Kirjahaku

Presents the ideal entry to the cosmic and mystical spirituality of one of the great mystical teachers of our time, a living bridge between Western Christianity and the spiritual wisdom of the East.

"Ashram Diary" accompanies the reader to Shantivanam, an ashram (hermitage) in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Shantivanam began in 1950 when two French priests put on the orange robes of Hindu renunciants and initiated their life of meditation by the sacred river Kaveri. In 1968, an English monk, Bede Griffiths, became the ashram's guru and taught there until his passing in 1993. During the last nine years of Griffiths' life, Thomas Matus listened to his teachings and shared in the life of the ashram.In this book, Matus recounts his experience of India, its people, and its spiritual culture during frequent retreats at Shantivanam. He narrates his travels to sacred Hindu and Buddhist shrines and his conversations with fellow seekers on the path. Honestly examining his own faith and vocation as a monk, Matus invites the reader to share his quest: to rethink Christianity in Indian terms and India in Christian terms, in order to discover the one Reality beyond all names and forms, in which faith and spiritual searching reach their ultimate and blessed end.

Thomas Matus studies the yogic realization described by Hindu Tantric writers and the personal testimony of a great Eastern Christian mystic, Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022). The convergence of their respective narratives in a shared symbolic language points to an 'analogy of experience' between them. On the basis of this analogy, Matus suggests that the awakening of hidden energies in the body can be understood as the fulfilment of a life of faith in Jesus. In this revised edition of his pioneering study of 1984, Matus goes beyond a purely theoretical reflection and offers both an account of his own experience as a Christian yogi and a clear description of the yogic rites and techniques into which he was initiated more than fifty years ago.

Born in Hollywood in 1940, Thomas Matus's earliest years were spent among the actors and studio people who frequented his father's camera store. He loved music and dreamed of someday composing for the films. At twelve, he was handed a copy of The Autobiography of a Yogi and, though intrigued by the description of India's classical ragas, he was most drawn by the guru's teachings about yoga. In college, he began attending services and meditations at Yogananda's Hollywood Temple and was initiated into Kriya Yoga, the meditation practice of the legendary Himalayan forest-dweller Babaji. On this path of silent devotion, he discovered the Christian mystics. At twenty-one, he arrived at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, a brand-new Catholic hoping to become a Camaldolese Benedictine monk. Journey of a Lifetime is the story of this brilliant young man and the intense spiritual search that led him to his very own guru-the Catholic Church.