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A GLOBAL CHRISTMAS
December 7, 2006
In this newsletter:
Please tune in to live Radio Interview in Atlanta: 9:00 -
10:00 a.m. EST (WGUN 1010 AM)
A report on the weekend workshop for adults and teens in
Baltimore (Nov first week)
A report on the weekend retreat for progressive Christians
in Chicago (Nov second week)
A blessed event: playing music for a dying woman in a
hospice program
Thanksgiving in Chicago
A book review of Yoga for Depression (by Amy Weintraub)
Another book review: The A.W.E. Project (by Matthew Fox)
A Short Article: Visualizing a Global Christmas
Dear friends,
I hope this finds you well and in the grace and peace of
the Spirit. Om.
Please tune in to live Radio Interview in Atlanta: 9:00 -
10:00 a.m. EST (WGUN 1010 AM)
I will be interviewed on The "Temple of Health" radio
program, which airs live this Saturday morning from 9:00 -
10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time from the radio station
WGUN 1010 AM that covers the Metro-Atlanta area. You may
learn more by visiting their fascinating website
www.templeofhealth.ws
The "Temple of Health" (formerly called "Dr. Susan on
Call") radio show is co-hosted by medical doctors Susan
Kolb and Richard Clofine. Every Saturday morning the
co-hosts interact with national leading experts and
authors, revealing the latest breakthroughs in science,
health and spiritual topics. Susan Kolb graduated from
Johns Hopkins University and received her medical degree
from Washington University School of Medicine. She is
nationally recognized as an authority in the diagnosis and
treatment of silicone immune disease and is frequently seen
on T.V. and quoted in various news mediums. Rick Clofine is
an Osteopathic Physician who has completed a master's
degree in biomedical science, a one year fellowship in
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, a one year general
practice internship and a four year residency in Obstetrics
&Gynecology. He is a member of the American Osteopathic
Association, The Georgia Osteopathic Medical Association
and The American Holistic Medical Association.
A report on the weekend workshop for adults and teens in
Baltimore
I just returned from a whole month of travel that began
with my retreat in Baltimore, Maryland. This was truly a
phenomenal experience for me and for the participants who
were there as well. My three Indian musician brothers who
accompanied me were simply amazing. The workshop with the
teenagers went as well as a first-time event could go. I
was as new to such an experience, as they were too, and
they had to make an adjustment to a complete stranger, not
to mention a culture that they were not familiar with.
However, they truly applied themselves experientially to
the same kind of spiritual techniques that I use with
adults and almost all of them reported feeling a sense of
calm and clarity from applying the techniques. Over the
course of the next year, I hope to develop a more
comprehensive program for them in association with Katina
Lafond, a psychotherapist who brought me to Maryland, who
works with teens, and who coordinated the entire weekend.
A report on the weekend retreat for progressive Christians
in Chicago
Following the retreat in Baltimore, I returned to Austin
briefly and then joined Asha on a trip to Michigan to visit
with a good friend. After a short stay there, we went on to
Chicago where I presented a weekend retreat at the Cenacle
in Warrenville. This was a very profound experience as
well. It is quite wonderful to be with Christians who are
passionate about their inner life and who are tremendously
open to the techniques of yoga and Eastern spirituality,
willing to incorporate it into their spiritual life, and to
grow in consciousness and mystical awakening. We
experienced some deep states together.
A blessed event: playing music for a dying woman in a
hospice program
Shortly after this retreat, I had the wonderful opportunity
to play some music for a woman who was dying. My good
friend, Judy Walters, a hospice nurse in the Chicago area,
invited me to do this. Judy and I go way back to India in
the early 80's. She worked in Bangladesh, among the poorest
of the poor for over twenty years, living amongst them at
the same level and serving them through her nursing and
care giving ministry. She is an extraordinary woman who
gives her life in selfless service, which she has done for
more than 25 years, and my admiration for her is abounding.
The dying lady was of Irish background and in tremendous
pain because of her terminal cancers: she had three of them
and it had metastasized in her brain. She was having a hard
time letting go of her family whom she loved very deeply.
She and her husband, an Indian engineer she met in England
while studying there, had been married for 50 years.
Apparently, she liked Indian music very much and so I took
my Avitar and sang for her a beautiful chant addressing the
Divine Feminine. She was in a lot of pain even though she
had taken a shot of morphine. However, it was quite amazing
to see her visibly relax with the sound of the instrument
and she closed her eyes when she began to hear the Sanskrit
chanting. She died that very night quite peacefully.
Thanksgiving in Chicago
Following this, Asha and I spent Thanksgiving with one of
our closest friends in Chicago. We love this city and
enjoyed our daily escapades downtown to swim with the
pedestrians streaming up and down the Magnificent Mile. Our
friend is deeply spiritual and so we had many wonderful and
elevating conversations in the middle of busy intersections
and in coffee shops and in many of the charming restaurants
that Chicago offers. We were graced with unbelievably warm
weather -- mostly 60's days with blue skies -- for most of
the time. We could not have asked for a better
Thanksgiving. Of course, we constantly remembered our good
friend, the late Wayne Teasdale. We will always associate
Chicago with his presence. We miss him dearly, still.
Book Review 1: Yoga for Depression (by Amy Weintraub)
Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve
Suffering through Yoga
Author: Amy Weintraub; Publisher: Broadway books, 2004.
Author website: www.yogaforDepression.com
This is a beautifully written book: simple, concise and
insightful. Depression, perhaps the most common ailment in
modern western culture (albeit unconscious in most people),
is actually a gateway into spiritual practice. Around 600
B.C., the Bhagavad-Gita, a classic yoga treatise,
introduces depression itself as a type of yoga. Indeed, it
is significant that the very first chapter in this ancient
sacred text is "The Yoga of Despondency".
