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by Justin O'Brien (Author)
The Art of Fulfilling Your Nature is a brilliant gem of wisdom gained through a lifetime of spiritual exploration and scholarship. Dr. O'Brien draws on his experience as a yogi and close disciple of Swami Rama, one of India's most adept yogis, to show how awakening to one's inner light can illumine one's outer life. This personal growth book is transparently clear, down to earth, and offers guidance to integrate mind, body, and spirit.
This narrative by author Linda Johnsen sums up Dr. O'Brien's ability to inspire one to fulfill their nature. "I was the only student in Dr. Justin O'Brien's South Asian Spirituality class who was actually interested in the subject. There were 20 of us sitting in on his summer session course at Loyola University, but most of my fellow students had only signed up hoping this would be an 'easy A.' That first day none of them bothered to conceal their boredom, but then Dr. O'Brien began to speak. He told us about his amazing personal experiences with great spiritual adepts in India, and explained that what most people in American considered 'yogic mystical mumbo jumbo' was in fact a sophisticated science that had been tested over and over by many of the finest minds in South Asia. He noted how Western scientists were finally looking into the yogis' claims and verifying them. He also pointed out striking similarities with the teachings of ancient Greek and medieval Christian thinkers. Justin O'Brien had an extraordinary skill most teachers would envy: the ability to bring any subject to life, galvanizing his students and leaving them excited to learn more. By the end of the course my fellow students were begging him to offer more courses. He is no longer with us, but fortunately for us he has left behind a series of books entirely capable of drawing us into the inspiring classroom of his insight and experience. Dr. O'Brien's latest book, The Art of Fulfilling Your Nature, invites us to explore our inner world, explaining how to translate these spiritual adventures into an active, fulfilling, and illumined life."
Dr. O'Brien begins The Art of Fulfilling Your Nature by grounding the reader in explorations of theology and philosophy. From there he examines adversity and how to transcend it, providing guidance on deepening the yoga practice with meditation, contemplation, and pranayama, while highlighting the wisdom of the Yoga Sutras. He acknowledges that most yogis live firmly in the world, not in far-off cave monasteries. For them, he offers lessons for daily living in this complex, sometimes maddening, modern world. And in the final chapters, he calls us home, imploring us to know ourselves, to acknowledge our guru within. In closing, he honors those who walked before us, who paved the sacred path we now tread.
Read The Art of Fulfilling Your Nature to connect again with that eternal spark within, to shake yourself free from the grasp of mediocrity, to fully realize the life you were destined to live.
