West Meets East, and a Book Review

This morning a made this SoulCollage® card, Jesus in the Lotus. It’s based on a book that I’ve recently finished, and I’ll discuss the book in a few moments, but as I read the book, and made this card, I pondered this painting I did in 2008.

It’s called “West Meets East”.

The painting of it seemed to heal a split in my soul—the split between East and West that had filtered through much of my Christian teaching as a teen and a young adult. Anything from the East was considered “New Age” and off limits. But the last few years so many of my “splits” have begun to heal, including this one. I’ve ventured into the Eastern thought concepts and found so much more! What I had before was like trying to purchase something with only one side of the coin. Marrying the two, East and West, has given me a whole coin.

We tend to forget that the historical Jesus came from was Middle-East, implying that he was “Middle-Eastern”, more East than West, I presume. Paul, the Apostle, took the Gospel to the West and the western filter has been huge, but Jesus’s filter was probably much different. I recently found out that Galilee lays on the Silk Road, that great viaduct of human commerce which connected the lands of the Mediterranean with the lands and culture of Central Asia and China. The Silk Road went right through the city of Capernaum, where Jesus did a lot of his learning and his teaching.

Who knew??? That wasn’t something I was taught in Sunday School. I’ve studied Scripture all my life, and I’ve studied church history, but no one every pointed out to me this little fact. Or maybe it just didn’t stick.

For a long time, some have thought perhaps Jesus went to India (or East) before his 30’s, but Cynthia Bourgeault points out in her book, The Wisdom of Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—a New Perspective on Christ and His Message, that the simpliest explanation for the “eastern” sound to so much of his teaching was because the East more likely came to him!

All that to say this:

Russill Paul’s book, Jesus in the Lotus, the Mystical Doorway Between Christianity and Yogic Spirituality is a beautiful book that expresses so much of what I’ve felt since I opened the door to the East. I’ve practiced centering prayer and Christian meditation off and on for a number of years, and I love my yoga practice. It’s nothing but exercises for the body, but my heart and soul has entered into some of the spiritual pictures yoga has taught me.

And now, Russill Paul gives me this little book. He was a monk at Fr. Bede Griffiths ashram in India for 5 years. I learned about Fr. Bede at the Cenacle. He was simply a saint. And for me, Russill Paul may be on his way. He is Indian, and he was raised in a Hindu culture, but his family was Catholic, and he was Catholic. His stay with Fr. Bede helped him “marry” the two.

Paul, the author, is careful to explain the differences between Christian spirituality and Yogic spirituality, and some of his explanations made my heart leap with “YES, THAT’S why I still choose Christianity!” For example, on of my favorite sections of this book was his sharing of the gifts of Christianity. In our culture today, it’s often hard to say, “I’m a Christian” because of the stereo-type of Christian fundamentalism that has gripped our country, but I choose to still call myself a Christian because of two things: LOVE and community.

Regarding Love, Paul writes: “The Yoga of Jesus is to love, despite the other’s ego, despite their karma, despite their ignorance, for the power of love can transform their ego and their karma and their ignorance. It may not do so immediately, as we evident from Jesus’ death on the cross, but the transformation will take place eventually and will be far more powerful than any other means, for love is the ultimate tool of transformation.”

And regarding community (personally, I have a love/hate affair with community, but I recognize it’s importance)… Granted, community is tough! Relationships are hard, but that’s a distinguishing mark of Christianity according to Paul. He writes: “What distinguishes [Christianity] 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.”…Christian enlightenment, then, is the call to actively participate in the Divine vision for humanity…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….”

One of the other beautiful pictures he gives in his book, is the Yogic desire to reach for God, and the Christian knowledge that God reaches for us…That’s another card I made:




Earth reaching for heaven and heaven reaching for Earth, and the once and for all marriage of the two…spiritual partnership.

Namaste.