& Book Giveaway Comments Contest!Paul M. Martin writes with exceptional clarity about spiritual matters. His depth and breadth of first-hand experience allows him to speak compellingly to people across a wide range of perspectives on religion and spirituality. At age twenty-three, Paul had a spontaneous experience of the kind that is often sought through meditation and prayer. It was immensely hopeful. It stood in complete defiance of his despairing world view. It was the primary source material for the rest of his life and the genesis of Original Faith. Within a year, Paul visited the Trappist monastery in Spencer, Massachusetts, where he learned meditation from the late Fr. Basil Pennington. Within two years, he went on to receive an M.A. in religious studies from the University of Chicago. In the coming years, he would also earn a M. Ed. in counseling as his public school career transitioned from English as a Second Language teacher to elementary school counselor. At age thirty-seven, with Original Faith perhaps two years from completion, Paul experienced the onset of a condition that would never be diagnosed. He was forced to set the manuscript aside for the better part of the next decade as he combined full-time work with extensive medical research and travel. By May 2002, Paul's disability had become too severe for continued work outside the home, and he resumed work on Original Faith. Between 2002 and 2006, he completed the book, along with two additional manuscripts, managing to convert his handwritten notes to Word documents before he lost the ability to walk and work with paper.
Find out more about Paul by visiting his website: www.originalfaith.comPaul is also offering a FREE e-book, Original Faith: Hard Times Handbook, to those that sign up for his newsletter. You can sign-up and download the e-book here.
Original Faith: What Your Life is Trying To Tell YouBy Paul Martin
Original Faith is no how-to manual. Movingly written, it evokes experiences and insights in readers that give transformative power to its many suggests for practice. Wherever we are along our paths, here is a new and contemporary approach to help clarify the perennial call to re-center our identities first from egoism to love; then from love to a larger reality.
You will find answers in your own experience to questions such as:
- What, exactly, is real love?
- What runs deeper than despair?
- What makes negativity worse than useless no matter how well justified?
- How can I realize that I'm already faithful--with or without beliefs?
- How can I discover that there is no "set-up" and begin creating meaning instead of searching for it?
- How can I find peace and strength far beyond what I've dreamt possible?
Paperback: 264 pages
ISBN# 193461100x
Book Giveaway Comments Contest!
If you received our Events Newsletter, remember, we are holding a contest to win a copy of Paul's book, Original Faith: What Your Life is Trying To Tell You, to those that comment. So, grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and enjoy the chat, and share your thoughts, and comments, at the end.
We will randomly choose a winner from those who comment. Enjoy!
Interview by Margo L. Dill
WOW: Paul, thank you for joining us at WOW! and for kicking off your blog tour. It took you twenty-five years to write Original Faith (25, correct?), and it addresses your spiritual life and struggles along the way. Why did it take so many years to write this book?
Paul: Yes, twenty-five, "25," or, as I like to think of it, "only a quarter of a century..."
But seriously... I should mention at the outset that Original Faith isn't a spiritual autobiography. It does make use of first-person material where this helps to move the book's message forward. Some readers have compared it to Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in this respect. As to my extended writing process...
For fourteen years, the writing developed on its own. At first, I didn't realize I was writing a book. It began with note taking and journaling for my personal use. Once I saw that a book was underway, it was a creative process that happened on its own time. My best ideas and language would come to me as unexpected surprises. I came to see my job as getting out of the way and making way--accepting that I couldn't control or anticipate where the process was going while setting aside regular time for writing.
After fourteen years, most of the creative work was complete. I had set my notes and working manuscript aside for what I thought would be a couple months while I recovered from a sudden onset of "Myofascial Pain Syndrome." It would turn out that I didn't have MPS, but something much rarer and much worse.
For about the next ten years, in declining health, I had to devote all my energies to continued full-time work, extensive medical research and travel, and health insurance problems. I was able to return to the manuscript only after I became disabled from my work.
WOW: We are very sorry to hear about your health problems, and thank you for sharing your story with us in spite of the difficulties you must face to do so. By returning to your work after 10 years, it shows that you are a very determined man with a message to give the world. That is very admirable! What is the basic premise of Original Faith?
Paul: That each of us is already faithful, that trust and hope in the One is a fact at the depths of being human, and that anyone can personally become aware of this. I leave it to readers whether to think of the One as God or as being, nature, or reality itself. My focus is the experiences that unite us, not the beliefs that can divide us.
Faith is one of those experiences. And to open up to our faith is to find ourselves opening up to another important unifying experience: love. Faith encourages love to be itself.
WOW: In the beginning of the book, you address love, faith, and the obstacles that keep us from living out faith-full love. What are those obstacles?
Paul: The main obstacle is egoism--the sense that each of us has of somehow mattering more than everyone else. For some of us, depression and despair are obstacles. Even this has an egoistic dimension.
WOW: It sounds so simple when you say it, but we all know how hard it is to fight against egoism, which seems to come naturally to most of us. Does Original Faith address how to replace those obstacles, mainly egoism, with love? Please give us a brief explanation of this process.
