are universal and exist in other traditions. Yet, as we have
seen, Christianity and Yoga both offer the individual practitioner specific gifts and
specific challenges because of the emphases of their individual paths. Each Yogi, and each
Christian, has to find his or her way to integrate the challenges that the other tradition
pre-sents and to embrace the gifts that each has to offer. Yogis challenge themselves
physically on a regular basis, and today Yoga in the West has moved beyond that physical
dimension. Many Western Yogis now challenge themselves spiritually, mentally, and
morally.6
The Way and the Truth
For many Christians,
Jesus’s declaration “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” proves
Christianity’s supremacy over other traditions, which are considered to be untrue and
therefore as leading to death. Bede Griffiths often joked, “Thank God, he did not
say, ‘I am the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life.’” To understand
what Jesus said from the inner, mystical perspective is to acknowledge the archetypal
universality of the Christ Self, which can and should be compared to Atman and the true
Self, as we have already done.
From the outward, social
perspective, Jesus taught radical dependence on God, which he himself practiced, and which
he illustrated in his directive to his disciples to “carry no purse, no bag, no
sandals” (Luke 10:4–6). This too has its corresponding parallel in the Indian
Yogic tradition of sann-yasa, a complete renunciation of everything but God alone, which
was already a spiritual institution in India hundreds of years before the time of Jesus
and continues to the present day. As Cynthia Bourgeault points out in The Wisdom Jesus,
Jesus did not teach in a vacuum. Capernaum , where he did most of his teaching, was
located on the Silk Road, and spiritual ideas and concepts from India could very well have
reached him through merchants and travelers. Contrary to some theories that Jesus went to
India , it is far more conclusive that India came to Jesus.
Many Hindus have a hard time
with Christians who preach the message of Jesus while living in comparable luxury, unlike
their own radical monks, who seem to be following Jesus’s directives far more than
Christian missionaries do. For although Christian missionaries may live simply in India,
their accommodations are far more luxurious than those of the Indian monk, Yogi, and
frequently even the ordinary person who sleeps on the floor, eats with his or her hands,
and wears pieces of unstitched clothing around the body. Only after the pioneering work of
my mentor and his peers did Christian religious in India begin to adopt simple Indian
clothing.
The important renunciation,
though, is not the renunciation of possessions or lifestyle but the renunciation of
“I” and “mine.” Bede Griffiths, who lived an austere life as both Yogi
and Christian monk, explained, “A sannyasi is one who is totally detached from the
world and from himself. It is detachment which is the keyword. It does not matter what
material possessions you have, so long as you are not at-tached to them. The one thing
which you have to abandon unconditionally is your ‘self.’ If you can give up
your self, your ‘ego,’ you can have anything you like, wife and family, houses
and lands — but who is able to give up his self?”7 Jesus captured the idea
succinctly: “Those who lose their [egos] for my sake will find it [divine
nature]” (Matthew 10:39). Here again, the motivation for renunciation is love. The
Bhagavad Gita expounds on the same principle: “Abandoning all desires, acting without
craving, free from all thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘mine,’ that [person] finds
inner peace. Absorbed in this divine state, everywhere, always, even at the moment of
death, such a [person] vanishes into God’s bliss.”8
Yoga and Christianity as
originally taught by Jesus share a radicalism. However, in modern times both traditions
— especially Western Yoga and Western Christianity — have adapted this
radicalism to life in the world. Not everyone is ready for the intensity of Jesus’s
core teachings and practices. However, the ultimate goal of both traditions is the
discovery of the absolute consciousness that Jesus called Father, and that in India is
called Brahman. This search for ultimate reality can be undertaken while living a normally
engaged life in the world. This “normal life” may be the healthiest and sanest
form of mysticism. Christianity has a complementary objective: it asks that, while
searching for the Absolute, we also make our world a better place by being kind and loving
to others. However, whereas the search for divine mystery and spiritual experience has
faded into the background in Christian spirituality, it is being revived today by
individuals and organizations such as those that I mention in the resources section.
The practice of Yoga,
together with the philosophical vision of the Upanishads, can help restore a unitive
worldview to Christianity, in which it rediscovers the world penetrated by the supreme
consciousness of God. This will help bring a more intimate sense of Divine presence into
the world. As the presence of God, once seen by Christianity as being separate from the
world, is drawn into the world, it will suffuse it with Divine presence. As mentioned, the
East has a tendency to separate from involvement with the world and the lives of others.
The Hindu and Yogic tradition can both benefit from acknowledging that there is work to be
done by us grassroots practitioners. There are added spiritual responsibilities to be
embraced, in which we play a more active role in making our world, and the consciousness
of our species, more representative of the enlightened states. Many Hindu gurus have
undertaken this role; however, the most effective form of transformation is possible only
when the everyday practitioner shares the responsibilities, and this should happen around
the world, India included. Through the marriage of East and West, we may embrace the
vision of original sin transformed into original blessing9 and see the world as the
ancients once saw it: at once physical, psychological, and spiritual. The purpose of
recovering this vision is to help usher in the new world order that Jesus identified as
the kingdom of God, which was also Israel’s vision of a new creation truly fulfilled
in God. Jesus’s essential message, “The time is now! Repent, for the Kingdom of
God is at hand” (Mark 1:15), can easily be translated into Yogic language as
“Turn within, spiritual enlightenment is within your power, now.” Bourgeault
interpreted metanoia, the Greek word used in place of repent in early translations, to
also signify “going beyond the mind,”10 an esoteric translation that is not only
close to the literal meaning of the word but also identical to the literal meaning and
purpose of the word mantra.
If the ultimate meaning and
purpose of life is to be found in the kingdom-of-God experience, which is best understood
as an ultimate state of consciousness, then this beatific vision, the one that Arjuna
beholds in the Bhagavad Gita, and that many of the great Christian saints have
experienced, is the real heart of both traditions. In this final state, Bede Griffiths
explains, “the human body will be totally penetrated by spiritual consciousness and
become a ‘spiritual body,’ and at the same time the material world with all its
energies now penetrated by [supreme] consciousness will became a ‘new
creation.’”11 The great Indian mystic Shri Aurobindo, another visionary who
sought to synthesize East and West, shares a similar vision of a transformed existence,
which he describes in his work The Life Divine.12 Interestingly, Shri Aurobindo used the
term Integral Yoga to define the process by which this vision could be brought about, a
term that can be elaborated on in the continued dialogue between Yoga and Christianity.
It is
important to acknowledge that Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Caroline Myss, and all the other
wonderful teachers of the present spiritual order in the West are helping usher in this
consciousness, as are the great contemporary spiritual teachers of the East, including
luminaries such as Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, and Amma. In
individuals such as these, it is easy to see the Christ Self shining through them, defying
all attempts at definition. All of us are called to help usher in this consciousness, and
we must each be actively engaged in the process. One way to start is through conversations
with other traditions: Yogis can open their Yoga studios to dialogue sessions, so that
individuals from Christian groups can come to exchange views and teachings, and church
groups can be open to sessions of respectful dialogue in the spirit of learning and mutual
exchange. In actually sharing physical space with a person, we can sense the innate
goodness and sincerity in the other, and everyone is enriched in the process.
Excerpted from the book Jesus in the Lotus:
The Mystical Doorway Between Christianity & Yogic Spirituality. © 2009 by Russill
Paul. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or
800-972-6657 ext. 52. Subtitle and Link-name given by the Multiplex; text
breaks from electronic facsimile |
