Posts Tagged ‘healing’
Dialogue with Buddhist Monk and Christian Scientist
Posted by: Shirley Paulson in General on March 27th, 2010
Episode #29 of SpiritualityandChristianity.com is a dialogue with Thai Buddhist Monk, Venerable Direxis and Christian Scientist, Shirley Paulson.
Venerable Direxis and Shirley Paulson
It was easy to find people to talk to at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and it was easy to find people who have lived religious lives quite different from my own. What rich conversations, everywhere I turned! Direxis and I found easy similarities in our faith practices too, between my Christian Science faith and his Buddhism, even though our languages and cultures are worlds apart from each other. We both take seriously the importance of the movement of our thought. As Venerable Direxis puts it, our thoughts always need to move to a centered place, a place of peace, where healing happens. We surprised each other when we discovered how we both commit our lives to healing others.
Direxis’ life of devotion started earlier than mine. When he was sixteen, Direxis became a novice and by the time he was 20, he became a monk. I always loved God and wanted to be of service to others, but I wasn’t ready to devote my whole life this way until after I had a family. He now spends his life practicing meditation for the Buddha, the God, and I spend my life praying for the purpose of healing. And of course, we’re both interested in listening and learning from others, since we met at the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
When we tried to learn from each other the basis of our prayer/meditation and healing, we found such similar concepts with slightly different words. For example, we agreed we need to admit an original mind/Mind, and we both think it’s necessary to move our human thoughts away from the world of emotionalism/self-originated thought. We agree it requires meditation/prayer in order to move from the world of sensuality in order to find the peace and health of the universal love/divine Love.
Join us for a little conversation from people on the opposite sides of the world. I’m happy to discover “it’s a small world,” indeed.
Check out some of these related websites:
Christian Science practitioners
Photos from the Parliament of the World’s Religions
Please leave a comment. Let us know if you’ve had some similar conversations or discoveries.
S+C | Healing with God Part II
Posted by: Shirley Paulson in Podcast on April 2nd, 2009
Episode #20 is a conversation about healing from a faith perspective.
Shirley Paulson, a Christian Science practitioner, and Barbara Zeman, a Roman Catholic, find common ground in the quest for healing. The complexity of healing arises out of the limitations of human language, but the beauty of healing is evident in the closer relationship with God.
While we might be enthusiastic about the spiritual adventure of seeking healing through prayer, we also recognize that the struggle that precipitates the healing often includes the battle with the very thing that resists the healing. Stubbornness is an example. Despite our shortcomings, though, we agree that God or Christ is able to move our thoughts where we need to be in order to welcome the healing adjustment.
People need personal healings, and the whole family of humanity needs healing of injustice, oppression, and economic disruption. We’d love to welcome your thoughts on healing of any kind. Tell us how you’ve experienced healing, or how you heal others. Please scroll down to the “comments” here on the Spirituality and Christianity.com website. Tell us your thoughts or experiences. Thanks!
Some related links:
- Christian Science healing
- Catholic healing prayers
- Beliefnet healing prayer archive
- Healing prayer: online resource for Christian prayer
- Christian Science Sentinel (print version)