Amy's path originates from her own bout with depression.
Yoga was the path, the means through which she raised
herself out of it, and way she keeps herself out of
depression, even today, and she teaches others how they can
do the same through her workshops around the country. We
all need to learn to do this, and her book is a good
introduction to her methodology. This is not an academic
work; however, it is, as endorsed by Christine Northrup,
M.D., "medically accurate".
The Yoga that Amy practices and teaches is the Noble Path
of Raja Yoga. She explains the whole system rather simply
and effectively, placing asana practice (postures and
stretches) within context of the overall system and with a
strong emphasis on breathing. Yogic breathing, as I can
attest from my own practice, is indeed the method of
transforming our emotions into a positive life force, and
this has been the therapeutic methodology in the Hindu
yogic system for millennia. All of the practices described
are simple and effective; nothing complex here to
intimidate the beginner.
Amy brings solid teaching experience, from reputed yoga
teachers in the west as well as from experts in India. She
also incorporates sound and mantra in her teaching,
although she addresses it only in passing in her book. The
chapter on meditation is also rather minimal, she
recommends a qualified teacher for this purpose.
Regardless, there is a much to be learned from this work
and I especially recommend it to social workers,
therapists, hospice workers, chaplains, and of course yoga
teachers and practitioners.
Book Review 2: The A.W.E. Project (by Matthew Fox)
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the
Human
Author: Matthew Fox; Publisher: Copper house, 2006
Author's website: www.MatthewFox.org for
This book takes off by declaring that education, as a
whole, is in crisis! The cost of education, the lack of
meaning in education, the pathology of education --
competition, separateness, hate, war (Ernest Becker) -- is
frightening and unhealthy. However, crisis in Chinese also
means opportunity; or, in other words, the solution is
always in the problem, and there we have the alternatives
that Matthew Fox offers us. Matthew Fox has been
passionately involved with reinventing education for more
than 25 years and his sense of frustration with the present
models of education, for no small reason, is evident
throughout this work.
The acronym A.W.E stands for Ancestors, Wisdom and
Education and they are all interlinked. First, we are to
see the cosmos as ancestor so that we can connect with our
billions of years of evolution and to the deep knowing of
native cultures. Cosmology should become imperative to
modern education, to provide more "context and less text"
In this light, we should see ourselves as ancestors too,
for someday, long after we are gone, we ourselves will be
remembered as ancestors and questioned about the wisdom of
our choices.
The problem with our educational model, says Fox, is that
of traditional scholasticism, the pedagogy of citing
authorities, which defers our own knowing to that of
someone else, or to some external system. The solution, he
says, is to be found in seeking wisdom instead of just
knowledge, in creating awe-based learning, since awe is
what awakens the mind and heart just as good smells awaken
the appetite. Real education, he explains, is built on the
inherent curiosity in all humans to know and explore our
ancestors, both human as well as the more-than-human
ancestors, and to do so in the context of our own survival
needs. Fox, quoting W.B. Yeats "Education is not about
filling the pale but about lighting a fire", suggests that
creativity is the key to teaching, for the problem is not
what we teach about how we teach and for this we have to
reinvent forms of learning.
Unlike most of his other books, this is by no means a
scholarly work by Matthew Fox. It is, instead, a passionate
plea to everyone involved in education -- and that means
every single one of us -- to take this situation very
seriously. In fact, Matthew himself is proactive about the
whole process. He has started YELLAW (Youth and Elder's
Learning Laboratory of Ancestral Wisdom Education) along
with Professor Pitt, a hip-hop artist and filmmaker who
produced a DVD that goes along with the book, providing an
alternative hip-hop that focuses on youth development and
community building without the influence of the mainstream
corporate image that exploits the media. Together, he and
Matthew Fox are working to establish an after hours school
program for inner-city youth in Oakland, California, based
on the educational philosophy described in the book.
A Short Article: Visualizing a Global Christmas
It is the coming of winter, and all over the world,
cultures are celebrating the potency of light that is
hidden yet growing in the darkness. This is a wonderful
metaphor for spiritual awakening. Each one of us needs to
awaken to the light, a symbol of the highest consciousness.
When the light turns on, we allow it to shine on every part
of who we are, and this transforms the entire person:
shadow, ego and soul. However, as we enter into the
darkness of winter, we are embracing the gestation process.
Birth and death are cyclical. Each year we are born anew.
As we reflect upon the birth of Jesus, it is important that
we recognize that this period -- the hundreds of years
before and after his birth -- was pivotal to the evolution
of human consciousness. We had a tremendous breakthrough in
all the major traditions around the world, with Lao Tsu in
China, the Buddha, the great Upanisadic seers and Rishis of
India, and of course, this includes the Prophet Mohammad.
In other words, Jesus is a part of a global phenomenon, and
while Christians focus on him, like a lens through which
they see the Light entering into our domain of
consciousness, other cultures focus on their own lenses.
The future of our species depends upon the coming together
of all these different lenses, the creation of a
superscope, through which the fullness of the Divine Light
can penetrate the whole human species as one body, one
global soul. I pray that the conflicts happening around the
world (almost all of which can be traced back to religious
influence) are part of the crushing of the glass of these
different lenses, moving us toward a global perspective in
which we can all perceive the One Light in each other. I
hope that this Christmas marks the dawn of a new era, a
time of global birth, when the traditions of the world can
unite to receive the One Light together.
Wishing you a glorious holiday season, whatever your
tradition,
In One Spirit,
Russill Paul
Guha Soulworks LLC
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