Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths

Many paths can lead to the Divine--these inspiring stories may help you clarify yours.

These original spiritual mini-autobiographies showcase the varied ways that people come to faith--and what that means--in today's multi-religious world. Examining their own journeys from belief to disillusionment and from searching to discovery, contributors from many faiths, ages, and backgrounds tell how they learned to integrate the spirit into their daily lives, and the remarkable transformations that followed.

From South Africa to India, Chicago to San Francisco, and many places in between, Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul is the first international collection of its kind. It takes you on a trip through the spiritual lives of Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others who are continually searching to find their spiritual identity.

Many of these brief, inspiring memoirs portray the spirit of interspirituality that is growing in the world today, showing you how to build the foundation for religion and spirituality that can serve to unite, rather than divide, humanity.

There is a thirst for authentic connection in our scattered, busy, speedy culture. Sharing deeply from the soul and being received with an open heart satisfies that thirst. Being seen and acknowledged cultivates the soil of our good hearts. That is what this beautiful book, and the integral spirituality it addresses so elegantly, is all about.
--from the Foreword by Joan Borysenko, PhD

Wayne Teasdale was a lay monk and best-selling author of The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions; Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to His Interspiritual Thought and A Monk in the World. As a member of the Bede Griffiths International Trust, Teasdale was an adjunct professor at DePaul University, Columbia College, and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Wayne Teasdale was coeditor of Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery.

Martha Howard, MD, is a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, which she has practiced since 1982. She is medical director of Wellness Associates of Chicago, and author of the Power of Suggestion CD series. A practicing Buddhist, she is active in the interfaith and peace movements, and is a producing partner of a documentary film in development, Journey to Peace.

Joan Borysenko, PhD, is a respected scientist, gifted therapist and unabashed mystic. Trained at Harvard Medical School, she was an instructor in medicine until 1988. Currently the president of Mind/Body Health Sciences, Inc., she is an internationally known speaker and consultant in women's health and spirituality, integrative medicine and the mind/body connection. She is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestsellers Minding the Body, Mending the Mind; A Woman's Book of Life; 7 Paths to God; The Power of the Mind to Heal and Inner Peace for Busy People.