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This "lapsed Catholic"/retired Hindu monk/bhakti-yogi/radical seminarian gladly received ashes on his forehead at the culmination of our annual Ash...

Continuing my series on being 'A Yogi at Union' with an exploration on the need for an urgent and compassionate call from the spiritual/theological tradition concerning our existential ecological crisis.

"Three Testaments" is a revolutionary work, the first time editions of the Torah, the Gospels of the New Testament, and the Quran has been published in one work. Edited by independent scholar and United Church of Christ minister Dr. Brian Arthur Brown, with contributions from a...

Continuing my series on being "A Yogi at Union," I explore a unexpected evolution in my spiritual identity as a Christian and beyond, through a meditation on returning to the sacrament of communion here at Union Theological Seminary.

Continuing my series on being "A Yogi at Union," I humbly try to explore how my tradition of bhakti-yoga, or the "Hare Krishna" tradition, acknowledges the struggle for justice in this world. How does my tradition offer substance to the struggle for meaning that exists for the oppressed, and the...

Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.

Charles Dickens

For the next two years (and perhaps beyond), I have the privilege of calling Union Theological Seminary my school and my...

I, a warm-blooded, (formerly) meat-and-potatoes American kid, have decided to join the worldwide multitudes who call themselves devotees of the Barclays Premier League (EPL).

This is a conscious decision. It is a devotion not pre-programmed into my sporting consciousness, having been raised in Detroit, Michigan, where the closest...

In the late 1960s, when the acclaimed Vedic scholar/teacher A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada brought the timeless tradition of bhakti-yoga to the Western world, his vision of spiritual renewal for a society caught up in the throes of tremendous upheaval included a bold yet elementary cure.

Coming as...

Today is Guru Purnima, and this spiritual festival takes on a very special resonance for me this year. Just a few weeks ago, I was formally initiated into the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition at a ceremony at our Radha-Krishna temple in Towaco, New...

Our ego is one of the most intimidating and inscrutable realities we face in our lives. Countless philosophers, spiritualists, seekers and armchair prognosticators have tried to define its parameters and its meaning to our existence. We even have wonderful teachers -- like my friends at Gita Sutras --...

In his debut documentary feature "Today We Have The Power: Spirituality and The WTO Seattle Protests," filmmaker Christopher Timm deftly presents a vital meditation on the bridge between spirituality and social justice, through the prism of the seminal demonstrations at the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO)...

I was personally very impressed and moved by President Obama's decision to come out openly and vocally in support of same-sex marriage. For all the guff we throw at him, and not withstanding the obvious political calculations that came along with the decision, his move was a courageous and truly...

As a spiritual person, I have felt aloof from the Occupy Wall Street movement. I have thought about this aloofness a great deal, spoken and dialogued about it, and written about it, but I still struggle to put my head and heart together over how I can serve...

I recently took a pilgrimage to Corpus Christi Church on 121st Street off of Broadway, here in New York City. This is where Thomas Merton, the great Catholic monk/mystic/author, was baptized, formally beginning a spiritual journey which has captivated and inspired millions of truth-seekers over the past few generations, myself...