Paul: The process of spiritual development is highly individual, but the general direction is clear: becoming more loving and less egoistic. Authentic insight and spiritual practice are the keys to finding and keeping to this path.
By authentic insight, I mean realizations that come to us through deep and heartfelt experience. Insights that Original Faith seeks to evoke in readers include understanding the nature of love, faith, and ego. Seeing love and ego for what they are, and with our love encouraged by our faith, we become profoundly motivated to take our love's way.
Without a foundation of insight, spiritual practices are likely to falter and fail--much like New Year's resolutions often do. But with this foundation, spiritual practices are invaluable to keeping us on track. Original Faith offers a wide variety of practices on the premise that people need to identify those that fit well with their individual lifestyles if they are to benefit from them in the long run, where they can be transformative.
WOW: That makes perfect sense to find ways to fit spiritual practice into your lifestyle and not to make unrealistic goals that will be impossible to meet. I think the comparison to New Year's resolutions makes your point perfectly clear! You also worked as a counselor for elementary students. Did this job affect your ideas and beliefs that you discuss in the book?
Paul: My long career working with young children, first as an English as a Second Language teacher and then school counselor, was a continual source of inspiration. It gave me a sense of the reality of the coming generations and helped expand the scope of my caring to the whole world and our long-term future here. And children don't cover up like adults do--the love and the ego are both out there and easy to see. Quite a lot of material in Original Faith was directly child-inspired.
WOW: We can learn so much from children, especially because they don't cover up like adults do. How did you manage writing a book and working a full-time job with the children?
Paul: By getting up in the early hours of the morning (around 2:00 a.m.) to write before going to work. I found that after work just wasn't a productive writing time for me.
And as long as I was getting up so early, I made sunrise my jogging time. A beautiful time to be outdoors and, like my work with children, another major and completely unexpected source of creativity. In my twenties, my fantasy had been a farmhouse in Vermont with nothing to do but write; I'm glad that didn't happen.
WOW: 2:00 a.m.!! Now, that is dedication! What remarkable accomplishments to have finished your book and touched the lives of children at the same time! You also suffer from a rare progressive illness. What challenges does that present for your writing and marketing of your book?
Paul: I completed the book just in time. When I'd set it aside in 1995, all my notes and papers were handwritten. When I returned to them about ten years later, the first thing I did was organize them and enter them into my computer, a project that I completed just two or three months before losing the ability to work with hard copy.
My ability to market the book is minimal. Since finishing it, the rate of disease progression has continued to accelerate. I'm too fragile now to leave the house by any means and mostly bedridden with few productive hours in a day.
What can you do? All you can. Original Faith is a labor of love, and I do my best by it. To do your love's best is to know that you’ve kept an agreement between you and God above or you and the stars above. However you think of it and whatever you call it, it's the same experience of personal right relationship with the infinitely greater. It brings the proverbial peace that passes understanding.
WOW: Paul, thank you for sharing your story of determination, faith, and love with us today. I'm sure there are many readers out there right now inspired by your interview, and many more that will be inspired by Original Faith.
Want to join Paul on his blog tour? Check out these dates and mark your calendar! You can also snag a copy of WOW's Events Calendar HERE.
Blog Tour Dates: Come and join the fun!
September 14, 2009 Monday
Paul will be chatting with WOW! Women On Writing at The Muffin. Stop by and share your comments! One lucky commenter will win copy of Paul's book!
http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/blog.html
September 15, 2009 Tuesday
Stop by Holistic Future today to discuss the connection between spirituality and nature with Paul Martin, author of Original Faith.
http://www.holisticfuture.com/
September 16, 2009 Wednesday
Paul stops by SuperEnlightenMe, a blog for spirituality and self-help, for a surprise guest post! Find out more about Paul and Original Faith today.
http://www.superenlightme.com/
September 18, 2009 Friday
Today Paul reveals how exercise can give do more than improve your physical health in Running as a Spiritual Exercise.
http://www.selfhelpdaily.com
September 21, 2009 Monday
Paul stops by our friend Jan Lundy's blog, Awake is Good, for an inspirational interview! I can't wait to see what these two will chat about. Join in on the discussion today.
http://www.awakeisgood.blogspot.com/
September 22, 2009 Tuesday
Stop by Diary of a Smart Chick today for a book review and interview with Paul Martin. Plus, enter to win a free copy of Original Faith!
http://diaryofasmartchick.com/
September 25, 2009 Friday
Samantha Clark, of Day By Day Writer, talks to Paul Martin about the challenges he faced while writing Original Faith.
http://daybydaywriter.wordpress.com/
September 29, 2009 Tuesday
Paul stops by Mary Jo Campbell's blog, Writers Inspired, for an exclusive interview on the topic of "What Your Life is Trying to Tell You." Stop by today for the lively discussion and enter to win a copy of Original Faith!
http://writerinspired.wordpress.com/
October 8, 2009 Thursday
Stop by Jerri Ann Reason's blog, Mom-E-Centric, today for a guest post by Paul Martin, author of Original Faith.
http://www.momecentric.com/
We may have several more dates to come, so be sure to check out our Events Calendar HERE.
