The Mystical Doorway between Christianity and Yogic Spirituality
By Russill Paul
New World Library, 2009, $14.95

“The yoga of Christianity is love,” says Russill Paul. “It is indeed a liberating message that true fulfillment requires, not many lifetimes of spiritual effort and discipline, but a simple opening in love that makes transparent the dynamic relationship of our being in love with God, and God’s being in love with us.” Trained in both Christian monasticism and as a yogi, author Russill Paul, who studied with “renegade monk” Bede Griffiths, offers a way for Christians to learn and benefit from the practice of yoga without feeling they’ve betrayed their master or their church. Yogis can also learn and benefit from the wisdom of the Christ without abandoning the spiritual teaching of their own tradition.      

Paul advocates “interspirituality” as a means to spiritual wholeness. Although he recognizes the divisiveness of certain beliefs on both sides of the East/West spectrum and the universally human “ability to deny the Spirit of God within us, which is to refuse to accept or give love,” he believes that wholeness becomes possible when we come to the deep awareness that no matter where we are coming from on the belief spectrum, all of it is worthless without love.

Russill Paul currently serves on the faculty of Wisdom University in San Francisco, California. He is also a world-renowned musician who gives “sonic mysticism” presentations and conducts workshops and retreats worldwide.