NEWS & INCEPTION REVIEW

NEWS & INCEPTION REVIEW

August 10, 2010

In this newsletter:
Introduction: Keeping our vibration high and raising others up
Events: Aug 20 – 21 Southfield, MI (near Detroit next weekend) on Yoga and Enlightenment
New video clip and Interactive Web Page: Public dialog with Rev. Ben Fowler
September 03 –06: Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Lennox, MA
India Pilgrimage Collage – New video clip on You Tube
Inception – A review of the movie from a spiritual perspective
Social Networking on Facebook: Become a friend. Also on myspace.com and Twitter

Om

Dear friend,

I hope this finds you, your family and your friends in good spirit.

Introduction: Keeping our Vibration High
It is good that the oil leak has been plugged although the restoration process will continue to follow through. These past few weeks have been rough – the medical professionals who were killed in Afghanistan, tensions in Iran and North Korea, and of course, the economic data. None of us are impervious to this information. However, as I mentioned in my video series on the oil spill last month, we must constantly ask ourselves the question, “where does my empowerment lie” and operate from this place of power and connectedness, helping to raise our own vibration and the vibrations of those of everyone we are connected with. This is certainly a time to increase our dedication to spiritual practice so that we can continue to generate a higher frequency in our world and this language is no longer flighty New Age speech. If we do not monitor our own thoughts and emotions, and we if do not know how to constantly transform our core vibration into a positive force, the fear and unrest will seep into our being and configure us accordingly. Please read my review on the movie “Inception” at the end of this newsletter for continued reflection on this area and share your thoughts with me and others on our posting page. One of the features that I want to integrate into my monthly newsletters to you is an interactive feature and ongoing dialog, I will continue to post audio and video that can feed this conversation and sense of community.

Southfield, MI next week
AUG 20 - 21 NW UNITARIAN CHURCH IN SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN EXPLORING ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE DEEPER DIMENSIONS OF YOGIC SPIRITUALITY
Some of you may remember that the first sub-title to The Yoga of Sound was “healing and enlightenment through the sacred practice of mantra”. Healing and Enlightenment, I believe, are two sides of the same coin: one is not possible without the other – to pursue one is to pursue the other and each reveals itself through the other. I am delighted to be returning to Southfield, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, for a weekend of deep spiritual practice that explores this theme. I had a great experience there last year, including the joy of performing with some excellent musicians from the area. This is a wonderful community of deeply committed spiritual practitioners and the church is simple and elegant with superb acoustics. Excellent and affordable accommodations are available just minutes away from the church.

For more information or to register, please contact Alex Riegel @ alexriegel@post.harvard.edu

New video clip: Public dialog with Rev. Ben Fowler on The Role of Sound in Healing and Enlightenment
http://www.russillpaul.com/benfowler.html

In this video clip, part of a 45 minute dialog with Reverend Ben Fowler at Nottingham Community church where I presented a weekend workshop this May, we discussed a variety of related matters, such as Rap Music, how to reach out with spirituality to teens, and so on. We took questions from the audience in this unscripted session and shared our thoughts spontaneously. Ben and I would like to invite you now to listen to this interview and share your thoughts with us. We will continue to develop this interactive web page until my next workshop in Nottingham, NH in May next year.

High Energy Chanting at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health next month
SEPTEMBER 03 –06: KRIPALU CENTER FOR YOGA AND HEALTH
KIRTAN TRANCE DANCE: GETTING HIGH ON MANTRA (An Extended 3 day weekend)
Leave your worries behind and allow the sacred power of sound to bring you fully alive in a workshop that blends high-energy chanting with devotional bliss. Alternating between dancing, chanting mantras in ecstatic kirtan, and connecting to profound states of meditation through internal mantra recitation, the power of this weekend will remain with you long after you return home.

DETAILS: http://www.kripalu.org/program/view/TECM-101/kirtan_trance_dance_getting_high_on_mantra

HOSTING ORGANIZATION: www.kripalu.org

KIRTAN THROUGH THE ROOF - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 at 7:30 PM (included in the weekend or can be attended by itself) This is powerhouse kirtan. Enjoy chanting with hundreds of ecstatic yogis in the large hall. Kriplalu’s phenomenal drum ensemble KDZ will be performing with me those evenings. Details visit http://www.kripalu.org/presenter/V0000195/russill_paul

India Pilgrimage collage: New Video Clip on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhzulW8T2bE

Please enjoy a collage of our pilgrimage to India recently put together with permission from our participants. This clip truly conveys the sense of joy and community together with the depth of experience we share together on this extraordinary journey that we have conducted for the last twelve consecutive years.

Inception – A review of the movie from a spiritual perspective
Last week, Asha and I went to see Inception. We rarely see action movies on the big screen mainly because of the sonic assault to the senses that we cannot control. The high volume audio tracks that maximizes the audio spectrum in action movies generally requires a massage session right after to relax the tense muscles. However, the description of the film was intriguing and of course there was quite the hype around it, critics included.

The movie, though well produced, dragged and I lost my interest after the first twenty minutes. However, the core concept is quite interesting – the sense that the subconscious is fertile ground where ideas can be planted or removed. It also showed that we can construct a defense system at varying levels of depth that can protect thoughts or ideas but that these defenses can be penetrated. The protagonists, endearing DiCaprio (who looks aged and worried, and this could be him playing the part as he is a fantastic actor) and the young guy from Third Rock from the Sun (Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt) and brilliant Ellen Philpotts-Page from Juno, use the medium of dreams to plant or steal ideas.

To keep track of ground reality and to help them return to it they use a unique device (like a spinning button in the case of DiCaprio). This of course reminded me of one of the values of a mantra or sacred word or phrase that we use to guide us toward deeper levels of consciousness while remaining connected to ground reality. Also, the mantra is something we can use at any time to protect ourselves from the invasion of ideas, images and feelings that can be potentially harmful. The mantra can help us create space around negative patterns so that we can get a grip on ourselves. Most of all, the mantra helps us raise our vibration. The sense that ideas can be planted and take root deep within us was central to Jesus’ teaching, as in the parable of the sower and the seed (Matthew 13:3-9) and the Indian tradition that has been teaching the technology of mantra thousands of years prior to him.

The reality that ancient wisdom and modern science continue to converge in the mainstream is quite wonderful, although the flip side is that a typical moviegoer could, take a rather flippant attitude to these deep messages and view it as mere entertainment. We, however, can use a film like this to teach our children and our friends that such possibilities are not farfetched and that spirituality offers us viable methods that help us understand ourselves more deeply while at the same time protecting us from very real forces that are at constant play below the surface level of our minds.

Social Networking on Facebook
I recently started an account with Facebook and invite you to become a friend. You can also find me on myspace.com and Twitter.

Wishing you a wonderful month, joyful in interaction with others along with a deepening in spiritual practice.

In One Spirit,

Russill

For Guha Soulworks LLC
www.russillpaul.com

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