Get involved!
We hope you are as excited about the tour as we are! Mark your calendar, save these dates, and join us for this truly unique and fascinating author blog tour.If you have a blog or website and would like to participate in Paul Martin's blog tour, or schedule a tour of your own, please email Angela and Jodi at: blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com
** Please feel free to copy any portion of this post.
Oh, be sure to comment on this post to enter in a drawing for a copy of Paul's book Original Faith: What Your Life is Trying To Tell You.
19 comments:
Paul, thank you for sharing with us - I am looking forward to reading your other interviews. I would love to rediscover faith and love in my life.
I just want to say how remarkable and kind and nice Paul is. It was great to work with him and interview him, and I learned a lot just from our interview. I think people can really learn a lot from him and his book, which took remarkable perseverance to write. Thanks again, Paul!
Kim, that sounds like the right word to me - "rediscover." What we can lose is our awareness of these good things. They're just waiting to be noticed.
Margo, thanks for a great interview --
I've been waiting for this day, Paul, and wish you well on the tour! You know that I love your book and your message. It is sooo important for each of us to begin to move beyond egoism, one choice at a time. Your approach to this is gentle and heart warming.
I hope many readers pick up Original Faith because it is a spiritual classic that I know they will return to again and again. I know I have.
Looking forward to the 21st when you visit my blog...Hugs!
As I have told you in the past,Paul, you are one of my heroes. I talk to my family members about you all the time. Recently I loaned your book Original Faith to my son to read. I also encouraged him to check out your blog. I hope he gets involved there and writes comments.
I wish you the very best as you proceed with your tour. I'll be following along with your other fans and online friends.
Paul said, "My focus is the experiences that unite us, not the beliefs that can divide us."
I think this is the heart of generic mysticism. From this sense of the world around us arises unconditional love.
Best of luck with this book Paul!
Jan and SusieQ - I truly appreciate your words, friendship and the fact that you've both read OF with such understanding.
Raymond - Your comment here really catches my attention. I found a relationship between love and mystical or nondualistic experience too. In fact the genesis of the book was a spontaneous experience of this kind.
At the same time, many people lead emphatically good and loving lives without a powerful experience of this type, and so I didn't premise Original Faith on the idea of having one.
Paul thanks for preserving to share these thoughts. It is inspiring to hear when others are able to overcome adversity. It makes me rethink my perceived difficulties. The message of finding love through faith in all circumstances is one we can never hear enough,
I count myself lucky to be able to get a copy of Original Faith and to know Paul as a person who lives his words. I wish him a good book tour and will be visiting everyone along the way.
Lyndie - "Perceived difficulties" is a good way to put it. When I look back, it basically turns out that the more I took something for granted, the greater good and joy it was. If we're in reasonably good health then we're so steeped in wonderful things that it's like being a fish not noticing water...
Tuti - I appreciate that...
To me Paul has so much valued wisdom to share and so much a flame of valour for us all.
His "Original Faith" has played
a new powerful role in my life,
I'm blessed to have Paul in my life.
With Adoration and admiration,
krystyna
Wow!!!!
And Congratulations!!!
Wow-Women On Writing-
Really you Do
Great Job!
Krystyna, thanks and good to see you here - WOW does have a great site and blog...
Paul, the reviews posted on your site and the descriptions of it here make me really want to read your book. I loved your poem so much. I'm sure I will love your prose. The idea of finding that which we never really lost sounds so refreshing. Best of luck with your blog tour, and thanks for leading me to this great big blog place!
Brenda, I appreciate it - and there is a close connection between my poetry and prose. There are passages in "Original Faith" that fall into the category of "prose-poems," while each chapter is introduced with a poem. The book's meant to engage readers at the level of feeling as well as insight.
I think these hard times are causing many of us to look at spiritualism in a new light. It sounds like Paul has the tools many of us seek.
Good luck Paul on your journey. I wish you good health in the future.
Yours,
Rachon
2 A.M--wow! That's dedication. It's apparent how much Paul appreciation has for the things in his life from his answers. Sounds like a wonderful & inspiring book.
Rachon and Krysten - You both seem to have gotten a feel for what I've been up to. Though my personal situation is so unusual, I've tried to use it to speak to a general readership. I identify people first and foremost as "human." So although I happen to be severely disabled, that's really on the periphery of my identity. Also, maybe that’s partly because I was healthy for my first 37 years of life. I imagine that being disabled from the outset would be a different sort of struggle in certain ways.
Thank you for all your comments! We held a random drawing for Paul's book, Original Faith, and picked a winner.
Congratulations goes to Lyndie!
Please email Angela & Jodi at blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com with your mailing address, and we will contact Paul to send a book to you. Happy reading! :)
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